the recruit: Sean Karl

Name: Sean Karl
Position: OT
Hometown: Manorville, NY
School: Eastport-South Manor
Height: 6'6"
Weight: 285

24/7: 80; three stars
ESPN: 78; three stars; #75 OT; Atlantic Region #98; NY #4
Rivals: 5.7; three stars; #60 OT; NY #4
Scout: three stars; #95 OT

Other offers: Boston College, Syracuse, Connecticut, Buffalo

Between Michael Mooney at Malvern and Sean Karl, who hails from Long Island, it's almost like Mike London is getting his O-line tips from the lacrosse coaches.  No, Karl doesn't play lacrosse, but he does play basketball.  But he still needs to up his profile some; according to the search enginators, he's only the third most famous athlete named Sean Karl, behind a high school tennis player somewhere and a freckle-faced hockey-playing moppet.

Bet you Karl could beat them both up though.  He's the biggest O-line prospect UVA has in the 2012 - it's possible, maybe likely, that he'll be listed at 300 pounds by the time he arrives.  Karl's recruitment didn't take long; he had most of the Northeast after him, and UVA added themselves to the mix in May or June.  Before July, Karl was a Hoo, with Syracuse as the closest competition.

At his size, Karl projects very well to offensive tackle, but one major adjustment will be required: in high school, he plays exclusively in a two-point stance.  That would've been fine for the awful spread experiment in 2009, but UVA's linemen are back in the traditional three-point stance, so Karl may have a bigger learning curve than his classmates.  (This may be less of a thing this year; ESM has a new coaching staff, which might very well change that technique.)  ESPN uses the word "quick" four times in his scouting report, and praises his nastiness and ability to play in space, but notes that his hand use needs a lot of work; this faintly suggests "right tackle" but not at all authoritatively.

But he'll almost definitely redshirt, and more so because the entire two-deep at tackle returns next year.  (I'm pretty much assuming Landon Bradley isn't returning and that Morgan Moses does.)  With those four plus Tim Cwalina, there shouldn't be any need to play Karl.  But because Kelby Johnson already played this season, a redshirt year for Karl will gain him a lot of separation between him and the current two-deep; in his redshirt frosh year in 2013, Oday Aboushi will have graduated, Moses may or not still be around, and the starters are likely enough to be Sean Cascarano (a senior by then) and Johnson (a junior.)  Assuming Karl develops as projected (and he's a smart guy so why not) he'll probably be on the field and in the rotation early.

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Two bits of details to put out to the masses:

-- It's looking like Kevin Green isn't going to make it to UVA: he's left Fork Union and still has not achieved a qualifying SAT score.  At this point it seems unlikely we can count on him in the future.

-- Kevin Parks and Anthony Mihota picked up weekly honors from the ACC, and Robert Randolph also got some national recognition for his four field goals.  I admit I've been skeptical of Mihota as anything more than an average center, but he's making a convert out of me.  As for Randolph, that was probably one of the most overlooked parts of the William & Mary game.  At least by me.  Randolph was a touch shaky last year but it certainly looks like we're getting the old Randolph back - the one that hit on 17 of 19 in 2009 - and the 48-yarder was particularly encouraging.  I love it when I don't have to have heart palpitations every time the kicker walks on the field.