recruiting board update

I told myself I would update the board after Greg Stroman committed to UVA, and then I didn't because oops.  Finally an oops that wasn't my fault.  At any rate, we have some work to do there, and we got a perfectly damn good athlete commitment anyway even if it wasn't strictly Stroman.

-- Moved ATH Jeffery Farrar from green to orange.  A very intriguing pickup.  Farrar narrowed his choices down to UVA, Cal, and Arizona State before choosing UVA on ESPN, and there was a pretty legitimate concern he'd go with Cal.  Recruiting in California is definitely new ground; UVA didn't quite just waltz in and have their pick of elite talent, but they're sure not picking up scraps either.  Farrar had offers from half the Pac-12 (including UCLA) plus Miami and a few other eastern schools, too.  And ESPN has him in their top 300.  Getting a commitment from one of the name players in the state has got to be something of an eye-opener.

-- Removed WR Cameron Phillips and CB Greg Stroman from blue; both decided on VT.

-- Removed TE Devin Pike (Louisville) from green.  (On the subject of Louisville, you'll also notice that former UVA commit Chris Nelson is now headed there as well.)

-- Removed DE Kurt Holuba and LB Jawhaun Bentley from yellow; neither have committed but both made deep cuts to their lists that put UVA on the outside.

-- Removed OT Bentley Spain (UNC) from red.

-- Moved OT Brock Ruble and DE Kentavius Street from yellow to red.

-- Moved TE Jamal Custis from yellow to green.

-- Added RB Madre London to yellow.  UVA is probably too late to the party, but what the hell, we need to put something on this board, which is getting awfully thin.

Let's talk about that for a sec.  We've been talking about a small class for a long time now, so we are sort of approaching the limit.  And you have to be kind of impressed with the roundedness of it; the way I have it laid out on the depth chart, there's no more than one commitment at any given position except for DE, where there's two.  And where we could really use the depth.  The class is sitting on twelve now, including Zack Jones, who went to FUMA and not Hawaii after all.

On the other hand, I mentioned a few weeks ago that the class size could be a bit larger than what we'd been talking about all year.  That's likely to play out - if we can find the players to fill it.  At a time when we're talking about expanding the class, the board itself is shrinking quickly.  There are 21 juniors on the team, so the class of 2015 is going to be colossal, which is to say it behooves the staff to fill the 2014 class fairly well.  Stopping at 12 or 13 means the 2015 class would need to be just that much bigger.

On that board as it stands now, the only prospect where I'd predict UVA with any confidence is Jamil Kamara.  Melvin Keihn, maybe - I wouldn't be surprised if he committed to UVA but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't, either.  But, let's say this class worms its way up to 16 players.  Maybe someone surprises me, but the chances seem pretty good that it gets there by adding Kamara and three as-yet-unoffered players (or Kamara, Keihn, and two) as opposed to pulling players up from the lower reaches of the board.