Name: James Trucilla
Position: DT
Hometown: Erie, PA
School: Cathedral Prep
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 265
24/7: 85, three stars; #58 DT, PA #21
ESPN: 74, three stars; #85 DT, PA #32, East #165
Rivals: 5.5, three stars
Scout: two stars
Other offers: Ball State, Akron, Miami (OH), Eastern Michigan
If it's even possible, James Trucilla is a more important recruit than the OL that I've been bellyaching about, because of this: there are four scholarship DTs on the roster. If the OL is thin, DT is even worse. For reasons we'll get into shortly, it's not as big a disaster as it sounds, but it's still critical to collect some more. Trucilla is the only DT recruit in the already-large recruiting class.
Trucilla also committed in the middle of a stretch that started to make UVA fans a little uneasy. When a guy commits, nobody wants to be the one going, "really? we're competing with the MAC for recruits now?" and coaches are always given leeway with a few of those guys in the class. But starting in mid-to-late June, the commitment list started looking awfully bottom-heavy, and people started thinking it'd be nice to leave some room for the big fish, too.
So, we look for what the coaches were looking for, and figure out why the offers didn't roll in. In Trucilla's case, size is the obvious answer to the latter. There's nothing wrong with Trucilla's height; David Dean is 6'1" and starting to look like an all-conference tackle. But 265 pounds is just big enough to get blown off the middle of the line like a leaf, and Trucilla looks as though putting on a lot of weight could be tough. He doesn't really have room for 30 more pounds; 280-285 seems like his limit, though he may not be asked to go that high.
But there's always a tradeoff, and Trucilla's appeal is in his quickness. Watching his highlight, that's the one trait that stands out, and ESPN agrees, deploying the word "quick" four times in his scouting report. In this case, his relative lack of height is actually an asset, because he can start off low and get underneath and around a blocker. He's probably doomed on the plays where a bigger guy can create any leverage on him and stay in front, but if he gets an angle he's gone. And, you know how announcers are always talking about running backs who "keep their legs moving" as if some of them run without doing so? Trucilla does this, at least on plays where he's successful (and they don't show the other ones, you know?) Some DTs can put down roots and you might as well try to block an elm tree; Trucilla, though, is a three-tech, gap-penetrating DT all the way, not the space-eating kind at all.
His production is a little less than elite, even for a DT; last year and this he's been pulling down about a TFL and half a sack per game. 52 tackles in 13 games last year, not bad at all, it's just that you'd like to see a few more of them behind the line. That's what he'll be asked to do in college, after all, not clog up a line of scrimmage.
Remember I said that DT depth isn't a supercritical thing - it's because most of the time, Tenuta has the defense in a nickel package, and in that alignment, Max Valles plays DE and a DE (usually Mike Moore) moves inside. So UVA actually lines up with two DTs, maybe a quarter of the time. Moore doesn't have a lot of tackles this year, but he does get into the backfield, and that's what Trucilla would be asked to do too. Or, remember John-Kevin Dolce, who was used as an absurdly light DT when London arrived, and was comically bad against the power run game but sometimes exploded someone in the backfield. Trucilla, if he develops to his potential, is a less-extreme version of Dolce, probably a bit less athletic a version of Moore.
Since Chris Brathwaite moved to OL and got buried, UVA doesn't graduate any DTs next year, and the coaches can probably be counted on to redshirt Trucilla. Donte Wilkins and Andrew Brown should be able to hold down DT for a while after Dean graduates, and Trucilla will also have to contend with someone like Michael Biesemier, as an example of someone who might take over Moore's DE/DT role. (Trucilla won't be moving to end himself; his quickness is much more useful against interior linemen, and he'd get swallowed up by long-armed, fancy-footed offensive tackles.) Redshirt sophomore year (2017) is probably the earliest that Trucilla projects to see real playing time; what happens in 2017 and beyond depends on his ability to pick up the defense and develop moves that maximize his natural quickness.
Showing posts with label biesemier. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biesemier. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
the recruit: Michael Biesemier
Name: Michael Biesemier
Position: DE
Hometown: Lynchburg
School: Virginia Episcopal
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 235
24/7: 76, two stars; #97 SDE, VA #64
ESPN: 72, three stars; #140 DE, VA #41, East #217
Rivals: 5.4, two stars
Scout: two stars
Other offers: James Madison
(For the ACC sims, clicky.)
Despite having a grand total of six scholarship bodies on the roster at DE - not all of which are guaranteed to be on the team, actually play DE, or be healthy - it took until December for UVA to land a defensive end commitment. Michael Biesemier (pronounced BEEZ-mai-ur, in case you were wondering) had been committed to JMU for most of the year, but the combination of a coaching change in Harrisonburg and a UVA offer made the decision to flip pretty easy.
Biesemier is a solidly-built athlete who plays three sports in high school, adding basketball and lacrosse to his resume as the seasons change. It's safe to say he projects as a strong-side DE, though some suggest he could move inside to DT or even across to the other side of the ball; he's done all of that in high school. The problem with such projections is that he'd have to put on at least 40 pounds to make that happen, probably more like 60 if he were to move to OL. It doesn't make much sense to make that a goal. However, 35 seems perfectly reasonable.
It so happens that SDE is a position of great need; the problem is that Biesemier is going to need a ton of time. Leaving aside the universally skeptical ratings for a sec, he's got two things working against him: quickness (or a lack thereof, which would be necessary to make an earlier contribution at WDE) and the level of competition. Biesemier comes out of the VISAA Division 3, the second-lowest level of Virginia's private-school league. He generally plays against O-linemen his own size, not towering monstrosities like you get in college, or even in the upper levels of the public schools.
So the adjustment period will be longish, and in order to play SDE, Biesemier must have more weight. This means redshirt, in a sane and logical world. He's just athletic and well-built enough for London to possibly like him at special teams, so if he did get out there in that capacity, I wouldn't bat an eye.
I wouldn't have to like it either. The odds are already stacked against him. Let's face it - there's a reason Biesemier has two stars almost all the way across the board and had just one college offer before his UVA one. Part of that reason is being buried out in the countryside in a very low level of football. Another part of that is needing a ton of work in the technique department and not possessing mind-blowing athleticism. His strength is his calling card right now.
Optimistically, you could draw a comparison to Brent Urban - a guy offered for his body type and athleticism who needed to put on weight and spend a couple years getting accustomed to playing against D-I athletes. Pessimistically, think LoVante' Battle - a rawish athlete with zilch offers on whom a near-lame-duck coaching staff took a flyer, and who got buried quickly when the new staff recruited over him. There's no getting around it: Biesemier is a risk the coaching staff was forced to take by not having any commitments - or even any promising leads - 10 months into the recruiting cycle, at a position of great need. That's the whole DE class. The hope is that his strength holds up as he grows and in a couple years, we have a useful run-stopping DE similar to Jake Snyder. It's at least as likely, though, that his fate is tied to this coaching staff, and a new one could try to recruit over top of him.
Position: DE
Hometown: Lynchburg
School: Virginia Episcopal
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 235
24/7: 76, two stars; #97 SDE, VA #64
ESPN: 72, three stars; #140 DE, VA #41, East #217
Rivals: 5.4, two stars
Scout: two stars
Other offers: James Madison
(For the ACC sims, clicky.)
Despite having a grand total of six scholarship bodies on the roster at DE - not all of which are guaranteed to be on the team, actually play DE, or be healthy - it took until December for UVA to land a defensive end commitment. Michael Biesemier (pronounced BEEZ-mai-ur, in case you were wondering) had been committed to JMU for most of the year, but the combination of a coaching change in Harrisonburg and a UVA offer made the decision to flip pretty easy.
Biesemier is a solidly-built athlete who plays three sports in high school, adding basketball and lacrosse to his resume as the seasons change. It's safe to say he projects as a strong-side DE, though some suggest he could move inside to DT or even across to the other side of the ball; he's done all of that in high school. The problem with such projections is that he'd have to put on at least 40 pounds to make that happen, probably more like 60 if he were to move to OL. It doesn't make much sense to make that a goal. However, 35 seems perfectly reasonable.
It so happens that SDE is a position of great need; the problem is that Biesemier is going to need a ton of time. Leaving aside the universally skeptical ratings for a sec, he's got two things working against him: quickness (or a lack thereof, which would be necessary to make an earlier contribution at WDE) and the level of competition. Biesemier comes out of the VISAA Division 3, the second-lowest level of Virginia's private-school league. He generally plays against O-linemen his own size, not towering monstrosities like you get in college, or even in the upper levels of the public schools.
So the adjustment period will be longish, and in order to play SDE, Biesemier must have more weight. This means redshirt, in a sane and logical world. He's just athletic and well-built enough for London to possibly like him at special teams, so if he did get out there in that capacity, I wouldn't bat an eye.
I wouldn't have to like it either. The odds are already stacked against him. Let's face it - there's a reason Biesemier has two stars almost all the way across the board and had just one college offer before his UVA one. Part of that reason is being buried out in the countryside in a very low level of football. Another part of that is needing a ton of work in the technique department and not possessing mind-blowing athleticism. His strength is his calling card right now.
Optimistically, you could draw a comparison to Brent Urban - a guy offered for his body type and athleticism who needed to put on weight and spend a couple years getting accustomed to playing against D-I athletes. Pessimistically, think LoVante' Battle - a rawish athlete with zilch offers on whom a near-lame-duck coaching staff took a flyer, and who got buried quickly when the new staff recruited over him. There's no getting around it: Biesemier is a risk the coaching staff was forced to take by not having any commitments - or even any promising leads - 10 months into the recruiting cycle, at a position of great need. That's the whole DE class. The hope is that his strength holds up as he grows and in a couple years, we have a useful run-stopping DE similar to Jake Snyder. It's at least as likely, though, that his fate is tied to this coaching staff, and a new one could try to recruit over top of him.
Monday, December 2, 2013
weekend review
So, the more astute members of the audience, and the less astute ones too, should notice a new addition to the blog. I figure it this way: Al Groh was let go the very same day in 2009 as the season-ending loss to VT. That was November 29. By Gregorian coincidence, next year's Thanksgiving Saturday is also November 29, and if things go as everyone fully expects, five years to the day of Groh's sacking, UVA will fire another football coach. And the team will be freed from the yoke of pathetically undisciplined, aimless coaching. Maybe that'll only be for a week - we have no idea who'll take London's place - but there's no way the replacement can be less adept at obnoxiously basic crap.
This year's edition of the VT game was London in a nutshell. He did a great job at firing the team up and getting them ready to play; I certainly did not see any of the quit that was hinted at in the Clemson game and seemed more than evident against UNC. He also did a shit job at preparing them. As ever. We didn't do anything different like you'd like to see against an archrival; we just did a few things better. And most things just the exact same as always. The unused first-half timeout can be sold to raise money for the program, of course, but the chance to score off of an opponent's turnover is lost to the wind forever.
I'll probably write a position paper or something on the coaching staff later on, but the cliff notes here are: we're stuck with them; fire all or fire none but don't make any more piecemeal changes; Steve Fairchild comes in for some unfair criticism at times but lots of perfectly good criticism too; whatever the conventional wisdom is about who the next coach should be, I don't want it; and there's not a single coach including alums Dex and Biscuit that I'd shed a single tear over losing.
******************************************************
Basketball was much more entertaining, wouldn't you agree? In fact, I have the games downloaded and will spend time this week chopping them into highlights - and not only that but the very first HD highlights I've done. I expect so, at least. They're very worthy games. The Fightin' Smoos put up a real scuffle and a scare into the Hoos; that looks to be a pretty darn good frontcourt they have there, and hopefully they put it to good use in the newly-constituted AAC.
The SMU game was a great time for the free-throw shooting to come alive (if only temporarily) as the refs called well over a foul a minute. Even more so, it was a great time to shoot 10-for-14 from three-point range, which ultimately is what sank the Mustangs.
Interestingly, though, I think I found the Missouri State game more educational, despite the carpet-bombing the Hoos delivered. It was 11-3, bad guys, at one point, and then an 80-45 run squashed flat any hopes of a Bears upset. UVA has made a bit of a pattern this year of going on a long, morale-crushing run in the latter part of the first half, clamping down on defense to hold the opponent scoreless for long stretches. At some point there, Tony Bennett yells something in Russian, and the pack-Drago defense unleashes its cold, calculating fury.
What I think is happening is that opposing coaches are scouting the pack-line a little harder, and finding a couple ways to attack it, and the UVA players need a few passes against whatever the opponent is bringing to adjust. It helps if the opponent starts the game 4-for-5 beyond the arc. Then an adjustment is made, and the opponent goes poof. Against Hampton, the frontcourt guys worked a little harder on denying entry passes, because the Hampton forwards were catching the ball in good position. Against Missouri State, the guards helped a little less down low and stayed home a little more so as to make those threes just that little bit harder to shoot. And voila: game over.
Next up is the toughest remaining non-con game: Wisconsin. The Badgers have remained perfect against some very decent competition: St. Louis, West Virginia, St. John's, and the apple of the bunch, Florida. On the plus side for UVA: Their defense isn't as elite as it's been in recent years, and they run with a very thin rotation. Eight players get 97.8% of their minutes, and their five starters get 78.4%. As you'd expect from a team like that which also hasn't lost a game, they're among the very best in the country at staying out of foul trouble.
******************************************************
Recruiting board needs an update due to commitment today:
-- Added DE Michael Biesemier to orange. I know I shouldn't talk down about a recruit who just committed like six hours ago and who I haven't even come close to profiling yet, and I know I'm still grouchy about a two-win season, and I know we needed to find a defensive end somewhere in this recruiting class, and commitments are supposed to be exciting, but.... I still have an awfully tough time getting fired up over stealing a recruit from James Madison. This is what you reap when you sow a 2-10 season. Eventually we'll have a closer look to see what we see.
-- Added TE Blake Whiteley to yellow. Whiteley is - brace yourself - a JUCO player, certainly the first I've ever put on the recruiting board. (UVA's transfer-credit policies tend to rule out most JUCOs. It's different sending someone to Piedmont to get re-eligible, because the school can tell them what to take.) Texas will almost certainly snap him up if they offer, otherwise it looks like Arkansas is the main competition.
******************************************************
Elsewhere news:
-- The David Teel interview of Craig Littlepage ruffled a lot of feathers. Count mine as not among them. Nothing there came as a surprise; the fact is that once the statement is made that London isn't going anywhere, Littlepage has to back that up with all his guns every time he's asked. It's a lose-lose proposition, because the tiniest crack in that facade is met with huge headlines all but officially proclaiming the end of the London tenure. Hell, I've gone and done it myself without Littlepage's help. The only thing is that Littlepage ought to know it's a lose-lose proposition and politely decline the interview, because now he sounds like a clueless bumbler who takes a 2-10 coach and says, yup, what a great job he's gonna do, I just know it.
The other problem I have is that the transcript there only stokes my fears that Jon Oliver, far from being next to face the firing squad, is actually being groomed as Littlepage's successor.
-- Oval-football season is over, but Euro-football rolls on smartly. The men's team was shown a red card 57 seconds into the game against Marquette, and so played damn near a full game a man down, and still stomped the Golden Eagles 3-1. And then received a fortuituous bit of news: as the 8th seed in the tourney, UVA would've had to play #1 seed UCLA in the quarterfinals, but unseeded UConn put a stop to that. Which means one more game at friendly Klockner.
That will not be televised, but the women, in the women's College Cup against UCLA, will be. Friday the 6th at 7:30, ESPNU. Going to be on the TiVo for sure.
-- Alabama fans are officially horrible people. Not content with killing mere trees, Alabama fans have graduated to actual human murder, the motive being: not being upset enough over the loss to Auburn. In recent memory, Alabama fans have:
- Publicly teabagged a passed-out LSU fan
- Destroyed a popular monument at Auburn
- Sent death threats to the kicker who missed the field goal this week - and the kicker's family.
- Murdered a fellow Alabama fan because that person joked about the loss.
At some point there - it might've been after the 100th death threat, or when some crazy bitch pulled a gun and started popping caps - Alabama fans lost the right to whine about judging the whole fanbase by a few bad apples. If you are an Alabama fan there's a smallish but reasonable chance that you're a sick fuck, and a 100% chance you take football far too seriously and need to get a damn life.
******************************************************
Senior Seasons feature as a few of our players move closer to state titles.
Centennial 86, Upland 56: Jeffery Farrar obviously didn't do anything special here, I just felt like pointing out the 909 yards racked up by Centennial. Farrar's Upland had 557. Defense was not something anyone was interested in, apparently.
Clearwater Central Catholic 7, Miami Westminster Christian 0: And Caanan Brown could not have played a more different game. CCC will play for the state championship next week.
Oscar Smith 40, Forest Park 7: The actual notable thing is that the big Smith-Ocean Lakes matchup was derailed, and Oscar Smith will now play Colonial Forge in the semifinals next week.
Salem 42, Woodgrove 25: J.J. Jackson's season ends this week as well.
This year's edition of the VT game was London in a nutshell. He did a great job at firing the team up and getting them ready to play; I certainly did not see any of the quit that was hinted at in the Clemson game and seemed more than evident against UNC. He also did a shit job at preparing them. As ever. We didn't do anything different like you'd like to see against an archrival; we just did a few things better. And most things just the exact same as always. The unused first-half timeout can be sold to raise money for the program, of course, but the chance to score off of an opponent's turnover is lost to the wind forever.
I'll probably write a position paper or something on the coaching staff later on, but the cliff notes here are: we're stuck with them; fire all or fire none but don't make any more piecemeal changes; Steve Fairchild comes in for some unfair criticism at times but lots of perfectly good criticism too; whatever the conventional wisdom is about who the next coach should be, I don't want it; and there's not a single coach including alums Dex and Biscuit that I'd shed a single tear over losing.
******************************************************
Basketball was much more entertaining, wouldn't you agree? In fact, I have the games downloaded and will spend time this week chopping them into highlights - and not only that but the very first HD highlights I've done. I expect so, at least. They're very worthy games. The Fightin' Smoos put up a real scuffle and a scare into the Hoos; that looks to be a pretty darn good frontcourt they have there, and hopefully they put it to good use in the newly-constituted AAC.
The SMU game was a great time for the free-throw shooting to come alive (if only temporarily) as the refs called well over a foul a minute. Even more so, it was a great time to shoot 10-for-14 from three-point range, which ultimately is what sank the Mustangs.
Interestingly, though, I think I found the Missouri State game more educational, despite the carpet-bombing the Hoos delivered. It was 11-3, bad guys, at one point, and then an 80-45 run squashed flat any hopes of a Bears upset. UVA has made a bit of a pattern this year of going on a long, morale-crushing run in the latter part of the first half, clamping down on defense to hold the opponent scoreless for long stretches. At some point there, Tony Bennett yells something in Russian, and the pack-Drago defense unleashes its cold, calculating fury.
What I think is happening is that opposing coaches are scouting the pack-line a little harder, and finding a couple ways to attack it, and the UVA players need a few passes against whatever the opponent is bringing to adjust. It helps if the opponent starts the game 4-for-5 beyond the arc. Then an adjustment is made, and the opponent goes poof. Against Hampton, the frontcourt guys worked a little harder on denying entry passes, because the Hampton forwards were catching the ball in good position. Against Missouri State, the guards helped a little less down low and stayed home a little more so as to make those threes just that little bit harder to shoot. And voila: game over.
Next up is the toughest remaining non-con game: Wisconsin. The Badgers have remained perfect against some very decent competition: St. Louis, West Virginia, St. John's, and the apple of the bunch, Florida. On the plus side for UVA: Their defense isn't as elite as it's been in recent years, and they run with a very thin rotation. Eight players get 97.8% of their minutes, and their five starters get 78.4%. As you'd expect from a team like that which also hasn't lost a game, they're among the very best in the country at staying out of foul trouble.
******************************************************
Recruiting board needs an update due to commitment today:
-- Added DE Michael Biesemier to orange. I know I shouldn't talk down about a recruit who just committed like six hours ago and who I haven't even come close to profiling yet, and I know I'm still grouchy about a two-win season, and I know we needed to find a defensive end somewhere in this recruiting class, and commitments are supposed to be exciting, but.... I still have an awfully tough time getting fired up over stealing a recruit from James Madison. This is what you reap when you sow a 2-10 season. Eventually we'll have a closer look to see what we see.
-- Added TE Blake Whiteley to yellow. Whiteley is - brace yourself - a JUCO player, certainly the first I've ever put on the recruiting board. (UVA's transfer-credit policies tend to rule out most JUCOs. It's different sending someone to Piedmont to get re-eligible, because the school can tell them what to take.) Texas will almost certainly snap him up if they offer, otherwise it looks like Arkansas is the main competition.
******************************************************
Elsewhere news:
-- The David Teel interview of Craig Littlepage ruffled a lot of feathers. Count mine as not among them. Nothing there came as a surprise; the fact is that once the statement is made that London isn't going anywhere, Littlepage has to back that up with all his guns every time he's asked. It's a lose-lose proposition, because the tiniest crack in that facade is met with huge headlines all but officially proclaiming the end of the London tenure. Hell, I've gone and done it myself without Littlepage's help. The only thing is that Littlepage ought to know it's a lose-lose proposition and politely decline the interview, because now he sounds like a clueless bumbler who takes a 2-10 coach and says, yup, what a great job he's gonna do, I just know it.
The other problem I have is that the transcript there only stokes my fears that Jon Oliver, far from being next to face the firing squad, is actually being groomed as Littlepage's successor.
-- Oval-football season is over, but Euro-football rolls on smartly. The men's team was shown a red card 57 seconds into the game against Marquette, and so played damn near a full game a man down, and still stomped the Golden Eagles 3-1. And then received a fortuituous bit of news: as the 8th seed in the tourney, UVA would've had to play #1 seed UCLA in the quarterfinals, but unseeded UConn put a stop to that. Which means one more game at friendly Klockner.
That will not be televised, but the women, in the women's College Cup against UCLA, will be. Friday the 6th at 7:30, ESPNU. Going to be on the TiVo for sure.
-- Alabama fans are officially horrible people. Not content with killing mere trees, Alabama fans have graduated to actual human murder, the motive being: not being upset enough over the loss to Auburn. In recent memory, Alabama fans have:
- Publicly teabagged a passed-out LSU fan
- Destroyed a popular monument at Auburn
- Sent death threats to the kicker who missed the field goal this week - and the kicker's family.
- Murdered a fellow Alabama fan because that person joked about the loss.
At some point there - it might've been after the 100th death threat, or when some crazy bitch pulled a gun and started popping caps - Alabama fans lost the right to whine about judging the whole fanbase by a few bad apples. If you are an Alabama fan there's a smallish but reasonable chance that you're a sick fuck, and a 100% chance you take football far too seriously and need to get a damn life.
******************************************************
Senior Seasons feature as a few of our players move closer to state titles.
Centennial 86, Upland 56: Jeffery Farrar obviously didn't do anything special here, I just felt like pointing out the 909 yards racked up by Centennial. Farrar's Upland had 557. Defense was not something anyone was interested in, apparently.
Clearwater Central Catholic 7, Miami Westminster Christian 0: And Caanan Brown could not have played a more different game. CCC will play for the state championship next week.
Oscar Smith 40, Forest Park 7: The actual notable thing is that the big Smith-Ocean Lakes matchup was derailed, and Oscar Smith will now play Colonial Forge in the semifinals next week.
Salem 42, Woodgrove 25: J.J. Jackson's season ends this week as well.
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