Name: David Curry
Position: S
Hometown: Buford, GA
School: Buford
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 190
24/7: 83, three stars; #101 S, GA #132
ESPN: 73, three stars; #116 S, GA #147, SE #642
Rivals: 5.4, two stars
Scout: three stars; #142 S
Other offers: Iowa State, Arkansas State, Georgia State, Miami (OH)
Safeties come in a couple different varieties. Some are "athletes" who seem to pan out best as a safety - think Anthony Harris. Most of UVA's safeties are this kind. Some are born safeties based on their physical attributes - think Quin Blanding, but it doesn't have to be someone whose physical skills are perfectly suited for the position. Sometimes it's because they can't really play anything else.
That's David Curry - too small for linebacker and too slow for cornerback, but a successful high school safety all the same. Curry makes his name on instinct, feel for the game, and tackling skills. This is what earns him low ratings, not necessarily something that makes him a candidate for the back end of the bench for five years. I'm going to have to dip into the Michigan side of me here, but really the comparison that works best is Jordan Kovacs - a player who Division II schools lost interest in recruiting, tried out as a walk-on for Michigan, didn't even make it, tried out again, was given a jersey, and long story short made it to the NFL. (Undrafted, natch.) Kovacs was - is - essentially a savant on defense, who didn't have to run a fast 40 to get to the right spot quickly, and who didn't allow broken tackles.
That's what UVA is hoping for out of Curry. You can't play defensive end just by knowing how, but you can't play safety without knowing how. And the fewer physical gifts you have, the more you better know. Stars from the rating services are four-fifths physical - if you can bench press an ox but lose a battle of wits to it, you might just get five stars anyway, and you'll have at least seven SEC offers.
Since they don't really rate instincts other than to say whether or not a player has them, projecting Curry's future is harder than usual. If he's the kind of guy who picks up on everything immediately, he could leapfrog quite a few residents of the depth chart and play as a freshman. We're losing an all-ACC strong safety to graduation, after all. Curry is a definite strong safety type - in fact, his best fit on a defense is probably as what some defenses call a rover, or basically the third safety who's sort of a linebacker.
Kelvin Rainey and Malcolm Cook have a long, long head start, though, and the odds should be on them to hold onto it for a while. Forget projecting Curry's instincts - we really don't even know a hell of a lot about these two, either, but it's safe to assume they know a little something about Jon Tenuta's system. Curry's mental game is going to have to be well above average; if it's not, he'll just end up muddling along and possibly get recruited over. (Though, it's safe to bet that if he had average field smarts to go along with average athleticism, he'd be playing D-III ball.) He may also simply wait his turn like Cook has been doing so far, and arrive as a starter in his third or fourth season in the program. But in the best-case scenario, he could either surpass a few players or simply prove indispensible and become the fifth starting DB, and watch Tenuta tweak the defense to make that player a safety rather than a corner. In any case, Curry's career is even less projectable than the average recruit from here, for the same reason nobody wanted Jordan Kovacs until they actually put him through his paces on a practice field.
Showing posts with label cook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cook. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Saturday, May 25, 2013
the recruit: Quin Blanding
Name: Quin Blanding
Position: S
Hometown: Virginia Beach
School: Bayside
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 201
24/7: 99, five stars; #1 S, VA #3, US #9
ESPN: 90, five stars; #1 S, VA #3, Atl. #4, US #11
Rivals: 6.1, five stars; #1 S, VA #2, US #4
Scout: five stars; #3 S
Other offers: Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Florida, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Auburn, Clemson, Tennessee, Penn State, UCLA, North Carolina, NC State, West Virginia, Vanderbilt, Illinois, Purdue, Maryland, Cincinnati, Connecticut
It's time to begin the recruit profile series again. Normally I've been able to save some of the best recruits for last, because normally they wait til near the end to commit, and these are always, without exception, written in order of commitment. Five-star mega-dudes with offer lists the size of Lindsey Lohan's rap sheet don't usually finish their recruitments this early.
Quin Blanding, obviously, did. This is the fruit of Mike London's labor in the state: having wrapped up previous classes fairly early, he had time to plant the seeds for years like 2014 and 2015. As a result, this recruitment was over almost before it began. Blanding's offer list actually is less extensive than it might've been had he waited even another six weeks or so, but it's impressive (to say the least) all the same, a veritable who's-who of programs.
Blanding is also an elite recruit on a dizzying level. Sometimes we get a guy we call a five-star recruit because one service said so. Good for us and all that. Blanding is a five-star recruit because every service says so, the first such player we can claim since Eugene Monroe from way back when there were only two services.
Why do they say so? For one, Blanding's size; he's tall for a safety (even an NFL safety), a little heavier than most, and still faster and quicker than any of his peers. Most of our depth chart guys are in the 6'0", 190ish range. ESPN says he possesses "ideal size" but the truth is he's actually bigger than ideal without sacrificing one mote of the necessary athleticism. He's already built like a guy playing on Sundays, except without the years of weight training.
The services then follow that up by trying to outdo each other in gushing about Blanding's actual game: instincts, ball skills, and the like. 24/7 writes: "What stands out most about his game is his ability to read a play. He is rarely out of position .... His speed, versatility and leaping ability were also all on display throughout the competition." ESPN is eerily similar: "Excels in coverage with instinctive ball-hawking skills and a real feel for route recognition and field awareness. Reads the quarterback eyes and knows where he is going with the football which allows for so many big plays. Disciplined and rarely caught out of position. The ideal roaming safety who can read, react and close on the football quickly from any alignment."
Rivals agrees too: "It comes down to a few things at the safety position: How do you see the field? How quickly do you react? Do you avoid false steps and misreading the play and are you willing to come up and smack someone in run support and make them pay down the middle of the field in the passing game? ...Blanding has all of those attributes." They then go on to trump the other two by talking up his leadership skills, which they rarely fail to mention in any one of their many Blanding Is Awesome articles.
It's really almost not worth diving too deeply into the scouting reports. Of all the ideal attributes of a top-notch free safety, Blanding isn't missing any of them. Even Scout, which comes up with the only downside in his game because they have to fill up the "Areas for Improvement" section somehow ("backpedal quickness" is what they've come up with) goes on two seconds later to say he "really doesn't have a weakness in his game." So the real question is, does Blanding go straight to the all-ACC lists or does he go bust?
We'll turn to the ranks of Rivals's previous five-star safeties for the answer. There actually aren't many. Of those evaluated as DBs, 2002 through 2004 produced mostly guys who played offense, grew into linebacker, or were cornerbacks. 2005 is the first time we see safeties who stuck at safety: Kenny Phillips became a very, very good player for Miami and an eventual first-round draft pick, and Demetrice Morley was on track to be just as good but let off-field problems derail his career. 2006 had two more safeties: Reshad Jones (Georgia) and Myron Rolle (FSU), both future NFLers. Chad Jones in 2007 had a good career at LSU, was picked in the third round of the NFL draft, but chose baseball eventually. 2009 had Craig Loston, who has slowly become an impact player for LSU. 2010, you've got Lamarcus Joyner, doing outstanding work at FSU, and Matt Elam, who did outstanding work at Florida and then left early to be a first-round pick.
What did I learn from the little sojourn through history?
-- Rivals rarely hands five stars to safeties. Cornerbacks get about three times as many five-star designations as safeties do.
-- When they do, they're not wrong. I didn't leave out any busts on purpose just to make the list look better. For the most part, the only reason a player busted out is because he was a head case. Worst-case scenario for non-head-cases was taking a couple years to reach full potential. Blanding is not a head case.
We're not bringing in an all-world recruit who does everything in order to redshirt, obviously. Blanding will be on the field from Day 1. There are those who think he could start for college programs right this minute. Hell, there are those who think he could've started for college programs last fall as a high school junior. They might be right. In 2014, though, UVA will probably have this little luxury: two long-term starters (Ant Harris and Brandon Phelps) entering their senior year. So if Blanding does start from the get-go, either something very bad happened or we're going to have an NFL safety roaming the defensive backfield for three years. More likely is that Blanding gets into the rotation in the two-deep and then takes over the starting job as a true sophomore. Blanding will also face a little competition from Anthony Cooper and Malcolm Cook, two players who aren't as far along on the eligibility scale. Both have gotten good press. But Blanding aces the eye test and literally everyone who's seen him play raves about both his physical and mental game. How much early playing time he gets depends somewhat on his adjustment to the college game and his scheme pickup, but anyone betting against his becoming a starter sooner rather than later - and a likely full-time resident of the various all-ACC lists - is a sad and foolish man. The only downside is that if all goes as planned, he'll probably only be around three years.
Position: S
Hometown: Virginia Beach
School: Bayside
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 201
24/7: 99, five stars; #1 S, VA #3, US #9
ESPN: 90, five stars; #1 S, VA #3, Atl. #4, US #11
Rivals: 6.1, five stars; #1 S, VA #2, US #4
Scout: five stars; #3 S
Other offers: Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Florida, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Auburn, Clemson, Tennessee, Penn State, UCLA, North Carolina, NC State, West Virginia, Vanderbilt, Illinois, Purdue, Maryland, Cincinnati, Connecticut
It's time to begin the recruit profile series again. Normally I've been able to save some of the best recruits for last, because normally they wait til near the end to commit, and these are always, without exception, written in order of commitment. Five-star mega-dudes with offer lists the size of Lindsey Lohan's rap sheet don't usually finish their recruitments this early.
Quin Blanding, obviously, did. This is the fruit of Mike London's labor in the state: having wrapped up previous classes fairly early, he had time to plant the seeds for years like 2014 and 2015. As a result, this recruitment was over almost before it began. Blanding's offer list actually is less extensive than it might've been had he waited even another six weeks or so, but it's impressive (to say the least) all the same, a veritable who's-who of programs.
Blanding is also an elite recruit on a dizzying level. Sometimes we get a guy we call a five-star recruit because one service said so. Good for us and all that. Blanding is a five-star recruit because every service says so, the first such player we can claim since Eugene Monroe from way back when there were only two services.
Why do they say so? For one, Blanding's size; he's tall for a safety (even an NFL safety), a little heavier than most, and still faster and quicker than any of his peers. Most of our depth chart guys are in the 6'0", 190ish range. ESPN says he possesses "ideal size" but the truth is he's actually bigger than ideal without sacrificing one mote of the necessary athleticism. He's already built like a guy playing on Sundays, except without the years of weight training.
The services then follow that up by trying to outdo each other in gushing about Blanding's actual game: instincts, ball skills, and the like. 24/7 writes: "What stands out most about his game is his ability to read a play. He is rarely out of position .... His speed, versatility and leaping ability were also all on display throughout the competition." ESPN is eerily similar: "Excels in coverage with instinctive ball-hawking skills and a real feel for route recognition and field awareness. Reads the quarterback eyes and knows where he is going with the football which allows for so many big plays. Disciplined and rarely caught out of position. The ideal roaming safety who can read, react and close on the football quickly from any alignment."
Rivals agrees too: "It comes down to a few things at the safety position: How do you see the field? How quickly do you react? Do you avoid false steps and misreading the play and are you willing to come up and smack someone in run support and make them pay down the middle of the field in the passing game? ...Blanding has all of those attributes." They then go on to trump the other two by talking up his leadership skills, which they rarely fail to mention in any one of their many Blanding Is Awesome articles.
It's really almost not worth diving too deeply into the scouting reports. Of all the ideal attributes of a top-notch free safety, Blanding isn't missing any of them. Even Scout, which comes up with the only downside in his game because they have to fill up the "Areas for Improvement" section somehow ("backpedal quickness" is what they've come up with) goes on two seconds later to say he "really doesn't have a weakness in his game." So the real question is, does Blanding go straight to the all-ACC lists or does he go bust?
We'll turn to the ranks of Rivals's previous five-star safeties for the answer. There actually aren't many. Of those evaluated as DBs, 2002 through 2004 produced mostly guys who played offense, grew into linebacker, or were cornerbacks. 2005 is the first time we see safeties who stuck at safety: Kenny Phillips became a very, very good player for Miami and an eventual first-round draft pick, and Demetrice Morley was on track to be just as good but let off-field problems derail his career. 2006 had two more safeties: Reshad Jones (Georgia) and Myron Rolle (FSU), both future NFLers. Chad Jones in 2007 had a good career at LSU, was picked in the third round of the NFL draft, but chose baseball eventually. 2009 had Craig Loston, who has slowly become an impact player for LSU. 2010, you've got Lamarcus Joyner, doing outstanding work at FSU, and Matt Elam, who did outstanding work at Florida and then left early to be a first-round pick.
What did I learn from the little sojourn through history?
-- Rivals rarely hands five stars to safeties. Cornerbacks get about three times as many five-star designations as safeties do.
-- When they do, they're not wrong. I didn't leave out any busts on purpose just to make the list look better. For the most part, the only reason a player busted out is because he was a head case. Worst-case scenario for non-head-cases was taking a couple years to reach full potential. Blanding is not a head case.
We're not bringing in an all-world recruit who does everything in order to redshirt, obviously. Blanding will be on the field from Day 1. There are those who think he could start for college programs right this minute. Hell, there are those who think he could've started for college programs last fall as a high school junior. They might be right. In 2014, though, UVA will probably have this little luxury: two long-term starters (Ant Harris and Brandon Phelps) entering their senior year. So if Blanding does start from the get-go, either something very bad happened or we're going to have an NFL safety roaming the defensive backfield for three years. More likely is that Blanding gets into the rotation in the two-deep and then takes over the starting job as a true sophomore. Blanding will also face a little competition from Anthony Cooper and Malcolm Cook, two players who aren't as far along on the eligibility scale. Both have gotten good press. But Blanding aces the eye test and literally everyone who's seen him play raves about both his physical and mental game. How much early playing time he gets depends somewhat on his adjustment to the college game and his scheme pickup, but anyone betting against his becoming a starter sooner rather than later - and a likely full-time resident of the various all-ACC lists - is a sad and foolish man. The only downside is that if all goes as planned, he'll probably only be around three years.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
the recruit: Malcolm Cook
Name: Malcolm Cook
Position: S
Hometown: Richmond
School: Fork Union
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 200
24/7: 90, four stars; #22 S, VA #13
ESPN: NR
Rivals: 5.5, three stars; VA #26
Scout: NR
Other offers: none
Malcolm Cook is easily one of the more interesting prospects on the commitment list. He counts as an under-the-radar sleeper, given that ESPN has not bothered to evaluate him and Scout doesn't even know he exists. (Happens a lot, with Scout.) And nobody besides UVA ever offered, although folks are a little nervous about Penn State since he took a visit there last week.
On the other hand, the gurus at Rivals and 24/7 are preaching the Gospel of Malcolm. It's probably because of how he's been playing this year. Actually it's definitely because of that. A four-star rating from 24/7 could well be matched by one from Rivals when they get around to updating him; at the very least, a bump from the standard-issue 5.5 is on the way. Cook's playmaking has been obvious. The most recent numbers I could find are from a month ago, when he already had 11 picks, 3 of them taken to the house, and he's forced a bunch of fumbles, too. Words like "program-changing" have been thrown around here, and I don't think they're kidding.
Position-wise, Cook's a safety, but it wouldn't completely shock me to see him grow into linebacker. He's a big broad-shouldered guy that already weighs 200 pounds. (Too big, and without the maneuverability for corner.) He'd need, like, 25-30 more to get to linebacker size, so don't go thinking I'm predicting this, but it is on the edges of possibility. But he'll be coming in as one of the bigger safeties in the program already, and ought to be able to find room for 10 pounds, easy. Speed is one of his biggest assets, which is impressive given his size; at the UVA camp, he was timed at 4.4 in the 40. I give you this number in case you care; I tend not to put any stock in 40 times unless they're electronic, not hand-timed, and there are a whole bunch of different players running in the same conditions for comparison's sake. I'll never run around going WOOOOO 4.4 FORTY but I'm not gonna pretend he's not fast, either.
We've been duped in the past by big stats in senior years, but if Cook is all that's advertised, he'll put serious pressure on the current safeties when he gets here. (Assuming he does get here; like I said, Penn State has people nervous. I don't think there's anything to be alarmed about, though.) Cook has one of the classic why-no-offers? flags: until this year he played for Armstrong in Richmond, a team that routinely gets its ass kicked. As a safety it's hard to make any impact on a lousy team; even a D-lineman might be able to strut his stuff since other teams have no choice but to try and block him, but safeties are easily avoided. I don't think he can come in right away and steal any starting jobs, but he's got potential to start off by further marginalizing Rijo Walker and Pablo Alvarez. If the hype is for real, he's all-ACC.
********************************************************
I promised Senior Seasons and here it is, along with a rundown of playoff positioning for everyone so involved.
Damascus 35, Northwood 12: Zach Bradshaw had a quiet day with three catches for 44 yards, but Damascus polished off an undefeated regular season to finish 10-0.
South Iredell 69, West Lincoln 15: LaChaston Smith had 13 carries, literally more than half of which wound up in the end zone. Smith had 191 yards rushing, and his 7 TDs are tied for second-most in an NC football game. By the way, he threw for one too. South Iredell is 10-2, and advances to the second round.
Ocean Lakes 60, Kellam 14: Corwin Cutler also helped wrap up an undefeated regular season, by throwing six touchdown passes. Ocean Lakes is 10-0.
Fork Union 42, Woodberry Forest 10: Malcolm Cook recovered a fumble, which is at least his fifth of the year, and FUMA took the Prep League regular season title. FUMA is 8-2.
Salisbury 31, Trinity Pawling 23 (Sadiq Olanrewaju) - Salisbury is 7-0.
Good Counsel 48, Archbishop Carroll 0 (Brendan Marshall, Kirk Garner, Andre Levrone) - OLGC is 9-1.
Potomac 19, Forest Park 0 (Donta Wilkins) - Potomac is 7-3.
Xavieran 21, BC High 17 (Jack McDonald) - BC High is 3-5.
A.L. Brown 41, North Forsyth 34 (Keeon Johnson) - Brown is 9-3 and advances in the playoffs.
Houston Westside 23, Houston Madison 0 (Hipolito Corporan) - Westside is 6-3.
Oscar Smith 42, King's Fork 35 (Zack Jones) - Oscar Smith is 8-2.
Collegiate 27, St. Christopher's 19 (Jack English) - St. Chris is 5-5.
Varina 21, Hanover 20 (Tim Harris) - Varina is 8-1.
The season status of our commitments is such:
-- 1 season is over (Jack English and St. Christopher's, who did not make the VISAA playoffs.)
-- 5 regular seasons are still going on. That would be Sadiq Olanrewaju, Jack McDonald, Brad Henson (though I confess I'm generally at a loss half the time to figure out what the heck is going on with his season; New Jersey teams are notoriously difficult to find info for), Hipolito Corporan, and, because Virginia has a silly convoluted playoff system, Tim Harris and Varina. They're playing for their playoff lives next weekend so even though they haven't technically made the playoffs yet, for all intents and purposes they've begun.
-- 7 teams will begin their playoff journeys this coming weekend. Good Counsel plays St. John's in the four-team WCAC tournament. FUMA goes against Benedictine in the VISAA playoffs. Ocean Lakes takes on Granby (fun fact: I once lived about a mile from Granby) and Bayside drew Oscar Smith, which means at least one of our players is going home. Gilman had a bye in their playoffs this past weekend and will play next weekend, and Damascus (Md.) starts their tournament against Urbana.
-- 1 team (Potomac) earned a playoff bye and will wait a week to learn their opponent.
-- 2 teams, both the ones in North Carolina, advanced to the second round.
A couple of basketball bits to quick-wrap this up. One, George Mason suspended a couple of players for a few games, which of course means they won't be on the court against UVA Friday night. I don't think either of them would've started, but they might've been the first off the bench. Any hit to their depth is a help given the fact that we're not bringing any point guards to this fight. Also, Joe Lunardi, who is typically down on UVA's tourney chances (and more often than not maddeningly right) has UVA as the eighth team out of his final preseason bracket. I'd call that encouraging; for one thing, it means he considers UVA the sixth-best (or sixth-seeded) team in the ACC, one notch above the preseason media poll that had us seventh. For another, that's obviously not that many spots in between us and an actual berth. A surprise here and there and we could be looking at a tourney year when it was least expected.
Position: S
Hometown: Richmond
School: Fork Union
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 200
24/7: 90, four stars; #22 S, VA #13
ESPN: NR
Rivals: 5.5, three stars; VA #26
Scout: NR
Other offers: none
Malcolm Cook is easily one of the more interesting prospects on the commitment list. He counts as an under-the-radar sleeper, given that ESPN has not bothered to evaluate him and Scout doesn't even know he exists. (Happens a lot, with Scout.) And nobody besides UVA ever offered, although folks are a little nervous about Penn State since he took a visit there last week.
On the other hand, the gurus at Rivals and 24/7 are preaching the Gospel of Malcolm. It's probably because of how he's been playing this year. Actually it's definitely because of that. A four-star rating from 24/7 could well be matched by one from Rivals when they get around to updating him; at the very least, a bump from the standard-issue 5.5 is on the way. Cook's playmaking has been obvious. The most recent numbers I could find are from a month ago, when he already had 11 picks, 3 of them taken to the house, and he's forced a bunch of fumbles, too. Words like "program-changing" have been thrown around here, and I don't think they're kidding.
Position-wise, Cook's a safety, but it wouldn't completely shock me to see him grow into linebacker. He's a big broad-shouldered guy that already weighs 200 pounds. (Too big, and without the maneuverability for corner.) He'd need, like, 25-30 more to get to linebacker size, so don't go thinking I'm predicting this, but it is on the edges of possibility. But he'll be coming in as one of the bigger safeties in the program already, and ought to be able to find room for 10 pounds, easy. Speed is one of his biggest assets, which is impressive given his size; at the UVA camp, he was timed at 4.4 in the 40. I give you this number in case you care; I tend not to put any stock in 40 times unless they're electronic, not hand-timed, and there are a whole bunch of different players running in the same conditions for comparison's sake. I'll never run around going WOOOOO 4.4 FORTY but I'm not gonna pretend he's not fast, either.
We've been duped in the past by big stats in senior years, but if Cook is all that's advertised, he'll put serious pressure on the current safeties when he gets here. (Assuming he does get here; like I said, Penn State has people nervous. I don't think there's anything to be alarmed about, though.) Cook has one of the classic why-no-offers? flags: until this year he played for Armstrong in Richmond, a team that routinely gets its ass kicked. As a safety it's hard to make any impact on a lousy team; even a D-lineman might be able to strut his stuff since other teams have no choice but to try and block him, but safeties are easily avoided. I don't think he can come in right away and steal any starting jobs, but he's got potential to start off by further marginalizing Rijo Walker and Pablo Alvarez. If the hype is for real, he's all-ACC.
********************************************************
I promised Senior Seasons and here it is, along with a rundown of playoff positioning for everyone so involved.
Damascus 35, Northwood 12: Zach Bradshaw had a quiet day with three catches for 44 yards, but Damascus polished off an undefeated regular season to finish 10-0.
South Iredell 69, West Lincoln 15: LaChaston Smith had 13 carries, literally more than half of which wound up in the end zone. Smith had 191 yards rushing, and his 7 TDs are tied for second-most in an NC football game. By the way, he threw for one too. South Iredell is 10-2, and advances to the second round.
Ocean Lakes 60, Kellam 14: Corwin Cutler also helped wrap up an undefeated regular season, by throwing six touchdown passes. Ocean Lakes is 10-0.
Fork Union 42, Woodberry Forest 10: Malcolm Cook recovered a fumble, which is at least his fifth of the year, and FUMA took the Prep League regular season title. FUMA is 8-2.
Salisbury 31, Trinity Pawling 23 (Sadiq Olanrewaju) - Salisbury is 7-0.
Good Counsel 48, Archbishop Carroll 0 (Brendan Marshall, Kirk Garner, Andre Levrone) - OLGC is 9-1.
Potomac 19, Forest Park 0 (Donta Wilkins) - Potomac is 7-3.
Xavieran 21, BC High 17 (Jack McDonald) - BC High is 3-5.
A.L. Brown 41, North Forsyth 34 (Keeon Johnson) - Brown is 9-3 and advances in the playoffs.
Houston Westside 23, Houston Madison 0 (Hipolito Corporan) - Westside is 6-3.
Oscar Smith 42, King's Fork 35 (Zack Jones) - Oscar Smith is 8-2.
Collegiate 27, St. Christopher's 19 (Jack English) - St. Chris is 5-5.
Varina 21, Hanover 20 (Tim Harris) - Varina is 8-1.
The season status of our commitments is such:
-- 1 season is over (Jack English and St. Christopher's, who did not make the VISAA playoffs.)
-- 5 regular seasons are still going on. That would be Sadiq Olanrewaju, Jack McDonald, Brad Henson (though I confess I'm generally at a loss half the time to figure out what the heck is going on with his season; New Jersey teams are notoriously difficult to find info for), Hipolito Corporan, and, because Virginia has a silly convoluted playoff system, Tim Harris and Varina. They're playing for their playoff lives next weekend so even though they haven't technically made the playoffs yet, for all intents and purposes they've begun.
-- 7 teams will begin their playoff journeys this coming weekend. Good Counsel plays St. John's in the four-team WCAC tournament. FUMA goes against Benedictine in the VISAA playoffs. Ocean Lakes takes on Granby (fun fact: I once lived about a mile from Granby) and Bayside drew Oscar Smith, which means at least one of our players is going home. Gilman had a bye in their playoffs this past weekend and will play next weekend, and Damascus (Md.) starts their tournament against Urbana.
-- 1 team (Potomac) earned a playoff bye and will wait a week to learn their opponent.
-- 2 teams, both the ones in North Carolina, advanced to the second round.
A couple of basketball bits to quick-wrap this up. One, George Mason suspended a couple of players for a few games, which of course means they won't be on the court against UVA Friday night. I don't think either of them would've started, but they might've been the first off the bench. Any hit to their depth is a help given the fact that we're not bringing any point guards to this fight. Also, Joe Lunardi, who is typically down on UVA's tourney chances (and more often than not maddeningly right) has UVA as the eighth team out of his final preseason bracket. I'd call that encouraging; for one thing, it means he considers UVA the sixth-best (or sixth-seeded) team in the ACC, one notch above the preseason media poll that had us seventh. For another, that's obviously not that many spots in between us and an actual berth. A surprise here and there and we could be looking at a tourney year when it was least expected.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
the rookie cavaliers
To be clear, that's "Cavaliers that are now rookies in the NFL." Yes, once again it's time to see how the NFL draft went from a purely UVA perspective. This is a much shorter exercise than last year, when we had enough matriculation to the NFL that I had to split it up into draftees and non-draftees. This year, not so much. Maybe that has something to do with 3-9.
Anyway, here are the guys you'll be pulling for to make an NFL roster this year:
Chris Cook - 34th overall to the Vikings
The Vikings picked Cook with the selection they got from the Lions for trading out of the first round - really only a four-pick drop. The UVA fan in me is thrilled - Cook is going to a team bound and determined to upgrade a shaky cornerback position. The Lions fan in me is really pleased to finally have what looks like a really dangerous running back (the Lions took Cal's Jahvid Best with the pick acquired from the Vikings.)
But the combination UVA and Lions fan in me thinks the whole thing sucks. As a Lions fan, see, I can't stand the Vikings - maybe not as strongly as a Packers fan would hate them, but still; and I hate to see a Cavalier drafted by them, it's almost as bad as being drafted by Green Bay or Dallas. Not only that, but they used the pick the Lions gave them, and the Lions really, really need a cornerback too. (They picked one up in the third round instead.) And for the coup de grace: drafting Best gave the Lions the RB depth they needed to cut Cedric Peerman loose. So it's like a double no-Hoos whammy for the Lions.
But, Cook. As the Vikings' highest pick, he's something of a mini-star already in the Twin Cities and will no doubt be scrutinized come fall camp. He wasn't the Vikings' first choice, though; that was going to be Patrick Robinson, who got snagged two picks ahead of them. Minnesota needs cornerbacks badly enough that they decided to take the next one on their board instead of going with the best-player-available approach.
The situation there is really shaky. Cedric Griffin is the best they got, and they're not sure he'll be available for the start of the season. Everyone else was horribly unproductive last season, and the Vikings went out and signed a bunch of other guys before the draft (read: flung poo against the wall to find out what sticks) to try and shore up the position and be able to print up a depth chart and still look at themselves in the mirror. With Griffin probably out for training camp, Cook will have every chance to strut his stuff. Except for maybe the Lions, he'd have had a hard time finding a better situation.
Will Barker - Cowboys UFA
Ugh, I hate the Cowboys, but there's no denying former Cavaliers have had their share of success in Dallas. Both John Phillips and Kevin Ogletree caught on with the Cowboys last year, hauling in seven passes each, and they're joined this offseason by Connor Hughes, providing some warm-body depth at placekicker.
Barker ended up on a team that's more or less without a left tackle, but unfortunately I really have my doubts that Barker's suited for the left side. If he's a tackle, he's a right tackle, and Dallas has more depth on that side. Still, they didn't pick up a lineman til the sixth round and haven't been real active on the FA market for linemen either, so Barker's got as good a chance as any to impress his way onto the roster. As ever, UFA's face a long uphill climb to a steady paycheck and the odds are stacked against them, so when I say he's got a decent chance, that's definitely relative.
Nate Collins - Giants UFA
Another place with a nice contingent of Cavaliers; Collins will join Chris Canty and Clint Sintim on the Giants' defense. There isn't much room, though. Canty is an expensive investment that the Giants want to get some use out of after he was hurt much of last year, and so the depth chart at DT will get a little clogged. They drafted another defensive tackle in the second round as well. Overall, the Giants need more production than they've been getting out of the middle of their D-line, but there's enough depth there - especially high-priced depth - that it'll likely take an injury or something else unforeseen for Collins to crack the roster.
Mikell Simpson - Bengals UFA
Simpson's his small size - seriously, he looks like he's going to break every time he's tackled - make it a difficult battle no matter where he goes. Plus, he's not the only UFA RB the Bengals signed, and guess what else: Cincinnati picked up some familiar competition from the Lions. (Peerman, for the slow on the uptake.) The Bengals have no competition for the starting tailback job and some pretty well-established backups - they're basically looking for one last guy to fill out the back end of the roster, and Simpson's going to find it extremely difficult not to be one of the first cuts.
Rashawn Jackson - Panthers UFA
Guh. Carolina has a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams and some backups they really like in Tyrell Sutton and Mike Goodson. If Jackson is going to make the Panthers' roster it'll probably be as a pure fullback, and a backup at that as Tony Fiammetta has been groomed for the starting job. Unlike Simpson, Jackson also has the size to make a mark on special teams, and in order to make the roster, this is where he'll probably have to expend a lot of effort.
Working in his favor, Fox Sports called him the second-best undrafted free agent, and compared him to Jason Snelling, who's done a terrific job carving himself a niche with Atlanta. The comparison is no accident - Jackson has a very similar skill set, looks a lot like Snelling on the field, and minus the medical year off, followed a very similar career path at UVA. Eerie similarities. Let's hope the parallels can continue; if Jackson catches on with Carolina, it'll likely be right from the Snelling blueprint.
Vic Hall - Bears UFA
Hall's pro recruitment probably reminded him a lot of his college recruitment. Defense? Offense? Different teams had different ideas. For the Bears, it'll be offense, at least at first - slot receiver. Right in Devin Hester's wheelhouse. The Bears also have Rashied Davis as a backup there, and if Hall ends up as a slot and KR, those two at least will be in front of him. His versatility makes it tough to figure his chances of making the roster, but it also greatly improves them, and don't be surprised if he does land on his feet somewhere. Might not necessarily be the Bears, and it could be anywhere on the field - kick returner, gunner, cornerback, slot. The practice squad is also a distinct possibility - thanks to his athleticism, probably a greater possibility than any of the other UFA's listed here since he can be asked to portray various opposing burners as a scout teamer. That kind of sucks, but in the end there's a reason Hall was one of Groh's favorites and I can't see him being completely shunted aside when all's said and done.
Anyway, here are the guys you'll be pulling for to make an NFL roster this year:
Chris Cook - 34th overall to the Vikings
The Vikings picked Cook with the selection they got from the Lions for trading out of the first round - really only a four-pick drop. The UVA fan in me is thrilled - Cook is going to a team bound and determined to upgrade a shaky cornerback position. The Lions fan in me is really pleased to finally have what looks like a really dangerous running back (the Lions took Cal's Jahvid Best with the pick acquired from the Vikings.)
But the combination UVA and Lions fan in me thinks the whole thing sucks. As a Lions fan, see, I can't stand the Vikings - maybe not as strongly as a Packers fan would hate them, but still; and I hate to see a Cavalier drafted by them, it's almost as bad as being drafted by Green Bay or Dallas. Not only that, but they used the pick the Lions gave them, and the Lions really, really need a cornerback too. (They picked one up in the third round instead.) And for the coup de grace: drafting Best gave the Lions the RB depth they needed to cut Cedric Peerman loose. So it's like a double no-Hoos whammy for the Lions.
But, Cook. As the Vikings' highest pick, he's something of a mini-star already in the Twin Cities and will no doubt be scrutinized come fall camp. He wasn't the Vikings' first choice, though; that was going to be Patrick Robinson, who got snagged two picks ahead of them. Minnesota needs cornerbacks badly enough that they decided to take the next one on their board instead of going with the best-player-available approach.
The situation there is really shaky. Cedric Griffin is the best they got, and they're not sure he'll be available for the start of the season. Everyone else was horribly unproductive last season, and the Vikings went out and signed a bunch of other guys before the draft (read: flung poo against the wall to find out what sticks) to try and shore up the position and be able to print up a depth chart and still look at themselves in the mirror. With Griffin probably out for training camp, Cook will have every chance to strut his stuff. Except for maybe the Lions, he'd have had a hard time finding a better situation.
Will Barker - Cowboys UFA
Ugh, I hate the Cowboys, but there's no denying former Cavaliers have had their share of success in Dallas. Both John Phillips and Kevin Ogletree caught on with the Cowboys last year, hauling in seven passes each, and they're joined this offseason by Connor Hughes, providing some warm-body depth at placekicker.
Barker ended up on a team that's more or less without a left tackle, but unfortunately I really have my doubts that Barker's suited for the left side. If he's a tackle, he's a right tackle, and Dallas has more depth on that side. Still, they didn't pick up a lineman til the sixth round and haven't been real active on the FA market for linemen either, so Barker's got as good a chance as any to impress his way onto the roster. As ever, UFA's face a long uphill climb to a steady paycheck and the odds are stacked against them, so when I say he's got a decent chance, that's definitely relative.
Nate Collins - Giants UFA
Another place with a nice contingent of Cavaliers; Collins will join Chris Canty and Clint Sintim on the Giants' defense. There isn't much room, though. Canty is an expensive investment that the Giants want to get some use out of after he was hurt much of last year, and so the depth chart at DT will get a little clogged. They drafted another defensive tackle in the second round as well. Overall, the Giants need more production than they've been getting out of the middle of their D-line, but there's enough depth there - especially high-priced depth - that it'll likely take an injury or something else unforeseen for Collins to crack the roster.
Mikell Simpson - Bengals UFA
Simpson's his small size - seriously, he looks like he's going to break every time he's tackled - make it a difficult battle no matter where he goes. Plus, he's not the only UFA RB the Bengals signed, and guess what else: Cincinnati picked up some familiar competition from the Lions. (Peerman, for the slow on the uptake.) The Bengals have no competition for the starting tailback job and some pretty well-established backups - they're basically looking for one last guy to fill out the back end of the roster, and Simpson's going to find it extremely difficult not to be one of the first cuts.
Rashawn Jackson - Panthers UFA
Guh. Carolina has a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams and some backups they really like in Tyrell Sutton and Mike Goodson. If Jackson is going to make the Panthers' roster it'll probably be as a pure fullback, and a backup at that as Tony Fiammetta has been groomed for the starting job. Unlike Simpson, Jackson also has the size to make a mark on special teams, and in order to make the roster, this is where he'll probably have to expend a lot of effort.
Working in his favor, Fox Sports called him the second-best undrafted free agent, and compared him to Jason Snelling, who's done a terrific job carving himself a niche with Atlanta. The comparison is no accident - Jackson has a very similar skill set, looks a lot like Snelling on the field, and minus the medical year off, followed a very similar career path at UVA. Eerie similarities. Let's hope the parallels can continue; if Jackson catches on with Carolina, it'll likely be right from the Snelling blueprint.
Vic Hall - Bears UFA
Hall's pro recruitment probably reminded him a lot of his college recruitment. Defense? Offense? Different teams had different ideas. For the Bears, it'll be offense, at least at first - slot receiver. Right in Devin Hester's wheelhouse. The Bears also have Rashied Davis as a backup there, and if Hall ends up as a slot and KR, those two at least will be in front of him. His versatility makes it tough to figure his chances of making the roster, but it also greatly improves them, and don't be surprised if he does land on his feet somewhere. Might not necessarily be the Bears, and it could be anywhere on the field - kick returner, gunner, cornerback, slot. The practice squad is also a distinct possibility - thanks to his athleticism, probably a greater possibility than any of the other UFA's listed here since he can be asked to portray various opposing burners as a scout teamer. That kind of sucks, but in the end there's a reason Hall was one of Groh's favorites and I can't see him being completely shunted aside when all's said and done.
Monday, April 26, 2010
3's and 7's
Good things come in threes, goes the saying. Like wins over Maryland by the baseball team. Like goals by Chris Bocklet and Shamel Bratton in a streak-busting win over Duke lacrosse.
Like ACC championships.
Or if you want to get all big-picturey, like "years in a row UVA has won more ACC championships than any other school." Yup: the men's lacrosse, women's crew, and men's tennis teams ensured that no ACC school can catch UVA in the championships department this year, and the seven total championships is a post-expansion record. Stand tall, Hoos, and give this statement of fact some thought: For the third year in a row, the University of Virginia has the ACC's premier athletics department.
Another heady phrase: 100 ACC championships. That mark was reached on Saturday by the crew team; Sunday brought the total to 102. The official site has the awesome breakdown here.
And let's not forget: there's still some baseball (as well as softball) to be played. And some of it was played this weekend, too, although calling what happened on the College Park diamond "competition" is a stretch. Maryland is a doormat when it comes to baseball with one respectable pitcher and few bats, and they were treated as such. I did expect a sweep; I did not expect 27 runs to be posted on Saturday, though it comes as something less than a complete surprise.
Coastal Carolina's pitchers will give us much more trouble than Maryland's, and they're not even throwing their weekend guys. If you follow college baseball, you've heard of Coastal Carolina; if not, you might have anyway, as they're basically baseball's Gonzaga. Coastal's already beaten five ACC squads this season, which is more than Maryland can say, and they're probably the toughest test we'll see until the season finale series against Miami. I think Branden Kline will take the mound, and neither of our top relievers (Arico and Wilson) pitched at all against Maryland and will be available on Tuesday as well. A win tomorrow would do wonders for bringing a super-regional to Charlottesville.
**********************************************
But if I had to pick the best part of the weekend, hell, it wouldn't even automatically be the lacrosse team's ACC championship, although a trophy is a very shiny piece of validation. Frickin' finally beat Duke! For the first time since I graduated. Adam Ghitelman is your tournament MVP, although if that award wasn't cemented when he flung the ball into the open net from 60 yards out, then it ain't worth shit. Goalie goal! That alone is MVP stuff - 16 saves against 6 goals versus Maryland is just gravy. Just my luck it comes in the one part of the year that isn't on TV in these parts, because that would have been the best highlight ever.
(Sheesh, listen to me. Here, true story: it's not that I paid no attention at all to lacrosse while I was at school, but my actual, active fandom dates from the 2006 championship - the semis against Syracuse, specifically - when I turned on the TV just to see what might be on and it literally just happened to be UVA lacrosse. I made it a point to also tune in to the UMass game and since then I've been hooked. I had had no idea they actually televised it; here I am four years later bitching that some of it still isn't. At least there's lousy-res streaming video online.)
Anyhoo. It certainly helped that Maryland sat Will Yeatman, who stands six-foot-seventeen and weighs at least 400 pounds and is the only Terp who can consistently score goals on us without having them waved off. Still, holding a fellow ACC squad to six goals is an accomplishment no matter how you slice it. Really, five, since Maryland's final goal came with 11 seconds to go and Ghitelman probably already trying to decide where to put his MVP trophy.
**********************************************
Other stuff from the weekend:
- Jeff White, as usual, is on top of his game. Indispensible breakdown of maybe UVA's most successful weekend of the past decade.
- White did miss one thing: Chris Cook was the only Hoo taken in the NFL draft, but he went before every Hokie. Tomorrow I'll have the full rundown.
- He missed one other thing, though as a mouthpiece of the school he's really not allowed to talk about it: the Jordan Lomax commitment. Yup, even football had an awesome weekend. I'll update the recruiting board shortly.
- The post-spring depth chart is out, too. Interesting bits: 1) Marc Verica is clearly listed as the starting QB. 2) Perry Jones is the starting tailback - though that comes without competition, yet, from Dominique Wallace. 3) Steve Greer isn't the clearcut starter at MLB. (I expect that to change, though.) 4) LaRoy Reynolds is the starting Sam - and is listed at a meager 215 pounds. 5) No kicker is named.
Now that spring practice is over, I'll be updating the depth chart on the blog here within the week, and pushing the graduated seniors off the edge into the wide world.
- Steps to happiness: 1) Take this Sporcle quiz. 2) Cackle with glee. (You'll figure out why once you've completed the quiz.)
Like ACC championships.
Or if you want to get all big-picturey, like "years in a row UVA has won more ACC championships than any other school." Yup: the men's lacrosse, women's crew, and men's tennis teams ensured that no ACC school can catch UVA in the championships department this year, and the seven total championships is a post-expansion record. Stand tall, Hoos, and give this statement of fact some thought: For the third year in a row, the University of Virginia has the ACC's premier athletics department.
Another heady phrase: 100 ACC championships. That mark was reached on Saturday by the crew team; Sunday brought the total to 102. The official site has the awesome breakdown here.
And let's not forget: there's still some baseball (as well as softball) to be played. And some of it was played this weekend, too, although calling what happened on the College Park diamond "competition" is a stretch. Maryland is a doormat when it comes to baseball with one respectable pitcher and few bats, and they were treated as such. I did expect a sweep; I did not expect 27 runs to be posted on Saturday, though it comes as something less than a complete surprise.
Coastal Carolina's pitchers will give us much more trouble than Maryland's, and they're not even throwing their weekend guys. If you follow college baseball, you've heard of Coastal Carolina; if not, you might have anyway, as they're basically baseball's Gonzaga. Coastal's already beaten five ACC squads this season, which is more than Maryland can say, and they're probably the toughest test we'll see until the season finale series against Miami. I think Branden Kline will take the mound, and neither of our top relievers (Arico and Wilson) pitched at all against Maryland and will be available on Tuesday as well. A win tomorrow would do wonders for bringing a super-regional to Charlottesville.
**********************************************
But if I had to pick the best part of the weekend, hell, it wouldn't even automatically be the lacrosse team's ACC championship, although a trophy is a very shiny piece of validation. Frickin' finally beat Duke! For the first time since I graduated. Adam Ghitelman is your tournament MVP, although if that award wasn't cemented when he flung the ball into the open net from 60 yards out, then it ain't worth shit. Goalie goal! That alone is MVP stuff - 16 saves against 6 goals versus Maryland is just gravy. Just my luck it comes in the one part of the year that isn't on TV in these parts, because that would have been the best highlight ever.
(Sheesh, listen to me. Here, true story: it's not that I paid no attention at all to lacrosse while I was at school, but my actual, active fandom dates from the 2006 championship - the semis against Syracuse, specifically - when I turned on the TV just to see what might be on and it literally just happened to be UVA lacrosse. I made it a point to also tune in to the UMass game and since then I've been hooked. I had had no idea they actually televised it; here I am four years later bitching that some of it still isn't. At least there's lousy-res streaming video online.)
Anyhoo. It certainly helped that Maryland sat Will Yeatman, who stands six-foot-seventeen and weighs at least 400 pounds and is the only Terp who can consistently score goals on us without having them waved off. Still, holding a fellow ACC squad to six goals is an accomplishment no matter how you slice it. Really, five, since Maryland's final goal came with 11 seconds to go and Ghitelman probably already trying to decide where to put his MVP trophy.
**********************************************
Other stuff from the weekend:
- Jeff White, as usual, is on top of his game. Indispensible breakdown of maybe UVA's most successful weekend of the past decade.
- White did miss one thing: Chris Cook was the only Hoo taken in the NFL draft, but he went before every Hokie. Tomorrow I'll have the full rundown.
- He missed one other thing, though as a mouthpiece of the school he's really not allowed to talk about it: the Jordan Lomax commitment. Yup, even football had an awesome weekend. I'll update the recruiting board shortly.
- The post-spring depth chart is out, too. Interesting bits: 1) Marc Verica is clearly listed as the starting QB. 2) Perry Jones is the starting tailback - though that comes without competition, yet, from Dominique Wallace. 3) Steve Greer isn't the clearcut starter at MLB. (I expect that to change, though.) 4) LaRoy Reynolds is the starting Sam - and is listed at a meager 215 pounds. 5) No kicker is named.
Now that spring practice is over, I'll be updating the depth chart on the blog here within the week, and pushing the graduated seniors off the edge into the wide world.
- Steps to happiness: 1) Take this Sporcle quiz. 2) Cackle with glee. (You'll figure out why once you've completed the quiz.)
Thursday, April 22, 2010
there are championships to be won
Eight ACC championships have yet to be decided. Six of them get taken care of this weekend. So this weekend is kind of a big one.
Last year, UVA won more ACC championships than any other school, and we have a great chance to duplicate the feat this year. UVA has racked up four, tying with Florida State; Florida State, however, doesn't compete in all of this weekend's sports. It'll be a disappointment of colossal proportions if UVA doesn't snag at least one this weekend, because that would require at least two major upsets. The six sports contesting ACC championships this weekend are:
- Women's lacrosse. This one's already underway, and VT is in the process of being crushed as I write. We're not the favorite, however; that distinction likely belongs to UNC, whom UVA topped in overtime in the regular season. After VT comes Maryland, who blew us out earlier this year, and getting past that means a likely rematch with Carolina.
- Rowing. UVA is the heavy favorite here, being ranked #1 in the region. Clemson, as you see, is second, and poses the greatest threat, but the ladies' crew should be ACC championship #5 when all's said and done. This team, by the way, holds my interest in a different small way as it's the only UVA team to include athletes from my high school on the roster.
- Men's tennis. The other sport where UVA = domination. Not only do the Hoos beat everyone they face, most of the time it's not even close. Miami is the first opponent on the chopping block, scheduled for tomorrow. Barring a major upset this should be championship #6.
- Women's tennis. UVA is the 6th seed in this tournament and has a long road to hoe to get to the championship, but stranger things have happened. Again, Carolina is the favorite, but the match against them this season was a very close loss.
- Men's golf. You know what, I don't even know. College golf is weird. UVA's got a decent team, I guess - here's the coaches' poll - and based on that I'd say we're not the favorites, but we're certainly in the hunt. And if there was ever an anything-can-happen game, it's golf, which is a lesson I learn every time I'm on the links. Maybe we win, maybe we don't.
- Men's lacrosse. As ever, a series of coin-flips between four teams of more or less even strength. Of course we drew Duke in the first round, but odds are basically two in three we'd have to play them at some point anyway. I really think there's a champion-ness about this team that wasn't there last year, but who knows, maybe that comes out in the NCAAs instead of the ACCs. I think most people would prefer that anyway. In any case, figure we have a 25% chance of winning this mini-tournament, which still ain't bad.
Of course, the baseball team plays this weekend too: in College Park against Maryland, who is as bad as advertised. They have a respectable #1 starter and one or two guys who can hit the ball, but the basic deal is, not sweeping this series might as well be considered a series loss. In ten of their forty games (in which they are 15-25) they've given up double-digit runs; three of those games have been 20-run monstrosities and another was a 17-run ugliness at the hands of Delaware. If there was ever a time to give the bats a little wake-up call, this is it.
Lastly, I have the same opinion as everyone else about an impending 68-team NCAA tournament: YAY IT'S NOT 96. In fact, I like 68 better than 65. Now there's some symmetry to it. Until 96 was mentioned, I always sort of figured 68 was inevitable anyway, since at some point in the future the Great West Conference will get an autobid and the whole reason for 65 was to make room for a new AQ conference. With a 14-year deal, we likely won't have to worry about earthshaking expansion again til the 2020's. And the split between CBS and Turner means that you don't have to watch just any game that CBS foists on you, which means that if your team is not playing the "interesting" matchup at the moment, you don't have to miss it. Consider this whole thing a positive development, and not even the kind that's positive only because it's less crappy than what they floated at first. It's actually a good thing.
Right - 45 minutes to the NFL draft. Root for Chris Cook tonight, who's occasionally projected as a first-rounder but more commonly in the high second round. Me, I'm off to go pray to whatever god will listen that the Lions don't get a major case of the stupids tonight. The symptom is "doing anything other than selecting Ndamukong Suh." Yes, it's the obvious pick; yes, Suh blows up everything he sees; yes, he's the best player in the draft; yes, he's a high-character guy and that too is written in neon lights; no, I don't have much faith in the Lions being anything other than the Lions. Watch them reach for Trent Williams. (Edit: they picked Suh! Wooo, shit yeah!!)
Last year, UVA won more ACC championships than any other school, and we have a great chance to duplicate the feat this year. UVA has racked up four, tying with Florida State; Florida State, however, doesn't compete in all of this weekend's sports. It'll be a disappointment of colossal proportions if UVA doesn't snag at least one this weekend, because that would require at least two major upsets. The six sports contesting ACC championships this weekend are:
- Women's lacrosse. This one's already underway, and VT is in the process of being crushed as I write. We're not the favorite, however; that distinction likely belongs to UNC, whom UVA topped in overtime in the regular season. After VT comes Maryland, who blew us out earlier this year, and getting past that means a likely rematch with Carolina.
- Rowing. UVA is the heavy favorite here, being ranked #1 in the region. Clemson, as you see, is second, and poses the greatest threat, but the ladies' crew should be ACC championship #5 when all's said and done. This team, by the way, holds my interest in a different small way as it's the only UVA team to include athletes from my high school on the roster.
- Men's tennis. The other sport where UVA = domination. Not only do the Hoos beat everyone they face, most of the time it's not even close. Miami is the first opponent on the chopping block, scheduled for tomorrow. Barring a major upset this should be championship #6.
- Women's tennis. UVA is the 6th seed in this tournament and has a long road to hoe to get to the championship, but stranger things have happened. Again, Carolina is the favorite, but the match against them this season was a very close loss.
- Men's golf. You know what, I don't even know. College golf is weird. UVA's got a decent team, I guess - here's the coaches' poll - and based on that I'd say we're not the favorites, but we're certainly in the hunt. And if there was ever an anything-can-happen game, it's golf, which is a lesson I learn every time I'm on the links. Maybe we win, maybe we don't.
- Men's lacrosse. As ever, a series of coin-flips between four teams of more or less even strength. Of course we drew Duke in the first round, but odds are basically two in three we'd have to play them at some point anyway. I really think there's a champion-ness about this team that wasn't there last year, but who knows, maybe that comes out in the NCAAs instead of the ACCs. I think most people would prefer that anyway. In any case, figure we have a 25% chance of winning this mini-tournament, which still ain't bad.
Of course, the baseball team plays this weekend too: in College Park against Maryland, who is as bad as advertised. They have a respectable #1 starter and one or two guys who can hit the ball, but the basic deal is, not sweeping this series might as well be considered a series loss. In ten of their forty games (in which they are 15-25) they've given up double-digit runs; three of those games have been 20-run monstrosities and another was a 17-run ugliness at the hands of Delaware. If there was ever a time to give the bats a little wake-up call, this is it.
Lastly, I have the same opinion as everyone else about an impending 68-team NCAA tournament: YAY IT'S NOT 96. In fact, I like 68 better than 65. Now there's some symmetry to it. Until 96 was mentioned, I always sort of figured 68 was inevitable anyway, since at some point in the future the Great West Conference will get an autobid and the whole reason for 65 was to make room for a new AQ conference. With a 14-year deal, we likely won't have to worry about earthshaking expansion again til the 2020's. And the split between CBS and Turner means that you don't have to watch just any game that CBS foists on you, which means that if your team is not playing the "interesting" matchup at the moment, you don't have to miss it. Consider this whole thing a positive development, and not even the kind that's positive only because it's less crappy than what they floated at first. It's actually a good thing.
Right - 45 minutes to the NFL draft. Root for Chris Cook tonight, who's occasionally projected as a first-rounder but more commonly in the high second round. Me, I'm off to go pray to whatever god will listen that the Lions don't get a major case of the stupids tonight. The symptom is "doing anything other than selecting Ndamukong Suh." Yes, it's the obvious pick; yes, Suh blows up everything he sees; yes, he's the best player in the draft; yes, he's a high-character guy and that too is written in neon lights; no, I don't have much faith in the Lions being anything other than the Lions. Watch them reach for Trent Williams. (Edit: they picked Suh! Wooo, shit yeah!!)
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
the replacements: Brian Kelly
A couple quick links before I get started on coach #3....
- A tie against Liberty? The soccer team is suckin'. They have forgotten how to score goals. They're outshooting most everyone they play but clearly that's not getting them anywhere.
- A little fluff on Chris Cook and Jameel Sewell.
- Doug Doughty writes on the emotional about-face the team has done. The emotional difference between the Hoos and Indiana was so obvious that the 360 commentators were harping on it all game. This is a fired-up team right now - let's hope they're just as jacked up to face Maryland. Hell, it's Maryland - if you're not fired up to kick their ass something fierce, you're probably Duke.
- Heather's power rankings are interesting this week. Especially at the bottom. That's got to be a first.
- And in the shameless self-linkage department, the depth chart is updated, based on the latest out of the official website. Changes:
Brian Kelly
Main qualification: Has led three programs to the pinnacle of their successes.
1987-1988: Grand Valley State (DB)
1989-1990: Grand Valley State (DC, recruiting)
1991-2003: Grand Valley State (HC)
2004-2006: Central Michigan (HC)
2007-present: Cincinnati (HC)
Let me diverge a bit here and tell you a little something about Grand Valley State. It is a Division II school in the exurban farmlands of Michigan just west of Grand Rapids, and it is bigger than UVA. It might be the biggest school you never heard of. Their football team (the Lakers) is quite young by college football standards, even for a D-II school, but it has always been a winning one. Winning, but not always successful, if you follow me, at least not til the 1990's. Brian Kelly cut his coaching teeth there, being named head coach before his 30th birthday. His first season as defensive coordinator, 1989, was GVSU's first undefeated season. Throughout the '90s, they won all sorts of conference championships under Kelly, but could never break through in the D-II playoffs - not until 2001, when something clicked, the Lakers rolled up 13 straight wins and didn't lose until they reached the national title game. Since then they've been an ESPN postseason fixture and more successful than any USC, Oklahoma, or Florida you care to throw at me: four of the next five seasons would result in Grand Valley walking off with the title.
Kelly was coach for just two of them. Those titles caught the attention of the folks not too far up the road at Central Michigan, who hired Kelly to fix the mess left by previous disastrous regimes. With the degree of difficulty up, Kelly didn't produce immediate results, but he did do that one thing that will forgive all sorts of mistakes: He broke a losing streak to hated rival Western Michigan, which had embarrassed Central the past two times out. Two years later, CMU was MAC champs and bowling for the first time since 1994.
Kelly didn't coach that bowl game either. Instead, he was at Cincinnati, which was so enamored of Kelly they had him coach the Bearcats in their '06 bowl game, which allowed him to earn the distinction of being the only NCAA coach ever to beat the same team twice in one season. In two full seasons with Kelly, the Bearcats have not yet failed to reach double-digit wins, a mark they reached only one other time in their 120+ year history (in 1951.) They made the Orange Bowl last year, another first, and they don't look likely to be denied another 10-win season.
The point here is that every stop in Kelly's career has been the same chapter of the same book, over and over. Every team he's coached has never been more successful than under Kelly. Every team he's left, he left it better than he found it, and they've managed to maintain that success. Though Kelly never actually coached in a Motor City Bowl, his Chippewas got there on the strength of his regular season, and they've been a regular participant since. Hey, they're a MAC team - that's as good as it gets. And Grand Valley State? They lost this past week to Hillsdale - their first conference loss in something like 44 games. CMU is enroute to yet another MAC CG. Brian Kelly builds teams, somehow. For whatever reason, in three coaching stops he's had the Midas touch of gold, and he's left his past teams with the foundation they need to stay on top.
Downside? Rumor has it he's a bit of an asshole. Actually, some of the rumor has it he's a major-league asshole. Nothing in an actual news article, mind you. Message-board thread type stuff. An example is linked. Some telling quotes:
So given the sterling track record, why is Kelly #2 on my list after Tuberville? Well, for one, Tuberville strutted his stuff in the SEC. Second, Kelly is likely to be upward-looking, even if he's wearing our blue and orange. For some reason he is always mentioned in connection with the Notre Dame job; it's thought he has his eye on that. I have no more official proof of that than I do of his rumored arrogance and assholery; nevertheless, "wanting to coach at Notre Dame" is probably almost as prevalent among football coaches as profanity anyways.
If hired at Virginia, Kelly would probably bring immediate improvement without any precipitous drop any time soon. Profanity and arrogance are easily overlooked in a winning coach: Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler were two of the most profane, arrogant, violent, sonuvabitch slave drivers ever to stalk the sidelines of a college stadium, and who, I ask you, are the most beloved coaches in their respective programs' histories? Bo's players spent four years hating his guts and the rest of their lives hero-worshipping him. If successful, Kelly will engender those same feelings in the UVA fanbase; unfortunately, he also wouldn't be likely to stick around much longer than, say, four years. It's of small concern: CMU and GVSU are still doing just fine, and we're a big enough name that four years of Cincy-like success would attract a pretty damn good coach next time around. If unsuccessful, those same qualities would make Kelly one of the most unpopular coaches in all of UVA history, and I don't just mean in football. Given his previous successes, it's a risk I'd love to take.
- A tie against Liberty? The soccer team is suckin'. They have forgotten how to score goals. They're outshooting most everyone they play but clearly that's not getting them anywhere.
- A little fluff on Chris Cook and Jameel Sewell.
- Doug Doughty writes on the emotional about-face the team has done. The emotional difference between the Hoos and Indiana was so obvious that the 360 commentators were harping on it all game. This is a fired-up team right now - let's hope they're just as jacked up to face Maryland. Hell, it's Maryland - if you're not fired up to kick their ass something fierce, you're probably Duke.
- Heather's power rankings are interesting this week. Especially at the bottom. That's got to be a first.
- And in the shameless self-linkage department, the depth chart is updated, based on the latest out of the official website. Changes:
- Tyler Brosius is gone.
- Major wide receiver shuffle: Matt Snyder has gone from starter to off the two deep, and Javaris Brown is no longer on the two-deep either; Jared Green replaces him, and Vic Hall is now listed as a starting receiver. Hall is officially the third-string QB, but I'm not gonna bother listing him there any more unless something happens to one of the top two.
- Last week, Brandon Woods took over for Corey Mosley as a starting safety; Mosley still gets plenty of time on the field, however.
- Terrence Fells-Danzer in for Aaron Taliaferro as backup linebacker.
Brian Kelly
Main qualification: Has led three programs to the pinnacle of their successes.
1987-1988: Grand Valley State (DB)
1989-1990: Grand Valley State (DC, recruiting)
1991-2003: Grand Valley State (HC)
2004-2006: Central Michigan (HC)
2007-present: Cincinnati (HC)
Let me diverge a bit here and tell you a little something about Grand Valley State. It is a Division II school in the exurban farmlands of Michigan just west of Grand Rapids, and it is bigger than UVA. It might be the biggest school you never heard of. Their football team (the Lakers) is quite young by college football standards, even for a D-II school, but it has always been a winning one. Winning, but not always successful, if you follow me, at least not til the 1990's. Brian Kelly cut his coaching teeth there, being named head coach before his 30th birthday. His first season as defensive coordinator, 1989, was GVSU's first undefeated season. Throughout the '90s, they won all sorts of conference championships under Kelly, but could never break through in the D-II playoffs - not until 2001, when something clicked, the Lakers rolled up 13 straight wins and didn't lose until they reached the national title game. Since then they've been an ESPN postseason fixture and more successful than any USC, Oklahoma, or Florida you care to throw at me: four of the next five seasons would result in Grand Valley walking off with the title.
Kelly was coach for just two of them. Those titles caught the attention of the folks not too far up the road at Central Michigan, who hired Kelly to fix the mess left by previous disastrous regimes. With the degree of difficulty up, Kelly didn't produce immediate results, but he did do that one thing that will forgive all sorts of mistakes: He broke a losing streak to hated rival Western Michigan, which had embarrassed Central the past two times out. Two years later, CMU was MAC champs and bowling for the first time since 1994.
Kelly didn't coach that bowl game either. Instead, he was at Cincinnati, which was so enamored of Kelly they had him coach the Bearcats in their '06 bowl game, which allowed him to earn the distinction of being the only NCAA coach ever to beat the same team twice in one season. In two full seasons with Kelly, the Bearcats have not yet failed to reach double-digit wins, a mark they reached only one other time in their 120+ year history (in 1951.) They made the Orange Bowl last year, another first, and they don't look likely to be denied another 10-win season.
The point here is that every stop in Kelly's career has been the same chapter of the same book, over and over. Every team he's coached has never been more successful than under Kelly. Every team he's left, he left it better than he found it, and they've managed to maintain that success. Though Kelly never actually coached in a Motor City Bowl, his Chippewas got there on the strength of his regular season, and they've been a regular participant since. Hey, they're a MAC team - that's as good as it gets. And Grand Valley State? They lost this past week to Hillsdale - their first conference loss in something like 44 games. CMU is enroute to yet another MAC CG. Brian Kelly builds teams, somehow. For whatever reason, in three coaching stops he's had the Midas touch of gold, and he's left his past teams with the foundation they need to stay on top.
Downside? Rumor has it he's a bit of an asshole. Actually, some of the rumor has it he's a major-league asshole. Nothing in an actual news article, mind you. Message-board thread type stuff. An example is linked. Some telling quotes:
Also A GVSU alum, I worked in the athletic building when Coach Kelly took over for Coach Beck. (incidentally, Coach Beck left to be the DC at Notre Dame) At first impressions, Coach Kelly was an arrogant, young, egomaniac. He offended a lot of people with his attitude. That being said, he didn't have overwhelming talent when he began, but he won. His teams responded. Moreover, I worked the football games on the sideline. He was hot-headed and foul-mouthed. Of all the coaches I was around, including the opposition, he was the worst!Also...
I'm a student at Central right now. I was here when he left. It wasn't pretty. I've worked for the football team, and have heard a lot of the players just flat hated him. I don't know if its every really been a documented fact, but I know from talking and hearing from people who were in close contact with him he wasn't the nicest guy.If the general public was privy to everything that goes on at practice, "cuss like a football coach" would replace "....sailor" in the vernacular, but Kelly is gaining a reputation even among those circles. Kelly was also criticized for the way he handled a murder case involving one of his players while at CMU. No need to dive into that sordid affair. To cut to the chase, I think most of those criticisms were uneducated garbage; nevertheless, were he to be hired at Virginia, it's one of those things that'd be guaranteed to come up at some point.
So given the sterling track record, why is Kelly #2 on my list after Tuberville? Well, for one, Tuberville strutted his stuff in the SEC. Second, Kelly is likely to be upward-looking, even if he's wearing our blue and orange. For some reason he is always mentioned in connection with the Notre Dame job; it's thought he has his eye on that. I have no more official proof of that than I do of his rumored arrogance and assholery; nevertheless, "wanting to coach at Notre Dame" is probably almost as prevalent among football coaches as profanity anyways.
If hired at Virginia, Kelly would probably bring immediate improvement without any precipitous drop any time soon. Profanity and arrogance are easily overlooked in a winning coach: Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler were two of the most profane, arrogant, violent, sonuvabitch slave drivers ever to stalk the sidelines of a college stadium, and who, I ask you, are the most beloved coaches in their respective programs' histories? Bo's players spent four years hating his guts and the rest of their lives hero-worshipping him. If successful, Kelly will engender those same feelings in the UVA fanbase; unfortunately, he also wouldn't be likely to stick around much longer than, say, four years. It's of small concern: CMU and GVSU are still doing just fine, and we're a big enough name that four years of Cincy-like success would attract a pretty damn good coach next time around. If unsuccessful, those same qualities would make Kelly one of the most unpopular coaches in all of UVA history, and I don't just mean in football. Given his previous successes, it's a risk I'd love to take.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
season preview: the defense
Part one, the offense, is here: link clicky. You can click on that or you can just, you know, scroll down, it was only one post ago.
Defense has nearly always been our stronger suit, and that's to be expected because Al Groh is a defensive coach at heart. So it's weird to be more confident in the offense than the defense going into a season, but that's exactly what I got going on here. As with the offense, I'm not going to do a position-by-position breakdown because you can find those at my Examiner writings. As with the offense, it's question-and-answer time.
1. The depth is kinda iffy, isn't it?
Yes, yes it is. Iffy does not begin to describe it. Only in the secondary can we rotate players in and out that have plenty of game experience. And then it's still only a three-man rotation at each position. Brandon Woods and Chase Minnifield can rotate in behind the starters at safety and corner, respectively, without much if any drop in production. The fourth at each position is a major dropoff, especially at safety where Trey Womack has been a special-teams guy his whole career.
In the front seven though.....eyyyoucchh. Defensive end is a freshman party. Our backup nose tackle is 245 pounds. The backup inside linebackers combined for a grand total of two plays last year, because one of them wasn't even eligible.
The starters are all solid. Especially on the line. But injuries anywhere up front would be just deadly. Don't even want to think about it. Here in the preseason we all like to think this or that player is some kind of stud because the coaches might say some nice things, but the reality of this is that the backup front seven is, as a whole, woefully inexperienced, and it'll show all too clearly if injuries strike the starters.
2. No Clint Sintim, no Chris Long. Will there be a pass rush this season?
Sure, with of course the already standard caveat that health is a must. One thing that was nice to see last year was Matt Conrath and Cam Johnson getting plenty of time on the field, because they're it now. They're the guys. It'll be interesting to see if this experiment of putting John-Kevin Dolce out there at nose tackle in pass rush situations works, because if it does, look out. Conrath and Johnson have Holy Terror potential on the outside and if Dolce flushes a hapless pocket quarterback out of his pocket, these guys can clean that up no sweat. All three of those guys are physical and athletic.
3. OK, so three of four starting linebackers are new to the gig. That's bad. But four of four starters in the secondary are awesome. That's good. Which outweighs the other? Should we be worrying about the linebackers more than we brag about the secondary, or vice versa?
That depends entirely on the opponent. Take Georgia Tech. Last year they just shredded us on their first two drives. It was awful. Tech had nine possessions in the game and they got 45% of their yards on those first two drives, both of which resulted in touchdowns. Then our defense adjusted and suddenly our linebackers were there to make all the plays. That's what happens when three of them are seniors. Can a much less experienced unit make the same adjustments? I really worry about the GT game for that reason. North Carolina is another team with a powerful rushing attack that might cause problems.
On the other hand, certain opponents play right into our hands. Maryland has a good but not great running game and a quarterback that's neither great nor good. Bad quarterbacks play right into our hands. We can make Maryland completely one-dimensional. If we can open up a lead on them it'll be that much harder for them to come back.
The linebackers are not bad, but as a whole they're not much more than capable, either. But a really good set of safeties can help cover up some mistakes. And I think I like it better this way than the reverse - if we had stud linebackers but inexperienced and slightly undertalented defensive backs. A good secondary can take away the passing game in a way that linebackers cannot, and help support the linebackers in the run game too. And it's not like the linebackers are bad. Denzel Burrell has a year of starting experience and the coaches (and me, on occasion) rave about Steve Greer. We're going to cringe at times about our linebackers, but on balance, we're in good shape.
4. Predictions?
Yeah, OK.
- The run defense was pretty good last year, giving up 3.7 yards a carry. That was 40th in the country. It will not be as good this year. Our linebackers are neither supremely talented nor experienced. They are, as I said, at best capable. If I had to pick one coach in the country to coach up a set of inexperienced linebackers, I'd want Al Groh. But the coaches can't make the plays or the reads for the players. Inexperience is going to cause those reads to come a hair slower no matter what, and good running teams will generally be able to take advantage.
Plus, things are going to happen like, teams running draw plays once they figure out we have a 245-pound nose tackle in passing situations. I really hope that does not bite us in the ass.
- The pass defense was also pretty good last year. It will not get worse and most likely, it'll get better. The ACC does not have a lot of good wide receivers, and choosing between Cook's or Dowling's side of the field to throw at is a scary proposition. Or you could throw over the middle which is the territory of the player Al Groh has talked up the most this offseason; that'd be Rodney McLeod. (Actually, the ACC has a lot of good secondaries and not a lot of good quarterbacks, so we're not the only team with this happy situation. Passing yards may be hard to come by in this conference.) But after doing all those season previews, I like our secondary matched up against any in the ACC. Assuming we have a pass rush, and we will if the primary pass rushers are healthy, we'll be very stingy when the opponent's quarterback drops back in the pocket.
- Steve Greer will live up to most of the hype. He's not big and will get exploded by the occasional fullback. But by all accounts he's smart as hell, and that's a lot more important than athleticism at inside linebacker.
- Matt Conrath will pick up at least five sacks.
- Will Hill won't be the only true freshman defensive end to find his way on the field. At some point this season, we'll also hear from Brent Urban, who is a big, big man. However, the line is the only place we'll see any members of the recruiting class of '09 on the defense this year.
- Like I said yesterday: 7-5.
Defense has nearly always been our stronger suit, and that's to be expected because Al Groh is a defensive coach at heart. So it's weird to be more confident in the offense than the defense going into a season, but that's exactly what I got going on here. As with the offense, I'm not going to do a position-by-position breakdown because you can find those at my Examiner writings. As with the offense, it's question-and-answer time.
1. The depth is kinda iffy, isn't it?
Yes, yes it is. Iffy does not begin to describe it. Only in the secondary can we rotate players in and out that have plenty of game experience. And then it's still only a three-man rotation at each position. Brandon Woods and Chase Minnifield can rotate in behind the starters at safety and corner, respectively, without much if any drop in production. The fourth at each position is a major dropoff, especially at safety where Trey Womack has been a special-teams guy his whole career.
In the front seven though.....eyyyoucchh. Defensive end is a freshman party. Our backup nose tackle is 245 pounds. The backup inside linebackers combined for a grand total of two plays last year, because one of them wasn't even eligible.
The starters are all solid. Especially on the line. But injuries anywhere up front would be just deadly. Don't even want to think about it. Here in the preseason we all like to think this or that player is some kind of stud because the coaches might say some nice things, but the reality of this is that the backup front seven is, as a whole, woefully inexperienced, and it'll show all too clearly if injuries strike the starters.
2. No Clint Sintim, no Chris Long. Will there be a pass rush this season?
Sure, with of course the already standard caveat that health is a must. One thing that was nice to see last year was Matt Conrath and Cam Johnson getting plenty of time on the field, because they're it now. They're the guys. It'll be interesting to see if this experiment of putting John-Kevin Dolce out there at nose tackle in pass rush situations works, because if it does, look out. Conrath and Johnson have Holy Terror potential on the outside and if Dolce flushes a hapless pocket quarterback out of his pocket, these guys can clean that up no sweat. All three of those guys are physical and athletic.
3. OK, so three of four starting linebackers are new to the gig. That's bad. But four of four starters in the secondary are awesome. That's good. Which outweighs the other? Should we be worrying about the linebackers more than we brag about the secondary, or vice versa?
That depends entirely on the opponent. Take Georgia Tech. Last year they just shredded us on their first two drives. It was awful. Tech had nine possessions in the game and they got 45% of their yards on those first two drives, both of which resulted in touchdowns. Then our defense adjusted and suddenly our linebackers were there to make all the plays. That's what happens when three of them are seniors. Can a much less experienced unit make the same adjustments? I really worry about the GT game for that reason. North Carolina is another team with a powerful rushing attack that might cause problems.
On the other hand, certain opponents play right into our hands. Maryland has a good but not great running game and a quarterback that's neither great nor good. Bad quarterbacks play right into our hands. We can make Maryland completely one-dimensional. If we can open up a lead on them it'll be that much harder for them to come back.
The linebackers are not bad, but as a whole they're not much more than capable, either. But a really good set of safeties can help cover up some mistakes. And I think I like it better this way than the reverse - if we had stud linebackers but inexperienced and slightly undertalented defensive backs. A good secondary can take away the passing game in a way that linebackers cannot, and help support the linebackers in the run game too. And it's not like the linebackers are bad. Denzel Burrell has a year of starting experience and the coaches (and me, on occasion) rave about Steve Greer. We're going to cringe at times about our linebackers, but on balance, we're in good shape.
4. Predictions?
Yeah, OK.
- The run defense was pretty good last year, giving up 3.7 yards a carry. That was 40th in the country. It will not be as good this year. Our linebackers are neither supremely talented nor experienced. They are, as I said, at best capable. If I had to pick one coach in the country to coach up a set of inexperienced linebackers, I'd want Al Groh. But the coaches can't make the plays or the reads for the players. Inexperience is going to cause those reads to come a hair slower no matter what, and good running teams will generally be able to take advantage.
Plus, things are going to happen like, teams running draw plays once they figure out we have a 245-pound nose tackle in passing situations. I really hope that does not bite us in the ass.
- The pass defense was also pretty good last year. It will not get worse and most likely, it'll get better. The ACC does not have a lot of good wide receivers, and choosing between Cook's or Dowling's side of the field to throw at is a scary proposition. Or you could throw over the middle which is the territory of the player Al Groh has talked up the most this offseason; that'd be Rodney McLeod. (Actually, the ACC has a lot of good secondaries and not a lot of good quarterbacks, so we're not the only team with this happy situation. Passing yards may be hard to come by in this conference.) But after doing all those season previews, I like our secondary matched up against any in the ACC. Assuming we have a pass rush, and we will if the primary pass rushers are healthy, we'll be very stingy when the opponent's quarterback drops back in the pocket.
- Steve Greer will live up to most of the hype. He's not big and will get exploded by the occasional fullback. But by all accounts he's smart as hell, and that's a lot more important than athleticism at inside linebacker.
- Matt Conrath will pick up at least five sacks.
- Will Hill won't be the only true freshman defensive end to find his way on the field. At some point this season, we'll also hear from Brent Urban, who is a big, big man. However, the line is the only place we'll see any members of the recruiting class of '09 on the defense this year.
- Like I said yesterday: 7-5.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
the Hopkins game; also, spring practice
So a couple notes from the ongoing spring practices that necessitated some changes to the depth chart:
- Chris Cook will in fact return to corner. The depth at each position remains the same, however, as Rodney McLeod moves to safety. Which is where I kept thinking he was in the first place, so that's helpful.
- Mark Ambrose is effectively retired from football with recurring shoulder troubles, thus freeing up a football scholarship. More in a bit.
- John-Kevin Dolce is more a nose tackle than a linebacker these days. This gives us some needed depth up front. Nose tackle is really what makes the 3-4 go, and tired nose tackles don't draw double teams. This means plenty of rotation, and just three guys at that position probably wasn't going to cut it. Four is a number I like better.
Now: Ambrose. Moving him off the depth chart means you can now count up the names and come up with a total of 89 scholarships promised. 88 if Kyle Long doesn't make it in the fall. The limit, as you know, is 85. How we'll reconcile this I don't know but a hint to the answer can probably be found in the news that Ambrose's career is over. I have, of course, absolutely no knowledge of the actual severity of the injury. The coaches say he can't play any more, and absent other evidence you have to believe them.
But this is pretty similar to what happened with Alabama last year. They had too many scholarships promised out, and lo and behold three or four guys had recurring medical issues and were forced to give up football. All reserves, of course, who barely saw the field. A few recruits didn't qualify. I think it's fair to at least ask a couple questions - rhetorical, because I have no press pass, but questions anyway:
- If Ambrose were a starter, an all-ACC performer even, would his shoulder problems be severe enough to warrant giving up football?
- If we had 83 scholarships promised out instead of 90, would his shoulder problems be severe enough to warrant giving up football?
I suppose you have to assume the coaches know what they're doing. But going all-out with the '09 class and taking so many LOIs seems like playing with fire. Much was made of UNC's recruiting class which was well over the limit of 25, but what's the difference between signing over the single-class limit and signing over the overall limit? There may of course be a perfectly innocuous explanation, like, the coaches saw this shoulder issue coming a mile away and anticipated that once they put on pads, Ambrose wouldn't be able to play. Still, there are 88 or 89 healthy and presumably academically qualified players on that chart. Some of them won't be there on September 1 against W&M. I'd hate to see us have to resort to skeezy tactics to make it fit.
OK! Now that I've got you pissed off at either me or the football program, let's talk lacrosse, and specifically, the win over Hopkins that was first an awesome blowout then a complete abomination then awesome again. My observations:
- I'm pretty amateur at breaking down lacrosse. Very amateur, actually. The number of lacrosse games I've seen on TV can be counted on my hands. So when I can see the gaping holes in the JHU defense and see what's coming before it happens - which usually involved one of our attackmen sliding into the open spot untouched and slamming home a perfect pass - that's when you know shitty defense is being played. Debbie Downer that I am, I liked our offensive effort but I'm pretty sure a middle school Quiz Bowl team could have donned the pads and potted a couple goals against the criminal negligence masquerading as defense that Hopkins was playing in the first quarter. I hope none of our rivals were watching that (they were though) because the clear message regarding how to stop our offense is PLAY ZONE.
- With a name like Steele Stanwick, your life is pretty well cut out for you before you even start. Hotshot lacrosse player at a prestigious East Coast school - check (and if he doesn't live up to the potential he's displayed so far, it'll be the greatest waste of a terrific name since Majestic Mapp landed on his knee funny.) Next up is law school at Georgetown and a feverish, cutthroat race to make partner at a DC or New York firm. Either that or writing paperback courtroom/murder dramas (Firm Fatale by Steele Stanwick), but either way, bigshot lawyers in fancy suits and BMWs are going to be involved. And by the way, I'm still trying to figure out what rathole his second goal (team's sixth) wormed through before it found the back of the net. Guy's a deadeye shot, too.
- OMG win faceoffs plz k thx!!! Gaudet did a very good job at this, and frankly if he had only won half, we'd have lost. I think it was Benincasa getting utterly destroyed on that faceoff at the end of the third quarter in which a Hopkins goal ensued approximately three seconds thereafter. Gaudet's going to have to continue his faceoff excellence all season because I don't know if our defense is consistently good enough to withstand a lot of extra possessions for the opposition.
- For a team whose style is pursuing and attacking the ball on defense (I know this because the announcers mentioned it at least eight thousand times, usually in the context of pointing out us getting burned by it) we sure don't do a lot of it when the ball is loose. I need to go back and look at the recording again to find out who that was ambling down the field with the ball like right next to him screaming "PICK ME UP!" and not paying attention to it. As Hopkins fell behind, they became the more desperate team on ground balls and played like it. I want to see a better sense of urgency next time out.
- Maryland is next, on Saturday and on ESPN2. Not the UVA Football Channel. The Deuce. How cool is it that ACC lacrosse is on ESPN2? I wish I was a UVA lacrosse player so it would be legal for me to hit a Twerp with a stick on national TV.
- Chris Cook will in fact return to corner. The depth at each position remains the same, however, as Rodney McLeod moves to safety. Which is where I kept thinking he was in the first place, so that's helpful.
- Mark Ambrose is effectively retired from football with recurring shoulder troubles, thus freeing up a football scholarship. More in a bit.
- John-Kevin Dolce is more a nose tackle than a linebacker these days. This gives us some needed depth up front. Nose tackle is really what makes the 3-4 go, and tired nose tackles don't draw double teams. This means plenty of rotation, and just three guys at that position probably wasn't going to cut it. Four is a number I like better.
Now: Ambrose. Moving him off the depth chart means you can now count up the names and come up with a total of 89 scholarships promised. 88 if Kyle Long doesn't make it in the fall. The limit, as you know, is 85. How we'll reconcile this I don't know but a hint to the answer can probably be found in the news that Ambrose's career is over. I have, of course, absolutely no knowledge of the actual severity of the injury. The coaches say he can't play any more, and absent other evidence you have to believe them.
But this is pretty similar to what happened with Alabama last year. They had too many scholarships promised out, and lo and behold three or four guys had recurring medical issues and were forced to give up football. All reserves, of course, who barely saw the field. A few recruits didn't qualify. I think it's fair to at least ask a couple questions - rhetorical, because I have no press pass, but questions anyway:
- If Ambrose were a starter, an all-ACC performer even, would his shoulder problems be severe enough to warrant giving up football?
- If we had 83 scholarships promised out instead of 90, would his shoulder problems be severe enough to warrant giving up football?
I suppose you have to assume the coaches know what they're doing. But going all-out with the '09 class and taking so many LOIs seems like playing with fire. Much was made of UNC's recruiting class which was well over the limit of 25, but what's the difference between signing over the single-class limit and signing over the overall limit? There may of course be a perfectly innocuous explanation, like, the coaches saw this shoulder issue coming a mile away and anticipated that once they put on pads, Ambrose wouldn't be able to play. Still, there are 88 or 89 healthy and presumably academically qualified players on that chart. Some of them won't be there on September 1 against W&M. I'd hate to see us have to resort to skeezy tactics to make it fit.
OK! Now that I've got you pissed off at either me or the football program, let's talk lacrosse, and specifically, the win over Hopkins that was first an awesome blowout then a complete abomination then awesome again. My observations:
- I'm pretty amateur at breaking down lacrosse. Very amateur, actually. The number of lacrosse games I've seen on TV can be counted on my hands. So when I can see the gaping holes in the JHU defense and see what's coming before it happens - which usually involved one of our attackmen sliding into the open spot untouched and slamming home a perfect pass - that's when you know shitty defense is being played. Debbie Downer that I am, I liked our offensive effort but I'm pretty sure a middle school Quiz Bowl team could have donned the pads and potted a couple goals against the criminal negligence masquerading as defense that Hopkins was playing in the first quarter. I hope none of our rivals were watching that (they were though) because the clear message regarding how to stop our offense is PLAY ZONE.
- With a name like Steele Stanwick, your life is pretty well cut out for you before you even start. Hotshot lacrosse player at a prestigious East Coast school - check (and if he doesn't live up to the potential he's displayed so far, it'll be the greatest waste of a terrific name since Majestic Mapp landed on his knee funny.) Next up is law school at Georgetown and a feverish, cutthroat race to make partner at a DC or New York firm. Either that or writing paperback courtroom/murder dramas (Firm Fatale by Steele Stanwick), but either way, bigshot lawyers in fancy suits and BMWs are going to be involved. And by the way, I'm still trying to figure out what rathole his second goal (team's sixth) wormed through before it found the back of the net. Guy's a deadeye shot, too.
- OMG win faceoffs plz k thx!!! Gaudet did a very good job at this, and frankly if he had only won half, we'd have lost. I think it was Benincasa getting utterly destroyed on that faceoff at the end of the third quarter in which a Hopkins goal ensued approximately three seconds thereafter. Gaudet's going to have to continue his faceoff excellence all season because I don't know if our defense is consistently good enough to withstand a lot of extra possessions for the opposition.
- For a team whose style is pursuing and attacking the ball on defense (I know this because the announcers mentioned it at least eight thousand times, usually in the context of pointing out us getting burned by it) we sure don't do a lot of it when the ball is loose. I need to go back and look at the recording again to find out who that was ambling down the field with the ball like right next to him screaming "PICK ME UP!" and not paying attention to it. As Hopkins fell behind, they became the more desperate team on ground balls and played like it. I want to see a better sense of urgency next time out.
- Maryland is next, on Saturday and on ESPN2. Not the UVA Football Channel. The Deuce. How cool is it that ACC lacrosse is on ESPN2? I wish I was a UVA lacrosse player so it would be legal for me to hit a Twerp with a stick on national TV.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)