the recruit: Will Richardson

Name: Will Richardson
Position: OT
Hometown: Burlington, NC
School: Cummings
Height: 6'6"
Weight: 320

24/7: 90, four stars; #22 OT, NC #10, US #247
ESPN: 83, four stars; #8 OG, NC #9, SE #71, US #129
Rivals: 5.7, three stars; #41 OT, NC #17
Scout: three stars; #86 OT

Other offers: Florida State, Virginia Tech, NC State, Louisville, Duke, Indiana, East Carolina, Ball State, Ohio

Time to take advantage of the bye week to catch up on the 2014 recruiting class.  Today we have Will Richardson, who committed in May and combines his presences with Steven Moss to give UVA a pretty formidable offensive line class even with just two members in it. 

Richardson, first off, is a large, large guy.  I put 320 up there for his weight because the sites can't agree; he's either around 305 or 335 depending on which site you ask, so I split the difference.  Either way, he's huge.  And could get even bigger if he's not careful: ESPN notes, and from the pictures that are out there, truthfully, that his frame could carry even more weight, and that Richardson will need to work to make sure he doesn't get too big and that the weight he adds is lean weight.  (It seems, in looking around, that the 305-ish figures are the more recent ones, which is good news.)

Anyway, that's a good problem in an offensive lineman, especially one as nimble as Richardson.  He played basketball for a while at Cummings, and ESPN also likes his ability to move around in space.  Richardson has been told by the coaching staff that they want him at left tackle, and it's not hard to imagine that the staff does see him as the left tackle of the future.

The guru ratings have a little bit of a wide-ish split, but I think that's explainable.  Richardson doesn't seem to have hit the camp circuit much, for one, and the fact that he's earned four-star ratings without doing so is impressive.  Also, the pessimistic one is Scout, which is the guiltiest of the four in not scouting players who aren't already big-time recruits or going to a big-time school.  Rivals is decidedly less optimistic than the other two, as well, but they still rate him pretty highly.

Offers-wise, well, I'll take anyone with an FSU and a VT offer.  Richardson didn't really allow a lot of time for many other schools to offer him, having focused a lot on FSU and UVA in his recruiting, and there's a blurb in one of the articles I read about him basically telling the UNC coaches not to bother.  Otherwise he'd almost certainly have had an offer from there, too.  Just having FSU on his list is enough to justify the four-star ratings, though.

So: future left tackle prospect if everything works out.  Massive yet nimble player who is in good enough shape to play some basketball as well as both sides of the line in football.  Oh, and he's a 3.9 student who wants to study architecture.  (We'll see about that with the time commitment and all - I can't remember a single football-playing A-schooler who was in something other than urban planning - but just remember Will Hill double-majored, one of which was bloody biology.)  What's not to like?  Just one thing: health.  Richardson tore his meniscus in Cummings's first game of the season and will probably have knee surgery.  It's not his first rodeo with the knee doctor; he also hurt it (although I don't know if it's the same one) playing basketball last winter.

Richardson's coach says he's had players have that meniscus surgery and come back in "two to three weeks" but I bet none of them weighed 300 pounds.  And the coach doesn't know when the injury happened, which is a bad sign, because it means it just happened without a big production with trainers and being helped off the field and all.  Could it be that Richardson is just too big for the stress he's putting on his knees?  Playing basketball, offensive line, defensive line, and oh yeah the shot put too?  I think that's possible.

So it's not just for mobility and strength reasons that Richardson will need to watch his weight.  The knee thing could very well linger enough to force a redshirt, even if that weren't already par for the course for O-linemen.  If he stays healthy, there's little doubt Richardson has the goods to develop into the left tackle of the future.  Both tackle second-stringers are true freshmen, so it's far too early to project their development, which means it's also awfully tough to say when Richardson might expect to see the two-deep.  Health, though, appears as if it'll be a little bit more of an effort for him than for most others.

game preview: North Carolina

Date/Time: Saturday, April 6; 3:30

TV: ESPN3

Record against the Heels: 48-24

Last meeting: UNC 11, UVA 9; 4/20/12, Charlottesville - ACC tournament

Last game: Md. 9, UVA 7 (3/30); UNC 11, JHU 10 (3/30)

Rankings: UVA #19/#18, UNC #6/#4

Efficiency stats:

Faceoffs:
UVA: 53.6% (#17)
UNC: 52.5% (#22)

Clearing (offense):
UVA: 92.7 (#2)
UNC: 87.2 (#24)

Clearing (defense):
UVA: 83.6% (#19)
UNC: 85.4% (#33)

Scoring % (offense):
UVA: 32.8% (#28)
UNC: 37.0% (#13)

Scoring % (defense):
UVA: 32.2% (#29)
UNC: 31.0% (#22)

O-rating:
UVA: 16.25 (#17)
UNC: 18.87 (#9)

D-rating:
UVA: 13.12 (#17)
UNC: 12.77 (#14)

(Ratings are my KenPom-esque measures of efficiency for lacrosse. Numbers are schedule-adjusted. National average is about 15.1.)

Not gonna waste a lot of time blowing flowers up your ass here.  This is gut-check time for the laxers, because a loss here all but destroys UVA's tournament hopes.  I'm beginning to think this season is simply the lacrosse gods' way of devising a new way for Duke to torture UVA lacrosse, since losing to both UNC and Duke would 99.9% officially end those tourney wishes, with Duke doing the dirty work.  But first we have to lose to Carolina.

-- UVA on offense

I've already partly gone over UVA's offensive woes.  They don't have a dynamic playmaker, they have less athleticism than we're used to seeing, and they don't have the ability to break up the packed-in defenses opponents are deploying that have made settled-situation offense so damn difficult this year.  I'd like to see them turn Ryan Tucker's shot loose - Tucker has the hardest shot on the team by far and if he just indiscriminately slings it in the direction of the net, the worst that can happen is that it bounces off some defender, whose new welt makes him think twice about standing in the way next time.  (This is mostly a joke.  Tucker's shot is hard but hasn't been any more effective than anyone else's; goalies have a .613 save percentage against him, second only to Charlie Streep.)

Failing that, the coaches have got to find a working lineup combination.  I don't think having Owen Van Arsdale out there as much as they do is helping, as he doesn't make up for his small size with quickness.  It might be worse than usual against Carolina; Kieran McDonald is 6'4" and if UNC gets Jake Bailey back from injury, he's 6'5".  That makes a fairly formidable-sized back line of defense that 5-foot-not-much OVA - and the rest of the offense, really - will have trouble with.

Carolina is godawfully thin at goalie, with every netminder but freshman Kieran Burke injured in some way or another.  Burke has started every game and acquitted himself decently with a .538 save percentage.  He's playing well enough to give UVA trouble, anyway, as we have made a habit of firing some truly stoppable shots this year.

Overall UNC is a little less stout on defense than the opposition we've seen recently, but not much.  Hopkins and Maryland have better D-ratings (12.20 and 11.50, respectively) but the difference is small enough that I don't think it'll make a major dent.  It's possible that UNC's shifting lineups may help us some; injuries have thinned out their defense a little and forced changes to their starting three.  Still, UVA's hopes, as usual, lie in transition, and the chances of scoring drop dramatically once the play settles down.

-- UVA on defense

It's kind of a shame the goalies haven't been playing well, because the defenders deserve some kudos for their play.  The long-stick guys have been more or less the team's strong point all season.  They broke down against Hopkins but did a nice job keeping Maryland in check.  We need more of that Maryland stuff and less of the Hopkins stuff, because UNC, as usual, has an excellent offense.

UNC is constructed somewhat like Hopkins (uh-oh) in that the offense is mostly generated by the attackmen, with midfielders playing only a supporting role.  Marcus Holman is a top playmaker and scorer (24 G, 23 A); Joey Sankey (26 G, 10 A) is the finisher.  This is a small group; Sankey stands a mere 5'6" and third attackman Jimmy Bitter at 5'9".  Holman towers over them both at 5'11".  Small but very quick, all of them.  The top midfield threats are Davey Emala and Chad Tutton, both decent scorers.

The matchup should be a good one for UVA, since it's the short-sticks who've been much more porous this year than the long-sticks, even accounting for the obvious.  Part of that is because we've seen a lot more cases of guys caught playing defense who shouldn't be.  It's been much harder to sub in short-stick defenders, which keeps Blake Riley and Bobby Hill on the bench more than they should be.  Perhaps Dom Starsia was onto something when he said he'd be using Chris LaPierre on offense more.  Use him on offense so you can use him on defense.  Anyway, I said "should be" good.  In theory, since guys like Scott McWilliams and Greg Danseglio are having solid years.  In practice, Maryland is a much more midfield-heavy team, and UVA did alright, whereas Hopkins is an attack-heavy team and smoked us.

Anyway, here's where I get all existential and depressing: it won't matter unless we can score.  If the offense goes like it has, the defense will only determine whether it's a close one or a blowout.

-- Outlook

Not so good, as usual.  Magic 8-ball says we don't make the tournament this year.  It's possible, given the schedule we play, that a win here could move us into the field in this week's bracketology, but even then remember the odds will be against us.  But unless something has really changed in practice this week, I don't see the offense having the ability to pull out of its malaise.

Final score: UNC 12, UVA 8

pack it in

So a lot of things went right yesterday.  Finally.  Not everything went right.  But finally, enough went right to cover up the mistakes.  It's amazing how you create your own breaks by playing well enough to earn them.  And whatever things did go wrong, 33-6 lets you ignore them.  Or at least rationalize them.

Of all the impressive things from yesterday, maybe the best of all is this: a coaching staff that kept a team interested in football even through a season-wrecking six-game losing streak.  They stayed interested enough that just maybe the fans will stay interested too.  On second thought, scratch the maybe; they played well enough that some people are actually talking about winning out.

That wouldn't be happening if the Hoos had squeaked through, Penn State-style.  Not only did a 2-6 team upset a likely bowl-bound one, they won by enough that fans of the formerly 2-6 and now 3-6 team are thinking about a bowl game themselves.  Huh?  It's crazy.  But maybe not that crazy.

That's how good the game really was.  Not just good - maybe sustainably good.  When you own the trenches, you can dictate a lot of things to a lot of teams.  When a team is motivated and angry, it matters.  When they're motivated and confident, it matters even more.  In a twisted way, it's enough to piss you off even more about the last couple games, because, like, where could we be if that had gone like this?

As they say, though, it is what it is.  The real beauty of this is that for a week, we're allowed our crazy thoughts.  Maybe it's really stupid to think we could win out and scrape our way into a bowl.  Maybe we shouldn't even be so damn excited about the thin possibility being 6-6 in the first place.  At least for a week, though, even if it's crazy it's conceivable.

Further things in brief:

-- There's no other way to open up actual game analysis than with the defense.  Of all the stats to emerge from this game, the best one is that they just about doubled their season sack total.  All season we've been fretting that poor pass rushing would lead to coverage breakdowns and vice versa.  Sometimes it's been true.  On Saturday it was the opposite.  The defensive line owned the trenches for every second they were on the field.  Lemme repeat that, because it's the #1 reason that it's OK to dream about winning the next three games: The defensive line owned the trenches for every second they were on the field.  And their job was made easier because the secondary played a very nice game, even inducing a coverage sack or two.  Sacks were recorded by Jake Snyder, Mike Moore (who singlehandedly destroyed one NC State drive), Brent Urban, Will Hill, and two by Chris Brathwaite.  Look at that list again; what do you notice about them?  Give yourself a cookie if you noticed that two-thirds of the sacks belong to defensive tackles.  Give yourself another one if you noticed how spread-out the action was.  This adds up to total domination.

-- And then, after snagging only one interception all season, the secondary broke out with three.  It's amazing how easy it can be to win a game when you're the one getting the takeaways.  One each for Maurice Canady, Ant Harris, and Eli Harold, the latter being another example of that synergy between pressure and coverage.  If there were coverage sacks, that was a pressure interception, and fine job on that play as well by Daquan Romero who was right on the ball and batted it to Harold.

-- Are the coaches slowly pulling back on the RB platoon?  Kevin Parks got 25 carries to Perry Jones's 11, and was extremely effective carrying the water.  Then again, Jones had six receptions, so it's not like he's being phased out.

-- Speaking of platoons.  Stop it.  You already know which position I mean.  Mike Rocco was 12-for-23 and probably would've been better if he wasn't always coming into the game cold.  Phillip Sims' 8-for-10 day could've been a lot bigger with all the snaps.  I know Rocco came right in and directed a TD drive, but this doesn't work overall.  It screws with the receivers, trying to adjust to two different ball styles.  It screws with the quarterbacks, taking their heads in and out of the game.  I know that both Rocco and Sims can make throws the other can't, but a better solution would be to teach Sims the throws he can't make.

-- Mike Glennon spent a lot of the day picking himself up off his ass, and the NC State O-line spent the whole day getting owned.  But I nominate Wolfies' cornerback Dontae Johnson as the guy who'd most like to forget Saturday.  Johnson was the guy burned on Tim Smith's long touchdown, Johnson was the guy that Perry Jones(!) blew up next to the sideline, and Johnson was one of the guys that Mike Rocco(!) juked off his soles to convert a 3rd-and-10 with his feet.  Ouch.

-- I freaking love safeties.  The eff-you-up-in-the-end-zone kind.  Best play in football.

Prediction summary:

-- Phillip Sims completes either less than 50% or more than 60% of his passes.  I wish he had thrown more so that it didn't look like I got this on a small-sample-size technicality, but he was 8-for-10.

-- UVA doesn't have a run play of more than 15 yards.  Actually there were several.  Hell, Rocco almost had one.

-- Sims is sacked at least three times.  Sims was under more pressure than I'd have liked to see, but ultimately State only registered one sack.  That's pretty good considering the Pack's solid pass rush.

-- Our running backs average at least half a yard per carry more than State's.  By, like, so much.

-- At least twice during this game, something happens on special teams that makes me try and reach through the monitor to strangle someone.  This one's a yes, and here's why.  Number one was a missed field goal from 22 yards, which might've been prevented by taking a delay-of-game penalty.  Even so you can't miss those.  Can't.  Number two was the punt where we got the ball back on a fumble.  That was the telltale sign that this was one of those days where everything just went our way, but it didn't have to be such a long return if a couple people had paid attention to the ball.  Ignoring the returner isn't exactly good fundamental football.  And the punt was terrible too.  Vozenilek had probably his worst punting day all season, in fact.

Another 3-for-5 puts me at 19-for-44, 43%.  It's a good thing I'm not betting on our games, cause I'm 0-7-2 ATS and 4-5 straight up.  Oh, how I hate being proven wrong.  Oh please do not do that to me again.  Please, Bre'r Fox, don't throw me in that ol' briar patch.

weekend review

I've been afraid to start writing this because the biggest news of the weekend might break AT ANY MOMENT.  (AAAAAAAAA)  I'm sure what'll happen is, I'll have this nice big writeup about how we're still waiting on pins and needles for point guard T.J. McConnell's imminent decision between UVA and Arizona, and by the time I get done writing it I'll have to erase it and start over.

Yes, we're still waiting, despite some Arizona site (Point Guard U, they're called) jumping the gun and reporting a McConnell commitment to the Wildcats late last night.  No such commitment has yet occurred, of course.  These people at Point Guard U have been more or less "reporting" McConnell will be a Cat for a couple weeks now, so there's no good reason to consider them the definitive source.

So we wait.  Arizona is full enough on scholarship guys that they've stopped recruiting a late 2012 guy by the name of Amadeo Della Valle, but not so full that there's no longer any room for McConnell.  (Sean Miller isn't that dumb.)  If this didn't happen to be a guy whose family knew Miller from way back, it might already be over by now and we'd have us a point guard.  But for now....we wait.

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And we talk lacrosse.  The Hoos opened one up on North Carolina this week, in what I think was the best three quarters of defense they've played all season.  (Not so much the fourth - they looked a little complacent and it's fair to also mention that the offense plays differently when it's desperate.  And being down by 7 qualifies as desperate.)  I wasn't kidding when I said UNC's offense was dangerous, and the Hoos held them to five goals in the first three quarters.

That means a yeoman effort by the defense, of course, and also by Rob Fortunato.  (Let's just come out and say right now what we've all been thinking but not wanting to say: Fortunato has been better than Adam Ghitelman at stopping shots.  Unlike with Ghitelman, I'm still a little nervous when Fortunato makes a pass longer than about fifteen yards, but Fortunato has been damn impressive in net.  He's making saves that I don't think Ghitelman would've.)  But the guys I want to single out this time are the SSDMs: Chris LaPierre and Bobby Hill.  An excellent game by both, and Rob Emery has been playing a little two-way ball as well and showed us why when he went coast-to-coast for an early transition goal.

The offense hummed like the proverbial well-oiled machine.  Steele Stanwick racked up the numbers as usual, but nevertheless the game wasn't all Stanwick all the time; in fact it was Matt White who made a Stanwickesque pass to Bocklet for the first man-up goal.  Offense came from everywhere, and it broke down the UNC resistance; their goalie Rastivo often made the first save but couldn't make the second one.

I think - I am not 100% sure but I think - that we have locked in another date with Carolina in the ACC tournament.  If I'm right, it works like this:

-- If we [redacted to appease the fickle lacrosse gods] on Friday, we would be the #1 seed with a 3-0 record, and they'd have to apply a three-way tiebreaker to deal with the 1-2 teams down below.  I think the applicable tiebreaker will be goal differential in games between the tied teams, in which Maryland is +2 and the other two are -1.  That would give Maryland the two seed, and Duke beat UNC so they're the three, and UNC the four.

-- If we lose to Duke on Friday, then we'd be the two seed, with us and Duke at 2-1 and UNC and Maryland at 1-2.  And UNC beat Maryland.

I could be wrong about this, but I'll let you quote me anyway.

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In the baseball world, we watched a thrilling sweep, particularly on Sunday.  Saturday was a thing of beauty, with Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera each going yard (and then going yard again), but Sunday was the real happy time, as the good guys twice came back from a multiple-run deficit in crunch time to broom away the hated.....oops.  You want Virginia baseball.  I'm kind of puffed-up and happy about the Tigers, too.

Well, it's still going on, as I type this, because of the TV schedule, but it started off just fine.  A much-needed series win against Wake Forest is already in the bag, and the Hoos are up 3-2 in the not-rubber game as I write.  We'll either be 9-6 or 8-7 in an hour or so, and 9-6 would be interesting because that's the same record as UNC, who happens to be the next opponent.  A huge series.

For all the angst over losing three games in Tallahassee, it's worth it to remember that a break or two the other way might've sent us home with a series win - and FSU is now 14-1.  They're, uh, good.

But they're also in the other division.  Now I don't want to get expectations too high, but finishing off the win tonight and then a good result against UNC could put the Hoos in an outside position to steal the division title from current leader Miami.  But a lot would have to go right and I'm not getting my hopes up.  Yet.

The bottom line is that a regional 2 seed is still the minimum expectation.  The main question remains the bullpen.  Artie Lewicki was pulled in the fourth inning tonight, and he's never going to be a guy who goes eight innings anyway, which means they'll be in for plenty of innings in the upcoming weeks.  They were excellent yesterday, limiting Wake to 1 run all day after Silverstein was pulled in the fifth.  In the end I don't think this team has the pitching to pull off an extended tournament run (meaning: make it to Omaha) but that's a concern for a month from now, not right now.

A final interesting note: this week's Wednesday opponent is George Washington.  Perhaps this year one of their players will get to experience Davenport Field from the perspective of a baserunner.

Look at that, I made it all the way to the end of the post and T.J. McConnell hasn't made (or at least announced) his decision.  All my worrying for nothing.  The conventional wisdom is that the longer it takes after the Arizona visit is a good thing for UVA.  I see no reason to question the conventional wisdom.  It means the Charlottesville visit stuck.  We shall see.

weekend review

And I'm back from mini-vacation.  Had time to squeeze in some game-watching, which is good because there's something about winning by 37 that makes long weekends even better.  Doesn't even matter who you're playing.

I can't think of any bad things to say about the game that don't involve "but it was 'only William & Mary.'"  Not many, anyway.  A few small things, I guess, that could theoretically dampen your enthusiasm but probably shouldn't:

-- Mike Paulus sucked.  The defense benefited greatly from a horrible, horrible day by the opposing quarterback that wasn't even the result of awesome coverage or a ton of pressure.  I mean, that was poor.

-- Eight penalties, although I was actually surprised to see the number was that high.  I kept thinking to myself during the game how penalty-free things were looking.  Guess I wasn't paying close enough attention to the flags.

-- David Watford looked pretty freshman-y.

But that's about it.  Otherwise, helmet stickers for all.  I could spend all day listing all the great things about the game and all the players that stood out with quality performances, but that's too long a list, so here's the one thing that made this thing fun above all other things: Freshmen.  Specifically, the new faces that played starring roles.  Doesn't necessarily have to be freshmen; Tim Smith kind of burst onto the scene in a whole new way, for example, as did Justin Renfrow and Will Hill on the defensive line.  Kevin Parks and Clifton Richardson running the ball.  Mike Rocco.  Demetrious Nicholson with an interception.  Darius Jennings.  It's kind of a truism that a coach's "era" doesn't really begin until his second year, and here we are and that era just began in a very big way.

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This is a new thing I'm doing this year, which by the end of the season will either be a huge exercise in trumpeting my own horn, or an unprecedented display of embarrassing accountability.  Veteran readers might have picked up on the different format for game previews this year, including a set of predictons, and I'm going to review them semi-excruciatingly and see how I did.  And keep track all year, to see if I'm good at this stuff or not.  Here, then, are the predictions I made in the game preview and whether or not they came to pass:

- UVA's biggest advantage will be when they are running the ball, as W&M's front seven is too undersized and unable to rotate players effectively.
Verdict: Oh, absolutely.  Nothing went better on Saturday than the running game.  UVA ran the ball whenever and wherever they wanted, and everybody got in on that action.  Complete dominance on the ground.  If the ground game gets two-thirds of that kind of result in every game this year UVA will win eight games.  Prediction was TRUE.

- Perry Jones will carry for more than 100 yards.
Verdict: FALSE thanks to the hot hand of Kevin Parks.  Otherwise he probably would've.

- Kris Burd will have more than 100 yards receiving.
Verdict: FALSE again, as the passing game plan was even more conservative than I expected and Tim Smith was the one who led the team in receiving.  These are both very healthy falses though; they bode well for the offense.

- Mike Rocco's day will look a lot like Marc Verica's against Richmond in 2010.

Verdict: I'm gonna give myself a TRUE even though Rocco threw for 100 fewer yards and no touchdowns (Verica had one.)  Why?  Both had high completion percentages, rarely threw deep, and were given a very similar game plan.  Really what caused the difference in their stats was the use of Watford for a few series and the late insertion of Ross Metheny.  Verica threw all the passes last year.

- David Watford will throw the ball at least once or twice.
Verdict: Obviously TRUE as he threw five times; in retrospect this looks like a silly gimme and I feel a littly guilty taking credit, but I'm going to anyway.

- Jonathan Grimes will have at least one big run.

Verdict: FALSE in a very good way.  Grimes, the Heisman-equivalent candidate, was a complete nonfactor.

- W&M will find little running room inside.

Verdict: TRUE in a very good way.  W&M's running game was shut down; they averaged 2.75 yards even when you don't count the one sack.  No room either inside or out.

- W&M will have some success passing the ball in the short game to Grimes and Alex Gottlieb, but the receivers will be, by and large, shut down.

Verdict: Half TRUE, so I'm counting it.  They'd've had more success going to Gottlieb if Paulus could've delivered the ball to his area code.  The wide receivers were a nonfactor.  Ryan Woolfolk didn't catch a pass; D.J. Mangas caught three, but all the rest of the completions (such as there were) went to backs and tight ends and suchlike.

- UVA's pass rush will give Mike Paulus trouble.

Verdict: Not so much, actually.  One "sack," of which Paulus was not the victim, and was the result of forcing the ball out of bounds rather than your traditional sack.  I don't remember many blitzes by the UVA defense and I wouldn't be surprised at all to re-review the game and find there were none.  Very, very vanilla gameplan on defense, especially starting in the third quarter when the game was getting out of hand; I think after that point the defense just stood in the basic 4-3 without a single wrinkle.  The pocket got pushed inwards at times, but the pass rush just was not a factor.  Going out on a FALSE note.

This leaves me 5 for 9 on the week.  Going to keep track all season and see how I do.

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Now for the Senior Seasons section, in which we check in on the verbal commits and how they're doing this year:

DeMatha 24, Loyola Blakefield 20: Michael Moore knocked down a fourth-and-goal pass in the late minutes to preserve DeMatha's season-opening win.  DeMatha is 1-0.

Salem 31, Bayside 6: Major humbling for Bayside.  Anthony Cooper had just three catches for 40 yards.  Some major 2013 targets involved here, including Bayside RB Taquan Mizzell and Salem QB Bucky Hodges.  Bayside is 0-1.

Ocean Lakes 40, Princess Anne 7: Eli Harold caught 3 passes for 73 yards.  Ocean Lakes is 1-0.

Landstown 27, Kellam 7: Kyle Dockins intercepted a pass.  Landstown is 1-0.

North Cross 34, Norfolk Christian 27: Worrisome start to the season for the NCS boys; they lost to Liberty Christian last Monday in a makeup of their game that was postponed by the hurricane.  Mario Nixon had four catches for 102 yards and two touchdowns.

Other games:

Admiral Farragut 42, Victory Christian 13 (Demeitre Brim**; VCA is 0-1.)
Buford 35, Carver 7 (C.J. Moore; Buford is 3-0.)
Appling County 35, Wayne County 25 (Greyson Lambert; Wayne is 0-1-1.)
Ridley 21, Malvern Prep 20 (Michael Mooney; Malvern is 0-1.)
Council Rock North 42, Central Bucks South 20 (Matt Johns; CB South is 0-1.)
Langham Creek 66, Stratford 28 (Kelvin Rainey; Stratford is 0-2.)
Green Run 22, Cox 16 (Mark Hall; Green Run is 1-0.)
Hampton 43, Heritage 0 (Jamall Brown; Hampton is 1-0.)

**Brim is out for a little bit with a broken jaw.

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And you know we can't go without a famous recruiting board update.  We pretty much have to since it's been like three weeks and that was enough time for some action.  Here are the changes:

- Moved CB Kelvin Rainey from green to orange.  Rainey committed just today; you might've noticed I snuck in his results from this week above.

- Removed RB Chris Mangus from blue.  Whatever tactic they're using at VT to recruit running backs out from under our nose, it's working.  (Likely enough it's "you don't want to sit behind Clifton Richardson and Kevin Parks for four years" which means we're in pretty good shape, actually.)

- Removed OT Blake Fromang (Vandy) and S A.J. Justice (SMU) from yellow.  The latter's offer was only semi-committable with this class filling up.

That's it for that.  There isn't much drama left here; Canaan Severin will be the next one to watch for.

But lastly, that's not it for recruiting.  The biggest recruiting news of the weekend came from the basketball world - and won't pay off for years.  That would be the commitment of B.J. Stith, and if the name seems vaguely familiar then you need to brush up on your history, son.  B.J. is the younger son of all-time UVA great Bryant Stith; his brother Brandan will eventually join him (probably), giving us a thrill in 2014 when not one but two Stiths are once again in uniform for the Hoos.**  I usually write up a profile on basketball recruits right away, but I had to have a little internal debate on this one and "write a profile" lost out.  B.J. is just a sophomore starting this year; a damn good one, supposedly, but a sophomore nonetheless and there isn't much to go on.  I'll file it for the summer of 2013.  We're just gonna have to be patient on this one.

**Having a Stith in blue and orange again is yet another good reason to play a throwback game once a year in U-Hall.  This needs to happen.

season preview: Miami

Miami Hurricanes

Schedule:

9/5: @ Maryland (Mon.)
9/10: BYE
9/17: Ohio State
9/24: Kansas State
10/1: Bethune-Cookman
10/8: @ Virginia Tech
10/15: @ North Carolina
10/22: Georgia Tech
10/27: Virginia (Thu.)
11/5: Duke
11/12: @ Florida State
11/19: @ South Florida
11/25: Boston College (Fri.)

Skip: Clemson, NC State, Wake Forest

Projected starters:

QB: Jacory Harris (Sr.)
RB: Lamar Miller (rSo.)
RB: Mike James (Jr.)
WR: Travis Benjamin (Sr.)
WR: Laron Byrd (Sr.)
TE: Blake Ayles (Sr.)
LT: Malcolm Bunche (rFr.)
LG: Harland Gunn (5Sr.)
C: Tyler Horn (5Sr.)
RG: Brandon Washington (Jr.)
RT: Jermaine Johnson (rSo.)

DE: Adewale Ojomo (Jr.)
DT: Micanor Regis (Sr.)
DT: Marcus Forston (Jr.)
DE: Olivier Vernon (Jr.)
OLB: Ramon Buchanan (Sr.)
ILB: Jordan Futch (Sr.)
OLB: Sean Spence (Sr.)
CB: Lee Chambers (5Sr.)
CB: Jojo Nicolas (Sr.)
SS: Ray-Ray Armstrong (Jr.)
FS: Vaughn Telemaque (Jr.)

K: Matt Goudis (Fr.)
P: Matt Goudis (Fr.)

(Italics indicate new starter.)

Coach: Al Golden (1st season)

Media prediction: 2nd, Coastal Division

All-ACC:

2010 1st team: WR Leonard Hankerson, G Brandon Washington, P Matt Bosher
2010 2nd team: RB Damien Berry, OT Orlando Franklin, DE Allen Bailey, LB Sean Spence, CB Brandon Harris, S Ray-Ray Armstrong
2010 HM: LB Colin McCarthy
2011 preseason: G Brandon Washington, C Tyler Horn, LB Sean Spence, S Ray-Ray Armstrong

(Italics indicate departed player.)

Another new ACC regime begins in Miami, where Randy Shannon worked hard at cleaning up the thuggy perception of the Hurricane football team but couldn't clean up the wins column enough to satisfy the brass.  In steps Al Golden, literally only two steps removed from his position as UVA DC.  Anyone who can take Temple to a bowl game can probably coach some damn football, so the world waits to see what he can do when dropped into Talent Central.

OFFENSE

Probably the only major issue holding the Canes back is the one under center.  Jacory Harris never got free from the interception bug, and Stephen Morris - Harris's replacement after being concussed by John-Kevin Dolce - continued Harris's tendency to huck the ball into the waiting hands of defenders.  All told, Miami passers threw 27 interceptions, an average of more than two per game.  If a quarterback isn't showing improvement in the turnover department going into his senior year, it'll probably continue to be a thing, so Harris will be pushed heavily and perhaps replaced midseason by the sophomore Morris unless the interceptions stop.

Miami could be a relative juggernaut offensively if they can solve the interception problem.  (And if they decide to put an 11th player on the field.)  Even with Leonard Hankerson gone, Miami has a pair of dangerous receivers in Travis Benjamin and Laron Byrd.  Though Byrd technically played second fiddle to Benjamin on the depth chart last year while Hankerson ate up all the rest of the catches, Benjamin and Byrd finished with roughly equal stats.  Behind them, the competition is fierce to be the third receiver on the field.  At tight end, the competition is even crazier; the best option might be Blake Ayles, who took advantage of the NCAA's get-out-of-jail-free card from USC and can play right away.

The running attack should be good, too, especially behind a heavily experienced offensive line.  Four starters return there, including preseason all-conference guys Tyler Horn and Brandon Washington anchoring the middle; Harland Gunn is a good player in his own right and the player on the line with the most starts under his belt.  That's a powerful interior line that can really blast open some holes for the running backs.  The left tackle job would likely have belonged to Seantrel Henderson, but back surgery puts a kibosh on those plans, and redshirt freshman Malcolm Bunche will take over the job.

The abovementioned running backs are Lamar Miller and Mike James, both big guys that could both pull a 25-carry-per game load if needed.  James especially is a bowling ball type at under six feet and 222 pounds. Miami had a very good running game last year and it'll probably be even better this time out.

DEFENSE

Thanks to the pass-rushing acumen of Allen Bailey and some outstanding cornerbacks, Miami's pass defense was stout, but the run defense didn't quite live up to its billing.  With Micanor Regis and Marcus Forston coming back to start at DT and having an extra year of experience, the interior line should be a good start.  On the ends, Olivier Vernon and Adewale Ojomo are good pass-rushers but not great run-stoppers.  Both of the backup ends are seniors and should figure heavily into the rotation, giving Miami solid depth on the line.  The line lacks big-name players but looks solid regardless.

The real star of the defense, with Bailey now gone, is outside linebacker Sean Spence, likely poised for a national breakout season.  Spence had 17.5 TFL last year, of which only two were sacks, and was second on the team in pass breakups in 2010 as well.  Teams wanting to avoid running to his side will deal with Ramon Buchanan instead, another talented player if not quite on Spence's level.  This is where Miami will look to for playmaking against the run.  The linebacking corps would be in serious competition for best in the conference if the middle weren't so up in the air.  Neither Jordan Futch or James Gaines - the two main suspects for the starting job - started any games last year, and Gaines played in only six.

The cornerbacks are likewise a work in progress after Miami lost so many last year.  Lee Chambers is a career special-teamer, and Jojo Nicolas moved over from safety to shore up the position.  Miami could afford to because Ray Ray Armstrong - despite not technically being a starter last year - is clearly ready for the job, and Vaughn Telemaque is a reliable if not flashy player.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Both kicking jobs are open, and the inside track probably belongs to freshman Matt Goudis, but competition goes on.  Travis Benjamin will return both kicks and punts.

OUTLOOK

As with last year, answering a few questions could see Miami in heavy contention for a division title and a trip to the championship game.  But one of the toughest questions is: how will they cope with the schedule?  They must deal with Ohio State in the OOC, and trips to Virginia Tech and Florida State loom large as well; then there's the fact that they have two games on short rest, and the cherry on top is that the "extra prep time" game after their Thursday nighter against UVA, is Duke.  So even with a good defense and what should be an excellent run game, Miami's win-loss record might not improve greatly.  But they should still be one of the ACC's toughest outs, and undoubtedly a bowl team.

Edit: I SURE PICKED A HELLUVA DAY FOR THIS ONE I MEAN JEEBUS

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Some newsy bits:

- Danny Hultzen signed with the Mariners last night at almost literally the last possible moment.  That wasn't too surprising, although it did offer a sliver of hope that he might pull a shocker and skip the pros for one more year.  Nevertheless he deserves every dime he makes, and hopefully will be in the majors soon.  The bigger surprise is that recruited pitcher Christian Binford also signed (with the Royals) and won't be arriving in the fall.  Disappointing; I thought Binford had the goods to challenge for the rotation as soon as 2013, and frankly would have far improved his draft stock from the 30th round, where he was taken.  However, Derek Fisher did not sign, allowing UVA to keep its top (by a longshot) hitting prospect.

- Whether there's any legs to this story or not, who really knows?  This is the internet, after all.  "This story" involves a South Carolina baseball player "doing something very, very bad," which they won't specify but is rumored to involve one of their players faking his SAT score in order to get eligible.  If not true - highly possible as this is the internet - then I guess I've been a naughty rumormongerer.  If true, it would be a pretty awful thing for the Gamecocks, as their CWS titles would surely be erased.  It's different from a chunk of the team getting impermissible benefits, from, say, a tattoo parlor, since most of the team had to know or suspect what was going on and nobody was blabbing.  A faked SAT score, that's a highly unfortunate thunderbolt from the sky and wraps up a bunch of innocent players into someone's greed and selfishness.  That's the part where I feel bad for South Carolina.  The part where I get pissed off is, suppose that was someone who played a big role in beating UVA during this year's CWS?  If A = B and then B = C, then fuck that guy, man.

- Fullback Ryan Cobb has left the football team mid-fall.  Huh.  With Max Milien and Terence Fells-Danzer still at fullback, it's not a big thing this year, but they're both seniors.  Cobb would've had the starting job open for him in 2012.  For now, tight end Zach Swanson has been working out at fullback, which, along with Milien playing the position, seems to indicate that the coaches want the fullback to be more of an H-back (combo fullback and tight end) that actively participates in the offense a la Jason Snelling instead of just a guy who runs in front of the tailback hitting the first guy he sees.  Freshman linebacker D.J. Hill is another guy who gets a lot of mention as a possible future fullback.

- Mike London talked about wanting to thin down the reps at quarterback and give the lion's share to a couple players as the season approaches.  That's been done now; the winners of the derby are, for now, Mike Rocco and David Watford.  One man's interpretation: Rocco is nominally the starter and Watford is in the lead for the backup position, but if the coaches don't see enough out of him, he'll redshirt.  One man's prediction: Rocco starts William & Mary, and Watford plays just enough this season to raise the hackles of the "redshirt everyone" crowd.

the recruit: D.J. Hill

Name: D.J. Hill
Position: LB
Hometown: Covington, GA
School: Newton
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 215

ESPN: 77; three stars; #81 OLB
Rivals: 5.6; three stars; #41 ILB; GA #83
Scout: three stars; #103 OLB

Other offers: Mississippi, Vanderbilt, Middle Tennessee

D.J. Hill is a little bit of a forgotten recruit in this class, on account of committing outside of this year's happy hunting times (summer and postseason) and not living within 100 miles of UVA. As a Georgia boy (a place where I'd love to see UVA do a little more recruiting) he's easily the furthest-afield recruit in the class, some 150+ miles further out than Tim Cwalina and his Pennsylvania roots.

So there's a little bit of anonymity, so UVA fans may be surprised to find out Hill is the highest-rated linebacker recruit we have. We're all rooting for that to change, of course, with the potential addition of Curtis Grant, but until then, Hill is the best we have if you buy into the scouting rankings.

There's good reason to, as they're all very consistent. Whether he ends up on the outside or inside is a mystery, but outside seems like a good bet if ESPN's correct in saying he has "advanced coverage skills." He's more athlete and quickster than anything, a fit with what Mike London is looking for. Hill was also Newton's featured running back and fast enough to be a prolific base-stealer for Newton's baseball team.

As mentioned, the services are awfully consistent in their rankings of Hill. Rivals has him as the #41 ILB, which might seem a lot higher until you remember there are about twice as many OLBs as ILBs. So it's about the equivalent of #80 in the country. Scout lists quite a few other offers that only one other source anywhere seems to corroborate, but UVA and Ole Miss would probably be the top two on anyone's list whether or not UAB or Southern Miss is a candidate. Ultimately it's a thinner list than you might expect given his ratings; Hill looked for offers from Georgia Tech and South Carolina but they never materialized.

His future at UVA is pretty much the exact same thing as I talked about in Darius Lee's post last month. There's a huge gaggle of linebackers who'll be redshirt juniors next season, and the only linebacker we have or might have that can leapfrog them is Curtis Grant. Hill, Lee, Caleb Taylor, and the rest - whoever among them ends up pegged at linebacker (and Hill isn't going anywhere else) - are sure bets to redshirt, but they're also going to find themselves with a free and clear path to playing time after two years of patience. Unless there's a lot of superstar linebackers coming to UVA in the next few years, Hill looks like a three-year starter - and because of the experience he'll have as a fifth-year, a fringe all-conference candidate - as long as he develops on track.

weekend review

Today you'll see something you haven't seen for well over three months: a new addition to the orange section of the recruiting board. Hard to believe it's been that long, but the staff can't just take the first commitment that comes along any more. Quite a week for movement; here are the changes:

- LB D.J. Hill is your 22nd member of the class, and moves to orange.

- As a result, LB Troy Gray drops to yellow from green. I have serious doubts the staff would take a commitment from him any more, with Hill on board and two more linebacker prospects they're trying like hell to get.

- WR Darius Jennings moves from yellow to green as UVA makes a top six.

- DE Norkeithus Otis is removed after committing to UNC. He was in the red section; any removals from the red section caused by commitments usually are dudes that dropped UVA long ago.

There's no guarantee of any early enrollees, so the yearly limit of 25 could come into play here. (Anyone who enrolled early would count toward last year's wide-open class for NCAA purposes.) The total limit of 85 is another concern, of course, and it's the latter limit that's causing the staff to take it very, very slow. For that reason, anyone on the yellow section should be thought of as having at least a foot in the red. It would neither surprise me nor bother me much if, until there were some changes, the only players the staff would accept a commitment from right now are those bolded in orange.

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Euro-football! The reason soccer doesn't get the coverage I want to give it is because college soccer gets no TV coverage whatsoever and it's really damn hard - in fact, it's basically a totally fruitless exercise - to offer any kind of opinion based only on the stat sheet. Which in soccer is very slim.

Really, ESPNU is a great channel, except in the fall where it's little more than another football outlet. This makes it totally useless for all but about six of a 168-hour week. During the ACC soccer tournament, ESPNU will be showing "SEC Weekly," for the college football fan that can't get enough gasbagging about Auburn's chances of going undefeated.

Anyway, maybe you wouldn't want very much coverage of the team, as the title defense campaign hasn't gone smoothly for the young roster. Though highly ranked, they haven't fared well against other ranked teams, beating only St. John's in the early going and losing to or tieing every ranked ACC foe. The result is a 6-seed in the ACC tournament, which starts Wednesday, and a date with an extremely familiar foe: Wake Forest. Wake won the regular season meeting 1-0 at Klockner.

The ACC championship is every other day; the final is Sunday. The ladies team has a second-seed draw in the NCAA and will play on Friday against Lehigh. Unlikely that the men's team will have as favorable a seeding unless they make a serious ACC run. As with usual, the only actual broadcast TV won't be til the semifinals.

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November brings high school playoffs, or at least the end of the regular season. Time to check in on the commitments, including the first new addition of the whole season:

L.C. Bird 19, Manchester 13: Anthony Harris threw for one of Bird's touchdowns and caught a 79-yarder for another one. Harris normally quarterbacks Bird and throws about five or six passes a game; handing off to his running back is his primary job.

Petersburg 34, Colonial Heights 26: Could've been a better defensive effort against a 2-7 team, but Kevin Green is the quarterback and the offense did its thing. Green ran for three touchdowns and two 2PC's in the win.

St. Christopher's 35, Collegiate 28: Just one catch for 12 yards for Thompson Brown, but St. Christopher's got a huge win over a longtime tormentor. There'll be a rematch next week in the playoffs.

Cox 10, First Colonial 7: Ross Burbank runs for Cox's lone touchdown. Burbank's stints at running back have helped propel Cox into the playoffs, where they'll likely be slaughtered but hey.

St. Albans 31, St. S/St. A 7: Darius Lee catches a 35-yarder for his team's only touchdown in the season finale.

Damascus 39, Kennedy 0: Brandon Phelps catches two passes for 48 yards and a touchdown; Damascus finishes the regular season unbeaten.

Hermitage 54, Thomas Jefferson 15 (Diamonte Bailey)
Booker T. Washington 41, I.C. Norcom 39 (Kameron Mack)
Phoebus 60, Bethel 7 (Caleb Taylor)
Hampton 54, Menchville 0 (David Watford, Clifton Richardson)
Stone Bridge 49, South Lakes 13 (Rob Burns)
Good Counsel 42, Archibishop Carroll 0 (Vincent Croce)
DeMatha 48, Bishop McNamara 6 (Kelby Johnson/Jordan Lomax)
H.D. Woodson 46, Anacostia 0 (Darius Redman)
Boys' Latin 28, St. Paul's 12 (Marco Jones)
Butler 61, Independence 6 (Adrian Gamble)
Mt. Lebanon 35, Plum 14 (Tim Cwalina - playoff game)
Newton 28, Luella 20 (D.J. Hill)

Now for the playoffs. The season is over for five of our players:

David Dean (Green Run): Finished 5-5.
Adrian Gamble (Independence (NC)): Independence is normally one of Charlotte's powerhouses, but not this year.
D.J. Hill (Newton (GA)): Newton started on a long win streak, and then went on a long losing streak. The end-of-year win wasn't enough.
Darius Lee (St. Stephen's & St. Agnes): Finished 1-8.
Clifton Richardson (Menchville): One of the 757's weakest programs, Menchville's coach stepped down after this season ended, their fifth straight two-win season.

Three of our commits play in the Richmond area and thus have one more game before the regular season is over. That'd be Diamonte Bailey at Hermitage, Kevin Green at Petersburg, and Anthony Harris at Bird. All three will make the playoffs.

Here's how the playoff matchups look for everyone else:

In Pennsylvania:

Mt. Lebanon and Tim Cwalina play in Western PA's highest level, Quad-A, and their first playoff game in the WPIAL was this weekend - a win over Plum. Three more weeks of WPIAL playoffs will be followed by the playoffs in Pennsylvania at large; Mt. Lebanon is the second-seeded team in the WPIAL Quad-A bracket and stands as good a chance as anyone of getting there.

In DC:

- H.D. Woodson has a make-up game to play on Tuesday, but they needed to lose this past weekend in order to miss out on a bye in the DCIAA playoffs. They get the weekend off and then the loser of the Dunbar/Coolidge game this weekend.

In Maryland:

- Marco Jones and Boys' Latin are in the MIAA's B Conference, the middle of three. Their playoffs are a three-team bracket of eastern Maryland private schools; Boys' Latin will have to beat Archbishop Curley to get to the championship game. Boys' Latin beat Curley 21-7 way back in September.

- The WCAC four-team bracket is a beast every year. DeMatha beat Good Counsel earlier in the year and so wins the tiebreaker for top seed; they'll face St. John's, whom they beat 21-14 in October. Good Counsel has a tougher road, facing Gonzaga in the semis. That was a 50-38 win for Good Counsel earlier, but Gonzaga did upset DeMatha earlier this season and they have Kevin Hogan at quarterback, whom UVA recruited hard but lost to Stanford.

- Brandon Phelps is UVA's lone public-schooler from Maryland. Damascus is undefeated and starts their journey through the 3A bracket (MD's second-highest classification) in the 3A West regional semis against Linganore.

In Virginia:

- In the Eastern Region, Division 5 sees Phoebus (Caleb Taylor) seeded #1, Hampton (David Watford) seeded #2, and I.C. Norcom (Kameron Mack) seeded #3. Phoebus plays Warwick (a 49-6 win in September), Hampton plays Lake Taylor, and Norcom plays Churchland (a 20-14 win in October.) Churchland stands between a Watford/Mack matchup in the second round; Phoebus is easily the favorite of the bracket.

- Division 6 of the same region features Ross Burbank and Cox, who'll take first crack at upsetting unbeaten Bayside.

- Rob Burns and undefeated Stone Bridge drew JEB Stuart in the first round of their Northern Region bracket.

- St. Christopher's gets a rematch with Collegiate in the VIS Division I semis.


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Another week means another round of AP poll postings. Not many changes or surprises, with the notable exception of voters overvoting the hell out of their regional teams this past week. Over one-third of overvotes came from home-region voters this week; if that were a trend, I'd say it's pretty significant, but it's more of an outlier. I don't expect it to last, but this week at least, the vast majority of the "also receiving votes" section of the poll got them from overenthusiastic regional voters.

Basketball season. Friday. Yeah. William & Mary. How about that? Even though having six freshmen in the rotation makes it really friggin' tough to try and make any sense of how the season will shake out, we'll make some attempt at that this week anyway. ACC team previews come later, after football is done but before the real ACC season begins in January.

the recruit: Diamonte Bailey

Name: Diamonte Bailey
Position: DE
Hometown: Richmond
School: Hermitage
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 220

ESPN: 77; three stars; #65 DE
Rivals: 5.4; two stars; VA #27
Scout: two stars

Other offers: Marshall

Easiest pickup the UVA coaching staff - new or old - has had in years. For Diamonte Bailey the only question in his recruitment was whether or not he'd get an offer from UVA; he did, and committed on the spot. If you were to stake your life on one recruit to not decommit this year, here's your guy. And frankly, it's always neat when a kid is a UVA fan and gets the letter he's been hoping for.

Bailey's offer list is pretty much commensurate with his ratings, which for the most part are weak, but at least some of that can be attributed to his committing early and then shutting it down. Coaches get the message when a guy commits the moment he's offered. It raised at least one eyebrow, though. To me, the unstated implication in that article was that the staff could have waited to see if they could land any of their top targets and still reeled in Bailey with a later offer if they missed out on, say, the Rob Burns's of the world.

But it's not like Bailey is some kind of reach. As with any legitimate D-I recruit, he's brought in his honors: in this case, second-team all-region, alongside the much higher-rated Corey Marshall. (All-region is a step above all-district, by the way, in case you were wondering.)

And if the lack of offers can be partly explained away by the early commitment, you can do likewise with the low ratings by looking at his size. At 220 pounds, Bailey is undersized for a linebacker let alone a lineman. College-sized, he is not. Nearly all our DE's are this way, it's a London thing. Groh would bring them in at 250, 260 pounds, easy. It's the difference in the defenses again.

In the ratings department, this time it's ESPN that decides to be different. Scout and Rivals have Bailey as a two-star; ESPN ranks him on the DE list higher than a few of our higher-profile targets, notably Burns and Daquan Romero. I enjoy using these profiles to highlight the occasional silliness of the whole recruiting business: this time it's in the scouting reports. The RTD says Bailey "moves well for his size" (as opposed to those 250-pounders?) and VirginiaPreps says he "probably hasn't reached his apex as a football player." God I hope not. If London ever recruits a player who's peaked as a junior in high school I will drive to Charlottesville and slap him in the face myself unless the guy's already 6'6", 300 and runs a 4.1 40. I don't expect it'll ever come to that.

Anyway, Bailey comes into a logjam in 2011. Groh might have unwisely used a few true freshmen in his time but one position where he did just about none of that is DE. (Except for Will Hill, who's a DT now.) Four DE's in this class and four more are true or redshirt freshmen this year. Expect redshirts for everyone here, Bailey included, and then a dogfight for playing time that has no clear favorite at all.

the recruit: David Dean

Name: David Dean
Position: DT
Hometown: Virginia Beach
School: Green Run
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 285

ESPN: 79; four stars; #19 DT
Rivals: 5.7; three stars; #27 DT; VA #9
Scout: three stars; #63 DT

Offers: West Virginia, Boston College, Stanford, Louisville, Duke, Marshall

Ah, football recruiting, ever a source of entertainment. David Dean committed to Mike London - the first recruit to really do so, as Clifton Richardson is still only sort-of committed (but also apparently having no great desire to get up and visit many other schools) - back in March. This was reported just about everywhere, and Dean made no secret of it. That didn't stop Scout from announcing (in May) that "Dean Comes Clean - David Dean says he's been committed to Virginia since early March." Maybe he was mad at Scout for ranking him so low on the DT food chain.

They're the only ones, anyway. Other than from Scout, Dean comes with the rankings and pedigree of a real bedrock defensive tackle. ESPN has him in the top 20 in the nation at his position and Rivals says he's one of the top 10 players in the state. Dean's very well known in the 757; second-team all-district as a sophomore and first-team district and second-team all-regional as a junior. The all-region honor is Dean's versatility at work, as it's for offense, not defense. (That's not all - he's an all-region hitter on the diamond, too. Got that hand-eye coordination working for him.) Quality academics, with offers from Duke and Stanford to back that up as well. In short, the kind of recruit that is right in the middle of UVA's wheelhouse.

So I'm pretty excited about Dean. A little weak on offers, but the fact that a few of them came in even after Dean's commitment is a plus, and Scout's lukewarmness notwithstanding, the gurus are all pretty high on the guy. ESPN is concerned about his size, and who cares really because six of the eighteen guys ranked ahead of him are also 6'1". Nothing wrong with 6'1" - besides, too much height isn't a good thing in defensive tackles. I'm willing to ignore their worries about his size. He's definitely proven himself against VA competition.

And DT is a good place to be in UVA's recruiting class. This is a position, remember, where our needs doubled with the arrival of the new staff. Not only needs, but requirements too: the demands of playing nose tackle in the 3-4 are way different from DT in the 4-3. The roster contains exactly one true defensive tackle: Nick Jenkins. The rest (and there aren't many) are converted ends (Conrath, Hill, Urban) or linebackers (Dolce.) Dolce is the only conversion with college experience, either in practice or games, on the interior, and he departs after this year, leaving behind a really thin DT corps. Moreover, we really have absolutely no idea how the converted players will take to the new positional demands - even Jenkins. Dean and fellow incoming DT Vincent Croce are coming into a situation where there's a chance to help out immediately. Good thing Dean was one of the best DT's we could have gotten.

redshirting

In my self-appointed role as Al Groh apologist, even I have to raise my eyebrows at a couple of Al's decisions this year regarding true freshmen. Most people do more than that, of course - a couple folks going all the way to the extent of pointing to the 14 true freshmen used this year as proof positive that Al does in fact hate the University - for why else would he so irreversibly damage our future?

Last week, Jeff White presented the breakdown of true freshmen on the field. Who played, and how much. Al's always liked to use them, this year more so than just about ever. 14 is a big, big number, and one of the usual tacks when criticizing Groh is that it's way too many. Often, people point to just the number as evidence. I thought I'd break this down a little further, though. A lot of these are justifiable - you'd have to be just not even thinking about it to claim all 14 shouldn't have played. Let's see who should and shouldn't have been out there.

Not Only Justifiable, But Would Have Been Criminal Not To Use Them:

- Tim Smith. Third-most productive receiver, and could easily be remembered as the best of this bunch when all's said and done. With the unit absolutely desperate for talent, I don't think I ever saw anyone argue that he shouldn't have played, and nobody should.

- Tucker Windle. Don't look at me like that. Another common criticism of Al is that he didn't develop enough playable depth. Actually kind of a problem for the linebackers this year - the previous group was so solid that they played all the time, and now we have seniors and juniors stepping up that really haven't seen much action. Well, here's your playable depth. Granted, our need for ILB's just got cut in half, but Groh can't be assuming that. Windle looked solid enough in his time out there, and he needs his share of reps.

- Oday Aboushi. Left tackle has been a punching bag of mine all season. Not 100% sure how fair that is in the end, but I can't say I was pleased at all by Landon Bradley's play this year. This should be an open competition next year, and Aboushi not only deserves his reps, the team needed him to get them.

- Will Hill. Before the season, DE depth was one of the major concerns. We always really knew we'd need to dip into the true freshman pool at DE, and Hill enrolled early, giving him a leg up. Not only that, though: having Hill on the field is useful proof for the admissions people, should the coaches ever want to make the case (they better), that early enrollment is a big benefit to the program.

Not Essential, But Perfectly Justifiable

- Dominique Wallace. It looked like he was headed for quite a bit of use until he got hurt. And we ended up with not a lot of usable depth at running back. Mikell Simpson is an injury magnet, Torrey Mack proved himself unable to pass-block, and Perry Jones is itty-bitty and not your first choice when the offensive line is average at best at run-blocking. We didn't really need Wallace out there, but I personally was wanting to see more. And we get that year back anyway thanks to a likely medical redshirt.

- Perry Jones. Again with the need for a little rotation at running back. Plus, Jones averaged 16 special teams plays a game - that's basically most of them. Might as well use the best we got, if he's it.

Would Have Preferred Not To See Them, But You Can Still Make An Argument

- Laroy Reynolds. Got some special teams action - about 10 plays a game - but not really enough to say we were using him because he was clearly the best at it. What I'd like to have seen is the breakdown of which special teams plays he was in on. If he was a kickoff/punt coverage regular but maybe not in for the returns, you could waffle him back and forth between here and the above column.

- Connor McCartin. Ended the season on the two-deep. Playable depth would again be a workable argument if he'd gotten more than four plays on defense. Still, when you're on the two-deep, you're on the two-deep - it seems disingenuous to list a guy there and then not play him in situations where you'd play the backup.

- Drew Jarrett. People forget: The guy's a walk-on. Redshirting him is the same thing as telling him he'll need to pay his way through a fifth year of college - and grad school at that, which is much more expensive. I don't think you ask that of a guy, unless you're prepared to offer him that fifth year gratis.

- Paul Freedman. Our tight ends - that is, Torchia and Phillips - were not too spectacular this year, either. Drops were a problem. I can see where you'd want to fire a shot across their bow by putting the third-string in there.

Put The Redshirt And The Matches Down, Coach

- Quintin Hunter. We had enough wide receivers out there. Hunter had one catch all year despite participating in 89 offensive plays. That's not justification to play him.

- LoVante' Battle. The contribution from him just wasn't worth it. Battle is probably not destined for stardom, but you might as well be patient and see what happens.

- Javanti Sparrow. See Battle.

- Corey Lillard. See Battle and Sparrow, times ten, and maybe minus the part about stardom. Lillard was a well-though-of recruit we had to beat a lot of good teams for. Ten plays? If you're going to get angry about redshirt-burning, this is the one to hang your hat on.

There's the possibility, by the way, of a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that we fans aren't privy to. Maybe one of the freshmen told Groh, "hey, I don't want to play a fifth year, I want to get my degree on schedule and get moving with my life - play me if I deserve it." Maybe we have a highly motivated freshman class that wanted to get out their and prove their special teams chops - Groh always said that special teams were your gateway to the field.

Still, from a purely analytical standpoint here, I think there are at least four and possibly eight that shouldn't have played, and six that definitely should have. But you have to remember: this isn't irreversible. What's irreversible is the redshirts. If Mike London wants to, he can put the shirt back on these fourteen players.

In particular, I think the following players would be excellent candidates: McCartin, Freedman, Hunter, and one or two of the defensive backs. There's not enough depth at defensive back to redshirt them all again plus the incoming class too. But two tight ends for the year are plenty, and we get back Torchia and Phillips. The 4-3 gives us lots of depth at ILB - we shouldn't need McCartin. We don't graduate any receivers but Hall, and we're never going to see another four- or five-receiver set, so Hunter can sit. And Robert Randolph is certainly capable of kicking extra points if we really want a fifth year out of Jarrett.

Bottom line here: Groh could certainly have run this year without using so many true freshman, but anybody who complains about using 14 without a look at who actually played and how much isn't thinking it through enough. And it's not as if any damage is irreversible. Redshirts aren't only for the freshman year. Myself I am only complaining about four. That's not program-killing stuff.

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.

the recruit: Will Hill

Name: Will Hill
Position: DE
Hometown: Williamsburg
School: Lafayette
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 260

ESPN: 73
Rivals: 5.6; three stars; #34 strongside DE; #28 in VA
Scout: three stars; #86 DE

Will Hill's was an interesting recruiting battle, and just the kind we Wahoos have been wishing we could win more of. Hill's looks from the recruiting services were all kinds of weak - that 73 from ESPN is basically a high two-star. Which is weird, because you'd think Tennessee, Penn State, and Michigan would not be offering two-stars. Michigan in fact was thought to be perhaps the early leader for his services, because of family connections up there, but things cooled off and four schools emerged over the summer: UVA, Tennessee, Maryland, and Penn State. Which is a tough group of schools to fend off.

So having done so, what do we have? A great student, first off. Nice to see, in a time where sometimes you don't know what you're getting in the classroom. Hill had excellent grades and enrolled early, a rarity at UVA and something that will give him a big boost against his competition for playing time.

Hill's pass-rushing skills were repeatedly praised by the coaches during the recruiting process, and his fourteen sacks his senior season back that up. However, at 260 pounds, there's always the hints of a move inside, and some teams were recruiting him with that idea in mind. ESPN thinks that might be the best move. Funny thing about the highlight film is that it says the same thing. There are a couple of his sacks on there, but it's mostly run-stopping, with Hill wearing down the linemen and making the tackle, usually (since it's a highlight film) behind the line of scrimmage. Right now Hill is a DE, but when there are four of them in the class and zero defensive tackles, and not really that many DT's on the actual roster, you wonder.

Whether or not Hill moves to DT, there's definitely a chance for him to see the field this year. The depth chart at neither D-line spot is so deep that there isn't room for impact from a true freshman, and Hill's presence at spring practice will give him an edge over the rest of the class.

glad to be wrong

So I said earlier I thought Will Hill would pick a different school. Sometimes it's good to be wrong. Hill is the 22nd recruit to verbally commit to the University of Virginia. Welcome aboard young man!