Another big wave of commitments means it's time to fix what needs fixing. And what goes up must come down: Jeff White also breaks the news of a number of departures for the year - some permanent, others not - that also necessitates an update to the depth chart as well as the recruiting board. Let's have at it:
- Surprising amount of attrition sees five players leave the team: WR Quintin Hunter, WR Javaris Brown, OT Lamar Milstead, DE Tory Allen-Ford, and CB Javanti Sparrow. The explanation for Sparrow involves privacy laws and the possibility of return for 2011, which decrypts as "academic issues." So Sparrow may end up returning as did, for example, Chris Cook and Jameel Sewell. And he has a redshirt year to use, courtesy of Al Groh's "slashing and burning of our future," as some like to call it. The rest are out.
- On the flip side, scholarships are given to WR Matt Snyder and K Robert Randolph.
- I've also updated, by the way, the spaces for the '11 commits. The latest, Kevin Green, probably isn't going to a quarterback at all, but what the hell, he goes there for now. I don't think he's on board for his quarterbacking so much as for his overall athleticism.
Impact? First, by my count, 82 scholarships spoken for; we'll be a few shy this year. Second, a little extra space, but not a lot, opens up in the recruiting class of 2011. Sparrow's scholarship hopefully won't be open, but the shuffling basically adds two free spaces. There's a bare, absolute minimum now of 16 members of the class; 14 are spoken for, 15 if you count Clifton Richardson as a commit, which I don't, yet. 20 was the old target; I'm thinking 22 now. This is the silver lining, and it's a big one, because spaces are quickly coming off the board and there are some primo targets left.
Second, depth at cornerback just went from a big issue to a big big issue. I know Mike London wants speed at linebacker but can we really be carrying 11 linebackers and five cornerbacks? Five scholarship players is not a cornerback depth chart, it's a cornerback kiddie pool. Depth is suddenly a problem at receiver too, with just seven scholarship players there. Wide receiver just became a priority for this class.
Speaking of this class, let's have a look at the new, updated recruiting board:
- Moved TE Darius Redman, LB Caleb Taylor, and S Kameron Mack to orange, and added ATH Kevin Green there too.
- Removed a few players with whom our chances have fallen from near zero to actually zero: ATH Lafonte Thourogood, WR Quinta Funderburk, and OT Cyrus Kouandjio.
- Removed a couple more players who it doesn't look like we'll get involved with: LB Myles Jackson and WR Melvin Robinson.
- Removed ATH Chris Hall, who's now a Hokie.
- Moved DE Norkeithus Otis from yellow to red.
- Moved QB Kevin Hogan and OT Jay Whitmire from yellow to blue.
- Also, notably, moved LB Curtis Grant from yellow to blue. This isn't because Grant has narrowed down his list or anything. D-I schools can still be divided into two groups: those who've offered Grant, and those who figure they wouldn't have a chance. But the fact is, Grant has been to UVA a lot this spring. Charlottesville is something of a weekend hangout. This is a recruitment UVA fans will be glued to the same way we were for Morgan Moses. Might as well act like it.
Showing posts with label hunter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hunter. Show all posts
Monday, June 21, 2010
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, July 31, 2009
preseason balloting
Well, I'm not back from vacation, not exactly. But I promised I'd try and roll out a little somethin' somethin', so. As you're probably aware, the ACC had its media week this week, and I don't really find a lot of value in obsessing over every question-and-answer session, but the voting that results, you know, the projected standings and the preseason all-conference team, those things are worth a look. And the Real Serious Media guys aren't the only ones who get to have all the fun. Gobbler Country hosted a blogger vote as well, with everything the media does minus a full-out all-conference team. So: Media results are here, blogger results are here.
They're not surprising, really, as far as the UVa representation. Fifth in the division, ahead of Duke, both times. The writers tossed us a bone and named Ras-I Dowling to the preseason team. If Vic Hall were still a cornerback, we might have swept that position: UNC's Kendric Burney, the other CB, had the fewest votes of any selection. By the sounds of it, though, Hall is the likely starter at quarterback come September 4.
You're probably wondering what my own ballot looked like when Gobbler Country came calling for inputs. Even if you're not, here you go:
Atlantic:
1. FSU
2. NC State
3. Clemson
4. Wake
5. Maryland
6. BC
Coastal
1. GT
2. VT
3. UNC
4. UVA
5. Miami
6. Duke
Conference champ: Georgia Tech
Offensive POY: Jonathan Dwyer
Defensive POY: Dekoda Watson
ROY: Tajh Boyd
For whatever reason, I'm really bullish on Georgia Tech this year. I was actually about to vote for Morgan Burnett for DPOY, too, but I thought of those votes as a prediction, basically, and if there's a comparable front seven player in the running the media tends to go that route over selecting a safety. GT returns basically all their key players. VT seems to be the more or less consensus pick to win the conference no matter what subset of pundits you ask, but they have plenty of warts and question marks of their own and I think the reasoning tends to go "well I can't figure out how it could be anyone else." Fair enough, I suppose. Last year Clemson was supposed to have their year, and they didn't, and this year, what have you got? Same as last year, basically: eight or nine teams that would all be third or fourth best in any other major conference in the land. So you pick the team with a defense that probably won't fold too often and at least has a proven coach. Unless you're me, then you go with the team whose performance last year surprised everyone but you because you sort of predicted they'd do that.
Anyway, all this comes without having yet done any of my season previews, which are as much to educate me as they are you, so I reserve the right to change my mind.
A couple other tidbits:
Getting cautiously optimistic that Jeff White's move into the athletic department is going to work out nicely after all. His stories are good stuff. For example:
- Might have mentioned it already, but DE Kevin Crawford is off the team now as well as previously-noted TE Rod Wheeler. The scholarship crunch is coming to an end. My depth chart file isn't on this computer, so I'll count later, but I think that brings us to 86.
- The freshmen are way behind on their conditioning - that's to be expected, of course - but S&C coach Brandon Hourigan noted a few that are in good shape: Tim Smith, Perry Jones, Quintin Hunter, Javanti Sparrow. Those are the guys you'd want to watch out for in fall camp, especially Smith (obviously) and Sparrow, who play a position where suddenly we can't have enough depth. With the tremendous trop in DE depth we've taken this offseason, it's too bad a DE wasn't on that list somewhere.
Also, the 2011 recruiting class already has its first member: WR Adrian Gamble. No, I have no intention of starting the 2011 recruiting board. And no, I have no idea if this guy's any good. He's fast, they say. Great. Actually, what it tells me is that we're probably going to sign a full 25 in 2011, if Groh's already got that class cranking up. We didn't have our first '09 commitment til December '07 (that was Owah, who decommitted eventually) and we didn't have a '10 commit until February this year. Gamble's way ahead of the curve. Guys who do that usually fall into two categories: either they're committing to their dream school and getting it done early, or they have no idea of the attention they're going to get just for playing football, and decommit once they see some offer letters. It'll be interesting to see what kind of schools will try and pry Gamble out of our clutches.
They're not surprising, really, as far as the UVa representation. Fifth in the division, ahead of Duke, both times. The writers tossed us a bone and named Ras-I Dowling to the preseason team. If Vic Hall were still a cornerback, we might have swept that position: UNC's Kendric Burney, the other CB, had the fewest votes of any selection. By the sounds of it, though, Hall is the likely starter at quarterback come September 4.
You're probably wondering what my own ballot looked like when Gobbler Country came calling for inputs. Even if you're not, here you go:
Atlantic:
1. FSU
2. NC State
3. Clemson
4. Wake
5. Maryland
6. BC
Coastal
1. GT
2. VT
3. UNC
4. UVA
5. Miami
6. Duke
Conference champ: Georgia Tech
Offensive POY: Jonathan Dwyer
Defensive POY: Dekoda Watson
ROY: Tajh Boyd
For whatever reason, I'm really bullish on Georgia Tech this year. I was actually about to vote for Morgan Burnett for DPOY, too, but I thought of those votes as a prediction, basically, and if there's a comparable front seven player in the running the media tends to go that route over selecting a safety. GT returns basically all their key players. VT seems to be the more or less consensus pick to win the conference no matter what subset of pundits you ask, but they have plenty of warts and question marks of their own and I think the reasoning tends to go "well I can't figure out how it could be anyone else." Fair enough, I suppose. Last year Clemson was supposed to have their year, and they didn't, and this year, what have you got? Same as last year, basically: eight or nine teams that would all be third or fourth best in any other major conference in the land. So you pick the team with a defense that probably won't fold too often and at least has a proven coach. Unless you're me, then you go with the team whose performance last year surprised everyone but you because you sort of predicted they'd do that.
Anyway, all this comes without having yet done any of my season previews, which are as much to educate me as they are you, so I reserve the right to change my mind.
A couple other tidbits:
Getting cautiously optimistic that Jeff White's move into the athletic department is going to work out nicely after all. His stories are good stuff. For example:
- Might have mentioned it already, but DE Kevin Crawford is off the team now as well as previously-noted TE Rod Wheeler. The scholarship crunch is coming to an end. My depth chart file isn't on this computer, so I'll count later, but I think that brings us to 86.
- The freshmen are way behind on their conditioning - that's to be expected, of course - but S&C coach Brandon Hourigan noted a few that are in good shape: Tim Smith, Perry Jones, Quintin Hunter, Javanti Sparrow. Those are the guys you'd want to watch out for in fall camp, especially Smith (obviously) and Sparrow, who play a position where suddenly we can't have enough depth. With the tremendous trop in DE depth we've taken this offseason, it's too bad a DE wasn't on that list somewhere.
Also, the 2011 recruiting class already has its first member: WR Adrian Gamble. No, I have no intention of starting the 2011 recruiting board. And no, I have no idea if this guy's any good. He's fast, they say. Great. Actually, what it tells me is that we're probably going to sign a full 25 in 2011, if Groh's already got that class cranking up. We didn't have our first '09 commitment til December '07 (that was Owah, who decommitted eventually) and we didn't have a '10 commit until February this year. Gamble's way ahead of the curve. Guys who do that usually fall into two categories: either they're committing to their dream school and getting it done early, or they have no idea of the attention they're going to get just for playing football, and decommit once they see some offer letters. It'll be interesting to see what kind of schools will try and pry Gamble out of our clutches.
Monday, October 6, 2008
weekend review
Those of you who saw the Blogpoll ballot on Sunday may have noticed a slight corporate flavor to it. As its banner may have hinted, the Blogpoll is now featured at CBSSports.com. And hey, look! There's even a little link right back here at the bottom of the page. Giggity giggity! Alphabetical circumstances cause this link to be at the bottom of the list; were the state named "Birginia" or "Nirginia" we would be higher up, but N-Sabres wouldn't even be half as cool. How this will work is that on Sunday, I post my ballot here; Monday, you can see the early results at CBS Sports; and then on Wednesday, MGoBlog has the full ballot with revisions and analysis, and (presumably) the poll posted at CBS Sports will also change.
Here is the press release. I can't find it on the web, although admittedly I did not look for more than about a minute or so. It was sent to me, anyway, so looking for it very hard was not a high priority.
Catching up on the other football - there is yet more good news here. Friday saw the team knock off UNC 1-0 on a penalty kick. After a four-game stretch in which they allowed 2.5 goals a game, they've now gone five games and given up just one goal. The team is now ranked again - #18. Tomorrow they host Liberty (5-3) and on Friday, Clemson (4-4-1, 3-1). In other soccer news, Tony Tchani is still a freakin' beast.
I love the UVA Notes section in the RTD. Sometimes it provides some really good important tidbits about the team. Other times it is awesome for making fun of. Thanks, Jeff White, for pointing out that the crowd wore a lot of orange despite the call for blue. Slow news week? White also points out that the 'Hoos also "rediscovered the aerial game." This is true. I had damn near forgotten what it looked like when we threw for a touchdown, but Verica and Ogletree reminded me in very stylish fashion. Make no mistake though - this was possible because the ground game opened it up. Ogletree was single-covered on the 51-yard touchdown throw that opened up the scoring, because Peerman had just gashed the defense for 8 yards on 2nd and 6. There was no safety help on the TD throw because Maryland was worried about another 8 yards. Duke was never worried that we might pick up 8 yards on a routine carry - they comfortably dropped 6 into coverage at times because the running game was useless.
When the good news comes, it keeps on coming. Will Barker and Dave Roberts are cleared of theft charges that resulted from the Club 216 incident in August. Roberts still has to go through the whole underage drinking process that tripped up Peter Lalich, though.
And speaking of good news, we have TV coverage news for the UNC game. A 3:30 start time (my favorite time - plenty of pre-gaming and the party can start early upon return) and ABC/ESPN2 will carry the game.
Finally, never overlook a good Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reference. They've been waiting to use that one ever since Verica was named the starter, I just know it.
It's never the wrong time to make fun of Maryland.....
Now for the high schools.
QUINTIN HUNTER: Ouch. 9 of 29 passing for 75 yards against James Monroe. Hunter ran for one touchdown and threw for another, but the story here is the five picks. Yikes.
ROSS METHENY: Back on track in a 47-7 blowout of Central. 16/21 for 236 yards, 3 TDs and a pick.
PERRY JONES: Oscar Smith is nasty good. 48-7 dismantling of Western Branch, in which Jones scored twice and carried 9 times for 72 yards. Tim Smith, who's looking very, very hard at UVA, hauled in three touchdown passes.
TUCKER WINDLE: Scored a touchdown and racked up some TFL in Charlotte Catholic's 30-6 win over E.E. Waddell. (You have to click around a bit because the link doesn't go directly to the article, but it's not hard to find.)
KEVIN ROYAL: Scored two touchdowns but left the game with an arm injury in a 33-27 loss to King. Of note, Silas Redd, a junior in the class of 2010 that we've offered (along with BC), is King's star RB, and he ran for 170 yards and a touchdown in this game.
Only one update to the recruiting board this week. Pat Muldoon added Duke to his top four, making it a top five; he's been downgraded from Good to Fair on the board. Just too many factors here to feel as confident about a UVA pick. Tim Smith was in town on his official visit for the Maryland game, which is good timing but doesn't affect the board. I really like our chances with Smith.
Weekly spin around the ACC....
Duke is Duke again, losing to Georgia Tech 27-0. Never mind that, somebody tell Dane over at TheLegacyx4 that we're not the worst team in the BCS. I'll see your UVA and raise you a Washington State, dude.
Boston College took down NC State in a shootout, 38-31. Eagle in Atlanta has some historical perspective on the stats BC racked up.
VT slogged through a 27-13 win over Western Kentucky. Gobbler Country describes the Turkies last four games as three heart attacks followed by a let-down game.
FSU beat Miami 41-39, in the game that was billed (by me, just now) as the one to decide Which Team Is Back. Scalp 'Em is pretty happy about not playing the game in the OB any more. (Major negative points to the Canes for playing their games in the sterile environment of a pro stadium, by the way. This should never happen in college football except for bowl games.)
UNC shellacked UConn 38-12. If Bad UVA shows up for that game in two weeks, we can say goodbye to that home win streak against Carolina.
Maryland lost. Did you notice? Turtle Waxing has a rant. Virginia, really? Yes, Virginia.
Yes, Virginia, indeed.
Here is the press release. I can't find it on the web, although admittedly I did not look for more than about a minute or so. It was sent to me, anyway, so looking for it very hard was not a high priority.
CHICAGO, IL – CBSSports.com will become the exclusive home of the College Football BlogPoll beginning on Monday, October 6. The CBSSports.com BlogPoll Top 25 is a weekly ranking of the top 25 college football teams as voted on by nearly 100 of the leading college football bloggers, representing every BCS school and several non-BCS schools. TeamWorks Media, a Chicago-based sports and entertainment content company and the rights holder of the College Football BlogPoll, has created a partnership with CBSSports.com."Many of the most knowledgeable, responsible, and influential experts in the sport." Boy does that ever boost the ol' ego. Knowledgeable! Responsible! Influential! The "MOBILE AGILE HOSTILE" of the blogging world. I was half waiting for the other shoe to drop and the phrase "and also that From Old Virginia guy," to get thrown in there.
Since 2005, the most influential, popular and expert college football bloggers have weighed in each week of the season, combining to create a weekly Top 25 ranking unrivaled in its authenticity and transparency. Each blogger's weekly ballot is publicly available, and the bloggers themselves post their ballots on their blogs, subject to the scrutiny of the fans.
As the new home for the BlogPoll Top 25, CBSSports.com will continue this tradition: The BlogPoll's initial results will be released on Monday, displayed side-by-side with the more traditional AP and Coaches' polls. Fans will be encouraged to review the ballot of the blogger associated with their favorite team and, if interested, even challenge them to defend their decision-making. The BlogPoll voters will take this fan feedback into account before submitting their final ballot, released each Wednesday exclusively at CBSSports.com.
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Catching up on the other football - there is yet more good news here. Friday saw the team knock off UNC 1-0 on a penalty kick. After a four-game stretch in which they allowed 2.5 goals a game, they've now gone five games and given up just one goal. The team is now ranked again - #18. Tomorrow they host Liberty (5-3) and on Friday, Clemson (4-4-1, 3-1). In other soccer news, Tony Tchani is still a freakin' beast.
I love the UVA Notes section in the RTD. Sometimes it provides some really good important tidbits about the team. Other times it is awesome for making fun of. Thanks, Jeff White, for pointing out that the crowd wore a lot of orange despite the call for blue. Slow news week? White also points out that the 'Hoos also "rediscovered the aerial game." This is true. I had damn near forgotten what it looked like when we threw for a touchdown, but Verica and Ogletree reminded me in very stylish fashion. Make no mistake though - this was possible because the ground game opened it up. Ogletree was single-covered on the 51-yard touchdown throw that opened up the scoring, because Peerman had just gashed the defense for 8 yards on 2nd and 6. There was no safety help on the TD throw because Maryland was worried about another 8 yards. Duke was never worried that we might pick up 8 yards on a routine carry - they comfortably dropped 6 into coverage at times because the running game was useless.
When the good news comes, it keeps on coming. Will Barker and Dave Roberts are cleared of theft charges that resulted from the Club 216 incident in August. Roberts still has to go through the whole underage drinking process that tripped up Peter Lalich, though.
And speaking of good news, we have TV coverage news for the UNC game. A 3:30 start time (my favorite time - plenty of pre-gaming and the party can start early upon return) and ABC/ESPN2 will carry the game.
Finally, never overlook a good Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reference. They've been waiting to use that one ever since Verica was named the starter, I just know it.
It's never the wrong time to make fun of Maryland.....
Now for the high schools.
QUINTIN HUNTER: Ouch. 9 of 29 passing for 75 yards against James Monroe. Hunter ran for one touchdown and threw for another, but the story here is the five picks. Yikes.
ROSS METHENY: Back on track in a 47-7 blowout of Central. 16/21 for 236 yards, 3 TDs and a pick.
PERRY JONES: Oscar Smith is nasty good. 48-7 dismantling of Western Branch, in which Jones scored twice and carried 9 times for 72 yards. Tim Smith, who's looking very, very hard at UVA, hauled in three touchdown passes.
TUCKER WINDLE: Scored a touchdown and racked up some TFL in Charlotte Catholic's 30-6 win over E.E. Waddell. (You have to click around a bit because the link doesn't go directly to the article, but it's not hard to find.)
KEVIN ROYAL: Scored two touchdowns but left the game with an arm injury in a 33-27 loss to King. Of note, Silas Redd, a junior in the class of 2010 that we've offered (along with BC), is King's star RB, and he ran for 170 yards and a touchdown in this game.
Only one update to the recruiting board this week. Pat Muldoon added Duke to his top four, making it a top five; he's been downgraded from Good to Fair on the board. Just too many factors here to feel as confident about a UVA pick. Tim Smith was in town on his official visit for the Maryland game, which is good timing but doesn't affect the board. I really like our chances with Smith.
Weekly spin around the ACC....
Duke is Duke again, losing to Georgia Tech 27-0. Never mind that, somebody tell Dane over at TheLegacyx4 that we're not the worst team in the BCS. I'll see your UVA and raise you a Washington State, dude.
Boston College took down NC State in a shootout, 38-31. Eagle in Atlanta has some historical perspective on the stats BC racked up.
VT slogged through a 27-13 win over Western Kentucky. Gobbler Country describes the Turkies last four games as three heart attacks followed by a let-down game.
FSU beat Miami 41-39, in the game that was billed (by me, just now) as the one to decide Which Team Is Back. Scalp 'Em is pretty happy about not playing the game in the OB any more. (Major negative points to the Canes for playing their games in the sterile environment of a pro stadium, by the way. This should never happen in college football except for bowl games.)
UNC shellacked UConn 38-12. If Bad UVA shows up for that game in two weeks, we can say goodbye to that home win streak against Carolina.
Maryland lost. Did you notice? Turtle Waxing has a rant. Virginia, really? Yes, Virginia.
Yes, Virginia, indeed.
Monday, September 29, 2008
weekend review
Ah, sweet hilarity. The first blurb in RTD's UVA Notes section on Sunday was headlined "Spin Control," and it's hard to tell whether they were referring to Groh's press conference or the article itself. Groh says, "Despite what we see up there (on the scoreboard, you know, the one that said Duke Lots, Virginia Not So Much), in a lot of different areas we saw some positive movement with the team."
Uh, OK. You know what, you don't even need my commentary, you can see it coming a mile away. Hint: the first word starts with "B" and ends with "ullshit."
Next we move on to further hilarity:
One thing they can't put a positive spin on is Keith Payne's injury, a hand issue. The best that can be said is that it's not a season-ending deal or one requiring surgery. Well, I'll put a happy face on it if they won't: it doesn't matter, because even if Peerman can't go against Maryland either, Simpson and Rashawn Jackson can run smack into a wall of advancing defensive linemen as well as anyone. But don't let me blow sunshine up your ass or anything.
Well, I've just been Mr. Raincloud so far, haven't I? How about some good news then? Friday was our one chance this fall to say SUCK IT TECH as the soccer team went to Blacksburg and knocked off the Hokies, 2-1. VT is a terrible terrible soccer team and we tend to dominate them. Matt Mitchell took care of all the scoring, which is nice that we're not relying entirely on the freshmen to do this. Next up is a Friday match against UNC, which is a pretty darn good team.
One more tidbit before we go to the high schools: the ECU game on 10/11 will be at noon and not broadcast on any channel that I've got here in Rhode Island.
All right, let's see what happened in the high schools this weekend:
QUINTIN HUNTER: Not a good week, as Orange dropped one to Monticello 44-13. Hunter was just 5/22 passing for 97 yards, 1 TD and two picks, and carried 15 times for 115 yards.
ROSS METHENY: Completed 13 of 22 for 202 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT in Sherando's 21-19 loss to Handley.
LAROY REYNOLDS: Caught a touchdown pass as Maury beat Norcom 17-7.
PERRY JONES: Scored a touchdown in Oscar Smith's 37-0 romp over Grassfield. Tim Smith, who has UVA in his top three, scored three.
KEVIN ROYAL: Moved to tailback and carried 20 times for 111 yards and two touchdowns in Brunswick's 20-12 win over Kingswood-Oxford.
Around the ACC:
Murralin 20, Clemson 17. Mickey Plyler breaks his call-for-the-coach's-head-on-a-platter cherry. Block-C requires two separate posts to get through all the meltdown madness from happy Clemson fans, one of which hasn't even happened yet. Scroll about a third of the way down that last link for a little perspective on our very own Al Groh. I frankly think the problem with Clemson is not so much Tommy Bowden as much as those horrendous purple unis.
UNC knocks off Miami. Tar Heel Mania is sorry for being mean to Cam Sexton. Beating Miami has a way of making fans of the team that did it very very happy, even if Miami isn't really all that good.
If Boston College beats hell out of RIU in a driving monsoon and nobody shows up, does anyone care? (Picture is at Eagle In Atlanta.)
FSU beat Colorado. Scalp 'Em has thoughts. Me speak short sentences.
Navy dropped Wake, and Old Gold & Blog worries that the Deacs' national title aspirations are finished.
NC State got housed 41-10 by USF, and State Fans' Nation remains pissed that we, Virginia, are not on their schedule. We feel your pain, man. We wish you were on our schedule too.
Finally, VT took down Nebraska. Effin' CGB is effin happy, eff you very much.
That's all, folks! Those expecting to see some kind of recruiting update, never fear. I am working on one with a little bit better format than the usual. It will have colors'n'shit. And it will have its own separate post so that it can go into the brand-spankin' new Clemons Library section.
Oh! One more thing. Next week, look for some very exciting news regarding the BlogPoll. I am not at liberty to say more. I may not even technically at liberty to say as much as this, but this is a smallish blog still and I doubt the big surprise is all that spoiled. It's a unique thing and très passionnant.
Uh, OK. You know what, you don't even need my commentary, you can see it coming a mile away. Hint: the first word starts with "B" and ends with "ullshit."
Next we move on to further hilarity:
Even so, the Cavaliers got strong performances from Rashawn Jackson and Keith Payne and finished with a season-high 110 yards rushing......Yesterday, the Cavaliers totaled a season-high 304 yards...Both from the same "note." Of course, we picked up 20 yards on three carries on the final drive to end the game when Duke cared just barely enough to tackle, but we'll ignore that for now. 110 yards, boy howdy, and 304 total. Right now we rank 118th and 119th in the land, respectively, in those categories. Just imagine if we could have gotten 110 rushing yards and 304 total yards every game, why, we'd be all the way up to 103rd and 106th. Cry-muh-nitly. Even on his best day, Mikey Groh can't drag us into the top 100.
One thing they can't put a positive spin on is Keith Payne's injury, a hand issue. The best that can be said is that it's not a season-ending deal or one requiring surgery. Well, I'll put a happy face on it if they won't: it doesn't matter, because even if Peerman can't go against Maryland either, Simpson and Rashawn Jackson can run smack into a wall of advancing defensive linemen as well as anyone. But don't let me blow sunshine up your ass or anything.
Well, I've just been Mr. Raincloud so far, haven't I? How about some good news then? Friday was our one chance this fall to say SUCK IT TECH as the soccer team went to Blacksburg and knocked off the Hokies, 2-1. VT is a terrible terrible soccer team and we tend to dominate them. Matt Mitchell took care of all the scoring, which is nice that we're not relying entirely on the freshmen to do this. Next up is a Friday match against UNC, which is a pretty darn good team.
One more tidbit before we go to the high schools: the ECU game on 10/11 will be at noon and not broadcast on any channel that I've got here in Rhode Island.
All right, let's see what happened in the high schools this weekend:
QUINTIN HUNTER: Not a good week, as Orange dropped one to Monticello 44-13. Hunter was just 5/22 passing for 97 yards, 1 TD and two picks, and carried 15 times for 115 yards.
ROSS METHENY: Completed 13 of 22 for 202 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT in Sherando's 21-19 loss to Handley.
LAROY REYNOLDS: Caught a touchdown pass as Maury beat Norcom 17-7.
PERRY JONES: Scored a touchdown in Oscar Smith's 37-0 romp over Grassfield. Tim Smith, who has UVA in his top three, scored three.
KEVIN ROYAL: Moved to tailback and carried 20 times for 111 yards and two touchdowns in Brunswick's 20-12 win over Kingswood-Oxford.
Around the ACC:
Murralin 20, Clemson 17. Mickey Plyler breaks his call-for-the-coach's-head-on-a-platter cherry. Block-C requires two separate posts to get through all the meltdown madness from happy Clemson fans, one of which hasn't even happened yet. Scroll about a third of the way down that last link for a little perspective on our very own Al Groh. I frankly think the problem with Clemson is not so much Tommy Bowden as much as those horrendous purple unis.
UNC knocks off Miami. Tar Heel Mania is sorry for being mean to Cam Sexton. Beating Miami has a way of making fans of the team that did it very very happy, even if Miami isn't really all that good.
If Boston College beats hell out of RIU in a driving monsoon and nobody shows up, does anyone care? (Picture is at Eagle In Atlanta.)
FSU beat Colorado. Scalp 'Em has thoughts. Me speak short sentences.
Navy dropped Wake, and Old Gold & Blog worries that the Deacs' national title aspirations are finished.
NC State got housed 41-10 by USF, and State Fans' Nation remains pissed that we, Virginia, are not on their schedule. We feel your pain, man. We wish you were on our schedule too.
Finally, VT took down Nebraska. Effin' CGB is effin happy, eff you very much.
That's all, folks! Those expecting to see some kind of recruiting update, never fear. I am working on one with a little bit better format than the usual. It will have colors'n'shit. And it will have its own separate post so that it can go into the brand-spankin' new Clemons Library section.
Oh! One more thing. Next week, look for some very exciting news regarding the BlogPoll. I am not at liberty to say more. I may not even technically at liberty to say as much as this, but this is a smallish blog still and I doubt the big surprise is all that spoiled. It's a unique thing and très passionnant.
Monday, September 8, 2008
weekend review
Strap in. Biggish post coming up. Got a lot of stuff to cover. Got this week's Blogpoll submission and explanation of myself. Got to take a look at what our recruits were up to on Friday night, we'll take a look at the recruiting board, and a little bit of a jaunt around the ACC to see how they felt about the weekend. Hot insider item: Maryland didn't like it.
This is the Poll:
What's that, you ask? How does Ohio State keep the top spot despite looking like the JV team against Ohio? Simple: they were the top team last week, and they won. Besides that, USC didn't play - a convincing USC victory over somebody would probably have pushed them to the top. This is still the "predictive" part of the year, where I'm mostly unimpressed by a team kicking around some tin can from the Sun Belt, and I'm mostly unswayed by "bad" wins. Yes, Wake fell a couple spots despite this philosophy, but the muddled 15-25 area is much more volatile than the top 5.
East Carolina, obviously, is the talk of the town. Virginia Tech fell a couple more spots with a fairly unimpressive win over Furman, which has the coolest logo in all of DI-AA, but since ECU followed up a Week 1 shocker with a Week 2 shocker, you have to figure that may actually reflect a little more on ECU being good rather than VT being bad. Penn State shows up after curb-stomping Oregon State. Yes, Oregon State is a bad team, but Penn State acted like a good team and did what good teams are supposed to do. Tennessee and UNC, with a loss and a terrible win, respectively, on their records, get bumped.
Next week is going to be interesting and probably raise some red flags over at headquarters. After three weeks, most teams have played three games; to me, this is enough to vote entirely on resume. This could very well put East Carolina up a lot higher than they are now, and given the tin cans they've got coming up in the next four weeks (yes, us too) they could well be the beneficiaries of my rule that a 7-0 team or better always gets ranked higher than a team with a loss. Teams like LSU will suffer in the rankings, big time; LSU has stomped Appalachian State, will probably stomp North Texas, and that is not really all that cool.
As always, feel free to unfuck me if you think I need it.
Ok, moving on. How did our recruits do this weekend?
Ross Metheny: Opened his season by passing for 169 yards on 11 of 13, with 3 touchdowns, in a 37-10 Sherando win over Musselman.
Perry Jones: Scored two touchdowns in Oscar Smith's rout of Hickory.
Quintin Hunter: Completed 7 of 17 passes for 168 yards and 1 TD; ran for 126 yards on five carries with a long of 63 and scored another TD. Orange beat Culpeper 40-0.
Dominique Wallace: The headline screams WALLACE DOES IT ALL. (!!!) Wallace carried the ball 16 times for 207 and caught a pass for 16 more, and scored all five touchdowns himself in Chancellor's 35-6 over Massaponax. Wallace ran for three, caught one, and ran a teammate's fumble another 79 yards for the final score.
Paul Freedman: Caught a touchdown pass in CCC's 19-0 win over Miami Bay Point.
Recruiting board!
Updates:
- This is rather old news, but Brennan Williams cut his list even further, and we're still on it, so yay. For him, it's either BC, Wake, or UVA.
- Added schools for Antone Exum and fixed his position. We've offered as a WR, so that's where he gets slotted. However, he plays quarterback and DB in high school and wants to play QB in college.
- Removed WR Rex Burkhead, who was never really thinking UVA real hard, but finally listed a more or less official top six that we are not in.
- Logan Thomas added Florida State and Penn State to his top seven, making it a top nine.
- Added Boston College to Oday Aboushi.
- Removed OT Patrick Ward, who named a top four that takes him nowhere near Charlottesville.
QB Kevin Newsome
- VT, PSU, Mich., UNC, WVU
RB Tavon Austin
- Md., WVU, UGA, Mich., Neb.
RB De'Antwan Williams
- Bama, VT, BC, Md., Rutgers, WVU
WR Justin Brown
- PSU, VT, NCSt., S.Car, UNC
WR Sean Farr
- Md., WVU, Akron, EMU
WR Timothy Smith
- L'ville, S.Car, WVU
WR Antone Exum
- SCar., VT, WVU, PSU, Md., Tenn., Purdue, L'ville, CU, Wake
TE Logan Thomas
- VT, Clemson, WVU, UNC, Wake, Tenn., FSU, PSU
OT Morgan Moses
- pretty much everyone east of the Mississippi
OT Oday Aboushi
- Iowa, Md., Rutgers, PSU, Mich., BC
DE Brennan Williams
- BC, Wake
DE Michael Buchanan
- Purdue, Ill., Cal, Vandy, KU
DE Lanford Collins
- VT, PSU, Tenn., WVU, Md., NCSt., UNC, BC, Ill.
DE Garry Gilliam
- UConn, PSU, Temple, Pitt, Akron
DE Will Hill
- UConn, Md., Mich., UNC, S.Car
DE Anthony LaLota
- BC, UF, Mich., ND, PSU, Rutgers
DE Bernardo Nunez
- lots
DE DeAntre Rhodes
- VT, Md., Clemson, Tenn.
DE Pat Muldoon
- Cincy, BC, Wisc.
OLB Jelani Jenkins
- everyone and their aunt
CB Travis Hawkins
- who isn't interested?
S Javanti Sparrow
- Clemson, UNC, PSU, VT, WVU
S Taylor Sowell
- Miami, VT, WVU, GT
DB Joshua Evans
- 28 other schools. for real.
So, we won on Saturday, and you know this. What about the rest of the league? Some snippets from around the ACC blogworld, sprinkled with editorializing from your humble blogger.
Boston College and Georgia Tech opened the ACC season with the kind of lame, uninspiring game that the ACC is probably going to pump out in spades this year, and even the non-religiously-football-watching crowd can tell it sucks. The GT take isn't much better. One called it "super ugly" and the other said "painful to watch", and I'm not even gonna bother telling you which is which.
Florida State housed some team that the school paid several hundred thousand dollars to come in and do their Sunday best to keep Bobby Bowden out of trouble with the alums. Next week they will do the same, and if there's any justice they will travel to Winston-Salem and get flattened in two weeks.
Wake Forest gave zero people any reason to think the ACC will not totally suck. Ole Miss could not win a single SEC game last year and came thisclose to knocking off our (supposed) second or third best team in their own house. Old Gold & Blog is remarkably calm in times when most people would say, "yes we won BUT" and commence to running in panicked circles around their living room.
Gobbler Country would like you to boo Sean Glennon. This is not a hard request for most Tech fans.
Maryland BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Small reminder that that was oh so close to being us last year. That out of the way, who cares? HA. Maybe, just maybe, their plutoid-size coach should check to see which teams are "pretty good" (hint: not yours, coach) before opening his mouth.
This is the Poll:
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohio State | -- |
| 2 | Southern Cal | -- |
| 3 | Georgia | -- |
| 4 | Florida | -- |
| 5 | Oklahoma | -- |
| 6 | Missouri | -- |
| 7 | Texas | -- |
| 8 | Arizona State | -- |
| 9 | LSU | -- |
| 10 | Wisconsin |  1 |
| 11 | East Carolina | 15 |
| 12 | Kansas | -- |
| 13 | Brigham Young | -- |
| 14 | Texas Tech | -- |
| 15 | Auburn | -- |
| 16 | Oregon | 2 |
| 17 | Alabama | 2 |
| 18 | Virginia Tech |  2 |
| 19 | Wake Forest | 2 |
| 20 | West Virginia | 10 |
| 21 | Clemson | 1 |
| 22 | Penn State | 4 |
| 23 | Illinois | 2 |
| 24 | Fresno State | 2 |
| 25 | South Florida | 2 |
Dropped Out: Tennessee (#24), North Carolina (#25).
What's that, you ask? How does Ohio State keep the top spot despite looking like the JV team against Ohio? Simple: they were the top team last week, and they won. Besides that, USC didn't play - a convincing USC victory over somebody would probably have pushed them to the top. This is still the "predictive" part of the year, where I'm mostly unimpressed by a team kicking around some tin can from the Sun Belt, and I'm mostly unswayed by "bad" wins. Yes, Wake fell a couple spots despite this philosophy, but the muddled 15-25 area is much more volatile than the top 5.
East Carolina, obviously, is the talk of the town. Virginia Tech fell a couple more spots with a fairly unimpressive win over Furman, which has the coolest logo in all of DI-AA, but since ECU followed up a Week 1 shocker with a Week 2 shocker, you have to figure that may actually reflect a little more on ECU being good rather than VT being bad. Penn State shows up after curb-stomping Oregon State. Yes, Oregon State is a bad team, but Penn State acted like a good team and did what good teams are supposed to do. Tennessee and UNC, with a loss and a terrible win, respectively, on their records, get bumped.
Next week is going to be interesting and probably raise some red flags over at headquarters. After three weeks, most teams have played three games; to me, this is enough to vote entirely on resume. This could very well put East Carolina up a lot higher than they are now, and given the tin cans they've got coming up in the next four weeks (yes, us too) they could well be the beneficiaries of my rule that a 7-0 team or better always gets ranked higher than a team with a loss. Teams like LSU will suffer in the rankings, big time; LSU has stomped Appalachian State, will probably stomp North Texas, and that is not really all that cool.
As always, feel free to unfuck me if you think I need it.
Ok, moving on. How did our recruits do this weekend?
Ross Metheny: Opened his season by passing for 169 yards on 11 of 13, with 3 touchdowns, in a 37-10 Sherando win over Musselman.
Perry Jones: Scored two touchdowns in Oscar Smith's rout of Hickory.
Quintin Hunter: Completed 7 of 17 passes for 168 yards and 1 TD; ran for 126 yards on five carries with a long of 63 and scored another TD. Orange beat Culpeper 40-0.
Dominique Wallace: The headline screams WALLACE DOES IT ALL. (!!!) Wallace carried the ball 16 times for 207 and caught a pass for 16 more, and scored all five touchdowns himself in Chancellor's 35-6 over Massaponax. Wallace ran for three, caught one, and ran a teammate's fumble another 79 yards for the final score.
Paul Freedman: Caught a touchdown pass in CCC's 19-0 win over Miami Bay Point.
Recruiting board!
Updates:
- This is rather old news, but Brennan Williams cut his list even further, and we're still on it, so yay. For him, it's either BC, Wake, or UVA.
- Added schools for Antone Exum and fixed his position. We've offered as a WR, so that's where he gets slotted. However, he plays quarterback and DB in high school and wants to play QB in college.
- Removed WR Rex Burkhead, who was never really thinking UVA real hard, but finally listed a more or less official top six that we are not in.
- Logan Thomas added Florida State and Penn State to his top seven, making it a top nine.
- Added Boston College to Oday Aboushi.
- Removed OT Patrick Ward, who named a top four that takes him nowhere near Charlottesville.
QB Kevin Newsome
- VT, PSU, Mich., UNC, WVU
RB Tavon Austin
- Md., WVU, UGA, Mich., Neb.
RB De'Antwan Williams
- Bama, VT, BC, Md., Rutgers, WVU
WR Justin Brown
- PSU, VT, NCSt., S.Car, UNC
WR Sean Farr
- Md., WVU, Akron, EMU
WR Timothy Smith
- L'ville, S.Car, WVU
WR Antone Exum
- SCar., VT, WVU, PSU, Md., Tenn., Purdue, L'ville, CU, Wake
TE Logan Thomas
- VT, Clemson, WVU, UNC, Wake, Tenn., FSU, PSU
OT Morgan Moses
- pretty much everyone east of the Mississippi
OT Oday Aboushi
- Iowa, Md., Rutgers, PSU, Mich., BC
DE Brennan Williams
- BC, Wake
DE Michael Buchanan
- Purdue, Ill., Cal, Vandy, KU
DE Lanford Collins
- VT, PSU, Tenn., WVU, Md., NCSt., UNC, BC, Ill.
DE Garry Gilliam
- UConn, PSU, Temple, Pitt, Akron
DE Will Hill
- UConn, Md., Mich., UNC, S.Car
DE Anthony LaLota
- BC, UF, Mich., ND, PSU, Rutgers
DE Bernardo Nunez
- lots
DE DeAntre Rhodes
- VT, Md., Clemson, Tenn.
DE Pat Muldoon
- Cincy, BC, Wisc.
OLB Jelani Jenkins
- everyone and their aunt
CB Travis Hawkins
- who isn't interested?
S Javanti Sparrow
- Clemson, UNC, PSU, VT, WVU
S Taylor Sowell
- Miami, VT, WVU, GT
DB Joshua Evans
- 28 other schools. for real.
So, we won on Saturday, and you know this. What about the rest of the league? Some snippets from around the ACC blogworld, sprinkled with editorializing from your humble blogger.
Boston College and Georgia Tech opened the ACC season with the kind of lame, uninspiring game that the ACC is probably going to pump out in spades this year, and even the non-religiously-football-watching crowd can tell it sucks. The GT take isn't much better. One called it "super ugly" and the other said "painful to watch", and I'm not even gonna bother telling you which is which.
Florida State housed some team that the school paid several hundred thousand dollars to come in and do their Sunday best to keep Bobby Bowden out of trouble with the alums. Next week they will do the same, and if there's any justice they will travel to Winston-Salem and get flattened in two weeks.
Wake Forest gave zero people any reason to think the ACC will not totally suck. Ole Miss could not win a single SEC game last year and came thisclose to knocking off our (supposed) second or third best team in their own house. Old Gold & Blog is remarkably calm in times when most people would say, "yes we won BUT" and commence to running in panicked circles around their living room.
Gobbler Country would like you to boo Sean Glennon. This is not a hard request for most Tech fans.
Maryland BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Small reminder that that was oh so close to being us last year. That out of the way, who cares? HA. Maybe, just maybe, their plutoid-size coach should check to see which teams are "pretty good" (hint: not yours, coach) before opening his mouth.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
the recruit: quintin hunter
Third in a series aiming to break down the future new guys into tiny little very readable capsules. I expect to do one of these for each of our verbals, and then February of course will bring Signing Day, and Signing Day will bring a larger uber-analysis, and the larger uber-analysis will bring you joy. So straight to it.
Quintin Hunter is one of those guys they call "athlete", even though no coach is going to turn to the bench and say, "Hunter! Get in there and play athlete for Pugelschmidt!" Hunter plays quarterback, wide receiver (no, silly Hokie, not on the same play), safety, and moonlights as a basketball player when there's no footballin' to be done. He committed in March about a month after Dominique Wallace.
Name: Quintin Hunter
Position: Athlete, but that's not a position. He appears destined for WR.
Hometown: Orange
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 180*
40: 4.5
ESPN: 150 Watch List; no number grade yet.
Rivals: 5.8, four stars, #25 athlete
Scout: three stars, #87 wide receiver
*Scout lists 195, but most other outlets say 180.
Hunter appears to be a well-thought of player who, more so than Wallace, recruiting sites can't agree about his position and therefore can't agree about his evaluation. Scout's three stars are almost assuredly based on his prowess as a wide receiver only; ESPN and Rivals are taking into account all his positions. Regardless, we're getting a good player. Hunter was also offered by Tech, WVU, Md., and Stanford, and Georgia was showing interest as well.
The highlight videos that Rivals offers up show exclusively quarterback footage. This is because Orange County, like 4 billion other high schools in the country, has a player that's 10 times the athlete of anyone else on the team and will therefore have the ball in his hands every play. That's Quintin. Wide receiver was more of a thing to get said athlete on the field as a sophomore with a senior quarterback already entrenched. Hunter throws a very nice spiral, but he has a major drawback in that he throws behind his receivers all the time. Scarcely a passing highlight went by without his target having to break stride to catch the ball, and these are the highlights, intended to show us the best. This may have a lot to do with why we want him as a receiver. (Rivals $)
Now, the above article was useful for telling us about Hunter's future position. It also has another useful nugget of info, backing up this earlier article: Rivals $. That one is entitled "Hunter lists Hokies as his favorite." Fear not, friends, those articles are from November and September of last year. Yes, Quintin Hunter grew up a Hokies fan. I don't even hold that against him; on the contrary, it's awesome. Another reason to say TTTTHHHBBBPPPPTTTT to Blacksburg. Come on, it's fun: TTTTTHHHHBBBPPPPTTTTTT. So what changed? For one thing, Hunter called it a "long trip" to Blacksburg when he visited. It's only 3 hours or so to Tech, but Orange is a mere 45 minutes from Scott Stadium where Hunter will be spending autumn Saturdays. Hunter wants to play QB, but like all recruits he wants to play, and with Tyrod Taylor behind center in Blacksburg for the foreseeable future and with our complete lack of a wide receiver who doesn't have cornerback glue on him, Hunter's chances of playing time are a lot better here than there. Plus, you know, he likes the place. Who wouldn't?
Quintin Hunter is one of those guys they call "athlete", even though no coach is going to turn to the bench and say, "Hunter! Get in there and play athlete for Pugelschmidt!" Hunter plays quarterback, wide receiver (no, silly Hokie, not on the same play), safety, and moonlights as a basketball player when there's no footballin' to be done. He committed in March about a month after Dominique Wallace.
Name: Quintin Hunter
Position: Athlete, but that's not a position. He appears destined for WR.
Hometown: Orange
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 180*
40: 4.5
ESPN: 150 Watch List; no number grade yet.
Rivals: 5.8, four stars, #25 athlete
Scout: three stars, #87 wide receiver
*Scout lists 195, but most other outlets say 180.
Hunter appears to be a well-thought of player who, more so than Wallace, recruiting sites can't agree about his position and therefore can't agree about his evaluation. Scout's three stars are almost assuredly based on his prowess as a wide receiver only; ESPN and Rivals are taking into account all his positions. Regardless, we're getting a good player. Hunter was also offered by Tech, WVU, Md., and Stanford, and Georgia was showing interest as well.
The highlight videos that Rivals offers up show exclusively quarterback footage. This is because Orange County, like 4 billion other high schools in the country, has a player that's 10 times the athlete of anyone else on the team and will therefore have the ball in his hands every play. That's Quintin. Wide receiver was more of a thing to get said athlete on the field as a sophomore with a senior quarterback already entrenched. Hunter throws a very nice spiral, but he has a major drawback in that he throws behind his receivers all the time. Scarcely a passing highlight went by without his target having to break stride to catch the ball, and these are the highlights, intended to show us the best. This may have a lot to do with why we want him as a receiver. (Rivals $)
Now, the above article was useful for telling us about Hunter's future position. It also has another useful nugget of info, backing up this earlier article: Rivals $. That one is entitled "Hunter lists Hokies as his favorite." Fear not, friends, those articles are from November and September of last year. Yes, Quintin Hunter grew up a Hokies fan. I don't even hold that against him; on the contrary, it's awesome. Another reason to say TTTTHHHBBBPPPPTTTT to Blacksburg. Come on, it's fun: TTTTTHHHHBBBPPPPTTTTTT. So what changed? For one thing, Hunter called it a "long trip" to Blacksburg when he visited. It's only 3 hours or so to Tech, but Orange is a mere 45 minutes from Scott Stadium where Hunter will be spending autumn Saturdays. Hunter wants to play QB, but like all recruits he wants to play, and with Tyrod Taylor behind center in Blacksburg for the foreseeable future and with our complete lack of a wide receiver who doesn't have cornerback glue on him, Hunter's chances of playing time are a lot better here than there. Plus, you know, he likes the place. Who wouldn't?
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