the wrong lesson

Occasionally, an argument you hear in favor of "scheduling for success" is that a losing team needs to "learn how to win."  That is, if you find yourself in a dogfight, it's better that said dogfight be against a little puppy instead of an ugly junkyard dog, to increase the odds of winning.   Then, when you fight the junkyard dog you'll have winning experience and you'll know what it takes to win.  "Walk before you run" is another way of putting it.

If that game was a lesson in how to win, it should get the teacher fired.  It's like if your driver's ed teacher just put on an hour's worth of clips of Ronin and The Bourne Identity and then tossed you the keys.

Frankly, I'd rather the team learned nothing at all from beating William & Mary than any "how to win" lesson.  If that game drove home "how to win," they'll go 1-11 this year, because the lesson is: You can get outmuscled, outsmarted, outcoached, and badly outdisciplined, and still win as long as the opponent lets you break open a whole bunch of big plays.

Two weeks ago, post-UCLA, I wrote about how nothing had changed, and we just keep going back to that.  Mike London has succeeded in stamping an identity onto the team just as well as Tony Bennett has.  Those identities are 180 degrees from each other on the discipline spectrum, but there it is all the same.  You can count on Tony's teams to come up with a big stop when they need one, and you can count on one of London's seniors to take an incredibly stupid penalty at a crucial moment.  (Kwontie Moore, step on forward.**)

Worse yet is that for an entire half and a good portion of the second, UVA was dominated in the trenches.  By William & Mary.  Dominated.  The Tribe ran all over them.  They double-teamed David Dean and nobody else could shed a block.  The UVA offensive line and that wonderful power rushing game which was never going to happen, was putrid.  Lemme state this once more for effect: William & Mary dominated UVA in the trenches.

That's how you almost lose to them.  UVA was rescued by its athletes, which is basically London's recruiting gameplan.  Unfortunately, the other ACC teams have good athletes too.

**Mike Moore was hit with the penalty, and he's kind of culpable, but the reason it looked like he ran over the quarterback on that roughing-the-passer call was because Kwontie Moore gave him a totally unnecessary shove, into Mike's path.  Totally asinine.

-- First bullet point has to be this: Why in the blazing blue fuck can't this coaching staff figure out how to substitute????  How basic is this?  How did any of them get an actual coaching job not being able to do this?  Why is the whole lower deck screaming at them to put an 11th man on the field?  Normal teams have to burn a timeout, I dunno, maybe once every other game or so, over a little substitution confusion.  Even most lousy staffs can handle this.  This staff burns all three timeouts of the half with that problem.  Un-flippin'-believable.  If the complete unpreparedness for onside kicks and total lack of discipline by seniors didn't clue you in on the attention to detail paid by this staff, the chronic inability to execute a fundamental aspect of football should help you figure it out.  "Uncompromised Excellence" has devolved into "Uncompromised Incompetence."

-- I'd feel a lot more confidence in the offense if they put together more drives like the first drive of the day. Big plays are neato, but if you can consistently march methodically down the field like that, you're in business.  They sputtered a bit at first, but then the ball just kept on going, right through the red zone as if their usual red zone issues didn't exist.  I liked it a lot better than Taquan Mizzell's screen-pass touchdown, which was nice but not repeatable.  W&M blitzed a screen pass and Mizzell is faster than anyone they got, that's all.

-- How bad was the running game?  Mizzell busted a big play which was rather well-blocked.  But you always take out the biggest play - if you still average 3.5-4 yards after that, you're doing well.  Take that out, and take out Jordan Ellis's touchdown run which was incredibly poorly blocked and 100% Ellis's efforts (Ellis ran 39 yards on that play, 38 of which were after contact), and also take out anything Matt Johns did because those are sacks and scrambles.  Here's what you get: 33 yards on 21 carries.  Power running game!

-- Have to like seeing the passing game opened up lately.  I don't have any confidence in the running game, but this team will pull off a couple surprises - hell, they could still go bowling, despite everything - if they put the game in the hands of Matt Johns.  Incredibly boneheaded interception aside, Johns is quietly playing like one of the top QBs in the conference.  Only Miami's Brad Kaaya has more passing yards.  Good thing Johns is doing so well, because Greyson Lambert is absolutely tearing it up for UGA.  Johns is on pace to set the UVA single-season record for passing yards, and the way he's going I'd be more surprised if he missed it than if he made it.

what's new is old again

Welp.  Didn't take long.  It hardly seems worth writing about the latest chapter in the Mike London story because it's so uncannily similar to most of the other ones.  Talk up the latest new schemes, surprise with some swaggy hype-azz uniformz, lose by the book, chapter and verse.  OK, sure, it lacked a little something in the clock-management dumbassery department, but London did burn at least two timeouts that I can remember just because of play-call confusion.  So let's check that box.

Other boxes to check: annoying playcalling, offensive line depth biting us in the ass again, undisciplined penalties committed by seniors, crappy special teams, red zone ineptitude.  The list goes on.  A whole offseason and literally nothing has changed.  I sound surprised here, which I guess I am a little, because this time I'm really gonna get to kick that football.

I really hated those helmets, by the way, which you can chalk mostly up to my reflexive get-off-my-lawnism about uniforms.  UVA seems to be working on building a pretty solid brand identity.  You can instantly recognize those gorgeous home whites the baseball team wears, and the school uses a uniform wordmark across most other teams, if not all of them.

Football?  There's no brand identity anywhere.  The navy blue helmets would work at least to anchor the zillion other looks they think are wonderful attention getters.  Naw, let's ditch 'em and go with the marshmallow look.  And the look on Saturday was a horrible mishmash.  The pants are pure throwback - literally, because they come from the 1960s throwbacks they wore a while ago.  The jerseys are a clean, unadorned, modern take on a classic look.  And the helmets were $WAGGY HYPPPEEE, Oregon $tylez.  Pick a look.  (Preferably not swaggy hype.)  There's absolutely no attempt at a brand, an identity, a foundation, it's just "hey this would be a cool idea," and they slap it up there and there's no reason to do it or even any connection with the rest of the athletic program.

I wouldn't usually spend two paragraphs on the uniforms, but if by now you can't get the connection to the actual state of the program then we'll just have to leave you here.

Notre Dame comes to town next weekend.  Of the three difficult OOC games this is the one I expected to be toughest.  They just got done steamtrucking Texas, so I think I'm still thinking that.  If UVA is to steal an OOC win in one of those three games, Boise State is the place to look.

Some player-focused observations:

-- I was surprised Kelvin Rainey was credited with only five tackles.  He seemed to be all over, making tackles in front of the secondary and generally being much more visible than you'd expect from a first-year starter.  I liked it.  And it looks clear too that Micah Kiser is the real deal.

-- I was much less pleased with the defensive ends.  Mike Moore didn't look like a senior.  Kwontie Moore was hardly visible.  Trent Corney showed off his athleticism by actually juking his blocker, but then looked surprised that Josh Rosen actually moved away from the pressure.  Fortunately, he kind of moved toward the rest of the defensive line, but Corney's tackle attempt on that particular play looked like he still hasn't picked up a lot of fundamentals.

-- Matt Johns reminds me of a youngish NASCAR driver who clearly can drive in the lower series but moves up to the big time and is stuck on an underfunded team with an uncompetitive car, which he can't crash because they can't afford replacements.  He might compete for the winner's circle if he was allowed to drive aggressively into the corners, but he's just being asked to circle the track.  That's Steve Fairchild's playbook in a nutshell.  Johns can play quarterback, it's clear, but too often, he's not really allowed to.  Sure, he threw a pick when he cut loose, just like the driver might find a wall or two the hard way.  But in reading up about UCLA, one quote I saw was along the lines of Josh Rosen being handed the keys to a Ferrari, he just had to not crash it.  Well, Rosen took a shot downfield the very first chance he got, and it's obvious he's not just driving the Ferrari around the block.  Johns needs to be cut loose more too.  He's capable of making it work.

Until then we'll just keep throwing screen passes on every third-and-long of the game which they totally won't be expecting this time.

-- One game in and the offensive line is already a smoking wreck.  Eric Tetlow and Jake Fieler, out for the year.  Ryan Doull and Sadiq Olanrewaju, no telling when they'll be back.  Jay Whitmire, not ready to go full speed yet or he'd be out there at one of those positions somewhere.  The interior line was absolutely owned; UCLA's DTs were exactly the problem I thought they'd be, and the "power running game" went exactly as far as I thought it would.  I was openly skeptical of the power running thing; if I'd known we'd be missing four linemen going into the first game, I'd have been downright derisive.

That's OK, I'm sure we'll just recruit us a few more cornerbacks to make up for it.

It's pretty much official, I've skipped the optimistic, maybe-things-gonna-be-OK phase of the season and gone straight to snark.  With any luck that'll last the next eleven (or twelve, if Lucy doesn't pull that football away again) games and we can minimize the burning apathy, which is all that's left at the end.

the recruit: James Trucilla

Name: James Trucilla
Position: DT
Hometown: Erie, PA
School: Cathedral Prep
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 265

24/7: 85, three stars; #58 DT, PA #21
ESPN: 74, three stars; #85 DT, PA #32, East #165
Rivals: 5.5, three stars
Scout: two stars

Other offers: Ball State, Akron, Miami (OH), Eastern Michigan

If it's even possible, James Trucilla is a more important recruit than the OL that I've been bellyaching about, because of this: there are four scholarship DTs on the roster.  If the OL is thin, DT is even worse.  For reasons we'll get into shortly, it's not as big a disaster as it sounds, but it's still critical to collect some more.  Trucilla is the only DT recruit in the already-large recruiting class.

Trucilla also committed in the middle of a stretch that started to make UVA fans a little uneasy.  When a guy commits, nobody wants to be the one going, "really?  we're competing with the MAC for recruits now?" and coaches are always given leeway with a few of those guys in the class.  But starting in mid-to-late June, the commitment list started looking awfully bottom-heavy, and people started thinking it'd be nice to leave some room for the big fish, too.

So, we look for what the coaches were looking for, and figure out why the offers didn't roll in.  In Trucilla's case, size is the obvious answer to the latter.  There's nothing wrong with Trucilla's height; David Dean is 6'1" and starting to look like an all-conference tackle.  But 265 pounds is just big enough to get blown off the middle of the line like a leaf, and Trucilla looks as though putting on a lot of weight could be tough.  He doesn't really have room for 30 more pounds; 280-285 seems like his limit, though he may not be asked to go that high.

But there's always a tradeoff, and Trucilla's appeal is in his quickness.  Watching his highlight, that's the one trait that stands out, and ESPN agrees, deploying the word "quick" four times in his scouting report.  In this case, his relative lack of height is actually an asset, because he can start off low and get underneath and around a blocker.  He's probably doomed on the plays where a bigger guy can create any leverage on him and stay in front, but if he gets an angle he's gone.  And, you know how announcers are always talking about running backs who "keep their legs moving" as if some of them run without doing so?  Trucilla does this, at least on plays where he's successful (and they don't show the other ones, you know?)  Some DTs can put down roots and you might as well try to block an elm tree; Trucilla, though, is a three-tech, gap-penetrating DT all the way, not the space-eating kind at all.

His production is a little less than elite, even for a DT; last year and this he's been pulling down about a TFL and half a sack per game.  52 tackles in 13 games last year, not bad at all, it's just that you'd like to see a few more of them behind the line.  That's what he'll be asked to do in college, after all, not clog up a line of scrimmage.

Remember I said that DT depth isn't a supercritical thing - it's because most of the time, Tenuta has the defense in a nickel package, and in that alignment, Max Valles plays DE and a DE (usually Mike Moore) moves inside.  So UVA actually lines up with two DTs, maybe a quarter of the time.  Moore doesn't have a lot of tackles this year, but he does get into the backfield, and that's what Trucilla would be asked to do too.  Or, remember John-Kevin Dolce, who was used as an absurdly light DT when London arrived, and was comically bad against the power run game but sometimes exploded someone in the backfield.  Trucilla, if he develops to his potential, is a less-extreme version of Dolce, probably a bit less athletic a version of Moore.

Since Chris Brathwaite moved to OL and got buried, UVA doesn't graduate any DTs next year, and the coaches can probably be counted on to redshirt Trucilla.  Donte Wilkins and Andrew Brown should be able to hold down DT for a while after Dean graduates, and Trucilla will also have to contend with someone like Michael Biesemier, as an example of someone who might take over Moore's DE/DT role.  (Trucilla won't be moving to end himself; his quickness is much more useful against interior linemen, and he'd get swallowed up by long-armed, fancy-footed offensive tackles.)  Redshirt sophomore year (2017) is probably the earliest that Trucilla projects to see real playing time; what happens in 2017 and beyond depends on his ability to pick up the defense and develop moves that maximize his natural quickness.

the recruit: Andrew Brown

Name: Andrew Brown
Position: DT
Hometown: Chesapeake
School: Oscar Smith
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 295

24/7: 100, five stars; #1 DT, VA #1, US #4
ESPN: 94, five stars; #1 DT, VA #1, East #2, US #4
Rivals: 6.1, five stars; #1 DT, VA #3, US #8
Scout: five stars; #1 DT

Other offers: Alabama, Florida State, Michigan, Ohio State, Stanford, USC, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech, Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee, Penn State, South Carolina, Nebraska, Florida, Clemson, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, West Virginia, Miami, NC State, Illinois, Duke, Wake Forest, Cincinnati, South Florida, Syracuse

Admit it, you've been waiting for this one.  There's nobody who doesn't think Andrew Brown is the best defensive tackle in the country, and programs from coast to coast were banging down his door.  It's almost superfluous to list his offers, because there's no program anywhere who'd turn him down.  Brown committed to UVA back in the summer, a more innocent time full of rainbows and chocolate gumdrop fountains and candy ponies and stuff.  Before the Doom.

He stuck with it anyway, and made some news last month by signing his financial aid paperwork at UVA, which under a new interpretation of an old rule, allows the school to acknowledge his existence by name.  It was kind of a big deal, in the sense that at least it allowed us to see something going right.

Brown's story is well-known by now.  He hails from maybe the most talent-rich school in the whole state, Oscar Smith, which hasn't known this year what a close game is like.  That team has dispatched every one of its opponents with ruthless efficiency and will almost certainly win a state title in Scott Stadium about nine days from now.  Thus his name is pretty familiar, even to those who only tangentially follow the sport.  (It's worth mentioning, though, that Brown was one of many to take advantage of Virginia's very lax transfer rules, and began his career at Indian River.)

Brown is, of course, heavily and extensively scouted.  Most prospects have a few videos on Rivals.  At least one or two.  Brown has 51.  Everyone who watches him credits him with explosive quickness off the ball and disruptiveness in general.  He's strong - of course he is or he wouldn't be a consensus five-star - but reading between the lines I gather that it's that fast-twitch quickness that separates him.  He's a three-tech defensive tackle in the body of a nose tackle, which is a pretty deadly combo.

When he gets to UVA, which will be for the spring semester as an early enrollee, he probably won't play only defensive tackle.  Jon Tenuta and the defensive coaches will probably have him at end sometimes too; given a weapon like Brown, there's no reason to put him in a box.  And there ought to be no expectation of a redshirt, and you're hereby authorized to reach through your screen and slap the first redshirt zealot who laments the fact that Brown won't use one.  With Brent Urban departing, UVA will be awfully young at DT, David Dean suddenly being the greybeard of the unit.  Barring possible moves (Michael Moore?) there'll only be three other scholarship DTs besides Dean, which is a little bit scary in the depth department considering how bad the defense looked when the coaches had to dip into the walk-on ranks to play DT this season.  (It wasn't often - only once, I think - but it was ugly.)

One of the real letdowns of the season (among an admittedly huge selection) is that the recruiting class didn't develop around Brown and Quin Blanding like it should've.  Two five-stars, which just never happens to UVA, and we've struggled to surround them with talent.  So much of the class has the feeling of the kind of player at tremendous risk of being recruited over by the next regime.  But with the proper development (iffy given this head coach's lack of attention to detail, but this isn't the time for whining) Brown should be what Urban would've been this season, but better....and much sooner.

****************************************************

I was expecting to write some sort of recap of Wisconsin, but since the team shot like 3% from layup range, that pretty much becomes the story of the game.  Fortunately, I didn't really see anything that looked like a chronic unfixable problem, but unfortunately, the resume is starting to pile up with home losses - bad for the RPI, and representing wasted chances.  The last chance to put a nonconference win on the resume worth having will be at Tennessee.

If I could throw one more raincloud into the mix, it'd be this one observation: Akil Mitchell does look like he's regressed on offense.  Not just based on the Wisconsin game.  I expected less of a role for him on that end, but he's forcing things that aren't there.  Fortunately, he remains an elite defender, and it should be mentioned that Tony deserves a ton of credit for a defensive gameplan that delivered an outstanding performance.  Even disregarding tempo I don't think anyone will lock down Wisconsin like that all year.  Their .217 performance from three was no accident.

game preview: Brigham Young

Date/Time: Saturday, August 31; 3:30

TV: ESPNUVA

Record against the Cougars: 2-1

Last meeting: BYU 38, UVA 35; 9/2/00, Charlottesville

Last weekend: N/A

Line: BYU by 1

Injury report: N/A

Ah, football.  BYU is a very special team in my heart because they introduced me to the rest of my life as a UVA fan by pulling off a big comeback and then winning in overtime in my first-ever UVA football game.  It didn't take long for my friend (who'd come with me to UVA from our Michigan high school) and I to decide that this was going to be just like rooting for the Lions.  (And that was before they'd ever hired Matt Millen.)  Just an early, primitive way of saying We Can't Have Nice Things.

This game ought to set the tone nicely for the season.  No guessing about what a 30-point win over Richmond means; we'll get a pretty good idea at least of what the next six or seven weeks will look like by how this game goes.

-- UVA run offense vs. BYU run defense

(all stats 2012)

Top backs:

Kevin Parks: 160 carries, 734 yards, 4.6 ypc, 5 TDs
Khalek Shepherd: 19 carries, 122 yards, 6.4 ypc, 1 TD

UVA offense:

128.5 yards/game, 3.70 yards/attempt
95th of 124 (national); 8th of 12 (ACC)

BYU defense:

86.92 yards/game, 2.74 yards/attempt
3rd of 124 (national)

So, those stats from last year already present a difficulty.  One thing we know (or at least, believe) is that the O-line hasn't suddenly made major improvements between last year and this, and to add to that, BYU runs a 3-4 defense.  That'll just give the line a new look to deal with, and one that's a little more flexible and changeable than the standard 4-3.

BYU also brings back linebacker Kyle Van Noy; I'd be remiss not starting off the discussion with him, because that's what Mike London did, identifying Van Noy as the player they wanted to scheme around.  Van Noy plays weakside LB in BYU's 4-3, so actually, he's less of a factor in the run game than the phrase "terrifying linebacker" would imply.  He can be run away from, and if I interpret the stats rightly, teams often did - Van Noy only had 53 tackles last year, much less than you'd expect from the team's star defender.  That said, 22 of those were in the backfield, which is a terrifying number.

The Cougars will be doing this with largely a brand-new defensive line.  First-round draft phenom Ziggy Ansah is gone, and the only currently-starting member of the line that did so as well last year is nose tackle Eathyn Manumaleuna, who played only four games.  And the only holdover starter in the linebacking corps, besides Van Noy, is the other outside LB, strong-sider Spencer Beck.  If UVA wants to run away from Van Noy, though, they'll have to run at Beck.

The other option: run it up the middle, testing our weakness (relative to the OTs) against their new faces.  Since coaches love to try and establish the middle, expect a few shots in that direction within the first couple offensive series.

What excites me, though, is that there's no opportunity here for the coaches to hide their intentions regarding the workload split.  It's very safe to assume Kevin Parks starts out as the primary back, but the truth is, I don't think the coaches have precise intentions about the rest of it.  I'd guess that Khalek Shepherd and Taquan Mizzell will roughly split the remainder of the carries in the first half as the coaches evaluate them in live action; if the game is close, we'll then learn who they're most comfortable with.

I also think, simply due to turnover on the BYU defense, we should be able to outperform the sub-3 yards per carry that the Cougars held opponents to last year.  Our own blocking leaves something to be desired until they prove it doesn't, but does about 3.5 yards a carry sound about right?  I think it does.  I don't think our run game will be enough to control the action, but it won't be a total wreck.

-- UVA pass offense vs. BYU pass defense

(all stats 2012)

Quarterback:
David Watford: 0/0, N/A%, 0 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTs, N/A yards/attempt

Top receivers:
Darius Jennings: 48 rec., 568 yards, 5 TDs
Dominique Terrell: 38 rec., 475 yards, 0 TDs

UVA offense:
268.0 yards/game, 6.8 yards/attempt
85th of 124 (national); 9th of 12 (ACC)

BYU defense:
179.2 yards/game, 6.2 yards/attempt
21st of 124 (national)

Another thing we might learn, about the coaches themselves this time: How nasty is their playcalling?  Will Steve Fairchild be out for blood upon looking at BYU's injury-ravaged cornerback corps?  Three of the four guys listed on BYU's post-spring depth chart are out, if not for the season then at least for this game.  The fourth, senior Skye PoVey, is called a "tough veteran with skills" by a cheerleading media wonk in Utah, but is a career special-teamer who played in three games last year.

PoVey probably won't start.  Another media outlet - which in the same article refers to the cornerback situation as an "outright nightmare" - suggests that BYU will use true freshman Dallin Leavitt and juco transfer Robertson Daniel (I didn't write his name backwards) as starters.  Daniel has looked decent in camp, but didn't play last year as he was getting his classroom work in order.

So if Steve Fairchild wants be nasty, and we should really be hoping he does, he'll use three- and four-receiver sets until Bronco Mendenhall's eyes bleed.  Force BYU to take their linebackers off the field for thoroughly inexperienced cornerbacks - or see if those linebackers can cover Dominique Terrell and maybe Adrian Gamble, it's all the same to me.

All is not a total disaster in BYU's pass defense.  Kyle Van Noy is not coming off the field, because he's a devastating pass rusher, racking up 13 sacks last year.  Daniel Sorenson is one of the better safeties out west; he had three INTs in 2012.  The safeties overall are still respectable and should be able to help out the cornerbacks effectively.

Still.  We have a damn deep group of receivers and BYU has a damn shallow cornerback set.  David Watford will probably see zone coverages out the wazoo to try and cover up their coverage deficiencies.  But I'm going to go ahead and assume our coaches are both smart and out for blood, and that our wide receivers will get a lot of field time until BYU proves they can deal with that.  Dominique Terrell should have a big, big game; if PoVey is used as a nickel back, he flat out can't cover Terrell.  I'm just gonna say six catches at a minimum, but I wouldn't be surprised to see 8 or 10; it's that bad in BYU's secondary.

-- BYU run offense vs. UVA pass defense

(all stats 2012)

Top backs:
Jamaal Williams: 166 carries, 775 yards, 4.7 ypc, 12 TDs
Michael Alisa: 58 carries, 222 yards, 3.8 ypc, 1 TD

BYU offense:
153.15 yards/game, 3.94 yards/attempt
82nd of 124 (national)

UVA defense:
144.92 yards/game, 3.99 yards/attempt
51st of 124 (national), 5th of 12 (ACC)

BYU brought in a new offensive coordinator this year - sort of.  Robert Anae was BYU's OC until 2010, when he left for Arizona to work with Rich Rodriguez.  Now he's back, in a move that is raising some eyebrows and being absolutely ripped in some quarters.  (Some of the choicest quotes: "Anae stacked and lit the offense into a burning heap [in 2010]."  "He had the charisma of a pile of bricks.")

So this is his first game back after picking up the no-huddle concept from Rodriguez.  BYU has always been a run-the-quarterback team, and that won't change.  RB Jamaal Williams remains the focus of the rushing offense; Williams has decent skills, but BYU doesn't have a great deal of depth behind him.  Michael Alisa isn't a scary talent.  But new quarterback Taysom Hill has some legs, too; his 68-yard touchdown run last season was BYU's longest.  Hill got some quality playing time in as a freshman last year, outrunning starting QB Riley Nelson, and BYU is justifiably high on his skills.

The questions will be around their O-line, which doesn't have a single senior on it.  There's less experience than would be ideal, and the BYU staff didn't nail down the rotation until just this week.  They plan to do a lot of rotating and subbing in and out - something that would be necessary to keep them fresh in a fast-paced no-huddle - and that's something that our coaches need to be on top of.  They need to take assholish advantage of the rule that says if the offense subs, the defense has to be allowed to sub too.  Sub when they sub, but nice and easy and slow and take your sweet time about it, and let the BYU offense stand around waiting.

As for the run game itself, if Anae has brought back some wider line splits from Arizona, it's another thing our guys need to take advantage of.  We do have some athleticism at DT - David Dean can move, and Mike Moore, too, when he slides inside.  Williams is a good, not great, running back, but Hill remains the wild card.  UVA can win if Williams gets his yards, but they can't let Hill burn them with his feet.  If he gets 80-100 yards of his own, BYU has probably won the game.

-- BYU pass offense vs. UVA pass defense

(all stats 2012)

Quarterback:
Taysom Hill: 42/71, 59.2%; 425 yards, 4 TDs, 2 INTs; 5.99 yards/attempt

Top receivers:
Cody Hoffman: 100 rec., 1,248 yards, 11 TDs
J.D. Falslev: 37 rec., 274 yards, 2 TDs

BYU offense:
247.2 yards/game, 6.5 yards/attempt
95th of 124 (national)

UVA defense:
208.4 yards/game, 6.3 yards/attempt
25th of 124 (national), 3rd of 12 (ACC)

It's pretty plain from just the above stats that Cody Hoffman dominates the BYU receiving corps.  Hoffman is a tall, smooth receiver (6'4") whom Phil Steele named a preseason all-American.  The rest of the group isn't a bunch of schmos, but Hoffman gets almost all the catches, because he's open so often.  Demetrious Nicholson will have his hands full, and will probably get a lot of safety help.

The no-huddle that BYU is installing, however, probably means a little bit more of a spread-around.  Just about everyone else who got significant catches last year also returns for BYU, and guys like Skyler Ridley and J.D. Falslev aren't electric but will demand your attention.  BYU also involves the running backs and tight ends just as much as the non-Hoffman receivers, and ultimately the wide array of legitimate options will be very taxing for our pass defense.

Taysom Hill is also a concern.  Hill actually had a better passer rating than starter Riley Nelson last season, although he didn't play after the sixth game of the year.  He'll be running a new offense in which he doesn't have a world of experience, but he's got the makings of a talented quarterback, and of course he'll get a lot of help from Hoffman.

One thing I think will remain unknown until we actually see it is the nature of the passing attack; meaning that last year, it was a very dink-and-dunk approach.  Nelson and Hill both averaged fewer yards per completion than did Mike Rocco; Hill's was just over 10.  If I had to guess, and I probably will, I'd say that won't change much; dinking your way downfield is very conducive to the no-huddle, because deep downfield throws usually result in incompletions, and incompletions slow you down, not to mention force your receiver to trot the whole way back to the line.

I think this will be the toughest aspect of the game for UVA to deal with, however.  We have a good secondary, but I don't think we'll be able to generate a big pass rush just because of the nature of BYU's expected offense, and Hoffman is one of the best receivers we'll face all year.  (Good prep for Oregon, though.)  I'd say even though Hill won't average more than 11.5 yards per completion or so, he'll still top 250 for the game.

-- Favorability ratings

A new thing I'm introducing this year.  This is a 0-10 scale; 5 means evenly balanced, 0 means we're totally screwed, and 10 means the other guy is.

UVA run offense: 3.5
UVA pass offense: 7
UVA run defense: 5.5
UVA pass defense: 3

Average: 4.75

-- Outlook

BYU is a good team - but a flawed one.  They've got some weapons on both sides of the ball, and, I'd have to say for now, the advantage at quarterback; Hill has demonstrated something on the field, and Watford hasn't yet.  But there are major holes which can be exploited.  Unsettlement on the O-line, a new offensive style, and basically no cornerbacks.  It's fair to say we don't really know yet if our team is talented enough, or with enough of a killer instinct, to go after those holes.  That goes for both the players and the coaches.  We also don't really know if BYU has the full ability to take advantage of our weaknesses, either; our offensive line is shaky, but their D-line is new and so are their middle linebackers.  If we can jump out to a lead, we'll see if that killer instinct turns on; it ought to.  If we're playing from behind, well, at least that will force us to go pass-heavy, right into BYU's weakness at cornerback.

Prediction summary:

-- Khalek Shepherd and Taquan Mizzell split carries and targets in the first half, but as the game goes on, one or the other takes a back seat.

-- Dominique Terrell has a huge day, to the tune of at least six catches.

-- The run offense generates about 3.5 yards per carry from the primary backs.

-- If Taysom Hill rushes for 90+ yards, BYU wins.

-- Hill will average no more than 11.5 yards a completion, but rack up over 250 yards passing.

-- The first team to go up by two scores wins.  Killer instinct.

Final score: BYU 21, UVA 17

-- Rest of the ACC:

North Carolina @ South Carolina - Thu., 6:00 - Battle of the Carolinas.

Wake Forest vs. Presbyterian - Thu., 6:30 - Wake always plays this team for some reason.

Miami vs. Florida Atlantic - Fri., 8:00 - You don't come into the OB, baby - wait, that was the other nondescript Florida Something team.  Nobody knows the difference anyway.

Georgia Tech vs. Elon - 12:00 - Fighting Christians forever.

Boston College vs. Villanova - 12:00 - The Jesuits vs. the Augustinians.

Maryland vs. Florida International - 12:30 - Oh, yeah, it was this Florida Something.

NC State vs. Louisiana Tech - 12:30 - The Bulldogs have set out to conquer the ACC, one team and one year at a time.

Syracuse @ Penn State - 3:30 - The joke here is both too easy and way too wrong.

Duke vs. NC Central - 4:00 - UNC is fighting for supremacy of two states; Duke is focusing just on Durham.

Virginia Tech vs. Alabama - 5:30 - The uglier, the better.

Clemson vs. Georgia - 8:00 - Definitely the top ACC game of the week, and what better chance to take the SEC down a peg?  UGA is ranked #5, so it won't be easy.

Florida State @ Pittsburgh - Mon., 8:00 - I've got a bad feeling this could be nasty for the home team.  I'm lower on Pitt than most; we'll see if I'm right.

answers from spring

The spring game has come and gone, and now spring practice as well.  The football team got to break in its fancy new practice facility, which is a vast improvement over walkthroughs on the JPJA floor.  You'd think we'd have some answers as to how things might look in the fall, and it so happens we just might.  I've been taking notes, and as usual here's what I think:

STUFF THAT GOT CLEARED UP:

-- Quarterback, sort of.  Just having something resembling a depth chart at this stage of the game is an improvement over the past.  At the beginning of spring practice it was clear that Phillip Sims had somehow worked his way to the bottom of it.  Mike London made noises about how nothing's decided this is just a guide of sorts blah blah blah, but it became clear pretty quickly that Sims was being sent a message.  David Watford and Greyson Lambert more or less split the first-team quarterback duties, and one starts to get the sense that Watford has a slight leg up on Lambert.  And that Sims hasn't done anything to move out of the doldrums; his 8-for-18 spring game performance was something less than impressive.

-- Defensive line should be pretty sweet.  The age-old question of whether we should rejoice or jump off a bridge when one unit dominates the other naturally applies.  However, there's good reason to believe the D-line was showing off for real.  David Dean in particular came in for high praise from all corners - including, most importantly, the coaches - and there's a good chance he becomes the disruptive three-tech we thought we'd get out of Chris Brathwaite.  (For whom, praise be, the door is not closed for a return.  It looks like he'll be trying to follow in the footsteps of Jameel Sewell.)

-- Wide receiver should also be in good shape.  Good things are being said about the second line.  Dominique Terrell had a Jeff White article devoted to his good work, CavsCorner had a flowery one about E.J. Scott, and Adrian Gamble is getting noticed too.

-- We do seem to have a starting linebacker corps.  And Henry Coley in particular is stepping into the leadership gap left when Steve Greer and Laroy Reynolds graduated.  Coley had a little disciplinary hiccup last year, and it's nice to see that seems to be resolved.  Occasionally I've seen a couple hyperactive imaginations worrying that Coley's entrenchment at middle linebacker means Kwontie Moore is a bust, to which I say piffle: Coley has two years of experience on Moore.  And Demeitre Brim is moving quickly to secure the strongside spot.  UVA's front seven will not be among the most-hyped in the conference when the season begins, but it could have some eyes open and looking their way by November.

STUFF THAT DIDN'T:

-- We heard precious little out of the running back realm that was especially useful.  Even if we had, Taquan Mizzell is still showing up in the fall ready to scramble whatever pecking order has been established.  Even so, I was hoping to hear what that pecking order might have been, and specifically, where Clifton Richardson fits.  In the pre-spring depth chart he's third, and didn't appear to make a strong upward move.

-- It's all well and good to know sort of where the quarterbacks stand, but we still don't have a starter.

-- The O-line.  This is the real question mark.  It would be getting a lot more attention if we had a settled quarterback situation.  I think the running game in particular is the most at risk, because the interior of the line is the least secure.  And David Watford may have an advantage at quarterback partly because he can scramble out of the way of incoming pass rushers much better than either Sims or Lambert.

Everything will get ten times more complex when the rubber hits the road in September, of course.  But if I were to break things down as simple as possible, here in April, I'd say this: The defense has the bodies and the talent to be very good, and it depends on how well they take to Jon Tenuta's schemes.  And how often they blitz into a screen pass.  The offense depends on the line, and secondarily on the quarterback.  Quarterback is going to get the attention, and let's hope the line doesn't because poor play will be much more readily apparent than quality play.  But the offense will have the weapons it needs; we'll see if the line can let them shine.

***************************************************

Just a couple things I thought shouldn't wait til Monday.  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an excellent interview with George Adeosun.  Refreshingly honest and insightful.  And Joe Lunardi's "I need to justify my existence for the other ten months out of the year" early bracketology has UVA a four seed.  This means absolutely nothing for next year's tourney but is interesting in the sense that we know the hoops team should do very well next year, but it's a little surprising to see the media powers-that-be thinking so highly of them as well.  Much more surprising than Chris Nelson's decommitment, anyway.  Dude visited damn near every school in Florida in the last two months.  Nelson will probably land on his feet, and I do appreciate that he decided to get it over with rather than holding a spot until the last minute before committing elsewhere.  UVA will be fine, as long as they snag Andrew Brown and/or Derrick Nnadi.

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.

game preview: Georgia Tech

Date/Time: Saturday, September 15; 3:30

TV: ESPNUVA

Record against the Jackets: 17-16-1

Last meeting: UVA 24, GT 21; 10/15/11; Charlottesville

Last weekend: UVA 17, PSU 16; GT 59, Presb. 3

Line: Georgia Tech by 10

Opposing blog: From The Rumble Seat

Injury report:

Virginia -

OUT:
G Cody Wallace

DOUBTFUL:
WR Tim Smith

QUESTIONABLE:
DE Billy Schautz

PROBABLE:
TE Paul Freedman

Georgia Tech -

OUT:
LB Daniel Drummond
S Fred Holton
RB Charles Perkins

QUESTIONABLE:
RB David Sims

The first road game of the season is a tough one: a trip to Atlanta to play a difficult Yellow Jackets team.  As usual, the main storyline will be Al Groh and his defense against his old team, and it'll be tough sledding because Georgia Tech's D is coming together nicely.  In fact it's threatening to become GT's calling card this season. The offense is still looking for a working combination: Paul Johnson is talking about his quarterbacks in a way that suggests he's not fully onboard with the one he's got, and the running back position has been a veritable merry-go-round.  It's still that wackity triple-option, though, and as ever it presents a tremendous challenge.

-- UVA run offense vs. GT run defense

Top backs:
Kevin Parks: 23 carries, 75 yards, 3.3 avg., 2 TDs
Perry Jones: 22 carries, 66 yards, 3.0 avg., 1 TD

UVA offense:
108 yards/game, 3.22 yards/attempt
100th of 124 (national), 8th of 12 (ACC)

GT defense:
120.5 yards/game, 3.71 yards/attempt
66th of 124 (national), 9th of 12 (ACC)

Who's excited to see how the run game looks on Saturday?  Not this guy!  Let's be fair: Penn State has one of the better front sevens that we'll see this season.  But then, so does Georgia Tech.  The interior line got zero push against PSU's 300-pound defensive tackles last week, and this week they face the mother of all 300-pounders: GT's T.J. Barnes checks in at 6'7", 345.  This guy is a boulder and a half.

The plus side there is that Barnes has been doing exactly what Groh's defense calls for: occupy a lot of space and not much else.  Barnes only has four assisted tackles this year, which means he's probably getting the double-teams he ought to be.  In the end, though, I don't care if he's a 345-pound lump of mud; he'd still be a 345-pound lump of mud, and until our offensive line proves they can handle guys that size, it's safe to assume they can't.

GT has been missing starting linebacker Daniel Drummond all season, and they'll be without him again this game, opening the door for redshirt freshman Jabari Hunt-Days to start at ILB.  They don't seem to be missing Drummond; Hunt-Days is second on the team in tackles with thirteen.  This is basically a classic Groh linebacking corps.  Jeremiah Attaochu on the outside is more or less living up to the preseason hype, and fellow outside backer Brandon Watts has been all over the field too.  The four starting linebackers are four of the top six tacklers on the team, which means that Groh's defense is doing what it's supposed to.

GT's two previous games this season don't hold a lot of useful data.  Virginia Tech's running game is still a work in progress with two new running backs and a revamped offensive line.  It was OK, not great, against GT, but whether that's because GT's defense is good or because VT's running game is OK-not-great is kind of up in the air right now.  For what it's worth, GT fans aren't totally convinced in the efficacy of their run defense, and Presbyterian's Lance Byrd did reach 80 yards and a 4.4 YPC average for the game.

Regardless, I'm even less convinced about our offensive line.  Cody Wallace's absence won't be crippling but does rob us of some playable depth.  But these guys have to get better.  Conner Davis got by and large no push at all against Penn State, and Luke Bowanko is still getting used to blocking after snapping the ball.

Outside of LoVante' Battle's 22-yarder in garbage time against Richmond, we don't have a 20-yard run this year; the longest is a 17-yarder by Perry Jones.  Call it a weird premonition, but I expect that to change this weekend.  Maybe it's the 3-4 defense, which is prone at times to giving up plays when the linebackers make the wrong read.  I think someone, probably Jones, is good for a big play at some point, but outside of that, I have a problem seeing us over 3.5 yards a carry.  The GT defense is too talented and our O-line too unproven to get much more than that.

-- UVA pass offense vs. GT pass defense

Quarterback:
Michael Rocco: 46/70, 65.7%; 569 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT; 8.13 yards/attempt

Top receivers:
Darius Jennings: 10 rec., 152 yards, 1 TD
Tim Smith: 7 rec., 108 yards, 0 TDs

UVA offense:
312 yards/game, 7.9 yards/attempt
41st of 124 (national), 5th of 12 (ACC)

GT defense:
164 yards/game, 4.5 yards/attempt
9th of 124 (national), 4th of 12 (ACC)

Again the stats aren't all that useful here.  Presbyterian, you know.  GT smothered their passing game, but they should.  Logan Thomas only completed about 55% against GT, so that's a pretty good thing going for them, but then, 55% isn't especially far off his career rate.

The challenge will be for our interior line to pick up on whatever wackiness Groh has up his sleeve in re: blitzes.  The man's a solid defensive coordinator overall but if there's one single thing he does well, it's design blitz packages.  That's going to be on the interior line to recognize and block the right guys.  Pass protection will also improve if Morgan Moses fixes his footwork from the Penn State game.  It looked like he was shuffling around in cement at times, particularly on the play where Phillip Sims was stripped and fumbled.  Can't have any of that this week as Moses will more often than not be assigned to deal with a speed-rushing linebacker.

Being likely without Tim Smith, I think we'll see E.J. Scott and Dominique Terrell split his time.  But I don't think they'll get all his catches.  After two weeks of seeing Jake McGee do a bunch of really cool shit, I'm betting the coaches look at each other and think, "gee, maybe we should use this guy."  Darius Jennings is quickly becoming the go-to receiver, and will probably lead the Hoos in catches by a big margin, but McGee is becoming a weapon.  So far he's done little besides line up in the slot and run deepish routes, and I think he'll keep doing that, and I think Rocco will keep finding him.  He's got the largest per-catch yardage average on the team, and that continues on Saturday.

But Jennings is going to be key.  Scott has been a decent hey-don't-forget-about-me kind of receiver, good at keeping defenses honest.  Terrell has flashed some talent but also some jitters.  Jennings has already put his best foot forward as the go-to guy this season, and without Smith, even more so.  You know I'm pretty pessimistic about the running game, so if the Hoos are going to move the ball, it's on Rocco's shoulders.  He's capable of doing so, and the GT secondary is solid but not shutdown.  They're aggressive and can be burned.  If the UVA game plan is allowed to work to perfection, it'll probably call for establishing Jennings early, and trying a bunch of screen passes early as well to discourage blitzing and keep the linebackers reacting rather than reading.  Rocco will have blitz-read options on most of his plays that let him throw at the blitz, which could mean big yardage for a tight end or RB at one point.  Make no mistake, though: whatever the game plan, if we win, Rocco will have had a big, big day.

-- GT run offense against UVA run defense

Top backs:
Tevin Washington: 28 carries, 160 yards, 5.7 avg., 1 TD
Zach Laskey: 19 carries, 144 yards, 7.6 avg., 1 TD

GT offense:
330.5 yards/game, 5.85 yards/attempt
21st of 124 (national), 2nd of 12 (ACC)

UVA defense:
74.5 yards/game, 2.37 yards/attempt
18th of 124 (national), 4th of 12 (ACC)

Hooray so much for experienced linebackers.  This will be our biggest weapon against the ruthless ground assault that is the Paul Johnson playbook.  The job of the defensive line will basically be to try and hold the line and keep their knees healthy from all the cut-blocking.

(A slight digression.  There are a couple schools of thought on how to defeat a cut block.  One is to step back and try and keep the blocker at arm's length, so that when he goes down for the block, your feet are still free and he only succeeds in taking himself out of the play.  The downside is that it requires going backwards.  The other school of thought is to say "screw it" and try and fall elbow-first on a pressure point.)

At any rate.  Linebackers.  Hopefully one day, Kwontie Moore will be as good as Steve Greer is at reading plays, and his side-to-side speed will be a huge asset in filling the running lanes.  Right now we have Greer, and a couple other guys who've done a nice job at finding the ball and getting there.  Henry Coley had a very good game against Penn State, and Greer, of course, was everywhere.  They'll be absolutely crucial in stopping the option.  They've seen it before, and if they're in the zone and reading plays correctly, it'll keep the frustration to a minimum.

GT, for their part, has been extremely experimental.  Tevin Washington is doing a decent job running the show, but the running back situation is unsettled.  The playing time has been spread out among so many players, it's astouding.  And it's not just Presbyterian garbage time.  Running back David Sims has a stress fracture and missed the Presby game, and GT has been replacing him by committee so far.  Zach Laskey looks like at least part of the answer.  Robert Godhigh and veteran holdover Orwin Smith are the listed A-back starters, but Smith is a little banged-up, too.

We might also see a little quarterback rotation; Paul Johnson has talked about getting some of them on the field.  GT fans get all tingly about redshirt freshman Vad Lee the way a lot of UVA fans do about Phillip Sims, and Johnson might also be looking at two on the field at once; Synjyn Days is both the backup QB and a backup A-back, and will probably be worked in as well.

This is likely to be the usual frustrating nine-minute parade down the field, four yards at a time.  That always happens when you play Georgia Tech.  The question is letting that happen only once.  GT has a good offensive line, easily the best we've seen all year, and they'll challenge the defensive line.  (If we can get Billy Schautz back, it'll be a big help, as he's the most technically sound lineman we have, a real asset in defending this bunch.  (His injury is "lower extremity" though, probably meaning knee or ankle, and if I were the coaches I'd be really, really wary about risking his health against the multitude of cut blocks a DE must deal with.)  The linebackers will likely have some success containing this ground game, but having just the one week of practice makes me nervous.

-- GT pass offense vs. UVA pass defense

Quarterback:
Tevin Washington: 17/26, 65.4%; 257 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT; 9.89 yards/attempt

Top receivers:
Jeff Greene: 3 rec., 94 yards, 1 TD
Jeremy Moore: 3 rec., 64 yards, 0 TD

GT offense:
169.5 yards/game, 11.3 yards/attempt
3rd of 124 (national), 1st of 12 (ACC)

UVA defense:
223.5 yards/game, 5.2 yards/attempt
21st of 124 (national), 5th of 12 (ACC)

We were spoiled as hell last year.  Tevin Washington went 2-for-8, in part because our very veteran secondary did a near-perfect job in coverage, using only exactly the manpower needed to deny the pass and helping out with the run otherwise.  And one of those completions was to a running back, Orwin Smith; the other was a pitiful little three yard catch by Tyler Melton.

We're not going to get that kind of performance this year.  The experience is gone, replaced with a bunch of guys who've basically never played against this defense.  50/50 chance we see one of those horrifying plays where some guy in the wrong colors is the only one on the screen because one of the safeties got the run-support itch just a little too hard.

GT has been rather more successful passing the ball this year than in years past.  Washington's completion percentage of 65.4 is quite good for most QBs, but it's much higher than the GT offense usually generates.  Shorter throws are part of the deal there.  Jeff Greene and Jeremy Moore are in a knockdown, drag-out battle to be the featured receiver, and both have one loooong catch and two very short ones.

Defending the pass here involves informing one of our safeties that under no circumstances is he to venture closer than 20 yards from the line of scrimmage, putting the burden of making reads on one guy only.  Receivers who go out on a pattern must always be respected.  They'll have a cornerback on them, but still.  If the linebackers can't make the plays, they can't make the plays, but the free safety should not be helping out.  It's when the free safety goes, "ooo, Elmo help!" that all hell breaks loose.  It's a simple assignment and was executed to perfection last year by Corey Mosley, allowing Rodney McLeod to be aggressive in run support.

It's a good formula.  Can we make it happen this year?  I guess I'm cautiously semi-optimistic.  On the one hand, the secondary played well against Penn State and showed admirable discipline; I'm thinking here of the flea-flicker that Drequan Hoskey covered perfectly.  On the other hand, they're still freshmen and sophomores who've had one week to prepare for this thing they've never seen.  Georgia Tech purposely makes this realm of the game wildly unpredictable, and inexperienced safeties are by their nature equally hard to pin down.

-- Outlook

Georgia Tech is at home and carrying in their back pocket the knowledge that if they lose, the division championship is bye-bye, and only three weeks into the season.  A tough combination for the Hoos.  Also, we're in our all-blue getup, which is ugly.  (I haven't once liked the uniform combos this year.  The lesser of all evils has been the orange-blue-orange from the Penn State game, which is kind of cool-looking but also kind of Syracuse-looking, and includes the orange helmet which I can easily do without.)

At any rate, the environment will be tough.  Very tough.  We probably won't see a tougher one this season until the trip to Blacksburg, and yes, I'm aware the TCU trip is next week.  This is a better UVA team than it's being given credit for, but it has flaws, and this is a likely week to see them exposed.

-- Prediction summary

-- One of UVA's backs has a run of at least 20 yards.
-- Other than that, UVA averages less than 3.5 yards a carry.
-- Darius Jennings has at least three more catches than the next UVA receiver.
-- Jake McGee has the highest per-catch average, again.
-- Georgia Tech puts together at least one drive of eight minutes or more.

Final score: GT 24, UVA 17

-- Rest of the ACC

Wake Forest @ Florida State, 12:00 - Revenge game for the Noles, who'll probably get it in a big, big way.

Virginia Tech @ Pittsburgh, 12:00 - The Hokies get a head start on next year's new divisional matchup.

Miami vs. Bethune-Cookman, 12:00 - Whatever.

Maryland vs. Connecticut, 12:30 - The Terps try to top last season's win total.  Are they the team that almost lost to W&M, or the one that raced to a big lead over Temple?

Clemson vs. Furman, 3:00 - Taking this opportunity to point out that Furman's hypocycloid logo is one of the best in all of college sports, and easily the most underrated.

Boston College @ Northwestern, 3:30 - The Wildcats have put together an interesting nonconference slate consisting of the worst BCS teams they could find.

North Carolina @ Louisville, 3:30 - Dangerous game for the Heels; shredded by Tanner Price last week, they now must deal with the very impressive Teddy Bridgewater.

NC State vs. South Alabama, 6:00 - Whatever and ever again.

Duke vs. NC Central, 7:00 - The city of Durham championship.

the recruit: Micah Kiser

Name: Micah Kiser
Position: LB
Hometown: Baltimore, MD
School: Gilman
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 215

24/7: 90; four stars; #22 OLB; MD #8
ESPN: 82; four stars; #20 OLB; MD #6; Atlantic #42
Rivals: 5.7; three stars; #20 ILB; MD #13
Scout: three stars; #61 OLB

Other offers: Florida, Oklahoma, Stanford, Penn State, Virginia Tech, NC State, Boston College, West Virginia, Purdue, Rutgers, Maryland, Wake Forest

With three linebackers, including two starters, graduating after this year, it's an important year for recruiting the position.  So it was a big deal when UVA kicked off the linebacker acquisition with one of the top prospects on its board.

Offers from Florida, Oklahoma, and Stanford, as well as most of the regional powers, confirm Micah Kiser's big-time status.  Despite the big names on his personal board, Kiser's choice came down to home-state Maryland and UVA, and he didn't waste any time with frivolities once he made up his mind; Kiser dropped a pleasant Monday night surprise in the middle of a UVA baseball game, without waiting for a particular moment.

Kiser is the kind of well-rounded linebacker prospect that, other than maybe Kwontie Moore, UVA hasn't picked up in ages.  He's athletic enough to already be a state champion as of his sophomore year - not in football, but in lacrosse.  Scouting reports from both Rivals and ESPN tout his first-step quickness and ability to change direction, skills that come in handy in pass coverage.  They're equally big on his football IQ: MDHigh says, "Kiser is a high IQ linebacker who is perpetually one step ahead of the opposing offense. This is the kind of linebacker who can get in a quarterback's head because he reads so well."  His coach adds this: "[UVA really likes] the way he plays the position, how he’s physical and how he knows not only where he’s supposed to be but where everyone else is supposed to be."

Those skills have him playing inside linebacker and quarterbacking the defense at Gilman, but his physical skills lead most sites to project him as an outside linebacker.  Of the five positive traits ESPN gives linebackers in their ratings, Kiser gets four - the only one missing is "inside run support."  The general consensus in that regard goes something like "he'd do fine inside, but would excel on the outside."

So does that mean that's where Kiser is headed?  Probably....maybe.  Though his pass coverage skills and ability to play in space better than most lead scouts to believe he's an outside linebacker, never underestimate a college coach's propensity to reward a high football IQ and put it where it's most useful.  When 2013 rolls around, the only MLB on the roster will be Moore, and right now even he's listed at OLB - we're all just assuming he'll be a Mike because he's so big.  I wouldn't put it past the coaches to put Kiser at any one of the three linebacker positions.

I also wouldn't put it past them to not even think about redshirting Kiser.  Football smarts implies extreme coachability, and that implies the fast track to the field.  As does the depth chart.  Barring an injury to a current starter, Kiser will enter fall camp and find the depth chart very thin on starting experience, and I expect he'll put pressure on the veterans from day one.  Kiser had suitors from all over the country, and offers don't lie: he's got the ability, and a head on his shoulders.  In an ideal - and very plausible - world, Kwontie Moore has just as much defense-quarterbacking ability as Kiser, allowing them to form a pretty formidable tandem in the years ahead.  Either way, I don't expect Kiser to redshirt, and I do expect him to be a top-end starter relatively soon.

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Smallish notes:

-- The UVA athletic department felt compelled to put out a statement basically denying the idea that Auburn is on the schedule in 2015 in Atlanta.  Folks got that idea because it was printed on the season tickets they got this week.  They'd probably like you to just forget that happened, and are using the future nine-game conference schedule as the PR version of "these aren't the droids you're looking for," but there's still no good reason to think the idea of another Auburn game is dead.  For one, the bowl folks seemed to really like that matchup since it filled the stadium up awfully quickly.  For another, even with a nine-game conference schedule (which everyone knew was coming in 2015 anyway, regardless of the timing of the Pitt/Cuse announcement, because no matter what, 2014 was their absolute last year in the Biggish Eastish) the 2015 schedule isn't full.  The rumored UConn series doesn't start til 2016, and the definite Stanford series doesn't start til 2017.  My guess: the game is lined up, or at least tentatively so, and it's too soon for the official pronouncement and the game organizers like to be the ones making said pronouncement.

-- Did anyone else notice, by the way, that when the UVA website directed you to the future schedules page, the home-and-home UTSA series is no longer on the docket?  Good riddance; there was no good reason to give a bottom-feeding program a home game like that.  "Recruiting in Texas" doesn't fly as a reason - you don't raise your profile by playing UTSA.  You probably lower it.  And no matter how many games we play in the state of Texas and how hard we recruit that state, we'll still be behind most of the instate schools, most of the SEC, most of the Big 12, and half of the Pac-12 in the pecking order there.  Recruiting-wise, we'd be much better off playing games against, oh, I dunno, Auburn, in closer recruiting grounds, like, oh, say, Atlanta, Georgia.

-- What the hell, France?

the recruit: Divante Walker

Name: Divante Walker
Position: CB
Hometown: Virginia Beach
School: Salem
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 160

24/7: 83; three stars; #89 ATH; VA #32
ESPN: 71; two stars; #186 RB; Atlantic #284; VA #61
Rivals: 5.3; two stars
Scout: N/R

Other offers: instate I-AAs only

Almost a year ago to the day since Divante Walker committed on Sunday, UVA took Mason Thomas's commitment, a surprise since Thomas's entire profile (what there was of it) screamed I-AA and nobody had ever heard his name and UVA's in the same sentence.  The more things change.  Like Thomas, Walker was an uncommitted recruit (this year, he was the only one) at UVA's Verbally Committed Recruit Extravaganza and All-Weekend Party, so he was surrounded by a bunch of guys saying "you're coming too, right?"

Walker is a little bit different though, which means a little bit more optimism.  For one thing, he was first-team all-region as selected by the coaches, and made the Virginian-Pilot's first-team all-Tidewater as well.  (Thomas was only second-team in the district.)  Walker got these honors on the strength of his work at running back, where he totaled nearly 1,400 yards rushing.  One recruiting site offers a really high rating for a guy who had no other I-A offers; in fact, 24/7 has him higher-rated than guys like Sean Karl (BC and Syracuse offers), Kye Morgan (Illinois, Cincy, BC), and Demeitre Brim, who Wisconsin and Miami tried to pull away from a UVA commitment.  To them he's the #32 prospect in the state, and that's still not as optimistic as it gets; Doug Doughty ranks him 28th, ahead of four UVA commits and three Tech ones.

The other sites, though, are way down on him, dropping mid-to-low two-star ratings.  Why the huge discrepancy?  I'm willing to bet it's not a coincidence that the optimistic assessments are the ones that think he's 175 pounds (as Doughty does) and the pessimistic ones list him at 157.  Somebody, somewhere, made a typo, and it spread, and I don't know which it's supposed to be.

Truthfully, I don't believe either.  It's probably in the middle.  He doesn't look like 175 pounds in his pictures at all.  On the other hand, I'm 5'7" and can't get down to 157 to save my life.  Walker is 5'10" or 11", if he weighs 157 pounds he's got no muscle and is strong like mosquito, which would explain all the low ratings.

The problem with those accolades, of course, is that Walker won't be playing RB for us.  At this point there's no need for yet another small back.  There is a need for athletic bodies with cornerback experience, so toss Walker into that very large mix of incoming freshmen.  Walker will redshirt because he's not 175 pounds, and after that.....well, the cornerback shuffle in this class will sort itself out somehow.  Walker has a little bit of a disadvantage because he's not as fast as C.J. Moore, not a pure corner who played the position every day like Kelvin Rainey, probably not quite as athletic as Maurice Canady, and not as big as Wil Wahee.  Yes, the deck is stacked a little bit against him, but it'll be interesting to see who comes out of that big spin cycle on top.

the recruit: C.J. Moore

Name: C.J. Moore
Position: CB
Hometown: Buford, GA
School: Buford
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 165

24/7: 80; three stars
ESPN: 75; three stars; #68 CB; Southeast #512; GA #107
Rivals: 5.4; two stars
Scout: three stars; #87 CB

Other offers: Wake Forest, Air Force, Navy, Rice, Memphis

This is the third prospect named Moore that it's been my pleasure to profile this year, so get all the "all your Moores are belong to us" jokes out of your system before we move on.  Moore is the new Wallace, yes?  Actually let's hope not, because two of our three Wallaces washed out.

Anyway, C.J. Moore - he is fast.  Moore has a genetic advantage in the speed department, as he is a nephew to three-time Olympic gold-medal sprinter Gail Devers.  He's a talented cornerback on a powerhouse high school team; he had seven interceptions last year and I think he's got about five this year (but I'm nowhere near sure.)  Buford is mighty as hell.  (If I were them I'd change the school's name to Buford T. Justice High instead of just plain ol' Buford, but I don't get to make those decisions.)  In case you missed it in the weekend review, they are going for their fifth state championship in a row.  They've churned out over 50 college players in the last decade.  They only play in the 2A division in Georgia (which goes up to 5A), but I think it'd be a mistake to cast a skeptical eye at the competition they play.  Buford usually schedules up when they can.  Their league isn't the Beach District, but it's not terrible; remember, they finished the year with Greater Atlanta Christian, which is where we got Malcolm Brogdon.

Despite playing at a place that every school in the South knows about (Buford sends people everywhere in the SEC and beyond), Moore got a pretty weak set of scholarship offers.  Likely this is because of his size.  He doesn't project to grow much, either.  Demetrious Nicholson is skinny but with room to add on.  Moore doesn't look like he's got the ability to add a lot of weight and still keep his speed.  Despite that, he gets a reasonable consensus of lowish three star ratings from the services, except for Rivals which has him pretty far down the list.

The other three services agree, though, so we're going with that.  ESPN is very complimentary of his cornerback skills, largely on the mental side of the game - positioning, timing, etc.  They praise his zone coverage ability and have some questions about man-to-man.  Naturally, a guy Moore's size will have trouble sometimes with man-to-man coverage in college; bigger receivers will almost always be able to get the drop on him.

Run support is a little questionable too; ESPN points out his high tackling form, and that's backed up by his highlight tape.  He's not ready for the college run game; a 5'9", 160-165 pound kid trying to tackle high is gonna be someone's highlight-reel broken tackle.  It's happened to Nicholson a few times this season already and he doesn't even try to bear-hug.  But that's not a difficult habit to break - it might be broken by the time the bullets start flying next September.

Which raises the question; will Moore be on the field?  You know how it is with cornerbacks right now.  It's a bad situation depth-wise, covered up by the fact that we have an all-conference future NFLer manning the position for now.  Said star will be gone next year, as well as the top backup, Dom Joseph, leaving us with exactly three cornerbacks: Nicholson, Brandon Phelps, and track star walk-on Drequan Hoskey.  There are numbers in the incoming freshman class, but it's awfully thin on field-ready talent like Nicholson.  Maurice Canady is playing quarterback right now.  Wil Wahee is more of a two-way athlete right now than a cornerback who moonlights on offense, which is what C.J. Moore is.  I don't know whether Hoskey is ready to assume a nickel-back, in-the-rotation role like what Dom Joseph does now.  Even if so, cornerback is the one position almost certain to see some true freshmen on the field.

And I think Moore has as good a shot as anyone; only Kelvin Rainey in the class of 2012 is as much a natural cornerback as Moore is.  If all goes according to plan, Phelps and Nicholson will own the position for a while, and there's a decent chance the 2012 crop of cornerbacks gets recruited over in the following years.  So I don't see Moore ever really owning the starting job; if he does, it's a while down the road yet.  But his speed alone will get him on the field, and he brings a lot of tools with him; there may or may not ever be a starting position available for him, but there'll almost always be a role.

the recruit: Michael Moore

Name: Michael Moore
Position: DE
Hometown: Centreville, MD
School: DeMatha
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 255

24/7: 94; four stars; #7 SDE; MD #4; US #125
ESPN: 79; four stars; #32 DE
Rivals: 5.8; four stars; #12 SDE; MD #5; US #176
Scout: four stars; #33 DE; US #282

Other offers: USC, Florida, Michigan, Ohio State, Auburn, Nebraska, Florida State, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Oregon, Penn State, South Carolina, Miami, Clemson, Boston College, Iowa, Illinois, North Carolina, shall I go on?

It's almost like I don't even have to write this one; even those who only very casually follow UVA recruiting know Michael Moore.  And he's not even a fat obnoxious slob who makes low-budget, low-effort quasi-documentaries.  And even if you don't know Michael Moore you might've heard of his dad Shawn.  Y'know, the wide receivers coach and a guy who's done some other stuff at UVA too.

With a pedigree like that, and half the schools in the country after him (he'd gotten past 40 offers by the time he committed to UVA) Moore's name was out there for fan consumption much earlier than most high school juniors, similar to Curtis Grant last season.  Fortunately for everyone's blood pressure, Moore made the decision early, choosing UVA over Florida shortly after a trip to Gainesville.  This will make five years in a row that a DeMatha prospect has chosen UVA.

It's a good thing UVA had that "in" with Moore, because despite offering him even before his junior year, the competition was fierce.  Those 40+ offers came in from all corners of the country, making him the most highly recruited player on UVA's commitment list.  Kwontie Moore probably has slightly higher accolades from the recruiting gurus, but Michael has the best offer list.  (In no small part because of the size of the schools they go to, no doubt.)  Still, the sites are plenty big-talking about Michael.  Very consistent, too, as you'd expect about a player from DeMatha who's been as visible to colleges as Moore has.

Moore is a big strong kid, and even though all the sites rank him as a defensive end, I think defensive tackle is in his future.  Both Rivals ("Must add muscle tone to frame and work on creating separation") and ESPN ("he possesses a frame to be able to add more good bulk as he continues to physically develop") see room for adding muscle and size, and it wouldn't surprise me to see him get to 275 or 280 in short order.  He reminds me of Chris Brathwaite, who was recruited at 250 pounds and is up to 275 in less than two years in the program and now playing defensive tackle.  Moore could do the same thing.

Chances are that more defensive ends will end up at tackle by the time Moore is ready to step on the field, so the depth chart crystal ball is hazy at both positions.  This year's starting DTs are both seniors, with junior Will Hill rotating in; if Michael Moore is to make the jump to DT, the lineup won't likely feature any of those three when he's ready.  But if the Brathwaite comparison holds, Moore would be threatening to break into the lineup as a redshirt freshman, only with a better recruiting background than Brathwaite had and with not so many highly-established seniors in the way.  (And for the record, I remain awfully, awfully excited about what Brathwaite may eventually do for us.)  Moore is too big and strong not to eventually be a building block for the defense; the only question is when.

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Was going to do a recruiting board thing but it's getting late.  Maybe tomorrow or Monday.

the recruit: Kwontie Moore

Name: Kwontie Moore
Position: MLB
Hometown: Norfolk
School: Norfolk Christian
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 243

24/7: 95; four stars; #3 ILB; VA #4; US #97
ESPN: 79; four stars; #10 ILB
Rivals: 5.8; four stars; #1 ILB; US #116
Scout: three stars

Other offers: Virginia Tech, Oregon, Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina, NC State, Connecticut, assorted others

It only makes sense to follow Will Wahee with his teammate Kwontie Moore, because the latter committed to UVA less than 48 hours after the former.  And, with apologies to the previous three recruits, Moore is the guy who really got the class started; he was the first to commit to UVA who had offers elsewhere.

And those offers above are just the start; in other words, they're the ones that the services seem to be in agreement on.  Depending on who you ask, Moore might also have had offers from Ohio State, Michigan State, Georgia, Stanford - this is the annoying thing about the NCAA's asinine rule about no written offers til August 1 of a player's senior year.  At any rate there's one indisputable thing: Kwontie Moore is a national recruit from UVA's own backyard.  He's a consensus top-five guy in the state, and has been since just after his junior year.  And as I type this, Moore is in Oregon attending the (probably over-hyped, in my opinion) Nike event that they've dubbed "The Opening" for the best recruits in the country.

Moore's name has been out there for a while, in fact, making the all-conference team as a sophomore.  On both offense and defense.  He's too big a guy to play receiver like most two-way players, so he totes the rock as a running back instead.  Linebacker all the way in college, of course.  "Motor" is a word you see in several different places, and he racked up over 150 tackles during his junior year, when he moved back to middle linebacker from the D-line.  The scouting reports portray a very strong player without super-elite athleticism, but more than enough quickness to play in space and go sideline to sideline, and plenty of smarts.  Recruit757 calls him "a muscle-bound stud with a heart of gold."

Man-love aside,** the last part of that compliment is as important as the first part.  Moore's the outgoing type who's already been instrumental in landing and keeping a couple commitments for UVA and plans to play the kind of recruiting role that Clifton Richardson (among others) did for UVA last year.  He's emblematic of the change in the recruiting dynamic that Mike London has brought to Charlottesville: I remain something of an Al Groh apologist, but it's undeniable what Mike London has brought to recruiting, and the main thing that wasn't there before is the contingent of players who will carry the flag for UVA in the high schools.  Kwontie Moore is that kind of guy.

If Moore was a lesser recruit, I'd guarantee a redshirt, as his freshman year will be Steve Greer's senior season, and Henry Coley is the current heir apparent at middle linebacker.  We don't know for sure what Coley will bring, though, nor do we know how much the coaches will insist on platooning Greer the way they did last year.  So the events of this season will have a big effect on Moore, more so, I'd say, than many recruits.  If Greer doesn't platoon and plays most of the snaps, I'd bet on Moore making early inroads onto the two-deep.  If Coley plays a lot, especially as the year goes on, then it may be that UVA can afford to redshirt Moore and ease him into the lineup.  I suspect Moore is the type that it'll be very hard to keep on the bench, and there's just a ton of potential for all-conference honors and such as Moore grows into an upperclassman.  For purposes of 2012, come signing day he'll be one of this class's crown jewels.

**I hate the word "stud" as it applies to recruiting and will never, ever use it on this site in my own words.  For chrissake we are not bringing the kid in to breed him.  The only reason I even bothered here was for the "heart of gold" thing.

recruiting board update

Time again to drop an update, and I'd better get to it so we can get Kwontie Moore up where he belongs.  Moore is the first true prize of the class, one of the top five and maybe top three recruits in the state.  Locking up Moore is a terrific first step to another top-20 class for Mike London.  Getting commitments from Eli Harold, Anthony Cooper, and Michael Moore would just about write that in pen, if not stone.

The board and the map:

- Moved LB Kwontie Moore from blue to orange. First time I've moved someone up there vice adding them in - that's a good thing, we should do more of that. Moore makes two Norfolk Christian players to UVA.  One is off to VT - more in a sec - so that leaves Courtnye Wynn as the only uncommitted NCS player.  Wynn is probably a future Hoo as well.

- Removed WR Mario Nixon from green.  Nixon is the VT kid.  My guess: Nixon more or less always preferred VT but sort of wanted to play with his NCS friends too.  So when two of them committed to UVA and Nixon realized he still wanted to go to VT regardless, he made it official.

- Removed TE Joshua Parris and LB Noor Davis from yellow.  Parris committed to USF, Davis to Stanford, which damn are they getting a big defensive class or what.  We may take a TE in this class but the coaches don't seem to be recruiting them very hard, so we very well might not.  I said we'd take one in the early look, but that was before Jeremiah Mathis was announced as a full-timer there, so there's less need.  And there are other conversion candidates, too, should the need arise.  As for Davis, he's a helluva talent and would've been a really great addition but the competition was fierce and linebacker is no longer a pressing need.

- Moved ATH Joel Caleb from yellow to red.  This is basically a feel like last year's #1 recruit in Virginia, only in reverse: he seems destined to go out of state, but if he doesn't it'll be Tech.

- Moved OL Greg Pyke and LB Ken Ekanem from red to yellow.

- Added DT Pat Gamble to yellow.  Kind of against my better judgment because he's been GT, GT, GT all the way but whateva.

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I got so excited about the UVA-Michigan tilt in the ACC/BT Challenge that I forgot about all the rest of the stuff I meant to yak about.

- Still no Rhamel Bratton this weekend.  OK, that sucks, we really need his athleticism against Cornell.  More annoying is that Dom Starsia would make this announcement on Tuesday.  Cornell just went THANKS DOOD!  Why can't Starsia be like every coach everywhere and keep his status a state secret until five minutes before faceoff?  Cornell's game-planning just got that much easier.

- VT hoops took a little bit of a hit with swingman Manny Atkins's announcement that he'll be transferring.  On the one hand, he's transferring for what a lot of people would consider the wrong reasons, though he's at least honest about it where some guys would just say "I'm looking for a better fit."  On the other hand, what it comes down to is that you can probably consider Atkins a casualty of Seth Greenberg's absurdly short rotation.  Atkins was one of those guys who was at the back end of the (extremely minimal) rotation who would come in if one of the starters had to be pulled off on a stretcher or when Jeff Allen got into foul trouble.  If Allen didn't have a propensity to swipe at opponents' elbows as they blew past him, Atkins's minutes would've been halved.  If he played on any other team they'd have been almost double.

Atkins had the team's best O-rating of anyone, even including Malcolm Delaney, so even though he may or may not have ended up in the starting lineup, VT probably will not learn what they're missing until he resurfaces the way Derrick Byars did at Vanderbilt.  That O-rating gave him a better PORPAG than some starters on other teams - Wake's C.J. Harris, for example - despite Atkins playing just 32% of VT's minutes.  Losing him gives VT a depth hit and forces them to rely more on their incoming freshmen.