questions at camp for the defense

Continuing the series from yesterday with the camp issues for the defense.

1. Can Eli Harold be a terror on the edge?

The least proven ability on the entire defense is pass-rushing.  Your starting defensive ends are Billy Schautz and Jake Snyder.  Schautz has an outstanding head for football, but isn't athletic enough to speed-rush the quarterback, or powerful enough to bull-rush.  When he gets by his man, it's through technique and footwork.  Snyder is a big, strong-side run stopper, whose job is to hold the edge, and his backup, Brent Urban, is the same.

Mike London moved Ausar Walcott down from linebacker - for real this time, not as a wake-up call after offseason foolishness - in an effort to provide some speed-rush for pressuring the QB.  But not one of these DEs has the raw athletic freakishness of top recruit Eli Harold.  Harold will get a chance right off the bat to make his presence felt in the backfield.  And truthfully, if he isn't yet up to the chore, this season's pass rush will be inconsistent and not terribly productive.

2.  Is Steve Greer the real deal?

Greer was one of two Hoos named to the preseason all-ACC team.  He's not very big and not very fast, but he's developed into a crucial player - captain on the defense, unquestioned leader, and team tackling champ for two of his three years on the field.  And probably this year, too.  He's always been able to work quietly in the background, though, or at least, as much as you can do that at middle linebacker.  Being named one of the top three linebackers in the league is a high honor, but it means teams are gonna be gameplanning for him.  He'll have a lot on his plate no longer being backed up by senior safeties, and UVA's defense is going to go as he goes.  That's likely to be great news.

3.  Do the defensive backs know what's about to hit them?

Folks had complaints about the play of our defensive backfield at times last year, but they still were mostly seniors, and the plaudits for Chase Minnifield outweighed any complaints about safeties sometimes giving up big plays.

As veteran as that group was, though, this group is greener.  Let's put it this way: Tre Nicholson is a true sophomore and has six times as many starts as every other defensive back on the roster combined - which is because the only other player to have started a game is Rijo Walker, with two.  The other safety, Anthony Harris, is as green as they come.

At cornerback, it looks like a three-man rotation (a familiar setup - you'll remember how much time Dom Joseph saw despite not technically being a starter) with Nicholson as the veteran leader and Drequan Hoskey and Brandon Phelps rotating.  Hoskey - for now - has a leg up.  There's a ton of talent in the cornerback group, but barely enough experience to fill a paper bag.

And if that weren't enough, it seems a near certainty that a true freshman will be forced onto the field, and it's anyone's guess who that might be.  Defensive back might be the position that draws the most scrutiny in the whole camp.

4.  Am I right about Chris Brathwaite?

I've long felt that Brathwaite is a sleeper talent in the truest sense of the word.  I hate when people use the word "sleeper" or "diamond in the rough" because usually they do it wrong, but Brathwaite is the type the terms are meant for.  And this is a possible breakout year for the big, strong DT from New York.  Brathwaite is poised to leapfrog Justin Renfrow on the depth chart and earn a starting role alongside Will Hill, which is really great because I think there comes a time when Brathwaite is seen stepping on some right guard's face on the way to eating his quarterback as a light tea-time snack.  Practically every time Brathwaite has been mentioned on this blog in the past it's accompanied by effusive praise for his future prospects, and now that he's getting first-team reps, I'm excited to find out if this praise is well-placed.

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Get excited yo: next week I kick off the ACC previews.  As always, FOV readers will be the best-informed UVA fans on the competition.  Can't get this stuff anywhere else, and you will be able to talk intelligently about the rest of the ACC and where the Hoos fit into the pecking order.

Oh, and finally, speaking of kickoffs, as the Olympics begin their two-week run tonight, check out the list of UVA athletes participating in the Games in London, as put together by Streaking the Lawn.  Included are no fewer than three former Cavalier of the Year nominees as well; there's a reason that award exists.

the recruit: Tyrell Chavis

There's a lot of newsish stuff to catch up on, mainly the highly-anticipated publishing of the depth chart, but I also don't want to get too far behind on the recruit profiles.  So today is a two for the price of one special.

Name: Tyrell Chavis
Position: DT
Hometown: Richmond
School: Varina
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 300

24/7: 83; three stars
ESPN: 78; three stars; #44 OG; VA #16; Atl. Reg. #104
Rivals: 5.5; three stars; VA #24
Scout: two stars; #99 OG

Other offers: Boston College, Vanderbilt

Tyrell Chavis is an important recruit for a couple of reasons.  Actually about 300 reasons.  Chavis is really the only true defensive tackle in the class right now, and unless Korren Kirven comes on board - highly unlikely - it'll stay that way.  There will be others that might grow into DTs, but Chavis is already one, and the only one like him in the class.  So of course, all the sites rate him for his play on the offensive line instead.

Yes, Chavis plays both sides of the line, and his 6'3" height screams guard all the way, but there are plenty of those guys in the class.  So despite any rumblings about the "possibility" he'll play on the offensive side, I expect defense.  Chavis looks like a true nose guard.  I say this from looking at the one highlight film available since all the evaluations are on offense.  He's got one move: go forward regardless of what is in the way.  Technique isn't his strong suit; being physical is.

So I expect Chavis to develop as a middle-clogging zero-tech or one-tech nose tackle.  (Meaning he plays right over top of the center or just a shade over in the gap.)  But not for a couple years.  It's a little bit of an open secret that Chavis will likely end up having to prep for a year, probably at FUMA, the usual designated place for UVA recruits who need a little help making the grade.  Chavis's academic challenges are said not to be the product of laziness or incorrect priorities, rather, a family situation.  The other schools to offer him actual scholarships were Boston College and Vanderbilt, which should give you an idea of the concern level. 

So even if a prep year is in the cards it's not the worst thing.  Chavis needs a year anyway to get rid of some baby fat and turn into a 300-pound person-crusher instead of merely a large obstacle, so he'd have simply spent the year redshirting.  Right now, Chris Brathwaite is the fifth defensive tackle as a redshirt freshman; after Chavis FUMA-shirts, it wouldn't surprise too greatly to see him filling that role in technically his true freshman season in 2013.  It depends on how many other guys move inside to DT.  I don't think Chavis will develop into a major pass-rush threat, as he doesn't really have the quicks for it; he'll probably rotate out during passing situations.  Rather, his potential is as a big run-stuffer who creates those passing situations in the first place.

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Let's talk depth chart.  Actually, no.  Let's save that til the end just to make you crazy.  Let's talk Senior Seasons instead.  High schools around the country got into the game for real this weekend, even here in Michigan as the GP South Blue Devils got off to a fine start with a shutout against U-D Jesuit and ended the week ranked #4 in the Eastern region of Metro Detroit.  A fine start to build on last year's surprise appearance in the state semifinals.  It's my blog, I get to write what I want.

But you're here to read about my other alma mater, so let's see what UVA's recruits did this weekend.  A little under half of them were in action this weekend.  Sort of.  The 757 guys got postponed thanks to Irene.  Norfolk Christian is playing as I type, so, update on that next week.  So really all there is, is the Georgia games again.

Wayne County 28, Windsor Forest 28: Yes, a tie.  Greyson Lambert threw two touchdowns for Wayne but also two picks, and was just 13/27 overall for 127 yards.  Wayne was up 28-6 to start the fourth, but turnovers cost them the win.  Wayne County is 0-0-1.

Also playing:

Buford 49, Gainesville 0 (C.J. Moore. Buford is 2-0.)

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OK, now we can have some sweet sweet depth chart action.  The official two-deep is here, and the FOV depth chart has been updated as well.  The items of interest:

-- Demetrious Nicholson has indeed won the starting position at cornerback opposite Chase Minnifield; the real news, though, is Rijo Walker's surprise move to safety.  That makes Dom Joseph basically the nickel corner and walk-on Drequan Hoskey the fourth cornerback.  (For now; Brandon Phelps may overtake Hoskey in the rotation.)  This is actually excellent news for Walker, whose path to a starting job at corner was going to be very difficult with Nicholson and Phelps around; Walker is now the backup free safety, which means plenty of playing time and a starting job to inherit as a junior.  We'll see how his talents translate to safety.

-- The other backup at safety is true freshman Anthony Harris.  Walker's move and Harris's promotion is bad news for Groh recruits LoVante' Battle and Pablo Alvarez.  Alvarez is still only a redshirt freshman so no big deal yet; Battle is a junior without a spot on the two-deep, which makes it pretty official that he's been passed up.  I think the Nicholson promotion is a good sign and Harris's promotion a bad one; Nicholson beat out someone who'd been establishing a quality rep.  Harris beat someone who's never distinguished himself and has bounced from safety to linebacker and back without hardly ever seeing the field.  Fortunately there's a very strong starter at strong safety in Rodney McLeod, but Harris is probably in for a baptism by fire.

-- Ausar Walcott is working his way back up the depth chart very nicely; now listed as Aaron Taliaferro's backup at Sam linebacker.  It wouldn't surprise me at all to see him overtake Taliaferro by season's end; Walcott is much more physically gifted and needs only to match Taliaferro's mental grasp of the position.  Good to see Walcott recovering from his misstep in January.

-- Conner Davis as the backup right guard gives me more confidence than when that was Billy Cuffee.

-- Good things have been said about Kelby Johnson this fall; even so, his position on the depth chart as backup left tackle is mainly due to Landon Bradley's ongoing injury saga.  (FWIW, I don't think Bradley will be able to make it back, unfortunately.)  There are some very good players at offensive tackle but not a world of depth.

-- It's interesting how Matt Snyder keeps hanging around.  He must be doing something right.  Looks like he, Kris Burd, and Tim Smith are the starting rotation at wide receiver with the wondertwins, Darius Jennings and Dominique Terrell, backing up and sharing kick/punt return duties.

-- Reading the tea leaves from the press conference and the depth chart, it sounds like Mike Rocco and Ross Metheny are interchangeable - that is, Metheny is Rocco's backup - and David Watford has his own specially carved out role.  I think this will be different than when Bryson Spinner and Matt Schaub were on the play-til-you-screw-up schedule in 2001.  I hope I'm right.

-- Lot of freshman types, both redshirt and true, on the two-deep here.  I count 12, not including long snapper Matt Fortin.  Unless injuries start running crazy on our starters, this actually looks like a very promising setup since of those 12, only one is a starter and he's got a very good reason to be there that doesn't involve the suckiness of the competition.  We have veteran starters in most positions with underclassmen being heavily worked into the rotation; I like how that works for both now and the future.

weekend review

Well, the big news of the weekend was the bad news of the weekend: James Robinson's decision to go to Pittsburgh instead of UVA.  Damn you Pittsburgh for stealing Cam Saddler and what was that other guy's name in football and now the one guy that would've fit like the last puzzle piece from our basketball team.  Right out of our backyard.  Tony Bennett is assembling a lot of talent for the coming years, and a point guard like Robinson would've fit like a glove.  Not least because Sammy Zeglinski leaves after this year and that means 2012 we have Jontel Evans and nobody else manning the point.  Malcolm Brogdon may get a look but that's not ideal.  What to do now?  The staff will go after L.J. Rose, probably with the fullest-court press imaginable, but that's not a likely proposition.  Chances are either they grit their teeth for 2012 and try to make the most of it with Evans and whoever else can handle a ball - or they take a fallback option and try to turn mid-major talent into an ACC player.  Either way, the 2013 PG crop (Nate Britt, Big Cat Barber, etc.) just became the most important recruiting challenge Tony Bennett's yet had in his UVA career.

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Fall camp chugs on, and so do position switches, and this means we need a depth chart update.  Last week we covered Ryan Cobb's departure and Zach Swanson's move to fullback (the latter may have happened before the former, and if so might well have precipitated it) and this week, the dominos keep falling into place:

- Demetrious Nicholson won himself the starting cornerback job opposite Chase Minnifield.  That puts Rijo Walker in a bit of a playing time bind, as the coaches think highly of Dom Joseph.  Joseph could play safety, if necessary, but that wouldn't be ideal because there's a crying need to develop playable depth at safety for 2012 and beyond.  Right now the backups are LoVante' Battle and Pablo Alvarez, neither of whom have anything resembling decent game experience at safety.

- Vincent Croce, to nobody's surprise, moves to DT from DE.  Redshirt year is a lock barring an epic DT disaster, because he needs to pack on the pounds.

- The same article is primarily about Ausar Walcott's move back to linebacker.  The stay at defensive end?  More a wake-up call to Walcott than anything else.  Get him out of his comfort zone, remind him that his position on the team is not to be taken for granted.  Though he's been running with the third-team defense, it wouldn't surprise to see him make a leapfrog move or two up the depth chart as the season goes on.

- A few other changes have been made, most notably listing Landon Bradley as injured, and shuffling the quarterbacks.  London hasn't come out and said it, but for all purposes now, Mike Rocco is your starter.  The backup hasn't been really decided yet, I don't think, but for now it's David Watford since that's where the reps are going.

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Another sign that football season approaches: for some, it's already started.  It's weird that seasons start earlier in the South and later as you go north, which I guess a Southerner would say that's because they give a shit down there.  Me, if I were being recruited for college football, not doing my conditioning drills in 500 percent humidity would be a real attraction, and I'd feel awful weird about being done with the regular season before Halloween.  But Georgia is Georgia (or Jawjuh depending on your perspective), and that's where we go for the first edition of Senior Seasons this year.

In case you're wondering, this is the part of the every-Monday weekend review where I check in on how our commitments did in their game that weekend.  Only one this week....

Buford 42, Blessed Trinity 0: This is C.J. Moore, who had a nice game with an interception and a 33-yard touchdown catch.  Buford has won four straight state championships at the AA level in Georgia, which goes from A to 5A.

Despite also living in Georgia, Greyson Lambert waits til next week to start his season, but in a scrimmage a week ago he threw for 192 yards and three touchdowns in one half, before the scrimmage was called for weather.

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I leave you til tomorrow with the most unintentionally ironic thing that has ever or will ever emerge from an ESPN the Magazine article, in this case primarily about Ohio State president Gordon Gee:

At Miami, president Donna Shalala personally hires each coach.  She studies the NCAA rulebook and weekly compliance reports.  During football games, she scours the sidelines for suspicious guests.  "I'm on alert all the time," she says.

You could not have timed this quote better with a stopwatch.  How's that 24/7 alert status working out?

questions at camp for the defense

Continuation of Wednesday's post in which we asked similar questions about the offense.  Here we'll look at the defense and what questions need to be answered in the coming weeks.

1. Can Rijo Walker seize the starting cornerback job opposite Chase Minnifield?

This is probably his big chance.  He's done some impressive work for the coaches in the past year, enough to be currently listed as the starter, but now he'll have to fend off two freshman phenoms, and compete with senior Dom Joseph besides.  Joseph is solid but limited, and freshmen, no matter how talented, end up torched by a wily senior receiver sooner or later.  Now that Walker's been around the block once, having him ready to get the bulk of the starters' minutes is probably the best-case scenario for the defense.  If he can't jump on the job this year, Demetrious Nicholson and Brandon Phelps may ensure he never gets another chance.

2. Is Cam Johnson a holy terror?

Every year with Johnson has been the same: we're pleased with what he's done this year and expect more next year.  Unless Jake Snyder has a few surprises in his hat, Johnson is the defense's only real shot at having a QB-terrorizing pass rusher on the end.  He's easily the best athlete on the line.  Chris Long almost singlehandedly dragged his 2007 team to a New Year's bowl game, so if Cam Johnson lives up to his best potential, he could be worth a win or two.  Truthfully, this question won't be properly answered until a few games into the season, but if Morgan Moses can't handle Johnson in camp, not many opposing tackles will, either.

3. Where will the freshmen get slotted?

There are a ton of DEs and DBs on the roster in the freshman section.  Camp will be the first step in figuring out where the best position for some of these guys are - guys like Kameron Mack, Anthony Harris, Marco Jones, and Rob Burns, among others.

4. Have we found a workable linebacker combo?

The switch to the 4-3 still hasn't seen much settling down in the middle, as the coaches have done some experimenting with the lineup over the past year.  Laroy Reynolds was switched to the weak side, Aaron Taliaferro moved to the outside from the middle, and Steve Greer still seems to be stuck in a platoon, the latter being much to the chagrin of many fans - including myself - who think Greer is good enough to be an every-down player.  Meanwhile, former starter Ausar Walcott is now a DE and LoVante' Battle was moved back to the secondary.  Certain other players are breathing down the necks of the nominal starters.  There's not a fluxier unit on the roster outside of the quarterbacks.

5. Can we run any semblance of a secondary at all if a ton of freshmen are involved?  Because it still looks awfully thin behind the starters.

*shudder*

recruiting board update of prescience

Minor housekeeping to be done on the recruiting board, and then you get to hear all about the three caballeros and their Harrisonburg adventures. Today is set aside for me to brag about my forecasting abilities.

Board here; map here. Updates:

- ATH Germone Hopper and LB Timothy Cole committed to places not named UVA, so I'd remove them, except I already did. I'm a smart one that way. Clemson and Texas, respectively, if you're wondering.

- S Alex Carter also committed somewhere not named UVA (Stanford) so he too is gone.

- Moved WR Eugene Lewis and TE Joshua Parris from green to yellow.

- Moved DT Roderick Chungong and MLB Kaiwan Lewis from yellow to green.

- Moved OL Brock Stadnik from yellow to red.

- Added OG Andre Miles-Redmond to green.

Also, the board is starting to become a lot more populated with stars.

Both Scout and 24/7 came out with their early national lists this past week. Rivals probably won't be til May and as I recall ESPN waits til early June. With Scout it's a list of 300 and 24/7, naturally, lists 247 players. Here are the ones on the recruiting board:

Scout 300:
#6 - DE Noah Spence (red)
#14 - DT Eddie Goldman (red)
#25 - QB Zeke Pike (red)
#31 - WR Leonte Carroo (red)
#44 - RB Wes Brown (green)
#47 - CB Ronald Darby (red)
#54 - CB Geno Smith (red)
#63 - OT Brock Stadnik (red)
#87 - WR Eugene Lewis (yellow)
#103 - LB Noor Davis (yellow)
#135 - OLB Eli Harold (green)
#161 - MLB Kaiwan Lewis (green)
#163 - QB Devin Fuller (red)
#186 - DE Ken Ekanem (yellow)
#195 - DT Korren Kirven (red)
#205 - MLB Quanzell Lambert (yellow)
#288 - WR Joel Caleb (yellow)
#298 - S C.J. Prosise (green)

Positions are as listed by Scout, which is always the least accurate of all the services. That's a longish list, but don't get excited. Eight are red and most of those are getting close to being dropped right off the list. Barring any shockers the only red names on that list that are remotely likely to move up in the next few weeks are Fuller and Goldman and maybe Kirven. I'm close to moving Ekanem down from yellow too, as well as Brown to yellow from green. Of the names on that list, the ones that should pique your interest the most for now are Harold, K. Lewis, and Prosise.

Caleb, by the way, is quite a surprise at just 288 considering how many people are talking him up for top prospect in the Commonwealth.

Now for the 24/7 247. Or whatever name it's supposed to go by.

#3 - DT Eddie Goldman (red)
#17 - ATH Devin Fuller (red)
#18 - QB Zeke Pike (red)
#29 - CB Geno Smith (red)
#32 - WDE Noah Spence (red)
#34 - OLB Noor Davis (yellow)
#38 - WDE Eli Harold (green)
#55 - WR Joel Caleb (yellow)
#63 - DT Korren Kirven (red)
#64 - ATH Ronald Darby (red)
#72 - OT Brock Stadnik (red)
#97 - ILB Kwontie Moore (blue)
#125 - SDE Michael Moore (blue)
#127 - OLB Quanzell Lambert (yellow)
#139 - OLB Deontay McManus (yellow)
#150 - ATH Cyrus Jones (yellow)
#159 - WDE Ken Ekanem (yellow)
#168 - WR Canaan Severin (yellow)
#171 - RB Wes Brown (green)
#200 - OT Greg Pyke (red)
#202 - OT Adam Bisnowaty (green)
#219 - WR Eugene Lewis (yellow)
#220 - WR Anthony Cooper (blue)
#236 - DT Courtnye Wynn (blue)
#240 - ILB Kaiwan Lewis (green)
#245 - WR Leonte Carroo (red)

Again, positions as listed on the site. This is a much more Virginia-friendly list. If you're the optimistic type you're advised to use this one. Not just players UVA is "in on," there are four here who I do think will be Hoos (both Moores, Cooper, and Wynn) and a few other names to follow with great interest (Harold, Bisnowaty, K. Lewis.) This could be the result of the fact that 24/7 doesn't have affiliates for every team out there yet but does have a UVA affiliate.

Anyway, if that list holds, UVA is set up very well for a solid national ranking from at least one of the sites.

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NC State hired former Alabama coach Mark Gottfried to coach their basketball team, which I'm personally really disappointed about because I don't have even the slightest opinion about that. That leaves just one ACC program left that's looking for a coach, which is Miami after Frank Haith surprisingly jumped ship to Missouri. Haith was on the bottom tier of coaches in the league, but it's only about 50/50 they'll improve on him this late in the process.

So that leaves our jolly crew of Harrisonburg revelers: Ausar Walcott, Mike Price, and Devin Wallace, as you'll recall, who barged into a party one day in January and started harshing everyone's mellow by yelling and throwing punches. They chose this course of action because somebody was hollering racial slurs at them. You stay classy, JMU.

I told you back then that Racist Guy would be in hot water if he were identified, and lo and behold, he was and is. As well he should. Score one for me. I said also that the felony charges would disappear and they'd each get slapped with a misdemeanor or two after their lawyers worked out a deal, and score two for me because that's the way it went down.

So Walcott is free and clear in the eyes of the law and Price and Wallace have a year of probation each. None of them are free and clear in the eyes of the London; all remain suspended and probably will until semester grades are out. Many Hoo fans are of the opinion Walcott should be reinstated since he was cleared by the courts, but that's crap: just because he was found to have committed no crime doesn't mean he was conducting himself within the bounds of expectations for a UVA football players. I'm still of the opinion Wallace should be gone now that a conviction has been reached, as punishment for lying by omission to London about his previous run-in with the law. But I'm perfectly fine with continuing Walcott's suspension until he jumps through his hoops. Maybe there are fewer hoops since he apparently had the good sense not to throw a punch, but he still wasn't conducting himself professionally at all.

And - not at all condoning Price's decision to slug the 165-pound Nathan Yowell, who was being a twerp for no good reason other than an overabundance of Natty Light - but I'll bet Yowell never, ever again mouths off to three pissed-off football players, and has learned the definition of "middleweight."

game preview: Florida State

Date/Time: February 12, 3:00

TV: RSN

History against the Noles: 17-18

Last matchup: FSU 69, UVA 50; 2/17/10; Charlottesville

Last game: Miami 70, UVA 68 (2/5); FSU 72, GT 63 (2/10)

Opposing blogs: Tomahawk Nation, Scalp 'Em

KenPom:

National: UVA #123; FSU #43
Offense: UVA #117; FSU #193
Defense: UVA #136; FSU #2

This is a day early; you get nothing tomorrow because I'm flying to New Mexico to go skiing. Skiing is the shit. I don't know if I'll have anything Monday or not. Possibly, bordering on probably. In fact, maybe it's kinda likely after all, because, having posted yesterday what passes for a lacrosse season preview, I now have baseball to get to. And other stuff. So yeah, posting on Monday. But not tomorrow.

Florida State, in a nutshell, plays defense. Amazing defense. If they could score like even a medium-good team instead of the Sun Belt-level output they have - note the KenPom national ranking of 193 out of 345 on offense - they'd be a top-16 outfit. But they don't, so they're not.

HOW WE CAN WIN

- Start hot. FSU's defense is insanely good. They block a ton of shots, so you can't count on driving to the hoop for layups. They're athletic as hell and can deny the three-point shot. You've got to loosen them up a little, and you can do this by hitting the first threes to make them respect the ability to do that. Otherwise they'll just swat every layup you try, they're that good at shot-blocking.

- Yet more active hands. One reason FSU is worse than mediocre on offense is because they turn the ball over a ton. Almost a quarter of their possessions end in turnovers, which is horrible. This worked against Clemson and it worked against Miami, with plenty of steals against both. FSU is also prone to losing the ball.

- Let Chris Singleton get what he gets, and deny everyone else. Singleton is FSU's go-to guy, but he's not actually an elite scorer like a Malcolm Delaney. FSU is deep, with pretty much everyone being capable of scoring, but they're basically a collection of role players. They can be stopped if your defense is stout enough. They're dangerous mostly only if you let them be. Singleton's an NBA talent, and at first glance he looks like the guy you ought to game-plan against, but he's just not gonna go off for 30 points all of a sudden. The defensive plan should focus on winning as many one-on-one matchups as we can and double-teaming the post when necessary.

HOW WE CAN LOSE

- Pass the ball around the perimeter until the shot clock reaches four, then hork up an ugly, off-balance three. This is our usual modus operandi against good defensive teams. It never works. It's the sort of thing I envision happening on a third or so of our possessions.

- Don't finish layups, regardless of whether or not we're fouled. If I were Leonard Hamilton, I'd be having my players go crazy-aggressive for the shot block any time a Hoo gets within eight feet of the basket, and don't worry if you foul. Like UVA can hit a free throw. And FSU runs deep - they can handle foul trouble. Getting slammed on the arms by someone intent on making triple sure the ball goes nowhere near the hoop is one thing, but any time there's a layup or dunk opportunity, it really needs to go through whether or not there's a foul, because otherwise those points will probably just get left there and not go on the board.

HOW THE GAME WILL GO

If this were a home game, I might look at our close games lately and find reason to be optimistic. FSU's conference losses are all on the road, and in fact they tend to play poorly there. At home, though, even Duke has felt their wrath. They've been beatable in Tallahassee only by teams named Ohio State. (OK, Florida beat them too, but still. By four, and Florida's ranked for a reason.) That alone is reason for great pessimism. Then there's FSU's defense. A really, really good defense against an offense made of spit and duct tape is a bad formula. At this point I've got no illusions that UVA'll finish out of the double digits in ACC tournament seeding, but I do think we've got one upset in us that'll make some other team's fans deploy swear words and strong pessimistic opinions about their future prospects. This is not that game.

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In what seems destined to be an ongoing story, here is the Cav Daily update on the Three Knuckleteers that got themselves in hot water in Harrisonburg. Let's pretend for a minute that everything printed in the papers - except the eyewitness account from the Cav Daily which we can assume is truthful but biased - is gospel truth; here is what we know so far:

- Wallace, Walcott, and Price (a name for a law firm if I ever heard one) are each charged with three misdemeanors ("assault and battery by mob") and one felony ("burglary-entering a dwelling with the intent to commit an assault") each.

- This is because they barged into what sounds like your average college party, which no doubt was in full swing at 1:30 in the morning, and started throwing punches. One guy got a split lip and eight stitches; the other trip to the hospital was probably something similar.

- This is the second time Wallace has been arrested for something, and he didn't tell either the coaches or the school. Neither did he bother ever going back to Harrisonburg for any court proceedings whatsoever, nor pay his fine.

These are the facts. The opinions, then:

- The felony charge will probably be dropped. Yes, they are each guilty as sin of the very letter of the wording, but the courts typically are loath to wring felony charges out of a simple college brawl, which happens all the time. As long as the defendants do the proper amount of yes-sir'ing and don't yell THE BITCH HAD IT COMING in court, their lawyers will plead this thing down to a misdemeanor or two each.

- Kyle Kelly, the JMU student quoted in the Cav Daily, is probably telling the truth, mostly, but I don't buy the babe-in-the-woods line about "gee, I have no idea why they'd want to fight." Maybe he doesn't, but someone does. If there were racial slurs being thrown around (and this is credible because Kelly mentions it right off the bat, rather than this coming out as a statement some weeks later) and if the police pinpoint the speaker (very unlikely, but you never know) then that person's in hot water too. Regardless, fights always take two sides to start.

- Even so. What the fuck, gentlemen. How hard is it to just flip the bird and walk away from the house?

- Wallace should be gone. I don't blame London for not giving him the ax right away, because there are facts to be found. But if he's not kicked off the team, it sends the message that if you get in a little court trouble out of town, the best thing to do is never tell anyone. It's pretty obvious Wallace never bothered showing up for any of the court proceedings from his previous minor-in-possession or whatever he got. I bet he doesn't even know his damn sentence. Or didn't. He figured he'd just blow the whole thing right off and hide it from Coach. Then he's stupid enough to go back to Harrisonburg. And get in more trouble. MIPs (that's what we call 'em here in Michigan) are never a big deal in my book - I really don't care and neither does anyone except the media - but not telling Coach, and blowing off the proceedings, is. So is this little beatdown. Wallace should be kicked off this team.

- Price and Walcott's scholarships should hang in the balance until the semester grades are out. No spring practice. After a while they can come back and lift, but make them jump through every hoop in front of them to try and keep that scholarship. Study their asses off, follow all the provisions of their eventual sentence and be there for every court date, and get exceptional grades. And definitely no more JMU trips for either of them or any partying at other schools. The usual show-me-you're-serious stuff. And then, if they make it, suspend them for two games of the season. That's how I'd roll with this if it were me.

the lacrosse schedule

If you're ready for UVA to finally be a dominant force in college athletics, then you're ready for lacrosse season. That kicks off officially on Saturday the 19th, so to get you prepared, here's a primer on the opponents UVA faces off against this year. The opponents are typically almost identical from year to year, with just a couple changes each season. The ACC has just four teams, so UVA is free to schedule just about whomever they like, and that means big-time rivalries outside the conference.

UVA is ranked #1 in the coaches' poll, and 2nd in the media poll, to start the season - a familiar position. The trick has been staying there.

Quick explanation of the categories below: Preseason rank is first the media poll, then the coaches'. The computer is the final LaxPower computer rankings from 2010.

Drexel - Sat., February 19 - Home

Conference: CAA
Preseason rank: 16th/18th
2010 computer: 14th
Last season: W, 11-8

Drexel has been the season-opening game since 2002 and probably will be for a while. It's a good, medium-tough test to open the season; they were even good for an upset in 2007. They return most of their scorers and a solid goalie, and gave UVA a run last season; they led 7-6 to start the fourth quarter, and it took a three-goal outburst in the final four minutes to secure the win.

Mount St. Mary's - Tue., February 22 - Home

Conference: MAAC
Preseason rank: NR/NR
2010 computer: 32nd
Last season: W, 15-7; W, 18-4 (NCAA)

A familiar opponent, and not a good one. MSM earned the MAAC autobid to the tournament last year by upsetting somewhat favored Siena in their conference tournament. The Mount, as they go by, has been on the receiving end of a lot of UVA-administered curbstompings. The regular season game wasn't as close as it looked, as they did half that scoring against our third string. Typically this is a good game to find out about the freshmen and sophomores that'll be making themselves known this season, because Dom Starsia tends to go easy on using the first lineup. They do have a dangerous attackman in junior Cody Lehrer, who'll provide a good test for our rebuilt defense.

Stony Brook - Sat., February 26 - Away

Conference: America East
Preseason rank: 8th/6th
2010 computer: 8th
Last season: W, 13-8; W, 10-9 (NCAA)

This used to be easier, but Stony Brook is situated smack in the middle of Long Island, which is like being in Florida for football. Now they're the hot pick to be lacrosse's Butler. And the game is at their place, which came awfully close to being a house of horrors last year in the NCAA tournament. Stellar face-off man Adam Rand is back, which is the biggest reason this is a hugely dangerous game. WE CANNOT WIN FACE-OFFS and I will probably complain about this twenty thousand times this spring. Rand won 18 of 23 against us last May, causing UVA lacrosse fans to repeatedly throw heavy objects at the TV. The good news is, Stony Brook breaks in a new goalie this year, which could end up being their Achilles heel against our especially fearsome attack. But, you can't score without the ball, and Stony Brook returns two of a three-headed scoring monster in Jordan McBride and Tom Compitello. Could be just as tough a game as Syracuse.

VMI - Mon., February 28 - Home

Conference: MAAC
Preseason rank: NR/NR
2010 computer: 57th
Last season: W, 20-6

That's "57th of 60." VMI is a doormat. Last year's game saw UVA's starting goalie Adam Ghitelman pulled at halftime, and by the time the final horn sounded we were down to the fourth string. A tune-up scrimmage for the big fish at the end of the week...

Syracuse - Fri., March 4 - Away

Conference: Big East
Preseason rank: 1st/2nd
2010 computer: 3rd
Last season: W, 11-10

How close are these games? The announcers mentioned during last year's game that the all-time series between the two schools was dead even - in goals. So of course UVA took the game by a single point: the usual margin of victory. Make no mistake, this is a clash of the titans, and barring a loss to Stony Brook the previous weekend, it'll be for the #1 ranking. (And to think, it almost wasn't even on TV.) And this, too, is on the road, in the enormous Carrier Dome, where UVA/Syracuse has been known to draw 16,000 fans. Both teams have outstanding senior goalies with very similar traits. Syracuse is actually missing its top two scorers from last year, but the leading goal-scorer (Stephen Keogh) returns, and Syracuse is always obnoxiously deep so it hardly matters.

Vermont - Tue., March 8 - Home

Conference: America East
Preseason rank: NR/NR
2010 computer: 49th
Last season: W, 18-7

Finished 3-13 and in the bottom half of their conference last year and picked even lower this year. UVA is the highlight of their schedule, but this is a team that inhabits the bottom quarter of college lacrosse, the last of the punching bags before the real gauntlet begins.

Cornell - Sat., March 12 - Baltimore

Conference: Ivy League
Preseason rank: 7th/8th
2010 computer: 10th
Last season: W, 12-4

Last year I was all worried because of the previous season's tournament debacle in Foxborough, and we went out and had one of the easiest games of the year. In Ithaca. Go figure. Adam Ghitelman stood on his head and saved 14 of 17 shots on goal against him. Cornell relied on a two-man freak show to score most of their goals; the playmaking half, Rob Pannell, is back, but scorer Ryan Hurley is gone. This has the feeling of a team that might be a touch overrated to start the season, because of the loss of Hurley and a number of their better defenders. But the Ivy League is no slouch of a lacrosse league and they should still be the best team in it.

Ohio State - Sat., March 19 - Home

Conference: ECAC
Preseason rank: NR/NR
2010 computer: 28th
Last season: N/A

This is one of the two new games on the schedule, and you bet your sweet bippy I'm friggin' thrilled about this. You could say it replaces the Towson game, but Towson's a quality team so I prefer to assume Good Stony Brook replaces Towson while Ohio State replaces Medium-Crappy Stony Brook. The Midwest is trying to get a foothold in college lacrosse, and OSU scored a surprise win over Cornell in the NCAA tournament in 2008, but since then they've regressed a bit. Got some young scoring punch, but a lousy faceoff man, so they probably won't be able to take advantage of our #1 weakness. (Have I mentioned we suck at faceoffs? We suck at faceoffs.) OSU's a relatively new arrival on the scene - it's only in the last decade or so that they've gotten serious about D-I lacrosse, and they've been taking it three steps forward and two steps back. This is a team I'd love to assist with the latter process.

Johns Hopkins - Sat., March 26 - Away

Conference: Independent
Preseason rank: 11th/11th
2010 computer: 12th
Last season: W, 15-6

This has been a surprisingly one-sided series lately, and it shouldn't be that way. Really. Hopkins, obviously, is not the kind of team UVA should be beating by a combined score of 34-14 in the last two games, but we have. It's a big rivalry that's been a bit tarnished lately, not least because Hopkins - normally a tournament fixture - had to claw their way in last year and then bowed out uncompetitively to Duke in the first round. Not a good season, especially not by Hopkins' standards. And Hopkins was slammed by senior departures, too. They did get a head start in net by replacing faltering senior Michael Gvozden with freshman Pierce Bassett - in fact, that switch happened in the middle of the UVA game, and was permanent. It didn't stop UVA shots from finding the back of the net with impunity, and it didn't improve things much on the record sheet, but it did put an end to the blowouts until that Duke game. Unfortunately, though, I don't think this'll be Hopkins's year for a return to glory.

Maryland - Sat., April 2 - Home

Conference: ACC
Preseason rank: 4th/4th
2010 computer: 4th
Last season: W, 11-10; W, 11-6 (ACC)

Sadly for me, Maryland fired coach Dave Cottle after last season, on account of being tired of being NCAA bridesmaids. Never could get them to the finals. Cottle was enormously entertaining when he was angry. His face looked like a big square, squinty strawberry. Maryland took a bit of a flyer on Harvard head coach John Tillman, who was once an assistant down the road at Navy and appeared to have the Crimson inching upwards in the Ivy League hierarchy. UVA has had Maryland's number lately the same way Duke's had ours, but that means nothing come game time. The good news is, evil UVA nemesis Will Yeatman, who stood 8-foot-10 and weighed 450 pounds, is gone - the guy played tight end on the football team and was kind of big for that position too, let alone the lacrosse field, and he always seemed to rack up hat tricks against UVA. The bad news is, basically everyone else returns, except the goalie. It's the ACC, yo - it's a dogfight every year.

North Carolina - Sat., April 9 - Home

Conference: ACC
Preseason rank: 3rd/3rd
2010 computer: 5th
Last season: W, 7-5

Seriously, the ACC has four teams in it, and they're all in the top five. We should never have let Syracuse stay in the Big East. The only things you need to really know about Carolina are that they're still really damn good; and Billy "Sidney Crosby" Bitter is still on the team, just as he has been since nineteen-dickety-three, so you'll get to hear his name a lot whether or not UNC is actually participating in the game in front of your nose.

Duke - Sat., April 16 - Away

Conference: ACC
Preseason rank: 5th/5th
2010 computer: 2nd
Last season: L, 9-13; W, 16-12 (ACC); L, 13-14 (NCAA)

If somehow Duke could lose in the opposite ACC semifinal game every year, we'd never lose an ACC championship. The regular seasons lately, not to mention the ACC tournament except for getting the monkey off our back last year, have all boiled down to sweeping our way to the #1 ranking and then having to play Duke and having it all go for naught. Figures they'd land in our way in the NCAAs in 2010. Beating them in the ACC semis last year was nice - really nice - but until we can get an actual win streak going against them I figure it doesn't matter who their actual players are: a monkey in a Duke uniform would score a timely goal against us simply because the fates have decreed it.

Pennsylvania - Sat., April 30 - Home

Conference: Ivy League
Preseason rank: NR/NR
2010 computer: 30th
Last season: N/A

Despite playing in the lacrosse-strong Ivy League and their location in and around lacrosse hotbeds, Penn is no real threat. The ACC tournament precedes this game; it's something the team's been doing lately, playing a medium-bad team to stay fresh for the NCAAs.

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The story around our own team this season is the Bratton twins and the rest of their senior class, which was quite the recruiting story when they signed in 2007. Rhamel and Shamel are amazing athletes, specializing in the "argh don't shoot that what are you thinkYESSSSSS!!!" In years past UVA's headline players have typically been attackmen - think Danny Glading or Ben Rubeor - but the Brattons are offensive midfielders, meaning a lot of our highlight goals will be slung at the net from long distance. Which is always exciting. The offense is going to be a powerhouse; the question is whether the defense can keep up. There'll be a lot of inexperience back there, and hopefully not too much reliance on Adam Ghitelman in net. Ghitelman is one of the best goalies in the country with the ball already on his stick, and has the ability to suddenly decide nothing's going in the net and play like the Incredible HulkGoalie. And then he'll let in a floater from twenty yards. Hopefully as a senior he'll put it all together and play like an MVP. If the defense gels early, the team will be mighty and unstoppable (except by monkeys in Duke jerseys); if not, it'll be a slightly bumpy year.

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A little clarity on the football roster situation today:

- Space just got a little less tight with Torrey Mack's apparently academic-related attrition. We can afford this. As I've mentioned Mack was facing perform-or-else time this offseason with Kevin Parks taking off the redshirt and Clifton Richardson entering. Perry Jones, a year behind, had already lapped him. This means that Richardson's a lock and a half not to redshirt, barring injury. The scholarship count: 90.

- So those suspensions the other day: annoyingly police-related, after all. Oh, and Devin Wallace conveniently neglected to mention a previous run-in with the law to Mike London, who showed remarkable self-restraint in not ripping his head completely off. At least I assume so. At this point I'd put Walcott's and Price's return at 50/50, depending on what happens with that felony charge. And that's probably optimistic. (I'm so fucking glad I finally got to use the words "felony charge" in conjunction with UVA football. I think this signals our return to the big-time, don't you? The big programs down south go through this every year.) There are so many different ways Wallace could find himself disassociated with UVA that Vegas is opening a line:

100/1: UVA Judiciary boots him
100/1: UVA Honor boots him
50/1: Craig Littlepage boots him
25/1: Kind of hard to play college football in jail
1/1: London considers this strikes two, three, four, and five and congratulates Jared Detrick on his fifth year of scholarship football, courtesy of his numbnuts teammate

I always considered Detrick a strong possibility to be cut, but not if Ausar Walcott spends much time in the clink. Big hit to the linebacking corps, for sure. Mike Price is a problem only if Anthony Mihota goes down with injury, which, he's an offensive lineman so that's actually very possible. Cody Wallace is your only other center.

As for Devin Wallace, who, yes, is almost definitely a goner, if not for this little issue then for hiding the other one: the article said two of three assault victims were hospitalized. The third guy managed to escape serious injury probably because it was Wallace who tried to tackle him. oh SNAP.

the recruit: Jay Whitmire

Name: Jay Whitmire
Position: OT
Hometown: Alexandria
School: T.C. Williams
Height: 6'6"
Weight: 290

ESPN: 77; three stars; #70 OT
Rivals: 5.7; three stars; #43 OT; VA #14
Scout: three stars; #30 OT

Other offers: Notre Dame, Penn State, North Carolina, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Boston College, Maryland, NC State, Rutgers, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Duke

This is the good part. Because by this time room in the class was getting way crammed, and the coaches got real choosy about who they took a commitment from, and managed to close on most of the best targets besides. Jay Whitmire was one of the top Northern Va. targets of the year, and got a whole big list of offers real early. The ankle sprain that caused him to miss almost half the season probably prevented a few more, but regardless he was entertaining overtures from Notre Dame as late as November, a couple weeks before his commitment to UVA.

Whitmire is the top OL commit of the class by both offers and scouting services. "Athletic" is the word that gets tossed around the most; you are permitted to believe it on account of the lacrosse he plays. A 290-pound guy playing lacrosse is athletic.

On account of being an offensive lineman and missing half the year, there's not much to say about Whitmire's season, though he did happen to collect a few sacks on the defensive side. Whitmire was easily a Washington Post All-Met pick as a junior; the injury kept him off the list this fall. It probably also cost him his fourth star with Scout, though they didn't drop him too many places in their OT rankings. The rankings can be cruel to a guy with an injury.

Anyway, I wouldn't worry. Whitmire reminds me muchly of Sean Cascarano, except that Cascarano's about 20 pounds lighter and staggeringly ginger. Both are very athletic tackles with similar rankings (if ESPN had bothered) and accolades coming out of high school, and Cascarano's looking like a guy who's going to be very hard to keep off the field in his redshirt sophomore year. If not a starter, he'll still be in the rotation. Whitmire should have a similar timeline. As 98% of linemen do, he'll redshirt, and once 2012 arrives it's not hard to see Whitmire nosing into the two-deep as a redshirt freshman. Following that year, Oday Aboushi and Aaron Van Kuiken graduate, and we should see a lot of Whitmire after that.

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A little housecleaning of the news on the street is in order:

- You know by now that Billy Baron packed up and went back to Rhode Island. I suppose it was inevitable that one of the six freshmen in this class would get squeezed out of the rotation enough to want to leave. Still, it's weird that our association with Baron was less than a year long; the guy only committed last March. Hate to say it after sending so much praise his way when he committed, but the impact here is minimal. Obviously it's got no effect on this year, and Baron was going to have to wait until at least 2012-'13 to get a real shot on the court, especially if Malcolm Brogdon turns out to be just as much all that as he's supposed to.

- Pick three different positions on the football team where we can least afford to have the inevitable attrition this offseason. How about cornerback, center, and linebacker? Welcome to your average UVA offseason. It never fucking fails. It's exactly the way things go at UVA that the guys acting like dumbasses would be the ones standing in between the starters and the totally untested freshmen - or the starters themselves with freshman backups.

In case you're too lazy to click the link, that's starting LB Ausar Walcott, potential starting CB Devin Wallace, and backup C Mike Price, all suspended indefinitely for the ever-popular "conduct detrimental to the team." Walcott's been in trouble with the law in the past, though as I recall it was something really dumb and nothing that went past "why don't you cool off in the back of the car here and then go home." This isn't police stuff, fortunately. Also fortunately, it's not actually the attrition we're waiting for; these three knuckleheads will probably be back after they demonstrate appropriate contrition, dedication, etc. etc.

- The men's tennis team is deserving of at least a quick mention - they're ranked #1, and they've played 67 matches this season and lost two. Eh, not bad. The indoor nationals are approaching - UVA hosted and won them last year - and they'll be going for four in a row in Seattle in a couple weeks. The outdoor season is the real deal (that's the one that earns you an actual NCAA championship) but the men are dominating this season in a way they didn't last year.

the recruit: Darius Lee

Name: Darius Lee
Position: OLB
Hometown: Alexandria
School: St. Stephens & St. Agnes
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 205

ESPN: 78; three stars; #65 OLB
Rivals: 5.4; two stars
Scout: two stars; #104 S

Other offers: Duke, Kansas State

Usually there's a recruit in every class that makes me go, "oh yeah, he's there too." Doesn't have anything to do with star ratings and the like; this year, it happens to be Darius Lee, largely because his recruitment was so short and his high-school team is low-profile. Lee appeared once or twice on a few radars, committed at the end of the last wave of verbals (and in among three of the state's higher-profile players at very-high-profile programs) and then played his way to a one-win season on one of the state's worst teams.

Because of the small-time team, Lee had to go to camp to get each one of his offers, but he earned one at every camp he went to. At 205 pounds he's clearly outgrown safety (at least in London's program - under Groh he probably would not have) and will be an outside linebacker. But he's going to have to pack on about 20 pounds first, because tight ends eat 205-pound linebackers alive.

Two of the services give him the ranking you'd expect for a three-offer guy from a terrible program; ESPN is unexpectedly effusive. To them he's the best linebacker in the class:

Lee may not be an immediate starter however if a red shirt year is not deemed necessary he could see early situational playing time on defense and special teams.

Earlier in the writeup they suggest that he's already big enough to play linebacker, which he's not. So a redshirt year will be deemed necessary. But the way the depth chart shakes out, that was going to happen anyway.

Thing about the depth chart is, there were ten scholarship linebackers on it this year and six were sophomores. Two of those sophomores were starters (Walcott, Reynolds) and one of them (Greer) got enough playing time that he might as well have been. Until that large clod of players moves its way through the system, which will take two more years, none of the three or four linebacker commits will see any meaningful playing time on defense. Lee, and the rest of the linebackers in his class, will be redshirt sophomores when their time comes.

When that happens, though, it'll happen in a big way. Two years is more than enough time for a group of players to develop into contributors, so Lee has an excellent chance of being a three-year starter and should be a lock for significant playing time for the duration of those three years, starter or not. Henry Coley is the only player between Lee's class and the giant sophomore cluster. Whether or not a player currently slotted as an "athlete" (such as Kevin Green) ends up at linebacker is probably immaterial to Lee's playing time. If he's as quick as advertised by ESPN, that sophomore year should remind you of the 2010 version of Laroy Reynolds.

P.S.: If I may be excused for borrowing a small piece of TheSabre's older pay content to make a point:

TheSabre: Do you know what you want to major in at UVa?

Darius Lee: "I think I'm going to major in Kinesiology and minor Business Law."

TheSabre: How did you become interested in those areas?

Darius Lee: "When I started training with Jordan Haden's dad, I started taking a liking to it. That's when it all started. Then I went down to Dallas to visit family and they knew a trainer as well. I came away liking it more. I like helping people get better, telling them what to eat and helping them out."

Unfortunately Darius won't be majoring in kinesiology because UVA doesn't offer a kinesiology major. When I said there are players who excel at football, know they're still a long long longshot for the NFL, and want to use their football skills to set them up for their post-college careers because that's what they're good at, this is what I meant. Darius Lee is a 3.3 student at an excellent Alexandria private school. He's not interested in kinesiology because he's not smart enough for a "real" major, he's interested in it because he's interested in it.

I guess you could say that UVA was able to attract this kind of player without a kinesiology major anyway so why do we need one, but how many others are we missing out on? Lee has the kind of academic profile that ought to make alums and fans alike ecstatic to have him as a student-athlete and future graduate. This is the kind of major the school needs to offer if it's serious about better academic support for its athletes.

i'm late to the party

Like, really late. Right, normally the blogpoll ballot and game impressions go up on Sunday, not Tuesday and Wednesday, but Delta Airlines doesn't have any planes that fly and every spare part in the world is in Boston, and never the airport I'm trying to fly out of, so there you go. Kids, here's a nickel's worth of free advice: if you like seven-hour delays without being offered so much as a meal voucher, fly Delta!

Anyway, the Richmond game. This is why I don't like playing I-AA opponents. If you schedule a patsy like, say, Akron, or San Jose State, you have a pretty good idea of the level of impressiveness that your win generates. I-AA is less predictable. So UVA beats Richmond 34-13 - is that like beating, say, Middle Tennessee 34-13? Or maybe someone even a little better like a crappy C-USA team? Or is that like letting the Sisters of the Poor score 13 on you?

In a vacuum, though, it was still a lot better than I expected. No, you probably shouldn't be up by just four at the half and then let them engineer a field-goal drive on the opening sequence of the second half. The football team that we want Mike London to build for us, the one that contends for ACC titles, would never let that happen. But this isn't that team. This is the one that just went 3-9 and lost to a worse I-AA team than Richmond is. So, for starters, not bad. Journey of a thousand miles and all that.

The big stars of the game, of course, are running backs Keith Payne and Perry Jones. If they kept a yards-after-contact-per-pound stat, Jones would lead the nation when we're done. If it turns out we have a whole stable of tailbacks who can break tackles like that, the running game will be productive no matter the opponent. Payne had nobody to blame but himself for his disappointing Groh-era career: for some reason he thought he was 175 pounds and should be tiptoeing through holes and moving east-west to find them. This is the Keith Payne that finally uses p=m*v to his advantage.

But you know what my favorite part of the game was? Payne dragging a cadre of Richmond defenders ranks, as does "Richmond: o-for-2 on 4th down," but lemme tell you about something we haven't had since Bill Musgrave was the OC: playcalling. Bill Lazor is an assassin. Richmond's only worth-a-damn defensive lineman (Martin Parker) goes down with a really bad-looking knee or something, and what does Lazor do? He breaks out the heavy guns and sends his 250-pound cannonball directly at the space left behind by Parker. Attacks the newly-opened weak spot in the defensive line with the biggest weapon he's got. That's cutthroat, man. I believe we finally have an OC that knows how to call plays. This guy is not from the Ron Prince school of playcalling where a draw play on 3rd-and-4 into the teeth of a run blitz is the signature move.

As for Verica, he was Verica. Very good game overall, but his lack of interceptions is more the product of Richmond being unable to take advantage of his bad throws rather than the lack of them. He did what Verica does: make some really hideous, what-are-you-thinking throws, and mixed them up with some really gorgeous passes with a touch that'd make Peyton Manning applaud. The bomb to Burd was a thing of beauty. (The deep threat is still basically missing from the arsenal, though. If Burd was a true deep threat he wouldn't have been bagged by the safety. That play was set up by the run game and Verica's excellent pump-fake.) The hope going forward is that, like on Saturday, the good throws will greatly outnumber the bad ones.

On defense, the obvious star of the game is Laroy Reynolds. Three full years of that at linebacker? Yes please. Reynolds was all over. Wish I could say the same about the other linebackers. Ausar Walcott might have had the kind of game that only coaches notice, but his name wasn't called even once during the broadcast, and he wasn't around the ball much. Aaron Taliaferro was more visible than Steve Greer, but not by a lot. I wonder if this is indicative of a more populous D-line that's being asked to make more plays and is doing so, or if it's because we've got a bunch of guys playing linebacker that haven't played a lot of linebacker.

Chase Minnifield also had a terrific game, with that INT and one picture-perfect tackle and generally being in the right place at the right time. That's about it for stars on the defensive side. But that's also about it for bad things to say. About the worst you can say about anyone in that game was that they weren't visible much, but not everyone can be. And though I waffle between calling the 70-yard touchdown run by Kendall Gaskins either unlucky or inexcusable, I lean toward the former. I mean srsly wut? How does that happen? Gaskins proved difficult to tackle most of the game, but I mean, the whole defense was at the ball, which is where you want them.

All in all, very satisfying. And a relief. The final lesson to be learned? This year doesn't have to be a painful 13-week struggle.

questions and unanswers

Spring practice wrapped up with the spring scrimmage on Saturday, which means that super-obsessive football fans have nothing to do until August and everyone else stopped ignoring spring practice. As a baseball player way back in high school I had a coach who liked to say, "Everyone looks good in the cage." I think that's sage advice, and so I don't obsess over who looks good and who beat who in spring practice, because they all looked pretty damn good last year in the spring and then we went 3-9 and fired the coach.

That said, however, spring can answer a few questions for us. So today I'll put my best foot forward in seeing what spring ball might have settled, and what remains to be seen.

Questions we now have answers to:

- Who's going to start at quarterback against Richmond?

That would be Marc Verica. I wish I wish I wish I could find the Jeff White article that more or less let it slip, but I can't - something about how the coaches were having a pretty spirited backup battle between Ross Metheny and Michael Strauss. Verica didn't blow away the competition, but his experience gave him a major leg up and he'll have to implode in the August to lose the job.

- What will the uniforms look like?

"Oregon of the East" caused a lot of consternation among tradition-minded fans (like me) who didn't really like the idea of diamond-plate patterns, random striping all over the place, or dressing like the Oakland Raiders when your school colors are those of the Green Bay Packers. Basically, those of us who don't want a clown show to take the field where the football team is supposed to. Fortunately, there's a much simpler, classier approach in place and we can step back from the ledge now.

- Will the offense still suck?

I think most folks are optimistically willing to keep this in the "unanswered" category, but in good conscience, I can't. The spring game generated two articles about the lousy offense on display - Verica was 8 for 23 and the entire running game stunk. And this was against a defense learning a totally brand-new playbook, featuring many players in entirely brand-new positions. This offense is going to need stability before it turns into something that coaches have to bother game-planning against, and that means a lot more than half a year figuring it out.

- How will the change to the 4-3 affect the defensive positioning?

You already knew some people were getting shuffled around, but moving Ausar Walcott and LoVante' Battle from safety to linebacker (which thanks to the alignment change already had a glut) necessitated even more movement. Mostly we know how that goes now:

* Walcott and Battle are outside linebackers.
* Terrence Fells-Danzer is a fullback, and Cam Johnson, Jeremiah Mathis, and Billy Schautz - all former linebackers - are defensive ends.
* Matt Conrath and Brent Urban are defensive tackles.

I'm still not sure I'm big on moving Walcott and Battle, by the way. Speed on defense is a good thing, but so is a depth chart in the secondary, where we're awfully thin. And we're even thinner at DT - I count four, which means there's no two-deep if even one goes down - so I expect at least one more move there. Wouldn't surprise me if incoming freshman Stephen Lawe finds himself on defense come fall camp.

Alright, but it wouldn't be any fun if we knew everything. Here's what remains to be seen:

- Who's going to start at quarterback in mid-October?

Verica has likely established himself as the first option, but not as the kind of guy who puts a deathgrip on a job. If we're an uncompetitive 2-3 (or, horrors, 1-4, meaning a Richmond loss) coming out of what'll probably be a total catastrophe of an Atlanta trip in October, you know it'll start to be time for a quarterback switch. Barring Richmond becoming the new William & Mary, Verica will probably keep the job throughout September because the competition isn't good enough (or is way too damn good) to properly gauge how the season is going. FSU and GT as the first two October games will be a much better yardstick as to whether we should start looking at the future.

- What will the running back depth chart look like?

Pure chaos right now, that's what. There are seven options here: Raynard Horne, Keith Payne, Torrey Mack, Perry Jones, Dominique Wallace, K.P. Parks, and Khalek Shepherd, and only four of them participated fully in spring practice and none of those four really grabbed hold of the job. Why don't we know anything?

* Horne has never really been much more than a change-up back, in to spell the starters.
* We really kind of know what Payne is capable of, and honestly it's not stardom.
* Mack flashed a lot of talent in spring ball last year but couldn't pass-block to save his life (and definitely not his quarterback's), thus whenever he was in the game, defenses keyed on the run.
* Jones is the size of the period at the end of this sentence, and not going to be an every-down guy, ever.
* Wallace might have the best size/speed combination but is still recovering from last season's injury.
* Parks and Shepherd ain't even here yet.

I don't see Horne, Payne, or Jones being #1 options. Any one of them might make a great change-of-pace type but they're not toting the load. There's a great chance here for Parks - who just might be the most talented of the bunch - to step in and make his name. Shepherd, too.

- Is the defense that awesome or is the offense that bad?

Such is the nature of spring practice that you can never really tell, unless you have a coach's eye, whether good results are really good results, or just bad news for the other side of the ball. The defense does remain highly talented, however, and I think they'll still look about as good as they did last year. But with the alignment switch, you never know.

- Who's the placekicker?

London said he'd pick one that would be the starter going into fall camp, but he hasn't told us who.

So with all that, I've updated the depth chart for ya, and today's addition of Ross Burbank to the commitment list (less than a week after his offer - this is a guy who definitely wanted to be a Hoo) merits a recruiting board update too. The depth chart, by the way, has one tiny format change: no more walk-ons, for the most part. It got to be annoying to track the comings and goings. If they've got a real shot to actually participate (Matt Snyder, for example, or the kickers) then they're still on there, but the ones who aren't a threat to see the field aren't there any more. Should be easier to track that way.

Tomorrow: uniforms!

big-picture recruiting

Slow news day today. There's no midweek lacrosse game and baseball is taking on Towson, which is terrible. I thought I'd take the opportunity to take an early stab at projecting the 2011 recruiting classes in both basketball and football. Not with names, mostly, but a big-picture kind of look.

FOOTBALL

There are 14 seniors departing after the 2010 season, and the team is one shy of the limit of 85 after Riko Smalls' departure, so there are 15 for-sure openings. There is always attrition and you can always count on some redshirt juniors not being asked back for a fifth year. I think there are two or three candidates for that. So a class size of roughly 20, plus or minus a couple, is what I'd expect.

On offense, the staff is probably going to be pretty judicious with the offers they send out at the skill positions. Lazor's offense doesn't need a whole lot of receivers; in fact, with Adrian Gamble on board, the staff probably wouldn't have a lot of heartache if he was the only one. There are a couple guys on that board that you take no matter what, like maybe Quinta Funderburke, but the numbers at receiver look about right for now.

Same for running back. Clifton Richardson is basically onboard already and Nyjee Fleming appears likely enough to follow; once those two are in the bank, that'll be all we need. Quarterback too; London scooped up everyone he could find at the end of the last recruiting cycle and the only real reason to take one this year is the principle that you basically want one every year because you never know. They've offered who they like, if they find another they like they'll offer him too, but there's already a whole bunch coming in the fall and there's no need to cram a whole bunch more into that tight a space. One is all we need.

O-line, however, is a place where you always, always want to stack up as much depth as you can, and take three or four in every class. Thus the offer cannon has been readied. Between the Rivals offer list and the recruiting board here, there are probably 10 or 12 linemen already out there for the looking, and maybe one of them will end up at UVA. Offers are going to be flowing out of Charlottesville to offensive lineman all spring and summer.

So on offense: say two running backs, one or two receivers, a quarterback, and 3-4 linemen. Throw in a likely tight end as well, and of the target 20 scholarships, about 9 or 10 for the offense.

There's a slightly greater need on defense. Starting with the defensive line, where thanks to the switch from the 3-4 to 4-3, defensive tackles are suddenly in demand, big time. One is already in the house (David Dean), I really like our chances with DE Rob Burns, and we still need more. Ends and tackles alike have been offered with regularity, and my thought is that four, maybe even five linemen is the target.

So you'd think that linebacker would take a corresponding drop in demand, but I'd guess not. The staff moved Ausar Walcott and LoVante' Battle down to linebacker with the idea of increasing the speed at that position, but what that did to the numbers is give us five scholarship sophomore linebackers, and six scholarship linebackers in all the other classes combined. That means two things: one, someone like Battle or Connor McCartin is a prime candidate to put the redshirt back on this year so as to even out the numbers a bit, and two, in the long-term - like, 2012 or 2013 - we're going to be slammed with departures if we don't do something to soften the blow. That means at least two, possibly three linebackers in this class of 2011. Travis Hughes and Curtis Grant are both take-no-matter-what prospects if we can get either one, and there are a couple other LB's in blue on the recruiting board. Offers will continue to roll here.

And hey, we're suddenly thin in the secondary too, thanks to the aforementioned position switches. Plus, one of my biggest heartaches over Groh's recruiting was the near-complete lack of true cornerbacks recently. I think Demetrious Nicholson is one of the biggest must-gets in the class for that reason. Must collect defensive backs - both safeties and cornerbacks. There's already one in Matt Bailey, but five defensive backs is not too many, split about evenly between CB and safety. Four seems like a more likely number.

All told, that's 4-5 linemen, 2-3 linebackers, and 4-5 DBs. No way do we clock in at all three upper limits, but I think UVA takes 10 defensive players at a minimum and probably more like 11, maybe 12.

BASKETBALL

Basketball recruiting is grimy as hell, so I try to avoid it as a topic, but this is big-picture stuff so it's OK. There is an open scholarship in 2010 and it looks like it's going unfilled, except for maybe giving it to Will Sherrill as a senior present. Regardless, it makes four openings in 2011.

Tony Bennett's no dummy, and he knows that tying ten scholarships in two classes (it'd be six in the '10 class and four in '11) makes for some ugly numbers. You don't want your back against the wall when it's time for them to go. So Bennett's actively going for a two-year transfer. This would have a lot of benefits, but one of them is that his scholarship would free up again in 2013, one year before this six-man monstrosity of a class finishes their eligibility. Help spread the schollies around. If he can't get Justin Hamilton, and I hope I hope I hope I hope he can, he'll find someone else.

That leaves three for the '11 class, which is a perfectly normal size. And one of them is a stone-cold lock to go to a big man as long as Tony can find one that can fog a mirror and not be a defensive neanderthal. You know as well as I do that if Marshall Plumlee wants to be that guy at UVA, there's a spot for him.

Two big men would be an even better deal for the class and that's probably what Bennett will press for. Thing is, though, of the six coming in 2010, only two really qualify as big guys. Being as we lose Mike Scott and Sherrill after this season, that'll leave us with - as of now - Assane Sene, James Johnson, and Will Regan to man the interior. Hence the push for Hamilton and Plumlee. If by some miracle we get both, then what we'll need is a 6'8" power forward type. If we don't, then whoever has the best combination of size and skills, whether that be a seven-foot tree or another Scott type that can be asked to bang down low despite being a bit undersized for the job.

Lastly, a point guard. The guard offers out so far are all point guards. About the only true, honest-to-god point guard we'll have going forward is Jontel Evans. Sammy is a two guard with some one-ish abilities, and Billy Baron is a point guard on the same concept of having your best athlete play quarterback: whatever gets the ball in his hands the most. Baron might stick at the one, or shift to the two.

Bottom line here: the 2011 class has some very, very clearly defined needs. A true point guard and a true center. And a pony, while we're asking. We're awfully needy at both positions, but so is 90% of the nation. If Bennett can score one player who perfectly fits the description of a true 1 or a true 5, that'll be pretty good. To make a safe prediction: three guys in the class - two tall and one short. Plumlee tops the wish list; Angelo Chol would look pretty good as Tall Guy #2. I sort of suspect the point guard will be someone we haven't heard of yet. Someone who plays Bennett Ball, whatever that is.

weekend preview

OK, I intend to make it through an entire post without mentioning a "coaching search." Except for just now.

It's a big weekend for the spring sports with two highly-ranked teams taking on highly-ranked opponents. Lacrosse goes to Baltimore for a tilt against Johns Hopkins. It's on ESPNU in prime time, which means I'll be watching, which means we'll probably lose. Baseball has a big series against Miami at Davenport Field.

Hopkins has played two ranked teams this year and lost to them both - one in ugly fashion. Princeton gave them much more of a beating than the 14-8 final score shows - it was 10-1 at the half and Hopkins was badly outshot. Their other loss is Syracuse, just last week. Last year's game against Hopkins was a 13-12 UVA win in OT and could have been wider but for the Hopkins goaltender who made 17 saves. He was good like that last year. This year his goaltending has been just this side of average.

We haven't lost to Hopkins since 2005 when they dropped us twice en route to the national championship. If that plus me watching the game doesn't suffice to jinx us as thoroughly as possible, then a win should be in the cards this weekend.

That's not really a yardstick game though. The Miami series will be. And frankly, it ought to make Miami fans nervous. Chris Hernandez was Miami's ace last year with an unblemished 11-0 record. He'll face superfrosh Danny Hultzen tonight. Problem for Miami is that Hernandez, other than a very nice opening-day effort against Rutgers, hasn't turned in anything remotely resembling the kind of dominating performances he had last year. Their other two starters this weekend are converted relievers, one doing well and the other ehhhhhh maybe not so good. Danny Gutierrez doesn't let in, like, runs, and has one loss on his record thanks to getting bupkiss for run support against Duke. Iden Nazario has been underwhelmingly average except for his NC State outing, in which he served 'em up on a platter and inflated his ERA to C.J. Nitkowski levels.

This'll be the first real test for both teams. Statistically, we rule. It's not even close. Our pitching and hitting numbers are so far beyond theirs they need binoculars. That's a foolish way to predict a series given the level of competition we've faced thus far though. But, I really like our odds of taking at least one game. Two games would not surprise me, and would confirm our place in the top echelon of the ACC besides. A sweep? Well. Let's not get greedy. Yet.

Football note: Corey Mosley and Ausar Walcott were cleared of their misdemeanor charges from last month's little dustup. So the dream of getting through a whole offseason without Fulmer Cup points is alive.