If you're a football fan, and only a football fan and don't care about the rest of the doings of the athletic department, you're probably not reading this blog in March. But aside from that, it's almost time for that little midoffseason oasis of fun known as spring practice. When we get to ridiculously overanalyze the ability of players to take on tackling dummies and fret about whether that long touchdown bomb means good things for the offense or bad things for the defense.
First, an update on the depth chart. The following players (not including graduated seniors) are no longer listed. Also given: the impact of their departure.
-- DT Chris Brathwaite. Impact: Huge. Even as a reserve, Brathwaite was the most disruptive defensive lineman we had, and led the team in TFL. With Will Hill graduating, Brathwaite was on the cusp of fulfilling the irrationally high expectations I had for him. Seriously, I'd been talking this guy up for two or three years. In his initial recruit post I specifically said I was chugging the Kool-Aid. (I also called him a linebacker because that's what Al Groh recruited him to do.) Brathwaite had good high school grades at a tough private school in NYC, and as I recall the articles, had to be up at 6 AM to catch the train there every day. So I had a pretty good bit of confidence that he could handle the rigors of college athletics. And then poof, he's gone. Frustrating.
-- TE Jeremiah Mathis. Impact: Medium-low. Mathis is "indefinitely suspended" and didn't appear on the rosters they handed out to the media this week. Mainly he was used as an occasional red zone target, but if no Mathis means more Jake McGee in the red zone, I think we can deal.
-- OT Kelby Johnson. Impact: Medium-high. Johnson is in the same boat as Mathis, status-wise. I'm not counting on either. Johnson would've been in a prominent competition with Jay Whitmire for the starting right tackle position and probably had a small upper hand. Now the position defaults to Whitmire, and depth will have to come from someone who redshirted last year.
-- DE Courtnye Wynn. Impact: Low. Wynn is off the team for "conduct detrimental to the team and/or one's self." Whatever that's code for. Drugs, maybe, I dunno. Wynn redshirted last year, so unlike the above three, we have no onfield performance to go on. Our need for some pass rush at DE is well-known, and it's possible Wynn could've provided some. That said, he was at least fourth on the pecking order and was probably in competition with Trent Corney for that spot too. Wynn had a lot of potential but it would've been a little while before we saw it realized, probably not til 2014 or '15.
-- S Kameron Mack. Impact: Practically none. Mack left the team before last year but Mike London left the door open for his return, which looks like it's not happening. There's sufficient depth at safety to cover his loss, and CBs that can be moved if necessary.
-- WR Bobby Smith. Impact: I hate to be this way, but probably positive. Smith had literally zero impact on the program in four years and was evidently not asked back for a fifth year, which was something I was assuming would happen. He is the only non-invitee of potential fifth-year seniors.
In case you're wondering, that roster attrition has us down to 86 scholarships promised out. That's one over the limit, but that will be taken care of when we learn exactly who all the prep schoolers will be, and we already kind of know of one anyway. One other point: you see how small the senior class is, with just nine scholarship players. Behind them are 23 juniors, which means that starting next year with the 2015 recruiting class, we'll no longer be recruiting under the umbrella of the coaching transition attrition. In other words 2015 gonna be a massive class. Let's hope there isn't another round of transition attrition to follow soon.
A few position shifts are in order as well: Zach Swanson moves to TE from FB and Vincent Croce to FB from DT. Also Mario Nixon from WR to TE. These moves are very likely to increase the playing time of the involved players, perhaps vastly. The TE position looks nicely shored up, and Croce has a chance to be the guy that we're also hoping Connor Wingo-Reeves can be.
Now for the look at things by position:
QUARTERBACK
London revealed that Matt Johns has mono and won't participate, which is a really, really unfortunate time for that to happen; it's not farfetched to think that it closes the window on his chances to start. There's still the fall, of course, in which he could very well be brilliant. For now, though, the quarterback derby is once again on in full force with a three-horse race in front of us this spring. Phillip Sims and David Watford have on-field experience, but they'll be working in a semi-new system, nullifying some of the advantage they have over Greyson Lambert. I don't think either Sims or Watford have done anything on the field to earn them a leg up, and a new OC will want to make his own decisions anyway. Let the battle royale (sigh) begin. Yet again.
RUNNING BACK/FULLBACK
I think the main thing to watch for is, how much can Clifton Richardson, Khalek Shepherd, and Kye Morgan establish themselves before Smoke shows up in the fall? This is their chance - particularly Richardson's - to strut their stuff and give the staff a reason to carve out a role for them in the fall before Taquan Mizzell arrives and starts bogarting carries. Kevin Parks is better-established and shouldn't have to worry as much, but it's not like he can slack off.
As for fullback, it'll be Vincent Croce's debut at the position, with only walk-ons otherwise populating the job. Billy Skrobacz has some time on the field, but nobody else.
WIDE RECEIVER
A pecking order has been well-established here, so there shouldn't be much drama, except for what new opinions Steve Fairchild brings. Tim Smith and Darius Jennings are your top two, with the next rung manned by Dominique Terrell and E.J. Scott. Nothing in that last sentence should've surprised you. The main shuffle will be in the row below that, with Miles Gooch, Adrian Gamble, and Canaan Severin - different styles of player, mostly - look to carve out their roles. Jamall Brown and Kyle Dockins are coming off redshirt years, and probably won't figure into the 2013 plans much, but they can start building some equity for the future.
TIGHT END
A real position shuffle here, as it's one of the few that had more than one graduating senior, believe it or not. Paul Freedman and Colter Phillips have moved on. Jake McGee returns as the lone player with real TE experience. Zach Swanson has bulked up nicely to 255 pounds and is probably the top blocking-TE option. Maybe the only one. It'll be interesting to see his pass-catching skills now that he's back at his natural position. Rob Burns could show up in some red-zone action, as he's tall as hell. (6'7", for the curious.) I don't think Mario Nixon will be major factor until he fattens up; he's listed at 215 pounds at the moment.
OFFENSIVE LINE
Caveat before I start: the roster handed out by the school has some different positions than what I have on the depth chart. For example: Sean Cascarano at OT instead of OG, Sean Karl at OG instead of OT, Ross Burbank at OG instead of C. I've decided not to have a hair trigger on moving these guys; I suspect some of it is the coaches looking to try some guys out at different spots and not necessarily making that a permanent thing. We'll see how things go as time goes on.
That said, at least one of those is a little troubling. I was sort of hoping Burbank would get a long look at center so that Luke Bowanko could go back to a more natural position at guard. It's not the worst thing in the world, though, to not be changing centers every year. Anyway, the O-line in general will be a little thin in camp, with a grand total of four scholarship offensive tackles, among other things. One of the things I'll be most interested in is, who will be the third tackle? Are they really moving Cascarano? Or can we get some good snaps out of Michael Mooney? That sort of thing.
DEFENSIVE LINE
DE is pretty well set, with Jake Snyder as a well-established player and Eli Harold and Michael Moore looking like very strong candidates for the next two rotation spots. Trent Corney is a wild card here. We'll be looking for some refined technique out of him, and hoping he can bring some pass rush to the table.
DT is much more fluid, especially without Brathwaite. Brent Urban is a starter, but the coaches will be looking at Justin Renfrow and David Dean to find out how the rotation shakes out after that. Marco Jones unfortunately won't be on the field, or else he'd be a candidate to try and nose his way into the conversation. We know basically nothing about Andre Miles-Redmond, and since he's essentially the fourth DT right now, this spring should bring some answers.
LINEBACKER
There ought to be some major battles here. More so than at any position but quarterback. Henry Coley is likely to be on the field in some capacity, and it looks like he may move to the middle and battle it out with Kwontie Moore. Coley is now the msot versatile 'backer on the team. If so, Daquan Romero and Demeitre Brim will have an interesting duel on the strong side, with Romero getting a little head start. Then you have D.J. Hill and probably Mark Hall on the weak side; Hill has a major experience advantage, of course, and played well in some limited time last year. One other thing to watch: how soon early-enrollee LaChaston Smith makes the move to linebacker after the start at RB he was promised.
SECONDARY
This, on the other hand, should be mostly drama-free. The starters are well-established. There's a lot of competition at the bottom end of the cornerback depth chart, with four freshmen having redshirted last year. What happens there could determine some of next year's attrition; whoever ends up at the bottom is going to be there permanently.
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Schedule for the spring includes no trips around the state like they've done in years past. Either it's because of London's reasoning - that they don't want distractions while they install new offenses and defenses - or they just want to stay and play in their new toy which is ready to go. That indoor facility looks nice, and pleasingly UVAish. I wish I could say the same for some of the new buildings near the E-school.
Showing posts with label spring practice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spring practice. Show all posts
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Friday, April 13, 2012
spring game primer
The game itself is to be a controlled scrimmage, evolving into perhaps more of a game as time goes on. You can find the rosters here. To save you the time of parsing them, it's 1st team defense and 2nd team offense on the Blue roster, and vice versa on Orange. Myself, I'd prefer to see captains choose up sides and let 'em go at it, but coaches are usually reluctant to do that and anyway there're way too many linemen sitting on the sidelines for that.
Some of the things I find interesting about the rosters:
-- Reports have been that Drequan Hoskey and Brandon Phelps are in competition for the second cornerback slot, but Hoskey is on the Blue roster so it's fairly easy to see who's leading the race.
-- Also it's not much of a surprise to see Rijo Walker and Anthony Harris as the two starting safeties.
-- Ausar Walcott is a DE on the Blue roster. Is that indicative of something? Hard to say; the other two DEs are Jake Snyder and Brent Urban, which is obvious, and of course Billy Schautz is still recovering from that ugly broken leg. We may have to actually watch the spring game (imagine that) to learn something there, because the Orange DEs are Stephen Lawe, Diamonte Bailey, and Rob Burns. None of them were ever likely to play a starring role this season.
-- Finally, you have three DTs on the Blue team, which is what you'll see this season; most likely Will Hill getting most of the snaps and Justin Renfrow and Chris Brathwaite getting starters' snaps as well.
-- Not too much that's surprising on the offensive side. Billy Skrobacz is on the Orange roster, so he's likely to be someone we'll see on the field this year; the other Orange fullback is Zach Swanson.
-- Looks as though Matt Mihalik has hung on to the job at center; he is on the Orange roster with Ross Burbank on the Blue.
-- OK, there is one surprise: Kelby Johnson, who did not redshirt last year, is shuffled down to the Blue team. The Orange tackles are Jay Whitmire (who did redshirt) and Morgan Moses. You could read into it that the coaches want a better tackle to protect the QB's blindside, but I'll be very surprised if the QBs don't have red jerseys. Has Whitmire leapfrogged Johnson?
-- With so many offensive linemen sitting out, the Orange O-line (especially at guard) is mostly second-stringers and the Blue line is further down than that, so it looks like the second-string guards are Cody Wallace and Conner Davis. Tim Cwalina shares the Blue line with a handful of walk-ons.
-- I get why David Watford is going to shuffle between the two teams, but I wonder why, specifically, E.J. Scott will also be doing that? That seems random. My uneducated but reasonable guess: without Scott, the only scholarship receiver on the Blue team would be Miles Gooch (a converted quarterback). Scott is (I'm guessing) fourth on the pecking order after Tim Smith, Darius Jennings, and Dominique Terrell, and therefore he'll be on the field this year and needs practice time with the first group. But Greyson Lambert also needs someone to throw to besides just Gooch and a bunch of walk-ons, so Scott and Gooch will be his go-to guys on the Blue squad.
Speaking of Lambert, of course, he will probably be the most-watched player on the team. Rocco we know, Watford we know, but Lambert is the new, and therefore exciting, entry. I would bet some ducats that Lambert will make some throws that draw oohs and aahs, and that more than one person will suggest Rocco should give way to the freshman. They'll be wrong, of course, but the future isn't too far off.
What I want to see most, though, is a big day out of the receivers. (And then I will tell myself it's because they're awesome, not because the secondary is as green as grass.) It's time for Tim Smith to take the reins as the #1 guy, and it's time to see some of that explosiveness out of the Wondertwins. The running backs - Jones, Parks, Richardson - are a step shy of dynamic and getting closer all the time; if the receivers are just as good, there's no limit to what the offense can do.
You'll notice, though, that a lot of these observations are pretty mundane. Mostly, they're little more than the chronicling of the natural evolution of a football program - who'll do the best job at replacing who; a couple of scattered position battles; a glimpse of the future at quarterback because the present is occupied. I like this. You might not recognize it, which is perfectly fair - it's called stability with ambition. It's much better than not knowing who really is the quarterback until half past October.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
spring camp
OMG OMG it's football season u guyz!! Not really, obviously, but they're playing a little bit of it anyway down at the practice fields, where spring camp is underway. It'll be a little bit broken up and disjointed; you're allowed 15 practices and a spring game, but the festivities will last almost a month, meaning practices won't be on consecutive days for the most part. The roadshow continues, too, with three on-the-road practices this year, one in each of the state's three major metro areas. This is apparently quite a success; so much so, in fact, that people are starting to copy the idea. Imitation, flattery, etc.
This will be my favorite spring practice in a few years. Here's why: NO QUARTERBACK DRAMA. Blissful peace and quiet on the quarterback front. With Ross Metheny transferring, only three quarterbacks are in camp, and there's a definite pecking order. In fact, true position battles will be few and far between. I'm going to break it down by position anyway.
QUARTERBACK
Mike Rocco is #1. David Watford is #2. Greyson Lambert is #3. Period. That's how I like it. Moving on.
RUNNING BACK/FULLBACK
The order is pretty well set here, too, with senior captain Perry Jones taking the #1 spot, Kevin Parks in the #2 role, and Clifton Richardson as #3. This is LoVante' Battle's first real look at fullback, so it'll be interesting to see how he and Zach Swanson share the load. Swanson is probably the starter. With only two scholarship fullbacks and one of them recently converted from defense, also expect walk-on Billy Skrobacz to compete for a spot in the two-deep, and expect that competition to be extended to the fall, too. In fact, Skrobacz is listed second on the depth chart.
WIDE RECEIVER/TIGHT END
There aren't that many scholarship receivers in this version of the camp. Kevin Royal is off the team and Bobby Smith will miss the camp, leaving just five scholarship guys. Tim Smith is gonna have to be the man this year, but he's probably proven all he can in camp; the same is partly true for Darius Jennings. It's a big spring for Miles Gooch and E.J. Scott; both are going into their third year in the program, and Scott has spent all of them at receiver. This is the time to prove they can start putting it together.
At tight end, Colter Phillips is also missing the spring camp (this is a bad year for springtime injuries) and the guy getting the first-team reps will be Paul Freedman. With Jeremiah Mathis probably also not getting on the field, the second-team guy will be Jake McGee.
OFFENSIVE LINE
This is where the squad has been brutalized with injuries. Sean Cascarano is the likely heir to Austin Pasztor's left guard spot, but he'll miss the camp, as will Oday Aboushi and RG Luke Bowanko. That means second-team guards Conner Davis and Cody Wallace (who moves from center) will get some much-needed reps, as will Aboushi's backup, Kelby Johnson.
The spotlight will be on at center, though. It's fair to theorize that Wallace wasn't up to the chore, or he wouldn't have been switched with Matt Mihalik, a career backup at guard. Mihalik is now nominally the starting center, with redshirt freshman Ross Burbank backing up, and this is probably the one true position battle on the offensive side of the ball. And don't think for a minute that another guard won't get moved over if neither of them prove ready.
DEFENSIVE LINE
With so many departures from last year, plus the broken leg on Billy Schautz, the first team on the D-line is going to look a lot different this spring. Jake Snyder and Brent Urban are the top two candidates at end, but at tackle, there isn't likely to be a pecking order at all. Only Will Hill has extensive game experience.
Look for a spirited battle, then, between veterans like Chris Brathwaite and Justin Renfrow, and a couple newcomers like David Dean and Vincent Croce. DT is a relatively healthy unit, with only Marco Jones on the sideline, so the competition will be heated. The coaches will be looking for two players to join Hill in a three-man rotation, and one more to be the "fourth wheel," so to speak. Renfrow filled that role last year, but Dean will give him a lot of push, and I still have high hopes for Brathwaite.
The other interesting question: Where does Ausar Walcott fit in after moving down from linebacker? If he flashes some pass-rushing moves, he'll make a real push for playing time.
LINEBACKER
With Steve Greer out (are you picking up a pattern here?) Henry Coley will get first-team reps at MLB; an important step in his development, because there was an unfortunately obvious drop-off in play last year between Greer and Coley. Linebacker is fairly well set; Greer will get his job back when he returns. Laroy Reynolds is a senior (hard to believe) and he's got an iron grip on the weak side. With Walcott moving to DE, the strong side is inherited by Daquan Romero, who is hopefully beginning a three-year run there as a starter. Romero was in camp last year as an early enrollee, so the coaches will look for a lot of growth from him.
DEFENSIVE BACK
Right now it's Demetrious Nicholson and three position battles. Nicholson owns one corner spot; the other looks like a battle royale between Drequan Hoskey and Brandon Phelps, and Hoskey has the edge right now. Even so, Phelps will play a big role; even if he loses to Hoskey, the third cornerback is practically a starter anyway.
At safety, just throw everything up for grabs. Rijo Walker is the likely starter at free safety, but he's got competition from Pablo Alvarez and Kameron Mack. Anthony Harris is in the inside lane for strong safety, but with a push from Mason Thomas and Kyrrel Latimer. The smart money says Walker and Harris will emerge as the starters, but right now that's written in very light pencil.
KICKER/PUNTER
All three specialist jobs - placekicker, punter, and kickoff guy - are up for grabs. Drew Jarrett is back after a year's absence, and he's listed as second-string at both kicker and punter. Alec Vozenilek is listed as the starting punter and Ian Frye the starting kicked, but don't expect any of that to be permanent without a lengthy competition.
This will be my favorite spring practice in a few years. Here's why: NO QUARTERBACK DRAMA. Blissful peace and quiet on the quarterback front. With Ross Metheny transferring, only three quarterbacks are in camp, and there's a definite pecking order. In fact, true position battles will be few and far between. I'm going to break it down by position anyway.
QUARTERBACK
Mike Rocco is #1. David Watford is #2. Greyson Lambert is #3. Period. That's how I like it. Moving on.
RUNNING BACK/FULLBACK
The order is pretty well set here, too, with senior captain Perry Jones taking the #1 spot, Kevin Parks in the #2 role, and Clifton Richardson as #3. This is LoVante' Battle's first real look at fullback, so it'll be interesting to see how he and Zach Swanson share the load. Swanson is probably the starter. With only two scholarship fullbacks and one of them recently converted from defense, also expect walk-on Billy Skrobacz to compete for a spot in the two-deep, and expect that competition to be extended to the fall, too. In fact, Skrobacz is listed second on the depth chart.
WIDE RECEIVER/TIGHT END
There aren't that many scholarship receivers in this version of the camp. Kevin Royal is off the team and Bobby Smith will miss the camp, leaving just five scholarship guys. Tim Smith is gonna have to be the man this year, but he's probably proven all he can in camp; the same is partly true for Darius Jennings. It's a big spring for Miles Gooch and E.J. Scott; both are going into their third year in the program, and Scott has spent all of them at receiver. This is the time to prove they can start putting it together.
At tight end, Colter Phillips is also missing the spring camp (this is a bad year for springtime injuries) and the guy getting the first-team reps will be Paul Freedman. With Jeremiah Mathis probably also not getting on the field, the second-team guy will be Jake McGee.
OFFENSIVE LINE
This is where the squad has been brutalized with injuries. Sean Cascarano is the likely heir to Austin Pasztor's left guard spot, but he'll miss the camp, as will Oday Aboushi and RG Luke Bowanko. That means second-team guards Conner Davis and Cody Wallace (who moves from center) will get some much-needed reps, as will Aboushi's backup, Kelby Johnson.
The spotlight will be on at center, though. It's fair to theorize that Wallace wasn't up to the chore, or he wouldn't have been switched with Matt Mihalik, a career backup at guard. Mihalik is now nominally the starting center, with redshirt freshman Ross Burbank backing up, and this is probably the one true position battle on the offensive side of the ball. And don't think for a minute that another guard won't get moved over if neither of them prove ready.
DEFENSIVE LINE
With so many departures from last year, plus the broken leg on Billy Schautz, the first team on the D-line is going to look a lot different this spring. Jake Snyder and Brent Urban are the top two candidates at end, but at tackle, there isn't likely to be a pecking order at all. Only Will Hill has extensive game experience.
Look for a spirited battle, then, between veterans like Chris Brathwaite and Justin Renfrow, and a couple newcomers like David Dean and Vincent Croce. DT is a relatively healthy unit, with only Marco Jones on the sideline, so the competition will be heated. The coaches will be looking for two players to join Hill in a three-man rotation, and one more to be the "fourth wheel," so to speak. Renfrow filled that role last year, but Dean will give him a lot of push, and I still have high hopes for Brathwaite.
The other interesting question: Where does Ausar Walcott fit in after moving down from linebacker? If he flashes some pass-rushing moves, he'll make a real push for playing time.
LINEBACKER
With Steve Greer out (are you picking up a pattern here?) Henry Coley will get first-team reps at MLB; an important step in his development, because there was an unfortunately obvious drop-off in play last year between Greer and Coley. Linebacker is fairly well set; Greer will get his job back when he returns. Laroy Reynolds is a senior (hard to believe) and he's got an iron grip on the weak side. With Walcott moving to DE, the strong side is inherited by Daquan Romero, who is hopefully beginning a three-year run there as a starter. Romero was in camp last year as an early enrollee, so the coaches will look for a lot of growth from him.
DEFENSIVE BACK
Right now it's Demetrious Nicholson and three position battles. Nicholson owns one corner spot; the other looks like a battle royale between Drequan Hoskey and Brandon Phelps, and Hoskey has the edge right now. Even so, Phelps will play a big role; even if he loses to Hoskey, the third cornerback is practically a starter anyway.
At safety, just throw everything up for grabs. Rijo Walker is the likely starter at free safety, but he's got competition from Pablo Alvarez and Kameron Mack. Anthony Harris is in the inside lane for strong safety, but with a push from Mason Thomas and Kyrrel Latimer. The smart money says Walker and Harris will emerge as the starters, but right now that's written in very light pencil.
KICKER/PUNTER
All three specialist jobs - placekicker, punter, and kickoff guy - are up for grabs. Drew Jarrett is back after a year's absence, and he's listed as second-string at both kicker and punter. Alec Vozenilek is listed as the starting punter and Ian Frye the starting kicked, but don't expect any of that to be permanent without a lengthy competition.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
spring practice primer
Ten or fifteen years ago, a lot of fans likely didn't even know spring practice existed. Fewer cable channels meant there were only so many cameras, and so the coaches had the chance to conduct some practices while the prying eyes were trained on baseball's Opening Day and the waning days of the NBA and NHL seasons. People know about spring ball now. They know about it good and hard.
But before we get to the spring practice primer, in which I'll offer up my take on what kind of drama we can expect to see position by position, your daily dose of basketball coach rumormongering:
First, we put to rest once and for all the notion that players were disgruntled about playing for Leitao. They're disgruntled now, yes. There will be transfers, you can be sure of that, and some guys we were hoping to count on next year might end up gone. Sylven Landesberg, Jeff Jones, Mike Scott, and Sammy Zeglinski all vowed to stay. Not that I don't believe them, but there's much that will change between now and then. I hope they stay. I won't be surprised if one changes his mind, and I'll be less surprised when - not if - somebody does transfer, or ask out of their LOI.
Another very similar take on the situation. Mike Scott was the source of a quote last year (and I wish I wish I wish I could find the article again but I cannot) that gave ammo to the "players don't like Leitao" camp. This, I believe, refutes that 110%.
Jim Young at the ACC Sports Journal proposes Siena's Fran McCaffrey as a cheaper alternative to the Big Three floating around out there. The four major points:
- Cheaper
- Good resume
- Recruits well
- Knows Littlepage (and Littlepage knows him)
First point, agreed 100% - as I said earlier, it will take megabux to lure the big name we want. But is it really wise to go the cheaper route? I'm not sure fans would be enamored of that idea. This was a pretty bold leap, firing Leitao at a juncture like this, and all kinds of the wrong messages will be sent to the fanbase.
Not that McCaffrey couldn't necessarily do a good job. I think recruiting to a place like Siena is one of the toughest recruiting jobs in all of college. There are no less than 22 D-I schools in the state of New York. At Siena, first you have to identify the players good enough to lead you to a conference championship but not good enough to activate the radars on the big-time programs (you're smack in the middle of Big East-land) or even the medium-time programs (you're also smack in the middle of Atlantic-10-land.) You pretty much have to go to New York City to do this, although McCaffrey has also been able to snag some quality talent out of Philly and DC. Then you have to convince them to go to Siena and not any of the other 21 schools in the state that are also in touch with them, like, say, Iona, all of which are pretty much the same to a basketball-playing kid in NYC. Or for that matter, any of the schools in New Jersey or Pennsylvania or New England, all of which also want in to NYC. In short, you can't really sell Siena. You have to sell you. If McCaffrey can consistently bring conference championship-winning talent to Siena, then I'm on board with the idea that he can recruit to UVA.
So this is not a knock against McCaffrey, but there is more proven talent out there, and it's been made known even at this early juncture that there is a Big Three that the school is interested in. If we hire McCaffrey, it means Littlepage didn't have his ducks properly in a row before pushing Leitao out the door, or failed to close a deal with three separate coaches, and ought to be fired his own self.
Criminitly. This stuff is long enough to be its own post. But we're pressing ahead with spring football, because that starts Saturday and this post is a long time in the making. Position by position, here we go with the position battles, and keep in mind this is for spring practice, which means don't worry about the incoming recruiting class cause they ain't here yet.
Offensive line
Drama: Very low. Four starters (Shields, Cabbell, Pasztor, Barker) return, as do most backups, and the one vacancy at left tackle will be immediately filled by Landon Bradley. Rather than fighting for a spot on the depth chart, these players will be able to focus almost exclusively on continuing to gel as a unit and learning the new blocking schemes that Gregg Brandon brings. This unit will generate the fewest stories during spring practice as long as they stay the hell away from Club 216, but that means they'll also be the biggest reason for our mighty ascendance to glory in the fall.
Running back
Drama: Pretty low. Mikell Simpson appears set as the feature back, as the new offense appears tailor-made for his talents. But he's not durable enough to be a workhorse, so whoever earns the backup job will see his share of carries. Raynard Horne has experience, but Torrey Mack brings the talent and a football-playin', Pro Bowl-sounding kinda name. Sooner or later Mack will be carrying the load and I'm looking forward to that day.
Wide receiver
Drama: Lowish, but mainly because there's room for everyone. There will only be five scholarship receivers on the roster for spring, so they should all see lots of reps. Brandon's offense requires having a big fat load of receivers available and the question is not so much who gets on the field but who's the best at getting open once there.
Tight end
Drama: Low. With Andrew Devlin's move to defensive end, Joe Torchia becomes the starter by default. The main thing will not be whether the tight end's role is reduced in this offense but by how much.
Quarterback
Drama: Astronomically galactic. We don't even know who all the horses are in this race. Does Vic Hall get treated as a cornerback that sometimes lines up under center, or a quarterback that can play defense? Jameel Sewell has earned the staff's trust and the fans' respect by working hard to come back to the team, and his talents appear well-suited for this new offense. Marc Verica still throws that oh-so-nice ball though, and if he shows in spring camp that he knows where the defenders are this time around, the superior passing touch that he brings as compared to Sewell can't be ignored. And how big will Hall's WildCav package be? Expect the paparazzi to be all over this one and for it not to be settled even the tiniest bit by the end of spring practice.
Defensive line
Drama: Medium. A clearcut, good old-fashioned position battle is shaping up between Devlin and Zane Parr at defensive end. Winner starts. Matt Conrath is firmly entrenched on the other side. Nick Jenkins and Nate Collins will likely split the duties at nose tackle just as they did last year, but it'll be interesting to see how much Buddy Ruff can horn in on their fun.
Linebacker
Drama: Pretty bloody high. There are a lot of open spots but a lot more dogs in this fight. Denzel Burrell is the lone returning starter, but his platoon-mate from last year Aaron Clark is healthy these days. Cam Johnson also got on the field last year as a true freshman and looked like he belonged. John-Kevin Dolce will probably continue in his role as a pass-rush specialist on the outside. On the inside, Darren Childs probably has the inside track on a starting spot by virtue of having playing experience. Steve Greer, Darnell Carter, and Terrence Fells-Danzer are in the mix on the inside as well. The pundits will point to our freshly rebuilt linebacking corps as a reason to count us out again this year, but there's enough competition to keep the talent level high here and not face too much of a drop-off. This one should be more fun to watch than the quarterback battle, mainly because we can never seem to escape quarterback controversy and we'll be saturated with it ad exhaustium all summer.
Cornerback
Drama: Dependent on Vic Hall's role with the offense. Ras-I Dowling is a future first-round pick and has one spot locked the hell down. Opposite him, Chase Minnifield and Rodney McLeod both have a lot of talent as well and the more quarterback Hall plays, the more starting time is at stake in that battle.
Safety
Drama: Medium, but less if Chris Cook ends up here. Which I think he will because Minnifield and McLeod are very promising cornerback talents and the current official roster lists only four safeties. One of whom is pretty strictly a special-teams guy and another of whom is a scout-teamer. Corey Mosley is locked in, and Cook would probably be locked in opposite him. If not, it's probably up to Ausar Walcott.
Punter
Drama: None, because Jimmy Howell has the spot under control and even if he didn't, it's still the punter.
Kicker
Drama: More than I'd like there to be. Probably the same three-horse race as last year with Reyering, Randolph, and Hinkebein vying for the spot.
Of the 24 starting spots, figure that on the offense, six of eleven are locked up tight and on defense, just three of eleven. Kicker is open, punter is not. The six on offense are RT Will Barker, RG B.J. Cabbell, C Jack Shields, LG Austin Pasztor, RB Mikell Simpson, and TE Joe Torchia. LT is penciled as Landon Bradley until fall. Wide receiver is more or less an open competition, but labeling anyone "starter" is a formality because there's lots of playing time for everyone. Quarterback is gonna be bloody.
On defense, your three locked-in starters are DE Matt Conrath, CB Ras-I Dowling, and S Corey Mosley. The NT spot is in good hands with the aforementioned platoon, and the other DE spot should hopefully work itself out nice and clean, so the defensive line is in fine shape. The secondary is fine too - most of the battles are between proven and experienced players. As for linebacker, write all the names on little slips of paper and toss 'em in the air. Whichever land face-up are your starters. It's that wide-open. Bob Trott has his work cut out for him.
But before we get to the spring practice primer, in which I'll offer up my take on what kind of drama we can expect to see position by position, your daily dose of basketball coach rumormongering:
First, we put to rest once and for all the notion that players were disgruntled about playing for Leitao. They're disgruntled now, yes. There will be transfers, you can be sure of that, and some guys we were hoping to count on next year might end up gone. Sylven Landesberg, Jeff Jones, Mike Scott, and Sammy Zeglinski all vowed to stay. Not that I don't believe them, but there's much that will change between now and then. I hope they stay. I won't be surprised if one changes his mind, and I'll be less surprised when - not if - somebody does transfer, or ask out of their LOI.
Another very similar take on the situation. Mike Scott was the source of a quote last year (and I wish I wish I wish I could find the article again but I cannot) that gave ammo to the "players don't like Leitao" camp. This, I believe, refutes that 110%.
Jim Young at the ACC Sports Journal proposes Siena's Fran McCaffrey as a cheaper alternative to the Big Three floating around out there. The four major points:
- Cheaper
- Good resume
- Recruits well
- Knows Littlepage (and Littlepage knows him)
First point, agreed 100% - as I said earlier, it will take megabux to lure the big name we want. But is it really wise to go the cheaper route? I'm not sure fans would be enamored of that idea. This was a pretty bold leap, firing Leitao at a juncture like this, and all kinds of the wrong messages will be sent to the fanbase.
Not that McCaffrey couldn't necessarily do a good job. I think recruiting to a place like Siena is one of the toughest recruiting jobs in all of college. There are no less than 22 D-I schools in the state of New York. At Siena, first you have to identify the players good enough to lead you to a conference championship but not good enough to activate the radars on the big-time programs (you're smack in the middle of Big East-land) or even the medium-time programs (you're also smack in the middle of Atlantic-10-land.) You pretty much have to go to New York City to do this, although McCaffrey has also been able to snag some quality talent out of Philly and DC. Then you have to convince them to go to Siena and not any of the other 21 schools in the state that are also in touch with them, like, say, Iona, all of which are pretty much the same to a basketball-playing kid in NYC. Or for that matter, any of the schools in New Jersey or Pennsylvania or New England, all of which also want in to NYC. In short, you can't really sell Siena. You have to sell you. If McCaffrey can consistently bring conference championship-winning talent to Siena, then I'm on board with the idea that he can recruit to UVA.
So this is not a knock against McCaffrey, but there is more proven talent out there, and it's been made known even at this early juncture that there is a Big Three that the school is interested in. If we hire McCaffrey, it means Littlepage didn't have his ducks properly in a row before pushing Leitao out the door, or failed to close a deal with three separate coaches, and ought to be fired his own self.
Criminitly. This stuff is long enough to be its own post. But we're pressing ahead with spring football, because that starts Saturday and this post is a long time in the making. Position by position, here we go with the position battles, and keep in mind this is for spring practice, which means don't worry about the incoming recruiting class cause they ain't here yet.
Offensive line
Drama: Very low. Four starters (Shields, Cabbell, Pasztor, Barker) return, as do most backups, and the one vacancy at left tackle will be immediately filled by Landon Bradley. Rather than fighting for a spot on the depth chart, these players will be able to focus almost exclusively on continuing to gel as a unit and learning the new blocking schemes that Gregg Brandon brings. This unit will generate the fewest stories during spring practice as long as they stay the hell away from Club 216, but that means they'll also be the biggest reason for our mighty ascendance to glory in the fall.
Running back
Drama: Pretty low. Mikell Simpson appears set as the feature back, as the new offense appears tailor-made for his talents. But he's not durable enough to be a workhorse, so whoever earns the backup job will see his share of carries. Raynard Horne has experience, but Torrey Mack brings the talent and a football-playin', Pro Bowl-sounding kinda name. Sooner or later Mack will be carrying the load and I'm looking forward to that day.
Wide receiver
Drama: Lowish, but mainly because there's room for everyone. There will only be five scholarship receivers on the roster for spring, so they should all see lots of reps. Brandon's offense requires having a big fat load of receivers available and the question is not so much who gets on the field but who's the best at getting open once there.
Tight end
Drama: Low. With Andrew Devlin's move to defensive end, Joe Torchia becomes the starter by default. The main thing will not be whether the tight end's role is reduced in this offense but by how much.
Quarterback
Drama: Astronomically galactic. We don't even know who all the horses are in this race. Does Vic Hall get treated as a cornerback that sometimes lines up under center, or a quarterback that can play defense? Jameel Sewell has earned the staff's trust and the fans' respect by working hard to come back to the team, and his talents appear well-suited for this new offense. Marc Verica still throws that oh-so-nice ball though, and if he shows in spring camp that he knows where the defenders are this time around, the superior passing touch that he brings as compared to Sewell can't be ignored. And how big will Hall's WildCav package be? Expect the paparazzi to be all over this one and for it not to be settled even the tiniest bit by the end of spring practice.
Defensive line
Drama: Medium. A clearcut, good old-fashioned position battle is shaping up between Devlin and Zane Parr at defensive end. Winner starts. Matt Conrath is firmly entrenched on the other side. Nick Jenkins and Nate Collins will likely split the duties at nose tackle just as they did last year, but it'll be interesting to see how much Buddy Ruff can horn in on their fun.
Linebacker
Drama: Pretty bloody high. There are a lot of open spots but a lot more dogs in this fight. Denzel Burrell is the lone returning starter, but his platoon-mate from last year Aaron Clark is healthy these days. Cam Johnson also got on the field last year as a true freshman and looked like he belonged. John-Kevin Dolce will probably continue in his role as a pass-rush specialist on the outside. On the inside, Darren Childs probably has the inside track on a starting spot by virtue of having playing experience. Steve Greer, Darnell Carter, and Terrence Fells-Danzer are in the mix on the inside as well. The pundits will point to our freshly rebuilt linebacking corps as a reason to count us out again this year, but there's enough competition to keep the talent level high here and not face too much of a drop-off. This one should be more fun to watch than the quarterback battle, mainly because we can never seem to escape quarterback controversy and we'll be saturated with it ad exhaustium all summer.
Cornerback
Drama: Dependent on Vic Hall's role with the offense. Ras-I Dowling is a future first-round pick and has one spot locked the hell down. Opposite him, Chase Minnifield and Rodney McLeod both have a lot of talent as well and the more quarterback Hall plays, the more starting time is at stake in that battle.
Safety
Drama: Medium, but less if Chris Cook ends up here. Which I think he will because Minnifield and McLeod are very promising cornerback talents and the current official roster lists only four safeties. One of whom is pretty strictly a special-teams guy and another of whom is a scout-teamer. Corey Mosley is locked in, and Cook would probably be locked in opposite him. If not, it's probably up to Ausar Walcott.
Punter
Drama: None, because Jimmy Howell has the spot under control and even if he didn't, it's still the punter.
Kicker
Drama: More than I'd like there to be. Probably the same three-horse race as last year with Reyering, Randolph, and Hinkebein vying for the spot.
Of the 24 starting spots, figure that on the offense, six of eleven are locked up tight and on defense, just three of eleven. Kicker is open, punter is not. The six on offense are RT Will Barker, RG B.J. Cabbell, C Jack Shields, LG Austin Pasztor, RB Mikell Simpson, and TE Joe Torchia. LT is penciled as Landon Bradley until fall. Wide receiver is more or less an open competition, but labeling anyone "starter" is a formality because there's lots of playing time for everyone. Quarterback is gonna be bloody.
On defense, your three locked-in starters are DE Matt Conrath, CB Ras-I Dowling, and S Corey Mosley. The NT spot is in good hands with the aforementioned platoon, and the other DE spot should hopefully work itself out nice and clean, so the defensive line is in fine shape. The secondary is fine too - most of the battles are between proven and experienced players. As for linebacker, write all the names on little slips of paper and toss 'em in the air. Whichever land face-up are your starters. It's that wide-open. Bob Trott has his work cut out for him.
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