tim weiser is someone else's problem now

You guys are some kinda lucky today. I cut my workout short today just to bring you this post earlier. That's right, I couldn't even wait twenty more minutes to bust out my own personal internet megaphone for a nice little F**K YEAH HOOS!!

I could have done that sometime this weekend, I suppose, as the baseball team was busy bringing their brooms to Irvine, California. I wanted to wait til I had something to shout about, though. And I didn't want to jinx anything. I wonder if I was the only 'Hoo fan to have this sneaky feeling, completely unspoken for fear of angering the baseball gods, that once we had gotten past Stephen Strasburg, the #1 team in baseball isn't scary at all?

Truth be told, yesterday was one of those excellent days where nothing goes wrong. The Tigers blanked the Orioles, Kyle "The Douchebag" Busch didn't even manage a top-20 finish at Dover, and the Red Wings are just two wins away from their fifth Stanley Cup in twelve seasons. And to top it all off, somewhere south of two o'clock in the morning, history is made. History, I tell you. And now it's the Irvine Anteaters swearing loudly at Tim Weiser and his still-very-moronic rationalizations and wondering why they had to get stuck with the Region of Doom.

Anyway, now that the whirlwind weekend of awesomeness is over, let's do a quick recap:

Friday, 7:00 PM: ESPN's debutante party, to introduce America's newest pitching phenom to America itself, for the first time ever on national TV against an opponent with a pulse, begins.

Friday, about 10:00 PM: Oops.

Saturday, 11:00 PM: The pitching phenom having been dispatched, ESPN needs something new to entertain the nation. Enter the phrase "Irvine baseball" and the dancing umpire. Umpire is fresh off his win over singing sensation Susan Boyle and looking to take his talents to an American audience.

Sunday, 2:00 AM: Nobody's sure yet what "Irvine baseball" means, but Irvine fans are pretty sure they don't like it if it means the ball goes past the first baseman and into the dugout all the time. Umpire joins Dancing With the Stars, partners with Danica Patrick.

Sunday, 11:00 PM: Oh, that's what "Irvine baseball" means: stomping a lousy, one-trick pony opponent from a mediocre conference. ESPN commentators declare Irvine needs to continue to do the same, if the opponent will cooperate and stop playing Irvine baseball. Dancing umpire attempts to pick up chicks with patented six-shooter strike call.

Monday, 2:00 AM-ish: ESPN makes history by entering a horse named "Irvine Baseball" in the Belmont. Horse dies as Phil Nevin tries to revive it by beating it with stick. Actual Irvine baseball's tournament hopes snuff it at around the same time Francis Larson tries to save migrating birds from Andrew Carraway's third pitch (Larson misses, but force of blow shatters the air, Casey-style.) Dancing umpire breaks out the Ickey Shuffle.

So all in all it was a successful weekend. Stephen Strasburg learned he's not in the Mountain West Conference any more. The team played really, really, really, really, really, really well. And Tim Weiser is UC-Irvine's problem.

One minor down note from Jeff White today: Morgan Moses does not look to have made the academic cut. Bummer that. At some point in the not-especially-distant future, I'll update both the depth chart and the recruiting boards; Moses will be removed from the depth chart and bumped to the 2010 recruiting class with an asterisk or something; Hunter Steward will move to the 2009 class, as the prep school idea seems to have fallen by the wayside for him. The not un-important silver lining is that the scholarship number drops to 87. Two more players are going to have to go to prep school or get lousy grades or something.

That out of the way, I finish up with more good news. More for me than you though. I've been registered for the reunions (it's my five-year) this weekend for weeks now, see, and looking forward to it naturally since I haven't been back on Grounds for something like four years. So: reunions; symbolically, that's two. The other two is the slim-ish potential that UVA could be the host of a super-regional, which are also this weekend. That's another two, and it's two and two that I didn't think to put together until about nine hours ago. But in this case, two and two make AWESOME. Add to the mix the Stanley Cup that the Wings are hopefully poised to bring back where it belongs, and you have the potential makings of an even better weekend than the last one.

the recruit: Hunter Steward

First, though, the daily dose of coaching search craziness. Tubby Smith is emerging as the clear front-runner per both Jeff White and the ACCSJ. The two snippets of interest:

“Nothing else will happen until we talk with Tubby, and he’s obviously busy right now,” one source close to the Virginia search said Thursday. “Obviously, in the meantime, there will be due diligence done on several other coaches.”

And the Smith side of things...

“Four years ago, (Smith) was in a place where he was happy to listen to other programs, especially a school like Virginia, where he already had a comfort level because of (athletic director Craig Littlepage),” a source close to Smith said. “Now he’s happy at Minnesota. I’m not saying he won’t listen, but he likes his current situation. He’s certainly not seeking out other jobs.”

There's no reason not to believe either one of these, frankly. Smith is already pretty well compensated at Minnesota and there isn't a lot more we can do there other than take those incentives he's getting and turn them into guarantees. And given Minnesota's previous level of success it's a safe bet Tubby has already achieved a few of those incentives. Tubby rebuffed us when he was coaching at a place where he wasn't at all appreciated; now he's treated like royalty. In the end I'm not convinced that dangling the chance to coach in the ACC is going to be enough to overcome the awkward timing of it. I think we'll have to eventually turn our attention to Jeff Capel, who is more likely to be lured away. (Rivals $ article.)

Also, a little early baseball bracketology for you. The baseball team remains undefeated after wins over the law firm of Marshall, Canisius, and Wagner, though that's a label they're not likely to keep after this weekend when powerhouse Miami visits. If we somehow do, hey, I hear Omaha's real nice in June. Well, let's put it this way - of the next four ACC series, three are against some powerhouses. We're currently 4-0 in the conference - if by Easter Sunday we're 11-5 with a winning record in that stretch (and Maryland is in there and eminently sweepable) then it'll be an improvement over last year and I'll feel very good about the state of things.

I couldn't let this go, by the way - Bobby Bowden sees that wins record slip-sliding away and is pissing and moaning about it.

''There are different degrees of doing something wrong,'' Bowden said, according to media reports in Florida. "You can go five miles over the speed limit. That's one thing. Or you can go 50 miles over the speed limit, and that's dangerous. ... It just seems like they're killing a flea with a hammer."

Shut up, sir. If you paid any attention to what your players were up to off the field for the past twenty years, you'd be damn familiar with the criminal justice system by now. When you've been caught five or six times going over the speed limit, they start to take away your license. Most people think the penalties were too light - the only ones that think otherwise are in Tallahassee. Whiny Criminoles make me sick.

OK - on to either the last holdover from the '09 football recruiting class or the first for 2010, depending, I think, on summer developments.

Name: Hunter Steward
Position: OT
Hometown: Virginia Beach
School: Kellam
Height: 6'7"
Weight: 300-something

ESPN: 74, #114 OT
Rivals: 5.2, two stars
Scout: two stars

Hunter Steward's first semester of United States schooling must have been really bad. Do you know how many 300-pound offensive tackles there are with the chops to play D-IA football? In 2009 there were about 80 or so. That's not even one per school. About 40 went to BCS programs - even less of a favorable ratio. (And we got three, which is pretty nice.)

So for schools to have been scared off by his grades - early on Steward was getting some looks from UNC and VT - says a lot. Partially that Steward's talents didn't quite measure up to oh say Morgan Moses, who would have been offered a football ride even if his head was filled with marbles and his SAT score was measured in fractions. But whatever Steward was getting was enough to make UNC stop bothering and Al Groh suggest he might benefit from military prep school. Not pretty.

But he righted the ship pretty quick, and I would be surprised if Dad, who moved the family to the States from Canada specifically so Hunter could play football on scholarship, didn't have a little bit to do with that. His grades are now good enough that he is likely to enroll in the fall with the rest of his class. Marshall, the only other I-A school to offer a scholarship, is probably wishing that hadn't happened.

Steward gets piddling grades from the scouting services in part because he didn't have a junior year, when a lot of this evaluation gets done. At least not one in the States. He played defense ($) up in the Great White North and not offense, but picked up on it quick enough to play both ends of the line.

Still, a redshirt year seems in order. His learning curve will be steeper since Canadian football has some nutty differences just to be different. Anyone who blots out the sun the way Steward does is going to get his shot in camp. But the numbers work against him this year. Too many entrenched starters and too many higher-rated guys in the class. Eventually he'll find his way out on the field - Al Groh has always looked to get the biggest linemen he can out there. It probably won't be for a couple years, though.

Long brothers: collect 'em all

Dear Old U.Va reports, as do the premium boards at Rivals, that the wheels that were set in motion a few months ago are rolling toward their final destination, which is an overly wordy way of saying that Kyle Long will enroll at UVA this summer and be on the football roster in the fall as an offensive lineman. With Chris already graduated and Howie Jr. signed to play lacrosse, our Brothers Long collection is complete. Here's hoping Kyle is as good at protecting quarterbacks as Chris was at terrorizing them.

But that's not all. TheSabre also reports that Hunter Steward, who previously planned to enroll at Fork Union for a year, will do no such thing. Steward, too, now expects to join the team this fall. Here is the awesome part of the article:

"One of the problems for me at the beginning was picking up on small parts of being an offensive lineman. For example, when I was pass blocking I would push guys too far and end up drawing a penalty for illegal man downfield."

That's Steward talking. Steward, in case you didn't already know, weighs something north of 300 pounds, and in my very humble opinion someone who has a problem with pushing defensive linemen too far downfield does not have a problem.

So the depth chart is now updated with the assumption that both will enroll and be on the roster in the fall. There's no way of knowing, really, how many of those freshman tackles will be put elsewhere, not until spring (for the redshirt guys) and fall (for the incoming class) practices begin. I have Cascarano at guard but only because I took a SWAG that he'll end up there.

The real upshot for now is that basically all the world's potential now resides in that freshman class. Between Long, Stewart, Moses, Cascarano, and Aboushi, as well as the talent that resides in the sophomore class with guys like Bradley and Milstead and the junior class with incumbent starters Shields and Cabbell, there will be no excuse for not having a superb offensive line starting around 2010 and moving onwards.

There's one more change to the depth chart - had I been paying any attention when writing my weekend review yesterday, it would have been there, but no, I was in too big a hurry to finish the post and go play Super Smash Brothers. Sorry about that. Kinda. Anyway, what with the spread offense making its grand debut next year, and what with the tight end position being a big ol' afterthought in pretty much every variation of the spread (including ours), the coaches find themselves with an excess of tight ends, and whaddaya know, not enough veteran DEs. Andrew Devlin, therefore, is now a DE. Problem solved. The meaning of all this? Kevin Crawford likely backs up Matt Conrath, and Devlin and Zane Parr battle it out on the other side, the consolation prize being the #2 spot on the depth chart. However, that's one injury away from having to dip into the true freshman pool for the depth chart (Tory Allen is probably not a factor) and so I still anticipate at least one redshirt coming off this season.

The only question I have for now, and its a drum I've beat in the past, but, where are the scholarships coming from? Assuming Long and Steward each get one, I now count 91 scholarship commitments. That's not including Sean Gottschalk, who is no longer with the team and almost certainly will not ever be again, but does include Isaac Cain. That's six over the limit. Who is going to leave the team between now and fall practice?

KO, going pro

So we're down a wide receiver. More in a bit, after I make excuses about why I'm not going to do much about the Hunter Steward commit. Steward, obviously, is going to go to Fork Union for a year - the story behind that is that the coaches want him to go for "physical development." Physical development? The kid's six foot seven! OK, fine, whatever, he'll go to FUMA for a year which is essentially a grayshirt year, pack some muscle onto that scrawny 300-pound frame of his, and come back in 2010 with a vengeance. The upshot for your humble blogger is that I'm not gonna bother doing a recruit profile thingy until after the rest of the '09 class is done and almost certainly not til after Signing Day, and I'm not gonna add him to the committed section of the recruiting board. For all intents and purposes he is the first '10 recruit, rather than the 23rd '09 one. I guess that means the '10 class is a little behind the '09 one, because Alex Owah committed last December.

OK, so Kevin Ogletree is going to the draft and that sucks. Last year Branden Albert left early, and you kind of had to shrug your shoulders because he went 15th overall. I admit to being surprised at Ogletree's decision, though. I'm not sure he's any higher than a fourth round pick right now, but I guess we'll have to wait and see what the scouts say. There are quite a few receivers who'll likely be drafted ahead of him, including Hakeem Nicks, who dazzled on the big stage of a bowl game, and Rutgers' Kenny Britt, who was fifth in the nation in receiving yards and is 6'4". Both also declared early. The scouts also put guys like Percy Harvin and Jeremy Maclin near the top - neither of whom have declared yet, but could.

Had he stayed, Ogletree could have conceivably led the ACC in all receiving categories. Nicks and Clemson's Aaron Kelly are departing - these were the only two ahead of 'Tree in receiving yards. Also leaving are Wake's D.J. Boldin, Duke's Eron Riley, Maryland's Darrius Heyward-Bey....there are going to be a lot of new faces at the top of the receiving stats list next year. Ogletree would certainly have been a preseason all-conference pick, and probably a postseason one too. The only question is, would it have helped his standing in the draft? I dunno. Not really qualified to answer that. But with so many good receivers leaving the ACC, this might not be the year to hop the train. Academically Ogletree would have gained nothing - by virtue of that year sitting out with a knee injury, he's already graduated.

What it means for us is, no senior wide receivers on next year's team, and as it stands now (without counting the '09 recruiting class, that is) more walk-ons than scholarship players. Dontrelle Inman will be our most experienced wide receiver. I was once told that the receivers were second only to the quarterbacks when it came to being harangued and ridden on by the coaching staff about knowing the minute little details of every play, so it'd have been nice to have that senior leadership.

But there's plenty of talent ready to step up, some of which (Inman, Staton Jobe) had decent seasons in 2007 but disappeared behind Ogletree's and Maurice Covington's fine seasons. Jared Green and Kris Burd will certainly be in the mix. A true freshman like Tim Smith could step into the game as well, and I'm looking forward to the size and style of play that Kevin Royal brings to the table. So Ogletree isn't leaving behind a vacuum; clearly, Gregg Brandon will have a lot to work with. But there won't be any easing of players into a top role; one of these guys is going to have to step out on the field in September and straight into a spotlight that they're unfamiliar with. It'll be a very interesting position battle.

one coming, one going

Two quick tidbits from TheSabre: first, OL Hunter Steward is a UVA commit, though he will probably count for 2010 vice 2009 as he is expected to spend a year at Fork Union.

Second, the bad news: Kevin Ogletree is departing for the draft. Rats. Take heart though - there are some quality young'uns that appear ready to step up. Losing Ogletree certainly won't help, but it might not hurt as bad as it seems.

I'll blab at you with deeper thoughts later this evening.