First, programming note. Or programming essay, if you will. Your humble blogger goes on summer break starting tomorrow, which lasts until Wednesday-ish. There may be a little something in the interim, but we'll see. It depends. Once I get back, it'll just about be time to jump with both feet into football mode. Starting the last week of July and going til I'm done, we get to the season previews. There are 17 in all: 11 ACC teams, 4 non-conference games on our schedule, and lastly our offense and defense. Recruit profiles will be sprinkled in there too.
If you've followed football season on these pages before, you know there's a little bit of a weekly routine. If you haven't, then here it is:
Sunday: This blog participates in the Blogpoll, the more or less official blogger's version of the weekly coaches' and AP rankings. And much better, because we don't pawn off our ballots on whichever unlucky gofer walked past the office first, it's the very model of transparency, you the reader get a say, and besides we're just smarter, faster, and better looking than your average media dork. Anyway, Sunday is when the first draft of the ballot goes up, and generally you also get my reactions to whatever travesty just took place the day before, and if we won, I try to have highlights up too.
Monday: Update the recruiting board, check in on how our commits did that weekend, and catch up on non-football stuff.
Tuesday-Wednesday: Whatever is going on, plus usually there's some kind of roundtable going on between us bloggers. Those are fun because other bloggers put on their twisted-mind hats to ask stuff and I have to figure out how to answer questions like, "if your football team was a bird, what species would it be?" This is also soccer season, so I try and figure out how to react to the games without getting to see them, because the sport is totally ignored by the networks.
Thursday: Game preview day! Ohboyohboy it's almost Saturday....
Friday-Saturday: The blog's weekend. Nothing posted unless something big happens.
So. Stuff is going on, and as you're aware, I have opinions:
- Watford. This is a big deal, because while we go head-to-head all the time with VT for recruits, it doesn't actually happen that often in the quarterback realm. It hasn't turned out well when we do. VT's been on Watford all this time - don't you believe it for a minute when Hokies claim they didn't want him that badly - so getting him is a coup. However, don't for a minute read anything into it beyond Watford himself. If you think it's a foot in the door at Hampton, from which we haven't signed a recruit for almost ten years, ask yourself if that last recruit (Marques Hagans) was a foot in the door for a new coaching staff.
I don't think it'll happen, but you'll know something really special is going on if Lafonte Thourogood decides on UVA too. Watford dropped for us several days ago now; if it was as simple as Thourogood just wanting somewhere to play quarterback without competition, he'd have committed to Tech by now, or at least will do so in the next couple days.
- UNC. Uh-oh. The NCAA's puttin' on the investigating pants again. They weren't very nice to USC just now, and now they've decided to see what Butch Davis is up to.
- Soccer schedule. Came out during the World Cup, which is kind of a good way to make sure the attentions of your soccer fans are elsewhere. If you don't count exhibitions, and I don't, there isn't a single road game on there save a few ACC games. And all the really good teams - Maryland, Wake, UNC -are at home. Klockner will be a busy place this fall.
- Soccer recruiting. Now for the bad news: our top recruit won't be coming. Parker Walsh has decided to start his pro career overseas instead of going the college route. Walsh has some U-17 and U-20 national team experience under his belt, our only recruit to do so. Sort of thing you have to worry about in sports like baseball and soccer. Especially soccer: if you're going to make a serious career out of it, the NCAA doesn't make much sense if you can get a chance with the bigger guys in Europe.
- The First Four. Dippy name for a goofy concept. I hardly even need to say anything when Jay Bilas basically said everything for me. I haven't agreed that much with anything on ESPN since they called Michael Vick a felon. I get why the NCAA insists on not calling them "play-in games" - it's because of idiot senators and attorneys general with itchy lawsuit trigger fingers, ready to go to court on behalf of West Northsouthern State that won the Corn Valley Conference and still "didn't get to play in the tournament" because of the "oligarchy" the NCAA runs. They're still play-in games, especially with the at-larges involved, playing for a middle seed. They wouldn't have to be called The First Four (TM) if they hadn't caved to dumb sentiment and just made the would-be 16-seeds play each other. Correctly promoted, that would actually be a really interesting day of basketball.
Anyway, this is the very last time you'll ever see "The First Four" referred to on these pages. They're play-in games. Literally, that's what they are. That's what people wanted, that's what the NCAA gave them, and that's what they're all getting called.
- TV deal. As we all figured, the ACC will be able to hand out about $13 million to each of its schools. Lots of people have opinions on this; mine is that it's a conference-saving deal. I think this, plus the conference's academic reputation, is good enough to prevent poachers - the SEC, mainly - from grabbing a team. Remember two things: 1, it's not about the money, it's about the competition and how you're doing relative to them, and 2, the presidents, not the ADs, make the call.
We take a lot less of a summer break around here than school does, so don't get too comfy. Back sooner than you think with football, football, football.
Showing posts with label the future. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the future. Show all posts
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Monday, August 24, 2009
catching up
So with eight - yup, eight - more season preview posts to finish up, and only two weeks to do them and really not that many because a week from Thursday it's time for the preview of the W&M game at which point we shift right into Season Mode, naturally last week turns into a light posting week in which I skip two days. Of course I would do this.
So let's get back to talking Virginia. P.S. - enjoy it, because if you've been following along, you noticed the pattern in the season previews and you can probably figure out what's next. Ewwww.
Starting with a recruiting board update. I've been adding stars as they come along, but that obviously isn't the big deal in this go-around.
- The big deal is Rijo Walker moving from blue to beautiful orange. We'd been kind of a long time in between commitments, something like six weeks. And we'd been a really long time - measurable in years, not weeks - in between commitments from actual, no-shit cornerbacks who play cornerback in high school and are being recruited as cornerbacks to play cornerback at UVA. So that's nice.
- Removed safeties Ed Reynolds and Andre Simmons. I was thinking maybe we'd hear some small something even though we got full up at safety with Latimer and Alvarez, but nope. Nada. As in, nada peep. Unless Nick Dew shocks the world, we're done at safety.
- Added OT Gifford Timothy to blue. That's three OT's up there, and we probably won't need any more than one, so we're in great shape.
- Shuffled the reds and yellows a bit, with LB Quayshawn Nealy and CB James Scales moving down to red, and CB Louis Young moving up to yellow.
- Added '09 commit Cody Wallace, now a teammate of Morgan Moses at Fork Union, to the list, up near the top there.
On the OT recruiting: As I said, it's my guess we only get one of the three. Moses and Wallace count in this class now, which basically means along with Conner Davis, we have four linemen, which is about right for the small class size this is going to be. I suppose the coaches would take two, but three, no. Khamrone Kolb very publicly cut his list to three, and hell you might as well read about Robby Havenstein while you're at it, and Penn State is probably the #1 competition for both.
Next up, time for the return of a favorite feature of mine. Mondays, I dig up the results of our recruits' high school football games and keep you up to speed on what they've been doing. This was fun last year because we got to find out things like whether Tim Smith would score two, three, or four touchdowns that week. This year, Kevin Parks is going to be the guy putting up the numbers. I swear if he could see over Perry Jones's head without standing on tiptoes, he'd be a high four-star and everyone from Florida to Oklahoma to Alabama would come calling. Fortunately, he's five-foot-not-much, and he's a Hoo.
KEVIN PARKS: This week was opening week in North Carolina, and Parks went batshit. Try 226 yards and five touchdowns on 17 carries. We probably won't see that much domination all year because West Rowan is really good and their opponent this week (Central Cabarrus) is really bad. Still. The final score, if you're wondering, was 54-0 and that was with a running clock in the second half and oh yeah the game ended with 10 minutes to go because of lightning. Central would have done better to punt on first down, having gained a total of -37 yards on offense.
Parks now has well over 100 touchdowns in his high school career and could very easily have 130, maybe 140 if things go well, by the time he's done. See why I can't wait for him to be the feature back at UVA?
- TYLER BROSIUS didn't fare as well. Tuscola was upset in their opener, and Brosius was 15 of 27 for 196 yards, 2 TDs, and three picks.
- Don't forget about ADRIAN GAMBLE, who's on board for 2011. He chipped in a touchdown in a 42-41 squeaker. Gamble has "incredible speed" according to the Observer, "running past Mallard Creek defenders like a prep version of Usain Bolt." OK, he's probably not that damn fast, but still - sweet.
- Pablo Alvarez's season starts next weekend, but damn if they don't have some pretty sweet unis (remember which other team I'm a fan of) and yo, look who headlines their football page.
North Carolina is the only place we have recruits playing this week, but like I said, we can check in on Florida next week, as well as Virginia, and Maryland in the first week of September.
OK, next couple weeks go like this. I need to squeeze in eight more season previews (VPISU and Wake, four nonconference opponents, and our own offense and defense) before next Thursday. Not gonna lie - the nonconference opponents might get dropped. Because there's also Rijo Walker to profile, another round of high school games to get to next Monday, and this weekend I will get the last baseball video posted on YouTube, dammit, or die trying.
Then, the season schedule is pretty routine:
- Thursday, up goes the week's game preview. I take a look at what we can do to win, what we can do to lose, and the week's other ACC games as well.
- Friday and Saturday are my "weekends" and I generally don't post, unless Stuff Goes Down.
- Sunday, you get your preliminary look at my Blogpoll ballot, and if all goes well, my plan is to have the game highlights up on YouTube also. If we win.
- Monday is the Weekend Review post. Recruiting board gets updated, you get filled in on the high school games, and we check out the bloggers' takes on how their team did. That's always amusing, especially when they lost: bloggers always get really emo when their team loses, and I'm no different. Generally there's a little bit of soccer stuff thrown in here, too.
- Tuesday and Wednesday are Whatever.
Gawd I can't wait.
So let's get back to talking Virginia. P.S. - enjoy it, because if you've been following along, you noticed the pattern in the season previews and you can probably figure out what's next. Ewwww.
Starting with a recruiting board update. I've been adding stars as they come along, but that obviously isn't the big deal in this go-around.
- The big deal is Rijo Walker moving from blue to beautiful orange. We'd been kind of a long time in between commitments, something like six weeks. And we'd been a really long time - measurable in years, not weeks - in between commitments from actual, no-shit cornerbacks who play cornerback in high school and are being recruited as cornerbacks to play cornerback at UVA. So that's nice.
- Removed safeties Ed Reynolds and Andre Simmons. I was thinking maybe we'd hear some small something even though we got full up at safety with Latimer and Alvarez, but nope. Nada. As in, nada peep. Unless Nick Dew shocks the world, we're done at safety.
- Added OT Gifford Timothy to blue. That's three OT's up there, and we probably won't need any more than one, so we're in great shape.
- Shuffled the reds and yellows a bit, with LB Quayshawn Nealy and CB James Scales moving down to red, and CB Louis Young moving up to yellow.
- Added '09 commit Cody Wallace, now a teammate of Morgan Moses at Fork Union, to the list, up near the top there.
On the OT recruiting: As I said, it's my guess we only get one of the three. Moses and Wallace count in this class now, which basically means along with Conner Davis, we have four linemen, which is about right for the small class size this is going to be. I suppose the coaches would take two, but three, no. Khamrone Kolb very publicly cut his list to three, and hell you might as well read about Robby Havenstein while you're at it, and Penn State is probably the #1 competition for both.
Next up, time for the return of a favorite feature of mine. Mondays, I dig up the results of our recruits' high school football games and keep you up to speed on what they've been doing. This was fun last year because we got to find out things like whether Tim Smith would score two, three, or four touchdowns that week. This year, Kevin Parks is going to be the guy putting up the numbers. I swear if he could see over Perry Jones's head without standing on tiptoes, he'd be a high four-star and everyone from Florida to Oklahoma to Alabama would come calling. Fortunately, he's five-foot-not-much, and he's a Hoo.
KEVIN PARKS: This week was opening week in North Carolina, and Parks went batshit. Try 226 yards and five touchdowns on 17 carries. We probably won't see that much domination all year because West Rowan is really good and their opponent this week (Central Cabarrus) is really bad. Still. The final score, if you're wondering, was 54-0 and that was with a running clock in the second half and oh yeah the game ended with 10 minutes to go because of lightning. Central would have done better to punt on first down, having gained a total of -37 yards on offense.
Parks now has well over 100 touchdowns in his high school career and could very easily have 130, maybe 140 if things go well, by the time he's done. See why I can't wait for him to be the feature back at UVA?
- TYLER BROSIUS didn't fare as well. Tuscola was upset in their opener, and Brosius was 15 of 27 for 196 yards, 2 TDs, and three picks.
- Don't forget about ADRIAN GAMBLE, who's on board for 2011. He chipped in a touchdown in a 42-41 squeaker. Gamble has "incredible speed" according to the Observer, "running past Mallard Creek defenders like a prep version of Usain Bolt." OK, he's probably not that damn fast, but still - sweet.
- Pablo Alvarez's season starts next weekend, but damn if they don't have some pretty sweet unis (remember which other team I'm a fan of) and yo, look who headlines their football page.
North Carolina is the only place we have recruits playing this week, but like I said, we can check in on Florida next week, as well as Virginia, and Maryland in the first week of September.
OK, next couple weeks go like this. I need to squeeze in eight more season previews (VPISU and Wake, four nonconference opponents, and our own offense and defense) before next Thursday. Not gonna lie - the nonconference opponents might get dropped. Because there's also Rijo Walker to profile, another round of high school games to get to next Monday, and this weekend I will get the last baseball video posted on YouTube, dammit, or die trying.
Then, the season schedule is pretty routine:
- Thursday, up goes the week's game preview. I take a look at what we can do to win, what we can do to lose, and the week's other ACC games as well.
- Friday and Saturday are my "weekends" and I generally don't post, unless Stuff Goes Down.
- Sunday, you get your preliminary look at my Blogpoll ballot, and if all goes well, my plan is to have the game highlights up on YouTube also. If we win.
- Monday is the Weekend Review post. Recruiting board gets updated, you get filled in on the high school games, and we check out the bloggers' takes on how their team did. That's always amusing, especially when they lost: bloggers always get really emo when their team loses, and I'm no different. Generally there's a little bit of soccer stuff thrown in here, too.
- Tuesday and Wednesday are Whatever.
Gawd I can't wait.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
recruiting board update
It's that time again, time to update the ol' board o' recruiting, but before we get there, a word about next week, please. I'll be going on a nice little summer vacation starting Friday and lasting a week. Yes, a whole week. Don't look at me like that, I've spent this whole offseason putting forth content when there's no games to be watching. It's break time. Now: a post tomorrow is probable but not guaranteed, I need to pack and stuff too. I can basically guarantee you no content at all from Friday to Wednesday. Thursday through Sunday, maybe a post or two, maybe.
The next Monday, however, is go time. We'll be in full-on preseason mode. Play time is over. Through August, you can expect, just like last year, a season preview of all 11 other ACC teams, plus our four non-conference opponents (William & Mary, TCU, Southern Miss, and Indiana for the forgetful) and of course, a post each devoted to our own offense and defense. I've just promised you seventeen posts over about thirty days in addition, obviously, to recruiting board updates, potential August commitments, and whatever else might happen. Plus, some high school seasons begin in August, plus the Blogpoll is gearing back up, so I will have ballots and roundtable entries. It will truly be full-out football time. I hope you're ready.
Now, you may have your update:
- Removed elsewhere commits LB Brian Laiti (VT), WR Tyrek Cheeseboro (Maryland), DE James Kittredge (Vandy.) Laiti never actually had an offer, I just kept him on there because I figured the coaches might get around to sending one if everything else failed. I'm glad he committed somewhere finally, now I don't have to weakly justify his presence to myself.
- Moved all the safeties to red and dropped a few off the list. As well, those who once were corners are now safeties. We're still out recruiting actual cornerbacks and not safeties.
- Speaking of corners, CB Rijo Walker moves up to blue, and CB James Scales is added to yellow.
- Moved DT Harold Legania up to yellow.
- For the second time this year, removed TE Josh Lovell. I decided I can't see us recruiting any tight ends.
- Rivals just did a big shakeup of their star ratings, so that column is updated some.
As you can see, the list is getting way slim. Used to be half again as big as it is now, but for about two months now, names have been coming off faster than new ones have been added. We have, I think, 5-7 more spots open. Recruits now are split up basically into two camps: those that want to get their decision out of the way before their season begins and not have to worry about recruiting, and those that want to use their official visits and take their time. By September 5 I expect it to be quite a bit slimmer.
The next Monday, however, is go time. We'll be in full-on preseason mode. Play time is over. Through August, you can expect, just like last year, a season preview of all 11 other ACC teams, plus our four non-conference opponents (William & Mary, TCU, Southern Miss, and Indiana for the forgetful) and of course, a post each devoted to our own offense and defense. I've just promised you seventeen posts over about thirty days in addition, obviously, to recruiting board updates, potential August commitments, and whatever else might happen. Plus, some high school seasons begin in August, plus the Blogpoll is gearing back up, so I will have ballots and roundtable entries. It will truly be full-out football time. I hope you're ready.
Now, you may have your update:
- Removed elsewhere commits LB Brian Laiti (VT), WR Tyrek Cheeseboro (Maryland), DE James Kittredge (Vandy.) Laiti never actually had an offer, I just kept him on there because I figured the coaches might get around to sending one if everything else failed. I'm glad he committed somewhere finally, now I don't have to weakly justify his presence to myself.
- Moved all the safeties to red and dropped a few off the list. As well, those who once were corners are now safeties. We're still out recruiting actual cornerbacks and not safeties.
- Speaking of corners, CB Rijo Walker moves up to blue, and CB James Scales is added to yellow.
- Moved DT Harold Legania up to yellow.
- For the second time this year, removed TE Josh Lovell. I decided I can't see us recruiting any tight ends.
- Rivals just did a big shakeup of their star ratings, so that column is updated some.
As you can see, the list is getting way slim. Used to be half again as big as it is now, but for about two months now, names have been coming off faster than new ones have been added. We have, I think, 5-7 more spots open. Recruits now are split up basically into two camps: those that want to get their decision out of the way before their season begins and not have to worry about recruiting, and those that want to use their official visits and take their time. By September 5 I expect it to be quite a bit slimmer.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
best and worst case scenarios
So naturally, everyone wants to know what sort of results we're going to get from our basketball team now that we've had our requisite dose of drama, wailing and gnashing of teeth, black helicopters, and plagues of locusts that generally accompany a coaching search. Tony Bennett's Job 1 is to keep the signed recruits signed, and unfortunately the timing is lousy because just as an entire fanbase was all set to hold their collective breath once again over this, we hit a recruiting dead period. This started about two hours after Bennett's home visit with Tristan Spurlock and lasts until Friday. Pfeh. We want news dammit.
Well, here's some about both Evans and Spurlock. Evans sounds solid. Really. He wants a meeting with Coach Bennett - which he'll no doubt get very soon - and unless Bennett walks into the house and wipes his muddy feet on the dog or something, Evans will report his satisfaction with the meeting and all will be well.
The news is actually also pretty positive on the Spurlock front. This very weekend, Spurlock will be in Charlottesville. (Sabre $) He's never taken his official visit, see, and this is great stuff because the wining and dining you're allowed to do on an official visit is really tremendous. Spurlock is talking a lot of the talk you'd expect - 50/50, wants to spend more time with the players, meet the new assistant coaches, etc. etc., but I get the impression Landesberg and Zeglinski will hogtie him to a locker and leave him there til practice starts if that's what it takes to make sure he stays a Cavalier. The players will put on the hard sell and Spurlock will find it hard to say no. Not to say he for surely sure won't back out in the end, but official visits have a way of impressing people.
Until then, though, we're in pure wait mode, interrupted only by yet another heart attack of a lacrosse game and some baseball. So I thought I'd try and paint a picture of what to maybe expect both this year and beyond. Reasonable assumptions are made. First, the worst-case scenario that I could realistically see happening:
- Bennett is able to convince Evans, but not Spurlock, to come to UVA next year. Worse, a player or two expected to be a significant contributor next year - maybe it's top defender Assane Sene, maybe it's a presumed scoring option like Jeff Jones or Jamil Tucker - decides to transfer. Because of this, the team's depth is totally shot, a JUCO or two is brought in, and Bennett is forced to play a grind-it-out style similar to his Washington State teams. The team's record improves, but only by one or two games. Sylven Landesberg is once again the only truly dependable scorer on the team, and with that likely to be the case in '10-'11 as well, he decides he's done all he can at UVA and departs for the NBA draft. Highly-rated recruits that Bennett tries to land are repeatedly reminded by opposing coaches that Bennett hasn't changed his stripes at all from his WSU days, and that his teams are doomed to score in the 50's and 60's every game. The proof is in the '09-'10 pudding. Bennett can't overcome the negative recruiting or his lack of ties in the mid-Atlantic and gives up on the blue chips for the most part. He focuses on recruiting the overlooked "system" players, with the occasional Klay Thompson type coming aboard. With two or three years of the system in place, Bennett's X's and O's are good enough to scrape enough ACC wins to make us a fairly regularly NIT participant, but we never go the NCAAs.
Yikes. That was depressing, and the worst part is I started to really believe it as I typed. You can really see that coming to fruition. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be that way. There is an alternate future:
- Spurlock is thrilled by his official visit and stays on board. Recruiting for 2010 continues to remain up in the air, but a blistering start to the 2009-'10 season begins to convince some of the recruits UVA already has ties with that Bennett knows how to unleash a star player on unsuspecting opponents. We enter the ACC season unranked but with a good record that sports no losses to teams that shouldn't beat us. Landesberg leads the charge and gets the support he never could get in '08-'09 from his teammates on the offensive end. A decent, approximately .500 showing in the ACC coupled with a win or two in the conference tournament keeps us on the bubble all year. Selection Sunday for once is interesting and we're rewarded for our patience with a double-digit 10 or 11 seed against an upsettable opponent in the NCAAs. Bennett proves not only able to use the team's success as an effective recruiting tool for high-schoolers, but for his own team as well, as Sylven Landesberg hearkens back to the memorable night when Sean Singletary's number was retired and resists the call of the NBA to become a four-year starter. Within two or three years of Bennett's hiring, Virginia is a regular in top-25 rankings, and shows up in bracketology circles as a 3-to-5 seed with legitimate Sweet Sixteen expectations.
Much better, isn't it? And again, the best part is that I actually started to believe that, too. Either way is possible; in fact, either way seems likely. Somewhere in the middle ground is our fate, but I really think these are plausible enough that you don't have to assume the truth will be some kind of compromise between them. Anything on the outside of these paths, consider either a miracle or really rotten luck. I tried to think of some literary reference to illustrate the crossroads we're at here, but I blanked, so no clever metaphor for you - we'll just have to wait. The first real step on the journey comes when we find out what Tristan Spurlock wants to do. I hate to sound like the whims and decisions of just one 18-year-old kid are going to set in motion the wheels that take us either across the Styx or to Valhalla, but honestly, without overblowing the importance of it, it's important. Very. Spurlock's decision will have a real, actual effect on the quality of our season next year. The quality of our season next year will have a real, actual effect on the kind of player we can recruit in the future. And so on. This is barring any freak unfortunate crap like someone blowing out a knee in a pickup game over the summer. If the basketball program is going to get better, though, it starts this very weekend.
Well, here's some about both Evans and Spurlock. Evans sounds solid. Really. He wants a meeting with Coach Bennett - which he'll no doubt get very soon - and unless Bennett walks into the house and wipes his muddy feet on the dog or something, Evans will report his satisfaction with the meeting and all will be well.
The news is actually also pretty positive on the Spurlock front. This very weekend, Spurlock will be in Charlottesville. (Sabre $) He's never taken his official visit, see, and this is great stuff because the wining and dining you're allowed to do on an official visit is really tremendous. Spurlock is talking a lot of the talk you'd expect - 50/50, wants to spend more time with the players, meet the new assistant coaches, etc. etc., but I get the impression Landesberg and Zeglinski will hogtie him to a locker and leave him there til practice starts if that's what it takes to make sure he stays a Cavalier. The players will put on the hard sell and Spurlock will find it hard to say no. Not to say he for surely sure won't back out in the end, but official visits have a way of impressing people.
Until then, though, we're in pure wait mode, interrupted only by yet another heart attack of a lacrosse game and some baseball. So I thought I'd try and paint a picture of what to maybe expect both this year and beyond. Reasonable assumptions are made. First, the worst-case scenario that I could realistically see happening:
- Bennett is able to convince Evans, but not Spurlock, to come to UVA next year. Worse, a player or two expected to be a significant contributor next year - maybe it's top defender Assane Sene, maybe it's a presumed scoring option like Jeff Jones or Jamil Tucker - decides to transfer. Because of this, the team's depth is totally shot, a JUCO or two is brought in, and Bennett is forced to play a grind-it-out style similar to his Washington State teams. The team's record improves, but only by one or two games. Sylven Landesberg is once again the only truly dependable scorer on the team, and with that likely to be the case in '10-'11 as well, he decides he's done all he can at UVA and departs for the NBA draft. Highly-rated recruits that Bennett tries to land are repeatedly reminded by opposing coaches that Bennett hasn't changed his stripes at all from his WSU days, and that his teams are doomed to score in the 50's and 60's every game. The proof is in the '09-'10 pudding. Bennett can't overcome the negative recruiting or his lack of ties in the mid-Atlantic and gives up on the blue chips for the most part. He focuses on recruiting the overlooked "system" players, with the occasional Klay Thompson type coming aboard. With two or three years of the system in place, Bennett's X's and O's are good enough to scrape enough ACC wins to make us a fairly regularly NIT participant, but we never go the NCAAs.
Yikes. That was depressing, and the worst part is I started to really believe it as I typed. You can really see that coming to fruition. Fortunately, it doesn't have to be that way. There is an alternate future:
- Spurlock is thrilled by his official visit and stays on board. Recruiting for 2010 continues to remain up in the air, but a blistering start to the 2009-'10 season begins to convince some of the recruits UVA already has ties with that Bennett knows how to unleash a star player on unsuspecting opponents. We enter the ACC season unranked but with a good record that sports no losses to teams that shouldn't beat us. Landesberg leads the charge and gets the support he never could get in '08-'09 from his teammates on the offensive end. A decent, approximately .500 showing in the ACC coupled with a win or two in the conference tournament keeps us on the bubble all year. Selection Sunday for once is interesting and we're rewarded for our patience with a double-digit 10 or 11 seed against an upsettable opponent in the NCAAs. Bennett proves not only able to use the team's success as an effective recruiting tool for high-schoolers, but for his own team as well, as Sylven Landesberg hearkens back to the memorable night when Sean Singletary's number was retired and resists the call of the NBA to become a four-year starter. Within two or three years of Bennett's hiring, Virginia is a regular in top-25 rankings, and shows up in bracketology circles as a 3-to-5 seed with legitimate Sweet Sixteen expectations.
Much better, isn't it? And again, the best part is that I actually started to believe that, too. Either way is possible; in fact, either way seems likely. Somewhere in the middle ground is our fate, but I really think these are plausible enough that you don't have to assume the truth will be some kind of compromise between them. Anything on the outside of these paths, consider either a miracle or really rotten luck. I tried to think of some literary reference to illustrate the crossroads we're at here, but I blanked, so no clever metaphor for you - we'll just have to wait. The first real step on the journey comes when we find out what Tristan Spurlock wants to do. I hate to sound like the whims and decisions of just one 18-year-old kid are going to set in motion the wheels that take us either across the Styx or to Valhalla, but honestly, without overblowing the importance of it, it's important. Very. Spurlock's decision will have a real, actual effect on the quality of our season next year. The quality of our season next year will have a real, actual effect on the kind of player we can recruit in the future. And so on. This is barring any freak unfortunate crap like someone blowing out a knee in a pickup game over the summer. If the basketball program is going to get better, though, it starts this very weekend.
Monday, January 5, 2009
game preview: Brown
A quickish programming note before I write anything about Brown. I've given up on the last basketball season preview. You're missing out on Wake. Sorry. They're pretty good. There ya go.
So what am I up to since I'm blowing that off? Here's what the future holds, if I stick to plan:
- I have one more football game to make highlights out of. That should be sometime in the next couple weeks.
- Hopefully I will also have some basketball games to make highlights out of. Any basketball win I get my claws on will also go in the videos section.
- I'm also converting my recordings over to DVD. I don't have a full-time studio, I have a personal computer, and I don't have the space to store them all. Where this applies to the blog and you, lucky reader, is that hopefully I can get my paws on some older games that I didn't have, and then the videos section can get really interesting.
- As for actual writing, I have certain plans. I skipped the Xavier game preview, but that's probably the last one I'll skip. I have to do a few more recruit profiles and I fully intend to finish those. Signing Day will bring a couple interesting things. I'll write up some kind of Signing Day extravaganza. That's also when I plan to update the depth chart by class. It's not 100% accurate right now because I last updated it somewhere in the middle of the season, and I figure there's not much point in doing so again until the '09 class is in the books. It'll get an update and a bit of a makeover then.
OK. Brown.....
Virginia Cavaliers (6-5, 1-0) vs. Brown Bears (5-7, 0-0)
Possible starting lineups:
UVA:
PG - Sammy Zeglinski (11.8 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 4.0 apg)
SG - Calvin Baker (8.6 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 2.7 apg)
SF - Sylven Landesberg (19.6 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 2.6 apg)
PF - Mike Scott (11.0 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 1.0 apg)
C - Assane Sene (3.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 0.7 apg)
Brown:
PG - Adrian Williams (13.7 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 1.5 apg)
F - Peter Sullivan (14.8 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 1.8 apg)
F - Chris Skrelja (7.3 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 4.0 apg)
F - Matt Mullery (15.9 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 2.3 apg)
F - Scott Friske (5.0 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 2.9 apg)
Brown's a little bit weird, which is what happens with some of these mid-majors trying to stand out from the pack. They have a motion offense, which is a basketball term for "run around a lot and try not to post anyone up." OK, Matt Mullery is allowed to post up, and has earned a 63% FG percentage doing so, and blocks shots besides. This offense otherwise leads to weird stats, like "the leading rebounder is also the leading assist man." And the guard-types - Williams and Sullivan, the only guys who generally take any threes - barely have any assists at all.
Now, they also have three guys doing all the scoring. Hey, that sounds familiar. And it's even more of a pronounced trend at Brown than here. Gee, you think. This should be easy. And their starters play, like, all the minutes. The problem is this - the only guy in that starting lineup smaller than 6'5" is Adrian Williams at 6'1". OK, so Sammy can probably guard him, but that leaves 6'2", 186 Calvin Baker to guard 6'5", 210 Peter Sullivan or 6'6", 220 Chris Skrelja. So Baker is listed as the "possible starter" up there, mainly because he's started all the games, but he's gonna get torched if he has to carry the defensive load, so I'm expecting and hoping that his minutes will for the most part go to Mo Diane, who's 6'5". Diane's been puzzlingly horrendous on offense this year, so he ought to get the start, focus on locking down one of their three scorers defensively, and let Baker play against some reserve. That'd let Baker open up on offense, which would be nice to have.
This isn't like the Hampton game where you can point at all kinds of great matchups in our favor. I'm a little bit worried, and if Brown had anyone beyond their top three guys who could consistently score, I'd be a lot worried. Fortunately they're even more of a three-man show than we are, and it's Brown, so they've got a lot of gumpy white guys with the same skill set.
As a note, the official site rather ominously says "Brown-Virginia Game Still Scheduled For Tuesday" which is the sort of headline that intends to reassure but only manages to induce panic, because you shouldn't have tell people that it's "still" scheduled. The blicky weather headed for Charlottesville tomorrow night threatens to make for a small crowd, assuming the game is played at all, so let's hope the combination of crappy and dangerous weather and crappy yet dangerous opponent on a darksome Tuesday night in the dead of winter in a half-dead arena doesn't make for a really lame stupid game where an Ivy League school gets an ACC hat to hang on the wall.
So what am I up to since I'm blowing that off? Here's what the future holds, if I stick to plan:
- I have one more football game to make highlights out of. That should be sometime in the next couple weeks.
- Hopefully I will also have some basketball games to make highlights out of. Any basketball win I get my claws on will also go in the videos section.
- I'm also converting my recordings over to DVD. I don't have a full-time studio, I have a personal computer, and I don't have the space to store them all. Where this applies to the blog and you, lucky reader, is that hopefully I can get my paws on some older games that I didn't have, and then the videos section can get really interesting.
- As for actual writing, I have certain plans. I skipped the Xavier game preview, but that's probably the last one I'll skip. I have to do a few more recruit profiles and I fully intend to finish those. Signing Day will bring a couple interesting things. I'll write up some kind of Signing Day extravaganza. That's also when I plan to update the depth chart by class. It's not 100% accurate right now because I last updated it somewhere in the middle of the season, and I figure there's not much point in doing so again until the '09 class is in the books. It'll get an update and a bit of a makeover then.
OK. Brown.....
Virginia Cavaliers (6-5, 1-0) vs. Brown Bears (5-7, 0-0)
Possible starting lineups:
UVA:
PG - Sammy Zeglinski (11.8 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 4.0 apg)
SG - Calvin Baker (8.6 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 2.7 apg)
SF - Sylven Landesberg (19.6 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 2.6 apg)
PF - Mike Scott (11.0 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 1.0 apg)
C - Assane Sene (3.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 0.7 apg)
Brown:
PG - Adrian Williams (13.7 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 1.5 apg)
F - Peter Sullivan (14.8 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 1.8 apg)
F - Chris Skrelja (7.3 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 4.0 apg)
F - Matt Mullery (15.9 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 2.3 apg)
F - Scott Friske (5.0 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 2.9 apg)
Brown's a little bit weird, which is what happens with some of these mid-majors trying to stand out from the pack. They have a motion offense, which is a basketball term for "run around a lot and try not to post anyone up." OK, Matt Mullery is allowed to post up, and has earned a 63% FG percentage doing so, and blocks shots besides. This offense otherwise leads to weird stats, like "the leading rebounder is also the leading assist man." And the guard-types - Williams and Sullivan, the only guys who generally take any threes - barely have any assists at all.
Now, they also have three guys doing all the scoring. Hey, that sounds familiar. And it's even more of a pronounced trend at Brown than here. Gee, you think. This should be easy. And their starters play, like, all the minutes. The problem is this - the only guy in that starting lineup smaller than 6'5" is Adrian Williams at 6'1". OK, so Sammy can probably guard him, but that leaves 6'2", 186 Calvin Baker to guard 6'5", 210 Peter Sullivan or 6'6", 220 Chris Skrelja. So Baker is listed as the "possible starter" up there, mainly because he's started all the games, but he's gonna get torched if he has to carry the defensive load, so I'm expecting and hoping that his minutes will for the most part go to Mo Diane, who's 6'5". Diane's been puzzlingly horrendous on offense this year, so he ought to get the start, focus on locking down one of their three scorers defensively, and let Baker play against some reserve. That'd let Baker open up on offense, which would be nice to have.
This isn't like the Hampton game where you can point at all kinds of great matchups in our favor. I'm a little bit worried, and if Brown had anyone beyond their top three guys who could consistently score, I'd be a lot worried. Fortunately they're even more of a three-man show than we are, and it's Brown, so they've got a lot of gumpy white guys with the same skill set.
As a note, the official site rather ominously says "Brown-Virginia Game Still Scheduled For Tuesday" which is the sort of headline that intends to reassure but only manages to induce panic, because you shouldn't have tell people that it's "still" scheduled. The blicky weather headed for Charlottesville tomorrow night threatens to make for a small crowd, assuming the game is played at all, so let's hope the combination of crappy and dangerous weather and crappy yet dangerous opponent on a darksome Tuesday night in the dead of winter in a half-dead arena doesn't make for a really lame stupid game where an Ivy League school gets an ACC hat to hang on the wall.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
we interrupt this programming to tell you more about ourselves
This is as good a time as any to hit pause for a second here. The football season is upon us, which means interest is way up in what the hell's going on in the world of college football. It also means readership at this blog is up quite a bit from when it started three months ago. Things are happening, links are happening, and I like to think that this particular corner of the (finger quotes) blogosphere is taking what you might call a rightful place in it. So it's only right, I think, to reiterate what Who I Am, and What It Is I Do, so you know what to expect.
- First and foremost, this blog is a hobby. It's rather a fun one, too. Takes more care and feeding than I expected, but also it's a lot more interesting than I expected, and I obviously expected it to be pretty interesting otherwise it would never have come to be. But the fact that it's a hobby, not a job, means a lot for what this creation of mine looks like.
- When I post, for example. Posting between about 7:30 AM and 5:30 PM is almost exclusively out, unless something really important pops up on the news. Will Barker's arrest is an example of that. That was a work post. Normally, though, daily posts come between about 6 and 9 PM. It's an odd time, but that's the way it has to be. Because this is not my job, though, I don't feel the need to take a break from it on weekends, so when I feel like it, up goes a post.
- I don't have any totally scoopy insider info. I post the news after it comes available to the general public. Sometimes I'm a little faster than the news services; for example, you could have read about the coaching staff's happiness with Cam Johnson yesterday on these pages, or today at the RTD. That was straight out of the press conference posted at the team's official site, though. Usually though, if there's a juicy tidbit of something or other, at least one news outlet has it before I do.
- Why should you bother, then? The deal, obviously, is this: we aim to be your one-stop-shop extravaganza!! Irony aside, that's pretty much true of all blogs. I read a bunch of different sites so you don't have to. The catch is that I'm only one person, not a walking Internet search engine, and prone to missing stuff here and there, and it's my opinion alone that decides what gets posted. You'll notice I haven't posted anything yet on the onerous no-signs policy. You don't need a blogger to tell you that it sucks to high heaven. (Though if I get a return email from Craig Littlepage, who I complained to, you bet your ass it's getting posted.)
- You also get my cutting edge opinion and piercing insight. Again: hobby. I could post my opinion on message boards (and do, frequently) but here I get pretty much unlimited sway to say what I want. If someone doesn't like it, they won't reply-post to tell the world how stupid I am, they'll just self-select themselves out of my audience. Sometimes this piercing insight is uncannily right. I predict Anthony LaLota will keep UVA in his top seven; he does. I make a passing mention that Peter Lalich did a decent job of escaping pressure against USC; the next day, Groh goes to a press conference and praises his ability to do just that. Full disclosure also requires me to point out that I can be stunningly, horrendously wrong at times. USC was not a defensive battle. I called for UNC to be a surprise team this year in the Blogpoll Roundtable and they went ahead and looked like ass against a I-AA team. So my soapbox does not come with a free visit from the Always Right fairy.
- Hopefully, also, you are enjoying/will enjoy the features I try to put together. I like to think that they are things you either can't find anywhere else, or can but would have to look in multiple places.
So. That's what it's all about. It's going to be a great time - happy reading.
- First and foremost, this blog is a hobby. It's rather a fun one, too. Takes more care and feeding than I expected, but also it's a lot more interesting than I expected, and I obviously expected it to be pretty interesting otherwise it would never have come to be. But the fact that it's a hobby, not a job, means a lot for what this creation of mine looks like.
- When I post, for example. Posting between about 7:30 AM and 5:30 PM is almost exclusively out, unless something really important pops up on the news. Will Barker's arrest is an example of that. That was a work post. Normally, though, daily posts come between about 6 and 9 PM. It's an odd time, but that's the way it has to be. Because this is not my job, though, I don't feel the need to take a break from it on weekends, so when I feel like it, up goes a post.
- I don't have any totally scoopy insider info. I post the news after it comes available to the general public. Sometimes I'm a little faster than the news services; for example, you could have read about the coaching staff's happiness with Cam Johnson yesterday on these pages, or today at the RTD. That was straight out of the press conference posted at the team's official site, though. Usually though, if there's a juicy tidbit of something or other, at least one news outlet has it before I do.
- Why should you bother, then? The deal, obviously, is this: we aim to be your one-stop-shop extravaganza!! Irony aside, that's pretty much true of all blogs. I read a bunch of different sites so you don't have to. The catch is that I'm only one person, not a walking Internet search engine, and prone to missing stuff here and there, and it's my opinion alone that decides what gets posted. You'll notice I haven't posted anything yet on the onerous no-signs policy. You don't need a blogger to tell you that it sucks to high heaven. (Though if I get a return email from Craig Littlepage, who I complained to, you bet your ass it's getting posted.)
- You also get my cutting edge opinion and piercing insight. Again: hobby. I could post my opinion on message boards (and do, frequently) but here I get pretty much unlimited sway to say what I want. If someone doesn't like it, they won't reply-post to tell the world how stupid I am, they'll just self-select themselves out of my audience. Sometimes this piercing insight is uncannily right. I predict Anthony LaLota will keep UVA in his top seven; he does. I make a passing mention that Peter Lalich did a decent job of escaping pressure against USC; the next day, Groh goes to a press conference and praises his ability to do just that. Full disclosure also requires me to point out that I can be stunningly, horrendously wrong at times. USC was not a defensive battle. I called for UNC to be a surprise team this year in the Blogpoll Roundtable and they went ahead and looked like ass against a I-AA team. So my soapbox does not come with a free visit from the Always Right fairy.
- Hopefully, also, you are enjoying/will enjoy the features I try to put together. I like to think that they are things you either can't find anywhere else, or can but would have to look in multiple places.
So. That's what it's all about. It's going to be a great time - happy reading.
Monday, August 25, 2008
this would have been a good thing to mention earlier
Better late than never though. This week is Business Trip week for me. Excuses excuses, I know. Gotta make the money somehow. Notice the lack of ads on this site. I am actually on travel to Virginia, though not to Charlottesville (oh how I wish it were so.) So actual news postings will be effectively turned off until like Wednesday night if we're lucky, or more likely, Thursday. I'm diligently working on a couple projects while I'm here: ECU season preview, and also our own offense and defense, which will be split up into two separate posts. Also, the USC game preview, and hopefully that will go up Thursday night or Friday morning.
I'd also like to try and keep track of our current '09 commitments and their senior seasons, as this football season progresses. To do that I'll have to track down as many local newspaper sites as I can. If I find all those all on my own it will be a spectacular feat, but if I were that interested in spectacular feats I'd climb K2. I'd rather blog real good. With that in mind, a call to arms: if you are located in or near a town that has one of our esteemed recruits playing locally on Friday nights, or if you just happen to know of the newspaper website I ought to be looking at, do say so. It'd be most helpful.
I'd also like to try and keep track of our current '09 commitments and their senior seasons, as this football season progresses. To do that I'll have to track down as many local newspaper sites as I can. If I find all those all on my own it will be a spectacular feat, but if I were that interested in spectacular feats I'd climb K2. I'd rather blog real good. With that in mind, a call to arms: if you are located in or near a town that has one of our esteemed recruits playing locally on Friday nights, or if you just happen to know of the newspaper website I ought to be looking at, do say so. It'd be most helpful.
Monday, August 11, 2008
your humble blogger joins the big dogs
We'd interrupt this blog for an important programming update, but you just started reading so it's not really an interruption. But there is an important programming update. FOV has joined the Blogpoll, the blogoweb version of the much ballyhooed** AP and Coaches' polls that are second only to eBay auctions in causing otherwise sane people to refresh their screens forty times a minute on otherwise productive Sunday afternoons. Just to see if that 15-point win over Duke looked as good to the pollsters as it did to us.
(Wait......I'm the only one that does that? Huh. I guess that's why I write a blog and you have a life.)
Anyway, the Blogpoll is operated and hosted by the estimable MGoBlog, and you can read about it here. What this means for the programming: Sundays or Mondays, or possibly Tuesdays (I reserve the right to be inconsistent) you will see in this space a list of 25 teams. The Blogpoll works the same way the media ones do. Pollsters rank teams, teams rack up points, aggregate list results in the rankings. So the FOV rankings will be listed here, for you to yell at me about the same way you gripe about the media ones, and on Wednesdays each week during the season, the Blogpoll in all it's glory is posted on MGoBlog, and probably various other places around the blogonets too. The real nice thing about the griping you do here as opposed to griping about the media polls is that the guys in the press box do not give a rat pellet what you think. On the other hand I am rather flexible and if a strong enough case is made that no way is Florida #12 they should AT LEAST be #11!!!! then changes can be made. It's the advantage of not needing ink to write.
Well, speaking of writing blogs, have I got some bloggery for you. Meet the Team day was yesterday, and predictably, the media had questions. And because Al Groh is still Al Groh, none of them got answered. I ought to check myself, of course. The media really had only one question. You're asking, too. All together now:
"Who's going to start at quarterback?"
And Groh's answer came loud and clear, as if shouted from the heights and rebounding in the dells:
"%&#$ OFF"
(I'm paraphrasing.) But it sent the scribes home more or less empty-handed all the same, and they all wrote the same article for their editors, and you can read them all here, here, here, and here. Generally if you read one you've read them all. Groh might have an idea in his head who he'd like to see step up and take the job, but if so he's not saying even that. What he's saying is this:
But we may not be the only ones with a quarterback issue. This is probably not news, but the Trojans' Mark Sanchez, anointed starter, dislocated his kneecap in practice on Friday, which means it's possible that former Arkansas newsmaker Mitch Mustain could make his college debut in Scott Stadium on August 30. Something to keep an eye on.
EDIT: Ignore the above line about college debut. I am stupid. Obviously for anyone who ever heard of college football, Mustain has played the game before. It was frankly pretty hard to miss, given the whirlwind of controversy it (and he) caused when he was later benched again.
After the quarterbacks, the second biggest story (you can read this in pretty much any of the above links as well) was the kicking competition. Groh called the spring kicking "horrible", which tells you why the scholarship player on the roster is in a dead-even fight with two walk-ons.
**I've been waiting for a while for the right chance to use that word in a sentence. Also, BallyHooed would be a good name for a UVA blog. Aspiring fellow UVA bloggers, you may use that one. It's cool.
(Wait......I'm the only one that does that? Huh. I guess that's why I write a blog and you have a life.)
Anyway, the Blogpoll is operated and hosted by the estimable MGoBlog, and you can read about it here. What this means for the programming: Sundays or Mondays, or possibly Tuesdays (I reserve the right to be inconsistent) you will see in this space a list of 25 teams. The Blogpoll works the same way the media ones do. Pollsters rank teams, teams rack up points, aggregate list results in the rankings. So the FOV rankings will be listed here, for you to yell at me about the same way you gripe about the media ones, and on Wednesdays each week during the season, the Blogpoll in all it's glory is posted on MGoBlog, and probably various other places around the blogonets too. The real nice thing about the griping you do here as opposed to griping about the media polls is that the guys in the press box do not give a rat pellet what you think. On the other hand I am rather flexible and if a strong enough case is made that no way is Florida #12 they should AT LEAST be #11!!!! then changes can be made. It's the advantage of not needing ink to write.
Well, speaking of writing blogs, have I got some bloggery for you. Meet the Team day was yesterday, and predictably, the media had questions. And because Al Groh is still Al Groh, none of them got answered. I ought to check myself, of course. The media really had only one question. You're asking, too. All together now:
"Who's going to start at quarterback?"
And Groh's answer came loud and clear, as if shouted from the heights and rebounding in the dells:
"%&#$ OFF"
(I'm paraphrasing.) But it sent the scribes home more or less empty-handed all the same, and they all wrote the same article for their editors, and you can read them all here, here, here, and here. Generally if you read one you've read them all. Groh might have an idea in his head who he'd like to see step up and take the job, but if so he's not saying even that. What he's saying is this:
"It might take some games to find out who the one quarterback is or who the two are that we should plan on playing," Groh said. "It might take a few games to find that out."In other words, hello 2006. And the thinking around these parts is that that is bad news. They say if you have two quarterbacks you don't have any. What if you have three?
But we may not be the only ones with a quarterback issue. This is probably not news, but the Trojans' Mark Sanchez, anointed starter, dislocated his kneecap in practice on Friday, which means it's possible that former Arkansas newsmaker Mitch Mustain could make his college debut in Scott Stadium on August 30. Something to keep an eye on.
EDIT: Ignore the above line about college debut. I am stupid. Obviously for anyone who ever heard of college football, Mustain has played the game before. It was frankly pretty hard to miss, given the whirlwind of controversy it (and he) caused when he was later benched again.
After the quarterbacks, the second biggest story (you can read this in pretty much any of the above links as well) was the kicking competition. Groh called the spring kicking "horrible", which tells you why the scholarship player on the roster is in a dead-even fight with two walk-ons.
**I've been waiting for a while for the right chance to use that word in a sentence. Also, BallyHooed would be a good name for a UVA blog. Aspiring fellow UVA bloggers, you may use that one. It's cool.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
we're going places
And according to Sitemeter, some of those places are ones like Belgium, Germany, and Mexico. I have not been to any of those places and I am jealous of my own blog. But those are not the places the title means. No, the title is there to assure you, the reader, that I have a Plan and am not just vomiting words onto my keyboard all the time.
July 28, I will commence the official FOV season countdown. This is not quite as dramatic as it sounds. July 28 is simply the day on which the first ACC team preview will appear. There will be team previews of every ACC team and each non-conference team appearing on our schedule. An ACC breakdown follows. Then I'll preview our offense and defense on successive days, and it will lead up to the regular feature of a game preview on August 28. And in between I'll vomit words onto my keyboard as appropriate.
Speaking of game previews, you can expect these every Thursday before a Saturday game. This is a hobby and moneymaking time is set aside before 4 PM each weekday - therefore I rarely post in the middle of the day, and Thursday previews give you all day Friday.
And why you ask do you have to wait all the way til like four days before the season starts to hear about our team? Cause I kind of like to know who's actually gonna be playing, that's why. I'd sure love to assume we have a drop-back passer for the season only to have Groh announce that Riko Smalls will be under center for USC.
(Digression: I hope it is not Scott Deke just so I don't have to hear Mark Tirico say "Scott Deek" 100 times. The linebacker's name is Copper, not Cooper, OK, Mark? Somebody slip that man a media guide. Anyone who watched last year's Maryland games knows what I'm talking about.)
So without further ado, here's your content for the day:
First up, more fluff from the Daily Progress: a catch-up article with Ryan Pettinella, who is looking to play in Italy and probably make a career out of it. (Charlottesville, in case you were wondering, is a fantastic lovely town but it is not a place where Things Happen, so the CDP is rather adept and prolific at churning out these excellent what-they-doing-now sort of articles. That's why you get these so much.)
On YouTube there is a nice and long (though of typical YouTube visual quality) highlight video of our last win over Tech. I have very fond memories of this, as it was my last game at Scott as a student.
The Orlando Sentinel has an article, inspired by Heather Dinich's ranking of ACC stadiums, which in turn was inspired by ESPN's national ranking of stadiums, that does the same thing. Seems ranking the stadiums is the thing to do. (I will avoid doing this for the simple reason that I've only been to two ACC stadiums.) So instead, here is somebody else's view of Scott Stadium:
Mon., Dec. 1:
Wisconsin @ Virginia Tech, 7 PM, ESPN
Tue., Dec. 2:
Ohio State @ Miami, 7 PM, ESPN
Iowa @ Boston College, 7 PM, ESPNU
Clemson @ Illinois, 7:30 PM, ESPN2
Duke @ Purdue, 9 PM, ESPN
Virginia @ Minnesota, 9:30 PM, ESPN2
Wed., Dec. 3:
Indiana @ Wake Forest, 7:15 PM, ESPN
Penn State @ Georgia Tech, 7:30 PM, ESPN2
Michigan @ Maryland, 7:30 PM, ESPNU
North Carolina @ Michigan State (at Ford Field), 9:15 PM, ESPN
Florida State @ Northwestern, 9:30 PM, ESPN2
Opinion: This could have been much worse. Though we're on ESPN2 competing with Duke for viewers, we are not 1) competing with UNC/MSU at a big-ass football stadium for viewers and 2) not relegated to ESPNU. And we're on the first day for once (not counting the day of one game only) instead of the second day when nobody cares because it's long been decided that once again the Big Ten loses the Challenge. Given that we're not widely considered a threat to make much of a postseason splash again this year, I think the schedulers did alright by us.
July 28, I will commence the official FOV season countdown. This is not quite as dramatic as it sounds. July 28 is simply the day on which the first ACC team preview will appear. There will be team previews of every ACC team and each non-conference team appearing on our schedule. An ACC breakdown follows. Then I'll preview our offense and defense on successive days, and it will lead up to the regular feature of a game preview on August 28. And in between I'll vomit words onto my keyboard as appropriate.
Speaking of game previews, you can expect these every Thursday before a Saturday game. This is a hobby and moneymaking time is set aside before 4 PM each weekday - therefore I rarely post in the middle of the day, and Thursday previews give you all day Friday.
And why you ask do you have to wait all the way til like four days before the season starts to hear about our team? Cause I kind of like to know who's actually gonna be playing, that's why. I'd sure love to assume we have a drop-back passer for the season only to have Groh announce that Riko Smalls will be under center for USC.
(Digression: I hope it is not Scott Deke just so I don't have to hear Mark Tirico say "Scott Deek" 100 times. The linebacker's name is Copper, not Cooper, OK, Mark? Somebody slip that man a media guide. Anyone who watched last year's Maryland games knows what I'm talking about.)
So without further ado, here's your content for the day:
First up, more fluff from the Daily Progress: a catch-up article with Ryan Pettinella, who is looking to play in Italy and probably make a career out of it. (Charlottesville, in case you were wondering, is a fantastic lovely town but it is not a place where Things Happen, so the CDP is rather adept and prolific at churning out these excellent what-they-doing-now sort of articles. That's why you get these so much.)
On YouTube there is a nice and long (though of typical YouTube visual quality) highlight video of our last win over Tech. I have very fond memories of this, as it was my last game at Scott as a student.
The Orlando Sentinel has an article, inspired by Heather Dinich's ranking of ACC stadiums, which in turn was inspired by ESPN's national ranking of stadiums, that does the same thing. Seems ranking the stadiums is the thing to do. (I will avoid doing this for the simple reason that I've only been to two ACC stadiums.) So instead, here is somebody else's view of Scott Stadium:
Sorry, North Carolina fans, but this is the most picturesque place in the conference to spend a Saturday afternoon. The architecture is beautiful, the hill is unique and the surroundings gorgeous.I saved probably the most interesting for last. The dates and times for the ACC Wipes The Floor With The Big Ten Challenge:
Mon., Dec. 1:
Wisconsin @ Virginia Tech, 7 PM, ESPN
Tue., Dec. 2:
Ohio State @ Miami, 7 PM, ESPN
Iowa @ Boston College, 7 PM, ESPNU
Clemson @ Illinois, 7:30 PM, ESPN2
Duke @ Purdue, 9 PM, ESPN
Virginia @ Minnesota, 9:30 PM, ESPN2
Wed., Dec. 3:
Indiana @ Wake Forest, 7:15 PM, ESPN
Penn State @ Georgia Tech, 7:30 PM, ESPN2
Michigan @ Maryland, 7:30 PM, ESPNU
North Carolina @ Michigan State (at Ford Field), 9:15 PM, ESPN
Florida State @ Northwestern, 9:30 PM, ESPN2
Opinion: This could have been much worse. Though we're on ESPN2 competing with Duke for viewers, we are not 1) competing with UNC/MSU at a big-ass football stadium for viewers and 2) not relegated to ESPNU. And we're on the first day for once (not counting the day of one game only) instead of the second day when nobody cares because it's long been decided that once again the Big Ten loses the Challenge. Given that we're not widely considered a threat to make much of a postseason splash again this year, I think the schedulers did alright by us.
Monday, July 7, 2008
cat in a tree! call the FBI
Yeah, it's that kind of a slow news day.....week. It's the dog days of summer. Prospect camp is over, spring practice was like three months ago, the season is close enough to be counted down to but far enough away so that you want to punch the countdown clock. The Washington Post UVA section still has "Syracuse Stuns Virginia" as the second-from-top headline in its UVA section. Rivals has some stuff about dudes liking their trips to Charlottesville, which is cool and all, but the next time you see a headline saying "Prospect Fricking Hated His Visit, Never Wants To Go Again Except To Beat The Pants Off Those Sorry-Ass Punks, Commits To Hated Rival Instantly" will be the first.
In other words, if we were your Local 4 News, our lead story today would be "HYDROGEN IN YOUR DRINKING WATER! IS IT POISONING YOUR KIDS? STORY AT 11!" But we're not, so I'm just gonna babble a little bit. A good football blog would have a good little story about EA's NCAA 09, but I have no such thing. They do, though. You might want to read it. I could do another of "the recruit" series, but I just did two this past weekend and the Ross Metheny one is pretty good. That sound you hear is my horn, and I'm blowing it. Go ahead though, read it, I like it, it's a nice little piece of bloggery.
You might notice there's a banner now; in fact if you're really astute you might have noticed the old one and that this one's a bit different. I'm kind of having fun experimenting with it, but my Photoshop skills are like my cheap Photoshop-esque program: bad imitation of the real thing. If you like it, say so. If not, definitely say so, then I have an excuse to go play Photoshop Ranger some more.
Further on up the road, I've got a few projects in mind; I listed a few of them earlier. I hope to work on something of a recruiting board so that they're easy to keep track of. Also you should find in this space in the not-too-distant future a better list of links.
In other words, if we were your Local 4 News, our lead story today would be "HYDROGEN IN YOUR DRINKING WATER! IS IT POISONING YOUR KIDS? STORY AT 11!" But we're not, so I'm just gonna babble a little bit. A good football blog would have a good little story about EA's NCAA 09, but I have no such thing. They do, though. You might want to read it. I could do another of "the recruit" series, but I just did two this past weekend and the Ross Metheny one is pretty good. That sound you hear is my horn, and I'm blowing it. Go ahead though, read it, I like it, it's a nice little piece of bloggery.
You might notice there's a banner now; in fact if you're really astute you might have noticed the old one and that this one's a bit different. I'm kind of having fun experimenting with it, but my Photoshop skills are like my cheap Photoshop-esque program: bad imitation of the real thing. If you like it, say so. If not, definitely say so, then I have an excuse to go play Photoshop Ranger some more.
Further on up the road, I've got a few projects in mind; I listed a few of them earlier. I hope to work on something of a recruiting board so that they're easy to keep track of. Also you should find in this space in the not-too-distant future a better list of links.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
don't fear the future
And why not? Because I'm going to tell you what will happen in it, that's why. Within the confines of these pages, anyway. Beyond that it's all Reply Hazy Try Again and all that.
Anyway, I owe you, the very intrepid reader who stuck with his or her Google search for probably about 25 pages, a little bit of What To Expect. It's now July, which means, technically, football season begins next month. Kinda scary, as it's not even the All-Star Break yet.
So on this page, I'll be working on a few things to bring to you. Before the season starts, I expect to have a little capsule something on each of the teams in the ACC and a reasonably in-depth look at our own, too. More than capsule-sized.....more like horse-pill sized. There will also be similar capsules on the non-conference teams on our schedule. The usual jazz of predictions and other sportswritery stuff will accompany. The recruit series will continue til every single one of them gets their own spot. There will be basketball coverage too, but it's likely to be sad and glum stuff because it's kind of a sad and glum season coming up with no #44 to save the day one-handed while falling over on his butt. So do stick around. It's a magical world, and we're going exploring.
Anyway, I owe you, the very intrepid reader who stuck with his or her Google search for probably about 25 pages, a little bit of What To Expect. It's now July, which means, technically, football season begins next month. Kinda scary, as it's not even the All-Star Break yet.
So on this page, I'll be working on a few things to bring to you. Before the season starts, I expect to have a little capsule something on each of the teams in the ACC and a reasonably in-depth look at our own, too. More than capsule-sized.....more like horse-pill sized. There will also be similar capsules on the non-conference teams on our schedule. The usual jazz of predictions and other sportswritery stuff will accompany. The recruit series will continue til every single one of them gets their own spot. There will be basketball coverage too, but it's likely to be sad and glum stuff because it's kind of a sad and glum season coming up with no #44 to save the day one-handed while falling over on his butt. So do stick around. It's a magical world, and we're going exploring.
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