Alright, I have had this post planned for this particular day for like two weeks, and I will be damned if I'm going to let the sorry events of the past 24 or so hours change that. By which I mean Wake Forest and Jeff Banks. I can sum these events up with something you already know: this is Virginia, and we can't have nice things at Virginia.
I will, however, elaborate just a touch on Banks, who is leaving after less than two weeks to take a similar job, only with more money, at Texas A&M. Man, we must have really hit a home run with that hire for him to be that much in demand. Banks is probably getting something like twice the salary he was going to get in Charlottesville; it would be only natural to assume the extra money A&M is making in the SEC is the reason they were able to pull Banks away, and that our place in the ACC makes us financially uncompetitive.
Not so. The SEC is the hotter place to be for an assistant coach, yes. Even if we had matched A&M's offer dollar for dollar, the SEC would still be the better place for a coach's career, and besides that, Banks is buddy-buddy with Kevin Sumlin. His UVA Twitter account follows Sumlin's, Sumlin's old Houston account, and a Sumlin parody which actually owns the name @KevinSumlin. Besides, UVA's athletic department has revenues of over 80 million dollars; it's not a question of whether they can shuffle around some money to find an extra couple hundred grand, it's a question of how much they want to.
So now it's back to square one to find a special teams coach, and if London just hands those reins back to Poindexter I'll kill him myself. Probably they'll go hire one of their other finalists, but at any rate now there's now more work to do. One train of thought would say that Banks did a damn sleazy thing to "the people here" in Charlottesville that he claimed to have fallen in love with. Show up, do a couple days' work, parlay that into a new gig, take the hell off and leave the people who gave you a great opportunity in the lurch. Another train of thought is that it's hard to pass up a chance to coach a better team in a better conference for twice the money and work for a pretty old friend. Coaching, after all, is that kind of a profession. Both are correct. But really, the least Banks could do is return whatever paycheck UVA may have given him or "owes" him for the "work" he did.
As for the Wake Forest thing, all I can say is the selection committee is probably going to spend more time on UVA than all the rest of the teams under consideration combined, if this keeps up.
Right, now for the part I had intended for this all along. One last look at the 2012 football season and the first one at 2013. There's no such thing as an offseason.
QUARTERBACKS
This year....
For this post last year I wrote of 2012: "There's no reason to think there will be any kind of competition in camp this year." At the time, of course, there was also no reason to think Phillip Sims would transfer to Charlottesville. He did, and just when it looked like we might finally have a drama-free season under center, instead the drama kicked into overdrive.
Sims and Mike Rocco were the only two players to take a quarterback snap, as David Watford and the rest of the gang redshirted. Neither played well. Sometimes they did, but more often they played worse, and you could never tell which you were going to get out of either. And yes, that's the scientific version.
After letting Rocco start the season and quarterback his way into a few losses, Mike London had Sims take over, and Sims's play went straight downhill until London decided on a full-on platoon. Sims's arm strength and beautiful spirals looked great except for when they landed harmlessly 20 yards from anyone who could catch them. Rocco's leadership and superior knowledge of the playbook were an asset until he led the ball straight into the hands of a defensive back. Ultimately the season was living proof that when you have two quarterbacks, you really have none; the only plausible justification for the platoon was that whatever skill one had, the other did not.
Next year....
It's totally possible we'll see more of the same. One really, really hopes that London will learn his lesson about QB platoons, or else let Bill Lazor and Tom O'Brien convince him to pick one guy and stick with him. At any rate, spring and fall camp will be interesting; with Watford, Matt Johns, and Greyson Lambert all having used up their redshirt (not to mention Sims) it will be a full-blown, no-holds-barred competition in the camps. Again. Brendan Marshall and Corwin Cutler will not be factors in 2013, so it's a four-way race. The favorites will be Sims and Lambert. Both are strong-armed pocket passers, which is a good thing if you're like me and in the pick-one-dammit camp; the differences between the two will be easier to spot because they won't be obscured by different styles. I'm not stupid enough to try and actually predict in January who'll take the snaps in September, though.
RUNNING BACKS/FULLBACKS
This year....
The biggest story was either Perry Jones's regression or the lack of use (yet no redshirt) for Clifton Richardson. Jones actually was UVA's top receiver, but somehow morphed from the one-cut back he was in his junior year to an indecisive nibbler, and ran for barely half his 2011 rushing total. Baffling. Richardson, meanwhile, got basically garbage-time carries and ran for fewer yards than both Rocco and Khalek Shepherd. If he was going to be so little-used there was really no reason for him to play at all. Also baffling.
Kevin Parks, meanwhile, emerged as UVA's top back, albeit with not many more rushing yards than he had in 2011. But he did show up as a much bigger threat in the passing game, and was an effective goal-line option when the line deigned to block for him. Parks, in short, has demonstrated the capability to be a workhorse; UVA probably will not ever use him like one, but he could carry the load if he had to.
Zach Swanson stepped in as the starting "fullback" but never carried the ball; he did get eight receptions but was rather a disappointment in the blocking game. Since Billy Skrobacz pretty much never got in the game after making a few waves in fall camp, UVA basically didn't have a fullback, since Swanson was more of an H-back anyway.
Next year....
There will be a new coach at the position and an embarrassment of riches on the field. Jones will be gone, which will deprive us of a pass-catching threat out of the backfield but also remove the temptation for the coaching staff to try and use a near-midget as a short-yardage sledgehammer. Parks will return, of course. Richardson will return, hopefully with too much talent to be wasted like he was this year. (He likely will need to work on his pass-blocking, though, or risk ending up like Torrey Mack, who was unplayable due to the fact that his presence on the field screamed run play.) Khalek Shepherd flashed some talent at times, and Kye Morgan comes off a redshirt year.
There will be an odd man out somewhere, though; UVA's freshman class will include a super-elite talent in the form of Taquan Mizzell, who ain't redshirting. Mizzell is an excellent pass-catcher to the point that he was asked to play slot receiver in the Army All-American game, and should more than make up for the loss of Jones in the receiving game. And he might just have the best pure running skills in a UVA uniform since Thomas Jones. If the offensive line improves and actually opens some holes, this is a group of running backs that will make life miserable for opposing defenses. They'll go as far as the line will let them.
WIDE RECEIVERS/TIGHT ENDS
This year....
He was only fifth on the team in receptions and sixth in yardage, but clearly, the biggest revelation in the receiving corps was tight end Jake McGee. He announced his presence in style against Penn State with a one-handed catch of a Rocco desperation heave - while being interfered with - on a drive that culminated in the game-winning touchdown. McGee made a few other early-season spectacular catches as well and proved to be one of the most difficult covers on the team.
There were a few disappointments in this group. Dominique Terrell wasn't very consistent and dropped too many passes, and he wasn't the only one guilty of the latter sin. Tim Smith had another injury-hampered season, and McGee was the only true pass-catching threat among the tight ends. But the good ultimately outweighed the bad. When on, Terrell was a very valuable slot receiver. When healthy, Smith was the dangerous medium-to-deep threat he was advertised to be. Darius Jennings emerged as a sophomore to be UVA's best and most versatile receiving threat, and E.J. Scott did a very nice job too as a guy who could keep defenses honest. There were problems here, but on balance the receivers were a clear asset.
Next year....
If those problems diminish with experience, things could go really well for these units. The only losses to graduation will be tight ends Colter Phillips and Paul Freedman, who were respectable blockers but didn't make a dent in the passing game. There are so many receivers that it would be hard to see this group not losing one or two more to regular attrition and transfers, but it's a very deep group and can take the hit.
I would expect Jennings to continue to develop into a potential all-ACC player. Scott, Smith, and Terrell will keep doing their thing, though Terrell is the most likely of those three to be marginalized if he doesn't fix the drops issue. McGee, if he can put on weight and still be a big athletic receiving target, has a chance to develop from a curiosity to a real terror. You'd like to see room for contributions from guys like Adrian Gamble and Canaan Severin, maybe Miles Gooch, but they'll probably be stuck on the fringes for another year unless something happens to one of the upper-echelon guys. Part of it will depend on who wins the quarterback derby; the winner may favor certain receivers over others, it's just the nature of quarterbacks.
OFFENSIVE LINE
This year....
Uck. The supposed strength of the line (the tackles) was a liability at times, and the supposed liability (the interior) was still a liability. Let's start on the inside. Cody Wallace was the chosen replacement for Anthony Mihota at center, but was replaced by Luke Bowanko in fall camp and bumped to guard. Then he was bumped to the bench by Conner Davis, who was better but not by a lot. Bowanko struggled with the transition, his shotgun snaps were noticably slow and floaty which threw off the timing of a lot of plays (though that improved as the season went on), and he had a tough time getting the snap off and immediately executing a blocking assignment. A lot of the pressure on the quarterbacks came straight up the middle. Sean Cascarano was OK at guard, but Matt Mihalik's snaps, when he came off the bench, were generally a waste of time.
Oday Aboushi was getting first-round talk as an NFL draft prospect, but murdered his draft stock this season and probably will not go earlier than the middle of the second round, or maybe the third. He was still good - he did earn a place on the all-ACC first team, after all - but not as good as the preseason hype. He racked up too many holding penalties. On the other side, Morgan Moses was abused all season by speed rushers taking advantage of his poor side-to-side footwork. He simply could not shuffle to his right quickly enough. The basic sum of it was that Aboushi was a very solid pass blocker and usually took his holding penalties in the run game, where Moses was still a devastating run blocker who got killed in pass protection.
Next year....
With any luck, adding TOB to the staff will be a boon for the offensive line. Aboushi will have to be replaced, and as much as I might have been down on him, he'll leave some big shoes to fill. Kelby Johnson probably gets the first crack at his left tackle job, but Jay Whitmire will push him. Moses will stick at right tackle.
The only graduation losses, though, are Aboushi and Mihalik, so there will be some good continuity. I suspect the center position will be up for some competition between Bowanko and Ross Burbank, the latter of whom has been groomed for the position for about a year and a half now. Cascarano and Davis are excellent candidates for improvement. The guards will be more critical than the tackles; there's less depth and therefore less margin for error. Two tackles - Michael Mooney and Sean Karl - are coming off redshirt seasons, but only one guard is (that'd be Ryan Doull.) Something tells me those positions aren't set in stone; London and Scott Wachenheim have shown a penchant for flexibility on the line and some of the depth might be moved around where it's needed. Burbank, for example, might get some work at guard if Bowanko hangs on to the center job.
Ultimately, this group will be the limiting reagent in the offensive chemistry equation. Plenty of talent exists at the skill positions, and we'll assume against all hope that not only will London settle on a quarterback, that quarterback will actually play pretty well. But Phillip Sims was awful under pressure and everyone else but Watford is a totally unknown quantity, so the line must improve its protection. And the offense's red-zone struggles were in direct proportion to the line's inability to block in short-yardage situations. You can't score in the red zone if you can't run the ball in the red zone, and we couldn't. Fix the line and we fix the offense.
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Next week: the defense, assuming Jon Tenuta doesn't get offered a zillion bucks to go coach at Auburn or something.
Showing posts with label the receivers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the receivers. Show all posts
Friday, January 11, 2013
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
the recruit: Canaan Severin
Name: Canaan Severin
Position: WR
Hometown: Marlboro, MA
School: Worcester Academy
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 210
24/7: 93; four stars; #26 WR; MA #3; US #216
ESPN: 77; three stars; #97 ATH; MA #4; Atlantic #119
Rivals: 5.8; four stars; #22 WR; MA #4
Scout: three stars; #50 WR
Other offers: Penn State, Boston College, Michigan State, Missouri, Iowa, NC State, Purdue, Syracuse, Rutgers, Connecticut, a few smaller ones
And so we come to the temporary end of this series for 2012; Canaan Severin was the most recent recruit to commit to UVA, and he did so way back in September. It's been that kind of recruiting year. There may be one or two more commits on the way, but the bulk of the class is basically done.
Severin is my favorite kind of recruit. Following recruiting is a lot more fun when they follow a path like his. He started out (from our perspective) as no more or less of a name than a lot of others, and UVA was in a large pile of worthwhile offers. Virginia stayed in the mix every time the offers were narrowed, all the way to a top three of UVA, PSU, and BC, and there was actually a little drama in the decision. In fact, he chose UVA less than a week after visiting Penn State. From the perspective of this site's recruiting board, Severin was added in February to the yellow section, moved up to green in June, blue in August, and orange in September. So he's a guy we got to follow for a while, and with a happy ending to the story.
Oh, and he's pretty good too. His game has positives and negatives and both are pretty glaring, which translated to some disparity in his recruiting rankings between the sites. Let's get the negatives out of the way. First, he's kind of slow for a receiver. Everyone that evaluates him makes a point of saying he's a very good athlete, but Scout registers him at 4.7 in the 40. That would be pretty good for, say, a linebacker, but if you're going to be ranked as one of the top 250 or whatever, the sites want to see that blazing 4.5, 4.4 stuff. Second, on defense he's a little bit of a tweener - too slow for safety and not big enough for linebacker. No, we don't care because he's not going to play defense for us, but the recruiting sites aren't in the business of predicting a player's ultimate position, only projecting it.
Severin's size is his biggest positive: he's listed at 210-215 and looks like he could add to that, and he's nice and tall at anywhere from 6'2" to 6'4" depending on which site you ask. (We'll just say 6'3".) UVA has a few receivers of similar size on the roster - Miles Gooch, Bobby Smith, Kevin Royal, for example - but you notice I didn't list too many regulars, and only Gooch has athleticism comparable to Severin's. Smart, too - there was a little chatter about early enrollment which never came to pass, and I think that was more of a deal with his high school's standards than with UVA's. And he's a little older than the usual recruit - Severin repeated the 10th grade upon transferring to Worcester Academy at the urging of his father.
Part of the reason Severin chose UVA is because our coaches were recruiting him at wide receiver; Penn State kept the possibility of tight end or H-back open, which he wasn't keen on. So initially at least, that's where he'll be, despite any thoughts you might have about a big guy being moved elsewhere. He'll have a good chance to come in right away and fill the big-receiver role that's being voided by Matt Snyder. There'll be some competition in that regard in camp, but Severin comes in on at least an even footing. None of those aforementioned big receivers saw much of the field, you'll remember (though in Bobby Smith's case, he was hurt,) even though Snyder missed a chunk of the season with a broken foot. He was just replaced with more Kris Burd.
That means Severin should step right in during the fall and have a chance. We have a ton of receivers, but Severin's in a niche that's presently unfilled. Don't look for him to be the kind of guy who gets behind the defense for big yardage; he won't be fast enough. But he should be able to outmuscle small nickel backs and outmaneuver linebackers for those crucial third-and-sevens. I don't expect a redshirt year. I don't expect a 600-yard receiving season right off the bat either, but on the checklist of requirements to contribute right away as a freshman - fills a need, football-mature, athletically capable - Severin fits to a T. Darius Jennings was the same way, and finished with 20 catches for 238 yards; expectations should be similar for Canaan Severin.
Position: WR
Hometown: Marlboro, MA
School: Worcester Academy
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 210
24/7: 93; four stars; #26 WR; MA #3; US #216
ESPN: 77; three stars; #97 ATH; MA #4; Atlantic #119
Rivals: 5.8; four stars; #22 WR; MA #4
Scout: three stars; #50 WR
Other offers: Penn State, Boston College, Michigan State, Missouri, Iowa, NC State, Purdue, Syracuse, Rutgers, Connecticut, a few smaller ones
And so we come to the temporary end of this series for 2012; Canaan Severin was the most recent recruit to commit to UVA, and he did so way back in September. It's been that kind of recruiting year. There may be one or two more commits on the way, but the bulk of the class is basically done.
Severin is my favorite kind of recruit. Following recruiting is a lot more fun when they follow a path like his. He started out (from our perspective) as no more or less of a name than a lot of others, and UVA was in a large pile of worthwhile offers. Virginia stayed in the mix every time the offers were narrowed, all the way to a top three of UVA, PSU, and BC, and there was actually a little drama in the decision. In fact, he chose UVA less than a week after visiting Penn State. From the perspective of this site's recruiting board, Severin was added in February to the yellow section, moved up to green in June, blue in August, and orange in September. So he's a guy we got to follow for a while, and with a happy ending to the story.
Oh, and he's pretty good too. His game has positives and negatives and both are pretty glaring, which translated to some disparity in his recruiting rankings between the sites. Let's get the negatives out of the way. First, he's kind of slow for a receiver. Everyone that evaluates him makes a point of saying he's a very good athlete, but Scout registers him at 4.7 in the 40. That would be pretty good for, say, a linebacker, but if you're going to be ranked as one of the top 250 or whatever, the sites want to see that blazing 4.5, 4.4 stuff. Second, on defense he's a little bit of a tweener - too slow for safety and not big enough for linebacker. No, we don't care because he's not going to play defense for us, but the recruiting sites aren't in the business of predicting a player's ultimate position, only projecting it.
Severin's size is his biggest positive: he's listed at 210-215 and looks like he could add to that, and he's nice and tall at anywhere from 6'2" to 6'4" depending on which site you ask. (We'll just say 6'3".) UVA has a few receivers of similar size on the roster - Miles Gooch, Bobby Smith, Kevin Royal, for example - but you notice I didn't list too many regulars, and only Gooch has athleticism comparable to Severin's. Smart, too - there was a little chatter about early enrollment which never came to pass, and I think that was more of a deal with his high school's standards than with UVA's. And he's a little older than the usual recruit - Severin repeated the 10th grade upon transferring to Worcester Academy at the urging of his father.
Part of the reason Severin chose UVA is because our coaches were recruiting him at wide receiver; Penn State kept the possibility of tight end or H-back open, which he wasn't keen on. So initially at least, that's where he'll be, despite any thoughts you might have about a big guy being moved elsewhere. He'll have a good chance to come in right away and fill the big-receiver role that's being voided by Matt Snyder. There'll be some competition in that regard in camp, but Severin comes in on at least an even footing. None of those aforementioned big receivers saw much of the field, you'll remember (though in Bobby Smith's case, he was hurt,) even though Snyder missed a chunk of the season with a broken foot. He was just replaced with more Kris Burd.
That means Severin should step right in during the fall and have a chance. We have a ton of receivers, but Severin's in a niche that's presently unfilled. Don't look for him to be the kind of guy who gets behind the defense for big yardage; he won't be fast enough. But he should be able to outmuscle small nickel backs and outmaneuver linebackers for those crucial third-and-sevens. I don't expect a redshirt year. I don't expect a 600-yard receiving season right off the bat either, but on the checklist of requirements to contribute right away as a freshman - fills a need, football-mature, athletically capable - Severin fits to a T. Darius Jennings was the same way, and finished with 20 catches for 238 yards; expectations should be similar for Canaan Severin.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
too-late review, too-early preview: offense
Despite the ugly finish to the football season, enough time has passed to make me think it's a good idea to give self-flagellation one more try. So this week and next, I'll offer up a final obituary on the offense and defense and a way-too-early look at what next year holds.
This can't be done without a recruiting board update, and a depth-chart look too. So the depth chart is updated for your review - the notable change is Zane Parr's curious decision to bolt for the NFL draft. More about that next week when the defense gets its turn.
The recruiting board sees two very interesting changes:
- Darius Redman drops from orange to decommitted maroon.
- Added QB Gary Nova to green. Did I say he was the kind of guy there probably wouldn't be room for in the class? Whoops.
Redman becomes the class's second decommit after Matt Bailey way back when, and he's off to the Hokies for official now. (Redman denied most of what's in that report but it's since turned out to be more or less spot the hell on.) By most accounts it's an amicable parting; as I said earlier I have to believe the coaches played a role in decommitting him. We lose a tight end who had a decent chance to get on the field as a second tight end, but there are plenty of tight ends on the roster and a player or two already in the class who could be a tight end if necessary (Thompson Brown, for example); the trade-off is a much more talented pick-up in an area of greater need.
This explains why the coaches are able to recruit five or six player for what looks like two spots. Now it's three, and we're surely not done hearing about prep candidates.
An added bonus, by the way, of Redman's switch to VT is that if you ever hear a Hokie tell you the reason they failed to land Dominique Terrell was because of concern about his SAT scores, you can laugh in their ugly face.
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Now, time to go position by position......
QUARTERBACK
This year....
Marc Verica's play as the unquestioned starting quarterback drew complaints from all corners of the fanbase and constant calls to replace him with a freshman. This means that his play was.....not that damn bad, actually. Verica evened out his touchdowns and interceptions, throwing 14 of each, and almost 2800 yards. His passer rating landed him 84th out of starting quarterbacks in the nation, which isn't amazing. But it was better than:
- Jeremiah Masoli of Ole Miss
- Robert Bolden of Penn State, whose desire to transfer caused the obvious questions about whether his destination might possibly be UVA
- Kyle Parker of Clemson
- Jacory Harris of Miami
- John Brantley of Florida
- Garrett Gilbert of Texas
- two formerly highly-heralded players in B.J. Daniels of South Florida and Dwight Dasher of Middle Tennessee
So there's something to be said for slapping the next person who says "it can't be worse."
Verica's limitations are many, but during certain games he was able to thrive when offensive coordinator Bill Lazor called the right plays to get him into a rhythm. All in all, I'm willing to call it a successful year for Verica - he played better than a lot of bowl-bound quarterbacks and could have been one himself given a defense.
Next year....
We start all over again in a situation reminiscent of 2006. I went into the year thinking "we have three quarterbacks who could start, they can't possibly all suck." They all sucked, and the job fell to Jameel Sewell. So there's hope even for true freshman David Watford to snag the job in 2011.
That's not ideal, though. The team is better off if one of Ross Metheny, Mike Rocco, or Michael Strauss can put a clamp on the job. The sooner the better, though I hold little hope that it can be settled in spring camp. I refuse to handicap the race at this point. Sometimes you read that Strauss has made huge strides, sometimes you read that Rocco held the edge over Metheny on the season.....whatever. Nothing Rocco or Metheny did in their limited playing time separated themselves from each other as viewed from the bleachers, so we'll have to leave it to the coaches on this one. Somebody will be named a starting quarterback on September 3, and if the same guy finishes the Tech game some three months later, you'll know the season went reasonably well.
RUNNING BACK/FULLBACK
This year....
Oh, that's why we were so damn excited. Keith Payne either spent three and a half years being treated like ostrich shit by Al Groh and being shoehorned into an offense that had no idea how to take advantage of his skill set, or spent three and a half years thinking he was a 240-pound scatback and acting like a spoiled doo-doo head. Depends on who you listen to. After quitting the team in 2009, he had a change of heart when Mike London was hired, wanted back on, asked how high when London said jump, and bulldozed his way to the ACC scoring lead with 14 touchdowns. He'd have become UVA's first 1,000-yard rusher since 2004 had he not split carries with Perry Jones, and yes, he'll be the football nomination for Cavalier of the Year in June.
Jones acquitted himself well also, managing to stay healthy and showing a deceptive ability to not get tackled despite being the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Jones was also third on the team in receptions. Raynard Horne ran well in relief of the top tandem. Max Milien flashed a little Jason Snelling ability at fullback, but wasn't used as a ballcarrier or receiver as heavily as Snelling was.
All in all, a productive year, exceeding expectations. Partly that's due to the offensive line also exceeding expectations, but Payne ran with a purpose this year and deserves special mention for his roaring comeback.
Next year....
Payne and Horne graduate, and the possibility exists that there won't be room for backup fullback Terrence Fells-Danzer, either. Jones will need a new backfield partner, because he's just that damn small and will never be a 30-carry-a-game running back. That job will see some competition in spring and fall. Torrey Mack hasn't quite lived up to his billing and is in danger of being passed up - this will really be his last chance to show something - and he should be pushed hard by K.P. Parks and Khalek Shepherd. Particularly Parks, who's uncannily similar to Mike Hart: short, built like a bowling ball, not real fast. Parks has exciting potential. If Clifton Richardson doesn't have to prep, he too could enter the mix right away.
At fullback, Max Milien will almost certainly be brought back for a fifth year, and if TFD is not, Ryan Cobb will inherit the backup role.
WIDE RECEIVER
This year....
For the first time in UVA history, two wide receivers cracked 700 receiving yards, and Kris Burd was three feet away from making it 800. Dontrelle Inman (the back-from-the-dead stories just keep piling up on offense) helped everyone forget that Tim Smith took an injury-related redshirt year by going for 815 yards himself.
The receivers definitely made it easy on Verica this year. Inman, Burd, and Matt Snyder racked up catches and yards like no group of receivers have in UVA history. There've been better individual receivers, but never all at once. These three were good enough on their own that few other receivers on the roster saw the field. Jared Green got a few catches in relief and Ray Keys caught a couple garbage-time balls; that was about it.
Next year....
Inman graduates, but the replacement cupboard is deep. Tim Smith will hopefully be healthy enough to have a breakout year alongside Burd, and Snyder should return and continue to be a quality possession receiver. I half-expect Green not to be brought back, but there are freshmen waiting in the wings. Bobby Smith is a huge oak tree of a receiver and could be used in the end zone; E.J. Scott should at least be a reliable fourth receiver in relief of the starters. Kevin Royal's skill set screams "possession guy" and so he'll probably have to wait til Snyder graduates for his turn. But any of these three could surprise.
And let's not forget the recruiting class. At extreme risk of counting my freshmen before they hatch, at least one of Dominique Terrell and Darius Jennings should definitely be at UVA; both are possible. Adrian Gamble is likely to redshirt, but Jennings is enough of a talent that he would have a chance to force his way onto the field immediately. Terrell would bring a totally new dimension - I envision him being used the way the Detroit Lions use Stefan Logan: on end-arounds, as a running back, as a target for WR screens, and in the slot. Barring a spate of injuries and some bad surprises on the recruiting trail, there will be plenty of help to ease the new quarterback into his job.
TIGHT ENDS
This year....
Colter Phillips almost didn't play the season because of the well-publicized death of his father in an Alaska plane crash. It's a good thing for Hoo fans he did. Phillips led the team's tight ends in catches, and while the offense didn't exactly see a return of the Heath Miller-esque featured tight end that was so popular in the Groh era, they played a big role. Joe Torchia's injury troubles opened the door for Phillips and Paul Freedman, and they performed well. Admirably, though not spectacularly. Jeremiah Mathis was a late addition to the TE corps when it was further decimated by injury, and he caught a touchdown and liked it so well that he just might stick there.
Next year....
Phillips and Freedman were just sophomores, so they'll be around a while. London all but announced that Mathis would stay a tight end, but with Parr's early depature he might be needed back on the defense. So I consider that one still up in the air. Either way, Jake McGee and Zach Swanson will also battle to be the third tight end. Swanson should have an edge because he's a little bigger and is a natural tight end from high school, while McGee is a converted quarterback. I doubt we'll see a big production increase from this year, due to breaking in a new quarterback and the continued excellence of the receivers.
OFFENSIVE LINE
This year....
What looked like the worst unit on the team turned out to be a decently-performing unit. The interior was steady all year with center Anthony Mihota and left guard Austin Pasztor locking down their respective jobs, and B.J. Cabbell looking shaky only for a brief time at right guard. Landon Bradley's injuries caused some shuffling at the tackle positions, but when he was in he was greatly improved over his lost-looking performance from 2009. Oday Aboushi cemented a starting job, whether on the left or right, Morgan Moses proved impressively versatile, and Sean Cascarano began to nose his way into the rotation.
All in all, the play of the offensive line is what allowed the offensive resurgence to take place and Bill Lazor to look like a genius. They weren't a dominant group, but they proved that stability and a return to decent play could make the offense functional again. Better than functional.
Next year....
More stability, amazingly enough. Continuity you can use. Cabbell is the only starter lost to graduation, though Bradley's injury is a long-term one that might see rehab last through fall camp. In both cases, replacements will be in place. The best thing long-term will be to replace Cabbell with Moses, who has the necessary power and explosion to be a stellar drive-blocking guard and the athleticism to pull around. If Bradley isn't healthy, Aboushi and Cascarano will be able to step up at tackle, though a three-man rotation involving Bradley would be ideal.
Luke Bowanko should also be able to step into more playing time at guard, since backup Isaac Cain also departs, and the wraps will be taken off Conner Davis as well. The future is bright along this line.
One rarely-mentioned aspect of it will be the necessity of finding a new long-snapper, the process of which will begin immediately in spring camp. Bet you never even thought about the long snapping all season. That means it was perfect. Danny Aiken was the one player on the team whose value-to-hype ratio was the largest; cross your fingers that his replacement, whoever that is, plays as well.
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Next week: same thing, but on defense and with a lot less sunshine and a lot more grumbling.
This can't be done without a recruiting board update, and a depth-chart look too. So the depth chart is updated for your review - the notable change is Zane Parr's curious decision to bolt for the NFL draft. More about that next week when the defense gets its turn.
The recruiting board sees two very interesting changes:
- Darius Redman drops from orange to decommitted maroon.
- Added QB Gary Nova to green. Did I say he was the kind of guy there probably wouldn't be room for in the class? Whoops.
Redman becomes the class's second decommit after Matt Bailey way back when, and he's off to the Hokies for official now. (Redman denied most of what's in that report but it's since turned out to be more or less spot the hell on.) By most accounts it's an amicable parting; as I said earlier I have to believe the coaches played a role in decommitting him. We lose a tight end who had a decent chance to get on the field as a second tight end, but there are plenty of tight ends on the roster and a player or two already in the class who could be a tight end if necessary (Thompson Brown, for example); the trade-off is a much more talented pick-up in an area of greater need.
This explains why the coaches are able to recruit five or six player for what looks like two spots. Now it's three, and we're surely not done hearing about prep candidates.
An added bonus, by the way, of Redman's switch to VT is that if you ever hear a Hokie tell you the reason they failed to land Dominique Terrell was because of concern about his SAT scores, you can laugh in their ugly face.
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Now, time to go position by position......
QUARTERBACK
This year....
Marc Verica's play as the unquestioned starting quarterback drew complaints from all corners of the fanbase and constant calls to replace him with a freshman. This means that his play was.....not that damn bad, actually. Verica evened out his touchdowns and interceptions, throwing 14 of each, and almost 2800 yards. His passer rating landed him 84th out of starting quarterbacks in the nation, which isn't amazing. But it was better than:
- Jeremiah Masoli of Ole Miss
- Robert Bolden of Penn State, whose desire to transfer caused the obvious questions about whether his destination might possibly be UVA
- Kyle Parker of Clemson
- Jacory Harris of Miami
- John Brantley of Florida
- Garrett Gilbert of Texas
- two formerly highly-heralded players in B.J. Daniels of South Florida and Dwight Dasher of Middle Tennessee
So there's something to be said for slapping the next person who says "it can't be worse."
Verica's limitations are many, but during certain games he was able to thrive when offensive coordinator Bill Lazor called the right plays to get him into a rhythm. All in all, I'm willing to call it a successful year for Verica - he played better than a lot of bowl-bound quarterbacks and could have been one himself given a defense.
Next year....
We start all over again in a situation reminiscent of 2006. I went into the year thinking "we have three quarterbacks who could start, they can't possibly all suck." They all sucked, and the job fell to Jameel Sewell. So there's hope even for true freshman David Watford to snag the job in 2011.
That's not ideal, though. The team is better off if one of Ross Metheny, Mike Rocco, or Michael Strauss can put a clamp on the job. The sooner the better, though I hold little hope that it can be settled in spring camp. I refuse to handicap the race at this point. Sometimes you read that Strauss has made huge strides, sometimes you read that Rocco held the edge over Metheny on the season.....whatever. Nothing Rocco or Metheny did in their limited playing time separated themselves from each other as viewed from the bleachers, so we'll have to leave it to the coaches on this one. Somebody will be named a starting quarterback on September 3, and if the same guy finishes the Tech game some three months later, you'll know the season went reasonably well.
RUNNING BACK/FULLBACK
This year....
Oh, that's why we were so damn excited. Keith Payne either spent three and a half years being treated like ostrich shit by Al Groh and being shoehorned into an offense that had no idea how to take advantage of his skill set, or spent three and a half years thinking he was a 240-pound scatback and acting like a spoiled doo-doo head. Depends on who you listen to. After quitting the team in 2009, he had a change of heart when Mike London was hired, wanted back on, asked how high when London said jump, and bulldozed his way to the ACC scoring lead with 14 touchdowns. He'd have become UVA's first 1,000-yard rusher since 2004 had he not split carries with Perry Jones, and yes, he'll be the football nomination for Cavalier of the Year in June.
Jones acquitted himself well also, managing to stay healthy and showing a deceptive ability to not get tackled despite being the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Jones was also third on the team in receptions. Raynard Horne ran well in relief of the top tandem. Max Milien flashed a little Jason Snelling ability at fullback, but wasn't used as a ballcarrier or receiver as heavily as Snelling was.
All in all, a productive year, exceeding expectations. Partly that's due to the offensive line also exceeding expectations, but Payne ran with a purpose this year and deserves special mention for his roaring comeback.
Next year....
Payne and Horne graduate, and the possibility exists that there won't be room for backup fullback Terrence Fells-Danzer, either. Jones will need a new backfield partner, because he's just that damn small and will never be a 30-carry-a-game running back. That job will see some competition in spring and fall. Torrey Mack hasn't quite lived up to his billing and is in danger of being passed up - this will really be his last chance to show something - and he should be pushed hard by K.P. Parks and Khalek Shepherd. Particularly Parks, who's uncannily similar to Mike Hart: short, built like a bowling ball, not real fast. Parks has exciting potential. If Clifton Richardson doesn't have to prep, he too could enter the mix right away.
At fullback, Max Milien will almost certainly be brought back for a fifth year, and if TFD is not, Ryan Cobb will inherit the backup role.
WIDE RECEIVER
This year....
For the first time in UVA history, two wide receivers cracked 700 receiving yards, and Kris Burd was three feet away from making it 800. Dontrelle Inman (the back-from-the-dead stories just keep piling up on offense) helped everyone forget that Tim Smith took an injury-related redshirt year by going for 815 yards himself.
The receivers definitely made it easy on Verica this year. Inman, Burd, and Matt Snyder racked up catches and yards like no group of receivers have in UVA history. There've been better individual receivers, but never all at once. These three were good enough on their own that few other receivers on the roster saw the field. Jared Green got a few catches in relief and Ray Keys caught a couple garbage-time balls; that was about it.
Next year....
Inman graduates, but the replacement cupboard is deep. Tim Smith will hopefully be healthy enough to have a breakout year alongside Burd, and Snyder should return and continue to be a quality possession receiver. I half-expect Green not to be brought back, but there are freshmen waiting in the wings. Bobby Smith is a huge oak tree of a receiver and could be used in the end zone; E.J. Scott should at least be a reliable fourth receiver in relief of the starters. Kevin Royal's skill set screams "possession guy" and so he'll probably have to wait til Snyder graduates for his turn. But any of these three could surprise.
And let's not forget the recruiting class. At extreme risk of counting my freshmen before they hatch, at least one of Dominique Terrell and Darius Jennings should definitely be at UVA; both are possible. Adrian Gamble is likely to redshirt, but Jennings is enough of a talent that he would have a chance to force his way onto the field immediately. Terrell would bring a totally new dimension - I envision him being used the way the Detroit Lions use Stefan Logan: on end-arounds, as a running back, as a target for WR screens, and in the slot. Barring a spate of injuries and some bad surprises on the recruiting trail, there will be plenty of help to ease the new quarterback into his job.
TIGHT ENDS
This year....
Colter Phillips almost didn't play the season because of the well-publicized death of his father in an Alaska plane crash. It's a good thing for Hoo fans he did. Phillips led the team's tight ends in catches, and while the offense didn't exactly see a return of the Heath Miller-esque featured tight end that was so popular in the Groh era, they played a big role. Joe Torchia's injury troubles opened the door for Phillips and Paul Freedman, and they performed well. Admirably, though not spectacularly. Jeremiah Mathis was a late addition to the TE corps when it was further decimated by injury, and he caught a touchdown and liked it so well that he just might stick there.
Next year....
Phillips and Freedman were just sophomores, so they'll be around a while. London all but announced that Mathis would stay a tight end, but with Parr's early depature he might be needed back on the defense. So I consider that one still up in the air. Either way, Jake McGee and Zach Swanson will also battle to be the third tight end. Swanson should have an edge because he's a little bigger and is a natural tight end from high school, while McGee is a converted quarterback. I doubt we'll see a big production increase from this year, due to breaking in a new quarterback and the continued excellence of the receivers.
OFFENSIVE LINE
This year....
What looked like the worst unit on the team turned out to be a decently-performing unit. The interior was steady all year with center Anthony Mihota and left guard Austin Pasztor locking down their respective jobs, and B.J. Cabbell looking shaky only for a brief time at right guard. Landon Bradley's injuries caused some shuffling at the tackle positions, but when he was in he was greatly improved over his lost-looking performance from 2009. Oday Aboushi cemented a starting job, whether on the left or right, Morgan Moses proved impressively versatile, and Sean Cascarano began to nose his way into the rotation.
All in all, the play of the offensive line is what allowed the offensive resurgence to take place and Bill Lazor to look like a genius. They weren't a dominant group, but they proved that stability and a return to decent play could make the offense functional again. Better than functional.
Next year....
More stability, amazingly enough. Continuity you can use. Cabbell is the only starter lost to graduation, though Bradley's injury is a long-term one that might see rehab last through fall camp. In both cases, replacements will be in place. The best thing long-term will be to replace Cabbell with Moses, who has the necessary power and explosion to be a stellar drive-blocking guard and the athleticism to pull around. If Bradley isn't healthy, Aboushi and Cascarano will be able to step up at tackle, though a three-man rotation involving Bradley would be ideal.
Luke Bowanko should also be able to step into more playing time at guard, since backup Isaac Cain also departs, and the wraps will be taken off Conner Davis as well. The future is bright along this line.
One rarely-mentioned aspect of it will be the necessity of finding a new long-snapper, the process of which will begin immediately in spring camp. Bet you never even thought about the long snapping all season. That means it was perfect. Danny Aiken was the one player on the team whose value-to-hype ratio was the largest; cross your fingers that his replacement, whoever that is, plays as well.
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Next week: same thing, but on defense and with a lot less sunshine and a lot more grumbling.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
how bad are we? this bad
So, in the middle of watching our putrid offense fumblefuck its way to another big loss, I had two minor epiphanies. I watched a ton of Jeopardy growing up and still enjoy it, so they came to me in the form of questions. The second I'll get to in a bit. The first was this:
- When's the last time we put together a real, honest-to-Jebus, actual drive? I mean actually drove down the field for a real live touchdown?
Both of our TDs against Miami were the result of a blocked punt, and the field goal was because we couldn't advance the ball after gettting nice field position on an interception. We didn't put the ball in the end zone against Georgia Tech at all, and our offense's one touchdown against Maryland was the result of a one-yard drive.
So I decided to go back and find out. Criteria for a drive in this instance:
- Has to start inside our own 35. In other words, we can't be handed gift-wrapped field position thanks to a turnover or a long return (which itself is pretty rare.)
- Has to result in a touchdown. Settling for field goals all the time is why we lose.
- Can't include a play that goes for longer than half the drive. So no heaving it down the field and making a lucky grab. We have to actually march the distance. Get positive yards, positive yards, positive yards, and keep doing it consistently and sustainably.
It turns out that we have exactly six such drives all season. Six! In nine games. The count is: one against William & Mary, two against Southern Miss, two against Indiana, and one against Duke. (There's a third one against IU that started on our own 36, just outside my arbitrary line, but it's balanced by the fact that one that I counted was basically just three long plays interspersed with incomplete passes. Besides, the Duke one started on the 34.) So they've all come in four games this season, which means that in the five other games, we've completely failed to mount a drive on offense and have either relied on the defense to put us in good position to score, or settled for field goals. Or just not scored.
It's kind of a useless number without a comparison, and they don't keep stats on that number, so I can't tell you that we're like 115th out of 120 or something. (We probably are.) I did look at two other teams though: UNC and Georgia Tech. UNC, because they're the next-sorriest offense after ours, and GT, because I figured they were probably the kings of long-ass drives.
UNC has seven such drives all season. Only one more than our six, but they have one in each of seven games. So they can actually depend on their offense to produce such a drive. GT has (hang on, lemme count up my tally marks) fifteen. Not only can they count on their offense to produce a long, clock-chewing drive, they can usually expect more than one such drive in a game.
So in the last four games, we've mounted one halfway decent drive for a touchdown, that being against, y'know, Duke. Two of the other five came against Southern Miss, whose coach admitted to being completely fooled that we'd scrapped the super-spread look of the first two games, so chalk those up to a surprise that works exactly once. Two more were against Indiana. I don't know where the 536 yards of offense came from, but I figure it's just our yearly "rochambeau some unsuspecting poor bastard at random" game that we can't ever duplicate. (Last year it was Maryland and the year before, Miami.) The other was against a I-AA opponent that we still couldn't beat.
So I've changed my outlook a tad, not that it much matters with three games left on the docket. I used to think if we were going to win a game, we needed to catch a bad defense. That's why I thought we could knock off Georgia Tech. Silly me: it doesn't matter what defense we play. Whether it's the Pittsburgh Steelers or Sisters of the Poor, the offense can't gain yards against it. If we're going to snag a win somewhere, our defense has to consistently be able to fuck someone up and hand us short fields or score themselves. It's no coincidence we have two ACC wins and they're against the other two worst offenses in the league, and two of the four with a negative turnover margin. (We don't play the other two.)
The next worst after those two is Clemson at 5.1 yards per play and a middling turnover margin. BC likewise is not great, with 5.4 yards and a dead-even turnover margin. We weren't ever going to actually beat a good offense like Miami and GT, because no defense in the world can overcome the massive talent gap that exists between our offense and a good one.
Which leads to epiphany #2:
- Has Latrell Scott torpedoed our entire offense?
The more I watch the offense, the more I'm disgusted with the wide receiver play. They had another brutal day against Miami, catching four of Verica's 11 completions. 5 of 13 against Duke. Our top wide receiver is Kris Burd, and he's 31st in receptions and 32nd in yardage in the conference.
I know we've never really been a receiver-heavy offense under Groh, but this is ridiculous. And I'm not letting the tight ends off the hook, either. Burd has outstripped all our WRs' production in 2007, but we had Tom Santi and Jon Stupar to pick us up. Joe Torchia hasn't stepped up.
Whether Scott is at fault for the putrid receiver play, though, is a lot harder to tease out of the numbers. He was only at Tennessee for one year, during which his charges showed neither marked improvement nor marked decline. And there are a lot of contributing factors here. The receivers are young and we lost our two best ones in the offseason. The offense has never emphasized the receivers and lives and dies by the short play. And so on.
It could be that this bunch just isn't supremely talented and is young to boot. If this is the case, then we were sold a bill of goods last summer. Jared Green had a good freshman season and is ready to step up. Matt Snyder has made a major impression in camp. Javaris Brown has tremendous speed. Tim Smith is an electric talent. None have made a dent in anything. Snyder has been glued to the bench all season. Green has regressed. Brown had two good games early in the season (in which two catches qualify as "good games" and has been totally invisible otherwise. Smith has been OK, but has suffered through all the freshman ups and downs.
You could blame the offense, but this is basically the same offense in which Ogletree and Covington combined for 90-odd catches last year. Al Groh's offense, despite the heavy use of tight ends and running backs in the receiving game, has never precluded us from having good receivers. You could claim the quarterback just isn't finding the receivers, but we've used three quarterbacks this year and none of them are finding the receivers.
All I know is that it's Scott's job to fix this mess and it ain't happening. I don't know whether that's because he has nothing to work with or because he's not a good coach. He's supposed to be this dynamic recruiter, but I'd sure like to see him teach our receivers to get open at some point - that being his primary job. Right now if I had to point to the number one cause of this rotten season, it's the inability of our receivers to get themselves open.
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Not many thoughts on the actual game. Not when we get beat by five touchdowns. However:
- Miami has got to be the worst sports town in the country. The Hurricanes were the only show in town yesterday. The Heat weren't playing. The Panthers were on the road (not that anyone in Miami knows what hockey is.) Even FIU was out of town. And the paid - not actual - attendance? 48,000. That stadium was sad-looking. There actually couldn't have been more than 35,000 in it. We can get 41,000 (paid not actual) customers to come watch our crap team play Duke, almost all of whom have to make at least an hour's drive to the middle of nowhere, relatively speaking, and a metropolitan area of five and a half million can't even come close to filling up a stadium with tarps over one-fourth of the seats to watch the #16 team in the land? Weak.
- There is one bit of comfort to yesterday's game. Miami players were talking afterwards about how it felt good to get some revenge for 2007. That game must have really stung if it takes two years' worth of wins to get revenge for it.
- After Littlepage's vote of no confidence this week (yes, that's what it was) if this isn't what the end of a coaching tenure looks like, I don't want to find out what does.
- When's the last time we put together a real, honest-to-Jebus, actual drive? I mean actually drove down the field for a real live touchdown?
Both of our TDs against Miami were the result of a blocked punt, and the field goal was because we couldn't advance the ball after gettting nice field position on an interception. We didn't put the ball in the end zone against Georgia Tech at all, and our offense's one touchdown against Maryland was the result of a one-yard drive.
So I decided to go back and find out. Criteria for a drive in this instance:
- Has to start inside our own 35. In other words, we can't be handed gift-wrapped field position thanks to a turnover or a long return (which itself is pretty rare.)
- Has to result in a touchdown. Settling for field goals all the time is why we lose.
- Can't include a play that goes for longer than half the drive. So no heaving it down the field and making a lucky grab. We have to actually march the distance. Get positive yards, positive yards, positive yards, and keep doing it consistently and sustainably.
It turns out that we have exactly six such drives all season. Six! In nine games. The count is: one against William & Mary, two against Southern Miss, two against Indiana, and one against Duke. (There's a third one against IU that started on our own 36, just outside my arbitrary line, but it's balanced by the fact that one that I counted was basically just three long plays interspersed with incomplete passes. Besides, the Duke one started on the 34.) So they've all come in four games this season, which means that in the five other games, we've completely failed to mount a drive on offense and have either relied on the defense to put us in good position to score, or settled for field goals. Or just not scored.
It's kind of a useless number without a comparison, and they don't keep stats on that number, so I can't tell you that we're like 115th out of 120 or something. (We probably are.) I did look at two other teams though: UNC and Georgia Tech. UNC, because they're the next-sorriest offense after ours, and GT, because I figured they were probably the kings of long-ass drives.
UNC has seven such drives all season. Only one more than our six, but they have one in each of seven games. So they can actually depend on their offense to produce such a drive. GT has (hang on, lemme count up my tally marks) fifteen. Not only can they count on their offense to produce a long, clock-chewing drive, they can usually expect more than one such drive in a game.
So in the last four games, we've mounted one halfway decent drive for a touchdown, that being against, y'know, Duke. Two of the other five came against Southern Miss, whose coach admitted to being completely fooled that we'd scrapped the super-spread look of the first two games, so chalk those up to a surprise that works exactly once. Two more were against Indiana. I don't know where the 536 yards of offense came from, but I figure it's just our yearly "rochambeau some unsuspecting poor bastard at random" game that we can't ever duplicate. (Last year it was Maryland and the year before, Miami.) The other was against a I-AA opponent that we still couldn't beat.
So I've changed my outlook a tad, not that it much matters with three games left on the docket. I used to think if we were going to win a game, we needed to catch a bad defense. That's why I thought we could knock off Georgia Tech. Silly me: it doesn't matter what defense we play. Whether it's the Pittsburgh Steelers or Sisters of the Poor, the offense can't gain yards against it. If we're going to snag a win somewhere, our defense has to consistently be able to fuck someone up and hand us short fields or score themselves. It's no coincidence we have two ACC wins and they're against the other two worst offenses in the league, and two of the four with a negative turnover margin. (We don't play the other two.)
The next worst after those two is Clemson at 5.1 yards per play and a middling turnover margin. BC likewise is not great, with 5.4 yards and a dead-even turnover margin. We weren't ever going to actually beat a good offense like Miami and GT, because no defense in the world can overcome the massive talent gap that exists between our offense and a good one.
Which leads to epiphany #2:
- Has Latrell Scott torpedoed our entire offense?
The more I watch the offense, the more I'm disgusted with the wide receiver play. They had another brutal day against Miami, catching four of Verica's 11 completions. 5 of 13 against Duke. Our top wide receiver is Kris Burd, and he's 31st in receptions and 32nd in yardage in the conference.
I know we've never really been a receiver-heavy offense under Groh, but this is ridiculous. And I'm not letting the tight ends off the hook, either. Burd has outstripped all our WRs' production in 2007, but we had Tom Santi and Jon Stupar to pick us up. Joe Torchia hasn't stepped up.
Whether Scott is at fault for the putrid receiver play, though, is a lot harder to tease out of the numbers. He was only at Tennessee for one year, during which his charges showed neither marked improvement nor marked decline. And there are a lot of contributing factors here. The receivers are young and we lost our two best ones in the offseason. The offense has never emphasized the receivers and lives and dies by the short play. And so on.
It could be that this bunch just isn't supremely talented and is young to boot. If this is the case, then we were sold a bill of goods last summer. Jared Green had a good freshman season and is ready to step up. Matt Snyder has made a major impression in camp. Javaris Brown has tremendous speed. Tim Smith is an electric talent. None have made a dent in anything. Snyder has been glued to the bench all season. Green has regressed. Brown had two good games early in the season (in which two catches qualify as "good games" and has been totally invisible otherwise. Smith has been OK, but has suffered through all the freshman ups and downs.
You could blame the offense, but this is basically the same offense in which Ogletree and Covington combined for 90-odd catches last year. Al Groh's offense, despite the heavy use of tight ends and running backs in the receiving game, has never precluded us from having good receivers. You could claim the quarterback just isn't finding the receivers, but we've used three quarterbacks this year and none of them are finding the receivers.
All I know is that it's Scott's job to fix this mess and it ain't happening. I don't know whether that's because he has nothing to work with or because he's not a good coach. He's supposed to be this dynamic recruiter, but I'd sure like to see him teach our receivers to get open at some point - that being his primary job. Right now if I had to point to the number one cause of this rotten season, it's the inability of our receivers to get themselves open.
*****************************
Not many thoughts on the actual game. Not when we get beat by five touchdowns. However:
- Miami has got to be the worst sports town in the country. The Hurricanes were the only show in town yesterday. The Heat weren't playing. The Panthers were on the road (not that anyone in Miami knows what hockey is.) Even FIU was out of town. And the paid - not actual - attendance? 48,000. That stadium was sad-looking. There actually couldn't have been more than 35,000 in it. We can get 41,000 (paid not actual) customers to come watch our crap team play Duke, almost all of whom have to make at least an hour's drive to the middle of nowhere, relatively speaking, and a metropolitan area of five and a half million can't even come close to filling up a stadium with tarps over one-fourth of the seats to watch the #16 team in the land? Weak.
- There is one bit of comfort to yesterday's game. Miami players were talking afterwards about how it felt good to get some revenge for 2007. That game must have really stung if it takes two years' worth of wins to get revenge for it.
- After Littlepage's vote of no confidence this week (yes, that's what it was) if this isn't what the end of a coaching tenure looks like, I don't want to find out what does.
Friday, January 9, 2009
nothing special today, or so i thought
There's a nice hey-check-out-this-guy article on Sylven Landesberg, should you be interested in the next great 'Hoo baller. Actually not a lot the average 'Hoo fan doesn't already know, but it's nice to see that national pub for a guy who deserves some.
"Does not have potential to be drafted in the first three rounds." That's the evaluation Kevin Ogletree got back from the NFL when he submitted his paperwork. I generally hesitate to criticize our own players who declare early for the draft, because I clearly have very selfish motives in wanting them to stay. But you kinda have to wonder who told Ogletree what, that outweighed that paperwork.
Jeff White has a bunch of interesting stuff courtesy of Al Groh. My take on some of these items:
- Rico Bell transfer. Disappointing that he didn't pan out, because he was one of the highest-rated recruits of the 2006 class, and he chose UVA over an offer list that included Tennessee. Bell was not even on the two-deep this year as a redshirt sophomore and didn't look likely to crack it next year either, which no doubt contributed to the decision. Chris Cook is returning and could get moved to safety, and we are taking a butt-ton of safeties in the '09 class, and Bell saw the writing on the wall. There are a couple exceptions, but that class of '06 is starting to look like a flop these days.
- Also not back: Patrick Slebonick, Jason Fuller, and probably Cary Koch, though Koch is petitioning for another season. Returning to the team: Brandon Woods, Darnell Carter, and probably Yannick Reyering. Woods should be able to carve out some playing time this year - unless a true freshman impresses greatly, he and Ausar Walcott look like the early front-runners for the two-deep behind Corey Mosley and Cook. Carter will have a chance to compete in a wide-open race for spots on the depth chart now that Jon Copper and Antonio Appleby have graduated.
- I'm betting on Vic Hall to get moved to offense this year - the play of Chase Minnifield allows it. Hall can be a dangerous wild card for the offense and just the sort of guy to design a few trick plays around.
This popped up on the official site like right as I'm typing: your new strength and conditioning coach. OK, Director of Football Training and Player Development, whatever, I guess in the spirit of the official name of the stadium we gotta make it wicked long. Gotta love the wild and crazy eyes. The eyes that say "why the hell can you not bench 600 pounds, son?!?!" and the half-smile that adds "oh btw I'm really going to enjoy yelling at you for it." I call that a first step in the right direction.
I'm putting off the VT game preview til tomorrow morning. I didn't realize that it's been fourteen years since we started 2-0 in the conference. Not gonna lie: That's pretty bad. What's weird is that this year - when we're not really all that good - is when we have as good a shot as any to fix that.
"Does not have potential to be drafted in the first three rounds." That's the evaluation Kevin Ogletree got back from the NFL when he submitted his paperwork. I generally hesitate to criticize our own players who declare early for the draft, because I clearly have very selfish motives in wanting them to stay. But you kinda have to wonder who told Ogletree what, that outweighed that paperwork.
Jeff White has a bunch of interesting stuff courtesy of Al Groh. My take on some of these items:
- Rico Bell transfer. Disappointing that he didn't pan out, because he was one of the highest-rated recruits of the 2006 class, and he chose UVA over an offer list that included Tennessee. Bell was not even on the two-deep this year as a redshirt sophomore and didn't look likely to crack it next year either, which no doubt contributed to the decision. Chris Cook is returning and could get moved to safety, and we are taking a butt-ton of safeties in the '09 class, and Bell saw the writing on the wall. There are a couple exceptions, but that class of '06 is starting to look like a flop these days.
- Also not back: Patrick Slebonick, Jason Fuller, and probably Cary Koch, though Koch is petitioning for another season. Returning to the team: Brandon Woods, Darnell Carter, and probably Yannick Reyering. Woods should be able to carve out some playing time this year - unless a true freshman impresses greatly, he and Ausar Walcott look like the early front-runners for the two-deep behind Corey Mosley and Cook. Carter will have a chance to compete in a wide-open race for spots on the depth chart now that Jon Copper and Antonio Appleby have graduated.
- I'm betting on Vic Hall to get moved to offense this year - the play of Chase Minnifield allows it. Hall can be a dangerous wild card for the offense and just the sort of guy to design a few trick plays around.
This popped up on the official site like right as I'm typing: your new strength and conditioning coach. OK, Director of Football Training and Player Development, whatever, I guess in the spirit of the official name of the stadium we gotta make it wicked long. Gotta love the wild and crazy eyes. The eyes that say "why the hell can you not bench 600 pounds, son?!?!" and the half-smile that adds "oh btw I'm really going to enjoy yelling at you for it." I call that a first step in the right direction.
I'm putting off the VT game preview til tomorrow morning. I didn't realize that it's been fourteen years since we started 2-0 in the conference. Not gonna lie: That's pretty bad. What's weird is that this year - when we're not really all that good - is when we have as good a shot as any to fix that.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
hurricane watch
No, Miami's not rolling into town yet. But Hanna is.
That little black dot, which may as well be labeled CHARLOTTESVILLE for its accuracy on the map, is actually labeled 2 PM SAT, indicating a collision of time and space and hurricane that would make the Richmond game stupendously soggy. If Hanna follows that path, it wouldn't actually be a hurricane by the time it reaches Virginia - it wouldn't even be a tropical storm according to that chart. But it would be a big rainy mess. Football is a game well suited to playing in blizzards or monsoons, and people will even watch when that happens, but keep an eye on the news for words like "rescheduled."
Speaking of news, you should read Groh's weekly press conference if you like reading questions from media types browbeaten over the years into not asking questions that run the risk of eliciting an answer carrying real information. Two points of interest:
- Denzel Burrell, obviously, has the starting OLB spot all to himself, but someone has to fill the other half of the two-deep, and Groh has been impressed by freshman Cam Johnson.
- Groh also liked Lalich's ability to move about a bit in the pocket and escape the rush.
The depth chart has some interesting changes, by the way. Johnson isn't the only freshman addition to the two-deep: Steve Greer is now backing up Jon Copper on the inside. This I'm pleased to see. I think Greer is going to be good. Real good. I have absolutely zero hard evidence to back this up....it's just the feeling I got during his recruiting, back about 7 months B.T.B. (Before This Blog.) If Greer gets on the field much this year it'll be because of injury, and we don't want that, but I'm looking forward to seeing him compete for a job when it's his turn.
Jared Green also makes an appearance, replacing Cary Koch (?!) behind Kevin Ogletree. No word of a Koch injury, so....? Koch and Green were two of the better players on the field wearing blue on Saturday. Lastly, Ras the Destroyer isn't there either. Mike Parker is listed as the starter in his place, with Minnifield backing up.
Speaking of news, you should read Groh's weekly press conference if you like reading questions from media types browbeaten over the years into not asking questions that run the risk of eliciting an answer carrying real information. Two points of interest:
- Denzel Burrell, obviously, has the starting OLB spot all to himself, but someone has to fill the other half of the two-deep, and Groh has been impressed by freshman Cam Johnson.
- Groh also liked Lalich's ability to move about a bit in the pocket and escape the rush.
The depth chart has some interesting changes, by the way. Johnson isn't the only freshman addition to the two-deep: Steve Greer is now backing up Jon Copper on the inside. This I'm pleased to see. I think Greer is going to be good. Real good. I have absolutely zero hard evidence to back this up....it's just the feeling I got during his recruiting, back about 7 months B.T.B. (Before This Blog.) If Greer gets on the field much this year it'll be because of injury, and we don't want that, but I'm looking forward to seeing him compete for a job when it's his turn.
Jared Green also makes an appearance, replacing Cary Koch (?!) behind Kevin Ogletree. No word of a Koch injury, so....? Koch and Green were two of the better players on the field wearing blue on Saturday. Lastly, Ras the Destroyer isn't there either. Mike Parker is listed as the starter in his place, with Minnifield backing up.
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