Much to see, much to do. The weekend review plows ahead with....
....recruiting board update. Here's what's new:
- Removed LB Conner Crowell, who's down to OSU and PSU. Pick Penn State.
- Moved CB Blake Countess from yellow to red. Looking highly unlikely.
- Moved LB Curtis Grant from blue to red. Ditto. Also, dammit.
- Added S Avery Walls to red.
- Created a new green section. I kept seeing players in blue and yellow that didn't quite feel like they belonged there, exactly, and I kept thinking "if only I had an in between section that's where they'd be." And then I realized I had the power to do that because it's my blog. The new residents of the area just in between blue and yellow are DE Horace Arkadie and LB D.J. Hill (up from yellow) and LB Sean Duggan and CB Demetrious Nicholson (down from blue.)
Pessimism is the name of the game this week in recruiting. It has been two months since the last commitment, after all. But in a way that's by design: the staff has to be careful with who they take. There's probably only a small list of maybe six or seven players they'd take a commitment from right this minute - guys like Demetrious Nicholson and Travis Hughes - and they're all being patient with the process. You see the five players in bold orange - as you'll remember they're my own choices as most-desired names. Just below those five would be Sean Duggan and Rory Anderson. Of those seven, I would bet a lot of money on UVA getting at least one, and I doubt they get more than three. Three would be about the awesomest thing ever, really. (Remember, names in red don't get bolded in orange because red is while-we're-at-it-I-want-a-pony land.)
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....depth chart update. I did something new here too. Names in red are guys who are out for the season, and names in purple are guys who are out but not all year. They remain bolded and/or italicized so you have an idea of their role if healthy and what the team would look like without injuries getting in the way.
Changes are:
- Joe Torchia is out for the year, so Colter Phillips is your new starting TE and Paul Freedman the backup. Hopefully we don't have to go past that. Coach London said he's keeping the redshirt on the other tight ends, Swanson and McGee, but that's not for the sake of the redshirt. They're simply too small, still.
- As I mentioned yesterday, Morgan Moses moves over to right guard to back up B.J. Cabbell; that position will almost certainly see a changing of the guard (HAW!) by the end of the year. Probably sooner rather than later, as the depth chart lists an "or." Luke Bowanko is now listed as a backup tackle. Sean Cascarano and Oday Aboushi are the starters; who gets what side isn't really settled yet but for the purposes of this chart it doesn't matter.
This youth movement, by the way, I regard it as a huge positive. That's three members of the '09 recruiting class (Cascarano, Bowanko, Aboushi) in the O-line two-deep. Four if you count Moses.
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....newsy stuff.
- The mens' swim team opened the season with a huge dual meet win over Florida, and the women came within two points of achieving the same. Impressive. Florida's mens' team took 5th last year (UVA was 10th) and their women were national champions. Even with a loss, the womens' result is as impressive as the mens'; a two-point margin becomes at least a tie just by switching any finish in any race with the opposing swimmer one spot higher.
- UVA hasn't announced it, but UConn has: a 2016-2017 home-and-home rematch with the Huskies. The future schedules page is duly updated.
- The NCAA violation train pulled into Chapel Hill Station this week and left with three of their better players: D-linemen Marvin Austin and Robert Quinn and WR Greg Little, off the team permanently. This week is Carolina week, so I'll probably stop caring after Saturday until the sanctions come down from on high, but here is the official roundup of their player status as it stands now:
Out for good: Austin, Quinn, Little, S Jonathan Smith
Reinstated: RB Shaun Draughn, S Da'Norris Searcy, S Deunta Williams
Suspended: CB Kendric Burney, who returns after the UVA game
Pending, still out: DE Mike McAdoo, DE Linwan Euwell, RB Ryan Houston, CB Charles Brown, S Bryan Gupton, FB Devon Ramsey
Carolina has proven competitive without this bunch of miscreants, so I don't expect to see any huge advantage for UVA this weekend. What you've seen is what you get, and they're 3-2.
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....senior seasons:
- Fork Union 27, St. Christopher's 10: Loss for Thompson Brown.
- Petersburg 30, Matoaca 18: Kevin Green throws for two touchdowns and 189 yards, as well as 3 2PCs, in a win.
- Hermitage 34, Mills Godwin 7: Win for Diamonte Bailey, but he doesn't make the article.
- L.C. Bird 48, Cosby 7: Anthony Harris throws one touchdown to help in the win.
- I.C. Norcom 26, Maury 3: Little bit of a closer game than usual for Kameron Mack's team.
- Phoebus 44, Kecoughtan 0: It stays easy for Caleb Taylor, though.
- Green Run 33, Kempsville 13: Win for David Dean.
- Hampton 77, Heritage 0: Holy shit. With David Watford at the helm, Hampton scored on every possession of the first half. Heritage has scored three points all season long.
- Salem 19, Cox 0: Ross Burbank and his offense get shut out.
- Blue Ridge 42, St. S/St. A 28: Loss for Darius Lee, but he catches a touchdown pass.
- Denbigh 28, Menchville 17: Tough season continues for Clifton Richardson.
- DeMatha 31, Good Counsel 28: It hasn't been a season quite up to snuff for Jordan Lomax, Kelby Johnson, and DeMatha, but what better way to get back on track than with a huge, huge win over Vincent Croce and Good Counsel?
- Stone Bridge 56, Fairfax 0: Rob Burns has been helping produce shutout after shutout.
- H.D. Woodson vs. Spingarn, postponed.
- Damascus 49, Watkins Mill 21: Brandon Phelps is still undefeated.
- Providence 38, Independence 27: Loss for Adrian Gamble.
- STAB 14, Boys' Latin 10: Marco Jones visits Charlottesville and gets his first loss of the season for his efforts.
- Mt. Lebanon 31, Baldwin 21: Tim Cwalina also continues undefeated.
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....AP poll study update. I've created a new page wherein all the weekly updates are stored; if you're interested, it resides here. Also, it'll be linked on the side with the other useful stuff. This week, there's a slight uptick in evidence for regional bias, but it's still not as convincingly strong as it should be if there's to be a conclusion in favor of the hypothesis.
Tomorrow: the return of the ACC Roundtable!
Showing posts with label torchia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label torchia. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
that can't happen
I know it's a rebuilding project, yes. I know the talent level on this team isn't where it should be to compete for the ACC. I still didn't like what I saw on Saturday. Rebuilding isn't the same thing as building from scratch. You have to have something to build from, otherwise you're Georgia State, starting fresh and with no expectations whatsoever. I'd like to think that for UVA, that's the defense. That's what's supposed to hold firm and give the team a chance to win while the offense finds its bearings.
Despite an offensive performance that I'd call "almost adequate," the roles were reversed on Saturday. Georgia Tech is a mistake-prone team this year; those mistakes were the only thing standing between them and 50 points. Only under circumstances involving the phrase "I-AA" should the grinding, clock-chewing GT offense be a 50-point machine. I have no idea whether to pin the performance on the players or the coaches, which probably means it's a combination of both. I do know that the decision to open up a fifteen-foot gap at the line of scrimmage was a coach thing, and why Jim Reid would choose to do that against a triple option offense where option #1 is "hand off to a big-ass fullback and let him go in a straight line" is more puzzling than a 10x10 Rubik's Cube.
I've said repeatedly I don't think the 4-3 is a great matchup for that offense, and obviously in order to beat GT in the future either the talent level is going to have to vastly improve relative to GT, or Reid is going to have to scheme his brains out. It's not just scheme: the newness of our OLBs to their position was painfully obvious, and the MLBs were slow to get outside the blockers, leaving them easy targets to get sealed off the pursuit early on.
As for the offense, it wasn't awful, actually. Against FSU and USC I brushed off the last touchdown of the game as a product of less effort on defense and going against the scrubs; this time I'm willing to put that caveat aside because Matt Snyder was covered as hell on the two fine catches he made on the final drive and showed off some white-guys-can-jump moves that I didn't think he had. Whereas the FSU game might as well have been 34-7, I think the 21 points are legitimate.
Still, the running game, as ever, stunk. Hard. Perry Jones was bottled up except for the one run. With Verica, it's like he wasn't even a factor - an improvement over the FSU game, to be sure, and probably about as good as anyone can expect given the four sacks and lack of ground support. Losses always give a megaphone to the BACKUP QB NOWZ crowd that exists in every losing team's fanbase, but Verica's performance was the result of the poor play around him, not the other way round.
As we knew before the season, it starts on the O-line, the least effective group we have. This week you're starting to see the changes you'd expect for a unit with that label: Morgan Moses moves inside to guard, to back up B.J. Cabbell, and Sean Cascarano replaced the injured Landon Bradley at left tackle. Though this is presented a certain way by Mike London, seasoned football observers should be able to read the writing on the wall here: Cabbell's days as the starter there are probably numbered, and Bradley is likely to be Wally Pipped out of his job as well. That's not even to mention the loss of Joe Torchia for the season, ending his UVA career. Torchia has never been a very effective blocker, and his wonky shoulder almost certainly has a big say in that. It's a rebuilding project. You can't expect things to stay much the same as the season rolls on, and these are welcome changes with the exception of the premature end to a career.
These two losses make the UNC game a pivotal one. Bowl hopes, if you harbor any, depend on it. That's a team not unlike GT: doing the best they can with heavy personnel losses, and being competitive with what's left. I hope the GT game was simply a result of a bad matchup, but do you see how the narrative is changing here? It's how seasons go downhill and it's an old, old story: you go from confidently believing that misfortune was the result of something easily fixed, to hoping it, to realizing it wasn't. A good showing against UNC - that is, a win, not a plucky loss - can reverse that. Otherwise, there's little left to fall back on but the baseline "oh well, it was a rebuilding year," and that's no fun.
Despite an offensive performance that I'd call "almost adequate," the roles were reversed on Saturday. Georgia Tech is a mistake-prone team this year; those mistakes were the only thing standing between them and 50 points. Only under circumstances involving the phrase "I-AA" should the grinding, clock-chewing GT offense be a 50-point machine. I have no idea whether to pin the performance on the players or the coaches, which probably means it's a combination of both. I do know that the decision to open up a fifteen-foot gap at the line of scrimmage was a coach thing, and why Jim Reid would choose to do that against a triple option offense where option #1 is "hand off to a big-ass fullback and let him go in a straight line" is more puzzling than a 10x10 Rubik's Cube.
I've said repeatedly I don't think the 4-3 is a great matchup for that offense, and obviously in order to beat GT in the future either the talent level is going to have to vastly improve relative to GT, or Reid is going to have to scheme his brains out. It's not just scheme: the newness of our OLBs to their position was painfully obvious, and the MLBs were slow to get outside the blockers, leaving them easy targets to get sealed off the pursuit early on.
As for the offense, it wasn't awful, actually. Against FSU and USC I brushed off the last touchdown of the game as a product of less effort on defense and going against the scrubs; this time I'm willing to put that caveat aside because Matt Snyder was covered as hell on the two fine catches he made on the final drive and showed off some white-guys-can-jump moves that I didn't think he had. Whereas the FSU game might as well have been 34-7, I think the 21 points are legitimate.
Still, the running game, as ever, stunk. Hard. Perry Jones was bottled up except for the one run. With Verica, it's like he wasn't even a factor - an improvement over the FSU game, to be sure, and probably about as good as anyone can expect given the four sacks and lack of ground support. Losses always give a megaphone to the BACKUP QB NOWZ crowd that exists in every losing team's fanbase, but Verica's performance was the result of the poor play around him, not the other way round.
As we knew before the season, it starts on the O-line, the least effective group we have. This week you're starting to see the changes you'd expect for a unit with that label: Morgan Moses moves inside to guard, to back up B.J. Cabbell, and Sean Cascarano replaced the injured Landon Bradley at left tackle. Though this is presented a certain way by Mike London, seasoned football observers should be able to read the writing on the wall here: Cabbell's days as the starter there are probably numbered, and Bradley is likely to be Wally Pipped out of his job as well. That's not even to mention the loss of Joe Torchia for the season, ending his UVA career. Torchia has never been a very effective blocker, and his wonky shoulder almost certainly has a big say in that. It's a rebuilding project. You can't expect things to stay much the same as the season rolls on, and these are welcome changes with the exception of the premature end to a career.
These two losses make the UNC game a pivotal one. Bowl hopes, if you harbor any, depend on it. That's a team not unlike GT: doing the best they can with heavy personnel losses, and being competitive with what's left. I hope the GT game was simply a result of a bad matchup, but do you see how the narrative is changing here? It's how seasons go downhill and it's an old, old story: you go from confidently believing that misfortune was the result of something easily fixed, to hoping it, to realizing it wasn't. A good showing against UNC - that is, a win, not a plucky loss - can reverse that. Otherwise, there's little left to fall back on but the baseline "oh well, it was a rebuilding year," and that's no fun.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
redshirting
In my self-appointed role as Al Groh apologist, even I have to raise my eyebrows at a couple of Al's decisions this year regarding true freshmen. Most people do more than that, of course - a couple folks going all the way to the extent of pointing to the 14 true freshmen used this year as proof positive that Al does in fact hate the University - for why else would he so irreversibly damage our future?
Last week, Jeff White presented the breakdown of true freshmen on the field. Who played, and how much. Al's always liked to use them, this year more so than just about ever. 14 is a big, big number, and one of the usual tacks when criticizing Groh is that it's way too many. Often, people point to just the number as evidence. I thought I'd break this down a little further, though. A lot of these are justifiable - you'd have to be just not even thinking about it to claim all 14 shouldn't have played. Let's see who should and shouldn't have been out there.
Not Only Justifiable, But Would Have Been Criminal Not To Use Them:
- Tim Smith. Third-most productive receiver, and could easily be remembered as the best of this bunch when all's said and done. With the unit absolutely desperate for talent, I don't think I ever saw anyone argue that he shouldn't have played, and nobody should.
- Tucker Windle. Don't look at me like that. Another common criticism of Al is that he didn't develop enough playable depth. Actually kind of a problem for the linebackers this year - the previous group was so solid that they played all the time, and now we have seniors and juniors stepping up that really haven't seen much action. Well, here's your playable depth. Granted, our need for ILB's just got cut in half, but Groh can't be assuming that. Windle looked solid enough in his time out there, and he needs his share of reps.
- Oday Aboushi. Left tackle has been a punching bag of mine all season. Not 100% sure how fair that is in the end, but I can't say I was pleased at all by Landon Bradley's play this year. This should be an open competition next year, and Aboushi not only deserves his reps, the team needed him to get them.
- Will Hill. Before the season, DE depth was one of the major concerns. We always really knew we'd need to dip into the true freshman pool at DE, and Hill enrolled early, giving him a leg up. Not only that, though: having Hill on the field is useful proof for the admissions people, should the coaches ever want to make the case (they better), that early enrollment is a big benefit to the program.
Not Essential, But Perfectly Justifiable
- Dominique Wallace. It looked like he was headed for quite a bit of use until he got hurt. And we ended up with not a lot of usable depth at running back. Mikell Simpson is an injury magnet, Torrey Mack proved himself unable to pass-block, and Perry Jones is itty-bitty and not your first choice when the offensive line is average at best at run-blocking. We didn't really need Wallace out there, but I personally was wanting to see more. And we get that year back anyway thanks to a likely medical redshirt.
- Perry Jones. Again with the need for a little rotation at running back. Plus, Jones averaged 16 special teams plays a game - that's basically most of them. Might as well use the best we got, if he's it.
Would Have Preferred Not To See Them, But You Can Still Make An Argument
- Laroy Reynolds. Got some special teams action - about 10 plays a game - but not really enough to say we were using him because he was clearly the best at it. What I'd like to have seen is the breakdown of which special teams plays he was in on. If he was a kickoff/punt coverage regular but maybe not in for the returns, you could waffle him back and forth between here and the above column.
- Connor McCartin. Ended the season on the two-deep. Playable depth would again be a workable argument if he'd gotten more than four plays on defense. Still, when you're on the two-deep, you're on the two-deep - it seems disingenuous to list a guy there and then not play him in situations where you'd play the backup.
- Drew Jarrett. People forget: The guy's a walk-on. Redshirting him is the same thing as telling him he'll need to pay his way through a fifth year of college - and grad school at that, which is much more expensive. I don't think you ask that of a guy, unless you're prepared to offer him that fifth year gratis.
- Paul Freedman. Our tight ends - that is, Torchia and Phillips - were not too spectacular this year, either. Drops were a problem. I can see where you'd want to fire a shot across their bow by putting the third-string in there.
Put The Redshirt And The Matches Down, Coach
- Quintin Hunter. We had enough wide receivers out there. Hunter had one catch all year despite participating in 89 offensive plays. That's not justification to play him.
- LoVante' Battle. The contribution from him just wasn't worth it. Battle is probably not destined for stardom, but you might as well be patient and see what happens.
- Javanti Sparrow. See Battle.
- Corey Lillard. See Battle and Sparrow, times ten, and maybe minus the part about stardom. Lillard was a well-though-of recruit we had to beat a lot of good teams for. Ten plays? If you're going to get angry about redshirt-burning, this is the one to hang your hat on.
There's the possibility, by the way, of a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that we fans aren't privy to. Maybe one of the freshmen told Groh, "hey, I don't want to play a fifth year, I want to get my degree on schedule and get moving with my life - play me if I deserve it." Maybe we have a highly motivated freshman class that wanted to get out their and prove their special teams chops - Groh always said that special teams were your gateway to the field.
Still, from a purely analytical standpoint here, I think there are at least four and possibly eight that shouldn't have played, and six that definitely should have. But you have to remember: this isn't irreversible. What's irreversible is the redshirts. If Mike London wants to, he can put the shirt back on these fourteen players.
In particular, I think the following players would be excellent candidates: McCartin, Freedman, Hunter, and one or two of the defensive backs. There's not enough depth at defensive back to redshirt them all again plus the incoming class too. But two tight ends for the year are plenty, and we get back Torchia and Phillips. The 4-3 gives us lots of depth at ILB - we shouldn't need McCartin. We don't graduate any receivers but Hall, and we're never going to see another four- or five-receiver set, so Hunter can sit. And Robert Randolph is certainly capable of kicking extra points if we really want a fifth year out of Jarrett.
Bottom line here: Groh could certainly have run this year without using so many true freshman, but anybody who complains about using 14 without a look at who actually played and how much isn't thinking it through enough. And it's not as if any damage is irreversible. Redshirts aren't only for the freshman year. Myself I am only complaining about four. That's not program-killing stuff.
Last week, Jeff White presented the breakdown of true freshmen on the field. Who played, and how much. Al's always liked to use them, this year more so than just about ever. 14 is a big, big number, and one of the usual tacks when criticizing Groh is that it's way too many. Often, people point to just the number as evidence. I thought I'd break this down a little further, though. A lot of these are justifiable - you'd have to be just not even thinking about it to claim all 14 shouldn't have played. Let's see who should and shouldn't have been out there.
Not Only Justifiable, But Would Have Been Criminal Not To Use Them:
- Tim Smith. Third-most productive receiver, and could easily be remembered as the best of this bunch when all's said and done. With the unit absolutely desperate for talent, I don't think I ever saw anyone argue that he shouldn't have played, and nobody should.
- Tucker Windle. Don't look at me like that. Another common criticism of Al is that he didn't develop enough playable depth. Actually kind of a problem for the linebackers this year - the previous group was so solid that they played all the time, and now we have seniors and juniors stepping up that really haven't seen much action. Well, here's your playable depth. Granted, our need for ILB's just got cut in half, but Groh can't be assuming that. Windle looked solid enough in his time out there, and he needs his share of reps.
- Oday Aboushi. Left tackle has been a punching bag of mine all season. Not 100% sure how fair that is in the end, but I can't say I was pleased at all by Landon Bradley's play this year. This should be an open competition next year, and Aboushi not only deserves his reps, the team needed him to get them.
- Will Hill. Before the season, DE depth was one of the major concerns. We always really knew we'd need to dip into the true freshman pool at DE, and Hill enrolled early, giving him a leg up. Not only that, though: having Hill on the field is useful proof for the admissions people, should the coaches ever want to make the case (they better), that early enrollment is a big benefit to the program.
Not Essential, But Perfectly Justifiable
- Dominique Wallace. It looked like he was headed for quite a bit of use until he got hurt. And we ended up with not a lot of usable depth at running back. Mikell Simpson is an injury magnet, Torrey Mack proved himself unable to pass-block, and Perry Jones is itty-bitty and not your first choice when the offensive line is average at best at run-blocking. We didn't really need Wallace out there, but I personally was wanting to see more. And we get that year back anyway thanks to a likely medical redshirt.
- Perry Jones. Again with the need for a little rotation at running back. Plus, Jones averaged 16 special teams plays a game - that's basically most of them. Might as well use the best we got, if he's it.
Would Have Preferred Not To See Them, But You Can Still Make An Argument
- Laroy Reynolds. Got some special teams action - about 10 plays a game - but not really enough to say we were using him because he was clearly the best at it. What I'd like to have seen is the breakdown of which special teams plays he was in on. If he was a kickoff/punt coverage regular but maybe not in for the returns, you could waffle him back and forth between here and the above column.
- Connor McCartin. Ended the season on the two-deep. Playable depth would again be a workable argument if he'd gotten more than four plays on defense. Still, when you're on the two-deep, you're on the two-deep - it seems disingenuous to list a guy there and then not play him in situations where you'd play the backup.
- Drew Jarrett. People forget: The guy's a walk-on. Redshirting him is the same thing as telling him he'll need to pay his way through a fifth year of college - and grad school at that, which is much more expensive. I don't think you ask that of a guy, unless you're prepared to offer him that fifth year gratis.
- Paul Freedman. Our tight ends - that is, Torchia and Phillips - were not too spectacular this year, either. Drops were a problem. I can see where you'd want to fire a shot across their bow by putting the third-string in there.
Put The Redshirt And The Matches Down, Coach
- Quintin Hunter. We had enough wide receivers out there. Hunter had one catch all year despite participating in 89 offensive plays. That's not justification to play him.
- LoVante' Battle. The contribution from him just wasn't worth it. Battle is probably not destined for stardom, but you might as well be patient and see what happens.
- Javanti Sparrow. See Battle.
- Corey Lillard. See Battle and Sparrow, times ten, and maybe minus the part about stardom. Lillard was a well-though-of recruit we had to beat a lot of good teams for. Ten plays? If you're going to get angry about redshirt-burning, this is the one to hang your hat on.
There's the possibility, by the way, of a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that we fans aren't privy to. Maybe one of the freshmen told Groh, "hey, I don't want to play a fifth year, I want to get my degree on schedule and get moving with my life - play me if I deserve it." Maybe we have a highly motivated freshman class that wanted to get out their and prove their special teams chops - Groh always said that special teams were your gateway to the field.
Still, from a purely analytical standpoint here, I think there are at least four and possibly eight that shouldn't have played, and six that definitely should have. But you have to remember: this isn't irreversible. What's irreversible is the redshirts. If Mike London wants to, he can put the shirt back on these fourteen players.
In particular, I think the following players would be excellent candidates: McCartin, Freedman, Hunter, and one or two of the defensive backs. There's not enough depth at defensive back to redshirt them all again plus the incoming class too. But two tight ends for the year are plenty, and we get back Torchia and Phillips. The 4-3 gives us lots of depth at ILB - we shouldn't need McCartin. We don't graduate any receivers but Hall, and we're never going to see another four- or five-receiver set, so Hunter can sit. And Robert Randolph is certainly capable of kicking extra points if we really want a fifth year out of Jarrett.
Bottom line here: Groh could certainly have run this year without using so many true freshman, but anybody who complains about using 14 without a look at who actually played and how much isn't thinking it through enough. And it's not as if any damage is irreversible. Redshirts aren't only for the freshman year. Myself I am only complaining about four. That's not program-killing stuff.
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