super, thanks for asking

It took a while, but spring finally sprung, as they say.  You can tell because UVA sports have begun kicking ass again.

So much that was said about the Lake Elsinore regional came true.  Evenly-matched?  Yup - the regional flipped upside-down right out of the gate, with the top two teams both facing elimination after one day.  UCSB as a shaky host?  Yup again - the only one seed not to win a game.  And UVA needing to race through at top speed or else miss out on the supers?  I guess we don't know for sure, which is good.

But BOC sure felt that way.  In other years, Josh Sborz probably wouldn't have been kept on the mound after his team padded a 3-1 lead with three more runs brought to you by Geico.  And he wouldn't have been asked to "save" a five-run lead after pitching the previous two days, either.  Sborz's usage tells you all you need to know about how BOC felt about stretching out the series, which is to say, DON'T, at all costs short of shredding all his elbow ligaments.

It's obvious why: come the 11th inning, the Hoos were down to one unused pitcher, who was also the center fielder.  Had UVA lost that game I don't know what the hell, man.  You'd have had to hope a combination of Adam Haseley and Alec Bettinger could've gotten you through seven innings, eight if you're really lucky, and then I suppose more of Sborz (who wouldn't have gone on Sunday if he wasn't protecting a lead) and then some dudes who'd pitched like three innings all year.

Scary thought.  Less scary had San Diego State held on in the losers' bracket, because their pitching staff is in even worse shape, which makes me sort of wish they'd beaten USC and then us on Sunday to set up a hitters' duel for the ages.  If 14-10 represents the mutual near-collapse of two pitching staffs, I'd've bet everything on the over in a UVA-SDSU matchup on Monday.  I guess we'll just have to settle for winning the regional the semi-easy way.

A lot of credit goes to hitting that was clutcher than clutch.  Ernie Clement delivered the game-winning hit on Saturday and almost the whole lineup made Sunday happen, but for my money the guys who won this regional are Connor Jones and Brandon Waddell.  This simply doesn't happen if they don't both pitch into the eighth, combine for sixteen innings, and allow one lousy run each.  UVA will advance through the tournament as long as those two pitch lights-out, and be eliminated when they don't.

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I have yet to exult in UVA's 22nd national championship, so: woohoo tennis!  Five schools have won multiple national championships this season - UConn, Colorado, Ohio State, Stanford, and, of course, because I wouldn't mention it otherwise, UVA.  Three years ago, men's tennis was a program with a rep for being that program that couldn't get over the hump.  Now with two trophies, they've taken their place in the elite.  Hopefully for quite some time.

I was also going to write about consecutive trophies, but I forgot it was two years ago they won their first.  I realized I was thinking of Danielle Collins's individual singles championship last year.  Silly me, mixing up our powerhouse programs like that.  It didn't help my muddled situation that Ryan Shane won the singles title this year.  All these damn trophies are so confusing to keep track of.  How I long for the simplicity of life in Blacksburg and the clean, uncluttered trophy cases and freed-up postseason schedules.  Oh wait no I don't.

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-- Don't you love when you watch this really long drawn-out recruitment that takes years and then the subject of said recruitment sticks around for one season and then boogies?  Jamil Kamara's name first popped up when he was a high school freshman at Princess Anne.  His full UVA career: one catch, six yards.  Unlike the loss of Greyson Lambert I don't really chalk this up to the fact that this program is the result of a crash between a fireworks truck and an oil tank.  I guess you could argue that there's excessive WR depth and that the inmates are just a little too much in charge of the asylum when it comes to redshirting decisions.  I'd happily concede both points.  It's just that Kamara's overinflated opinion of his readiness is why he didn't redshirt last year in the first place, and why he'll be suiting up elsewhere next year.

-- I know the baseball team's camo unis have a near-perfect win-loss record.  I still hate them.  Especially when the home whites are so damn classy-looking and they finally got a set of decent road grays.  I'd just hate to think we might finally win a national title and all the lasting images of the team that does so would be in brown.

2013-2014 Cavalier of the Year

There's one last thing to do before plunging headlong into the 2014-2015 season and the pre-basketball autumn diversion that begins it.  There's an award to hand out, and, due to popular demand, it comes once again with the traditional crappy photoshop of the winner:

This was definitely one of the more interesting votes we've had.  From the get-go it was a three-way race, and I think Joe Harris's candidacy was assisted just enough by his signature on a three-year contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers in recent days.  Two of those years are guaranteed, a very rare move for a second-round pick in the NBA and as much of a guarantee as you'll ever see that Harris has made the team.  Cleveland has been working on Harris's supporting cast ever since drafting him.  For now he'll have to do with some castoff from the Miami Heat, but Joe has faced down similar challenges in the past and I'm sure he'll be willing to share some of his shots.

Harris was actually not my own vote for the winner, but I think his story is a fantastic one regardless.  We have been phenomenally privileged to watch his career in Charlottesville - the kid from Chelan, Washington, who took a chance on a struggling program, worked his butt off for four years and rewarded himself, his coach, and his fans with a long-sought championship, taken from the ACC's Darth Vader under some of the brightest spotlights in the country.  And now he gets to go play with basketball's biggest star on basketball's biggest stage.  Four years of humble and hard-working, excellent basketball, rewarded with a championship and a multi-million dollar contract - it's a story you never seen in college hoops anymore.

For posterity, here are the voting results:

Joe Harris - 39
Morgan Brian - 36
Danielle Collins - 24
Jasmine Burton - 12
Nathan Kirby - 5
Kevin Parks - 3
Mark Cockerton, Alex Domijan, JB Kolod - 1
Elly Buckley, Denny McCarthy, Nick Sulzer, Courtney Swan - 0

Harris wins with one of the lowest (if not the lowest) vote totals in voting history, but that's much more a testament to the strength of the competition this year.  Collins put a national championship trophy in the case and Brian is one of the 8 or 10 best players of her sport in the whole country, not just in college.  Congrats to the winner and the nominees for once again representing the University of Virginia with nothing but the best.

FOV Cavalier of the Year #1/#2

From Old Virginia celebrates its birthday in a unique way: by recognizing one of Virginia's student-athletes as the Cavalier of the Year. What are the criteria for the award? You decide; that's the beauty. I nominate the 12 athletes that I think have been the most outstanding during the latest season of UVA athletics, and provide a short summary of their accomplishments. You choose the winner in a poll that goes up after all 12 have had their moment in the spotlight. The full list of nominees is here. 

Over the next few weeks, two athletes at a time will be profiled, and you'll hear about what they've accomplished while representing Mr. Jefferson's University this year. The athletes are presented in a totally random order so as to hopefully not imply any endorsement one way or another. Athletes from all fields are considered; the point is to emphasize that UVA is about excellence across the entire department and doesn't shortchange its so-called non-revenue sports simply because they don't make headlines.  Today's athletes: Kevin Parks and Danielle Collins.

Kevin Parks - Football - Running back

Team accomplishments:

-- let's just skip this part

Personal accomplishments:

-- Consensus all-ACC selection (media, coaches, Phil Steele, Athlon
-- VaSID all-state
-- First UVA player with 1,000 rushing yards since 2004
-- 2nd in ACC in rushing yards

I'll tell you right off, I debated myself over and over about whether the football representative should be Parks or Ant Harris.  Harris was first-team-everything and even an all-American to some, on the strength of his eight interceptions.  That is an astounding stat.  And the fact that a 2-10 team can have two strong candidates for this is equally astounding.  I have, in the past, omitted football from the nomination list on the grounds of not having any deserving candidates, so it's not like I have to have one.

I picked Parks for two reasons.  One, the 1,000 yards (to say nothing of 329 receiving yards) is a season-long grind; eight picks is rare and really hard to do, and not to minimize the accomplishment, but it's eight bolts of lightning.  If Harris had had four, he'd never have had all those accolades, so in a way, he's there because of four plays.  Parks was just simply excellent all season long.  And two, sometimes the nomination is a lifetime-achievement thing.  It's worth highlighting that not only did Parks provide a season-long bright spot in a dark and dismal season, but he's been building up to that for a while.  He might've hit the 1,000-yard mark in an earlier season if he weren't splitting carries in the past, and remember: Parks set national records as a high-schooler: most 100-yard games, most carries, and third-most yards.  Old Spice - why Old Spice, I don't know, but Old Spice - named him the national player of the year as a senior.

So if I couldn't call him a COY nominee then, I'll do it now, on the occasion of breaking a 10-year-old drought.  Parks has proven himself a workhorse and a leader - he's a team captain - and pretty much exemplifies the attitude you want out of the guys (and gals) representing the school.

Danielle Collins - Women's tennis - No.2 singles

Team accomplishments:

-- ACC champions
-- Reached NCAA quarterfinals

Personal accomplishments:

-- National singles champion
-- All-American (obviously)
-- All-ACC
-- ITA Atlantic Region Player to Watch
-- ITA Atlantic Region singles champion
-- Two-time ACC Player of the Week

Maybe we're not a lacrosse or basketball or baseball school.  Maybe we're a tennis school.  The men have had an outstanding team for a while now, but the women are starting to catch up.  Remember, it took a little while for the team to land its first team national title, but had some individual champions before then.  Here come the women, following that path.

It's hard to argue with a ring, to be honest, and Danielle Collins has one now.  She's only a sophomore, too - though a first-year Hoo, having transferred in from Florida this year.  Unofficially, I think this is the first time I've had a nominee in their first year after transferring in.  Collins actually played mostly #2 singles for the year, not #1, and Julie Elbaba did advance far enough to be an all-American herself, but, y'know, ring.  There's quite an assortment of other accolades, too, as Collins had a really good indoor season as well.  But when you start talking national championships, it starts to overshadow everything else you - and perhaps the other candidates - have done.

the rookie cavaliers

To be clear, that's "Cavaliers that are now rookies in the NFL." Yes, once again it's time to see how the NFL draft went from a purely UVA perspective. This is a much shorter exercise than last year, when we had enough matriculation to the NFL that I had to split it up into draftees and non-draftees. This year, not so much. Maybe that has something to do with 3-9.

Anyway, here are the guys you'll be pulling for to make an NFL roster this year:

Chris Cook - 34th overall to the Vikings

The Vikings picked Cook with the selection they got from the Lions for trading out of the first round - really only a four-pick drop. The UVA fan in me is thrilled - Cook is going to a team bound and determined to upgrade a shaky cornerback position. The Lions fan in me is really pleased to finally have what looks like a really dangerous running back (the Lions took Cal's Jahvid Best with the pick acquired from the Vikings.)

But the combination UVA and Lions fan in me thinks the whole thing sucks. As a Lions fan, see, I can't stand the Vikings - maybe not as strongly as a Packers fan would hate them, but still; and I hate to see a Cavalier drafted by them, it's almost as bad as being drafted by Green Bay or Dallas. Not only that, but they used the pick the Lions gave them, and the Lions really, really need a cornerback too. (They picked one up in the third round instead.) And for the coup de grace: drafting Best gave the Lions the RB depth they needed to cut Cedric Peerman loose. So it's like a double no-Hoos whammy for the Lions.

But, Cook. As the Vikings' highest pick, he's something of a mini-star already in the Twin Cities and will no doubt be scrutinized come fall camp. He wasn't the Vikings' first choice, though; that was going to be Patrick Robinson, who got snagged two picks ahead of them. Minnesota needs cornerbacks badly enough that they decided to take the next one on their board instead of going with the best-player-available approach.

The situation there is really shaky. Cedric Griffin is the best they got, and they're not sure he'll be available for the start of the season. Everyone else was horribly unproductive last season, and the Vikings went out and signed a bunch of other guys before the draft (read: flung poo against the wall to find out what sticks) to try and shore up the position and be able to print up a depth chart and still look at themselves in the mirror. With Griffin probably out for training camp, Cook will have every chance to strut his stuff. Except for maybe the Lions, he'd have had a hard time finding a better situation.

Will Barker - Cowboys UFA

Ugh, I hate the Cowboys, but there's no denying former Cavaliers have had their share of success in Dallas. Both John Phillips and Kevin Ogletree caught on with the Cowboys last year, hauling in seven passes each, and they're joined this offseason by Connor Hughes, providing some warm-body depth at placekicker.

Barker ended up on a team that's more or less without a left tackle, but unfortunately I really have my doubts that Barker's suited for the left side. If he's a tackle, he's a right tackle, and Dallas has more depth on that side. Still, they didn't pick up a lineman til the sixth round and haven't been real active on the FA market for linemen either, so Barker's got as good a chance as any to impress his way onto the roster. As ever, UFA's face a long uphill climb to a steady paycheck and the odds are stacked against them, so when I say he's got a decent chance, that's definitely relative.

Nate Collins - Giants UFA

Another place with a nice contingent of Cavaliers; Collins will join Chris Canty and Clint Sintim on the Giants' defense. There isn't much room, though. Canty is an expensive investment that the Giants want to get some use out of after he was hurt much of last year, and so the depth chart at DT will get a little clogged. They drafted another defensive tackle in the second round as well. Overall, the Giants need more production than they've been getting out of the middle of their D-line, but there's enough depth there - especially high-priced depth - that it'll likely take an injury or something else unforeseen for Collins to crack the roster.

Mikell Simpson - Bengals UFA

Simpson's his small size - seriously, he looks like he's going to break every time he's tackled - make it a difficult battle no matter where he goes. Plus, he's not the only UFA RB the Bengals signed, and guess what else: Cincinnati picked up some familiar competition from the Lions. (Peerman, for the slow on the uptake.) The Bengals have no competition for the starting tailback job and some pretty well-established backups - they're basically looking for one last guy to fill out the back end of the roster, and Simpson's going to find it extremely difficult not to be one of the first cuts.

Rashawn Jackson - Panthers UFA

Guh. Carolina has a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams and some backups they really like in Tyrell Sutton and Mike Goodson. If Jackson is going to make the Panthers' roster it'll probably be as a pure fullback, and a backup at that as Tony Fiammetta has been groomed for the starting job. Unlike Simpson, Jackson also has the size to make a mark on special teams, and in order to make the roster, this is where he'll probably have to expend a lot of effort.

Working in his favor, Fox Sports called him the second-best undrafted free agent, and compared him to Jason Snelling, who's done a terrific job carving himself a niche with Atlanta. The comparison is no accident - Jackson has a very similar skill set, looks a lot like Snelling on the field, and minus the medical year off, followed a very similar career path at UVA. Eerie similarities. Let's hope the parallels can continue; if Jackson catches on with Carolina, it'll likely be right from the Snelling blueprint.

Vic Hall - Bears UFA

Hall's pro recruitment probably reminded him a lot of his college recruitment. Defense? Offense? Different teams had different ideas. For the Bears, it'll be offense, at least at first - slot receiver. Right in Devin Hester's wheelhouse. The Bears also have Rashied Davis as a backup there, and if Hall ends up as a slot and KR, those two at least will be in front of him. His versatility makes it tough to figure his chances of making the roster, but it also greatly improves them, and don't be surprised if he does land on his feet somewhere. Might not necessarily be the Bears, and it could be anywhere on the field - kick returner, gunner, cornerback, slot. The practice squad is also a distinct possibility - thanks to his athleticism, probably a greater possibility than any of the other UFA's listed here since he can be asked to portray various opposing burners as a scout teamer. That kind of sucks, but in the end there's a reason Hall was one of Groh's favorites and I can't see him being completely shunted aside when all's said and done.

awards time

Time to hand out awards in college football, and when you're a losing team you don't tend to be well represented. You can obviously forget about anyone on the offense being recognized for any reason, but the defense has its stars. You might remember that Nate Collins was named first-team all-ACC - a correct call by the writers. Collins isn't eligible for freshman awards though, and the smaller pool of players to choose from for that flavor of award means Steve Greer shines pretty brightly. Greer has been taking home all-ACC and all-America freshman honors from all over the map.

Not to be outdone, soccer rolls on with the award selections too.

And hey, just because you haven't played your season yet doesn't mean you can't collect on the awards circuit - that's what preseason all-Americans are for, and baseball's Danny Hultzen and Jarrett Parker each nabbed an NCBWA selection.

And now for one they're not handing out right this minute, but I wish they were: the Director's Cup, in which we're still first in the standings released yesterday.

Actually, let's talk about this last one for just a second. How totally sweet would it be to win this award, eh? Anyone at all who cares about this award, besides those in Palo Alto, would love to see it wrenched from Stanford's death grip. I wouldn't really get your hopes up, though. Stanford and UNC both have some points left in the bank for the fall, and we got killed in the winter sports last year. Relatively speaking, anyway, as compared to the biggest contenders. We have these great swim teams, but Stanford's are even better and they own random shit like men's gymnastics and fencing. I'd say if our spring sports live up to expectations, we should nab a top-five finish in this thing, but until Stanford trips over their own feet, they're not letting go this award.

Lastly, the recruiting board needs a little shuffling, so I'm shuffling some players on and off.

- Removed QB Hutson Mason, DT Harold Legania, and OT Shane Johnson. I don't know why I forgot to remove Legania after he committed to Minnesota. Johnson is off to Pitt. Mason isn't off to anywhere yet, but it's not here.

- Added DT Stephen Lawe and S Ed Reynolds. Wooo blast from the past! Mike London put Reynolds' offer back on the table.

- DT Brandon Sparrow, who we've probably heard the last of, is moved to red.

Okey-doke. That about wraps things up. Tomorrow, I'm getting on a plane for home, so we are going into Christmas shutdown mode. This is where I take like ten days off, slacker that I am, and post kinda sporadically on an if-I-feel-like-it basis. There might be one or two posts thrown up against the wall in the next week or so, especially if I decide I can't keep my mouth shut about some basketball event or something. If not, regular posting resumes on Tuesday the 29th. Til then, have a Merry Christmas, or a Happy Hanukkah if that's your thing (and you ought to be having one right this minute, anyway), or just enjoy your December 25th if the answer is none of the above.

ACC roundtable

This time around, Block-C is hosting; you may recognize them as this week's trading partner of questions related to Saturday's game (although such recognition may be difficult as that hasn't happened yet.)

Also, bulletized thoughts on last night's USF game. Which didn't really go as planned.

Anyway, here goes.

1) Let's just say, not trying to jinx anything here, but let's just say the Tigers make the ACC Championship game versus Georgia Tech. Who wins, and why?

Jinx away, fellas, jinx away, it's a good week to do that. But in any case, it doesn't matter who GT plays, GT wins. I said they were the best team before the season, I said they were the best team during the season (except for a short lapse when Miami had me duped into thinking they could be a national powerhouse) and they'll be the best team after the season. No way I'm going back on that prediction now.

2) Has the ACC taken the form that you thought it would at the beginning of the season? If not, what didn't you see coming? Disappointments? Pleasant surprises?

Pretty much about what I figured, except that Florida State isn't as good as I thought and we were supposed to be bowl eligible. And BC's better than everyone thought. The ACC as it is now almost always provides some week-to-week surprises but on the whole it looks about like I, and probably most folks, expected.

3) If your team is not in contention for the ACCCG, what are the necessary changes your program has to make to get your team into the game next year? If there's still a shot, what do you guys need to have happen in order to find yourself in Tampa? Non-team specific writers, pick your flavor of the week and go with it.

There is absolutely no way to fix this offense so it's good enough for a division championship in just one year.

4) If you could point to one player as the brightest spot on your team, who would that person be? Extrapolate a little for us please.

The whole defense has played pretty well all season, but Nate Collins is the guy who stands out the most. I said it in a previous roundtable and I'll say it again: there isn't a better complete defensive lineman in the league. Some are pass rushers and some are run stuffers but Collins is the only one who consistently does both.

5) Swap one player on your team for a player from your hated rival. Who you got and why?

It'd be oh-so-easy and obvious to snag running back extraordinaire Ryan Williams, but when you think about it, what would be the point? He'd still have to run behind our offensive line, and that would cut his yardage in half. I'll take one of their younger offensive linemen instead. We need to fix that unit. I'll take right tackle Blake DeChristopher, who's young enough to provide us with a couple years' worth of better pass blocking than we're getting right now. They can have our backup punter. This seems cruel to Nathan Rathjen, who occupies said position on the depth chart, but consider it like a Mormon mission, where the goal is to spread not a religion, but the gift of reading.

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Hey, it's basketball season! As if I haven't reminded you enough. Fear not: if things go the way they went last night, I'll be looking forward to baseball/lax season soon enough.

No, actually, despite the ugly score, I wasn't discouraged. Much. But I do have opinions:

- The score was a function of two things: 1, obviously we need Assane Sene back pronto - and I'm not even sure that would have changed the outcome because he is one guy and USF has a bunch of big dudes. Any time we face someone who can throw two big dudes out there at the same time like that, we're in deep trouble. And 2, the jump shooting. Reverted right back to last year's atrociousness. That sounds like another problem that's going to stick with us all year. This whole paragraph is Why We Won't Be Good. Unless a steadier rotation puts our players in a better mindset than last year, neither of these are anything Tony Bennett can fix.

- With the bad out of the way early, let's focus on the good - or at least, the rationalizeable. Starting with the defense. Despite the over-.500 shooting percentage from USF, it was, on the whole, excellent. Especially to begin the game. The first, oh, about twelve minutes or so were impeccable, and frustrated Augustus Gilchrist to the point where he threw an elbow that very easily could have been called flagrant. Bennett called for a lot of double teams down low - it was the only way Mustapha Farrakhan was going to ever successfully guard anyone who's 6'11", 240 and yes that matchup happened a couple times. Eventually of course that's the sort of thing that's going to turn out pretty disastrous. And the kind of effort being given for the first quarter of the game is tough to keep going for 40 minutes - but that's what they'll have to learn to do, and Bennett will be hell-bent on making sure of it.

- We got our face caved in on the boards, but that was because we missed so many damn jump shots and we didn't crash the offensive glass. The players were clearly instructed to forget about offensive rebounding and hustle downcourt to set up on D; wise, because it would have been a futile effort anyway and resulted in a zillion fast break points. Given the challenges we faced on defense and the boards, this would have been a really good game to live up to the Tony Bennett stereotype and waste the first three-quarters of the shot clock in order to reduce possessions. It was not a good game for Sammy Zeglinski to jack up the first open jump shot he had, wherever he might have been on the court - unfortunately, he did just that a couple times.

- What a ridiculously chintzy foul call on Mike Scott.

- We forced a lot of turnovers. Very nice job in the turnover department.

- Going forward, the general rule of thumb this year will be: the more an opponent's offense goes through its big men, the less our likelihood of winning. Florida State, with Solomon Alabi and Xavier Gibson, is going to kill us. VT is a very guard-oriented team and therefore is eminently beatable.

ACC roundtable

It's that time again. This edition is brought to you by From the Rumble Seat. Let's go ahead and get straight to it.

1. Alright fellas, this is your turn to apologize to the Boston College Eagles who went to Hell and back and have now arrived as the 3rd team for the ACC (and only team in the Atlantic) to be bowl eligible. You know you were snickering in the preseason. Also, give a high five to Mark Herzlich for finishing his last treatment of chemo.

High five. As for the apology, like hell. Going bowling is reward enough, isn't it? Chances are pretty excellent that Boston College will be our seventh loss and therefore officially eliminate us from bowl contention. Apologize? They should apologize to us.

But seriously, it's cool that Herzlich looks about done with that whole nasty cancer thing.

2. An Orange Bowl victory over a Boise/ TCU or an Orange Bowl victory over a Penn State/ Cincy team - which means more for the conference? Is there even a difference?

Penn State would mean the most, but only if the ACC rep is Georgia Tech, which right about now is the only ACC team that the national media really takes seriously. (Probably Miami also.) GT/PSU would be a great matchup. The only benefit to beating BSU or TCU is one that I'd enjoy and few others would, because I'm the lunatic that doesn't want a playoff. An ACC win over Boise or TCU wouldn't really elevate the ACC much in the eyes of the world - the message it would send is that the best of the mid-majors still can't hack it even against the lower end of the BCS conferences after all.

3. Enough with the CJ Spillers, the Christian Ponders, and the Jacory Harrises. We wanna talk defense. Who is the defensive POTY thus far in the ACC?

Robert Quinn of UNC and Derrick Morgan of GT are getting plenty of well-deserved press for being quarterback-terrorizing sackmasters, and I really have to throw a nod to BC's Luke Kuechly, leading the ACC in total tackles as a true freshman. That's one recruiting battle I really wanted to win at the time and even more so now.

But guess what. I'm gonna play favorites here and I don't care what anyone thinks. Nate Collins is your DPOY and that is a fact. Collins is the only defensive lineman in the ACC's top ten in tackles, and this in a defense that asks its lineman mainly to occupy offensive linemen and leave the playmaking to the linebackers. Morgan and Quinn don't even sniff the top 50. Not even close. Nice gaudy sack totals, but they're not run-stuffers. Collins is also ACC-top-five in sacks with five, and that's five solo sacks, no cheesy assists. And then there's that interception return for a touchdown. Collins doesn't get the accolades that he should because we kinda suck. But he's the best complete defensive lineman in the league so far this year.

4. Recently, Bird compared the Atlantic to the Big 12 North. Is this a fair comparison? The Coastal is currently 8-2 against the Atlantic. There are still 8 interdivision games left. Can the Atlantic redeem itself this season?

Let's see, those games would be:

BC-UVA
BC-UNC
Clemson-UVA
Md.-VT
NCSt.-UNC
NCSt.-VT
Wake-GT
Wake-Duke

I count two that should definitely go the Atlantic's way (and you know what those are. Hint: I hate football.) I count three that should definitely be Coastal wins, so that puts the record at 11-4, Coastal, with three tossups (NCSt.-UNC, BC-UNC, Wake-Duke) that frankly don't look too good for the Atlantic.

So no. Only way this goes well for the Atlantic is if they win the ACCCG, which is definitely a loss for the conference at large. Clemson or BC might come out with a pretty good looking record, but they'll just be kings of the mud.

And yes, the comparison is legit. The teams at the top of the B12N aren't as good as in the Atlantic, but the Atlantic's bottom teams are worse.

5. Tailgating is essential to all things football. In Atlanta, the tailgating game of choice is cornhole. What is your game of choice to pass the time?

Drinking. Cornhole's pretty sweet too. Fortunately, they're very complementary.

6. Let's cut to the chase. There are two kinds of people: sheep and sharks. Sharks are winners and they don't look back 'cause they don't have necks. Necks are for sheep. Is your team full of sharks or is your team full of sheep?

Sharks, but the kind that get eaten by octopuses. They try hard. They'll bite the shit out of you if you're not careful. They just, you know, get eaten by octopuses anyway. Ones named "Duke."

7. Create a cocktail in the spirit of your school and explain it to us. Non-edible ingredients are allowed and encouraged.

Aw, I'm no good at bartending and mixing drinks and what not. TJ was a voice of democracy, a man for the people. The Lawn was designed so that professors would mingle with students. Crack open a beer, there's your cocktail. No drink is more democratic than beer. Then drink it and crack open a whole bunch more, because we like to think that's what we do.

omg our recruiting o noez

Some time back, a reader pointed out in a comment the alternating nature of our recruiting classes, in which odd years are awesome and even years suck. This as you're likely to know is a trend going back to about 2004 or 2005, depending on how you think the 2004 class as a whole panned out. I answered the question - that is, will 2010 be any better? - optimistically. I wonder if I was right.

Since the 2004 class yielded Chris Long, Cedric Peerman, Chris Gould, Clint Sintim, and sort-of* Branden Albert, as well as sort-of Olu Hall who had a very studly star rating, let's arbitrarily say this trend began in 2005, when we plucked Eugene Monroe out of New Jersey. 2005 was a very good class. Now, what's got UVA fans really uneasy is the number of commitments at this point in the year: One. Duke has five. In past years, here's how we stood with commitments as of May 15:

2005: 11
2006: 0
2007: 6
2008: 3
2009: 7
2010: 1

There's a very clear up-and-down pattern to that, although I probably ought to caveat the 2009 number by pointing out one of those 7 is eventual decommit Alex Owah; what I didn't count was Caleb Porzel, who'd already committed and disappeared by this time. No matter how you slice it, the best even-year performance as of May 15 is half as good as the worst odd-year performance.

There's also no denying that the even years have been a disappointment in the star ratings. Rivals had all our odd-year classes 6th in the conference and our even year ones as high as 8th and as low as 11th. The best player we got out of the '06 class is Nate Collins, who was also the lowest-rated.

Taking stock honestly, I see no reason why this trend won't continue. If you like to go by nothing but star ratings and recruiting service rankings, you're probably going to be one sorry Wahoo come Signing Day 2010. All the factors are there. By this point in the year most teams have a list of commits; our list is one. It's going to be a small class; any genius who's been keeping track of the scholarships could guess that. We're already overbooked and losing only 12 to eligibility at the end of the year. The recruiting services, when ranking classes against each other, bias the rankings toward big-ass classes. And those who are most likely to commit sometime soon (Conner Davis, E.J. Scott, Marcus Rush maybe, Kyrrel Latimer, etc.) have low-to-medium three-star rankings. Nothing like 2007 when four-stars Peter Lalich and J'Courtney Williams committed within three days of each other in April.

Now. Not a lot of our offered targets have actually committed elsewhere. So while we're not exactly raking them in, we're not losing out in great numbers, either. The biggest losses are probably Silas Redd, Philip Sims, Mark Shuman, Seth Betancourt, and Justin Hunter. Redd and Shuman were in love with their particular school and the only thing that would have stopped them going was a lack of an offer; Sims, we had a shot at, but he was always going to be a hard get, and the same is true with Hunter only minus the part where we had a legit shot.

So there's that for consolation, but it's also very indicative of the coaching staff slow-playing this thing. They're not going to go all-out to fill up the class, because that's the last thing they want to do, lest they lose out on someone they want badly.

Conclusion, then: Star-gazers are going to be sorely disappointed. If this class ranks 10th or lower by the recruiting services, it won't surprise me one bit. But! You might notice I chose two flame-outs from the '07 class as my earlier example; that's on purpose. The strength of the '07 class is not in the seven four-stars, most of whom will probably not have four-star careers. Likewise, the '08 class was badly panned by UVA fans as a huge recruiting disappointment. It was small and sucked ass in the star department. It's also yielded at least seven players who figure to play a major role on the depth chart this year, and that's while these guys are sophomores or redshirt freshmen.

So, actual conclusion: Star-gazers, you're still going to not like the class. I think from a rankings perspective, the top end of the class will look a little better than 2008, in which Ausar Walcott and Torrey Mack were the only headliners. It's still going to be a small class though and most of them will be in the unexciting range. But I think, like 2008, a few years after the class is in the books, we'll learn the lesson for the umpteenth time that star ratings don't mean everything. Kevin Parks, for example, I think will be brilliant. If Ken Wilkins signs up, I think he'll be brilliant. There will be at least one really excellent receiver in the class, and I think we'll be happy with the quarterback we sign, whoever that is.

After some of our big summer events, like Big Fancy Blue-Chip Shindig Day in June and the camp in July, we'll have a lot better notion of how this thing is going to shake out.

*Sort-of, because they prepped and ended up in the following year's class.

Many many many apologies for skipping yesterday's post, but it was Game 7 of Wings-Ducks, y'see. All ended well in that department, and to make it up to you, the Maryland lacrosse game highlights will be on YouTube by Sunday evening.

the drama is dead; long live the drama

With Tristan Spurlock and Jontel Evans back in the fold pretty much officially, the last shred of drama from the '08-'09 season is finally at a close. That's now officially last season, and the lack of a schedule does not deter me from calling the '09-'10 campaign "this season."

Or is it the end? DeShawn Painter, as you might have read, is no longer bound to Florida and is looking elsewhere. According to ESPN, we're the front-runner for his services. Yay? I dunno. First off where does that even come from? I really don't think that's based on any, like, actual insider knowledge. I think that's just a guy having to fill in the blanks in an editor-directed article and figuring one school's as good as any other. That's #1. #2, where does the scholarship come from? There were 14 players on the roster last year, and only one was paying his own way. The scholarship limit is, of course, 13 - Diane and Soroye depart, replaced by Spurlock and Evans, and there you are at 13 again. Where the scholarship for Painter would come from, I have no idea. So I think it's safe to say, Painter isn't going to be an option, and any future drama is '09-'10 drama, not '08-'09 drama.

OK, what else on this very, very offseasonish Wednesday? The Tewaaraton Trophy nominations are out - 21 in all, four of which are 'Hoos. The obvious two are Danny Glading and Garrett Billings; Shamel Bratton also picks up a nomination, and the fourth is for Mike Timms. When the five finalists are selected, Bratton and Timms are very unlikely to be on the list is my guess. Bratton because there's no way he beats out Glading and Billings, and Timms because long-stick guys don't win the Tewaaraton same way defensive players don't win the Heisman. Not to disparage what Timms has done, though, which is basically to make a mess of opposing offenses.

Also, the local newspapers tag-team on some QB fluff. Jeff White brings you Vic Hall and Jay Jenkins has Jameel Sewell. Both are pretty similar themes of "likable guy finally getting a shot at running the show." Much of the quarterback publicity coming out of spring camp has focused on these two gentlemen, and it really would seem that Marc Verica is the odd man out for now.

Finally, the official website has been doing some running Q&A's with various players - today, Nate Collins is on the hook. Most of it's the usual fluff, but Collins gives some pretty strong hints at what the linebacker depth chart looks like. Based on that, plus yesterday's with Denzel Burrell as well as the rest of the precious rare morsels of info that sneak out of camp, here's a guess at the way that's shaping up: Outside, the first-teamers are Cam Johnson and Burrell, with Billy Schautz and Aaron Clark backing up. Schautz has been getting good reviews out of practice, but outside is where all the established players with experience are. Inside, Darren Childs and Steve Greer are the ones with the first group according to Collins, and Aaron Taliaferro and Darnell Carter are with the second team.

remember these guys?

Hey, we have a football team too, did you hear? They got uniforms and everything. It's way neat.

You'd be forgiven, of course, if you forgot this over the past week or so, what with there being a little bit of a hubbub over the basketball team. But the football team still exists, and it's even practicing, so accordingly, I've spent some time today updating the depth chart and recruiting board.

Here are the changes to the recruiting side of things:

- Moved TE Kyle Baublitz from red to yellow. His taking visits to UVA means that even though his offer pile his huge, ours isn't serving merely to keep the stack impressively large.

- Removed TE Josh Lovell. I see no interest on our end, really.

- Removed DE Zack McCray, who really just sort of confirmed the earlier thinking by point-blank saying he's not interested.

- OT Robby Havenstein likes our parking garage ($). I have absolutely no way of reflecting this on the board. Just thought you might like to know.

- RB Silas Redd took a visit to Penn State ($) this past weekend. Penn State is his dream school and will be extremely hard to beat. If he commits anywhere any time soon, it'll be there. If he hasn't committed in, oh, say, three weeks or so, then his recruitment will be one to watch closely.

And the changes to the depth chart:

- Nate Collins is now at defensive end, where he's been working all spring. To me this says Devlin and Parr aren't the answer after all. Might also want to keep an eye on Kevin Crawford's eligibility. It also frees up Nick Jenkins to be the clear starter in the middle, J-K Dolce to get a healthy share of time there, and Buddy Ruff can also get his foot in the door.

- I also added I's and O's to the linebackers. What this indicates should be pretty clear. I'd have made separate sections, but some of the lesser-used players (the walk-ons, mostly) would have been coin flips 'cause I don't know.

- What I have not done is add Vic Hall to the quarterbacks. Yes, I know he's working there exclusively this spring. However, Groh's comments on the matter implied (to me, anyway) that Hall was not going to be relieved of all cornerback duties. He just doesn't need the work there like he needs the work at QB. Hall is too good an athlete to keep off the field, and when he's not quarterbacking he'll probably be playing a fair amount of defense.

I otherwise don't have a lot of actual content today. I also have a confession to make. I am a bad bad bad UVA lax fan. Terrible. I totally forgot that our game with Maryland was a day game and not a night game, and so only turned on the game in the fourth quarter, having of course neglected to record it for posterity. I then turned it off, believe it or not, after three OT's, because I had hockey tickets for a game two hours away in Bridgeport and had to leave or miss the game. (This was supposed to be a Michigan game. It wasn't. I went anyway. I'm a sucker for live games.) So I'm terrible. Just terrible. But this story has a happy ending, because ESPN Classic rocks my socks. I was able to TiVo that broadcast and finish watching the game this week, and better yet, eventually it will show up in the videos section. What a wonderful world we live in.

season preview: defense

I really feel like watching at least some of that South Carolina-NC State game (that's right, I'm actually depriving myself of real, actual football so that I can get this stuff posted, just for you.) So it will be a toss-up as to whether the USC game preview goes up tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon. Leaning toward afternoon so these season previews, which I really did spend some time on, don't get shoved to the bottom, unread and unloved. In that vein, by the way, here is the link to the offense preview.

DEFENSIVE LINE

Let’s squash any misplaced over-optimism right now, once and for all: At absolutely no point during this year will the defensive line be better than it was last year. Chris Long was a destroyer of offenses. The line could have been made up of Chris Long and two cotton candy statues and I would have called it a 5 out of 5. Jeffrey Fitzgerald was not a cotton candy statue, and he is also gone. When the defense trots out against USC, the three biggest guys in blue will all be different players than last year.

And freshmen abound. At either the first or second spot on the depth chart, there is a redshirt freshman at each position. Notably, there is Matt Conrath (#94) slated to start at one of the ends. This was going to be Sean Gottschalk’s (#99) spot, but he has not been consistently practicing due to an “undisclosed health issue.” He may be Wally Pipp’d right out of a starting job, because Conrath has been lighting up the newspaper articles and message boards with his play this fall. Long himself had terrific things to say about Conrath, and that was without even seeing him in a game. There’s a great deal more experience with the rest of the starters; Alex Field (#93) on the other end and Nate Collins (#98) in the middle were the top reserves and played in every game last year. Collins is an exceptional athlete overall; the guy actually played some quarterback in high school and acquitted himself well for a 270 pounder. (He’s bigger now.) But Groh likes redshirt freshman Nick Jenkins (#96), too, and we could see a lot of Jenkins this year. Last year Collins rotated with Allen Billyk and got about 35-40% of the snaps, and a similar rotation may be in the cards, with Collins taking over Billyk’s role.

So there’s really plenty of reason to believe that this line will perform quite well. Chris Long was one of those rare players who could change a game by himself from the trenches, and none of these guys are that level. But they’re good players in their own right. Counterintuitively, the 3-4 system demands better line play than the 4-3; because there are fewer of them, it’s harder to cover up poor play. A weak defensive tackle can be helped out by the stronger one in a 4-3, but if the 3-4 nose tackle is no good, the linebackers can’t help until the play is already four yards downfield. That’s why Groh rotates nose tackles more frequently than the ends. Yes, the starting ends were dominant last year, but they’re not this year, and Groh’s still looking for that near-even split of playing time at tackle. Fortunately, this looks like a group that can handle itself.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

LINEBACKERS

Always the stars of an Al Groh defense. Like the tight ends, just fire up the conveyor belt and bring on the next great Wahoo linebacker. This year, it’s Clint Sintim (#51), who is the defensive half of our preseason all-ACC selections. His side of the field will be damn near impossible for teams to run on, because next to him is Jon Copper (#54). Oh, and then there’s Copper’s fellow inside ‘backer, Antonio Appleby (#58). These three have started every game together since the beginning of the 2006 season. By their powers combined they are awesome – the best linebacking corps in the ACC, and that’s only three of four. The other outside spot will be manned by either Denzel Burrell (#45) or Aaron Clark (#41). Probably both, actually. Burrell is a junior and Clark is a senior, and both have similar waited-for-their-turn stories because in front of them was Jermaine Dias, who was a three-year starter at that spot.

Expect there to be rotation at all linebacker spots, because otherwise the conveyor belt will come to a screeching halt. If you call Clark the starter, then all four starters are seniors, and suddenly Denzel Burrell will find himself the graybeard of the bunch. There’s only one other junior linebacker, which is Darren Childs (#49), who’s got all of five plays under his belt. Jared Detrick (#55) and John-Kevin Dolce (#59) are the other backups, and only Detrick has anything you could call experience – he got into 11 games last year as a true freshman. These guys will rotate into the game so Groh can get a look for next year.

Rating: 4 out of 5. The only Butkus Watchlist guy is Sintim, but Copper is the leading tackler.

SECONDARY

Another position of strength, especially at corner. Vic Hall (#4) and Ras-I Dowling (#19) make up one of the better tandems in the conference. This is mainly due to potential more than past performance because unlike linebacker, there are no seniors in the two-deep at corner. Hall is one of the team’s best athletes. Dowling was a true freshman last year and had the kind of season where the coaches almost feel forced to put him in more and more. He earned last year’s Bill Dudley Award as UVA’s best first-year player, and scraped up a couple all-freshman honors in the conference and the nation, too. Dowling’s got a bit of a leg injury, which could put Dom Joseph (#23) on the field some against USC, but he’s still listed at the top of the depth chart. (By contrast, Gottschalk doesn’t appear.)

At safety, there’s Byron Glaspy (#22) and then questions. Glaspy has two years of starting experience under his belt, which is nice. Brandon Woods (#17) has two years of special teams coverage play under his belt, which is cause for a few questions. But he and Glaspy are the only two upperclassmen playing safety. This isn’t really as huge a deal as I’m melodramatically making it sound, because he’ll be helped immensely by playing next to a guy as experienced as Glaspy, and it’s not as easy for an offense to exploit a weakness at safety (if Woods turns out to be one.)

The depth here is pretty young. Besides Joseph, there’s Chase Minnifield (#31). Minnifield has the Pro Bowl bloodlines; his father, Frank, was a long-time cornerback for the Cleveland Browns. Both those two are redshirt freshmen; the rest of the secondary depth chart are sophomores. Experience is thin after the starting four, and even the starting four aren’t as experienced as you’d like.

Rating: 3 out of 5, but the potential exists for a boost, if Dowling and Hall maximize their athletic ability and stay healthy.

PUNTING

It’s Jimmy Howell (#8). He’s the only guy on scholarship. Um, John Thornton (#4) lives on the Lawn, so, awesome for him. But he won’t be doing any actual punting.

FRESHMEN ON THE FIELD

DE Matt Conrath
NT Nick Jenkins
CB Dom Joseph
CB Chase Minnifield

IN A NUTSHELL

Defense had better be the strength of this team, because it’s sure not likely to be the offense. The offense has pieces to the puzzle, but just as many question marks. On defense there are only two new starters once you get past the line, and that line itself isn’t bad either. The offense is poorly equipped to make any dramatic comebacks that require scoring more than once, so the defense cannot let the team get into any holes. They should be very strong against the run, and even a little bit of a pass rush would give the corners all they need to keep opponents’ passing games in check. Last year, most games were pretty low scoring – this defense even frustrated the flashy Texas Tech offense – and that looks to continue this year.

fluff is less fluffy

One really nice thing about the offseason giving way to "fall" practice ("fall" being kind of a silly word - have you been to Virginia in August?) is that the fluff pieces put out by the local papers get less fluffy and more newsy. You can get a pretty decent look at how the defense will be shaking out this season just by reading these articles here.

First, a look at nose tackle. Junior Nate Collins is more or less the man here, replacing Allen Billyk as the starter. Collins is one of the reasons I'm not going "OH NO defensive line OH NO" despite the much-mentioned loss of all three starters. Collins got in on his fair share of snaps last year and contributed also his fair share of tackles to the nose tackle total of 69, which in a 3-4 defense is saying something. So we're OK there. More exciting for the future is the emergence of Nick Jenkins. The article is about Collins, but Groh is talking good things about redshirt freshman Jenkins and hopes to use Jenkins this season in Collins' role from last year, which would mean seeing quite a bit of him on the field.

Next we go to the defensive backfield for a look at safety, where Byron Glaspy holds down the spot with a lock and key - Groh himself says Glaspy has "ownership" of the position. As a former walk-on, Glaspy is a great story, having become a starter his freshman year and never looking back. He will definitely be one of the defensive leaders this season.

Before I link you to this next article, I have a rant. And I'm not complaining, mind you, because thanks to the world of half-assery that is the NCAA eligibility rules, we get an extra kicker, and that's a good thing because the more kickers on the roster, the less the chance that they all will totally stink.

Here's the deal: Yannick Reyering, before he came here from Doitchland for his tour of duty as a Wahoo soccer player, played some for a German semi-pro team. The NCAA said, whoa there, and then said, das ist nicht so gut, you nicht play. End of eligibility. UVA appealed, and Reyering got three years of eligibility returned to him. Those ran out after this last season. BUT HE'S STILL OK TO PLAY FOOTBALL? Again, not that I'm complaining. We got a kicker out of it. But I don't understand why we can't get a soccer player out of it. What is the point of denying eligibility in one sport only, I wonder?

Whatever. Here's the article. It's a gripping, tearjerking tale, if you hold on to an onion really tightly while you read.

Other notes gleaned from the articles linked above:

- The inside track on the non-Glaspy safety position belongs to junior Brandon Woods. The article calls him a "converted wide receiver" but he hasn't played that position since 2005 (a redshirt year) and played on defense in high school besides. He is competing with Matt Leemhius, Rico Bell, and Corey Mosley.
- Besides Reyering, there are five other walk-ons joining the team: LB Brady Stovall, K Robert Randolph, C John Maghamez, WR Johnny Pickett, and QB Kyle McCartin, the older brother of '09 verbal Connor.

Programming note: I'd intended to have the UNC season preview up tomorrow, but it's been a LONG week at work, especially today, and I don't want to bother writing it up tonight. Tomorrow afternoon is a recruiting update, so UNC will run Sat. or Sun., and the rest of the ACC will finish up next week.