Normally I’d clean up the white border around his face but I just wanted to see how it’d look.
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Hah yup BA gonna fit right in going out on rattle snake hunts with Gundy.
Also random note It’s been 12 years since that rant. The week it happened the Hoos were hosting Maryland with the Fridge as the coach and LaMont Jordan in the backfield. Myself and a friend walked from the Econo Lodge across from UHall to the stadium screaming I’m a man I’m 40 the entire time… good times.
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Another commit, Edge DE Mekhi Buchanan. Unrated on 247 but had offers from a good deal of P-5 schools including VT, GT, Wake, Kentucky, and Arizona State. Been on a pretty good run recently of getting some quality depth along the D-Line in this class.
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RB Kobe Pace is transferring to UVA. Was previously at Clemson where he wasn’t very productive this past year, but had 641 rushing yards and 6 TD’s on 6.2 ypc in 2021. Was a 3 star, top 500 player coming out of HS.
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I don’t know enough about the players coming in to say the team is set up for success or failure, but I do like seeing the staff being active and dare I say aggressive in the portal and recruiting.
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I will go on record and say that I was not a fan of how they approached the bulk of this recruiting cycle, but the past few weeks have been a nice rebound and put us back on track for the time being. Their transfer portal strategy so far is working, which is a positive sign for the future.
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I have to wonder what initiated the change? It feels like they went from totally dormant to very active and it feels like they are landing guys who are in the appropriate range. Feels like they are filling in some holes and adding some depth.
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Here’s my best uninformed guess on what happened.
Elliott came out of the gate offering a bunch of high profile prospects in the 4 star range, expecting that his pedigree coming from Clemson would get him in the door and give him a chance to land a few of them. It did get us somewhere with a couple of big time prospects, but ultimately we struck out on all of them aside from Kam Robinson. I was fine with this approach early on, we had the opportunity to come out swinging in this cycle given that we were only looking for around 15 commits in the class but ultimately it didn’t pan out. No big deal. The problem is that I think them striking out on so many of those targets caused a bit of a panic and made them flip their expectations of what kind of player we can reasonably land at UVA too much to the other side of the spectrum. We went from pursuing SEC caliber talents to offering and taking commitments from multiple guys with zero P-5 offers or in some cases guys with 0 FBS offers, something that’s perfectly acceptable to do with one or two players but a really bad strategy for filling up over half your class.
I think they’re finally finding the happy medium though. Guys with good offer lists that are around the .8500 range on 247 (basically at or near the top 1000) who project as productive players 2-3 years into their development. I also believe they’ve taken that same mindset into their transfer recruiting as well, we contacted some high profile guys to gauge if they had any interest and when they didn’t we moved onto more realistic options. And they’ve identified that the options we should be living off of in the portal are top tier FCS guys who are looking for a step up in competition (Muskett, Parker), as well as players from high profile programs who are looking for an easier path to playing time (Pace).
As far as social media goes, that needs to maintain a priority. We’re already at a massive disadvantage when trying to sell our program to recruits when compared to other P-5 teams, there’s tons of things that aren’t really in the staff’s control. But to not utilize Twitter or Instagram to its fullest capabilities, something that the staff and athletic department have full control over, is only allowing the programs that we’re consistently competing against to have yet another leg up on us. They’ve been more active recently which is good, but that should be something that we’re really on top of.
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Jesus that post was way longer than I expected it to be. My b.
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No need to apologize. It was a good one. I think you hit on something with the adjustment made in recruiting. In retrospect it’s not surprising that it took ab it for basically a first time staff to find their legs in regards to who to target. I also agree I like the window they are falling into with the .8500 range recruits. It feels about right for the program given it’s current state and if given time they can build on that. I also like the idea of becoming the landing spot for FCS and Group of 5 players looking to move up after proving themselves and getting seasoned.
It’s a delicate balance, I feel like Bronco obviously lived in that range as well, but I think his downfall was taking too many flyers on guys he thought he could turn into players. 1stars into 3/4’s. Especially at key positions, it worked for a year with BA, but Norfolk for all the hype he gets from fans, there’s a reason he had no P5 offers.
Overall, I think Coach Elliott is learning on the job, and his recent actions make me think he is adjusting and learning which is key.
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I keep getting these alerts of top recruits flipping their commitments. In the name of complete transparency, couldn’t we just change the process to a silent auction? Or maybe a live auction and televise the whole thing.
Yes, what happened? Maybe 2J being the RC and OL coach was feeling the heat on his way out? Maybe there was some unmentioned changes with recruiting? We may never know but I’ll take the current direction!
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Yea im feeling better about the recruiting after a rocky start. I haven’t kept up with it much but i have seen a uptick in their recruiting the last few weeks with some really solid players. What is going on with Robinson?. Last i heard he had reopened his recruitment
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To sum up UVA’s signing day so far, all players who were originally committed in the class have signed aside from Kam Robinson, who is expected to choose between us, FSU, and SC at 6PM EST today. He’s the only potential decommit.
We also landed and signed 3 star top 1000 ATH Suderian Harrison as part of the class. He’s projected to play WR here and had offers from VT, Oklahoma, Louisville and Vanderbilt. Personally I think this dude is seriously underrated and is gonna end up being very good pickup for us.
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Been keeping an eye on this throughout the day and am honestly happy with what I’ve seen. I think this is a solid class for Coach Elliott. The reality is there was never gonna be any true bangers in terms of recruits. But as we talked about earlier I think he has played well within his field. Also let’s not forget how the season ended for the Hoos, and what they are trying to move on from… not easy.
I 100% agree about Suderian, I think he could be a Joe Reed type when it comes to overall impact when it’s all said and done. Kids an straight athlete.
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Showed up for his recruiting visits in high schools wearing a XXXXL UVA t-shirt. We should do better than that.
Are you seriously making fun of the man’s weight?
Come on. You should do better than that.
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Not at all. It’s about the t-shirt and sloppy appearance. Gotta represent better than that.
I’m find with him wearing that. If that’s his style and what he feels comfortable in so be it. There’s no “right recruiting outfit”
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Certainly unique when compared to other P5 recruiters. But I am not saying it is the one key thing that keeps him from being a good recruiter.