Not just favorable but the easiest non-con of any power conference team. Our crossover is Syracuse. Pitt and Miami are both at home. Can almost guarantee it’ll be the easiest schedule we will have for the next decade.
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Got to get off this list at some point:
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Also it seems like we got an in-state OL commit. Not ranked and apparently no other reported offers. So recruiting is continuing to uh… move in a mildly concerning direction. But let’s hope he kills it, and hope the new staff get a better handle on the ‘24 class.
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Odds are the “Power 5” will dissolve before we host GameDay. Either way, we’re off the list…
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Yeah, I’m with you. Haven’t hit the alarm button yet, but ‘24 may be the indicator.
And let’s be honest. Need to hit on a QB to tread water with the talent level currently on this roster. Bronco hit on his. Hopefully we have an answer for next year that I’m not aware of yet…
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Yeah. I honestly was expecting a little recruiting bump right off the bat given we hired Clemson’s offensive coordinator. Instead, we not only haven’t gotten one, but we’ve seemingly gotten a dip, which seems ridiculous.
I am not near the panic button yet at all and really like this staff so far - and they deserve to be given plenty of time to start things up - but they better get the recruiting part figured out sooner rather than later if they don’t want the wheels to fall off in a couple years.
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We have to be respectable in football if we want to make a jump to the SEC or Big too. This… is not a great start for recruiting
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Yeah, I mean we’re only ranked above Syracuse in the ACC class rankings. Their staff are basically dead men walking right now and they’re trying to recruit kids to play football in freaking Syracuse, NY. And it’s not some “oh it’s just cause we have a small class - look at the quality of each one” situation. Our average player ranking is below everyone but Syracuse too. This does not feel like what things should look like with a new staff coming in and generating hype.
Anyway, I’m being too dramatic. They should get a big runway to work with. I’m just starting to find myself a little confused.
Yeah I mean these runways shorten quickly. I’m pretty confused too
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Lake Taylor is not exactly a UVA feeder school. I can’t remember the last Titan to go to UVA football. I do remember the type that went to Ohio State and Urban Meyer. I hope this works out but I’m having some bad vibes from the Groh years.
Just because I was curious, I went back through 247’s rankings and quickly threw together the below. There’s multiple ways you could look at their stuff, but I chose to look at the percentage of ACC teams who we beat in terms of average player rating in a given recruiting year. Felt like that focused on the quality of the players being landed as opposed to the number of players in each class (which affect 247’s overall ranking). I didn’t just use the average rating because I’m honestly not sure it’s consistently done across years. Only went back to 2011 because their site doesn’t seem to work properly for earlier classes.
Blue is London, orange is Bronco, and Green is Elliott. Higher bars are better. It’s entirely possible I made an error somewhere.
Doesn’t really tell a story we didn’t already know, although I’d forgotten how well London recruited (which is even more of an indictment of his overall results here). Bronco did make solid progress as time went on, although he never reached London’s highs. And Elliott is starting in a hole.
The 2022 class obviously isn’t Elliott’s fault (as the poor 2016 class largely wasn’t Bronco’s fault), and he probably gets a bit of a pass on 2023 as he’s only been here a few months. But regardless of the why, as things stand right now, that’s two classes in a row that are as bad or worse than anything we’ve seen over the last dozen years or so. They’ll need to kill it in 2024 to prevent this from causing major issues down the line, or have their diamonds in the rough hit at a very high rate. The latter is definitely possible if the new staff has a great eye for talent, but it can’t be assumed until it’s proven.
Anyway, I’ll move on from this - I’m pumped for this season - but it’s obviously something folks will be keeping an eye on.
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London always had a few flashy 4 star recruits but stunk at recruiting OL and having adequate depth. The strategy to just load up on OL in 2022 is probably better than anything London ever did.
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Very true. He was terrible at recruiting balanced classes and just doing basic roster planning.
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The recruiting issue is a tough one for me. I also hoped for a new coach bump but I get it. TE does not have much working capital. First time HC who largely flew under the radar as an OC. He wasn’t even the hottest coaching prospect on his staff. That guy is in Norman now.
TE has to play the dangerous game if you build it they will come. Not an easy game but he has the personality and system that recruits could latch on to with success.
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I think part of the reason for the slow start in recruiting is that Elliott is very methodical in the way he dishes out offers. He’s almost like TB in that he prefers to see a kid in person before he offers. Probably going to have to change that when we need full 25 man classes. I would say the positive side to that approach is you are more likely to find guys who outperform their rankings if you’ve seen how they look athletically.
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I agree and to add I think we started in a hole as Bronco’s recruiting was fading last season and Tony is going to have to dig out of it over time.
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TE wasn’t handed an easy situation. Last year recruiting was lost. He was basically hired 8 weeks before signing day, not a lot he could do. He was going to overhaul the offense completely and a lot of previous recruits would have to evaluate if staying in the pool made sense. And the defense is a rebuild from a ground up. Definitely started in a hole and as I said previously only a very over well known coach could have come in and made a “splash” in this brief window.
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Yes and I think he has to fix it “his way” just like Tony Bennett fixed the basketball program “his way.” There’s going to be more losing than we like early on. I’m not as high on the roster as some. We have great receivers and one more year of a great QB but the OL is a disaster and the defense still very undertalented IMO.
I believe in this staff, but it is going to require patience.
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It sounds like we have very similar outlooks. If I recall TE has a 4 or 5 year deal, and Virginia is not the type of program to fire a coach for a bad year or even a bad few years. He’s going to get the leash he needs to build this thing how he wants to. It’s going to take a bit, the transition from Bronco’s culture to his is big. But as CTB says Joy comes in the morning.
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