Friday, February 13, 2009
Next big-time OL could be at Harrisonburg
Groh identifies Tidewater recruiter
Doug Doughty
Doug Doughty's College Notebook Plus is exclusive to roanoke.com and is posted by 5 p.m. Fridays.
Find his College Notebook from The Roanoke Times in Thursday's college sports section
Miss the Insider column? Check out the Insiders blog
See Doug and Randy talk sports every week with the Sports edition of the TimesCast
Recent columns
Tell me something I don’t know. That should be the point of every interview.
When I called Harrisonburg High School's athletic director to inquire about one-time University of Virginia football recruit Alex Owah, I heard a name for the first time.
Harrisonburg has a 6-foot-5, 285-pound sophomore, Landon Turner, who should be a big-time recruit by his senior year.
(Actually, I had heard the name before, but Turner is no kin to the former Indiana University basketball player of the same name).
This Turner weighed in at 325 pounds for the start of football practice but currently is wrestling at 285 pounds. He suffered a broken leg in the first game of the football season.
AD Joe Carico said Turner will be a “predictor,” meaning his academic credentials, and that he has seen a rivals.com list that names Turner as one of the top sophomores in the country.
(OK, maybe rivals.com knows about him).
Carico, who doubles as the Blue Streaks’ offensive coordinator, said that Harrisonburg does not currently have any Division I-A prospects in its junior class but that another sophomore, 6-foot, 190-pound tailback Michael Holmes, has a chance.
Holmes took over when Owah was injured early in the season and the Blue Streaks barely skipped a beat.
AS FOR OWAH, the highest-rated uncommitted player on The Roanoke Times’ Top 100, it is looking increasingly unlikely that he will play Division I-A football next year.
The same academic issues that caused Virginia to reject Owah for 2009 admission are likely to make him a partial qualifier or even a non-qualifier at the Division I level.
Owah recently told the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record that he had narrowed his college choices to three but did not divulge their identity. I’m hearing that one of those teams is Sun Belt Conference member Florida International.
Some leagues do allow partial qualifiers, which would enable Owah to enroll in school and receive a scholarship but not play as a freshman (and have three years of eligibility unless he graduated in four years, in which case he would get a fifth year).
If he is a non-qualifier, he could not receive aid in his first year. It has been suggested that Owah could enroll at Fork Union Military Academy, where an older brother played several years ago, but I’m hearing that that’s unlikely.
OWAH WAS RATED No. 38 on The Roanoke Times Top 100. The next highest-rated player is No. 59 Jerrell McFadden, an all-purpose threat for Group AAA Division 6 runner-up Osbourn High School of Manassas.
McFadden, who played running back for Osbourn, is listed at 5 foot 10 and 176 pounds but may be closer to 5-9. He reportedly runs a 4.3 40 and while it may be possible that nobody can run a 4.3, we’ve got to assume that he is legitimately fast.
The reason that McFadden is “available,” and that’s using the term loosely, is that he has been reclassified. He entered the 2008 season as a junior academically but he turns 19 this summer and will be ineligible to play as a senior in 2009. As a result, McFadden has been playing catch-up academically in hopes of completing his degree requirements this year.
There is an outside chance that McFadden might qualify academically in time to play collegiately in 2009, Osbourn coach Steve Schultze said, but it’s more likely that he will go to prep school. Hargrave Military Academy has inquired about him.
I was under the impression that McFadden played some quarterback for Osbourn, but Schultze has his quarterback of the future in 6-0, 185-pound junior Tommy Keith, one of whose primary targets is his brother, Timmy, a sophomore.
Timmy Keith had 32 receptions for 582 yards and 10 touchdowns. Tommy Keith passed for 1,293 yards and 12 touchdowns, and he also rushed for 865 yards and 11 TDs.
THURSDAY’S EDITION OF the UVa Insider dealt with the Cavaliers’ options as they look for a replacement to 2008 defensive coordinator Bob Pruett.
In a phone conversation after the Insider had been posted, Al Groh said that new receivers coach Latrell Scott would take over Pruett’s recruiting territory in South Hampton Roads, Hampton and Newport News.
Scott previously had recruited those areas, as well as Richmond, in his one-year stint on Phillip Fulmer’s staff at Tennessee. After joining the UVa staff in January, Scott was instrumental in getting the Cavaliers back in the picture with Parade All-America offensive lineman Morgan Moses, who signed with them Feb. 4.
Groh said he does not feel that he needs to target a particular position coach because all of the spots on his staff are currently covered. He said that newly named defensive coordinator Bob Diaco will be responsible for the linebackers, an area to which Groh also devotes considerable attention.
