Friday, August 28, 2009
Coaches playing a numbers game
Walk-on Tech kicker had three 50-yarders last year
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
Avid readers of this column, if there are any, would not argue that I am obsessed with numbers.
Roster sizes, roster limits, scholarship limits, walk-ons, recruited walk-ons. What does it all mean? Not as much as I think, probably.
I was talking with Virginia men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett this week and he asked – and I’m paraphrasing here – what is the perception when a staff continues to recruit for spots that would put a program over the NCAA limit?
Frankly, it’s great to deal with a coach who doesn’t profess to have all the answers.
“I don’t like it,” was my response to the practice of what many describe as over-recruiting, “but everybody does it. Your predecessor [Dave Leitao] was always at the limit or stretching the limit.”
Do the fans care? Probably not. I would think it would make for an awkward situation for the uncommitted players who are being recruited for a spot that, on paper, is not available. But, it doesn’t.
Basically, the coaches/recruiters in question will tell a prospect, “It will work out.” And, that seems to suffice.
And, it usually does work out.
Bennett is in a position where he has five scholarships to give for the entering class of 2010-2011. He already has taken three commitments and probably is recruiting another half-dozen players.
They’re not all going to sign. In cases where uncommitted prospects play the same position and one commits, either the second player or the school will back off. But a bunch of men’s coaches will be at the 13-scholarship limit after the early signing period and you can bet they’ll keep their eyes open for 2010-2011.
Bennett has been a Division I head coach for only three years, at Washington State. He previously had been a D-I assistant for seven years at Washington State and Wisconsin. He says he can’t remember an offseason when his teams haven’t lost a scholarship underclassman with remaining eligibility.
In fact, Bennett already has lost a scholarship player with remaining eligibility, 6-foot-11 rising sophomore John Brandenburg, although Bennett still wasn’t sure early in the week if Brandenburg was headed to Colgate, as reported.
In fact, when I called up Virginia’s 15-man roster this morning, Brandenburg was still on it. One name did jump out at me – Thomas Kody, a 6-3 walk-on freshman from Langley High School in Fairfax County. I’d never heard of him.
Kody was named to the Liberty District all-tournament team and was a first-team All-Liberty District defensive selection.
Brandenburg, by the way, is not listed on the Colgate roster. There is a story on Colgate’s Web site that acknowledges Brandenburg’s transfer, but when you call up the story, it’s merely a reprint of Whitelaw “Whitey” Reid’s story from the Charlottesville Daily Progress.
Does that make it official?
In proofing this column (now, there’s a novel concept), I’m informed by Jeff White that Brandenburg is now listed in the Colgate student directory. So, I hope we can move on.
Whitelaw, Whitey, White … I hope that’s not too confusing.
THIS NUMBERS FIXATION started when I called up hokiesports.com today and saw that Tech’s football roster had been increased to 117.
When I called John Ballein to verify that number, he told me that the number was now up to 120 with the addition of wide receiver Brandon Keith, tailback Adam Dyer and free safety Mark Carter.
Keith, from Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, is a transfer from Emory & Henry; Dyer is from Cave Spring by way of Fork Union Military Academy, and Carter is from Jefferson Forest.
While it would be a long shot for any of the three to get on the field for the Hokies, they have the distinction of emerging from a group of 22 candidates who went through Ballein’s annual walk-on tryouts following the beginning of classes.
Tech had 105 players in uniform for the start of drills in August. That figure is mandated by the NCAA. Once school begins, roster sizes can expand according to a formula tied to Title IX legislation.
Ballein, associate athletics director for football operations, didn’t come up with the number. It was given to him by Sharon McCloskey, senior associate director of athletics.
When preseason drills began, Tech already knew the identity of 12 of the 15 players who would join the roster at the start of school. One of them, tight end George George from Salem, joined the team after tailback Darren Evans was lost to a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
George and defensive lineman Jeff Wardach had been “on the bubble” for the 105 and, in fact, Wardach had been on the 105 in 2008. The reason that George and not Wardach was added in early August was a “depth” matter, I’ve been told.
Some of the other players who have joined the team since the start of classes are walk-on punter Grant Bowden, younger brother of No. 1 Tech punter Brent Bowden; Jerome Williams, a transfer from Clemson and the older brother of Tech scholarship freshman Jerrod Williams from Daniel, S.C.; long snapper Ethan Dickerson from Christiansburg, and place-kicker Chris Hazley, a junior from West Chester, Pa.
Jerome Williams was not on Clemson’s 2008 roster.
On signing day, it was reported in the print edition of The Roanoke Times that Tech had taken a commitment from place-kicker Andrew Lloyd from James Wood High School. Lloyd was named first-team All-Metro by The Washington Post on its team. Lloyd is not on the Tech roster.
I’ve got a call in to James Wood coach Mike Bolin to find out what happened to Lloyd, but I understand that Tech has two other walk-on place-kickers in its 120, including Zach Pickard from Southern Alamance High School in Mount Hermon, N.C.
All I had for Pickard was a last name until I googled him and found a Feb. 10 story by Bob Sutton of the Times-News in Burlington, N.C. Pickard had been entertained by Elon and Lenoir-Rhyne on recruiting visits before he committed to Tech just after signing day.
Pickard made 13 of 19 field-goal attempts as a senior, three from more than 50 yards.
According to my count, Tech has at least five place-kickers among its top 120 – redshirt senior Matt Waldron, sophomore Justin Myer, recruit Cody Journell, Hazley and Pickard.
Maybe the most obscure player currently working out with the Hokies and certainly a candidate for the best name is defensive back Germond Oatneal (that’s not a typo). Oatneal (5 foot 11, 179 pounds) was a point guard on the basketball team at Bishop McNamara, where he did not play football.
