Thursday, November 01, 2007
Williams approaching 'baby Ahmad' proportions
Williams loss not a crushing blow
Doug Doughty
Doug Doughty's UVa Insider is exclusive to roanoke.com and is posted by 5 p.m. Thursdays in season.
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Sometimes you hear things and, later, you can’t remember where or when you heard them.
At Tuesday’s football news conference, Charlottesville reporter Jay Jenkins asked about true freshman linebacker J’Courtney Williams, who is being redshirted.
It was Jenkins’ recollection that Virginia coach Al Groh had referred to Williams as “baby Ahmad” in the preseason.
The reference was to Ahmad Brooks, a former All-ACC player at Virginia who is starting at middle linebacker for the Cincinnati Bengals.
When Groh seemed puzzled by the question, Jenkins rephrased it and said Williams indicated that Groh had called him “baby Ahmad” during recruiting.
“I don’t think I would have said that,” Groh said, “because, at that time, he still thought he was Sean Taylor.”
The Bengals list Brooks at 6 foot 3 and 259 pounds. Taylor is a 6-2, 212-pound Washington Redskins safety.
Virginia lists Williams at 6-3, 218, but his reporting weight was closer to 235.
“Linebacker wasn’t something we were talking about [in recruiting], even though we were pretty sure that Mother Nature would take its course, as it has now,” Groh said.
“There aren’t too many 240-pound safeties around.
“Actually, we never brought it up. All he had to do was step on the scale and he knew what he was.”
Williams, from Pittsylvania County by way of Christchurch School, was rated the No. 33 prospect in the country last year by SuperPrep. No other Virginia recruit made the top 50.
“As you would expect for a player who played safety and was a successful high-school basketball player, he’s got very good athletic skills for the [linebacker] position,” said Groh of impressions Williams has made on the scout team.
JUST FROM WATCHING Kevin Ogletree around the UVa practice field during the preseason, I was struck by how much more solidly built he looked in person than he had seemed in a football uniform in 2006.
He might look different in a football uniform now, too.
Ogletree, who had a team-high 52 receptions in 2006, is sitting out the 2007 season after undergoing reconstructive knee surgery.
“Those of you who are familiar with Kevin know that he’s fairly slight,” Groh said, “and he really would have profited from more strength, particularly when he was playing against more physical corners, people who are going to try and jam him or play bump-and-run.
“The extra time to do that and, obviously, his training through most of the summer was all upper-body training, so he got an ever higher concentration of that than he normally would. If you look at him, you can just see that there’s a lot more muscle on his frame than there was in the past and that will certainly help him out.
“In terms of overall quickness and movement, he’s still not at a level where we can determine that, but he looks good doing what he’s doing.”
CAVALIER HOOPS JUNKIES were disappointed at the news coming out of Memphis, Tenn., on Wednesday night, when word began to circulate that big-time guard Elliot Williams had made an oral commitment to Duke.
I’m sure that Williams would have had an impact wherever he signed and he was the highest-ranked uncommitted player on Virginia’s list, but would you trade any two of three anticipated UVa’s signees for Williams?
I haven’t seen them play, of course, but UVa needed big men in this recruiting class. The Cavaliers got two of those, John Brandenburg and Assane Sene, and a prolific scorer in 6-6 Sylven Landesberg.
Landesberg has expressed some interest in playing point, which might be something of a stretch, but just look at the guards in UVa’s program in 2007-2008 – junior Calvin Baker; sophomores Jeff Jones, Mustapha Farrakhan and Sam Zeglinski, and Landesberg.
Add Elliot Williams to that mix and what do you have? Possibly a problem, possibly not. But, without attrition, the three committed players alone will put the Cavaliers at the 13-scholarship NCAA limit.
Virginia got around that issue this year because fifth-year senior Ryan Pettinella is paying his way, but some other player might not have the resources of the Pettinella family. Moreover, Baker is receiving academic- and need-based aid and does not count toward the limit.
Throw in walk-ons Andy Burns and Will Sherrill and it’ll be interesting to see how Virginia finds enough chairs for all 17 bodies, much less playing time for the 14 or 15 who expect it.
