Thursday, April 24, 2008
Recruiting legacies not an easy task for Virginia
More on the lists for 2008, 2009
Doug Doughty
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Virginia football fans can only shudder these days when they hear about a prospect with ties to the UVa program.
None of them seem to end up in Charlottesville.
This past season, it was Concord, N.C., offensive lineman R.J. Mattes, whose father, Ron was one of the stars of UVa’s 1984 Peach Bowl victory.
Virginia couldn’t make the final two for R.J. Mattes, who picked North Carolina State over Clemson.
In the same 2008 recruiting class, Virginia took an early commitment from Ugo Uzodinma, a defensive lineman from Takoma Park, Md., whose sister was a nursing student at UVa.
As soon as UVa defensive coordinator Mike London took the head-coaching job at Richmond, Uzodinma bolted for Illinois.
(And dare we forget Chris Long’s little brother, Kyle, who has signed to play baseball for Florida State).
Now there’s Zach Thompson, a junior at Stone Bridge High School in Loudon County.
Thompson, son of Stone Bridge head coach and former Virginia defensive lineman Mickey Thompson, revealed Wednesday night that he had picked Wake Forest over Virginia.
It makes you wonder about some of the other legacies on Virginia’s recruiting lists – Tucker Windle and Jake Snyder for the class of 2008, and Ed Reynolds in the class of 2009.
Reynolds, a running back and defensive back at Woodberry Forest, is the son of ex-Cavalier and NFL defensive lineman Ed Reynolds from Henry County.
Tucker Windle, a linebacker for Charlotte (N.C.) Catholic, is the son of 1977 UVa letterman Steele B. “Al” Windle III. Snyder, a tight end and defensive end for talent-laden Deep Run of Richmond, is the younger brother of walk-on UVa wide receiver Matt Snyder.
Windle’s father has a graduate degree from Wake Forest, as does his wife, and it looks as if his recruiting also could come down to a battle between the Cavaliers and Deacons.
Mickey Thompson was happy for his son, whose twin brother plays quarterback at Stone Bridge and remains uncommitted, but disappointed for his alma mater.
“I feel bad about it [from that standpoint] because I’m one of the few people in the northern Virginia area still beating the drum for UVa in regards to recruiting,” Mickey Thompson said.
“Of course, it looks like I can’t get my own son there, but you guide your son so he doesn’t make a mistake. He couldn’t make a mistake between Virginia and Wake Forest.”
There have been instances in Thompson’s 20 seasons as a head coach at Park View (Sterling) and Stone Bridge when he wishes Virginia would have showed more interest in his programs but this was not a case of UVa not showing enough love to his son, as some have suggested.
“That’s ridiculous,” Thompson said. “They showed him a ton of love. I think that was the hardest thing for him because he was just stuck in the middle between Virginia and Wake Forest.
“He really feels bad about the Virginia situation, one, because of me going there, and two because of how well they recruited him.”
Thompson was being recruited by Wayne Lineburg, who has been the lead recruiter for three in-state juniors who already have committed to Virginia – Alex Owah, Quintin Hunter and Corey Lillard.
“He’s [Lineburg] a tremendous person and he did a great job,” Thompson said.
Four juniors off Stone Bridge’s Group AAA Division 5 championship team already have signed with Virginia’s rival ACC programs at Wake Forest (two), Virginia Tech and North Carolina State.
How are those connections going to hurt Virginia down the line? Does Virginia have a problem at Stone Bridge?
“Not at all,” coach Thompson said. “The No. 1 place that I tell them is Virginia. That’s where I went. That’s the one, when push comes to shove, that I would prefer as a dad.
“But when your son’s deciding between Wake Forest and Virginia, two good schools, and he’s trying to make that decision, time wasn’t going to change a whole lot. It is what is.
“He kept saying over and over that he wanted to go to Wake and, at some point, you have to back off as a dad and say, ‘OK, if you’re sure that’s what you want..’ ”
It didn’t hurt when Stone Bridge linebacker Mike Olson committed to Wake on April 10. The Deacons also have former Stone Bridge running back Ylou Brown on scholarship
“It’s like I told him, ‘Coaches come and go and players come and go and you try not to use that as a major part of your decision,” Thompson’s dad said. “He just said he liked the small school and he liked all of the coaches. A lot of little things just multiplied for him.”
“He went to [Wake] practice last week. He’d been to Virginia four times, I think, total. I can’t put my finger on it and say, ‘Should of done this, should of done that.’ You talk to people, watch practice, talk to some players.
“I took him down to UVa multiple times. I wanted him to have that feel for UVa and he didn’t, or at least not as strong for UVa as he did for Wake.”
Zach Thompson also won’t be going to his mother’s alma mater, Virginia Tech, “but he never got offered there,” Mickey said. “Even my wife said, ‘Selfishly, it would be a lot easier if we had him at UVa because it would only be a couple of hours.’"
Actually, there will be a little slice of UVa for Thompson in his new home, where 1975 Virginia graduate Jim Grobe is the Deacons’ head coach, but that’s no consolation for the Cavaliers.
