Thursday, November 16, 2006
Groh says Cavs won't go over 25
Lalich's number's mind-boggling
Doug Doughty
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If Virginia football prospects think it’s difficult to get tickets for the Cavaliers’ home football game Saturday with Miami, they’re going to find tickets much easier to come by than offers – at least for the 2007 class.
The Cavaliers currently have 21 players committed for the Class of 2007 and that does not include Fork Union nose tackle Asa Chapman, a 2006 signee whom rivals.com continues to list as a 2007 commitment, although he is unlikely to meet NCAA eligibility guidelines.
If you don’t count Chapman, Virginia has four available scholarships before it reaches the NCAA’s 25-scholarship limit and coach Al Groh said he isn’t sure if the Cavaliers will even get to 25.
How many more commitments will UVa take?
“It’s a short number,” Groh said Thursday. “I don’t think 25 is our target.”
“What we don’t do at Virginia is the gray-shirting business. Some places have that availability and they can just keep taking them and, if they go over and there’s no room left at the inn, then they just bring them in in January. We don’t have that option.”
Virginia signed 24 players last year, although eight were not admitted to school. The Cavaliers also received commitments from four players who decommitted and went elsewhere.
When people talk about the 24-member recruiting class that became 16, they forget to mention that there were four decommits. In other words, 12 players committed to Virginia who never enrolled.
There has been at least one decommitment in five of Groh’s six recruiting classes, but four has been the max.
“As it came up again in this morning’s recruiting meeting,” Groh said, “even with a lot of [uncommitted] players coming to this weekend’s game, the emphasis is to recruit the committed players the hardest.
“They’re the ones who already are Virginia players. They want to be Virginia players. They’ve indicated that. We want to have them on the team and let’s make sure that comes to fruition.
“We’re always conscious of not taking them for granted.”
AT HIS TUESDAY news conference, Groh had noted another recruiting development that had occurred at a staff meeting.
“Bob Price announced to the staff this morning that we have exhausted our recruiting tickets for the weekend so ‘coaches, don’t accept or invite any more players to the game,’ which is a good-news thing, “ Groh said.
Groh said he didn’t know how many prospects that entailed, “but I know we’ve had some games in the past, between players and their families, that we’ve had over 100 people on the ticket list.”
Each prospect may have as many as three free tickets, including his own.
WHEN THE CAVALIERS won back-to-back home games with North Carolina and North Carolina State, preceded by 30 minutes of impressive football against visiting Maryland, it was easy to look at redshirt freshman Jameel Sewell and view him as a long-term solution at the quarterback position.
Even counting those games, however, Virginia has scored only four touchdowns in the last 3 ½ games (14 quarters) and for the first time Tuesday, Groh made a thinly veiled prospect to recruit Peter Lalich from West Springfield.
The context was a discussion of UVa’s past two quarterbacks, two-year starters Matt Schaub and Marques Hagans, and how Sewell is a cross between the two of them. He’s faster than Schaub and taller than Hagans. All three have strong arms, notwithstanding the Cavaliers continued inability or reluctance to feature the long ball.
“It’s rumored that we have a quarterback coming in here next year who threw eight touchdown passes two weeks ago, so we’ll see how he fits in,” Groh said.
Lalich, whose frame (6-foot-5, 225 pounds) is more reminiscent of Schaub’s, completed 19 of 22 passes for 356 yards and eight touchdowns in a 63-15 victory over Hayfield.
West Springfield coach Bill Renner was in his car and offered Lalich’s stats from memory Thursday, but he knew he was close: Lalich completed 208 of 309 passes for 3,134 yards and 33 touchdowns, compared to seven interceptions, two in one game.
(And, for the really important question, it’s pronounce La-lick and not La-litch).
THE EARLY PART of this column was written before I heard from Fork Union coach John Shuman, who said that the Cavaliers are continuing to recruit Chapman “as if he is a committed player and is going to qualify.”
Shuman let it be known when he agreed to take Chapman that it would be a longshot for Chapman to meet NCAA eligibility guidelines in time to qualify for 2007, but, even if Chapman is obliged to go to junior college, continued interest could pay off for the Cavaliers at some point.
Shuman said that Chapman and Fork Union linebacker Jarrell Miller from Highland Springs are planning to attend the UVa-Miami game at the Cavaliers’ invitation.
Chapman, who played virtually every snap in Fork Union’s season-ending game at Hargrave Military Academy, was listed at 6-5 and 388 pounds on the Fork Union roster that was available at the game.
“He’s 390 with no problem,” Shuman said. “He’s like 395. This is a humongous man.”
Hargrave’s uncommitted, 6-4, 280-pound center, Justin Keown, had few problems with Chapman, described by Shuman as not at the same stage as current UVa nose tackle Keenan Carter when Carter played defensive tackle at FUMA.
Carter has been a bit player for the Cavaliers, so if Chapman isn’t as good, why the fuss?
“If he could get [his weight] lower, if he could get rid of that gut and get a little more bend, he could go pro without going to college,” Shuman said. “He could be Eric Swann.”
Eric Swann, a 1987 N.C. State signee, never went to college before being drafted by the Arizona Cardinals, and played 10 years in the NFL.
“What do you know?” I rudely asked Shuman. “You’ve never seen him at 320.”
“I don’t know anything,” Shuman responded. “I’m just saying, something is forcing him to stand up [and not bend his knees]. I think that was the problem with Keenan until he got in shape. They got him lower and now he makes some plays.”
I’m not sure how many plays Carter is making but, unbeknownst to many of us, he was on for some meaningful snaps in a 14-7 victory over N.C. State.
