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   SabreMail - April 29th, 2005
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Last weekend's NFL draft, in which a record seven Cavaliers were selected, raised several interesting questions: Was last year's team the most talented in UVa history? And if so, shouldn't the 'Hoos have done better than 8-4 and a bowl trip to Boise?

Elton Brown was one of three Cavs to go in the fourth round.

The answer to the first question is debatable. The 1996 and 1998 teams each had six players picked in the subsequent draft. It's hard to compete with the 1996 group in terms of top-shelf talent. Five Cavs went in the top three rounds in 1997: James Farrior (1st round), Jon Harris (1st), Jamie Sharper (2nd), Tiki Barber (2nd) and Ronde Barber (3rd). The 1999 draft class had just one first-rounder (Patrick Kerney), two fourth-rounders (Wali Rainer and Aaron Brooks) and three seventh-rounders.

In that respect, the current draft class falls somewhere in between. Five of the seven draftees were second-day pics. Only Heath Miller (1st round, Steelers) and Darryl Blackstock (3rd, Cardinals) had their names called Saturday. Elton Brown (4th, Cardinals), Chris Canty (4th, Cowboys), Alvin Pearman (4th, Jaguars), Andrew Hoffman (6th, Browns) and Patrick Estes (7th, 49ers) went off the board Sunday. Four others (Marquis Weeks, Jermaine Hardy, Dennis Haley and Isaiah Ekejuiba) signed free-agent deals, so 11 players from last year's team drew interest from NFL clubs. And that doesn't even include D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Ahmad Brooks, who would almost surely have gone in the first round had they elected to leave early.


Heath Miller went to the Steelers in the first round.

So, given that collection of talent, is it fair to say last year's team underachieved? Again, that's open to debate. It's certainly possible that we'll look back at the 2004 season and wonder how a team with so much NFL talent failed to beat any ranked opponents and lost to the likes of Fresno State. But it's also important to look at this draft class a little more closely. Keep in mind that they weren't all healthy and productive. Canty missed most of the season after tearing up a knee and Virginia went 4-4 without him. Miller was slowed by a groin injury. Estes caught just six passes and may play on the offensive line in the NFL. Only Brown, in my opinion, truly had a dominant season in 2004.

Success in football also depends on much more than a few good players. It takes an entire team, and the Cavs were not a complete team last year. Take a look at the UVa draftees. Note that no wide receivers or defensive backs were picked. Those areas were major deficiencies as was the punting game. You can't judge a team based on the NFL draft. For instance, the talented 1996 team, with passing-game problems of its own, went just 7-5. The only 10-win team in UVa history, in 1989, had no players picked in the first five rounds of the next draft.

In the end, the 2004 team had enough talent to win eight games, most by large margins, but couldn't overcome its glaring weaknesses when faced with stiffer competition. Is that underachieving? Maybe. Disappointing? A little bit. But all things considered, 8-4 seems just about right.

John Galinsky
Editor
TheSabre.com
[email protected]


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  •    Recruiting News

    This Week In Recruiting
    By Chris Horne

    Football recruiting...

    According to Mission Bay (San Diego, CA) assistant coach Rolando Garcia, Darren "DJ" Childs has signed and delivered his letter of intent to UVa. He is now officially the 23rd member of the 2005 recruiting class.

    In addition to averaging close to 12 tackles as a senior last season, the 6-0, 224-pound Childs was a force on special teams. He blocked two kicks his senior year after blocking five kicks/punts in his junior season. We hope to get video on Darren very soon and will post highlights on his profile as soon as we do.

    --

    UVa had several top 2006 recruits in attendance for Saturday's spring game. Thomas Stone (MD) LB Nekos Brown, Blue Ridge School DB Greg Brown, Deep Run DE/TE Sean Gottschalk, Moore Catholic (N.Y.) WR Vidal Hazelton,, Glassboro (N.J.) OLB/TE George Johnson (a UVa commit) and McDonough (MD) athlete A.J. Wallace were among the prospects in attendance and all have a formal scholarship offer from the Cavs.

    The visits are said to have gone very well. Be sure to check out comments from Nekos Brown, George Johnson and Vidal Hazelton on their spring game experiences.

    --

    A few new names have been added to UVa's offer list - Queen of Peace (N.J.) defensive end Mike Gee and Fork Union Military Academy Prep wide receiver Brandon Caleb. Gee is a 6-2, 240-pound recruit who is being recruited by the Cavs to play outside linebacker. He is one of the top defensive ends in the state of New Jersey.

    The 6-2, 190-pound Caleb plays receiver and outside linebacker in high school but is being recruited primarily as a receiver by the schools that have offered - Michigan State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Purdue, Syracuse, Virginia and Virginia Tech. UVa wide receiver coach John Garrett verbally offered Caleb earlier this week.

    --

    The evaluation period has begun and UVa started visiting high schools this week. On Monday, Al Groh and Mike Groh visited Deep Run High School to DE/TE Sean Gottschalk,. Several other central Virginia schools the Grohs no doubt visited on Monday include Hermitage, Highland Springs (for LB Jarrell Miller,), Meadowbrook (for DE/OLB John Graves,) and Varina (for RB Brandon Minor).

    For more recruiting information and updates, please see Sabre Edge.

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       News, Notes and Fan Discussion

    Post of the Week

    Some of the best posts aren't full of insights and opinions. They just pose a good question and start interesting discussions, like this one on the football board yesterday...

    Subject: Why exactly are/were people unhappy with Hagans' performance last year?
    Posted by: yoo hoo on Thu Apr 28 2005 1:45:52 PM
    Message: maybe i'm making this up, but i think i remember most people (in august) just hoping for hagans to be mediocre last year...didn't many think he was the only question mark and that if he could hold his own, uva could win games? then he turned out to have some of the leading stats in the ACC and even the country at one point in the season, without much to work with or much experience....and people still don't think he should start? i'm remembering all of this from nearly a year ago, so if i'm way off, i take it back

    For the complete thread containing this post, please click the link below.

  • Football Message Board

    Long, Peerman among spring game standouts

    Chris Long had 3.5 sacks in a dominant performance.

    As a sneak preview of the 2005 season, last Saturday's spring game at Scott Stadium may have been misleading. After all, Ahmad Brooks, Kai Parham, Brennan Schmidt, Keenan Carter, Michael Johnson, Tom Santi, Connor Hughes and several other Cavaliers who figure to play key roles next season weren't participating for various reasons.

    But it was still a good chance for fans to catch what amounted to a 90-minute scrimmage - Offense vs. Defense - and identify some potential stars of the future. Defensive end Chris Long and tailback Cedric Peerman were the standouts on defense and offense, respectively, while Theirrien Davis and the other wideouts also performed well before a crowd of 6,000-plus.

    The Cavs won't convene training camp again for more than three months, but the spring practices gave us plenty to discuss over the summer as we anticipate next season. Will the passing game be better? Are the injuries going to linger? Is there enough depth at linebacker? What's the story in the secondary? We'll tackle these questions and more in the coming months.

    Here is the Sabre's article on the spring game.

  • Spring Game: Cavs are Pass Happy

    Edge subscribers can read this in-depth analysis of the spring game and the entire practice period below.

  • Post-Spring Analysis: The Offense
  • Spring Game: Position by Position
  • Spring Game: Nick's Notebook

    We'll have more post-spring analysis and tons of 2005 football preview stories over the summer, so please click here to sign up for Sabre Edge.

    Around the Wahoo sports world...

  • Virginia's lacrosse teams have a lot in common. Both are #2 seeds in their respective ACC tournaments. Both will play Maryland today in the semifinals. And both defeated the Terps during the regular season. The women (12-3) play at 1 p.m. , while the men (9-2) play at 8:30 p.m. All the games are being held at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. The championship games will be held Sunday, with the women at 1 p.m. and the men at 3:30.
  • Four members of the women's lacrosse team were named to the All-ACC team: Amy Appelt, Nikki Leib, Tyler Leachman and Kim Connors. Three men's lacrosse players also earned that honor: Matt Ward, Michael Culver and Rob Bateman.
  • The baseball team jumped back into NCAA tournament contention by sweeping #4 Georgia Tech at Davenport Stadium last weekend. The Cavs entered the series with a 6-10 record in ACC play, but they held the powerful Yellow Jackets to just five runs in three games. Virginia now takes a 30-13 overall record and a six-game winning streak into this weekend's series at #15 Florida State.
  • The women's rowing team won its sixth straight ACC championship last weekend in Clemson, S.C., and the second varsity eight was named ACC crew of the year. The Cavs, ranked #10 in the country, will race #1 Princeton and two other crews tomorrow in New Jersey.
  • Billie-Jo Grant won the discus competition and Inge Jorgensen placed first in the javelin at the ACC track and field championships last weekend. No UVa men won events but the Cavs placed fourth overall, their highest finish in four years.
  • The women's golf team earned a bid to the NCAA championships. Not bad for a program in its second year of existence. A total of 63 teams made the NCAA field and were divided into three regionals. The Cavaliers are the #8 seed in the East Regional, which will be held May 5-7 in Gainesville, Fla.

    For more information on UVa athletics, please see their official website below.

  • virginiasports.com

    For the Sabre's weekly update on UVa baseball, please see the link below.

  • Around the Horn: "Back in the Mix"

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    Sabre Edge articles and columns from the past week

  • Versatility, Thy Name is Appleby, Greg Waters

    Image: Antonio ApplebyThere is no doubt that Antonio Appleby is a talented football player. In fact, there may not have been a more athletic big man recruit in the Commonwealth of Virginia this year. For the Cavalier coaches, the only real question about the 6-4, 240-pounder from Virginia Beach is where to put him on the field. Consider this: Appleby was ranked as the nation's #25 linebacker by SuperPrep. He was rated as the country's #9 tight end by ESPN.com. Oh, and for good measure, Rivals ranked him as the #30 strongside defensive end in the nation.

  • Post-Spring Analysis: The Offense, John Galinsky

    Image: Wali LundyIn some ways, this was an especially important spring for the Virginia offense. Given the problems with the passing game in the latter half of last season, the coaches needed to start coming up with some solutions. They also needed to begin resolving issues on the offensive line, create a tentative depth chart and figure out which young players will be ready to make an impact this fall. Were the Cavs successful? Well, yes and no.

  • Spring Game: Position by Position, Greg Waters

    Image: Marques HagansEven though many key players weren't on the field Saturday, the spring game gave fans a glimpse of some young players who will be asked to contribute in 2005. Linebackers Clint Sintim and Jon Copper, defensive end Chris Long and safety Jamaal Jackson were a few of those guys whom the 'Hoos hope will make a difference next season. On offense, Theirrien Davis continued to impress as did center Jordy Lipsey and running back Cedric Peerman. Marques Hagans also played well in limited action.

  • Spring Game: Nick's Notebook, Nick Sauer

    Image: Theirrien DavisWhile not overly exciting, this year's spring game turned out to be an adequate synopsis of what has gone on in practices this spring. Lots of players were out due to injuries, there was a continued and well-documented emphasis on passing and pass defense, and young players continued to impress. I thought I'd share a few of the things that really jumped out at me, such as the play of Chris Long, Theirrien Davis, Cedric Peerman, Clint Sintim, and more.

  • NFL Draft Preview: Wahoowa!, Greg Waters

    Image: Heath MillerIn the last four NFL drafts, only seven Virginia players have been selected. But this weekend could be a big one for UVa prospects. Four Cavaliers (Heath Miller, Elton Brown, Darryl Blackstock and Chris Canty) are certain to be picked relatively early, while a handful of others may be snatched up in the later rounds. Here is a rundown of the draft-eligible players for the Wahoos. What are the experts saying about them? Where are they ranked by draft websites? We give you the consensus opinions and make a prediction for each player.

    Sabre Edge recruiting updates from the past week

    Our resident recruiting expert, Chris Horne, provides updates for Edge subscribers about UVa's commitments and recruiting targets in football and men's basketball. To sign up for an Edge subscription, please see the sign-up promotion below. If you're already on board as an Edge subscriber, click the links below to catch up on recruiting.

    Football

  • Top PA QB Working Towards Summer Decision
  • FUMA's Caleb Has 7 Offers
  • Phoebus Star No Longer a Sleeper
  • Top Target: Deep Run TE/DL Sean Gottschalk
  • Top Targets Comment on Spring Game
  • Around the State: Nike Camp in Blacksburg
  • Q&A with Darren Childs

  •    Sabre Edge

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    All of the great Sabre Edge content can be yours for the price of $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year. Try it for a month and cancel if you like. But we think you'll get hooked on the Edge and find out for yourself why the most knowledgeable Cavalier fans are Edge subscribers.

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