In the meantime, the Sabre will hum along without me. Over the next two weeks we'll have plenty of great content, including my interview with UVa athletic director Craig Littlepage. (He had a lot of interesting things to say about facilities, the basketball coaching search, department finances, and more.) We'll have an "Ask the Experts" article with Matt Blundin, features on Sean Singletary and the new basketball coaching staff, plus plenty of football-related stories by Greg Waters. Chris Horne also will stick around to cover all the latest recruiting news as the commitments roll in. And it'll be like old times as Mike (BoardHost) takes over the day-to-day responsibilities of the site and produces the next two SabreMails. If you have customer service requests during that time, please write Mike at [email protected] .

So enjoy TheSabre.com for the rest of the month. I'll be checking in daily from Internet cafes throughout Europe. And if I see any 7-footers strolling around, I'll make sure to give them Dave Leitao's phone number.

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Football recruiting...

The "blue-chip" day idea is looking better and better. For the second consecutive year, the 'Hoos have been able to land commitments out of this event. Asa Chapman, John-Kevin Dolce and Almondo Sewell said they will become members of the 2006 football recruiting class.

Chapman is a 6-5, 340-pound nose tackle out of Orange County High School in Virginia. A good athlete, Chapman plays basketball as well and shows good movement for his size. He earned second-team all-region at defensive tackle last season as a junior.

Dolce, a 6-2, 220-pound prospect out of St. Anthony's in New York, plays weakside defensive end in high school but projects as an outside linebacker in the 3-4 defense. Very strong, Dolce can bench press 185 pounds 28 times. He is also a good athlete who can run in the 4.7s in the 40-yard dash.

Speaking of speed, Sewell, a 6-2, 235-pound linebacker out of Trenton (N.J.) Central High School, can run the 40 in 4.5 seconds. A solid performer in track, the native of Jamaica has been timed at 6.7 seconds in the 55 meters. Sewell is being recruited as an inside linebacker for the 'Hoos.

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Before Joe Torchia's commitment was announced yesterday, Virginia's commitments all had projected on defense. But Torchia, a 6-5, 231-pound prospect out of Queen of Peace High School in North Arlington, N.J., will play tight end for Virginia.

Torchia, who can run the 40 in 4.8 seconds, caught 20 passes for close to 500 yards and six touchdowns last season as a junior. He earned second-team all-state honors as voted by the AP. An excellent student, Torchia is a member of the National Honor Society and hopes to major in Sports Medicine at UVa.

Torchia did not visit for the "blue-chip" day and actually committed a few weeks ago.

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Other prospects who visited for the "blue-chip" day included Vance (N.C.) defensive back Rico Bell, Ocean Township (Oakhurst, N.J.) offensive lineman Lou Eliades, Deep Run DE/TE Sean Gottschalk (right), Meadowbrook DE/OLB John Graves, Forestville (MD) OL Antonio Logan-El, Mount Hebron (Ellicott City, MD) OLB Aaron Maybin, Davie County (Mocksville, NC) CB Raeshon McNeil, Liberty (Bedford, VA) DT Daryl Robertson and Malvern Prep (Malvern, PA) athlete Trey Womack.

UVa is in excellent shape for in-state recruits Gottschalk and Graves, but not in good shape with Robertson. Among the out-of-state prospects, the 'Hoos are in the top three for McNeil. The rest plan on narrowing their respective lists later this summer. Logan-El, who originally committed to Maryland, is now a soft commit. He is considering about 8 schools (including UVa) and will narrow his list to three by the end of the summer.

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Post of the Week

An interesting perspective from our friend in Tallahassee...

Subject: Curious
Posted by: Nolemike26 on Tue Jun 14 2005 1:40:12 PM
Message: I frequent both this site and TSL and have seen several times in different posts on both boards the thought that you guys want the "Commonwealth" to do well, and you are almost happy to see a recruit stay in state, even if it's a big time player that the other school got. I live in Florida and this line of thinking is very foreign to me. Nole fans hate the Gators, respect the Canes but dont want either school to do well in recruiting as we know that just means better teams down the road we have to play, and possibly less success for the school we follow. We dont view it as a good thing that we lost out on a player, and say oh well we lost on on so and so but hey he went to UM of UF so that makes the state look better.

I have seen people say that P. Harvin is not considering either state school and how bad that is, but it would seem to me that if your a UVA fan and he doesnt list UVA, that you would hope with all of your heart that he doesnt go to VT. I love the state of FL, and many of my best friends are Gator grads, and we would do anything for each other, but ask us about football, and we want the other program to fail each year, we dont see thier success as a good thing for the state.

I dont mean this post in any negative way at all, I am simply curious. I can understand being from VA and wanting your state to do well, but when it comes to football, do you really feel that a big time player from the state of VA staying in state but going to VT is a good thing?

To read the responses to this post, please click the link below.

FreePass Option runs through July 7

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