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SabreMail - August 26th, 2005 |
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If you haven't already seen our announcement on the website, we have some sad news and happy news to report. Sad? The SabreShop is no more. We're shutting its doors after six years in business. We've decided to concentrate on what we do best: provide great content for our readers and a great audience for sponsors and advertisers. You may have seen this coming if you saw our mega-sale over the past month. Happy? We have a new place for you to shop. UVa Bookstores is now the official e-commerce sponsor of TheSabre.com, meaning you can order all your Cavalier gear and merchandise from the premier provider of everything Wahoo. For Tom and the staff at TheSabreShop, it's been a pleasure to serve TheSabre.com and the Wahoo community. But this new arrangement should be great for all parties, especially you shoppers. UVa Bookstores has a great selection and competitive prices, and Sabre Edge subscribers will still get 10% off each purchase. Edge subscribers, click here to register for your discount. Everyone else can start shopping immediately at www.uvabookstores.com. TheSabreShop will continue to process exchanges and returns for a period of 30 days. If you need to get in touch with TheSabreShop, please note the NEW email address: [email protected]. Tom and company will be sure to answer your questions promptly. In the meantime, enjoy shopping at UVa Bookstores! And please keep in mind that your patronage of UVa Bookstores directly benefits TheSabre.com just as TheSabreShop has. So please give them a chance to win your business. And if you were wondering, I'd love some of those cool UVa lacrosse shorts for my birthday in October.
John Galinsky |
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Recruiting News | |||||
This Week In Recruiting By Chris Horne Commitment #15 With the commitment of Mount Tabor High School (Winston-Salem, N.C.) star quarterback O.C. Wardlow last weekend, Virginia is now up to 15 verbal commitments in the 2006 recruiting class. Wardlow, an outstanding athlete at 5-11, 180 pounds, is being recruited as a quarterback, the position he has started at for four years under head coach Bob Sapp. Virginia likes his ability at quarterback and will give him a shot there, but Wardlow has the athleticism to move to wide receiver or defensive back as well. Wardlow chose Virginia over N.C. State (no offer) and offers from Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Several of those programs had recruited him as an athlete, with Virginia being the only school to recruit him for quarterback. Wardlow's commitment comes as a very nice surprise for the 'Hoos. Rated a 4-star prospect by Rivals.com, he had listed Tennessee as his leader for quite a while before narrowing his list to N.C. State and Virginia in recent weeks. When N.C. State didn't offer, Wardlow decided to trip up to Charlottesville to check out Virginia. He liked what he saw and committed during last weekend's visit, which was his first trip to Charlottesville.
Hazelton at Hargrave 5-star wide receiver recruit Vidal Hazelton has landed at Hargrave Military Academy. The 6-3, 200-pound recruit had played for Moore Catholic in New York, but decided to transfer schools for his senior season. As of right now, Hazelton lists seven schools still in serious contention - (in alphabetical order) Florida, Florida State, Miami, Southern Cal, Tennessee, Virginia and Virginia Tech. Vidal told TheSabre.com that he will take an official visit to Florida State on the weekend of September 3rd. He will likely not take an official visit to Virginia, but only because he has been to Charlottesville on numerous occasions. He did say he may get to UVa for an unofficial visit, however.
Remaining targets (LB position) Virginia has 10 scholarship spots remaining and I expect the staff to try and use them all. Virginia could sign over 25 players if some of those players are destined for prep school. Linebacker is the key remaining position in my view, as Virginia expects to lose Ahmad Brooks to the NFL after this season. Mark Miller and Bryan White are seniors and Kai Parham will only have one more year of eligibility left. So far, Virginia has done a good job filling the linebacker positions. It has received commitments from two inside linebacker recruits and two potential outside linebackers. The inside guys are 6-4, 245-pound Mark Herzlich and 6-2, 235-pound Almondo Sewell. The outside prospects included 6-4, 235-pound George Johnson (UVa's first verbal for this year's class) and 6-2, 220-pound John-Kevin Dolce. 6-1, 270-pound Nate Collins could end up at linebacker as well. Collins is a versatile prospect who could play defensive end, inside or outside linebacker. Nose tackle has even been rumored for him. Some of Virginia's remaining linebacker targets include.
For more recruiting information and updates, please sign up for Sabre Edge.
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News, Notes and Fan Discussion | |||||
Basketball schedule features rough road trips Dave Leitao's first season and University Hall's last season should be an interesting one for the Virginia men's basketball team. UVa's schedule for the 2005-06 season was released Tuesday and it includes a number of tough road games, though the home slate is significantly less challenging. The Cavaliers play 14 home games, eight against ACC opponents. The six nonconference opponents coming to U-Hall aren't exactly a sexy bunch: Liberty, Fordham, Hartford, Longwood, Loyola (Md.) and Northwestern (in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge). They also face UMBC at the Siegel Center in Richmond. By contrast, the 'Hoos have a killer road schedule, including games at Arizona, Georgia Tech and Gonzaga in the first month of the season. Virginia will play home and away against Clemson, Florida State, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia Tech. There will be just one matchup against the other six ACC opponents - at home vs. Boston College, Miami and Wake Forest, and on the road vs. Georgia Tech, Duke and N.C. State. For the complete schedule with dates, times and TV, please click the link below.
Camping with the Cavaliers...
Edge subscibers can also read the latest installment of the "State of the Program" series analyzing the Al Groh era at the link below.
For all fans, we have free articles previewing the 2005 season that you can read at the links below...
Around the Wahoo sports world...
For more information on UVa athletics, please see their official website below.
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Sabre Edge articles from the past week
When you hire a coach who's been in the NFL the past 13 years, it's impossible to know how good he'll be at recruiting high school players. But Al Groh didn't take long putting those doubts to rest. He reeled in the highest-rated haul in UVa history in 2002 and has compiled solid to superb recruiting classes ever since. Groh has made recruiting - what he calls the accumulation of talent - arguably the highest priority for himself and his staff, and the results have been impressive.
Football games are won and lost in the trenches and the running game is the most effective way to consistently move the football. That's the Al Groh mentality. He didn't bring together one of the most diverse and talented groups of running backs in the nation just to catch passes. Groh is a run-first, power-football guy and that will be the focus in 2005. There is a solid nucleus of proven starters and reserves to make the "smashmouth" football of last season an annual event.
College football players, perhaps more than anyone, have an aura of invincibility. They have youth, speed, strength, a measure of fame. It's easy to take it all for granted - until you get hurt. Bryan White learned that the hard way. Throughout his football career, he had never been badly injured. But following the 2004 season opener at Temple, the senior linebacker felt jolts of pain shooting down his legs. Little did he know that would start a year-long odyssey that would make him appreciate life - and football - a whole lot more.
My first touch in the NFL seemed like just another football carry. It took me about two or three carries to get my feet underneath me. Obviously I was nervous on the first carry, but once I got those first one or two carries, I settled in and got back into it and felt good. Everybody wants to make it seem more than what it is, but football is football. Technique-wise, terminology-wise, read-wise, it's very similar. It's not a great level of sophistication and, in fact, very similar to what we ran at Virginia in the college game.
Virginia's assistant coaches were available for interviews last week for the first time in two years. I caught up with defensive coordinator Al Golden at "Meet the Team Day" and asked him about the secondary, the inexperience at OLB and DE, the defense's improvement over the past four years, and what he and Coach Groh like about the 3-4 scheme.
The Cavaliers closed their practices 10 days ago, so camp news has been hard to come by. But Coach Groh offered some information today during a teleconference with reporters. He talked about the five true freshmen who are likely to play in the season opener (surprise, Eugene Monroe is one of them), Tony Franklin's work at safety and the status of Ahmad Brooks.
After covering these players before and after they committed to the University of Virginia, it's interesting to follow up on how they are doing just a few weeks before the season opener. TheSabre.com was able to catch up with this year's newcomers (including most of the 2005 recruits and transfer Andrew Pearman) during last week's Meet the Team/Media Day event and get their thoughts on training camp, college, the season and an assortment of other topics.
The philosophy of the 3-4 defense against the run is a simple one. The big bodies on the defensive line are tasked with holding the line, while the linebackers fill the gaps to make plays on the ball carrier. This is particularly true with the 2-gap variety of 3-4 played by UVa. Typically it is read-and-react oriented and has been somewhat frustrating since it appears the defense is "catching" the offense instead of putting them on their heels. This was especially evident in the big games last year as the Cavaliers were blown off the ball and dominated on the ground. 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
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