Hourigan To Join UVa Athletics

Official Release, UVa Athletic Media Relations

Virginia head football coach Al Groh announced Friday that Brandon Hourigan has been named the Cavaliers' Director of Football Training and Player Development. He replaces Matt Balis, who recently was named the head strength and conditioning coach at Mississippi State

Hourigan has been the head strength and conditioning coach for football at Richmond since May of 2005. He oversaw all fitness duties for the Spiders who won the 2008 NCAA Football Championship Subdivision title.

"This position is much more significant than most people could comprehend," Groh said. "The director of football training and player development is one of the only two people who coach everybody on the team. This part of our program is where not only physical skills are trained and developed, but where team chemistry and unity take root. Brandon comes highly recommended by two of our staff members who have worked with him, and Mike London who knows what we need. The position is one of the most important we've got and we are very pleased Brandon is our guy."

Prior to his appointment at Richmond, Hourigan was the assistant coordinator of speed, strength and conditioning at Northeastern University. He worked with the Huskies' football, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's hockey, volleyball, men's and women's soccer and men's and women's track and field squads.

Hourigan has also worked as an assistant strength & conditioning coach on the collegiate level at Arizona (2001) and Clemson (1998-1999). He also served as a strength & conditioning intern for the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL in 1999.

Hourigan graduated with a bachelor of science in physical education from Plymouth State College where he was a four-year letterwinner in football. At Clemson, he completed work toward a master's of sciences in guidance and counseling.

Hourigan is certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, the United States Weight Lifting Association, and has both First Aid and CPR certification.

This Week In Recruiting
By Chris Horne

UVa enjoyed a busy week last week, reeling in three verbal commitments including Xaverian (Brooklyn, N.Y.) offensive lineman Oday Aboushi, DeMatha Catholic (Hyattsville, MD) outside linebacker Jeremiah Mathis, and Kellam (Virginia Beach, VA) offensive lineman Hunter Steward.

The 6-7, 300-pound Steward was the first to commit, pledging to the Hoos last Wednesday. Steward plans to attend Fork Union Military Academy prior to Virginia, meaning he will count towards the 2010 class. In what was his first season in the United States, Steward earned first-team all-state and first-team All-Tidewater honors for his 2008 performance.

Aboushi committed a day later, informing primary recruiter Bob Diaco and offensive line coach Dave Borbely of his decision during an in-home visit on Thursday. The 6-6, 305-pound Aboushi chose the Cavaliers over Rutgers, which had assistant coaches in-home earlier in the week. Aboushi, who camped at Virginia in 2008, played offensive tackle and defensive tackle in high school but will play offensive tackle for head coach Al Groh.

Mathis, a 6-3, 244-pound prospect, committed to Virginia on Sunday while on an official visit. Though he earned first-team all-conference honors this past season at defensive end, he is being recruited by Virginia to play outside linebacker in the 3-4 defense. As a senior, he racked up over 90 tackles including 13 sacks for head coach Bill McGregor.

Stay tuned for more on Mathis' commitment this week, as we hope to follow up with more from Coach McGregor as well as Mathis himself.

Virginia now has 24 verbal commitments in the 2008 class. The tally would've been 25, but news broke last week that Harrisonburg (VA) tailback Alex Owah will not be attending UVa. Twenty-four players are committed, but Lafayette (Williamsburg, VA) defensive end William Hill is slated for enrollment this month and Steward will attend Fork Union. Therefore, the staff likely has three more spots if they choose to use them.

St. Xavier (Cincinnati, OH) outside linebacker Luke Kuechly likely will be the next Virginia target to make his decision. The 6-3, 215-pound recruit made an official visit to Stanford this past weekend and should decide soon from BC, Duke, Stanford, and UVa. We'll check in with Luke for more on his decision this week.

Big weekend ...

Most of Virginia's commitments are scheduled to make their official visits this coming weekend. This will serve as an opportunity to solidify the commitment of Camden (N.J.) wide receiver Tyree Watkins, who may make an official to another program depending on how the weekend goes. We'll also find out which uncommitted prospects may make their way to Charlottesville this Friday through Sunday.

Top 40 ...

Stay tuned later today, as we will release the final Top 40 rankings for the state of Virginia's 2009 recruiting class.

Chris Horne, our resident recruiting expert, provides updates throughout the week for Edge subscribers about UVa's commitments and recruiting targets in football and men's basketball. To sign up for an Edge subscription, please check out the Sabre Edge Sign Up and Information Page. If you're already on board as an Edge subscriber, click the links below to catch up on recruiting.

Sabre Edge recruiting updates from the past week ...

Spurlock Talks UVa, Updates Season
Word of Life (Springfield, VA) forward Tristan Spurlock was one of several recruits in the stands for Virginia's home game against Xavier last Saturday. The 6-8, 220-pound prospect, one of two players to sign with Virginia in the November signing period, reflected on the experience and discussed his performance this season.

Postseason Update: Orange ATH Quintin Hunter
Orange (VA) star Quintin Hunter is one of Virginia's most versatile recruits, having starred at defensive back, wide receiver and, for the past two years, quarterback for the Hornets varsity football squad. The 6-2, 190-pound senior earned first-team AP all-state honors for his play as a defensive back in 2008, but he projects as a quarterback/wide receiver for the Cavaliers. Hunter is the subject of the latest "Postseason Update."

More recent recruiting updates on The Sabre ...

• Number 24 Comes on Board
• Renfrow Turns in Impressive Senior Season
• Cavs Score Top Commit, Lose Another
• Steward Commits To Cavaliers
• FB Recruiting Overview: One Month Left

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Hot Thread

The men's basketball board has had lots of interesting conversations in the past week as the Hoos' season rolls along. One thread that was a hot topic featured point guard Sammy Zeglinski. Read the the thread here. Here's the post that got the discussion started:

Subject: The facts about Sammy.
Posted by: Norfolk Hoo on Sun Jan 11 2009 6:25:04 PM
Message: There have been a few posts lately questioning the performance and value of SZ to the team. I think it's just a few posters, but surprising to me nevertheless. Most people would acknowledge that Sammy, Sylven, and Sene make freshman mistakes that will be corrected with time and more experience. But comments like, "SZ has really struggled", "No way in our best 3 players", "not proving to be the answer", "might end up on the bench" and so on are pretty over-the-top when considering the numbers.

I was wondering how SZ's numbers compared to the freshman numbers of former UVa point guards. I was able to find most statistics going back to the early 80's. Others will correctly point out that we have a lot of tough games left, but we are halfway through our season and have played a number of solid teams that make the numbers worth checking. This is what I've found:

1. No freshman PG that I have found has scored as much as Sammy (12.0 ppg). Couldn't find Jeff Jones (elder) or earlier, but found Cory Alexander (freshman in '91-92) 11.2 ppg, Singletary ('04-05) 10.6, Othell Wilson ('80-81) 6.6, John Crotty ('87-88) 6.3, and Donald Hand ('97-98) 4.7. Couldn't find Harold Deane freshman numbers but his senior numbers (12.9) suggest he was in single digits earlier on.

2. FG% - Only Wilson (49.3%) was higher than SZ (43.8%). Order of others was Singletary (38.5%), Alexander (37.6%), Crotty (36.2%), and Hand (32.9%). The senior FG% numbers of all the older guys were 2% to 8% better than their freshman numbers.

3. 3-pt% - No one is close to SZ (41.4%); Crotty (34.7%), Singletary (32.1%), Alexander (29.5%), Hand (27.7%). Wilson only had a 3-pt line in his junior year (shot 53.7%!!). SZ's line is at least 1-ft farther back than everyone else's. Of these players the highest % in his senior year was Singletary (36.7%) (and Deane was 33.8%) and the highest career average was Singletary (36.2%).

4. FT% - Wilson (77.5%), Singletary (77.5%), SZ (73.7%), Alexander (68.6%), Crotty (58.6%), and Hand (55.2%).

5. Assists - Alexander (4.4 apg), Singletary (3.9), SZ (3.8), Hand (3.3), Crotty (3.0), Wilson (3.8). All the older guys were in the 4.5 to 6.1 apg range as seniors.

6. TO's - Wilson (1.8). Singletary (2.4), Alexander (2.9), SZ (2.9). Some data sources tend not to print TO's, so I don't have anything on the other guys.

7. Assists to TO's - Singletary (1.6), Alexander (1.5), Wilson (1.5), SZ (1.3).

8. Steals - Singletary (1.7), SZ (1.6), Wilson (1.5), Alexander (1.2), Hand (1.2), Crotty (0.6).

9. Rebounds - SZ (3.3), Alexander (3.2), Singletary (3.0), Hand (2.4), Crotty (2.3), Wilson (2.2). Rebounds isn't really a judge of your PG, but what the heck.

Looking over senior stats and career stats, SZ's current numbers compare pretty well with some of those guys (within 1 ppg of Crotty, Deane, Hand, Wilson; better than all senior and career 3-pt% except Wilson' junior year; better than Singletary, Hand, Crotty's senior FG% and better than every career FG% except Wilson; would be middle of pack in rebounds and steals against senior numbers).

These are comparisons to UVa's best of the last 25+ years. The numbers bear out that these guys all got better with experience. Given Sammy's starting point among these guys, the numbers would indicate what mose can see in watching - SZ is doing pretty weel for a frosh and has a lot of promise.

Also, I've pointed out my concerns on this board about player development under Leitao. That concern was earned over several years, so I'm not going to get excited in the course of a few games. But the guys looked better yesterday against an ACC team on the road than they did earlier in the year. I saw some organization and purpose on both the offensive and defensive end. I saw better fundamentals such as boxing out. Most encouraging, I saw young guys continue to fight despite taking VT's best punch (sometimes almost literally).

Hard to say Landesburg is getting better when his performances are so fantastic to begin with, but Sene and Sammy are coming along very nicely (kudos as well to Mu, you can start to see the confidence building, keep it up). Sammy had a 4-game stretch of more TO's than assists (Radford, Liberty, Syracuse, Minnesota - 9 dimes, 17 TO's). The last 7 games, it's been the other way around (35 dimes, 16 TO's). He's getting better as a PG, and it's getting increasingly fun to watch this team grow despite any L's the more experienced teams will hang on us.

Go Hoos!

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Issue No. 107 - October 3, 2003

Cavaliers win on Hughes' and Winborne's late-game heroics

Connor Hughes kicks the winning FG with less than 10 seconds remaining.

Wake Forest gave Virginia quite a fight last Saturday, but the Hoos dug down deep and were able to pull out the win. While there were many heroes on the day, no one shined more than sophomore placekicker Connor Hughes. With the game under two minutes, Hughes connected on a booming 53-yarder field goal to tie the game. After a remarkable interception by Jamaine Winborne to get the Hoos into field goal range, Hughes nailed another one with less than 10 seconds remaining to win the game.

As mentioned above, there were quite a few heroes on the day for the Hoos. Matt Schaub returned to action for the first time since the opening drive against Duke over a month ago. Schaub came out hot, completing 30 of his 45 pass attempts for 326 yards and two touchdowns. Schaub also showed some guts, breaking free from an apparent sack and diving into the end zone for a crucial two-point conversation to tie the game at the start of the fourth quarter.

Virginia's defense should get some credit as well. While they did give up 47-yard touchdown pass to Wake in the third quarter, they dug down deep when the team needed it the most. When Virginia was coming back, Schaub threw two interceptions late in the game. Wake was unable to capitalize on either turnover. On a game-deciding 4th and 2 on UVa's 8-yard line, the Cavalier defense stopped Wake Forest to give Schaub a chance to move the team down the field for the tying score. And let's not forget Winborne's interception that put Virginia in field goal range to win the game, rather than going to overtime.

This was a character-building win for the Hoos over an improving Wake Forest team. The win puts UVa at 2-0 in the conference and 3-1 overall, which puts them off to a better start than last year's 9-5 bowl-winning team (the 2002 team started 2-2).

Coming Soon

The Sabre has you covered when it comes to Hoo news. Here are a few of the articles to expect on the site soon:

• Basketball Analysis: The basketball men's basketball team plays UNC this week and The Sabre will have coverage of the Cavaliers.
• Jed Williams: Columnist Jed Williams sat down with swimming coach Mark Bernardino for a "Cavalier Conversation."
• Women's Basketball: Bailey Stephens catches up with Debbie Ryan's club as they prep for UNC.

In Case You Missed It ...

Sabre articles since the last SabreMail

Hokies Edge Hoos In Blacksburg
As has become customary in the Virginia-Virginia Tech basketball rivalry, the two teams waged another close battle on Saturday in Blacksburg before the Hokies squeaked out a 78-75 win. Dating back to 2004-05 when the teams began playing twice a season in ACC play, 8 of 10 games have decided by 7 points or less, including three overtime contests. The average margin of victory in those eight contests has been 4.4 points.

Zeglinski Developing At Point
Replacing a point guard is never easy. Replacing a player as a rookie that has essentially run a team's offense for three seasons is certainly demanding. When that player happens to be Sean Singletary, it can be a daunting task. But that was the challenge redshirt freshman Sammy Zeglinski, a high school teammate of Singletary's, faced entering the 2008-09 Cavalier basketball season.

The Missing Bounce In UVa's Step
When a basketball team is floundering around a .500 record, many things raise the ire of fans. In Virginia's case this season, the struggles on offense frequently have been in the crosshairs. Simply put, the Hoos are not very consistent on offense, often going minutes at a time not only without scoring but also without producing any high quality opportunities. Why? What happens when the Cavaliers' version of a motion offense isn't working?

Sabre Roundtable: 2008 In Review
The Sabre's look back at the 2008 football season has included a "10 Things I Learned" article from JHoo and a "2008 Stock Report" from Greg Waters. We are wrapping things up with a free Sabre Roundtable, featuring some of the media giants that cover the Hoos. Sabre Editor Kris Wright is joined by Marc Davis (WCAV TV), Jerry Ratcliffe (The Daily Progress), David Teel (Daily Press), and Jeff White (Richmond Times-Dispatch) to answer 6 Quick Questions about the Hoos.

Cavaliers Win Against Brown
Thanks to a strong second half effort on defense, the Virginia men's basketball team wrapped up the non-conference portion of its schedule with a 74-50 win against Brown on Tuesday night at the John Paul Jones Arena. The Cavaliers held the visitors to just 23.3% shooting after intermission to improve to 7-5 on the season.

Photo Gallery: Xavier 84, Virginia 70
The Virginia men's basketball team returns to action tonight at the John Paul Jones Arena. Prepare for the Brown game by taking a look back at the weekend's action against Xavier. Sylven Landesberg surpassed 20 points again while Mike Scott recorded 16 points and 5 rebounds in the loss. Check out 50 images from the event in an EDGE photo gallery. There are also six other galleries available with tons of pictures of your favorite Cavaliers.

Greg's Stock Report '08: 2008 Season
TheSabre.com continues its review and analysis of the 2008 season with a look at the more analytical based part of the breakdown. In Greg's Stock Report for the season, we look at the end of year grades for each unit, the superlatives for the season, and the 2008 trend report. In reviewing the 2008 Cavalier football season, there were several situational or operational trends in particular that had a significant impact on wins and losses. The Sabre delves into some of the more interesting trends, including the biggest impact factor on wins and losses for 2008.

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