Practice Begins

The Virginia football team opened practice on Friday and all three weekend sessions were open to the public and media. The Sabre attended all of the practices and will have photos from the field. In addition, here are a few observations from the practice facility:

• Anthony Poindexter is a mad man. If you don't want to play for that guy, something is wrong with you. He's worth going to practice to watch if nothing else happened the whole time. Very intense, very supportive and very demanding.
• Special teams blocked two field goals on Friday (one on a bad snap) and two more on Sunday. I guess that's good and bad news for special teams.
• Another note on special teams: Ron Prince has introduced a variety of fresh drills during the special teams sessions, all of which seem to focus on fundamental parts of the various units (downfield coverage, shedding blocks, avoiding blocks, etc.).
• Javanti Sparrow and LaRoy Reynolds both wore white (DB) on the first day. Perry Jones is working at running back as is Dominique Wallace. Quintin Hunter has been working with the receivers. Al Groh said on Saturday's teleconference that the staff tries to put players in positions where they'll be the most comfortable during the early part of their first training camp, sometimes even asking the freshmen where they'd like to start out working first (Perry Jones fits that description). The coaches evaluate them first-hand from there to help determine the long-term slotting choices.
• Dom Joseph, Chris Cook, and Brandon Woods all had INTs Friday. (Woods should have had two.) Cook's went for a TD return. Corey Mosely had a fumble return for TD.
• A few names missing from the roster handed out: Dave Roberts, Brian Oden, Aaron Wilson, and Cody Wallace. Freshman Cody Wallace left the University for personal reasons.
• Walk-on kicker Drew Jarrett is in camp.
• Jameel Sewell, who has looked very solid in the early going, and Vic Hall have been taking the most QB reps during the weekend's practice with Marc Verica also getting chances.
• A handful of redshirt freshmen drew some attention over the weekend with playmaking skills - Javaris Brown (WR), Torrey Mack (RB), Riko Smalls (WR), Bill Schautz (LB) and Steve Greer (LB).
• Jared Green is showing a lot of confidence and leadership vocally. Fellow receiver Matt Snyder is also a vocal presence in that corps.
• The team donned shoulder pads for the first time Sunday. Monday's practice in shoulder pads is the final sessions before practices with full pads begin.

Only one more open practice remains to see the team in action before the season opener with William & Mary - the 2:30 p.m. session this Thursday, Aug. 13 is open to the public. The Hoos' annual "Meet The Team Day" is scheduled for this Sunday, Aug. 16 at Scott Stadium. The gates open at 2 p.m. with the team expected to attend from 3 to 4:15 p.m.

This Week In Recruiting
By Chris Horne

"Countdown to Signing Day" was pushed back a week due to several commitments on the basketball recruiting front, but be sure to check out the EDGE on Monday for the feature. It details Virginia's 2010 football recruiting class, reflecting on which players have committed and looking ahead to where the staff may allocate the rest of its scholarships.

Back to basketball ...

Virginia men's basketball coach Tony Bennett generated a buzz within the fan base last week, when he and his staff reeled in two quality commitments for the 2010 recruiting class. Last Monday, 6-6, 200-pound guard Joe Harris pledged to the Cavaliers, choosing to take his talents across the country. The rising senior is a product out of Lake Chelan High School in Lake Chelan, Washington, and had been offered by Washington and Washington State.

Harris earned Class 1A Player of the Year honors last season. He averaged 26 points per game for Lake Chelan head coach Joe Harris, who is Joe's father.

Virginia's impressive week continue just days later, when K.T. Harrell, a highly regarded guard out of Montgomery, Alabama, committed to the Cavaliers over offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia and Mississippi State. He had recent interest from Connecticut and Villanova as well.

The 6-4, 205-pound prospect has risen significantly in the recruiting ranks as a result of a stellar AAU season. He didn't play much on the AAU circuit last summer and missed his junior season at Brewbaker Magnet because of state transfer rules, so this summer was Harrell's first real opportunity to showcase his talents in quite some time.

Harrell's father, Rodney, who is originally from the Tidewater area, told TheSabre.com that the family may visit UVa this coming weekend. K.T. (Keylon Tobias) committed to the Cavaliers without having visited, but head coach Tony Bennett proved to be the big factor. Check out last week's EDGE update for more on Harrell, and we'll be sure to follow up again this weekend if a visit takes place.

In total, Virginia now has three commitments in the 2010 recruiting class. Nichols (Buffalo, N.Y.) forward Will Regan was the first to commit, choosing the Hoos over Maryland and Providence, among others, earlier in the summer. Regan is a 6-8, 220-pound prospect who'll likely play the four spot at Virginia.

TheSabre.com also hopes to check in with several other high targets this week, including Morse (San Diego, CA) forward James Johnson and Palo Duro (Amarillo, TX) power forward Michael Cobbins. Both prospects attended the NBAPA Top 100 Camp in July.

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 ...

Bennett Puts Cavs Over the Top with Harris
Lake Chelan (WA) star guard Joe Harris, the second 2010 class recruit to commit to UVa, recalled his first ever encounter with Virginia men's basketball coach Tony Bennett. "It was during an open gym at my high school and he was still at Washington State," recalled the 6-6, 200-pound prospect. "I immediately felt comfortable around him. He is a great guy. He is always preaching family and faith and I just felt comfortable around him."

Rising Star Harrell Picks Virginia
It hasn't taken too long for the Virginia men's basketball program to get rolling on the recruiting trail. New head coach Tony Bennett and crew reeled in 2010 class commitment number three last night, when 6-4, 205-pound guard K.T. Harrell pledged to the Hoos over offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia and Mississippi State.

More recent recruiting updates on The Sabre ...

• The Latest on Top OL Robby Havenstein
• UVa Still in the Hunt with Attaochu

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Sabre Hoo Preview Under Way

The Sabre's annual "Hoo Preview" is here! Starting last week, the site has started to preview the upcoming UVa football season with an article nearly every day. The "Hoo Preview" will feature position previews, schedule analysis, columns, features and more. If you're not a subscriber, August is a great month to give our EDGE service a try! Sign up here!

Last week, the "Hoo Preview" featured Editor Kris Wright's take on the upcoming season, a quarterback preview, a feature on Riko Smalls, a media roundtable, and more. This week's portion of the "Hoo Preview" features a look at tight ends, receivers, and the offensive line!

Blog Banter: Homering Hoos

Former Virginia baseball stars Ryan Zimmerman and Mark Reynolds are hammering the baseball at the Major League level these days. After Friday night's game where their teams faced each other, in fact, the duo had posted the most homers of any alumni combo in the Majors with 58 home runs. Hat tip to The Washington Post's Zach Berman for publishing that cool stat in this notebook!

Reynolds has 11 home runs in his last 13 games.

Read more from The Good Ol Blog.

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Around the World of Wahoo Sports ...

• Chris Slade Joins Virginia Football Radio Broadcast Team: Former Cavalier defensive end Chris Slade has joined the Virginia Sports Network. Slade will serve as the sideline reporter for Cavalier football games after Tim Sherman decided not to return for the 2009 season. Slade, the first Virginia football player to earn first-team All-American honors in back-to-back seasons, lettered at Virginia from 1989 to 1992. He set Virginia and ACC career records for quarterback sacks with 40, including 31 unassisted. A team captain in 1992, Slade was named Defensive Player of the Year in 1992 by Football News and was a first-team All-America selection in both 1991 and 1992.
• Altomare Wins Junior Golf Series Tournament: Incoming Virginia freshman golfer Brittany Altomare added another title to her resume this summer by winning a World Junior Golf Series tournament in Germany. She placed first at the Harder German Junior Masters event in Heddesheim. Altomare shot rounds of 71, 72 and 72 to take medalist honors by two shots at 1-under 215.
• Four Rowers Named Academic All-ACC: Four Virginia student-athletes have been named to the 2009 Atlantic Coast Conference All-ACC Rowing Team. Claudia Blandford, Victoria Burke, Summers Nelson and Nora Phillips each were named. All four are first-time honorees.
• Five Cavaliers Named to All-ACC Academic Baseball Team: Five Virginia student-athletes have been named to the 2009 Atlantic Coast Conference All-ACC Academic Baseball Team. Phil Gosselin, Dan Grovatt, Danny Hultzen, Robert Morey and Robert Poutier each were named. Grovatt earned the honor for the second time, while the other four players were named to the team for the first time.
• Five Cavaliers Named to All-ACC Academic Softball Team: Five Virginia student-athletes have been named to the 2009 Atlantic Coast Conference All-ACC Academic Softball Team. Alison Pittman, Casey Steffan, Sarah Tacke, Karla Wilburn and Carly Winger each were named. Wilburn earned the honor for the second time, while the other four players were selected to the team for the first time.
• Weymouth Named VaSID Player of the Year: Senior All-American Blair Weymouth was named the State Player of the Year as the Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID) announced the 2009 Women's Lacrosse All-State Team. Senior All-Americans Jenny Hauser and Ashley McCulloch, junior All-Americans Kaitlin Duff and Brittany Kalkstein and sophomore Liz Downs joined Weymouth as all-state first team honorees.

For more Hoo news or to read full releases, check out Virginiasports.com.

Tailgating Goods and More!

UVA Bookstores has several great deals through it's UVA Bookstores Preferred Customers program - check out tailgating goods, clothes, and more. UVA Bookstores Preferred Customers receive a monthly e-mail that consists of exclusive offers, contests, special event and new product information. Besides our special offers, some Preferred Customer only raffles have included Signed Tiki Barber Books, lower lever tickets to the Sold Out Bruce Springsteen concert, Signed Ryan Zimmerman and Chris Long jerseys.

Sign up to be a preferred customer for great deals and a chance to win a Tiki Barber autographed football!

Issue No. 119 - January 2, 2004

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:

• Hoo Preview: The Sabre's annual Hoo Preview is up and running. This week features the receivers, O-Line, and more.
• Countdown To Signing Day: The Sabre takes a look at the 2010 recruiting class for the football program.

In Case You Missed It ...

Sabre articles since the last SabreMail

Hoo Preview '09: Smalls Swaps Spots
When Virginia opened football practice on Friday afternoon, several players donned orange jerseys designated for the quarterbacks. Riko Smalls was not one of them. The redshirt freshman slipped on the offense's blue jersey instead because he is moving to receiver this fall, a switch that gives him a shot at playing time while injecting speed and athleticism into the depth chart.

Hoo Preview '09: Roundtable I
There are plenty of questions for the Virginia football team entering the 2009 campaign. I sent out a few to some media members as part of the month's Hoo Preview. What are you watching with the new offense? What are realistic expectations for the secondary? See the answers to those and more as David Teel of The Daily Press, Leon Oliver of The Best Seat in the House and Sabre EDGE subscriber The Schm-Hoo join me for a Sabre Roundtable.

Hoo Preview '09: The Schedule
Virginia's football schedule in 2009 features seven home games, including ACC contests with Boston College, Duke, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech. Among the five road opponents are ACC foes Clemson, UNC, Maryland, and Miami. How will the Hoos stack up this season? Greg Waters analyzes the schedule as The Sabre's Hoo Preview rolls on.

Sabre Teams Up With "Hoos Talking"
TheSabre.com is pleased to announce that it has formed a partnership agreement with "Hoos Talking", a new and exciting sports radio show coming to Richmond airwaves. Jim Hobgood, the former men's basketball analyst for the Virginia Radio Network, and Frank Maloney, former President of the Richmond Chapter of the UVa Alumni Association and current President of the Bill Dudley Scholarship Foundation, will host the new show that is focused on Virginia athletics. "Hoos Talking" debuts Wednesday, Sept. 2 at 6 p.m. on Sports Radio 910 in Richmond.

Hoo Preview '09: Quarterbacks
For the second straight year, Virginia enters fall training camp without an announced game one starter at quarterback. Vic Hall will start the fall practice period in the top slot, but a close competition that started in the spring is expected to continue with Hall, Jameel Sewell, and Marc Verica in the mix. The good news is that the choices are versatile with game experience. The Sabre's Hoo Preview '09 takes a look at the quarterback position.

Hoo Preview '09: By The Numbers
After finishing the 2008 season with a 5-7 record, the 2009 Virginia football team looks to post some bigger numbers for the upcoming season. Al Groh enters his 9th season as the head coach, kicking off the season on Sept. 5 against William&Mary. The first ACC game comes almost a month later at UNC on Oct. 3. The Sabre's Hoo Preview continues with a "By The Numbers" look at this season's team.

Hoo Preview '09: Something To Prove
In case you haven't heard, the ACC media gathered at the annual ACC Football Kickoff event last week picked Virginia to finish fifth in the Coastal Division this season. That means the media in attendance believe UVa is no better than the ninth best team in the league. The unfortunate conclusion is that the media seems to have it right.

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