Well, here I am reviewing the latest class from the defending Coastal champs. Looks like a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and again...or is it a blind wahoo swims up on a bait fish? I don't know.
I'm actually really interested in looking at UVA. They were faced with many of the same challenges on the recruiting trail this cycle that many ACC teams were: the state of Virginia was just not very deep and UNC did more damage in North Carolina than usual. This resulted in UVA singing more players from Louisiana (3) than Virginia (2). It wasn't just the Hokies.
Here's UVA's breakdown:
2020 Class:
ACC Rank: 9
National Rank: 48
# of Signees: 17
Average Recruit Rating: 0.8618
Top Recruit: Andrew Gentry, OT, Littleton CO (0.9630)
Biggest Need: Defensive Backs
In my first breakdown, I said Syracuse was the most quarterback dependent program in the ACC. UVA may be second. Bryce Perkins elevated that team to a different level the past two seasons. Last year's team was not a 9 win talented team, but they had a player at quarterback that was simply sensational.
That's the story of many programs. But you can't rely on a gamechanger like that consistently. Perkins is the kind of talent that, in modern football, you either always recruit or you stumble upon.
If you're UVA and you see Trevor Lawrence, Sam Howell, Jamie Newman, and Hendon Hooker + Dematrius Davis on your schedule for the next 2-3 years, you better be able to defend the pass. Against those QB's (excluding Jamie Newman whom the Wahoos did not play) UVA allowed an average 322 yards passing per game. They also let up 283 to Liberty. If you stayed away from Bryce Hall, you were golden.
In this class, UVA signed 3 DB's. Elijah Gaines (0.8776) is the highest rated of those three. He has really good size for a corner at 6'2" 193lbs. and was the 13th ranked player in Virginia.
UVA will need some younger guys to step up and play major minutes. Whether those guys have actually improved is a whole different story.
Most Exciting Recruit: Lavel Davis, WR, Dorchester SC (0.8647)
A 6'6" wideout? Sign me up. Davis had a stellar 2018 season where he hauled in 70 catches for over 1000 yards and 15 touchdowns. He slid a bit last season, however. Whether that'd due to an injury, bracket coverage, or something else I have no idea. Davis had offers from Oregon and Georgia Tech, with serious interest from Clemson and South Carolina.
If they can use him correctly, Davis could be a matchup nightmare for any defense. Those are the kind of players you need if you want to punch above your weight. I wouldn't be surprised if Davis gets on the field in some redzone situations this year, even though UVA has a crowded WR room.
Early Contributor: Jonathan Horton, EDGE, Baton Rouge LA (0.8983)
One of the three aforementioned Bayou recruits, Horton has the freakish athleticism and size to make any football coach feel a little giddy. At 6'5" 215lbs, he looks more like a basketball player than a football player. That's because he kind of is. His senior season was his first ever time on a football field.
While that may scare some away, Horton showed great aggressiveness and speed last season. He'll need to add some weight to be able to withstand ACC football, but all the tools are there.
Horton has versatility at the edge spot as a pass rusher and coverage guy in the flats. UVA like to implement a 3-4-4 defense, and Horton's skillset fits that perfectly. His versatility will get him on the field early, but Horton has the natural talent to hear his name called on draft night one day.
Transfer Portal:
UVA got a really nice addition to the offense this spring when they bagged former Hopewell HS star RB Ronnie Walker. Walker, brother of current Hopewell star RB TreVeyon Henderson, will add an instant spark to the offense that will so desperately need to replace playmakers. He will add a veteran presence to an offense that will be missing 4 star players. At Indiana, Walker showed flashes, but never really became the feature back.
Writer's Note:
Andrew Gentry will be on his 2-year Mormon mission before he attends UVA. So see ya soon, big fella!
Sam's Grade: B-
For UVA's recent standards, this is a good class. It has some splashes with some freak athletes mixed in. That's about what we've come to expect.
But going into his 5th year, shouldn't we start to expect more from Bronco Mendenhall? 48th in the country is in the bottom third of Power 5 teams, with only one player in the top 300. You don't expect UVA to crack the top third or even half of Power 5 recruiting, but this is just a little disappointing coming off all the hype from last season. Also, take into consideration that it will be at least 2 years before stud lineman Andrew Gentry gets on the field, and it's looking like a very bleh class. At the end of the day, UVA is too good of a school with too many resources in too good of a recruiting location to be a bottom third recruiter.
ACC Grades:
Syracuse – C
Boston College – B
Pittsburgh – B+
Louisville – B-
Virginia – B-
Comments
Hey I was there cheering as loud as I could while properly intoxicated off of Jack Honey. I did my job.
Wow, is the whole ACC on such a big curve that the bottom third of P5 is a B-, or just the coastal? Or is the rating based on how they did compared to last year and every team did a little better than last year accept the Orange, who did the same? I appreciate you doing this, and enjoy the read, but am not getting your grading scale.
Great question that I probably should've addressed earlier.
My rationale is grading based on the program's standards. An A+ for Clemson looks way different than an A+ for Wake Forest, i.e.
Grading a team a B means they had a good, solid class that will help build the program, an A is they punched above their weight or exceeded expectation.
Damn, they have gone full tilt crazy on recruiting if they are breaking out the Glee Club.
Would it surprise you if UVA football broke out into a high school musical number one day? I'm waiting for the hype video.
They'd do that in practice, right after basketball and hill crawling.
To your point about the secondary, weren't they absolutely smoked by injuries in the secondary? I thought I had seen that somewhere.
They were towards the end of the season. Similar to Tech's game against UVA, the depth couldn't hold up. They have a lot of young guys in the secondary but none that have really played well when called upon. I think there's reason for concern there.
Hat tip for including Demetrius Davis - who is a rising senior in HS- as relevant to UVA's defensive issues. Nice job.
Recruiting has to look ahead 2-3 years. The ACC as a whole is on the upswing with QB's. Didn't even mention the guy Georgia Tech got.
Interesting you mention that. ACC has had abysmal QB play the last few years which has really dragged down the overall level of play but it seems like teams are starting to turn it around. Teams are either starting young guys who were highly recruited or just landed highly recruited guys. Other than UVA and BC, not too many teams have QB questions in the near term.
NC State has some question marks, but I'll get more into that at a later date.
QB in the ACC has been buns the last couple years. I think the general lack of competition has led programs like Tech, NC State, UNC, Duke, etc to kinda slack off. That's changing though.
Well I was more thinking that since the guy NC State started at the end of last year was a freshman they're going to get a few years to build on him. His stats were rougher than I remembered when I looked.
But I agree it's changing, the ACC has generally has had good to excellent QB play and then the last two years have been terrible. I mean look around the league, we have 2 years of Hooker left, plus Burmeister and Patterson to push him and Davis coming in. That's excellent quality and depth. UNC has 3 4 star QBs in the wings even behind Howell, FSU signed 2 four star QBs, GT signed a 4 star, Duke has kinda meh depth but they always seem to get decent to good play. Even Wake and Syracuse have some depth and so on and so forth. Going to be interesting to follow.
You'd think the class of 2020 and 2021 might meet each other on the field once or twice
This is in line with [my] expectations that UVA is likely to never become more than a P5 BYU under Bronco.
So just annoying enough to be really pissed losing to them. Looking back, losing to UVA in 2003 doesnt sting, that team had lots of talent.
BYU under bronco was a pretty good team, I think some people on this site underestimate bronco. BYU under bronco is a much better team than tech has been over the last 7 years. We can trash uva and their recruiting, but 2020 wasn't a bang up year for us. Talking trash and backing it up are two different things. It may make us feel better, but it wont make our team better
BYU under has been pretty good in general for the last 50 years - but then they've only had 2 coaches for about 90% of that span.
It also helps when a solid chunk of your team are essentially like quadruple redshirts.
edit: i am a ding dong
Not gonna lie, when I read this, I immediately thought of Don Knotts:
That was a GREAT movie.
Hell yes.
wow, we really are living in twilight zone days, is this a wahoo recruiting article on TKP? I think I need to go throw up now.
Anything less than seeing a video of a fish getting gutted here was bound to disappoint me.
I got that video!
Just saw that UVanus picked up a Texas QB for '21. Anybody know anything about him?
Dual threat QB out of Wichita Falls, TX. Something Something he will be better than Michael Vick. - UVAnus fans