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Lol at Team Saltine Cracker.
here is a 14 team format that would also allow for home/away every 4 years (minimum) while still maintaining annual divisions to draw your championship game participants from. the 9th game shown as vs/@ would be used by the league to preserve annual rivalry games not falling within the 8 game schedule that year or to work with ESPN for made for TV crossover games if all rivalries have been preserved for select teams.
This is my thoughts exactly. I didn't want to put it to words because I was afraid it would look to much like trying to justify a miss. But this is dead on.
It becomes an issue of what came first, the chicken or the egg. We get top DB talent because we put out top DBs.
We need a top DL talent to come and be successful to get more to follow, we need success to get the top talent. How do you get one without the other? We are getting there by slowly getting better talent than before. We were very close to landing Nnadi. We got Walker who may be even better. If Hopkins and Maddy go to the NFL, then the argument that our system is not set up for NFL players starts to be broken. It is just a matter of time. When you complete a puzzle, there has to be a last piece. The DL might just be our last piece to figure out.
Wiles is a great coach, is he a great position recruiter? I don't know the answer to that question.
Can we sticky this on the header. Oh my lord this. This. This. This. This.
It is similar to the Redskins. They have two premier 4-3 DE's being wasted as OLBs. I am not even remotely a Skins fan, but living in the DC area it is so frustrating to see two guys that are so talented at one position look so out of place at another.
I am a Redskins fan, so it's even more frustrating. As was the announcement that they want to continue with the 3-4, and retained Haslett. I have a bad feeling they're going to overpay Orakpo too, and continue to play him out of position as you mention.
You can disagree with it all you want, you even admit that your sample size is limited. I don't mean to be rude, but you're simply wrong when you suggest that a 3* player is just as likely to be an All American or make the NFL as a 5* player.
On the macro level, the facts just simply don't support this conclusion.
The thing is, Hand isn't a fit at all with what Alabama does. He is a dominant 4-3 defensive end. If scheme was what he was worried about, he should be at South Carolina or Michigan or some team that uses four man fronts exclusively. Saban's defense makes stars out of outside linebackers. I have no idea if Hand is comfortable standing up at OLB (he'd be huge), but if he plays DE his job will be to eat blocks. It is similar to the Redskins. They have two premier 4-3 DE's being wasted as OLBs. I am not even remotely a Skins fan, but living in the DC area it is so frustrating to see two guys that are so talented at one position look so out of place at another. It is a specialized game.
I would hope I saw it....since I typed it.
I would actually call it a moderate correlation at best. It is definitely not a strong correlation.
However the correlation between success and 5* recruits is higher than with 4* -- and 4* is higher than with 3* -- and so on. But even that is WAY overstated.
For instance, just look at the Class of 2010 Virginia Top 30 -- a class that is just now coming to fruition. FAR, FAR more misses than hits. At a glance:
#1 thru #10 were all Rivals 4* and has a couple of NFL players (Ego Ferguson & J.Hunter - LSU), but the rest are mostly misses (transfers, part-time starters, etc.).
#11 thru #20 has a couple of 4* and mostly 3* -- and has an All-American(Ed Reynolds - Stanford), an all-conf caliber player (Derrick Hopkins @ #20) & couple of okay OL starters (Russell Bodine-UNC & Connor Davis-UVa)
#21 thru #30 is all 3* and has 1 all-conf caliber player (Q.Spain-WVU) and an okay OL starter (Caleb Ferris).
So out of a roughly a dozen 4*, you've got 2 NFL players and little else. Out of roughly 18 3*, you've got an All-American, a couple of all-conf level players and a few starters.
This is just one quick look at a limited sample size, but I would say that the correlation between being a 4 star recruit and not succeeding is much higher than succeeding. And the correlation between a high ranked player getting arrested or transferring to a D-1AA school is about as high as the correlation with success.
No I am talking about Saban putting in the time to develope a relationship with the player now.
Fail to score a FG for 5-10 minutes at some point in the first half resulting in a double digit halftime deficit and never making a serious run in the second half as a result of allowing the opponent to shoot a season high FG% and 3-pt%, eventually losing by 20?
Sigh.
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12 years 5 months
# | Bitter blog - ESPN's Kiper: Second or third round 'viable' for Hokies QB Logan Thomas My eye doctor is buddies with the man who runs the senior bowl and he actually got to meet Logan Thomas (says he is bigger in person). He said that the feel amongst scouts at the event was 3-5 round.
I don't disagree with you in theory, in practice this doesn't seem to be the case. French did a great job in his NSD Gut Reaction piece comments of explaining why. It makes sense to me. If it doesn't make sense to you, or you disagree, that's fine too.
That said, it's not an issue of "blaming the system." The system is what it is. The challenges facing us recruting VHT DL players is a result of that. The challenge is figuring out how to convince these recruits of what you just said. The reality is that this is much easier said than done, as evidenced by our success (or lack thereof) in recruiting these types of players over the last decade+.
The perception I got out of that article was that Coach Cutler is selling thos e players on being able to play with eachother in college, and the college he has picked for them to play together at, and around his QB son, is UVA. London is selling them with "yeah, my team sucks now, but you guys are such great players that just being at UVA will change that." And after seeing how poor a coach he is at developing players I really think Super Cop believes it too.
Tim Settle vs Wyatt Teller
I LOOOOOVE the group that we brought in. I think offensively, we're going to be straight up rolling in 2015 and onward.
With that said, it just SUCKS to see the quality of players that slipped away at the last minute and to know just how much better this class could have been over what it already is.
Picture this:
Oklahoma Drill: Tim Settle vs. Sam Rogers.
Why is this guy still the coach!?!
I read an article a few years ago. It stated that back in the 90s VT was able to take a 3 star with a lot of talent, but who was under weight, and transform him into a monster because there weren't so many regulations on when, how, and how much the strength and conditioning coaches could be directly working with them. That is what gave VT an edge. They would push there players harder in the weight room and get better results than other schools. Now that direct contact is regulated and outside of designated periods it is up to the player to modivate themselves into becoming that monster. It just doesn't happen as quickly as it used to for VT. This places greater importants on getting either those 4 and 5 stars that are already at a good size, or high charactor kids that are self-motivating in the weight room.
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12 years 5 months
# | Read and React: "National Signing Day: Cavs' Mike London looks beyond high school coaches to cultivate Virginia Beach pipeline" Here's what doesn't make sense to me:
It's not just that Beamer's staff got outflanked or let UVA beat them to the punch. If that were the case, then no problem, we just play catch up and build relationships with these guys also - I'm sure they'd be open to having relationships with multiple coaches. There's more to it than that, otherwise Beamer & Co wouldn't stand by and watch all these recruits go elsewhere.
My guess here, and it's purely just a guess with no inside information...is something about the situation made Beamer very uncomfortable to the point that he wouldn't get involved with these guys. In fact, his staff probably did more than that, otherwise these coaches wouldn't hate VT so much.
So what is it that would have made Beamer so uncomfortable? Is it that UVA was paying these 7on7 coaches? I don't know...but I'm also not imaginative enough to think of anything else that would have made Beamer so staunchly opposed to building relationships with these coaches.
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12 years 5 months
# | Read and React: "National Signing Day: Cavs' Mike London looks beyond high school coaches to cultivate Virginia Beach pipeline" This also doesn't matter one bit because UVA was getting 5* recruits long before Mike London. They had a few back then, and they sucked. They have more now than before, and they suck even more.
My point is...UVA was able to get top-notch recruits under Al Groh also. They always have and always will be able to get some of the top players in the state because they're THREE HOURS closer to home for the 757 players than we are, and some of them want to be closer to home. With or without 7on7, UVA will get some elite recruits, and then do nothing with the talent.
Coaches recruit against every school with a reason why that player fits better in their system over another. Of course Saban will tell Hand he will fit in better as a 3-4 DE with his size and boast the number of teams in the NFL running a 3-4. That stuff isn't new. My point is tell me the last time we had a dominant DT before Hopkins or Maddy. Who did we have that has the skills they have? Our DT position has been subpar compared to the rest of our defense for a decade. The talent just hasn't been there. The point is you can argue that a 5* DT will get to the NFL through Bama better but odds are if he is really a 5* player he will get to the NFL off any team.
We have DEs in the NFL, Gayle will be drafted this year. Hopkins will be on a roster come summer if he isn't drafted. Maddy will be in the NFL the year after. Do you notice a trend there? They are the best players we have had on the DL for the last few years. We don't have as many guys in the NFL as Alabama, tOSU, or LSU but we haven't had players like those teams have. I am tired of blaming a system rather than the fact we have not had the talent that other schools have had because as a program we aren't at that level. We are a 2nd tier team currently behind the power houses. It takes a lot to get where we are at and it takes a lot more to get to the elite tier. It takes years of getting 4* guys at every position to get the success we need to get there. We aren't there yet but if you look at the recruiting, it is getting better. We are getting more of those 4* guys than ever. We are building talent deeper especially on defense. We will have seasons where we excel into the top 10 but a lot of schools do that aren't considered power houses. It takes time to get to that level and we are on the climb despite our last 2 seasons. The consistency of the 2000's is paying off now. In the 90s we weren't where we are now. We established ourselves in the 2000s as a perennial 2nd tier team. How long did that take before the run of 10 win seasons? We are doing the things off the field to get to prepare ourselves to get to that elite tier. The last thing to follow is the players. We are getting there but we aren't there yet.
Imagine the production of Bud Foster's defense if he had these elite level DL. You are going to tell me they wouldn't get into the NFL because it is a different system they ran?
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12 years 5 months
# | Read and React: "National Signing Day: Cavs' Mike London looks beyond high school coaches to cultivate Virginia Beach pipeline" "Specifically, what "evidence" is there? I see a lot of insinuation, but no actual evidence. The fact that UVA sucks isn't evidence that these people are dirty"
I'd just refer to the fact that UVA sucks and they have 2 5* and a 4* all from the same 7 on 7 plus French's comments...
And I don't have a big issue with a HS coach influencing a kid... he is their school coach, employed by the locality with all the checks and balances that go with that of which there are none with 7 on 7.
Guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this. I am glad we don't get involved in it.
Goodness gracious. If I were an ACC AD with the Hokies on my upcoming home schedule, I would do free admission. There is no way anybody should have to pay to watch this team play ball, Hokie fan or otherwise. My son's high school team could run with these guys for at least 30 minutes.
There is no excuse for the missed free throws, and the non-existence of any off ball movement on offense. The Hokies' offense consists of Wilson dribbling to the elbow (maybe), one high screen (maybe), then just stand and watch.