Scott back to aerial ways
By Whitey Reid
Published: February 21, 2009

If you ask Mike Scott his most embarrassing moment as a college player, it probably wouldn’t take the Virginia sophomore long to mention his failed dunk at Florida State last season.

Scott was all alone on the break when he jumped into the air for the dunk. Only, he didn’t get high enough — the result of a nagging ankle injury — and completely blew the shot.

This season, Scott’s ankle is 100 percent and the explosiveness that he exhibited in high school has returned in full.

In the last two games, it has seemed as if Scott has been on a pogo stick. Ditto for his teammates.

This afternoon in Raleigh, N.C., the Wahoos (9-13, 3-8 ACC) — flying high after back-to-back wins — take on N.C. State.

“We’re feeling pretty good,” said Scott, who had 10 points against Tech. “We just need to keep that same energy from the last two games and we should be able to win this next [one].”

N.C. State (14-10, 4-7) still has a chance to make it to the postseason. The Wolfpack beat Wake Forest and Georgia Tech before losing by nine to North Carolina on Wednesday.

The Pack — who, like Virginia, have relied on several young players — didn’t play poorly against the third-ranked Tar Heels. They shot 64 percent in the second half and 54 percent for the game.

Sophomore center Tracy Smith had 15 points and eight rebounds, while sophomore point guard Javier Gonzalez had a season-high 18 points.

“Obviously, I feel great about the way Tracy is playing,” N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe told the school’s web site. “We’ve got two seniors in Courtney [Fells] and Ben [McCauley], and Brandon [Costner] has been around here for a while. If those guys play the way they’re capable of playing then we should be alright. Obviously, we need solid play from the point guard position to keep us going.”

One of the keys to Virginia’s win over Tech on Wednesday was getting contributions from just about everyone. The Cavaliers had four players score in double figures, but also received a bevy of intangibles from the likes of Solomon Tat, Assane Sene, Sammy Zeglinski and Tunji Soroye.

If there’s one thing that Virginia players have learned during their tumultuous season, it has been the importance of getting off to strong starts — especially on the road.

“In the first half of ACC season, teams were throwing the first punch and attacking us first,” said sophomore Jeff Jones. “Now we’re attacking first and being the aggressor. I think that’s the main difference from now compared to the beginning of the season.”

Really, Virginia couldn’t have picked a better time to be hitting the road.

“I think these two wins have boosted all of our confidence,” said junior Jamil Tucker, who had 13 points off the bench against the Hokies.

Believe it or not, some UVa players feel like there still may be an opportunity for some form of postseason.

“We’re just trying to win every single game out,” Jones said. “Nobody on this team is saying this season is over. Nobody’s hanging their head and feeling sorry for themselves.

“We’re just going out every single day saying, ‘We’re going to win here on out.’ That’s the goal we set. We just have to maintain it and keep playing hard.”

Dunks

N.C. State leads the all-time series with Virginia, 79-54. UVa won the lone meeting last season, in Charlottesville, by 18 points. … In the win over Tech, Soroye had one block, giving him 86 for his career and tying him with Olden Polynice for 10th on the school’s all-time blocks list. … Tucker has scored in double figures 11 times this season, equaling his total through his first two seasons.

 

Cavaliers rehire Prince of a coach
By Jeff White
Published: February 21, 2009
Prince rejoin's Groh's U.Va. staff as special teams coach

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Of the University of Virginia's nine assistant football coaches for 2008, only four remain on Al Groh's staff: Anthony Poindexter, Wayne Lineburg, Bob Price and Dave Borbely.

One of Groh's new assistants, however, knows his way around the McCue Center. Word leaked last weekend that Ron Prince would be returning to U.Va., and the official announcement came yesterday.

Prince, 39, will coordinate the Cavaliers' special teams. His predecessor in that role, Bob Diaco, left this week to become defensive coordinator at the University of Cincinnati.

Among the 119 teams in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision, U.Va. ranked 92nd in punt returns, 74th in kickoff returns and 52nd in net punting last season.

"We look forward to a big upgrade in special-teams production," Groh said in a statement yesterday.

Groh, who will also carry the title of defensive coordinator this season, has one slot to fill on his staff, and he's looking for a linebackers coach. Gregg Brandon (offensive coordinator), Latrell Scott (wide receivers), Chad Wilt (defensive line) and, now, Prince have joined the staff since the end of last season.

Prince's first stint at U.Va. began in 2001 and lasted through the 2005 regular season, after which he left to become Kansas State's coach. K-State announced in November that Prince would not return in 2009.

His record with the Wildcats was mediocre -- 17-20 -- but their special teams excelled during his tenure. K-State led the nation in kickoff returns in 2006, in punt returns in '07 and in blocked kicks in '08.

Prince coached the offensive line in all five of his seasons at Virginia. In 2003, '04 and '05, he also was offensive coordinator.

"The University of Virginia and Al Groh have meant a lot to me and my family, and we are thrilled to rejoin the Cavalier family," Prince said in a statement. "My experiences the last three seasons in the Big 12 have added to my appreciation of the quality of the Virginia program, the unique set of skills that Coach Groh has, and the ambition and energy of the players. I am very excited for the challenge Coach has given me to significantly upgrade special teams performance."

In a phone interview in early December, Prince was asked if he might return to U.Va.

"If Coach Groh felt that I could help him win and it would make a difference, yeah, I would listen," Prince said. "But right now, I don't anticipate that happening."

Assistant head coach Bob Pruett's recent decision to retire, coupled with Diaco's unexpected departure, created two vacancies at U.Va., however, and Groh turned to one of his protégés.

"Ron cares about the kids, makes a strong connection with them and is interested in their success . . . Ron knows our values and team culture as well as our blind spots," Groh said in yesterday's statement. "We are extremely pleased to have Ron back as part of our team."

Attempts to reach Prince for comment yesterday were unsuccessful.

 

Prince officially a Wahoo; Groh will be defensive boss
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: February 20, 2009

Virginia will officially announce the hiring of former Kansas State head coach Ron Prince as the Cavaliers new special teams coordinator this afternoon, but that will be his lone title within the program.

Prince, 39, had previously served as UVa’s offensive line coach and offensive coordinator prior to taking the Kansas State job in 2006. After compiling a 17-20 record in three seasons, Prince was fired after this past season.

Speculation that Prince would also be named associate head coach for the Cavaliers is incorrect. He will focus all his energies on raising the profile of all UVa special teams.

Virginia coach Al Groh pointed out that during Prince’s years at Kansas State, that the Wildcats led the nation in punt returns one season, led the country in kick returns another season, and led the nation in blocked kicks last season.

“We definitely need an upgrade there on special teams,” Groh said Friday. “Bringing Ron back is exciting. He has head coaching experience and he has UVa experience. He will be a great sounding board for me. We made it a practice to speak weekly with one another over the past three seasons, about football and about our respective teams.”

Virginia finished 92nd in the nation in punt returns last season out of 119 FBS teams, and No. 70 in kickoff returns.

Meanwhile, Groh said that after deliberation that he will take over the defensive coordinator responsibilities, a role that he has unofficially played for the past three seasons. That means he has only one more vacancy to fill on his staff, a linebackers coach.

“We have a few really good candidates to coach our linebackers, guys that will right right into our system,” Groh said.

Far-fetched rumors that former Cleveland Browns coach Romeo Crenell was being considered as a candidate to fill a UVa vacancy were untrue.

“I called Romeo this week to ask about how his hip surgery went,” Groh said. “I don’t know how those rumors get started unless someone is tapping my phone line.”

Groh said he is comfortable with assistant Anthony Poindexter’s move to the secondary, that he has no issues with him handling that phase of Virginia’s defense for the first time. Poindexter has served as UVa’s running backs coach.

“Both Anthony and Chad Wilt are getting together on a daily basis and watching video with me of last year’s team and both have been impressive. They are both really organized,” Groh said.

Wilt, who was a graduate assistant at UVa before moving with Danny Rocco to Liberty, is the Cavaliers’ new defensive line coach.

Groh has been the Cavs’ defensive coordinator behind the scenes ever since the Music City Bowl win over Minnesota at the end of the 2005 season when most of his defensive staff left for other coaching jobs.

During that process and afterward, players kept approaching Groh and telling them that they had learned a great deal under his tutelage and encouraged him to continue in the role.

While he hired Mike London as the official defensive coordinator for 2006 and 2007, Groh was actually the coach who called the defenses from play to play. London was the personality and energy of the defense, but Groh was responsible for strategy.

When London took over the head coaching job at the University of Richmond prior to the 2008 season, Groh coaxed former Marshall head coach Bob Pruett out of retirment as the team’s defensive coordinator.

“It wouldn’t have been fair to Bob to come in new to the system, so he assumed the same role as Mike London’s,” Groh said. “Because I had 30 years in the system, it made sense.”

This season, Groh will have all that responsibility with no other coach working in that capacity.

 

Special assignment for Prince
Ron Prince, back after three years at Kansas, to coordinate U.Va.'s special-team units.
By NORM WOOD
February 21, 2009

Ron Prince is returning to the University of Virginia's football coaching staff as the coordinator of the special-teams units, according to a Friday release from U.Va.'s athletic department.

Prince was an assistant coach at U.Va. from 2001-05, which included the final three seasons as the Cavaliers' offensive coordinator. He went on to become Kansas State's coach for three seasons before he was fired last November. He'll be one of three assistant coaches on U.Va.'s staff with head-coaching experience on the college or professional level, including tight-ends coach and recruiting coordinator Bob Price (Eastern Utah and the Montreal Alouettes) and new offensive coordinator Gregg Brandon (Bowling Green).

"The University of Virginia and Al Groh have meant a lot to me and my family and we are thrilled to rejoin the Cavalier family," Prince said in the release. "My experiences the last three seasons in the Big 12 have added to my appreciation of the quality of the Virginia program, the unique set of skills that coach Groh has and the ambition and energy of the players. I am very excited for the challenge coach has given me to significantly upgrade special-teams performance."

U.Va., 5-7 last season, still has one assistant-coaching position to fill. In December, three assistant coaches — offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Groh, Al's son, defensive-line coach Levern Belin and secondary coach Steve Bernstein — left the staff. Brandon, who runs a spread offense, Prince and wide-receivers coach Latrell Scott have been added to the staff, but Bob Pruett, who was the assistant head coach for defense, retired Feb. 11.

Next season, U.Va. returns kicker Robert Randolph, who made three of four field goals last season with a long of 37 yards, and punter Jimmy Howell, who was eighth in the ACC with an average of 39 yards per punt and who put 20 of his 64 punts inside the opponents' 20-yard line. Kick returner Chase Minnifield, who averaged 23.3 yards per return, and punt returner Vic Hall, who averaged 6.4 yards per return, will also return.

U.Va. was 16th in the nation last season in punt-return yardage defense (average of 5.36 yards per return). It was only 72nd in kickoff-return yardage defense (average of 21.61 yards per return).

"Ron Prince did an outstanding job for Virginia football for five years," Groh said in the release. "Ron cares about the kids, makes a strong connection with them and is interested in their success. While the head coach at Kansas State, his teams led the country in punt returns (2007), kickoff returns ('06)and kicks blocked ('08), and Ron was very involved with the special teams. We look forward to a big upgrade in special-teams production. Ron knows our values and team culture, as well as our blind spots. We are extremely pleased to have Ron back as part of our team."

 

Hall to get look at QB
The Cavs' cornerback, made a strong impression on his coach when he took snaps against Tech.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

On the day that Ron Prince was re-introduced as a member of Virginia's football staff, head coach Al Groh had some juicy information to share about Prince's most heralded recruit.

Vic Hall, who finished his Gretna High School career as the state's all-time leader in passing yardage and total offense, will begin spring practice at quarterback.

"You see any other quarterbacks on our team who had two 35-yard touchdown runs last year?" Groh said Friday.

Hall had played defense almost exclusively, taking 24 consecutive starts at cornerback, before making an unannounced move to quarterback for the Cavaliers' season finale against Virginia Tech.

Hall had scoring runs of 40 and 16 yards, and he also had a non-scoring run of 39 yards in a 17-14 loss to the Hokies.

"Clearly, anybody could see what a big impact the quarterback position had on the scoreboard last year," said Groh, who used three different starting quarterbacks.

Sophomore Peter Lalich began the season as UVa's No. 1 quarterback but was dismissed from the team after two games. He was replaced by redshirt sophomore Marc Verica, who had not played in 2007.

"We started out with one candidate, then we had one and a half, then we had a half," Groh said. "Now, we have three, either for competition or variety or for depth or just to make sure we have everything we need."

Verica and Hall will be joined by Jameel Sewell, a starter on the Cavaliers' 2007 Gator Bowl team who subsequently was placed on academic probation and missed the 2008 season.

Hall will get more of a trial this spring than he did last November, when he learned of his move on the Tuesday before the Tech game.

"If Vic didn't play corner this spring after 212 years of playing corner, he could always go back and play corner," Groh said. "Vic's one of our best competitors. He's one of our fastest players. He's one of our best corners. He's one of our best quarterbacks.

"Maybe he can do some of all of that."

Hall attempted only one pass against the Hokies and clearly had a limited playlist. His height was one of the reasons that Virginia might have been hesitant to use him at quarterback in the first place and he's still 5 foot 9.

"The last time in his life that he threw an awful lot of [passes], a lot of them got caught," Groh said. "We're just going to go on that and see what the present brings.

"We're going to look at it from a can-do standpoint and then see where it goes, rather than doubt that he can but hope that something good happens. We're going to go into it with positive expectations."

When Hall made an oral commitment to Virginia in the fall of his junior year at Gretna in 2003, Prince was the Cavaliers' offensive coordinator.

Now, if Prince gets to coach Hall, it will be on special teams. Virginia has a new offensive coordinator in Gregg Brandon and an offensive line coach it respects in Dave Borbely, and neither Groh nor Prince favored a Prince return to the offensive staff.

"I'm sensitive to my guys," Groh said. "This is an area [special teams] where we really could use an upgrade in production. For all the energy that's been put into it, it's really done little to impact the scoreboard for three years.

"Ron knows how we think. I trust Ron. He's got a lot of the same outlook that we do, but that's not enough. The significant factor is, in one year, his [Kansas State] team led the country in kickoff returns. The next year, they led the country in punt returns. And, last year, they led the country in blocked kicks."

Bob Diaco coached UVa special teams for the past three seasons but already was scheduled to give up those duties before he was hired Thursday by Cincinnati as its new defensive coordinator.

Diaco, also the UVa linebackers coach from 2006-2008, had been promoted to defensive coordinator by Groh in December. Now, there is a possibility that Groh will handle those responsibilities himself and not name a coordinator, he said Friday.

He did concede that it would be nice to add a veteran defensive coach to join Anthony Poindexter and Chad Wilt, who will make their debut in their current roles. Poindexter will coach the secondary after moving from offense and Wilt was hired away from Liberty.

Groh laughed at the suggestion that he might pursue one of his old coaching colleagues, ousted Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel.

"I did talk to him today," Groh said. "You know what Romeo Crennel is doing right now? He's at the Cleveland Clinic, having a hip replaced. I wished him well."

If Crennel isn't Groh's man, a candidate with Crennel's profile might be.

"I've had two guys with appreciable NFL coordinator experience who have said [title] wouldn't be an issue; they'd like to be here," Groh said. "Those kind of guys are on the short list."
 

Virginia hammers Bucknell in season opener
By Jay Jenkins
Published: February 21, 2009

The National Hockey League has been creative of late, scheduling one game per season at an outdoor venue.

Virginia’s Davenport Field was primed for such an event Friday as the Cavaliers opened another baseball campaign in near-perfect fashion against Bucknell.

With an announced crowd of 1,023 fans braving blistering conditions, Virginia drilled a pair of home runs and its pitching staff held Bucknell to just four hits in a 12-0 romp.

“It was a great win for our program and a great start to another year, but the exciting thing for me was how many fans braved the cold,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “I thought we had a heck of a crowd for the temperature.”

Those filling the seats witnessed right-handed pitcher Andrew Carraway dominate the Bison on the mound over 5.1 innings as he allowed just two hits and fanned four batters.

After the senior worked the opening inning, Virginia right fielder Dan Grovatt offered all the run support needed when he drilled a two-run, two-out home run off the scoreboard in right-center field.

“It was great to see,” O’Connor said. “Dan was a great player for us last year and he stepped up early in the game to get a clutch two-run home run. After that, the team could settle in a little bit.”

After scoring a run in the second inning, the Cavaliers (1-0) exploded for five runs as they batted around in the fifth innings and chased Bucknell’s Dylan Seeley from the game.

Freshman Steven Proscia, who started at third base, finished with three hits, including the first homer of his career. Grovatt added three hits, three runs and drove in two runs.

The teams will meet today for a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.

 

Stanwick gets off to quick start
By Whitey Reid
Published: February 21, 2009

When the Virginia coaching staff recruited Steele Stanwick, they knew he was good — but they weren’t exactly expecting the freshman attackman to be second on the team in points after the first two games.

“I guess I’m a little bit surprised,” said Virginia coach Dom Starsia. “We certainly always expected some good things from him and held him in really high regard, but for a young player to demonstrate the poise that he has — I still consider it a little bit unusual.

“He’s been really good so far.”

This afternoon, Stanwick (four goals and two assists) leads No. 2 Virginia into its first road game of the season at Stony Brook.

UVa (2-0) has posted workmanlike wins over Drexel and Bryant to start its season.

“I think we’re off to a good start and our effort has been pretty thorough through the first two games,” Starsia said. “We probably need to be a little sharper and certainly hope that will begin to come around for us…we just want to continue to get better.”

Stony Brook is playing its season opener for head coach Rick Sowell. The Seawolves return six starters and 18 letterwinners from last season when they finished 7-7 overall and qualified for the America East Conference tournament for the seventh year in a row.

“They scored a lot of goals in their first two scrimmages [against Yale and Penn],” Starsia said. “They have good shooters, good stickhandlers.

“I think if we can spread the field out and push the pace of things, I think we’ll be able to create some opportunities for ourselves, but we’ll have to be very alert because they can handle the ball really well in small spaces.”

Ground balls

Virginia leads the all-time series, 5-0, including a 15-13 win last season at Klockner Stadium. … The game will be a reunion of sorts for several players. Cavalier midfielder Max Pomper and Stony Brook junior goalie Charlie Paar are best friends. Paar won two state championships at Huntington High (N.Y.) and was a teammate of Cavalier midfielders Rhamel and Shamel Bratton.

 

Nats, Zimmerman agree to deal
Associated Press
Published: February 21, 2009

VIERA, Fla. — Third baseman Ryan Zimmerman and the Washington Nationals agreed to a $3,325,000, one-year contract, avoiding arbitration.

The former UVa standout was the last player in the major leagues scheduled for an arbitration hearing. His was to take place Friday in Phoenix, which is why he missed Washington’s first full-squad workout of spring training Thursday.

He was the last Nationals player without a contract in place for the coming season.

“He’s the face of this franchise, so it’s totally different when he’s here with us,” manager Manny Acta said. “We can’t wait to get him here.”

Zimmerman and the Nationals met at the midpoint of their arbitration figures: Zimmerman had submitted $3.9 million, while the Nationals had countered with $2.75 million.

The agreement includes performance bonuses of $75,000 for 500 plate appearances, and $50,000 each for 550 and 600 plate appearances.

“We’ve continued to talk about a multiyear [contract]. We were talking about it yesterday; we’re going to keep talking about it tomorrow,” Nationals president Stan Kasten said. “That would be an end result both sides would like to see. We’re just not there yet. We’re going to keep talking about it. If we can do it, we’ll do it.”

This was the first time Zimmerman was eligible for arbitration. He made $465,000 last season, when he batted .283 with 14 homers and 51 RBI while limited to 428 at-bats because of a left shoulder injury.

“He means an awful lot. He’s had a terrific start to his career. A couple bumps here and there, but a terrific start,” Kasten said. “We have high hopes for him having a big-time career.”

Zimmerman, a Virginia Beach native, was taken by the Nationals with the fourth overall pick in the 2005 amateur draft out of the UVa and made his big league debut that September.

In 2006, his first full season, Zimmerman hit .287 with 20 homers and 110 RBIs and finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting to Florida’s Hanley Ramirez. He has a career batting average of .282 with 58 homers and 258 RBI.

Asked what he expects from Zimmerman this season, Acta said: “Twenty-five-plus (homers) and 100 RBIs, and hopefully more people other than me are watching him play at third base this year and he can get a Gold Glove.”

Acta noted that Zimmerman has put in time working in the offseason with new Nationals hitting coach Rick Eckstein.

“He’s making some adjustments that are going to make him better,” Acta said. “He’s eliminating a few of the extra body movements that he had before and this can only help him, because it’s going to help him see the ball better, recognize pitches better and everything else will be better.”

 

Prospects popping up in unfamiliar locales
Tech, UVa change recruiting strategy?
By Doug Doughty

Illinois has become the first Division I-A football program to make an offer to South County High School junior Andre Simmons, but the Illini soon could have some company.

Virginia Tech and Virginia are both mulling offers to Simmons, a 6-foot, 195-pound defensive back who is a 3.7 student.

While Tech could make an offer to Simmons as early as next Saturday, when it will hold a junior day, the Hokies already have offered his teammate, Ronnie Van Dyke, a 6-3, 180-pound defensive back who will be a junior in 2010.

“He looks a little like Kam Chancellor,” said Pete Bendorf, South County coach.

South County, located in Lorton at the southern end of Fairfax County, has been open for only four years and played with mostly ninth- and 10th-graders in 2005.

“My brother [Mark] gets so much traffic and, when I was at Oakton, we got so much traffic,” said Bendorf, whose brother is the long time coach at Robinson in Fairfax.

“This year is the first year that it’s really picked up here. I’ve had a couple kids go on for our program, but these are our first two legit [Division I-A scholarship] kids.”

Bendorf had an all-state kicker who walked on at Virginia Tech before transferring to Delaware (research was unable to his name as deadline approached).

“Truly, with all those mailings that go out, it took a while for us to get our name out there,” Bendorf said. “I had to send a lot of information out on my own.”

Simmons’ emergence as a prospect may be all it takes.

“As things seem to be heating up a fair amount on Andre. I’m sure it will be even moreso on Ronnie,” Bendorf said.

Van Dyke is a decent student, “but when I roll out the transcript on Andre, everybody is like, ‘OOOhhhhhh!’ When you have that, it heightens it even more.”

Bendorf thinks Simmons will have multiple I-A offers.

“I sent tapes to Northwestern, Duke, Penn, Yale ... all those kinds of schools,” he said.

“I talked to [Tech assistant] Bud Foster today and he said they want to do a little more evaluation. I think they want to get him down there one day. With UVa, I talked to coach [Anthony] Poindexter and he said coach [Al] Groh wants to review him. They just got the tape two days ago.”

Bendorf said puts Simmons’ time for 40 yards at 4.6, which might seem slow by some standards.

“He’s a track kid, or at least he was a track kid,” Bendorf said. “That’s what he grew up doing. He’s run 23.2 in the 200 [meters]. I don’t have a legit 100 time for him. I was at Oakton forever and we always joked about ‘Oakton speed.’ We were good, but we never had really legit fast kids.

“Down here at Lorton, I’ve had five or six kids who could really run and Andre can run with them. I’ve timed him in 4.56. Of course, that’s a hand-held time, So, he’s legitimately fast.

“You would categorize my teams as an athletic teams. My Oakton teams were big and physical. But these teams that we play, they’re probably wondering, ‘Do we kick the ball to them?’ "

ANOTHER VETERAN COACH who has taken over a start-up program is one-time Virginia Tech quarterback Mark Cox, who is the coach at Battlefield High School in Haymarket, which is in Fauquier County.

Battlefield’s 2008 team was the school’s first with players who had started their careers at Battlefield. Cox’s early teams were made up of ninth- and 10th-graders and assorted transfers who had been unable to make the varsity at their previous schools.

Kids who were playing elsewhere and lived in the Battlefield zone generally took the option of remaining at their old school.

“There were a lot of growing pains,” said Cox, previously the coach at Falls Church and Woodson, “but our classes have started to fill out and our younger teams are starting to develop really well now.”

Battlefield had a run-oriented offense last year but figures to open up this year with 6-6, 230-pound quarterback Bo Revell, a rising senior. The top two college prospects on the team are Revell and 6-1, 185-pound wide receiver Blaine Mason, also an all-region defensive back this past fall.

Revell, a 3.9 student and the son of one-time UVa linebacker Bill Revell, was lost for the 2007 season when he suffered a broken thumb and had his first full season as a starter this past fall.

“We didn’t throw the ball that much this year,” Cox said. We had a running back who was all-region for two years, but he’s graduating. Now, we’ll probably start throwing the ball around more with Bo.

“He can throw the deep ball very well. And, for a 6-foot-6 guy, he has pretty good feet. He’s not a running quarterback, but he could [run] if he had to. He’s had letters from just about everybody. Everybody tries to get the inside track.

“He’s been [unofficially] to UVa, Carolina, Georgia. He’s getting heavy stuff from Alabama. I just think they’d like to see a little bit more of him before offering. I would like to see us throw the ball more, too.”

WHEN ASKED ABOUT Tech’s upcoming junior day and apparent change in recruiting philosophy, John Ballein, associate athletic director, said, “It’s not a junior day. It’s a prospect day.”

OK, so there will be some rising juniors on campus next weekend, but Ballein’s feeling has been that uncommitted prospects are likely to make only “x” number of trips across the state and he’d rather have them come in April than February.

He may have been out-voted this year.

Virginia has held February junior days for a while, but it seems that the Cavaliers have changed their approach and added one or two junior days while reducing the number of prospects they invite to campus at one time.