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Virginia recruiting feels number crunch
 By Mike Farrell / Daily Progress correspondent
Dec 12, 2002
 
Virginia is in a bit of a numbers crunch when it comes to wide receivers. The Cavs now boast Virginia Beach Salem wideout Shannon Lane, High Point Ragsdale standout Emmanuel Byers, Richmond Hermitage wideout Fontel Mines and Marlboro (Md.) Suitland senior Deyon Williams as verbal commitments.

Virginia will likely have room for only one more wideout and are very high on the lists of Robinson stud Chase Anastasio, Roselle, N.J., two-sport star Jesse Holley, Delran (N.J.) Holy Cross wideout James Townsend, Morganton (N.C.) Freedom standout Chris Jefferson and others. The Hoos are also hoping for a visit from Alpharetta (Ga.) Milton superstar Sean Bailey in January although he might decide between Georgia and Florida State soon.

So what are the Cavaliers to do? That's the million-dollar question. Anastasio is the guy that Virginia really needs to wait on because their relationship with Robinson High School is very important. However, if Holley or Townsend, two players that favor Virginia but have other visits scheduled as well, were to want to commit, would the Cavs take one of them?

This is why recruiting coordinator Mike London gets the big bucks. Decisions like this are the toughest part about the recruiting game. Anastasio was at Notre Dame this past weekend and has Ohio State set for this upcoming weekend. His official visit to Virginia isn't until sometime in January.

Williams could change the way this all shakes out. The 6-foot-3, 185-pounder made a mistake last weekend by taking an official visit to Pitt instead of taking the SAT. Now Williams, who has yet to qualify, can't take the test again until late January so Virginia has a decision to make. If they can't guarantee him admission, a la Bethel star Jimmy Williams last season, UVa might have to cut him loose to Pitt. If they wait to long to make that decision, players like Holley, Townsend and others could be gone.

The Cavaliers will be welcoming a few official visitors this weekend and none is bigger than Irvington, N.J. defensive tackle Nate Robinson. Robinson is 6-foot-4 and listed at 319 pounds (he's bigger now) and is the No. 1 defensive tackle in the country. Robinson visits his favorite team, Miami, on Dec. 20 so a good visit is vital to the Cavs chances.

Others coming in for their official visits include Duquesne, Pa. cornerback Windell Brown, Lewisville (Tex.) Hebron offensive lineman Ian-Yates Cunningham, Pittsburgh (Pa.) Woodland Hills safety Ryan Mundy and two official visitors committed to other schools who wish to remain anonymous.

Speaking of Cunningham, the 6-5, 300-pounder was rumored to be making his decision as early as this Sunday upon his return from UVa, but now it looks like he'll take a week to think about it. Cunningham has already seen Nebraska and Georgia Tech and hopes to decide between his three favorites before Christmas.

If UVa gets the standout lineman, they'll shut down their offensive line recruiting for the year.

Will Stupar's commitment affect Dunbar tight end Vernon Davis? I spoke to Davis the day before Stupar's commitment and he said it won't matter to him if the Cavs have another tight end in the mix. The 6-4, 220-pounder visited Purdue last weekend but eliminated the Big Ten school because it's too far away. He visits Maryland on Dec. 20 and has Virginia set for Jan. 17 and will choose between the two shortly after that.

How fast is Hargrave Military linebacker Ahmad Brooks? Weighing in at 240 pounds, Brooks ran a 4.47-second 40-yard dash on Monday at Hargrave's annual combine. Brooks also had a 34-inch vertical leap. He'll be at Virginia in January for sure.

The Cavaliers are very high on Plantation, Fla., linebacker H.B. Blades because he has the hips and quickness of a safety and the strength and ability to take on blockers of a linebacker. Blades, a 6-0, 230-pounder who is the son of former Miami Hurricanes great Bennie Blades, visited Pitt last weekend and loved it. The Cavs now trail the Panthers but they'll get the last chance at him. He visits Charlottesville on Jan. 17.

What's the latest with in-state targets Phillip Brown and Chris Ellis? Not much is new, but both Ellis and Brown are entering their official visits with an open mind which is all UVa would have wanted a couple of months ago. Both Brown, a 5-11, 185-pound defensive back from Phoebus and Ellis, a 6-5, 230-pound defensive end from Bethel, were heavy Virginia Tech leans back in October when the Hokies were undefeated and seemingly destined for a showdown with Miami for a berth in the national title game. Three Tech losses and UVa's upset wins over N.C. State and Maryland and now the playing field has evened.

Brown and Ellis will visit Virginia on Jan. 17 and the biggest threats are the Hokies and N.C. State. Each of them, like Lane, has had trouble with Tennessee. Ellis' mother favors the Hoos in a big way and thinks Tennessee is too far away and the Vols didn't recruit Brown hard enough over the last two months to gain his interest.

Lane was supposed to take an official visit to Tennessee the weekend of Nov. 29 but didn't receive a phone call or any tickets to take his trip. He later found out that he wasn't that high on Tennessee's list. The Vols loss is UVa's gain in this case.

 

 

 

Next six games crucial for Jenifer

Top-ranked safety among UVa visitors this weekend

By DOUG DOUGHTY
 Exclusive to roanoke.com by 5 p.m. Thursdays

Few teams could have gone through Virginia's early season men's basketball schedule and posted a better record than the Cavaliers' 3-2 (2-2 against Division I teams), but I'm not convinced that the Cavaliers are a lock to make the NCAA Tournament.

Maybe it's a little early to talk about the NCAAs, but that's a legitimate goal for the Cavaliers in coach Pete Gillen's fifth season. If Virginia doesn't make the NCAA Tournament this year, you could make the point that the program is stagnating.

Certainly, there have been extenuating circumstances, including Roger Mason's somewhat-unexpected departure for the NBA after his junior year, and ones wonders how long the program will be haunted by Majestic Mapp's knee problems.

Devil's advocate Jeff White has been a big booster of UVa sophomore point guard Keith Jenifer, just as he held out hope till the end for starter-turned-departer J.C. Mathis, but I still find myself wondering if Jenifer is an ACC-caliber point guard.

Jenifer was never billed as a great shooter, but now teams don't even bother to cover him at the 3-point line. However, with a pair of 3-point threats in Todd Billet and Devin Smith, UVa could get by with a non-shooter at the point if he played good defense and protected the ball.

Jenifer is UVa's quickest player and he makes an effort on defense, but he just doesn't play intelligently. I remember two plays in particular while UVa was trying to come back at Michigan State: one when he turned the ball over by carelessly stepping on the end line and another when he drove the lane, left his feet and had nowhere to go.

Even before he was hurt in a summer pickup game in 2000, Mapp was no jet, but he was under control and made more 3-pointers as a freshman, 24, than Mason. For the first time in three years, Mapp has been practicing and taking part in pregame warmups, but no timetable has been given for his return.

It is unlikely that Mapp will be available for the next phase of UVa's schedule, six non-conference games -- five at home -- before the Cavaliers begin ACC play Jan. 5 at North Carolina State. That might be Jenifer's last chance to prove that he can do the job.

If Mapp doesn't return and Jenifer doesn't improve, the Cavaliers may have to turn to Billet, point-guard sized at 6 feet but most effective running around screens and launching 3-pointers. However, Billet had the ball in his hands down the stretch at Michigan State and, for the first time since becoming eligible at UVa, avoided mistakes and looked comfortable.

VIRGINIA'S SEARCH for an all-purpose forward has taken the Cavaliers to Philadelphia, where they are taking a look at 6-foot-9 Jason Cain from Bartram High School. Cain, billed as a face-up power forward, took an official visit to Penn State during the fall but did not sign.

The Cavaliers, with two scholarships at their disposal, are devoting most of their attention to big men and have made scholarship offers to a pair of Lithuanians, 6-10 Paulius Joneliunas from Roanoke Catholic and 6-8 Linas Kleiza from Montrose Christian in Rockville, Md.

The Odom family, including South Carolina head coach Dave Odom and sons-assistants Lane at Missouri and Ryan at American, are said to have an inside track with the Lithuanians. However, Kleiza has enough interest in Virginia to have made an unofficial visit to Charlottesville in the past 2-3 weeks.

Another player who has attracted the Cavaliers' interest is 6-8 Patrick Ewing Jr., who is at the National Christian School in Fort Washington, Md., after transferring from Marietta (Ga.) High School. Ewing, the son of longtime New York Knicks star and current Washington Wizards assistant coach Patrick Ewing, has skills to go with his size.

Cain was not ranked among nation's top 200 prospects by Prep Stars at the end of the summer, nor was he on Bob Gibbons' presummer top 100 rising seniors, although Gibbons classified him as a prospect with top 100 potential. The Cavaliers also plan to take a look at Oak Hill Academy's 6-9, 300-pound Byron Joynes, although Pete Gillen is partial to a more mobile brand of big man.

NO ACC PROGRAM HAS football commitments from more preseason All-Americans than Virginia, which will have three more on campus this weekend, defensive tackle Nate Robinson (6-4, 319) from Irvington, N.J., offensive lineman Ian Cunningham (6-6, 300) from Plano, Texas, and safety Ryan Mundy (6-2, 205) from Pittsburgh.

Robinson was rated the No. 2 defensive lineman in the country by SuperPrep before the season and Cunningham was rated the No. 6 offensive lineman. The Cavaliers already have a commitment from the No. 2 player on that second list, center Jordy Lipsey from Altamonte Springs, Fla.

Mundy was rated the No. 2 defensive back in the country and the No. 1 prospect in Pennsylvania by SuperPrep, which did not list Virginia among the schools he was considering before the season. Michigan is considered the team to beat for Mundy after signing his Woodland Hills (Pa.) High School teammate, Steve Breaston, last year.

PITTSBURGH AND MARYLAND are viewed as possible destinations for defensive tackle Robert Armstrong, a 2002 UVa signee who left Fork Union Military Academy days after the end of the regular season. Armstrong is an academic qualifier and Virginia may have established a precedent by agreeing to take Ahmad Brooks, if qualified, in January. However, it appears unlikely that he will surface at UVa.

 

 

U.Va.'s Eskandarian is top soccer player
Dec 13, 2002

Virginia's Alecko Eskandarian yesterday was named men's winner of the 2002 Missouri Athletic Club's Hermann Trophy that goes to the top player in NCAA Division I soccer.

This marks the first time the two national awards were consolidated into one. Eskandarian, who set a U.Va. record with 25 goals (in 20 games) this season, becomes the fifth Cavalier to be honored as the country's best joining John Harkes, Tony Meola, Claudio Reyna and Mike Fisher. All but Fisher, who chose to stay in school and get a graduate degree, went on to excel on a national and world-wide level.

A junior who plans to leave school and turn professional, Eskandarian edged Indiana's Pat Noonan by four points in balloting conducted among Division I members of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. SMU's Diego Walsh was third followed by Creighton's Mike Tranchilla.

Santa Clara senior midfielder Aly Wagner was runaway winner for the women's award. - Jerry Lindquist
 

 

 

Packed house for bowl
N.C. State-Notre Dame game approaches sellout

By CHIP ALEXANDER, Staff Writer

Those planning to go to the Gator Bowl who don't yet have tickets had better hurry.
According to Gator Bowl officials, the Jan. 1 game between N.C. State and Notre Dame should be an official sellout by the weekend. As of Thursday, just 500 tickets remained, with tickets selling at a 1,000-a-day pace the past week. "We've sold about 21,700," NCSU athletics director Lee Fowler said. "There's another 1,500 tickets for the band, cheerleaders, players and others, so that puts us over 23,000. The NCAA made a change this year, allowing each player to receive as many as six tickets, so that was 600 or so.

"We think we can sell our 25,000. The support has been tremendous."

Rick Catlett, president of the Gator Bowl Association, said, "We've been pretty much blown away by N.C. State's response. Notre Dame wanted more tickets today and we said they weren't there to be had. It will be interesting to see how much red is in the stands come game day."

NCSU received an initial allotment of 12,500 tickets, then made requests for two more allotments of 5,000 tickets each.

Tickets also have been available through Ticketmaster, so even more State fans probably will find their way into Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., for the game. "We may have more than 30,000," Fowler said.

Alltel Stadium, completely refurbished since the Pack's last visit in 1992, seats 73,000. Last year's game between Florida State and Virginia Tech attracted 72,202.

The Irish (10-2) are ranked 11th and the Wolfpack (10-3) is 17th in The Associated Press poll. It's the first football game ever between the two schools, and oddsmakers are calling it an even game.

"If we could have picked the team to play [in a bowl], it would have been Notre Dame," NCSU coach Chuck Amato said. "This is big. This is big for the program. This is big for the community."

Other ACC schools are off to slower ticket sales. Clemson, which will face Texas Tech in the Dec. 23 Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Fla., announced it had sold fewer than 5,000 tickets.

The Washington Post reported Maryland bought 20,000 tickets for the Peach Bowl and had sold 7,100. The Post said the school agreed to purchase 20,000 tickets -- 2,500 more than the minimum guarantee -- to help gain a berth in the Dec. 31 game against Tennessee in Atlanta.

State will begin pre-bowl practices today. It will hold workouts in Raleigh before Christmas, then assemble in Jacksonville on Dec. 26.
 

 

 

Headed for a sellout
Continental Tire Bowl has already sold 62,360 tickets
Friday December 13, 2002

By Dave Hickman
STAFF WRITER
 

MORGANTOWN — A few short days ago, Ken Haines was in charge of what seemed to be just another in a long line of college football’s endless bowl games, this one a nice little affair in Charlotte, N.C.

Well, don’t look now, but that nice little game is on the verge of becoming one of the most successful first-year bowl ventures ever.

Just four days after the Continental Tire Bowl landed Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference runners-up West Virginia and Virginia, respectively, the bowl is nearing a sellout. By late Thursday afternoon, a staggering 62,360 tickets had been sold for the Dec. 28 game.

“We’ve got a game,’’ Haines, the bowl’s executive director, said in a masterful understatement, “that has exceeded our expectations.’’

Ericsson Stadium, the home of the Carolina Panthers and the bowl, seats 73,382. Haines and his staff had planned to cover the upper level end zone seats in the stadium for the bowl game, reducing its capacity to about 63,000. But with the demand for tickets, those plans are out the window.

“We’ll probably end up opening the entire stadium,’’ he said.

Of the more than 63,000 tickets sold already, close to 40,000 have been sold by the participating schools. But Haines said there has also been a crush for tickets from Charlotte residents, in part because of a strong alumni base for both schools in the area. But the response from West Virginia fans has been particularly amazing to the executive director.

“You may have a vacant state up there,’’ Haines said. “I don’t know who’s not coming.’’

If the remaining 11,000 tickets are sold, the Continental Tire Bowl could wind up with the largest crowd of all the non-Bowl Championship Series games. Of the 28 stadiums playing host to NCAA-approved bowl games this season, only five have a capacity larger than Ericsson — the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla., and the four BCS sites (Orange, Sugar, Rose and Fiesta).

“It’s beginning to look like we’re going to rank in the top five or six [in attendance] of all the bowls,’’ Haines said. “I can’t imagine that we could have done any better with any other matchup.’’

With the surge in ticket sales, Haines also said the bowl will probably wind up paying more per team than the NCAA minimum guarantee of $750,000. That won’t, however, affect West Virginia’s bowl proceeds because that money goes to the Big East Conference. West Virginia receives $1.85 million as the league’s second-place finisher, regardless of the bowl payout.

 

 

Terps struggle to sell tickets
Carroll Rogers - Staff
Friday, December 13, 2002
 

Maryland is finding out just how hard it is to maintain a strong football following.

The Terrapins marketed themselves to the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl as better travelers than Virginia, the ACC's other second-place team. But as of Thursday afternoon, Maryland had sold only about 8,000 of its alloted 20,000 tickets.

"It seems like all the bowls are a little behind," said Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen, who was at Atlanta's ESPN Zone on Thursday to promote the Terrapins' Dec. 31 matchup against Tennessee in the Georgia Dome. As for Maryland, he said, "I don't know if it's the economy or the fact that we've been to the Orange Bowl, the Kickoff Classic and the national championship basketball game all in the last year. The same people are attending those games."

Meanwhile, Tennessee, with a larger fan base, a shorter drive and a more extensive bowl history, has sold nearly 13,300 tickets for the game, said Gary Stokan, president of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.

Fan support for Maryland, which recorded its second 10-win season under Friedgen, enticed the Peach Bowl to choose the Terps despite their 48-13 loss to Virginia. Maryland sold 22,200 tickets to last year's Orange Bowl, the school's first bowl since 1990.

Friedgen this week sent out an e-mail to 7,500 Terrapin Club members urging them to buy tickets. He said he did the same thing last season.

Each school is required to sell 17,500 tickets. Tennessee asked for an extra 4,500 and Maryland asked for an additional 2,500. When asked if the school regretted that move, Maryland associate athletics director for media relations Dave Haglund said: "Not yet. There are still three weeks before the game."

 

 

W.Va., U.Va. fans might fill Ericsson
Ticket sales for inaugural Charlotte bowl exceed 62,000
GREGG DOYEL
Raleigh Bureau
 

Thinking about going to the Continental Tire Bowl? Get tickets today. This morning. Now.

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, the inaugural Charlotte bowl game -- pitting West Virginia against Virginia on Dec. 28 at Ericsson Stadium -- had sold nearly 87 percent of the available seats. The official tally was 62,360.

Capacity is 72,000, a number bowl organizers never dreamed would come into play.

"This has gone beyond our wildest expectations," said Ken Haines of Raycom Sports, which is operating the game. "We're about to open up the last four sections of the stadium. We could have a sellout."

Haines can get the tickets-sold total any time he wants with a tracking system at the Panthers' offices. When he left the office Wednesday at 8 p.m., the total was near 57,000. Thursday morning it was up to 60,000. By 4 p.m., it had surpassed 62,000.

"I only check about twice a day," Haines said. "I can't do it every hour because I'm answering too many phone calls about the West Virginia band or Virginia hotels. There's so much going on."

A bowl block party scheduled for Dec. 27 at the corner of Trade and Tryon could draw up to 60,000 fans, Haines said.

 

 

U.Va. was nearly part of resume

Jack Bogaczyk <jackb@dailymail.com>
Daily Mail columnist

It's funny where life rolls sometimes ... like where Rich Rodriguez will find himself in the P185/70R14 Bowl.
That would be the West Virginia sideline -- the opposite one he might have been walking.

Rodriguez, his Sunday verbiage laying serious tread marks on the Gator Bowl notwithstanding, is thrilled to be headed for the Continental Tire Bowl in NASCAR's backyard, where they know something about rubber.

He also finds a certain amount of incongruity in the downtown Charlotte matchup against Virginia. It has nothing to do with both second-place teams preseason picks in the second division of their conferences.

You wouldn't be inflating history much to see Rodriguez coaching the Cavaliers. That's because during the 2000 season, Rodriguez was the first coach seriously considered to succeed the retiring George Welsh.

"They called, and I was interested," Rodriguez said Monday. "I had only been to Charlottesville once with Clemson (as offensive coordinator), and I didn't know much about the school or the town, but the football stadium was a great facility."

Rodriguez's offense intrigued then-U.Va. athletic director Terry Holland with its freshness and versatility when the Tigers' attack flummoxed Virginia in a September 2000 game at Scott Stadium.

About then, Welsh had told Holland he was going to announce his retirement by early November. Had Welsh done that, WVU and U.Va. football history may have been written differently.

Rodriguez didn't want to entertain any overtures during the season, and Welsh then began waffling on his immediate future. Rodriguez's name also was getting play at Maryland and Missouri.

Others were on and off Holland's evolving list -- most notably then-Florida State offensive coordinator Mark Richt, Boston College head coach Tom O'Brien (a former Welsh aide) and retired Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

However, Rodriguez was pitched by Virginia more than two months before the Cavaliers learned that Al Groh would consider leaving the New York Jets for his alma mater.

Holland was serious enough about Rodriguez that he was going to send a school plane to Clemson to pick up the coach's wife, Rita, for a "look around" visit to Charlottesville in late October.

Welsh asked Holland to hold off -- no one was pushing a legend out the door -- and Rita Rodriguez's trip was canceled.

When Clemson's season ended, Welsh still was dallying. Don Nehlen had announced on Nov. 4 that he was retiring at WVU. Rodriguez was at the top of his alma mater's list.

Virginia couldn't make a move. Welsh didn't retire until Dec. 11. Rodriguez had been the Mountaineers' coach for more than two weeks.

"Funny how things work out sometimes," Rodriguez said.

WVU and U.Va. have gone from losing debut seasons with new coaches to second- place stunners in the Big East and ACC. Rodriguez and Groh have energized their programs.

It just took some intriguing extra mileage on those proverbial tires to get there.