I have UVa winning 7 games this year and thumping VT. It is going to be bitter sweet because the VT program and Beamer's health will both be in shambles. This may be his last year. This has been coming on for quite a few years, the transitioning of best program in the state from VT to UVa. It has been painful, UVa has dropped three consecutive games to VT that they could have and probably should have won. They have lost a winner take the Coastal and a winner goes to a bowl game. As recruiting has waned, the window of opportunity would seem to be closing but it actually falls out the pane this season. This is the year and it won't even be close. UVa is going to beat them by 14-20 points.

I have us surprising one of UCLA/Notre Dame. Boise St will be to determine whether UVa goes 3-1 or 2-2, OOC. My gut tells me 2-2, OOC. Then I have UVa managing 5-3 in ACC play with the final game resulting in no bowl for VT and their first losing season in 20 some odd years.

Why? Because Jon Tenuta is a heck of a defensive coordinator. UVa still has some decent parts, more than enough to give him the tools to create a top 25-40 Defense. Because Borberly will be a significant upgrade over Wach. He is working on doing what a OLine coach should do, build consistency and solid roles through reps. Because Beatty brings an energy and excitement to go along with his recruiting acumen. Because the ill fit of Tom O'Brein is out the way. I love O' Brein but that whole deal was just a cluster you know what. Lastly, because we have a quarterback....

Nuff said

Virginia has picked up a commitment from Georgia linebacker Rob Snyder.

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When was the last time we actually had a good return team? I find it quite sad with the athletes we have we can't be halfway decent returning the ball. How many times are we going to be tackled before we even reach the 30 yard line? This is where I think bringing in Thorpe is a game changer. Put him and Smoke back to return kicks and this might be the best return team we have fielded in a while.

Though it's closed to the public, this afternoon's practice is the first of two more that media members will be allowed to attend. I'm planning to be there, as always, but I want to tweak how I'm doing the reports though.

What I'd like to do is to have you guys post questions you have or things you want me to key on today. I'll take them in this thread up until 3 p.m. Then, during practice, I'll try to watch those specific things and I'll address those questions/topics in my practice report. Once again, I will post that after practice ends and we've done interviews, which will be sometime around 5:30-5:45.

So, let's see what ya got: What do you want to hear about today?

Out 10 weeks

http://m.virginiasports.com/m/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/081315aaa.html

Going to try to get some questions/topics again from you guys to help guide my report from practice later this afternoon. So, feel free to chime in here throughout the day and I'll get back to you before practice starts at 3 p.m.

Junior defensive tackle Donte Wilkins is coming off a solid season but one that ended with him having to have shoulder surgery. After sitting out in the spring, he's back to full health for the first time in a long while.

In this video interview, he talks about watching those 15 practices, how tough it was for him, how long it took him to come back, how great it is to be a part of one of the UVa's deepest positions on defense, and how the Cavalier defense can make up for the lost production from last year and use the lack of expectations on the team as a motivating factor.

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I was re-reading an article by Jeff White that said Reuter is turning 20 in September. If I"m not mistaken, Tobey doesn't turn 21 until late October or November. It reminded me that Tony continues to build for the future a team with some guys who are a little older and physically more mature. Tobey was young for his grade entering college while Reuter not only was old for his grade, but also then repeated a year during one of his transfers. Diakite is 19 having just finished his junior year of HS. Jack Salt, Hall and Thompson have all red-shirted a year and Nichols will have red-shirted a year. I'm reminded of some of Blaine Taylor's ODU teams that were successful where he had as many as 8 guys that had red-shirted. The red shirts certainly didn't hurt Brogdon, Scott and Gill (although the former two were because of injury.)

Arrested after a high speed chase. Cops found weed and Molly in his car. I had to google Molly to find out what it was. I'm officially old.

There are very different types of expectations on redshirt sophomore linebacker Micah Kiser going into this season than in years past. After being the primary backup at MLB last fall, he's now the man in the middle of UVa's defense.

In this video interview, he talks about the challenge ahead for him, how he's taking control of his leadership role, how he views the importance of work ethic, and how he views the linebackers as a whole.

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Greetings from the media room inside John Paul Jones Arena, where UVa head coach Mike London will have a press conference starting in about 10 minutes or so.

Follow along this thread for notes (first time doing a presser thread with the new boards). Be back in a few...

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports....r-league-standout-no-21-pick-justin-anderson/

It's interesting that he signed for 2.5M guaranteed his first 2 years. The 21st pick was slotted to make a max of 2.963M for the first 2 years and $7.058M over 4 years. Rookies can sign for anywhere between 80% and 120% of the cap slot with anything over 100% not counting against the salary cap for teams.

A little surprising to not see the max slotting for Justin given how well he played in Summer League. I am curious if year 3 and 4 will make up the difference and get him to the max rookie deal for his slot of $7.058.

The 21st pick has gotten the max contract for at least the last 3 drafts. A little surprising that his agent didn't get a close to max deal. He made just over the 100% mark slotted for the 21st pick this year. I understand Texas doesn't have state income taxes but 400K is a lot of money.

I am pumped to watch him this season. I took some flack for saying he was our best playmaker In the spring, but from what we hear that statement might be correct. He adds a skill to an already underrated WR group. Offense really could be fun to watch in a few weeks.

Someone asked in another post to do this and I think it's fair since we have a tendency to criticize and we should also be able to reward those who exceeded our expectations.

Heath Miller- I remember his first game where I'm sitting here thinking who the heck is this kid. Very good ambassador for the University.

Matt Schaub- After getting benched early in his junior year I thought he would end up as a bust and we all know how that turned out. Best quarterback we've had in the last 10 years by far.

David Rivers- Not to use amount of playing time to back it up, but I remember the game he stepped in and performed his ass off. Plus anything was better than getting a battery thrown at you Dan Ellis.


Chris Williams- Adam Hall- Both guys came in during the transition for basketball and neither were highly recruited, yet solid players who completely helped a mini resurgence of basketball for a year or two.

Jerome Meyinsse- Goes to show you what good coaching can do. Only God knows if he would've had another year of eligibility what that staff could have done. His turn around his last year of basketball was simply amazing given the fact he looked like an outcast the first three years.

Patrick Jeffers-Mike Groh- Two guys who fit in nicely in their careers that I really felt with all the talent that we had they weren't going to stick as well as they did. PJ was just clutch when we need catches and Groh was as steady as we had at the quarterback position in the last 25 years.

Donald Hand- The guy had no business being anything more than a mop up guy on an ACC team, yet he had a solid career on some pretty bad teams and ended up holding his own as an ACC point guard in an era where the guard position in the league was insanely crazy.

Jason Cain- Porn mustache aside he ended up developing into a nice low post player at the end of his career and goes down as having one of the best mustaches in UVA history.

He gets a lot of credit for recruiting, but honestly if we look back who has really panned out since he arrived in 2010? It's kind of good to look at now considering he's on the hot seat and analyze guys that of actually played well under him.

First class- Dean, Harris, Romero, Burbank, Jennings

2nd class- Canady, Dockins, Eli, Johns (should be steady his last two years), Mike Moore, Valles, Severin

3rd class- Tim Harris, Johnson, Levrone, Wilkins, Smoke (barely should add him, but he has been ok but a 5 star should have more impact)

4th class- Quin, Dowling

Obviously I missed some guys and chose to leave some guys off the list, but a lot of higher-rated guys in my opinion just haven't made it. If I missed some guys please help me because these are just the guys off the top of my head who I can acknowledge have been solid players. Also was 2010 his class or did he just finish that one out and 11 was his first true class? Some of these guys really haven't stepped up, but they are just guys I thought stick out so all in all as good of a recruiter London is I would say the majority of his classes haven't panned out to expectations.

I realize that I am asking for tickets to one of if not the most desirable games on the home schedule, but I have a friend who will be in town that weekend and would love to see the game and so would I. Because of different scenarios that could work, I would be interested in either 2,4 or 5 tickets. Obviously, a parking pass would be a great addition, but not required. If you can help, let me know either here on just directly to my e-mail at justice1096@gmail.com. Thanks

Brad, whatever became of Maverick Rowan? I thought I read he had committed to N.C. State and was reclassifying to this year. I don't see his name on State's site and when I search his name on the various Rivals/Yahoo basketball sites I get nada. I recall we had some early interest and his name alone is worth following. Thanks.

I am having constant issues with the website upgrades on my phone. Since that is primarily where I read the site, I am very frustrated with it.

To view the posts I have to click on the time/date of the most recent post, the post boxes aren't clickable to me. It is so frustrating, I love the content, but can't get to it! I appreciate any suggestions to make it better?

I was looking at the 3B and SS positions. We will have Pinero returning at SS. Cody played 3B in high school, and Gerstenmaier played SS in high school and could probably play 3B. Arriving this year are Karstetter, who could be very good, and Eikhoff at 3B and Weiller and Meola at SS. Next year we will add Jones and Allocca, both of whom are highly rated at 3B and Richardson at SS. I expect Clement will be a fixture at 2B after his performance in post season play, but one of the new players or Gerstenmaier could be a capable backup.

Junior linebacker Zach Bradshaw came into training camp knowing he and the other linebackers have big shoes to fill for UVa this season.

In this video interview, he talks about watching film in preparation for the season, about starting camp and knowing they have so many questions to answer as a position group, about having his former mentor Daquan Romero back as a grad assistant, and about being the veteran of the young group at LB.

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