Getting started with UVa's Tony Bennett here in a few. Check this thread for notes...

Anyone know when there will be a replay of todays game and maybe where I can find a replay of the Oakland game also? thanks so much in advance if there are any.

Curt:
GO HOOS111

Limited usefulness in this, but I thought it was at least worth a look.

Farrell ranked the new Power 5 head coaching hires on how effectively they'll recruit. Bronco came in 9 out of 13. Says he's a great coach but doesn't have enough East Coast connections and will play second fiddle in state to Tech.

For what it's worth, he ranked Fuente 6th and Durkin 5th.

We've all felt the region change will hurt his recruiting initially, but I think Mike's being extremely short sighted here. Bronco brings an energy that will attract recruits and befriend high school coaches. And he'll bring in kids from regions UVa hasn't traditionally recruited. Winning will solve a lot.

So he's got some building to do, but we're not going to be nearly as bad off as Mike thinks. He didn't earn his paycheck this time.

https://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1834867

Has bronco made mention what type of access the media will have to practice and stuff like that?

Sorry if it's already been discussed.

I caught bits and pieces of it because my boys played at seven so I was able to watch a lot of it from my phone and the rest I will get in sometime tomorrow, but a few thoughts from what I saw.

Does it bother anyone that we get a comfortable lead sometimes and even though teams are hitting tough shots we allow them to slightly creep back in the game?

Gill is playing like a first-team all ACC post. His last six games on the block are really hitting Junior B status from his senior year.

Hall gave us some good minutes, but he sometimes takes a shot or two a game that leaves you scratching your head because it's very out of the flow of the offense.

Tobey has had two very productive games in a row. Just like the LP talk early in the season there are certain match-ups where this guy is not going to be effective, but I'm telling you this, there will be a time come tourney time when he has that one game we all consistently dreamt that he would have that saves us from going home.

MS needs to play less until his hand is better. All scouting reports will say he can only drive with one hand. DT and Hall can take those mins

ND couldn't hit shots and was able to drive and attack the middle a little too much for my liking, but for the most part our defense for what it is this season with the guys we have was pretty solid. I will focus on some other things when I rewatch the game, but the way we started the second half continues to show me that Tony Bennett is one of the top coaches in basketball at halftime adjustments. Hoping Bronco can bring the same type of coaching to the football team this coming fall and of course I had to turn a basketball conversation into football for a second

What I love about being relevant in a sport is that all the top games become interesting. Tonight, I am suddenly a big Iowa State fan hoping that a win by them over #3 OU will help UVA climb! I hope to feel this way about football again at some point.

One word - UGLY! Man, Miami is such an erratic team. They look great some games and are totally inconsistent the next. They have 9 points with 4 min left in the 1st half.

Greetings from Charlottesville, where Notre Dame and No. 5 UVa meet in about 50 minutes. I'll have some notes from the base line shortly. Also, there's this:

Login to view embedded media
As always, have at it folks...

Will the staff bring in any of their guys before the season starts? Freshman or transfers?

How Matt Johns fits the system. I have always said he fits a spread offense better that in the pocket.

How the staff uses Butts, OZ and Smoke. I think they are our 3 best offensive players next year.

Do we become a faster team through training and recruiting? This team needs to be faster overall by Year 3 to start getting this moved the right way.

The ability to finally have an offense that not only plays rugged and nasty, but is quicker.

DB teaching- We have some talent there, but coaching and technique IMO has been missing for sometime.

Playmakers on ST- We need an overall overhaul at the specialty position. It was slightly better under Lewis, but we need to gain points and momentum on that side of the ball.

Will we be able to deal with the new staff who seems to be very hands-on and disciplined about certain things and who will just look to transfer because they're not used to the style?

Can we find another Kiser at LB? Honestly we are going defensive line a lot, speedy linebackers and guys who can come off the edge will be the key to this defense. I this Chris P is a star in the making coming off the edge.

Just looking for an overall discipline to what we're doing. Getting to a bowl game with our schedule next year is very attainable if we just don't drop games we shouldn't and steal one or two.

Can we beat Tech in the Burg? I think they might have an advantage because it kept Bud with an offensive guy in year 1, but that doesn't mean we can't steal one in year 1.

What will the offense look like with not a lot of speed at wide receiver? The TE and RB become even more important until we can get some playmakers there (sucks this staff wasn't here this year with TJ and CS).

ouch. McCaffery is unreal

For folks who may not have heard my breakdown of it at the end of this week's podcast, I just wanted to pass along some details about something I referenced at Christmas:

I'm finally in a spot where I can add some staff to the site and I'm really excited to welcome Brandon Lloyd on board as our new staff writer. Brandon is a freelancer who in the past has worked for a variety of outlets in the market, including most recently the Daily Progress covering high school sports. He'll be doing the bulk of our football recruiting writing going forward, which allows me to do some different things. As the network goes through the redesign in about 10 days, I'll continue to handle the day to day stuff as well as doing the lion's share of our hoops recruiting work. And for those who may be curious, Justin Ferber isn't going anywhere; he'll be the site's senior staff writer and continue to do team coverage for basketball, football, and baseball.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to reach out to me via email. Otherwise, a big welcome to Brandon (@blloyd8298) and here's to a big year ahead.

BREAKING!!!!

As the news of Mike London's replacement Bronco Mendenhall barely having time for the ink to dry on the press. Cavs Corner is announcing the replacement of Brad Franklin with Brandon Lloyd to cover all of the UVA football recruiting scoop. As we wait to find out what Brandon Lloyd has to offer I am anxious to find out what everyone on the boards though's are on this major mix up?

I will caution everyone that with a new hire like this not to jump to conclusions. My recommendation is "Let the process play out"!

Are a complete snooze fest. Can't remember when the "big name" bowl games were so boring...

I was reading over our power ranking in the ACC and got to looking at our current rankings in the NCAA polls.

It is amazing how we are at #5, when we have ALREADY beat several top 25 teams, where as several of the top boys have played basically a OOC of cupcakes.

I come to realize now after the last decade that rankings have become a joke.

When I see Gonzaga still in the top 25 and they have already lost to 3 WEAK west and west coast lower top 25 teams and almost lost last to Santa Clara (what power ranking this year #225?) if the refs hadn't started calling their usual ghost calls to help Duke West Coast win. Now they have a grand total of 1, YES 1 WEAK top 25 (SMU) left for the season to cruise through the usual 16 wins of cupcake conference teams.

Just don't know how the polls and ranking committee can keep a straight face with the ACC having no less than 5 top 25 and 3 more in the top 40 beat each other up in a round robin brutal 16 games where most of our ACC teams play no less than 10 games against a top 25 team in conference where other teams are playing one or two top 25 games the entire season.

So UVA will play no less than 11 games against top 25 ranked teams and three games of teams just outside top 25.

The other little trick I see with Gonzaga and Wichita State type teams is they schedule the hardest opponents during the very first part of the year so when they lose they have the entire season of cupcakes to climb back in the top 10 come tourney time.

Right now Wichita State is 6-5 and doesn't have one top 25 opponent from here on out and they haven't even gotten into conference yet. The closest is top 50, then the rest are top 100 to 150 or below. They currently have one win against a low top 25 team, then 2 wins against top 100-150 and 4 wins against below top 200 ranked team; what a joke. Give them by March and watch them be ranked again after that 15 game run of the rest of their schedule of teams below top 200 rankings, while ACC teams battling each other that are ranked in the top 10 and legit top 25 teams and drop below these imposters playing a complete schedule of stiffs and cupcakes!

Again, my opinion and being a logically thinker, how could these teams be rewarded and praised so much for playing a complete year in and year out of 22+ guaranteed wins from OOC and conference cupcakes and stiffs not ranked in the top 100. Those teams would have to go undefeated to get to lower top 25 ranking in my book! Beating or lucking up and beating one top 25 team a season for a top 10 ranking is as logical as saying that if this team Oakland had pulled off the upset against Michigan State or UVA it deserves to be ranked in the top 10 off that body of working only!

Just not a big fan of Mark Few. After I have retired now for the second time and have time to watch west coast games, I see that he has been built up to be ESPN's west coast coach "K" in their eyes. When this team wins simply because most of the tiny schools in conference are playing shorter, out of season volley ball players against Few's imports over the last 10 or 15 years of Polish, and Eastern Block 7'1" 280 earth movers that make their bread and butter using their bodies to push out opponents in the lane for easy lay ins and wins. Yet Few coached the US squad this summer in international play and looked not even average. He made ZERO adjustments during halves and quite frankly had this Kevin Bacon with a frozen/no emotion botoxed looking face in every game. Tony Bennett would run circles around Few. Few has been winning with the luck of being in a complete joke of a conference of pure stiffs and cupcakes. That's my beef. Ok, he wins against teams he is suppose to beat; big deal!

The thread on who you would add to this team.

What if TB coached the Hoos during Ralphs 4 years? The entire staff including Curtis.

I think the 81 team goes unbeaten. Lee Raker would have LOVED playing for CTB and vice versa. Think CTB/ Curtis would have developed Craig Robinson into a Darion atkins/ Akil Mitchell type. Othell = Perrantes???? Lamp > Brogdon? Regardless by the end of his SO year, Sampson would have been the greatest defensive player in history under CTB

My favorite team was 82 but don't know if CTB would have had the same success, but by Ralph's 3rd year Curtis would have had him at his SR physical level, and CR would be a critical interior presence as well. Key would be how Miller/ Muller as FR would have integrated into the packline.

But 83 with Carlisle and a SO Miller with Ralph and CR as seniors, Othell and Ricky at the point, think that team goes unbeaten as well.

Recorded the game and just finished watching.
Just amazing his speed and how he can cut and the go.

The retirement of Beamer was #1 followed by the UCI bicycle race, Smart leaving VCU for Texas, new football hires, and the passing of Moses Malone. Since these were the only specific choices offered for votes, it is not surprising that UVA winning three national titles and the Capital Cup was indicated to be #6. I have no idea how they picked numbers 6 through 10 since if you did not vote for the five predetermined choices, the only other option was "other", which by far drew the most votes.

Now that the OOC is over, what's our ACC predictions...

I say 15-3, ACC Regular Season Champs but not ACC Champs (ACC tourney).

Nova crushing Xavier

Watching UNCheat get run all over by a Baylor team that has lost its number 1 QB, WR, RB and its #2 QB. The Cheats can not stop the 3rd and 4th QBs who are mostly just running option plays, UNC defenders just watch them go past them, do not fight off blocks, etc. ACC FB stinks so far,despite the Chokies barely beating a Tulsa team that could not stop a good high school offense. Pitt was totally roasted by Navy, making their QB look like a combo of Joe Belino, Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett all in one. It would not surprise me if the ACC wins no more than 3 games, and if Clempsun gets roasted by OK if they play D like they did against the Cheats. ACC Football is so overrated, not even certain that FL can win their game, though that is the league's best bet.

Starting 9 plus weekend pitchers and closer????

Happy New Year to all the Hoo Nation, may your house be blessed with Love, good health and prosperity.