David Watford Video Posted on Facebook!
As a “soft opening” of the recruit757.com site, you’re getting see some of the video that will be featured on recruit757.com.
A video highlight package from Hampton’s 2009 game against Phoebus shows David Watford working hard against the State Champs. Because the Crabbers are battling against Phoebus, you won’t see a lot of downfield passes. Hampton spread their offense that game so that they could neutralize some of Phoebus’ speed. The Crabbers fell to the Phantoms in that game 17-0, but the Hampton/Phoebus rivalry is always hotly contested.
Watford has been at the helm for the Crabbers since the departure of Tyrod Taylor. Watford hopes to follow in Taylor’s footsteps and is already receiving interest from Virginia Tech and UVA. In the clip, you’ll see some of the short passing game and scrambling ability of Watford. Hampton doesn’t lose many players from last year, so they should be stronger than they were in 2009. …not that their 2009 playoff appearance is anything to sneeze at.
Pinstripe Bowl Details Unveiled
The bowl once called the ”Yankee Bowl” has been unveiled. Details for the Pinstripe Bowl have been announced.
The first annual New Era Pinstripe Bowl will take place on December 30, 2010 and will be played at Yankee Stadium. The contest will feature the #3 Big East team against the #6 Big 12 team (excluding BCS teams) and will be televised by ESPN. The first football game scheduled for Yankee Stadium will take place this season when Notre Dame plays Army (of nearby West Point) on November 20. Future dates for the bowl have not been scheduled yet, but it was announced Tuesday that the game would always be scheduled between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
If the game had been held this past bowl season, Rutgers and Texas A&M would have been the participants.
News of the new bowl game begs the question, “Have we already reached the point where there are too many bowls?” We regularly have six win teams reaching bowl games. Some teams come into a bowl game with a 6-6 record, have lost their bowl game and finished the year with a losing record. Almost every team in Division I-A schedules a Division I FCS team in hopes of an easy win and an easier path to bowl qualification.
The Pinstripe Bowl won’t suffer much because it enters the Bowl Parade with enough clout to schedule a good matchup. Considering that the NY Yankees are involved, it shouldn’t be difficult to keep the Pinstripe Bowl matchup strong year in and year out. The growing glut of bowls will certainly affect the lower tier bowls that will end up scraping to come up with bowl eligible teams come December. This is not moving big time college football any closer to a playoff. It’s only adding to the number of hands that will be in the pot if a playoff system is ever created.
Mike Glennon Gets Spring Reps for Wolfpack
Mike Glennon (Photo: AP/Gerry Broome)
NC State has to plan like they’re going to have a new QB next fall.
Mike Glennon, a heralded QB coming out of Westfield High School in Centreville, VA two years ago, has seen almost nothing but bench time in two years with the Wolfpack. Glennon was the #3 ranked QB in the country coming out of high school in the class of 2008 and has the bloodlines for QB since his older brother Sean was the starting quarterback for Virginia Tech before Tyrod Taylor. Now, because of the potential departure of two year starter Russell Wilson, NC State has to plan for the future.
Russell Wilson has played baseball and football at NC State. This year he will spend the entire spring and summer with baseball, which leaves Glennon as the man under center for all spring practices. If Wilson decides to stick with baseball at the end of the summer, the starting quarterback job could be Glennon’s come September. Wilson has now finished three years in college and could elect to play professional baseball instead of coming back to football with the Wolfpack.
Mike Glennon redshirted in his freshman year and ran the scout squad. Glennon served as a backup QB in his second season, but saw little action. He still has three years to play three seasons so there’s plenty of time for the future to play out. Glennon’s future may be now. The 6-7 220 QB saw playing time in seven games last season, but had only 39 passing attempts for the year.
Glennon will have no lack of targets as four key wide outs return from last year. All-ACC Tight End George Bryan will return as well. Bryan led the team with 40 receptions in the 2009 campaign. Strategically speaking, the Wolfpack should be in a good position for 2010. Glennon will be adequately prepared if he’s asked to take the reins as a redshirt sophomore. NC State could look forward to three seasons with Glennon as their starter. If Russell Wilson returns for his Junior season, the Wolfpack will have two able quarterbacks ready in the fall.
Maury High School Update
Coach Quinerly at Maury High School updated me today on a few items related to the Maury Football program….
Class of 2010 UVA signee Stephen Lawe (OL/DL 6-5 270) has been named to the East team for the VHSCA All-Star Football game. It’s quite an honor to play in the annual All-Star game. This year Group AA and Group AAA players will be combined so the game will feature players from Divisions three through six. Fans will get to see Bay Rivers players on the same team with players from the Peninsula, Southeastern, Eastern and Beach Districts. The full rosters for the All-Star game should be announced soon.
George Murphy (Class of 2010, OL/DL 6-1 265) has changed his college of choice. Murphy was once headed to George Mason on an academic scholarship and had decided to play club football at GMU. He has now changed his plans and will attend Chowan to play Division II football for the Hawks.
Neal Anthony-Hale (Class of 2011, RB/LB 5-11 185) has seen his recruitment heat up. Hale had shown early interest in playing for William and Mary, but is now in touch with Virginia and Duke. It seems as though Duke is making quite a push to get an early commitment from Hale. His work on the field and in the classroom put him in good position to be a Blue Devil signee by this time next year.
Lastly, Coach Quinerly is hosting his annual football camp for middle school and high school youth during Spring Break. The camp will run from 1-4PM on April 6 and 7. Contact Coach Q at Maury High School for more details.
Maryland Schedules Irish; Leverages Ticket Sales
The Maryland Terrapins announced an “almost home” date with the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame yesterday and also announced a season ticket sales driver attached to the game.
The matchup between Notre Dame and Maryland will take place on Saturday, November 12, 2011 at FedEx Field in Washington, DC. It’s almost a home game for the Terps. It’s the second time in history that the two teams will face each other and for the first time, Maryland will play a game at FedEx Field. The first time the Terps played the Irish was in 2002, Coach Ralph Friedgen’s second season at Maryland. The game was played in East Rutherford, NJ and the the #21 ranked Terrapins fell 22-0.
The game is due to be televised in prime time on NBC as part of Notre Dame’s package with the network. Because Notre Dame negotiated the venue and set up the game, Notre Dame is offically the home team for the contest. Maryland still has seven home games on the schedule for 2011, so Terps fans will only have four true road games next season.
Holding the game at FedEx Field fits Notre Dame’s M.O. of scheduling “nationally” by playing neutral sites games in different parts of the country, thereby keeping up their “national profile”. It doesn’t hurt that the game looks winnable for the Irish, especially considering that new coach Mike Kelly will be in his second year with the program.
The scheduling of the game is a win for the Maryland program as well. The game against Notre Dame gives them a national television audience and a game against a high profile team. It’s a little out of Maryland’s comfort zone, since Maryland typically schedules regional rivals like Navy and West Virginia out-of-conference, along with a game against a lesser team such as Morgan State, who is on the Terps’ schedule in 2010.
The ticket sales angle is also a positive for the Maryland program. In order to leverage higher season ticket sales for 2010 and 2011, Maryland is tying priority seating for the Notre Dame game into the purchase of season ticket packages for the next two seasons. Smart programs do this to increase sales and attendance. That’s nothing new.
Ian Haislip Video Added To recruit757 on Facebook
Since Ian Haislip was one of about forty high school juniors that attended Junior Day at UVA this past weekend, it seems appropriate to show off some of his highlights from 2009.
On the Facebook Fan Page for recruit757 you can see a good 1:18 video highlight reel from Tabb’s game against York last September. Both offenses were hot that game, but Haislip did get in a few good plays including a sack of York QB Ben Edwards. Haislip also had a highlight reel catch for a touchdown. It was a diving grab in the end zone that has to be seen to be appreciated.
Haislip is just now coming on the radar for most schools, but he’s received early interest from ACC schools including UVA, Virginia Tech and NC State.
More video will be posted on Facebook and the new recruit757.com will be launching soon. Surf on over to Facebook and become a fan of recruit757, check out the videos posted there and whet your appetite for the action to come. Thanks for checking out recruit757!
Videos Wanted for recruit757.com
High School Coaches! Recruit757.com will launch soon and we’re regularly adding videos to the site from our library of highlights from the 2009 season. If you have 2009 game film that you’d like to see cut-up into highlight packages on recruit757.com, please contact me at andy@recruit757.com.
There is no cost at all to have your players featured on recruit757.com. We’re looking to get local high school football players off to college on scholarship at a school that fits their abilities. You let us know who’s college bound, you provide the video, we edit it and get it on the web for all to see.
You can see a small library of our highlight videos on the recruit757 Fan Page on Facebook. recruit757.com will launch soon and we want to see every school in the 757 represented there!
Clifton Richardson and David Dean Commit?
#10 Clifton Richardson (Photo: Diane Cebula)
UVA had another Junior Day this weekend and initial word out of Charlottesville is that they received a couple of commitments over the weekend. About 40 juniors from all around the state came for the festivities. The typical events are campus tours, a basketball game (in this case a loss to #22 ranked Maryland), and lots of camaraderie among the prospective recruits.
The biggest news coming out of the weekend is regarding Menchville athlete Clifton Richardson (6-1 195). According to sources, the Peninsula District burner with 4.4 speed has given a verbal committment to the Cavaliers. Richardson’s father, Clifton Sr., was quoted in the Daily Press as saying that his son had made a “soft committment” but that the younger Richardson hadn’t committed yet.
Richardson has the tools to become another Percy Harvin, so he would certainly add some needed punch to the Virginia offense. Richardson’s impact on his Menchville squad has been hard to measure since the Peninsula District is loaded with highly competitive teams. Menchville hasn’t been able to fight its way to the top of the district, but there’s no doubt that Menchville would be far worse off without him.
David Dean (6-1 270) of Green Run is a Defensive Tackle that Mike London has had his eyes on for some time now. Dean is a force on the D-Line for the Stallions and had claimed UVA as his leader weeks ago. Dean is also now rumored to be a Cavalier commit, which would give Virginia four commitments for the 2011 class.
All of this is unbinding, so you can expect that other teams could still make a run at both Richardson and Dean between now and National Signing Day eleven months(!) from now. It’s happened time and time again. Recruits make early commitments, change their minds, situations change… there are any number of things that could happen over the next eleven months. The commits are a feather in Mike London’s cap. He’s off to a good start. Just don’t count your chickens yet, Cavs fans. There are more offers and more recruiting battles to come.
Beatty Adds Recruiting Coordinator Title at WVU
The promotion says a lot about Chris Beatty as a man, as a coach and as a recruiter. WVU coach Bill Stewart has announced that Coach Chris Beatty will add the responsibilities of Director of Recruiting to his plate. Additionally, Beatty will coach Fullbacks in 2010. That group is added to his current responsibilities of coaching running backs and slot receivers.
Beatty’s rise to coaching stardom has been a quick one. Beatty was a high school coach until Percy Harvin finished his high school career at Landstown High School in Virginia Beach. Beatty moved on to become offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Hampton University in 2006. In 2007, Beatty became running backs coach at Northern Illinois. The departure of Rich Rodriguez from West Virginia opened the door for Beatty to join a BCS staff. Beatty started his tenure at WVU in 2008 and hasn’t looked back.
Beatty has been recognized as a top recruiter and now will head up the recruiting efforts for WVU since the departure of Doc Holliday who moved on to become head coach at Marshall University. Since Beatty has numerous 757 connections, you can expect Beatty and WVU to continue to recruit heavily here.
Congrats on the promotion, Coach Beatty!
London Lands His 757 Showcase
It’s been rumored for weeks, now the deal is done. The Virginia Cavaliers Football Program will hold an organized practice at Foreman Field on the campus of ODU. The event will be held on March 27 and will be open to the public. UVA could plan any number of booster related activities, but the details of the event have not been announced as of yet.
The strategic nature of the event is obvious. Virginia Tech had kicked the Al Groh led Cavaliers up and down the streets of Hampton Roads when it came to recruiting. Virginia had a few recruiting victories here while Groh coached the team, but Tech brought in 757 players at a ratio somewhere near 3:1 compared to the Cavs. New coach Mike London is determined to change that.
First of all, London hired Old Dominion’s recruiting guru Chip West away from the Monarchs. London already has a history with playing football in the area and he recruited the area for Richmond in his tenure there. Now with a showcase event this spring, London has planted a flag in the 757 in an effort to show area recruits that he’s serious about drawing players out of here.
Considering that Old Dominion will have forty Hampton Roads players on the roster next year, how does Old Dominion see UVA? Wouldn’t UVA be a threat to ODU’s recruiting efforts? According to Rich Radford of the Virginian Pilot, Wilder has confirmed his approval of the event and was quoted as saying, “We think it’s a great opportunity to showcase one of the finest FCS facilities in the country in Foreman Field and expose a different set of fans and potential recruits to our venue. It’s an excellent chance for us to partner with UVA.”
Apparently Wilder thinks that Old Dominion will not be negatively affected by giving Mike London more of a voice here in Hampton Roads. If it were to come down to a choice between Old Dominion and UVA, would a recruit give both equal consideration? Perhaps, but you’d have to think that Virginia academics and the chance to play for a BCS program might outweigh the option to stay close to home and play in the CAA. It’s admirable for Wilder to take on the “bigger guy” and see the partnership as an opportunity instead of a defeat.
As for exposing more fans to ODU and Foreman Field, that’s useful too. There is the pesky problem of capacity, however. Old Dominion filled the stands for every game in 2009, selling out every seat to season ticket holders. If the program continues with that level of success, a stadium expansion has to be on the horizon for S.B. Ballard Stadium.