Head football coach Mike London, along with several of his top assistants, sat down and addressed the media today at the John Paul Jones Arena. Virginia starts their annual Summer pre-season camp on Friday. There will be 105 players there on Friday when camp begins. NCAA rules state that only 85 of them can be on scholarship.
Here are a couple of nuggets I gleaned from today’s press conference.
*August 6 is also the day that the Summer school session ends. Coach London will not know till Monday or Tuesday if any member of his team will be ineligible, but he did mention that frequent doghouse inhabitant Keith Payne is one student athlete that will learn his fate early next week. Coach London said that only two players will be completely held-out of practice because of injury: Brent Urban (torn ACL surgery), and Aaron Van Kuiken (wrist surgery).
*Coach London stated that the first five practices are free, and open to the public, and that the fifth practice is when the full pads come out. The first few are what he called "acclamation" sessions where the players get used to the heat and speed of the game.
*Marc Verica is the starter going into the pre-season at quarterback, and while they will use several tailbacks, Perry Jones has earned the title as the starter with his incredible work ethic. Jones, who is listed generously at 5-8, 185 in the media guide, appeared in all 11 games as a true freshman.
*Because of the scheme switch from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 defense, Lovanté Battle has been moved from safety to linebacker.
*Coach London’s Richmond teams were very balanced as far as passing/running teams, and London would like to see that continue at Virginia. London stated that the running game must take pressure of the quarterback, and that the running game must set-up the passing game.
*Defensive coordinator Jim Reid, who has been a head coach on three separate occasions, mentioned that Ras-I Dowling is not only the best player on the team, but a guy that you’d be happy to marry your daughter. Reid stated that the preseason All-American has no weaknesses on the field, nor any in the classroom. Reid also said that Dowling coming back for his senior season instead of bolting to the NFL was a huge bonus to the defense.
*Reid, who has coached for over 40 years, was a 3-4 coach until he was hired as the defensive coordinator at Boston College and Coach Dan Henning sent him to Tony Dungy and Dennis Green to learn the completely different scheme. Not bad guys to learn from, that’s for sure! Reid commented that this spring’s practices were among the most enjoyable he’s ever been a part of.
Go Hoos, beat the Hokies!