It's an old adage that the University of Virginia coaching staff has seemingly taken to heart recently: "The early bird catches the worm."
With the 2004 season fast approaching, and several high-profile members of this season's recruiting class making headlines, there's another group that is surprisingly stealing a good deal of attention -- the class of 2005.
The Cavaliers already have verbal commitments from 20 rising high school seniors to don the orange and blue in two years time. Among those prized prospects are quarterback Vic Hall from Gretna, Va., and New Jersey products offensive lineman Eugene Monroe, linebacker Lamont Robinson and defensive back Mike Brown. To put the number of Virginia commitments into perspective, Virginia Tech has seven players committed for 2005. LSU has eight, and Miami has only three.
With a lot of football to be played and official commitments to be made, some programs view putting so much stock into young players as risky. Not Virginia coach Al Groh.
"I don't see what risk there is involved in it," Groh said. "These are players that we've targeted from the beginning as guys that we want to have on our team whenever we could get them. There's only benefit in it in that we know that the player has already said 'yes' once to Virginia. What this does obviously is makes us the target of all the other teams that might continue to recruit the player, but I'd rather be the target than just one of many."
Joining that class next year will be 2004 recruits offensive lineman Brandon Albert and linebacker Olu Hall who were found academically ineligible for this season. Even with the delayed arrival of Albert and Hall, and the loss of Ahmad Bradshaw, the class of 2004 has talent. The biggest names in the class are cornerback Philip Brown, defensive end Chris Long, running back Cedric Peerman and tight end Tom Santi.
Brown was a 2003 recruit but spent a season at Hargrave Military Academy. He comes to Virginia as one of the highest rated junior college cornerbacks in the nation. Long, son of NFL Hall of Fame defensive end Howie Long, was the 2003 Gatorade Player of the Year in Virginia. Peerman, a PrepStar All-American, was a consensus top 15 prospect in the state of Virginia and Santi, a top 10 tight end prospect, is built in a similar mold as Heath Miller.
With a talented group set to take the field in a couple of months, and 22 of 25 scholarships accounted for in 2005, ACC expansion looms as the biggest news on the horizon for the future of Virginia recruiting.
"The ACC has positioned itself to become the premier football conference in the country," Groh said. "As a result I think it will raise the profile of all the members to recruits around the country. From that standpoint I'm sure that there will be progressively greater impact as the seasons go on."
That heightened profile will certainly bring a level of competition previously unseen in the ACC. The Cavaliers will need the continued dedication of the staff to bring in even more highly rated classes. The help of one very dedicated group of students, the Cavalier Connection, is certainly going to help them in that.
"We have about 40 to 50 members comprised of girls and guys and we help with the recruiting for the football team year round," fourth-year Cavalier Connection member Vivienne Bui said. "We help on football game days, we help when recruits and their families come and host them. It's great because [the recruits] really get to ask the questions that they really want to know about the school, student life and such that they probably wouldn't feel comfortable asking a coach."
Bringing in top recruiting classes year after year has proven to be a team effort. The Cavalier Connection is able to provide these high school students with a different perspective, one from outside of Scott Stadium, while the coaching staff can make sure they're confident in the on-field product.
This season, Miami and Virginia Tech are joining the ACC, and in 2005, so will Boston College. With a mega-conference on the horizon, these two classes seem to be arriving just in time for Cavalier fans.
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