If you make it out to the spring football game Saturday, you'll see a preliminary preview of this fall's squad, the official 2007 orange T-shirt and probably more Aquafina and Alltel ads than anyone should have to witness. One of the things you won't see is this fall's incoming recruiting class practicing with the team. This is because U.Va. does not permit early enrollment for athletes.
Big-time college football fans are no doubt familiar with this practice, but even if you only follow the sport casually, chances are you've heard the term before. Basically, early enrollment allows student-athletes who have graduated from high school to become full-time college students in the spring rather than the fall, a semester earlier than usual. Players adjust to being away from home and are also permitted to work out and practice with the team, giving them a jump on learning the program's offensive or defensive systems and allowing them to battle for starting positions or playing time earlier than they otherwise would have been able to.
But this is not the case at U.Va. Did you know Virginia is the only school in the 12-team ACC that does not offer an early enrollment program? Could this be one of the reasons Virginia hasn't been able to really contend in the league and recently hasn't emerged from the middle of the pack?
Although some college football experts believe QB Jameel Sewell's dynamic ability will be enough to turn around Virginia's recent misfortune, wouldn't it be intriguing to have star recruit Peter Lalich in camp learning the offense and potentially challenging Sewell, especially with his lightened workload following wrist surgery?
With the devastating loss of top receiver Kevin Ogletree, wouldn't you feel a little better about the upcoming season if some of the new receivers were getting reps in camp now, in hopes that someone could step up along with now first-string returning WR Maurice Covington (6 catches, 45 yards last season ... yikes)?
Why doesn't U.Va. allow early enrollment? Bearing in mind that Virginia strives to be the country's top public university, I don't think having an early admission program would do anything to take away from the school's national academic reputation.
First and foremost, players who were admitted early would still be held to the same high academic standards as all other U.Va. athletes. Virginia would not admit students who did not meet these standards, which are significantly higher than those of some rival schools that lower admission requirements to allow talented athletes to matriculate. In this sense, the academic integrity of the University athletic program would still be preserved even with an early enrollment program.
Also, only a handful of student-athletes would be allowed to participate in the early enrollment program -- most likely those with good academic reputations and the obvious ability to adapt to college life if thrown into the mix early. Many football players are going to stay for five years and/or attend multiple summer sessions anyway, so why is it such a big deal to have players arrive a semester early?
Some fans contend the lack of early admission hurts Groh's recruiting allures, and surely that is the case for a few recruits. I am not convinced, however, that most players make that a point of emphasis in their search for a school. It seems that this is more the case with players who need an extra semester at a prep school or have some other extenuating situation. The aforementioned higher academic standards that the University places on its student-athletes would seem to be a bigger problem in recruiting.
Rendering much of this conversation moot is the fact that recruiting has been one of Groh's strong suits. As evidenced by the high national rankings of recent recruiting classes and the recent flurry of Hoos taken on draft day, the area where the program seems to have fallen behind in the league is the actual team play in Groh's system (a column for another day), which is something that could be helped by additional workouts via early enrollment.
As I said, all of the other ACC schools have early admission programs. If last year's conference finalists Wake Forest and Georgia Tech are any indication, in the ACC there exists the possibility of almost any team (sorry, Duke) winning its division, playing in the championship game and potentially receiving a BCS bowl bid.
I'm just thinking that having early enrollment might help Virginia football get there.
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