Scattershooting: Villanova exhibition refreshing approach; Wahoo Euros rated high; Hootie’s nuggets

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Scattershooting around UVA and the ACC, while noting how refreshing it is that Ryan Odom has taken a different approach to exhibition games …

Odom’s Cavaliers will host Villanova in an exhibition, which will be open to the public, on Oct. 24, the night before Tony Elliott’s football team plays Bill Belichick’s North Carolina squad in Chapel Hill (see related story about exhibition game details, tickets, etc., on this site).

This is so much better from a fan’s perspective, not only giving Wahoo fans an opportunity to see the “new” UVA team take on an opponent with new coaches from both programs trying to learn more about their personnel in live action, but just from the transparency perspective. In the past, Tony Bennett preferred to keep those scrimmages private, and fans — along with media — were kept in the dark about those contests, except what information seeped out from the “secret” games.

In addition, it’s another way for UVA’s athletic department to make a little extra revenue from ticket sales to the scrimmage.

Don’t know about you, but this is a terrific upgrade in terms of Odom’s approach to his program.

Europeans provide boost

Most of us felt like Virginia’s basketball team would be fun to watch this season because of the number of shooters recruited by Odom and his staff, plus an up-tempo offense.

But when Odom brought in a frontcourt that’s going to rival any UVA frontline in years, things got a lot more interesting.

Nick Kalinowski, who has expertise in the NBA draft, college hoops rosters and international basketball, put an apostrophe on Odom’s frontcourt when Kalinowski traced where the top 100 NCAA-age international recruits ended up. Kalinowski has his own system in rating the internationals, but his ratings make Virginia’s recruiting efforts appear amazing.

Kalinowski has Belgian power forward Thijs de Ridder ranked the No. 5 international coming to America and German center Johann Grunloh ranked No. 6. Both are on Virginia’s roster.

Two of the four internationals rated above de Ridder and Grunloh are with NBA teams, Noa Essengue with the Chicago Bulls and Bogoljub Markovic with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Louisville did well, too, landing No. 9 in the rankings, power forward Evangelos Zougris and No. 11, center Sananda Fru.

QB Morris not looking over shoulder

Unlike the last two training camps, when Tony Muskett and Anthony Colandrea were competing head-to-head for the starting quarterback job at Virginia, transfer Chandler Morris won’t have to worry.

Tony Elliott named Morris, who transferred from North Texas after throwing for a zillion yards last season, the starter ahead of time. Elliott believes this should help the offense become more comfortable in camp.

“I think the advantage is just clear direction in the summer to foster leadership in the locker room,” Elliott said this week. “There’s more of a consistent voice than trying to have two guys that are battling for the position and for leadership.

“So this gives us some direction so that the offense can gel, so the team can gel, so when we hit the grass, we’re not trying to make up that time.”

Hootie’s Golden Nuggets …

• NCAAF Nation ranks Virginia’s Jahmeer Carter the No. 21 interior defensive lineman in the country. Carter is a 6-2, 311-pound defensive tackle playing in his sixth season for the Cavaliers. He’s from Baltimore’s Archbishop Spalding.
• Interesting concept by Virginia football, which has teamed up with Costco to offer discounted two-ticket packages this season. Costco has the same arrangement with South Carolina, Louisville, Purdue, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Tulane and others. The packages vary from $49.99 to $99.99. Some include $20 food/beverage credit or a parking pass.
• Speaking of Costco, did you hear how new Stanford general manager Andrew Luck (former Colts QB) approached his old coach, Frank Reich, about taking the interim reins of the Cardinal football program? Reich was in Costco, shopping for strawberries, when Luck called and said he needed help and would Reich consider taking over coaching responsibilities. Reich was on a plane to California the next morning. Luck & Reich will bring Stanford to Charlottesville on Sept. 20 for a first-ever meeting between the two programs.
• Pro Football Focus has come out with the 10 easiest college football schedules in the country for this season: 1) Wake Forest; 2) Texas Tech; 3) Indiana; 4) Virginia; 5) BYU; 6) SMU; 7) Kansas; 8) North Carolina; 9) Houston; 10) Oklahoma State. So, four of the easiest eight schedules belong to ACC schools, and UVA plays two of ‘em.
• In a Twitter (X) conversation between two former UVA Bronco Mendenhall quarterbacks, Bryce Perkins and Kurt Benkert, it was Benkert who again confirmed the depth problem at Virginia. Benkert wrote: “Man I really miss UVA. We were so bad but we worked hard and to be honest, had a better record than our talent level should have. We had a few NFL guys but the depth drop off made it tough down the stretch.” Depth has been a problem at Virginia for years and years, but maybe not this time around (see my related story today about Tony Elliott’s response to being picked 14th in the ACC preseason poll and why depth could make a huge difference).
• We thought Virginia had a lot of new incoming players into its football program with 54, until we saw that North Carolina has 70. None of that compares, though, with Purdue, where new coach Barry Odom has 82 new players, either transfers or incoming freshmen. That’s 82 out of 119.
• LSU’s Brian Kelly gave Clemson some bulletin-board material when he referred to Clemson’s Memorial Stadium as “Death Valley Junior.” Both schools have claimed their stadiums to be the true Death Valley for years. LSU comes to Clemson for the opener on Aug. 30 in a huge showdown. Clemson’s T.J. Parker had an answer for Kelly’s remark at last week’s ACC Kickoff when he said: “[LSU] can have their opinion. We’re gonna handle all that on August 30. At the end of the day, we can do all the talking. We gonna see, you know what I’m saying? They’re hyping up everybody across the board, all these transfers they got. We’ll see.” Clemson was first referred to as Death Valley in 1948, while LSU’s Tiger Stadium wasn’t called Death Valley until 1959.
• We were heartbroken to learn of the passing of former Radford High School legendary football coach Norman Lineburg. He coached the Bobcats for 38 years, was one of the state’s winningest coaches and was inducted into the VHSL Hall of Fame in 1997 and retired as coach in 2007. Coach Lineburg nominated me for the first writing/coverage award of my career via the VHSL, something I’ll never forget. He always sent a Christmas card. Got to know two of his four sons, Wayne, who played football and became an assistant coach at UVA (then Wake, now Rice), and Robert, who is the AD at Radford University. #RIPcoach. We’ll miss you.
• UVA’s Luke Hanson signed with the Texas Rangers, in case you missed it.
• Jay Woolfolk has signed with the Atlanta Braves for the full bonus amount of $150,000.
• Chris Arroyo signed with the Florida Marlins, the fifth-round pick inking a deal worth $521,400.
• Georgia Tech just paid offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner $1.5 million for each of the next two seasons, the largest salary for an assistant coach in Yellow Jackets history.
• New math problem: If George is 73 and his girlfriend is 25, how much money does George have?
• The No. 2 running back prospect in the nation is from Louisa County. Savion Hiter (5-11, 200) is a 5-star who has already narrowed his list of final schools considered to four: Georgia, Tennessee, Michigan and Ohio State. We can remember a time when the state’s top running backs flocked to UVA: Terry Kirby, Tiki Barber, Thomas Jones.