Charlottesville was buzzing yesterday with Virginia men’s basketball’s ACC regular season title clinching victory over Syracuse. It was certainly a busy day as well for the football program, which began spring practice and hosted a Junior Day recruiting event. I provided a rundown of those prospects we expected to be in attendance for the event in Friday’s Sabre Scoop (EDGE feature) and I plan to have much more in the way of recruiting updates today, tomorrow, and over the course of the coming weeks.
In the meantime, though, here is some initial reaction and news.
Class of 2015 Football Recruiting
Star in-state offensive line prospect Matthew Burrell Jr. tweeted several pictures from the day, including photos of an offensive line meeting he attended, dinner, and the Syracuse/UVa basketball game. How much this weekend moved the needle for the Cavaliers remains to be seen, but the 6’5″, 300-pound Hylton (Woodbridge, VA) standout tweeted the following message:
“Great time at UVA game. Junior day great with great players people and morals! ! #Wahoowa”
Burrell boasts over 30 major FBS scholarship offers, including Alabama, Florida, Ohio State, Virginia and Virginia Tech. He has visited Virginia Tech, Maryland and now UVa over the course of the past month.
St. Christopher’s (Richmond, VA) defensive end/outside linebacker Ricky DeBerry Jr. and Stonewall Jackson (Manassas, VA) defensive tackle Tim Settle, two of the most coveted prospects in the nation in the class of 2015, were on Grounds yesterday as well. Settle uploaded this pic of the two talents in Charlottesville.
Virginia is one of the favorites for Settle, a 6’3″, 310-pound prospect with offers from Alabama, Ohio State, Virginia, Virginia Tech and many more. DeBerry, who has over 50 scholarship offers including one from LSU this week, has expressed serious interest as well.
Gonzaga (Washington, D.C.) quarterback Nick Johns has had an offer from Virginia since last summer, when he shined during UVa’s 7-on-7 tournament. He attended a game last fall and returned yesterday for another look. The 6’3″ signal caller also has offers from Maryland and Virginia.
Stone Bridge (Ashburn, VA) linebacker Tanner Karafa was impressed by the basketball game.
“What a game!” – the Bulldogs standout junior tweeted Saturday night.
Karafa had not received an offer from Virginia prior to the weekend, but I will check in to see if anything changed as a result of his visit. Virginia Tech and Charlotte are the first two schools to offer the 6’3″, 230-pound prospect. Virginia and a handful of others have offered Stone Bridge junior defensive tackle Aaron Crawford, who was not in attendance yesterday.
Other confirmed Junior Day visitors include Rockbridge County (Lexington, VA) offensive tackle Austin Clark and Northside (Roanoke, VA) offensive lineman/defensive tackle Chance Hall. The latter grew up a Virginia fan but is taking his time in his recruiting process. Duke, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia Tech are among the other offers he is considering.
Clark has visited Virginia several times previously. Other top contenders for him include Clemson, Ohio State, Penn State, Tennessee and Virginia Tech. The 6’6″ prospect has offers from all of these schools and double-digit offers in total.
Class of 2016 Prospects Offered By UVa
Cavalier head coach Mike London offered a pair of class of 2016 prospects with UVa ties yesterday.
Landan Word, son of former Cavalier and NFL running back Barry Word, was offered by Virginia while in Charlottesville yesterday. The 6’3″, 215-pound linebacker/fullback took to Twitter to relay the news.
“UVA just offered #blessed #madeit,” tweeted Word, who attended a game at UVa last fall and competed with hi team in the annual 7-on-7 tournament at UVa last summer.
Word later tweeted, “Proud of UVa basketball #ACC” and “Great day.”
Word’s successful day of recruiting didn’t stop there. He picked up an offer from Charlotte as well.
Clark Yarbrough, a 6’6″ offensive line prospect out of Woodberry Forest (VA), scored an offer from the Hoos. It was his second offer of the week as Maryland came through earlier. Yarbrough’s grandfather played at Virginia and he is a cousin of another former Cavalier player, Zac Yarbrough.
Basketball News
We have confirmed that class of 2016 wing guard/forward Monte Buckingham and class of 2017 point guard Matt Coleman were in the John Paul Jones Arena on Saturday. Both players have been offered by head coach Tony Bennett.
Buckingham, a 6’4″ prospect out of Henrico (VA), guided his team to a come-from-behind one-point victory over L.C. Bird (Chesterfield, VA) in the 5A South Region semifinals on Friday night. UVa assistant Jason Williford was in attendance for that game and Buckingham traveled to UVa on Saturday.
“Ok UVA!,” Buckingham tweeted following the game, which was the second UVa regular season game he has seen at JPJ this season.
Coleman scored an offer from Virginia before he ever stepped on the court as a freshman at Maury (Norfolk, VA). ODU has offered as well. Stay tuned for more from Coleman and Buckingham as soon as we reach them.
Coincidentally, Maury will take on Henrico in the 5A South Region championship this week. The winner will compete for the 5A state championship.
