| Historical Stats & Info |
| "It is the most important victory of my career." -- Head Coach Dick Voris, after the Hoos’ 15-12 victory over Duke on September 27, 1958. Voris finished his UVA career with a record of 1-29. |
| "We've stopped recruiting young men who want to come here to be students first and athletes second." -- Former Virginia head coach Sonny Randle, describing his strategy for turning around UVA's football program |
| "As the score mounted, to 20-0 and finally 26-0, his movements slowed. With two minutes to go and South Carolina threatening once more, Voris stood behind several rows of substitutes, staring at his shoes." -- Sports Illustrated, describing Coach Voris’ stellar coaching performance during the Hoos’ 26-0 loss to South Carolina in 1960 |
| "Really, Texas wasn't as good as I thought they'd be." -- Ted Manly, Virginia's freshman quarterback, after Texas had spanked the Hoos 68-0 |
| MOCK, MOCK: HOO'S THERE? |
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| I know what you're thinking. I bet this tool just is amused with himself for thinking of that "Mock, Mock: Hoo's There?" title and is building a whole series of articles on the 2013 NFL draft prospects for the current class of former Cavaliers as an excuse to use it. Well, let me tell you something, pal. That's pretty much right. This isn't likely to be a particularly eventful NFL Draft for UVA football followers. We can hope that the recruiting efforts by Mike London and his staff will soon yield NFL Draft crops more like what we saw in the previous two decades, when 69 UVA players were drafted from 1989 to 2009. But at this point, Oday Aboushi (@AboushiBands72) is the only player that is considered a lock to hear his name called. Several others, including Steve Greer, Perry Jones, and LaRoy Reynolds, are hoping to join him and prevent UVA from having just one player picked for the fourth straight year: |
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| Copyright © 2008 www.hoosfootball.com All Rights Reserved |
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| Part I: They're Not Booing, They're Saying "Aboooushi" |
| By @bhammond January 26, 2013 |
| MOST RECENT UVA DRAFT PICKS: 2010: Chris Cook, 2nd round (pick 34), Minnesota Vikings 2011: Ras-I Dowling, 2nd round (pick 33), New England Patriots 2012: Cam Johnson, 7th round (pick 237), San Francisco 49ers |
| In future installments, we'll provide more detail on Greer, Jones, Reynolds, and others, but for now, we'll focus on Aboushi, who is getting the most attention as he prepares for the Senior Bowl. Let's begin with where Aboushi stands in some prospect rankings and draft boards. |
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| *It's not clear exactly when ESPN last updated its rankings, but they list Morgan Moses as the no. 11 OT prospect in the draft, so it's safe to assume that it hasn't been updated since the Jan. 15 deadline for declaring for the draft, at best. |
| Finally, the Part Justifying the 'Mock' In the Title If you've ever watched Around the Horn, you might think that sportswriters are ignorant, loud- mouthed clowns with horrible fashion sense. But that's not a complete picture. They're also lazy as hell, which is why most mock drafts only include one round. The rankings above suggest that Aboushi could end up in Round 1, and he has landed there in at least one recent mock draft. A January 7 mock draft posted at SB Nation had Aboushi going 24th to the Indianapolis Colts and had this to say:
some seasoning to become a quality tackle in the NFL. The Colts desperately need help on the offensive line, so this pick would make a ton of sense for them. and he hasn't appeared in any other one-round mocks I've seen to date. But on the bright side, Aboushi has appeared in every mock draft I've found that extends beyond one round. |
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| Links Some links to other coverage across the Internets: - Before Senior Bowl practices began, the National Football Post listed Aboushi as one of eight offensive players to watch, saying that he "comes to Mobile with an opportunity to secure a spot in the opening round." - Based on the South team's Tuesday afternoon practice, Rob Rang of CBSSports.com said Aboushi's "physicality…certainly captured attention of NFL talent evaluators in the stands." - One question is whether Aboushi is better suited for playing right tackle in the NFL. Mike Jones at the Washington Post reported that Aboushi looked solid at RT in practice. This isn't Pravda covering the Communist Party or ESPN covering Duke basketball, so we won't ignore the less-positive reports: - Russ Lande of the National Football Post listed Aboushi as one of four players who struggled on day two of practice, reporting a lack of aggressiveness with his hands that enabled defenders to "beat him with secondary pass rush moves both inside and out." In related news, I'm projecting Lande as an undrafted free agent in my ranking of NFL talent rankers. Next Time... In our next installment, we'll update the Mock Draft Matrix, recap Aboushi's performance at the Senior Bowl, and catch up on the other UVA draft prospects, including the all-star game performances by Steve Green and Perry Jones. |
| *Disclaimer: Bleacher Report's mock draft should be considered an unreliable data point because it's from Bleacher Report. |