The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - UVA Basketball Is Red Hot With Transfer Portal; What Does The UVA BBall Roster Look Like?

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: UVA Basketball Is Red Hot With Transfer Portal What Does The UVA BBall Roster Look Like? Virginia Hoops Has 1 Scholarship Remaining JR Reynolds Moving Up College Coaching Ranks News & Notes: Hootie’s Golden Nuggets What’s In Store For UVA Baseball, Tennis, Lax? UVA Football – 13 Commitments For 2025 Class Former UVA QB Bryce Perkins Playing In UFL Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller were live on The Jerry & Jerry Show! The Jerry & Jerry Show airs live Tuesday from 10:15 am – 11:15 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Jerry & Jerry Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Tuesday morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show. It's great to be with you on a show that spotlights a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, Jerry Hootie Ratcliffe, a man I have known for, it's crazy to say, 20 years and counting. A man that needs no introduction, a household name from print, from radio, from television, and now his own program. Today's show welcomes you, the viewer and listener, to shape the discussion, ask us questions. We'll talk basketball and Tony Bennett. Transfer Portal has been red hot for the Wahoos. They have a local kid committed. They have one of the best kids in Tony Bennett era committed, T.J. Power from Duke, and their roster is filling

up very quickly. The front court, which looked like a point of concern, now has depth and power and stretch and ability. One scholarship remaining. I'm going to ask Hootie Ratcliffe what the Wahoos are going to do with that one scholarship. We'll talk football. Tony Elliott's football program is gaining steam with the class of 2025. We'll have Hootie unpack that for you, the viewer and listener.

Rivals and 247 Sports currently has Tony Bennett's class ranked 15th in the nation. I'm going to ask Hootie Ratcliffe about that. Bryce Perkins has a new job. J.R. Reynolds has a new job. Lots of cover on the program. Judah Wittkower, Mr. MVP, Mr. Consistency behind the camera.

If you can welcome the star of the show, Hootie Ratcliffe, to the broadcast, my friend. It's good to see you. Great to see you, too. It's hard to believe a week's passed by since we had Coach O'Connor on talking about his baseball program and how they're trying to finish strong. And they've got a big series this weekend with the Hokies coming to town, so hopefully they can finish the job. I'm glad you referenced the Brian O'Connor interview. You set up that interview.

I thought the interview was fantastic. Brian O'Connor. He's awesome. Like you highlighted, a Midwesterner. Midwesterners, down to earth, easy going, easy to chat with. You and I both left invigorated. I think you made the comment post-show, man, if this guy's in your living room talking to you and mom and dad, how can you say no to Virginia baseball if he's asking you to

come play for the Wahoos? Two things really struck me from the interview was how he positioned the value proposition of baseball. He said, if your baseball team is playing deep in the College World Series, there are no other sports going on in June and in the summer. So it's great brand recognition for any university that has a program playing deep in the postseason. That really stuck with me. The second thing that stuck with me was his take on NIL. And he highlighted that the baseball program has what, 11.7? Yeah, 11.7 scholarships.

11.7 scholarships. So from his standpoint, the NIL has value because a lot of the guys that are on his roster are paying to play baseball. Right. And, you know, any NIL money that comes in helps pay for their scholarship. Because it's very rare for them to give a full scholarship out to any individual. They have to split them up amongst all those players. Kevin Yancey's got questions for you from Waynesboro already. He's a Florida State fan, and he wants to know about

the Atlantic Coast Conference surviving long-term, will get to expansion, and perhaps heavy hitters trying to get out of the ACC. He says, good morning, J, J, and J. A nice little moniker for the show with Judah Wickhauer being included in that. It gets a little smirk out of Judah Wickhauer behind the camera over there. JJ and J.

Triple J's. The triple J's. Kevin Yancey, we'll get to that in a matter of moments. We'll get to basketball first. Hootie, your coverage of the transfer portal has been award winning per usual. Where do you want to begin with the transfer portal? Well, I guess we could just talk about

the fact that they do have one scholarship remaining and i'm pretty sure they would like to fill it with another guard or at least a a shooting guard of some kind i know that they had a visit from day day aims the freshman guard from kansas state he's six one point guard has three years of eligibility remaining he visited uva uh over a week ago and it's been hard to find out anything about him i've reached out to some of the national recruiting guys and even they haven't heard any news on him and what he may be doing i know that illinois was in pursuit of him uh along with maryland and some others but there's no been no official reports that I've seen of him visiting anywhere else.

This kid's pretty legit. He started 16 games for Kansas State, played in 31, averaged five points, two assists a game, shot 35%, 33% from the arc. He's originally from Chicago and was ranked top 50 coming out of high school by at least one recruiting service. So he was essentially a four-star prospect. And he seemed to be really getting better toward the end of the season. Against Iowa, in an opening round loss in the NIT, Jerry,

he scored 16 points, but he hit six out of eight shots and four out of five from three-point land and had five assists and three rebounds. So it would be pretty cool if they could land a guy that has starting experience in Power 4, Power 5 basketball. And then I don't think this guy has visited yet, but they did reach out to another West Coast kid, Kevin Patton, Jr., 6'8 guard slash small swing man, I guess, from San Diego, originally from Chandler, Arizona, the same place as Bryce Perkins.

So they might want to enlist Perkins to try to recruit this guy. He averaged about 10 points, four and a half rebounds a game, and he was a three-star coming out of high school and I think top 130 in the nation. But after that first year at San Diego, everybody in the world is after him. I know that Duke, Florida State, Stanford, Cal, Arkansas, BYU, TCU, Southern Cal, a bunch of other schools have tried to get a visit from him. We don't know his status at this point, but those are the two people we know that have either visited or been contacted that are still in the portal. And Virginia has had to have some contact with.

So they don't have to fill that spot for for sure they they could go with what they have right now and be fine i think uh but it wouldn't hurt to add another player particularly one who can either has starting point guard experience or somebody who can add to the offensive firepower a little bit. And they've taken care of the front court. One more guy on the back court wouldn't hurt. The back court seems to be where we need a little bit more depth. We need more depth with Reese Beekman's departure, with Dante Harris transferring from the program.

Beekman, of course, is looking to play in the National Basketball Association. He's got significant upside. The Dante Harris experiment did not go as planned. I don't know how you want to handle this. You and I have both heard the scuttlebutt and the rumor mill when it comes to Elijah Gertrude. It's strictly scuttlebutt and rumor. Yeah.

Nothing documented on the record at all. I'm seeing it all over Twitter, all over social media. Yeah, I have too. I've seen the rumors. Again, I haven't talked to any of the coaches to get a confirmation on it, but, I mean, there's all kinds of rumors out there. One is that he's going to transfer. That was one that a friend of mine from Wyoming asked.

And another is the main rumor I've heard is that he was involved in a scooter accident. That's the one I've heard. He tore up his knee and could miss the season. So, again, I don't know if it's just rumor or if it's true. There's been no official confirmation anywhere that I've seen. Certainly nothing out of UVA basketball. But that's to be expected. To some degree, but you would think if he's going to miss the entire season that they might would have acknowledged

that to the fan base in some way, but not necessarily. Some of it is, you know, students are guarded by the Prophe Act when it comes to medical situations. So I guess that could be a factor. But again, everybody's kind of in the dark on that right now. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. James Watson, the Virginia graduate, welcome to the show. Johnny Arnalis, hello.

Jesse Rutherford, the Board of Supervisors, watching the program. Bill McChesney, my friend, thank you for watching the program. We'll get to your comments. Rob Neal, hello. Thank you for watching the show. The commitment, and I'll give the viewers and listeners a snapshot of the commitment so far. Virginia has T.J. Power from Duke. He's 6'9". He's a stretch forward. He's the

second highest ranked commitment in the Tony Bennett era. T.J. Power. They got a 6'8 forward, Elijah Saunders from San Diego State. He's a bruiser. He's got some starting experience. Toward the end of the season, he was coming off the bench for San Diego State. They got a point guard, maybe a combo guard, a guy with length, with wingspan, with physicality, Jalen Worley from Florida State. I'm super excited of the walk-on commitment from Andrew Lang, or excuse me, Carter Lang. Carter Lang. Carter Lang. St. Ann's Belfield. Yeah, St. Ann's Belfield product, 6'9", 235. His father's locker, two or three lockers down for me over at the Boar's Head.

Oh, yeah. He plays basketball all the time. This guy is a physical specimen. Transferred from Vanderbilt. After playing for Jerry Stackhouse, he comes to Charlottesville as a walk-on, which shows he wants to play for Tony Bennett because he had an opportunity to play elsewhere.

He was a three-star. The front court looks pretty darn buttoned up right now. Before we go there, I just received a text from a source who I won't reveal, but he's a very reliable source. He says that the rumor about Gertrude is true and he is going to miss the season. The scooter incident? Yes. And they also said that the kid from Kansas

State is expected to sign soon. So if that's the case, that's huge in that Day Day Ames would become a Cavalier. Again, a guy with a season of starting experience at point guard and would help the backcourt, particularly if that's, it appears to be true about Gertrude being injured and out for the season. So we should cut this into a sizzle reel and play it on the I Love Seville show and give Hootie Radcliffe some props for this. A little breaking news. I think Hootie Radcliffe, just in very humble, easygoing fashion,

just broke some big-time news here. So, Judah, you're going to want to mark this time stamp so you can cut this from today's show and play it at the 1230 show. We can send this to Hootie and Scott as well to utilize for jerryracliff.com. All right, it is Tuesday, May 14th, Tuesday morning. Jerry Racliff, you have some breaking news for the viewers and listeners. The show is yours, my friend. Yeah, again, according um a very reliable source someone i totally trust uh he has confirmed that the elijah gertrude rumor about him

tearing up his knee in a scooter accident a couple of weeks ago is true, and that Gertrude will miss the season. That's huge, especially considering that the kid was red. They removed his red shirt last year. I guess they can use it now, and that, you know, he was playing so well, and it was when the other kid tore up Hardy's ankle, nearly broke his ankle, and they pressed him into service, and he just never was able to get a lot of court time. I think his jump shot was off a little bit, and it was tough. But, again, he's one of the most explosive athletes to join this program in the Tony Bennett era. So a lot of people were expecting a huge year from him athletically.

And if he's out, that's certainly a blow to the program. But the other news from the source again a very trusted source is that day day aims the transfer portal guard from kansas state with three years of eligibility is expected to sign soon with virginia and that would shore up the backourt and give them somebody with starting experience on the major college basketball level at point guard, which should be exciting to Virginia fans because this kid can play. And like I said, it sounded like he got better and better as the season went along. And that certainly adds to that position with Christian Bliss back there and the Worley kid from Florida State who has three years of starting experience

with point guard. So they can throw a variety of point guards at you again in Tony Bennett fashion where he likes to sometimes play more than one point guard. You've got a 6'7 guy with experience who is not a great shooter, but is a good playmaker, can drive. Then you've got Day Day Ames, who can shoot it, who can playmake. And Christian Bliss, who I think is going to be a fantastic point guard for Virginia over his career.

That's breaking news right there. That's the end of that sizzle reel. Well done from the award-winning writer. What's the starting lineup look like? If the Day-Day Aims commitment becomes a reality, you've got to expect Day-Day is going to push for starting playing time. You've got a Florida State transfer that's got three years of experience, as you've highlighted.

Christian Bliss, a 6'4", 200-pound rising second year from Queens, New York, has massive upside. Who can shoot the eyes out of it. Shoot the eyes out of it. Isaac McNeely, you would think, has got to be a lock for the starter minutes. TJ Power's a lock for starter minutes, you would think. I mean, what's the starting five look like right here? Wow. That's a good question.

Probably it's whether how he wants to attack teams. Some of it could be matchup lineups, depending on who they're playing. But I would think they would probably go with Worley because, again, he has three years of starting experience. It's hard to match that. Ames will be pushing for time. Or he could start them both at one and two guard. Then you put McNeely at the three?

Three. Then you got T.J. Power, I think, would be a starter. He could start alongside Blake Buchanan, give him a true power forward or a stretch forward, and Buchanan I expect will be a little more physical it could be at the five so then they've got other choices they've got

certainly Kofi coming in Lang has experience played some as a freshman at Vanderbilt that's a pretty good size front line with a lot of length on it. You've got 6'11", 6'10", 6'9", 6'9". That's some length. He could go to a variety of lineups and he could throw a lot of different bodies at you.

So he's got to be smiling right now. Absolutely. Absolutely. Renee Pettiford's giving you some love. I love this show. Randy Clark giving you some love. Boom. Nice job, Jerry.

You got breaking news on this program. Hootie Ratcliffe, through a source live on the show, has confirmed the Kansas State point guard, Dede Ames, is coming to Virginia. He also, unfortunately, this source live on the show, has confirmed the rumor of Elijah Gertrude potentially wrecking his knee in a scooter incident, which is extremely unfortunate. Those scooters are extremely dangerous. Those things scare me to death.

Scare me to death. And I have seen a number of athletes, some of the other injuries we've seen have been some of the lower-profile sports, but athletes get injured on these scooters around grounds and around Charlottesville, riding scooters on roads that have no shoulders, next to cars going 25 35 45 miles

an hour with literally no body protection while riding these scooters yeah i'm over there a lot in and out of the athletic department areas and i see you know a hundred of those things parked and um athletes used them all the time male and females and uh i don't know i i would i just wouldn't want my kid on one of those things and i'm surprised not more people are injured on them because they just seem dangerous to me. I just, I'm extra careful when I'm over there just to try to make sure that none of those kids get hurt. It could be time for a student athlete scooter ban. A scholarship student athlete scooter ban. Just something to consider out there.

Comments are coming in very quickly right here with a guy who just broke some news on the show, and I see it being shared everywhere on social right now. If you go... If you go Day Day Aims at the point, and then you go maybe a backcourt of Ames and Worley. McNeely at the three. Power at the four.

Buchanan at the five. With Elijah Saunders coming off the bench. Carter Lang coming off the bench in the frontcourt. You got Tane Murray. You got Rhodey. You got Rhodey and Tane Murray coming off the bench in the backcourt or at the three spot. You got Kofi, 6'9 freshman coming in, and Sharma, the Canadian National Player of the Year. Yep. You've got a basketball team. And Bliss. And Bliss. You've got a basketball team that went from having too many minutes

to maybe not enough minutes to go around. I've got a follow-up question for you. With the commitment of Ames, do you expect a transfer from Virginia's roster? Does Rhodey become the odd man out here? That's a good question. I don't know. I think he'll probably stick. I think he likes

it here and I think he just from what I've heard, I think he's going to work hard on this game and try to fight for playing time. I think he'll stick. Andrew Rody, he's got some upside. We'll see if he can turn it around from last year.

Another follow-up question for you. Who do you see as the team's top playmaker next year? Wow. Reese Beekman, the clear-cut playmaker this past season. I would say probably Ames, if he's everything that he's rumored to be. I mean, I know he started 13 consecutive games at the end of the season for Kansas State, which is certainly no slouch program.

And apparently was playing his best basketball toward the end of the season. He's a 6'1 guy. I think he's a playmaker. And I would say I wouldn't discount Bliss either, though. I mean, this guy, I've talked to him a few times since he committed to Virginia. He's got swag. After his junior year in high school. Well, he skipped his senior year of high school and came here and redshirted to learn the program.

So he's been in the system for a year. I wouldn't write him off either because the one thing he said on my podcast was, do you tell Wahoo Nation that I'm a winner and I expect to win? And I think he's serious about that. I think he's a serious player. And Worley, again, with three years of experience in the ACC, he knows the league. He's a big guard, 6'7".

You don't find a lot of point guards his size. But I would say just off the cuff, if Ames does commit as predicted, predicted. He sounds like he could be the playmaker of the bunch right out of the shoot. Hootie Radcliffe is on fire today, ladies and gentlemen. This question's come in. Is this team a preseason

top 25 ranked club? Wow. You know, I don't believe a lot in rankings, particularly early rankings. I think a lot really like to go there because, I mean, who really cares if you're top 25 early season or not? It doesn't really mean a thing. Certainly the talent is there, but, you know, you've got to build chemistry. A lot can happen between now and then.

We saw what apparently happened to Gertrude. I think the talents there, it just depends on if that talent can come together. A lot of people had a lot of expectations for last year's team, and it never really came together. I would say, and I hope I'm not looking at this through a Charlottesville or orange and blue-based lens, but I would say the roster that's assembled right now, when compared to the roster leading into last season,

the roster right now has more experience, more talent, and upside. It does. Why I say that is the playing time of, now you lose a big time, you lose a key cog in Reese Beekman. Reese Beekman, one of the best guards in the country. You lose a key cog in Ryan Dunn, who is having a fantastic NBA combine right now. Even though he's skipping the scrimmages, apparently, from what I understand. Right. Skipping the scrimmages, but he's performing in the skill and the aptitude showings extremely well.

Right. Dunn and Beekman notwithstanding, the additions to the team make it much more well-rounded from my standpoint. Much more depth in the backcourt and more depth in the frontcourt. substituted players in this roster that have major college basketball playing experience starting experience and have runway or shelf life with this isn't a one and done for them they can come back and keep playing right most of these guys with the exception of Worley are going to be you know have the potential to be around for two, three years. Right. And I'm sure that's the way Tony would prefer it, so he can work with these guys and develop them.

And they have plenty of time to settle into the pack line. And if the rumors are true that he wants to tweak the offense to a little bit more upbeat, I don't expect any drastic changes of any kind. But I think he might want to try to inject a little more firepower in there to where the last year's debacle where they were overly criticized for a lack of scoring, a lack of offensive firepower. I don't think he wants that to happen again, and certainly shouldn't with this influx of players. There's some scorers and some shooters

and some serious basketball players in this group. So potentially this is a much better team than last year. I know we said that last year about that group, but that group was somewhat unproven on this level of basketball. That's what it was because you had Rhody and Miner as key contributors of last year's team. They were lower level players. They didn't make it. They never made the adjustment. These guys have already been there and done that. Their best basketball is ahead of them, I think. Particularly Power and Lang and

Saunders. No question. And then the two freshmen, I think, are going to be fine as well. We've got comments coming in here. Let's get to one that's local here. It's a little off topic, but I don't want to forget it. The gentleman's a fan of the program. He's on McIntyre Road. His name is Bill McChesney.

Gentlemen, it's worth a mention. Charlottesville High School just announced alum Terrell Mulford as the Black black knights new head football coach mulford takes over after jeff woody's one-year stint he is a longtime chs assistant and the school's record holder for rushing yards and rushing touchdowns as a player he graduated in 2000 so we appreciate that tidbit from mr mcchesney nice watching the program on mcintyre road absolutely We are huge fans of local football. As two guys that used to work for the local newspaper,

we understand the importance of local football for this community. True. Mr. Yancey has this question here. Is Bennett's style difficult for transfers to adjust to right away? I think probably so because obviously the pack line a lot of schools play pack line defense. They don't play it quite as tenaciously as Tony Bennett does. Tony will tell you they devote

most of their practice time to defense. I think that is an adjustment for players coming in. Offensively, certainly most guys have played in a more up-tempo system, wherever else they came from. I mean, you look at these guys, Kansas State, Duke, San Diego State, Vanderbilt, they all played at a higher offensive tempo than Virginia does. So it is an adjustment, but it's still basketball, and some of the same premise, no matter what your tempo is,

it's still pick and roll, find the open man, coming off screens, et cetera. It might just be a different system, a slower system, but it's based on getting high percentage shots and wearing the defense down so but yeah it is an adjustment for a transfer to come in and and fit in and that's why these guys come in early. They come in in June, and they play pickup. And they are also able, coaches are able to work with the guys now. The NCAA has eased up on some of those rules so they can, it's not like an official practice once October the 15th rolls around,

but they are able to work with the coaching staff and start learning the system early. This is a comment for you. You guys may have covered this already, but does Hootie think the scholarship is going to be used this year or put in the cupboard? Well, if the commitment is true about Ames, then it has been used or will be used very shortly.

Would an additional scholarship not become available with Gertrude's injury because he would just redshirt? Right. Okay. So with the Ames commitment, all the scholarships are gone. They're all gone. Gertrude stays on scholarship, just redshirts. Right. Okay.

Fantastic right there. We have a little bit of anything else you want to? Even with that, you know, Lang is apparently coming as a walk-on, so. You would think he would try to earn one. Yeah, and should the Ames thing not come to fruition, they could possibly give that scholarship to him. Okay.

Any other news and notes you want to get on the transfer portal? I also want to highlight your golden nugget about J.R. Reynolds, one of the best guards in Virginia basketball history, played in the backcourt with Sean Singletary, a marksman, I believe, at Arone Oak. Yeah, he was at Arone Oak. Yeah. Great kid. I think he played at Oak Hill Academy for a year.

Yeah. Just a terrific human being. Kept in touch with him for a long time. It was hard to do because he was in Italy for such a long time, making a nice career over there. J.R. was a terrific player. I'm sure he'll make a terrific coach as well, and he's been elevated to a full-time assistant at Queens down in Charlotte, which I think they've only been Division I for a couple of years,

and they're in the Atlantic Sun Conference, I believe. So it's great to see him starting his coaching career, and who knows, he could end up back in Charlottesville someday. J.R. Reynolds, guys, moving up to college coaching ranks. Any other basketball news and notes you want to get to? Should we get to Tony Elliott's football team? Let's just move on to football. Football.

Rob Neal first has this comment. J.R. Reynolds playing at Roanoke same time as J.J. Redick. That was epic high school battles between J.R. Reynolds and J.J. Redick. J.J. Redick, interestingly, on the short list for the Los Angeles Lakers, head coaching job. I saw that, and I always enjoyed watching J.J. Rack play. He was poetry in motion. He's a heady player.

Heady player. I actually lived in Charlottesville until he was six years old and then I think moved to Roanoke. But it's a shame that Virginia couldn't latch on to him. I think they came close to getting him, but at that time it was hard to get recruits away from Mike Krzyzewski because that was during some of his prime time in Durham. But, yeah, I can imagine some of those high school battles

between J.R. Reynolds and J.J. Reddick. That must have been classic. I've got a J.J. Reddick story for you. This was when I was in high school. A classmate, he was a year below me by the name of John Naparlo, played basketball at James Madison University. He was on the same AAU team, at least a short stint with J.J. Redick. J.J. Redick visited John Naparlo in Williamsburg,

came to an open gym that we were all messing around at, and after one of the games I watched J.J. Redick, I had no idea who he was, behind the three-point line, and he was taking three-pointers. The ball was being fed to him, and he was banking it. He banked in the first one, banked in the second one, and I said, this guy must be the luckiest shooter ever. He's banking in three-pointers. Then I proceeded to watch him bank in 10 straight. Then I realized, oh my God, this guy's aiming for a bank

shot from bonus fear. That's how good he was in high school. Now, J.J. Redick, one of the best broadcasters in the National Basketball Association, very close confidant of LeBron James, and on the short list for arguably one of the best head coaching jobs, most pressure-ridden head coaching jobs, the L.A. Lakers opening after the firing of Darvin Ham. We'll get to football, guys. Tony Elliott is quietly, it's quietly unless you're reading jerryracliff.com, which it's front and center, assembling a very impressive class of 2025, Hootie. Yeah, he's done a pretty good job. Before we get into that, hopefully we'll get one of our weekly viewers, Olivia Branch, out of Keswick. Olivia Branch, if someone's watching the program, we've dubbed her the Queen of Keswick. I saw her last week.

I was out of Keswick doing a preview with Rob McNamara. They're doing U.S. Open qualifying at Keswick as we speak. Hopefully the rain has backed off. Maybe she can give us an update if she's watching. But I'm headed out there after the show. So just see, they've got five spots. 85 people, I think, going for five spots in the U.S. Open, which is going to be down at Pinehurst, number two, next month.

So big dealings out at Keswick. So shout out to olivia for that but yeah tony elliott's uh and his coaching staff are uh are making some headway as noted a couple of the national recruiting services and And again, it's early, and these things are continually updated as we go along. But right now, Virginia's recruiting class for 2025, which consists of 13 players, I believe, is ranked number 15 nationally by two of those three services. And that's pretty good. I think Tony is going about it in an intelligent way. He knows it's really going to be hard at this juncture of Virginia football

to attract a bunch of four stars, but he's collecting a ton of three stars. If you get the right three stars and coach them up, you can do some damage in college football. If you look at what Wake Forest has done over the span of time, going back to the Jim Grobe era and currently what they've been doing the last few years. They've done a lot primarily with two stars and just done a great job of coaching those guys up. NC State kind of rebuilt their program doing the same thing. So did Duke. So there's no reason

Virginia can't do the same thing if they're smart about scheduling, which I wish they would get a little smarter about that instead of scheduling people like Washington State. I thought it was a much better move scheduling Delaware or Delaware State, whoever it was. I think it was Delaware for a future date. But you can make a living off of three stars if you do it right. The latest kid, which I thought was a good get, was from Matoka down in Chesterfield.

And it shows they're making some inroads in the state, which is very important. A kid named Dylan Newton Short, wide receiver, probably the number two ranked overall recruit in the state of Virginia and he picked Virginia over Virginia Tech only eight days after the Hokies had offered him. He also had offers from Pitt, Maryland, Duke, Liberty, JMU, Marshall, which are all pretty good football programs, Appalachian State. And I thought he had some nice numbers as a junior.

He had 65 catches for over 1,000 yards and 22 touchdowns. That's pretty darn good, I think, for a high school receiver. So as they continue to build, they've got a couple of really nice receivers, a couple of quarterbacks in that class already that are pretty high ranked. Some other guys that are linebacker or two, I think they're doing a really nice job considering that they've come off two straight losing seasons. And, you know, not easy to recruit when you're in that situation. So I think they've made some strides.

Kevin Yancey confirms it's pouring in Keswick right now. Wow. I feel bad for those guys trying to qualify. I don't know if they've suspended play or if they're out there sloshing it out. It's tough playing good golf, especially for a U.S. open slot in the pouring rain. That's not an easy job. Multiple folks are asking right now, and we know this is going to come up,

it's going to continue to come up, if this is a make-or-break season. Well, it could be, because it depends on your definition of make-or-break. And I think, considering where Virginia football is right now, I think Vegas is probably going to set a line of four and a half wins as they're over under for the season. I think they can reach that number, but it'll be a challenge.

That's going to be a challenge. And the reason I say that is because the schedule is brutal. The schedule is brutal. It's back-ended. So if they can make some hay up front and build some momentum and some confidence, you might be able to spring an upset somewhere down the line. And the reason I say this is I think my number is right.

I think 85% of their offensive productivity returns from last season, even though they lost Malik Washington. They still have a couple of really good transfer receivers that have come in to maybe make up those numbers. You've got two experienced quarterbacks. You've got your entire offensive line. I was doing the preview for Lindy's National Magazine for Virginia just a little over a week ago, and I was even surprised myself a little bit when I looked, and they have 20 starters returning. That's big. That's

huge. If you've got 20 starters returning, plus some other guys who would not be counted as a starter but have some starting experience either here or elsewhere. So this is going to be a pretty experienced football team. They lost six games by a total of 17 points last season. Jerry, if they can find a way to win some of those close games and not beat themselves, this team could, could surpass that four and a half wins. I'm not saying they will, but I'm saying that the potential is there. It's hard to make up for experience in college football. You got 20 starters. That's huge. The unit, though, that seems to be lacking experience is the offensive line. Even though the offensive line does return intact,

again, they haven't proven that they can properly protect those quarterbacks. Right. And they haven't proven that they can punch holes consistently for the tailbacks for the tailbacks so uh a lot of the challenge is going to fall on their shoulders and a lot of this failure or success of this football team is going to be decided up front on that offensive line. If those guys can make strides and do their job, this could be a decent football team. It could be a surprising football team.

If they don't, it could be a disaster. Right. Do you see a quarterback by committee? I don't. I think Tony Elliott would prefer to go with one guy and um i would say you know if he sticks to his philosophy of a year ago then tony musket will likely be the starter unless calandria just flat out beats him in training camp, which is a possibility because Calandria was impressive as a freshman

and certainly has tons of potential. But then again, Muscat has experience and didn't make as many mistakes. So I don't think he'll be alternating quarterbacks. It doesn't mean that Colander couldn't play if Muscat is the starter in certain situations or if Muscat is struggling, et cetera. But it's nice to have those options to have a guy. If one guy's not working, you can go with the other. Viewers and listeners, this football team,

it's going to be an interesting year for Virginia football. They start the season in what is certainly a schedule that has left many in Wahoo Nation questioning why it was assembled with the Richmond Spiders on the 31st of August in Charlottesville. Then we start getting, get rocking and rolling with Wake Forest in the second week of the season, the Maryland Terrapins, Coastal Carolina, Boston College.

Hooties made the point of the back-end nature of the schedule. Listen to how this team closes the year. Louisville and Charlottesville, Clemson and Death Valley, North Carolina and Charlottesville, Pitt at Pitt, Notre Dame and South Bend, SMU and Charlottesville, and of course the Virginia Tech Hokies and Blacksburg. Yeah, that's no easy task for any football team, particularly one that's still trying to learn how to win. And that's going to be a major factor is if this team can learn how to win early. They're going to have to make hay early on because there's not a lot of W's in the back end of that schedule.

I mean, you've got to go to Notre Dame. You've got to go to Clemson. You've got to go to Blacksburg. SMU is coming to town with, and again, they're new to the ACC. They're going to look to make a statement. They are. There's so much talent at that part of Texas. There's plenty of talent. Their fan base is so excited that they're now in a Power Four conference. And that program has as much money as anybody. You talk about Florida, Texas, people like that having money.

SMU probably has more millionaires in their fan base than any other program out there. So they're going to spend tons of money in trying to make sure that that football team can win. And that's certainly going to be a challenge to beat them even though the game is here. And that could weigh in Virginia's favor. But it's certainly a back-ended schedule that's going to be difficult to find wins.

That's why it's really important for them to get off to a good start. I appreciate Lowe Davis reaching out to us on the talk show today, the executive director and CEO of Cav Futures. Lowe's a wonderful fellow. Watching the program. UVA football's got 13 commitments for the class of 2025, ladies and gentlemen. At this point, two of the ranking services, Rivals and 247 Sports, tabs Virginia number 15 in the nation for its 2025 class. We've got some football news to get to before talking lacrosse, tennis, and baseball.

From your scatter shooting column, Mr. Bryce Perkins, one of the best quarterbacks in Virginia history, has a new employer and a new gig. I love Bryce Perkins. I got to know him and his family really well those two years he was in Charlottesville. What a great family they are. And so happy to see him get another chance at football after being released by the Rams. I think he's the starting quarterback now for the Michigan Panthers in the UFL. This is the Rocks Football League. Yeah, had a great game this past weekend.

I don't know who was they played but he he had some really nice numbers and it looked like the old bryce perkins that broke all of virginia's total offense records career records in two years uh when he was here and uh what a fantastic young man he is one of the toughest football players I've ever seen. I don't know. There was a couple of times, particularly down at Georgia Tech, I guess his senior year, and he got hit so hard, Jerry, and he was laying there motionless on the turf at Grant Field.

I thought he was done. Maybe his career over. He just looked like he was completely wiped out. They took him out of the game. The next series he came back in. I remember that. It was

just as dynamic as he ever was. I mean, he's just a tough, tough individual. Bryce Perkins, we're going to follow him in the UFL with the Michigan Panthers. We have baseball tenants in La Crosse. Last week, Brian O'Connor in the house. That interview you can find on jerryratcliffe.com,

wherever you get your podcasting news. This baseball team seems primed for a run into the college postseason, into the College World Series. The NC State weekend did not go as planned, however, but the upside hoodie is there. Yeah, again, I think the pitching was an issue for them. Although they had a tough time generating much offense, which was surprising considering that.

That's their strength. That is by far their strength, and they rank at the top of the ACC in almost every offensive category, very high up nationally in a lot of those categories. So it was somewhat surprising that they struggled against a top 25 team, though. I mean, Brian O'Connor said it even after they beat NC State in the middle game of the series that every game in the ACC is a dogfight because there's so many quality programs in the conference,

and we saw that once again this weekend uh we'll probably see it this weekend when the Hokies come to town uh certainly they're that's going to be a a huge series for both teams I think Virginia is um I think Virginia's just barely ahead of Tech in the standings, maybe tied with Duke. I got those. I'll call it up for you here. I got it right here. My son sent it to me.

Yeah, I think Carolina clinched the division over the weekend. They're 20-7. Virginia's 15-12, tied with Duke. And Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech are 14-13, so just a game behind. So that's going to be a huge weekend series with the Hokies. Something that Virginia needs to build a little momentum on going into the ACC championships down in Charlotte. 37-14 overall, 15-12 in ACC play, Virginia baseball,

Ryan O'Connor's club. Virginia Tech hits Charlottesville on Thursday, 6 o'clock first pitch. Friday, 6 o'clock first pitch. And Saturday, the last of a three-game stretch, the Hokies 5 o'clock first pitch. Then the ACC tournament for a Virginia baseball team that has ambitions to host an NCAA regional. Charlottesville very much welcomes when Virginia baseball hosts a regional. Virginia men's tennis is contending for a national championship.

The golf team is in Baton Rouge. First place after the first round. Eight under after the first round. And Ben James didn't even play that great. Which just shows the depth the golf team has. The golf team's got legitimate pros on its roster, folks. Baseball, the Ford kid is going to play for Team USA. He got an invitation.

The fifth time in six years, someone from Brian O'Connor's baseball team is going to play for Team USA. He got an invitation. The fifth time in six years, someone from Brian O'Connor's baseball team is going to play for Team USA. Jay Woolfolk was on that team last year, the former quarterback, now pitching standout. We got to talk lacrosse. The men's team, the season has not gone yet according to plan, but people remember lacrosse as the season finishes, and they got on Sunday a Johns Hopkins matchup in the NCAA quarterfinal. Townsend, Maryland is the host site where they very well could win. You win this, you're in the final four of the NCAA tournament. Yeah, they lost to Hopkins during the regular season, and so this will be a chance to avenge that loss.

They're going to have to shore up their defense a little bit. Offensively, they don't seem to have any problems, but defensively, they've struggled a little bit. They beat up St. Joe's 17-11 in the first round. He's right. They lost to Johns Hopkins early in the season, 16-14, and the Doyle Cup on the 2nd of March. So rematch is a factor here.

You've got a revenge game. We'll see what happens with this club, Hootie. I think this team will find its way into the Final Four. I really do. Me too. They've got a lot of seniors there who really want to prove a point. And I think they want to get back to the Final Four. Softball team is in the NCAA tournament for the first time in, I think, 14 years maybe.

And Coach V's track and field team, how about that? Won the ACC championship first time ever. That guy's a miracle worker. Yes, he's one of the best track coaches in the country. And we knew that before he ever got here. He's done wonders with Virginia's program in track and field and cross country. He's a magician. You talk about a couple other tidbits out of the notebook.

Kevin Sawyer retiring as the rowing coach. Legend. Yep. He's been there, what? 25 years. Decades. Yeah. Yeah. He's been there, what? 25 years. Decades? Yeah. Yeah.

He's ruled the ACC. I remember when I was low man on the totem pole at Hootie Rackleff Sports Department, he would call the agate phone line, and I would pick it up because I was low guy on the totem pole, and he would say, you boys got to get out here and cover my program. You boys got to get out here and cover my program. Your boy's got to get out here and cover my program. Yeah, I know it's maybe not the greatest spectator sport in the world. I don't know. But certainly he's a salute to him for what he's done over the decades. He's built a dynasty in the ACC.

Nobody can touch him. It'll be tough to replace a guy that's reached those heights in his sport. He's certainly underrated for no question about that. The show was a breeze. Hootie Ratcliffe, guys. His website, jerryratcliffe.com. Where are you this weekend? Probably go to that Tech tech virginia series in baseball and uh keeping our on this uh day-day aims watch and apparently he's going to be

committing this week from what our sources say and which would be a reason for virginia fans to celebrate, no question about it. Absolutely. This roster, guys, is looking absolutely loaded. Hootie Ratcliffe breaking news, offering compelling commentary. His website, they do it every day, jerryratcliffe.com. My friend, a breeze to sit across from you, Judah Wickhauer,

keeps us online. Thank you, Judah, for producing and directing the show. We certainly appreciate you. MVP. MVP, Mr. Consistency. The show is archived wherever you get your social media or podcasting content. We stream live on all social platforms, and it's a pleasure to connect with you guys on this network. The I Love Seville show is up at 12.30 p.m. today, where we'll take a slice of this program and pass along the breaking news from the award-winning writer himself, Jerry Ratcliffe. I'm probably headed out to Keswick and hopefully it stops raining. I hope it stops raining for you. I'll tell you what, I'm looking at the weather forecast. I live over yonder, over in

the Keswick area and it's looking pretty wet, Hootie. It's looking pretty wet. By pretty wet, I mean it's supposed to rain until 11 a.m. tomorrow. I'm not properly dressed. Our six-year-old's got a Little League baseball game at Stone Robinson Elementary. We'll see if that game happens. Time will tell. All right, thank you guys for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show.

So long, everybody. Take care.