The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - UVA Hoops Earns 1st Transfer Portal Commitment; What Do We Know About UC Irvine's Jurian Dixon?

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: UVA Hoops Earns 1st Transfer Portal Commitment What Do We Know About UC Irvine’s Jurian Dixon? Hoo Else Is Ryan Odom Targetting In The Portal? 0 Wahoos Drafted, 10 Sign NFL Free Agent Deals What Virginia Football Snub Surprised You The Most? CVille’s Malachi Fields Drafted By NYG In 3rd RD What’s Wrong With Baseball? Other News & Notes Subscribe To JerryRatcliffe.com For Only $8 Per Month 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, and thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show. It's a pleasure to connect with you through the I Love Seville Network on a show that spotlights and features a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. Jerry Rackleff, the namesake of Jerry Rackliff.com. Hooty was in attendance this past weekend at another induction ceremony for the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. And this time, one of the inductees is a household name himself, Tony Bennett. it, the Virginia basketball great. We'll start the program with Hootie's perspective from the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame ceremonies, the pomp circumstance, one of the most special moments in a coaches, journalists,

players, lives being a part of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. A lot we're going to cover on the broadcast, including the transfer portal. Ryan Odom has now landed his first commitment, ladies and gentlemen. I will put the commitment into perspective with the health. help of Hootie Rackleff. His name is Juryan Dixon of UC Irvine, a first-team All-West performer who can play either the two or the three. Big time guy, big time upside, with two years of eligibility left. We'll talk football on the show today. Not a single Virginia football player drafted despite a school record setting 11-win season this past campaign. Why were no football

players drafted, and of the 10 who signed undrafted free agent deals, who has the most likelihood of landing a longer term NFL contract, and we'll also talk of baseball in the program today as Chris Pollard is facing his first

bit of turmoil as the skipper here in Charlottesville. So much to cover, we encourage you, the viewer and listener to subscribe to jerry rackliff.com. It's $8 a month. The price of a cup of coffee. get you Virginia sports coverage to the tune of 50 to 60 unique pieces of content per month.

I'll say it again. For $8 a month, you're getting 50 to 60 unique pieces of content from Virginia Sports Hall of Famer Jerry Hooty Ratcliffe and his hand-selected team of talent. Judah Wick Cowers behind the camera, he's the Elmer's Glew of this team. Judith, if you can go to the studio camera and welcome our star, Jerry Rackleff, to the program of Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, who was in attendance on a special night this past weekend for the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremonies that featured Tony Bennett. Tony Bennett and Wally Walker. That's big time.

Two Virginia legends. Yeah. Yeah, it was a really entertaining evening. It was the second time in, I. I guess three years that they have held the event in Henrico, set the Hilton Hotel in Short Pump. And they had great attendance. It's going to be there again next year.

I kind of hope that, and I think they would probably do it if they got the financial support from somebody in the Richmond area to do so. I kind of hope that they would move the Hall of Fame from Virginia Beach to the Richmond area. I just think it's more practical. It's easier to get to from most of the points in the state. And, again, a much larger attendance in Henrikko.

And it was a really good night. I go back every year that I can just to see friends. more than anything, and I wanted to be there and support Tony and Wally as well and a couple of the people that I knew. But it was a heck of a class. I mean, you're talking about Tony Bennett, Wally Walker, Grant Hill, who couldn't make it, he had TV obligations. So his father, Calvin of Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl fame, great running back, spoke in his absence.

Boo Williams. AAU Basketball Legend Hampton Roads. He's done unbelievable things. Yeah. Michael Vic, who was not there. His daughter was having her first prom, so he didn't show. But Boo Williams made him promise to make up for it. Roland Lazaby, a guy who I grew up in my era in Southwest Virginia.

He's a former VMI. guy and he's written tons of books mostly about NBA, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Phil, the Lakers coach, Phil Jackson, Jackson, having a moment there. So he was there. A few other people, former William and Mary A.D. for a long time, his name is Casey. me at the moment and it was just it was quite a evening it was tons of UVA people there obviously supporting Tony and Wally and it was really cool I'll write a little piece about that later today on the site but it was fun just bumping into a lot of people that I know and have

known from the past and again I hope they keep it in in Ryko there at Shore Pump is a great location and Tony was his normal humble self he was one of the first people I ran into and they have a 90-minute social time there before the induction ceremony begins and he said he said I promise you I will be brief in my speech he said I've got it down to five and a half minutes and uh he lived up to that as you might guess um when calvin hill took the podium he said uh he said grant told me uh to always remember the five bees when i'm up at the podium and i asked him what the five bees were and he said be brief brother be brief and so he was but Tony was even briefer.

And then Wally, he did an alphabetical order, so Wally was one of the last speakers. And he was talking about how he and Tony were surprised to find out that they were in the hall. And it was all great, except that once he found out the induction ceremony was on the 25th of April,

it was a problem because I think it was his daughter who was getting married and was having her a bachelorette party in San Lucas in Cabo on the same date.

So his family realized how important a moment that was for him and she rescheduled. And so he promised to take everybody out to Taco Bell in short pump and all the tacos were on him. What a generous man, Wally Walker, who's still obviously very close to the UVA basketball program.

Of course, Wally's been here in our studio. Great guy. A wonderful person. Yeah. Terry Driscoll, the William and Mary Athletics Director. Terry Driscoll. Yeah. He was the R.D. for, I think, at least 15 years.

For much of my time growing up in William and Mary, or Williamsburg. I grew up in Williamsburg. My family, my parents in particular, took us to Stable Stadium where Jimmy Laycock was the legendary head football coach. Jimmy Leacock went in the same year I did. That's right. Jimmy Leacock is an absolute legend. He's produced a boatload of NFL talent, a boatload of coaching talent.

Hell of a coach. Hell of a coach, Jimmy Leacott. And then many evening my brother and I and my parents have spent in William Mary Hall watching a basketball team. kind of in the middle of the road of the CAA back in the day. Tony Shaver has some good teams down there. Tony Shaver, Hampton Sydney product. Yep.

Ryan Odom. That's right. Look at this man right here. Yeah. He could talk anything sports. I want to highlight this. Jerry Rackcliffe also a part of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. That is one of the first ways I introduced this man to anyone I speak to.

He's a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. So you can answer this question because, this is you. What's it mean for these guys to be inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall fame? You know, I've been going to this long before I ever went in. Going back, gosh, end of the 90s.

Once upon a time, media general was the sponsor of, they used to have a golf tournament the weekend of the induction ceremony, they're at Forge Colony. That's right. And Williamsburg? Yeah.

Media General, the owner of the Richmond Times Dispatch, owned multiple newspapers, dozens of newspapers, many television stations, big-time player in media based out of Richmond, Virginia. Absolutely.

He worked for a long time for Media General. I worked for a handful of years before, I mean, media general basically sold off its assets to, to Buffett, right? Warren Buffett, yeah. The Warren Buffett, yeah.

The last real heyday of papers in the Commonwealth of Virginia was sometime in Media General's term or time owning. Right. Not at the end when I start seeing the notebooks from the filing cabinet disappear and I had to start paying for my own notebooks to cover high school sports. But there was a glory time for Media General. There was. It was a glorious time, too.

And so back in those days, I would take some of our heavy hitter advertisers who played golf down to the golf tournament. We'd pick up the tab for the weekend. And you always play with a Hall of Famer in your group. And so, you know, we played with Lefty Drizell and we played with some other big-time people over the years. and it was a great weekend. But, you know, having attended so many of those induction ceremonies, I think to most of the people, it meant a lot because it kind of summed up their careers and their accomplishments and kind of put a big red bow on their careers, really, on their life.

in some instances. You know, some guys have probably been inducted into other Hall of Fame. And so maybe this was just another run-of-the-mill hall of fame for them. But I think for most guys, it's – and the ladies, it's quite an honor, sort of a lifetime achievement. And one of the high points in their athletic careers. And I know to me it was an incredibly special night outside of some important family moments. It's probably the biggest moment in my life.

And I think to most people it is. And you're always surrounded by your friends and family and other people that have admired your body of work. And so it's a pretty big. big deal. It really is. It's a very big deal. A lot of people get emotional. I almost did until Sean Moore kind of prompted me to get my act together.

And then I didn't feel so bad because Ryan Zimmerman did the same thing. He kind of got a little quivering his voice when he started thinking about his mom. If memory serves, you were very, very sick with either the flu or a pretty serious cough.

I was in the high. hospital two days later. It was a pneumonia. It was something like that. I had fluid in my lungs, and I was in the hospital for almost a week. People were trying to get me not to go to the Hall of Fame ceremony. I said, anything short of death is not going to hold me back from having this weekend. So my doctor, Bobby Stokes, sent me straight to the hospital once I got back into town. He is the great Bobby Stokes, by the way. Wendy, we appreciate you sharing the show. Always supportive.

Thank you kindly for doing that. Absolutely. Viewers and listeners, questions put them in the feed, and I will relay them live on air. Questions are already coming in. I have some of my own first for Jerry Rackcliffe before we get to yours, live on every social media platform with folks in North Carolina and West Virginia all over the Commonwealth watching right now.

Some folks in Pennsylvania watching the program. I see Kentucky and New York on our heat. map right now. And anywhere you are watching or listening to the show, our software will aggregate your questions and your thoughts and we'll relay them, relay them live on air. Renee, I promise I'll get to your question of who from UVA was there on the show. That's right. I figured it would be more difficult to answer that question because you regret not naming someone that's there because so many people were there. Yeah.

The Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, who had the best overall speech, do you think, from the weekend? Wow, that's a good question. You know, it's funny because it's not like the Hall of Fame ceremonies you see from the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame and baseball and NBA where they get 20 or 30 minutes to tell their life story. and bring up a lot of stories and special moments and things like that. You're supposed to be, I think, eight minutes, seven or eight minutes. I think mine went ten and a half. It's hard to capsulize your career in seven or eight minutes,

so you don't get a lot of stories per se. I would, just looking back on it, maybe Wally's. He was a little more prolific. Again, Tony was very brief and to the point. But Williams had some interesting things to say, talking about how he got tricked into going to St. Joseph's to play basketball when he grew up in the Tidewater,

and he wanted to stay in the state of Virginia in play. and people at St. Joe's asked him why he would do that. And he said, well, he said, I don't, I don't, I came up for a visit, I think, to St. Joe's, and I didn't see a lot of brothers and sisters. And they said, oh, we got brothers and sisters. And he said, okay, well, then, and they convinced him to go. And he said, they tricked me. He said, I got up to St. Joe's, and I was there, and I looked around, and I said, I didn't see any people of my color all day long.

And he said, I went into the coach's office. I said, I thought you said, you got brothers and sisters up here. And he said, we got brothers. He said, it's the priests. And over here, they're their brothers. And he said, well, what about the sisters? And he said, those are the nuns. So they tricked me and they come into St. Joe's.

It was some pretty good moments. Boo Williams, that was one of his. Boo Williams is a legendary AAU coach guys. It's unbelievable, the talent that he has produced out of his AAU programs over the decades. I grew up in Hampton Roads reading the Daily Press. And it was Boo Williams constantly in the Daily Press. No question. He was as synonymous with sports and Hampton Roads as anyone.

Yeah. And he, the talent that's come through Boo Williams' A.U. Program and probably the impact he's had with players off the course. Lonzo Morning, Alan Iverson. We could spend an entire show. Tons of people. Yeah, listen. Well, I'm glad.

How about Renee's question? Who was there from UVE? Let's put it this way. I think Elaine Casadante who was the MC for the evening, a TV personality from Richmond, I've known for decades. At one point, looked out in the

audience and said, is there anybody from Charlottesville not here? That's awesome. I think that would I think that sums it up. Well, because Wally and Tony both live in Charlottesville. Right. And we won't say where, but but yeah

I mean same neighborhood he said Charlottesville must be empty tonight because the whole town is here and I wouldn't quite go that far but there were

it like you said it would be easier to say who wasn't who wasn't there then it would be who was there just about everybody that that you can think of with UVA

umia youvae ties and then fans a lot of fans were there to watch those two guys go in. Well, I'll tell you what. What a special weekend. Also very special, and it's important to highlight this. Jerry Rackleff is a part of that esteemed and highly regarded fraternity. I don't meet a lot of new people and stuff like that because you know most of them if you've

been around for a while. The one guy that I was really impressed to meet was Wally Walker's older brother, Sam Walker, who people may not know, but he wrote one of my favorite books it's the history of the ACC it's a really thick book and if you haven't if you're

a ACC grew up an ACC fan you ought to go out and see if you can find a copy of it because it talks about how the ACC came together why it came together and and then gives a history of all the original programs

and it's just fascinating facts and stuff that you probably never read before. And it was a thrill meeting, Sam. He's a really good dude. You're a really good dude. Well, thank you. So are you. Jerry Rackleff. So is Mr. Judo.

Judo Wikauer's behind the camera. Does not get enough credit. Chuda Wickhauer is the producer of the show and the Elmer's glue of what keeps us online. I'm glad the Hall of Fame weekend went well. There was news at Jerry Rackliff.com. Subscribers of Jerry Rackleff.com, just $8 a month, we're the first to know about transfer portal in Virginia Men's basketball.

There's a young man who is now new to the roster. I'm going to assume, and I hate assuming, folks. His name is Jurian Dixon. I can speak confidently. His last name is pronounced Dixon. I'm pretty sure you go. I think it's Jerry. I'm pretty sure it's J-U-R-I-A-N. U-C. Irvine transfer.

The Ant-Eaters. I learned that from reading Jerry Racklop.com. One of the few mascots I did not know was UC Irvine's and Eaters. This guy can put the ball in the hoop, hooty. And this guy is a physical specimen for a two-guard, for a two-slash-three in college basketball. Yeah, 6-4-195, as you mentioned earlier, he was first team All-Big West as a sophomore. He averaged this past season, averaged almost 16 points a game, 3.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists, shot nearly 39% from the three-point line, which was a big attraction. and one of the main reasons that Texas went after him pretty hard

because they were in search of three-point shooters. He's had a pretty darn good career out at Irvine. He was the Big West freshman of the year. Started 29 games out of 39 and averaged about 26 minutes a game and scored nine points and had three points. rebounds per game as a freshman. I mean, I think people missed on him coming out of high school. The main offer he got coming out of high school in San Diego was from Mississippi State

and some other, a few mid-majors. But the dude can play, and he's got two years of eligibility remaining, which is always a good thing if you can get a guy. that you can help develop a little bit. So we're going to have more on him later today or tomorrow, just digging into his career at Irvine. So follow our coverage of him and you'll learn even more. He was the best player on a team that was pretty good.

Yeah, they weren't bad. They made it to the NIT this year, I think lost to UNLV. They finished 23 and 12 overall and 15 and 5 in conference play. Yeah, that's a solid program. Solid program. Solid program. Solid program.

Yeah, solid program. Most importantly for Virginia fans, this is a position of a need. Jacari White is out. They've lost talent at the two, a starting guard as well. And they needed help at the two, three position. I would still imagine guard play. is a focal point in the portal. Because right now on paper, at least,

it looks like only one ball handler on the roster. There's guys that can help chance with the ball, but are not primarily ball handlers. Yeah. I think Dixon can handle it to some degree, but I wouldn't call him a point guard. Right, exactly, exactly. What do you make of the score here?

Pretty big-time portal sliding. I think it was a good solid addition. and they were going after another kid that visited over, I guess, last, well, it was earlier in the week, I think, last week, the Shelley kid from Loyal of Merrimount. And he visited Virginia, then he went to Texas A&M, and he was supposed to go to Vanderbilt. I think yesterday for a visit, but he's a Texas native, so when he went out to A&M, they must have made a huge impression, and he committed to the Aggies during his visit.

But he was a 6-8 sophomore Ford, and who began his career at Southern Cal, and he had offers from tons of schools, and that would have been a nice get, but I guess going back home was a big lure. A lot of fans are like, why no more activity in the transfer portal? And I think this is a very different year than last year where they were very active in the portal.

Right. Well, Ryan Odom's number... That's all over the feed right now, by the way. Yeah, Ryan Odom's number one priority was retention. He wanted to keep as many of the... of those guys as he possibly could that had eligibility remaining and he did he kept every every one of them which was remarkable there was only a handful of schools in the country that didn't lose anybody to the portal and i'm sure you know that that ate up some of their budget to

keep all those guys uh again i don't know what their budget is i got a good idea of what it is. But I don't know how much of that they had to spend to keep what they had. I'm sure they have enough to go out and get a couple more guys, and I'm sure they will. I think they were much more selective this time around. I mean, this time last year, they only had a backup point card.

And that's it. That was their roster. they finished in a flurry, obviously, and put together a hell of a team. I don't think they're ever in a huge rush. They're more selective, and I think they pinpointed some guys that they were interested in. It didn't work out. Same thing happened a year ago. They lost out on a bunch of guys early.

And I still think, you know, there's still tons and tons of people in the portal, really good players. And so I'm sure that they're still talking to some guys and we'll have some more in. I would think they'll probably add at least two more players along the way. And I would think that they're looking at a big man, either a center or a power forward who can step in and play a little center if he has to. And probably another guard, maybe a combo or a point guard or, certainly somebody who can shoot the ball.

100%. But I think that's where we are right now. And I would think over the next week or two, they'll probably make another edition or two. I think you're probably looking at a starting lineup with the Dixon edition of Mallory, Dixon, Sam Lewis, DeRitter, and Grunlow. You got Barksdale, who's an unknown,

who redshirted, but just spent the past year during his red shirt practicing against Ugo and Derritter and Grunlow. So he got reps against professional basketball players. Barksdale's got upside. Curious about Carter Lang, I think he's got a lot of talent. He had significant minutes at Vanderbilt his first year before transferring to UVA where he was not utilized that much. I think Carter Lang offers this team upside. from downtown. He's a very good shooter. He's also a rugged interior rebounder.

If he could potentially fill the role of a, of a Tillis maybe, where he gives the team, call it 12 to 16 minutes, 18 minutes of contest, that would be valuable. But I think, as you've indicated, there's, it appears to be two missing pieces. And those missing pieces are either a backup primary, handler or a even better perhaps would be a combo guard that could back up either chance or dixon off the bench and you got Carrera coming back he got a little bit of time this year you've got to put some weight on yeah yeah and i think one of the things that kind of held up virginia and some other teams in the portal was that a lot of these people were waiting to see

what the NCAA was going to decide about the 5 in 5 rule, which it appears is going to go through, five years of eligibility, no red shirting, you get five years to play. And I think, you know, there were some rumors that it was going to include this past year's graduating class. So, you know, Virginia was probably saying, well, you know, if they pass it in that fashion,

we can ask a couple of these guys if they want to come back, like Hugo and Jakari. I think they had another year in the five, if you considered five years. And so I'm sure that's something that they were in the back of their minds. It looks like that that's not going to be part of the new rule, that it will start. with this falls athletic calendar year,

which there's already been predictions that there's going to be lawsuits from guys who didn't get the fifth year free. So we don't know where that's going to wind up like just about anything else that comes down the pike these days. Kenneth Knuckles on YouTube is literally asking us to go over the five for five rule change and how it will affect UVA sports. I think you did a pretty good job with it there.

Yeah, I mean, you're going to get five years of eligibility. There's no redshirting because there's no reason for it. You just get five years and where you used to get four. This is going to further prioritize transfer talent over high school talent. That's not tough. top 50 high school talent, that's for sure. Right. Because you're just going to, and frankly speaking, I hate to say this.

This is really good news for UVA because UVA's got a war chest of money. This is terrible, terrible, terrible news for mid-major programs. Yeah, mid-majors seem to take a hit with every new rule that comes out. 100%. 100%. So, but... The mid-major program that's got a third or fourth year, a junior or senior on the roster

that shows any kind of talent. I mean, take a JMU. Or you take a... I mean, look at what the... This Dixon kid. The Dixon kid was the first team all conference. He's the freshman player of the year.

He's the team's best player. He's going from California to Charlottesville, Virginia. From sunshine and beaches to mountains because of money. Exactly. And exposure.

Yeah. And, you know, and that's the way it is. It's good for UVA because we got money. Right. I mean, look at what Virginia Tech is going through. Virginia Tech, in a three or four week period of time, announced the resignation of its president and its athletic director. I wouldn't want to be an AD in these times.

I mean, how do you figure out the money? I mean, schools are already starting to cut sports. we saw it at Arkansas this last week. The tennis program. They got rid of their tennis program. Jesus. And Arkansas's tennis program was decent. Oh, absolutely.

I think they were like top 35 or top 40 in the country. Yeah. And they've had some solid teams. 100%. And, you know, we're, I think we're going to. That shocked me when I read that. We're going to start seeing more of that. Yeah.

Because schools just don't have the money anymore. Right. And they're prioritizing revenue generating sports, which is football and basketball. And I'm going to be very straight. forward, the men's basketball programs are making some money, but they're not making overwhelming amounts of money. No, I mean, just about every athletic department in the country is in the red. Yeah.

I don't care how successful you are. Exactly. Like, this has got to be seen as almost brand exposure for the university. I think somebody told me over the weekend that Louisville's women's basketball team, which draws a healthy crowd every week. Hemorrhages. Lost $4 million. Yeah, right, right.

This past season. men's basketball teams that are successful are single-digit millions successful. Yeah. Where football is, you can have a good football program to be 15, 20 million successful. Yeah. Arkansas cutting men's tennis, I was floored by men's tennis. I mean, because I'm an all-sports fan. When I was working for you as the low guy in the totem pole,

I was covering oftentimes the non-revenue sports. and I further fell in love. I grew up playing tennis in Williamsburg, and I further fell in love with tennis watching Trette Huey and Brian Boland and Sommdev DeVarman, where they were best team in the country for a couple years running.

Absolutely. And I watched as tennis offered that crop of student athletes, and I'm not even talking the top of the ladder, the one and two. Take it like three through nine on the ladder. Those guys aren't going to. pro. No. But they used tennis as a vehicle to get to a high university like UVA,

busted their tail for 30, 40 hours a week training tennis while also maintaining awesome grades in the classroom. It was motivating being around those guys. Yeah, no question. And most of the student athletes are like that. Yeah, the majority of athletes are certainly not going to be professional athletes. And so it's good to have a good education to fall back on. We see that all the time.

Whit Babcock resigns at Virginia Tech's AD. Tim Sands is the president. Babcock, handful of months ago, is telling his board of visitors, we need to raise $250 million. And then the board of visitors basically is like, you're not the guy to do this for us.

We need new talent. Tim Kane goes on record a few days ago, the U.S. Senator, and basically claims malfeasance and something being shady with Tim Sands' resignation. more to that story, but that story is about money. And Virginia Tech being behind it in an arms race in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Yeah, and they are. And I think if you talk to anybody inside down there, they'll tell you that, you know, most of the schools in the ACC don't have the affluent fan base or alumni base that Virginia, North Carolina, and a Duke have. Yeah. And so a lot of these schools are going to run into some money problems. And Virginia Tech, I think, is one of those. And it's not just in the ACC, it's all over the country.

He's 100% right. Comments are coming in. Scott German's watching from the Outer Banks. Scotty? He says... Send some sunshine up here, brother. He says, hello. He loves the show.

Renee absolutely loves the show. She highlights the turmoil. but in Miami with the athletics department down there with their AD. Dale Thompson watching the program. He absolutely loves the program. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts and put them in the feed, and I will relay them live on air. Cliff Daisy watching the program.

Thank you for those peanuts again, Cliff Daisy. Absolutely. He says, gentlemen, it's a chilly gray, chilly gray morning here on the eastern shore. My boat, the cavalier, has found water. I sent who do you pick? I'm gearing up for fall football. I can't wait, and you guys have one of the best shows that are out there.

Thank you, Cliff. Thank you. He's a good dude. Surprise us with the box of peanuts. Again, Cliff, I didn't realize that was you when you were coming into the studio while we were live on air. Or I would have stopped in the show, mid-show and giving you a hug there. Donald Foley is watching the program. Good morning from Bassett, Virginia.

I absolutely love this show. do we have a center on Odom's radar yet? Back up from Grunlow. Well, I know that they've looked at some guys, and I think they've tried to get a couple to come. I think they even had a Zoom with one guy, but I don't know of anybody, I don't know of any name right now that they are actively seeking,

but I guarantee you that they're looking at some guys, and we hope to find out a little bit more about that. It's difficult to find out. out who's visiting from the portal because the schools don't put out any information on that as a rule and you have to depend on that player or that player's agent who might tell a national recruiting service that they're who they're looking at so it's it's hard to come by that information but we're looking constantly trust me I've checked my Twitter probably 30 times a day just to see if there's any news on that.

Comments continue to come in the program. Let us know where you're watching the show. I'll mention your home base on air, then pass along your question to Hootie Ragliff. Mark Brown is watching the show in Prince George, Virginia. Thank you, Mark Brown. You're a regular viewer and listener. We appreciate you. Yes, absolutely. Thank you. He says, I love this show. I just wanted to say I really like the women's coach. and I look forward to getting back to the early days of Debbie Ryan and her success at the University of Virginia.

The women's coach is Aaron Rousseau. Very impressed with him so far. His family still lives in Richmond. He's making the commute from Richmond each day to Charlottesville. He has done a phenomenal job filling his coaching staff. His conciliary is the former head coach with the Florida Dators. Yeah, that's pretty good. I'm hired.

Good God. And then we make an exact parallel or a direct parallel to Ryan Odom and his conciliary is now the former head coach of the Syracuse Orange and Autry. Red Autry. And the best thing that, I mean, there's so many parallels here. The best thing that Roussel did was keep Mo Johnson. And the best thing that Odom did was keep the core four. And then the second best thing that Odom did was Autry. And the second best thing that Roussel did was that.

was the Florida coach as the conciliarie with the women's basketball team. Yeah, he's solid. I ran into quite a few people at the Hall of Fame event the other night that knew him and sang his praise to a high degree.

And so I've heard nothing but good things about Coach Roussel. And so I think it's hard to Hard to say that it's going to return to the height of Debbie Ryan's era, where three years and a row they were in the final four. They also had Dawn Staley then, and there was a lot less parity and depth of talent in teams.

Yeah, there weren't a lot of really high-calibre women's programs back then. It was Tennessee. Tennessee and Stanford. I think Louisiana Tech. and maybe Texas and somebody else. But there weren't a lot. Now there's a plethora of really good women's firms. Comments continue to come in here for Hootie Rackle.

If they want us to talk football, you guys are dictating the pace and tempo. Mark Hunt, welcome to the show. Vanessa Parkhill and Philip Dowell and William McChesney are watching the broadcast. Why No NFL Players Drafted? I see that half a dozen times. on the feed right now. Yeah. That's a good question.

I was surprised at that myself. I felt for sure that Jamari Taylor, if nobody else, would get drafted. But looking back at it, most of the 10 guys that signed free agent contracts from Virginia, most of those guys were not playing position. that are the most sought after in the draft. Those are wide receivers, quarterback, you know, big-time quarterbacks, left offensive tackles,

and big-time pass rushers, sometimes corners. So unless you were really excelled in one of those positions, a lot of times the organizations will bypass those positions in pursuit of the more in-demand positions to help their organizations. And a lot of these guys played other spots. Chandler Morris was a quarterback, but he wasn't on the big board. running backs are generally considered a dime a dozen when it comes to the draft.

And if you look at most of Virginia's other guys, they were linemen or, you know, a tight end, guys of that nature. So that's the only explanation I can think of because I think there were 10, 7 or 10, I can't remember, power four schools that didn't have a player drafted. Virginia was the only one of those that had a winning record. The others mostly had four wins or less. Virginia obviously had 11 wins.

So I was just the one. much surprise. I thought Jamari would get drafted. I think he will make the Jaguars. If he doesn't, I'm sure somebody else will pick him up because he's a, I think he has the game to play in the NFL. Some of these other guys, I think, will probably make it on somebody's roster, if not their taxi squad. Maybe not with the team that signed him as reagents, but maybe some other team if they get released. But that's the only explanation I can think of that they weren't drafted originally to begin with.

Jerry Rackleff has the 10 players picked up as free agents on Sunday on Jerry Rackleff.com. If you're a subscriber of Jerry Rackleff.com, it's just $8 a month, the price of a cup of coffee. You're getting 50 to 60 pieces of fresh content per 30-day period, including a story that was just published by a very, very, very talented writer on Virginia baseball. If you want to whet their whistle on what just hit the Jerry Rackleft wire on this baseball team, Hooney. Yeah, we were fortunate enough to pick up Greg Waters, who has written for several publications during his career. knows baseball inside out and has a lot of expertise on UVA baseball.

And he started writing for us last week and we'll continue to do so. His second piece on is a really, it's a long read. So take your lunch hour and while you're eating your sandwich or soup. I mean, really, in a lot of ways, it's two, maybe three stories. Yeah, it's an in-depth piece. We call it inside UVA baseball. It's very good. And it's an analytical piece about what happened to Virginia baseball during the past week.

It gives an in-depth, close-up look at every aspect of the program, what they've done during the week, and why. And Craig has a very analytical mind when it comes to that sort of thing and gives great insight into UVA baseball. So something you might want to check out during your lunch hour today. It's on Jerry Rackleff.com. Ladies and gentlemen, if you want to read that. And more football talk with Malachi Fields, the Monticello High School graduate, the Charlottesville Virginia product. I mean, here's a guy who grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia, played football at the University of Virginia, played football last for, what, Norder Dame?

Yep. Is now a G-Men for the New York Giants, third round selection for what, I mean, Malki Fields looks like a pro football player that's going to have a long career. I mean, obviously anything can happen in such a physical sport, but six foot four, 218 pounds, possession receiver, he's got a little bird. He can go across the middle. He shows he can go deep. I mean, this guy has all the tools to compliment Malik neighbors, who's one of the best talents at the wide receiver game in the national football. Yeah, LSU.

Yeah. Yeah, I always thought that Maliki had the NFL potential. We've said that so on the show, I think, for three years, almost three years now. and one thing that he was really good at at Virginia was the fade route in the end zone and he would just go up over defensive backs and snare the ball out of the air and it was tough for Virginia to lose him

his final year of eligibility when he went up to Notre Dame but he had a good year there and I'm not a bit surprised he was drafted and we wish him well. It's nice to see a local kid make it to the highest level of football. Especially third round. Yeah, I'm sure he's getting a nice paycheck out of that.

Absolutely. And he's going to one of the big markets here, and I know he didn't finish at Virginia or Charlottesville, but this is still good news for a UVA football program who developed this talent, who grew up watching UVA football while a standout player for the Monticello High School. High School Mustangs.

Tina Wyatt Breeden is watching the program right now. This question's come in from Asheville. Chandler Morris, does he have a chance of landing on a team? Well, he got drafted by Tampa Bay. I don't know what their backup. He signed a free agent deal. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, free agent, I'm sorry.

Didn't mean so he drafted. He got picked up by Tampa Bay. I don't know what they're. their backup quarterback situation is like down there. I'm sure he'll get plenty of opportunities in the rookie camp and other camps during the summer to show his stuff. And if he does get released by them, there's always people looking for quarterbacks. Most people have two, sometimes three.

If you're Cleveland Browns last year, you had four at one point, which was unbelievable. But, I mean, he'll have a shot. It's hard to predict it. A lot of times with a quarterback, you have to be in the right organization that your skills fit their offense. I'm sure Tampa Bay must have solved something that they liked in him. Well, I'll throw a little color into this. Tampa Bay's gunslinger, its quarterback is a baker. Mayfield.

Baker Mayfield is not a prototypical six-foot-four, six-foot-five drop-back passer. True. Undersized quarterback. So maybe there's some upside there in Tampa with Chandler Morris, who's an undersized quarterback, who's learning from a very talented undersized quarterback at Baker Mayfield with the coaching staff who's open-minded to undersized quarterbacks. Yeah. And, you know, Chandler has a good arm.

He has a lot of football IQ, obviously, having learned like five or six. six offenses during his career, college career. A lot of them pro-concept offenses. Virginia's got a pretty complicated passing game. And of course, he's the son of an

offensive coordinator, so he has a deep understanding of football and how it works. And that's all in his favor. I've talked to a lot of former UVA players who made it big in the NFL over the years. And they said the NFL teams like to draft or select UVA players because they always have a high IQ, not necessarily just football, but a high IQ. pretty much self-driven and that makes an impression during interviews and meetings with coaches

and front office personnel. I think Chandler Morris, I completely agree with your analysis. And if it does not work out in the NFL for Chandler Morris, you're probably looking at a head coach waiting to happen or an offense coordinator waiting to happen. I wouldn't be surprised at that either. Yeah, he's so heady. Yeah.

and he made up with some. I mean, you look at the physical tools, not the tallest. Arm strength is there, but not overwhelming arm strength. Quickness out of the pocket surprised me, but we're not talking, you know, Lamar or Ratt-Michael Vic type speed. No. Or quickness.

That's rare. Extremely rare. Ball handling, the ability to pitch and hide and deceive is there. but his true plus is the acumen and it's the playbook and the feel for the game. I think you're looking at a coach there or a coordinator there in Chandler Morris and one that would be one for a long time. Now his dad's the OC at Clemson. We'll follow it closely.

A lot of commentary on baseball here. It just happens to coincide with Greg Waters' piece that is now edited produced, published, and syndicated. Thank you, Judah. Kenneth wants to know if a regional, hosting a regional is possible. This question's coming from Short Pump. What is going on with this team

that seems to be fallen apart? Where do you want to begin with baseball? Well, again, you guys should read Greg's piece today because it explains a lot of that stuff. They've had some poor performances in April in recent years, and sometimes they've overcome it, sometimes they haven't. Getting swept at Pittsburgh, I think, was more a product of who wasn't available. your two best hitters, two of the best hitters in the nation.

Grosha and Becker were sidelined. I think once they're back 100% with the team, it'll make a difference. I would say there are odds of hosting right now are not very good. They slipped at 23rd, 24th, I think, in the country, and two poles and completely out in another poll. That doesn't mean they can't get back into that, but they're going to have to finish the season hot.

I think they only have two more ACC series, and that's here against Cal and then close the season at Louisville. And then they have a bunch of other non-conference games peppered in between. I think Norfolk State, Richmond, somebody else that I can't think of at the moment. But they still have a chance to make something happen. But I think they've got some work to do before they can lay claim to hosting a regional. Greg Waters has got fantastic analysis on Jerry Rackleff.com.

Yes, he does. You really want to read this for your baseball fan. UBA baseball fan. I'm looking at it right now. And it is nuanced. It is the type of content that if you're a Virginia baseball fan, you're going to crave. You'll read twice. It is really, really, really, really good.

You won't find this kind of UVA baseball coverage anywhere else. Oh, and I like how you've got an attribution for Greg Waters, a byline there, Judah. Very nicely done with Jerry Rackleff.com as hooty's built out a stable of talent here. A couple more questions here as we're an hour and eight minutes into the program. This is a tough one. I'm hesitant to ask this one, but I think Scott German is fair to ask the question. Do you see any of these non-revenue sports turning into club sports, Houdi, at the University of Virginia? Wow. Let's hope not.

I don't think in the near future, I think Virginia, because what we were discussing a while ago, has a more affluent alumni base, that there are pockets of support for so many of these non-revenue or these call non-revenue sports now they're Olympic sports that I think there's support there that will keep them thriving for at least in the immediate future once many years ago when Terry Holland was AD and Virginia was facing a financial crisis Terry was thinking out of the box and Terry would do some things

that on the surface you might would question and he was talking about reducing some sports to club sports. Baseball was one of those I think tennis, track, maybe wrestling. I can't remember specifically.

It's been quite some time. I did remember that it struck a nerve with my friend John Grisham. I've never seen John Grisham so upset in my life as he was when he found out that baseball was on that list. Maybe that was part of Terry's plan. Exactly. I think that was his thinking outside of that. the box. He was thinking that it would stir up the emotions of the people who really cared about those sports and they would come forth with financial support and he was exactly right.

Terry was brilliant in that way. And John Grisham went down to his baseball facility for little league kids down in Covesville. Covesville. One of the most beautiful Little League parks I've ever seen in my life. Yeah, it was beautiful. You sent me there when I was working for you. I did, yeah. And I remember sitting there in the middle, big middle press box,

I guess, for lack of better words, scoring box, whatever it was, in the middle of the fields. And he was getting, yeah, I think we were down there to, interview him and some other people about the movie they were making about Little League Baseball, about one of the books he had written. And he was fit to be tied. This was a complimentary, about as complimentary as I could go there. But it worked.

And, you know, John and some other people in the area threw in a, a pile of money and saved the program and look what it is today. I mean, that was, what, 25, 20 some years ago. And now it's one of the prominent baseball programs in America.

Who would have thunk it back then? But I think just because of that kind of passion from Virginia's alumni and fan base, they're very passionate about particular sports and they cross the board they they come up we've seen some rather large donations to some of those sports over the past few years and I think that will continue to occur and so I don't see Virginia going that route anytime soon unless things just get catastrophic in college sports in general across the board and then they might be forced to do something they wouldn't want to do but I don't see that happening anytime in the near future

totally agree with him Kerry Finnegan Lapikis giving you some props right now totally agree with you again I'm very much into the racket sports diehard football and basketball fan you've seen that you've seen that in the squash squash and tennis uh both extended their head coaches right The tennis coach for the men's and women's program. Right. Got a contract extension. And well-deserved. Well-deserved.

And Mark Allen, well-deserved contract extension for men and women squash. And these are two programs that are perennial top five programs nationally. Right. So if that's an indication of Virginia's commitment. And UVA is a unique animal with its athletic department. and that with the Directors' Cup standings, it's often in the top five, and right now is a chance to win the Directors' Cup standings,

depending on how things shake out in the spring. Yes. We'd like to see a fantastic run for baseball to help with the Directors' Cup. That's the old Sears Cup, the Directors' Cup, that determines the well-rounded nature of the athletic department nationally. Closing thoughts here for the viewers and listeners, who do you rackliff? Well, let's see.

We'll be keeping our eye on the portal, obviously, in the coming days and weeks. I think we've just about wrapped up our coverage of spring football. There might be another story or two lingering out there. I'll be writing something about a little ditty about the Hall of Fame later today. will be doing some follow-up on Jerry and Dixon, the Transfer Portal commitment from yesterday, keeping our eye on spring sports. And again, please, if you're a UVA baseball fan, you owe it to yourself to read Greg Waters' content today. It's an excellent piece.

In-depth, it'll take your lunch hour, so reserve some time for it. and just everything else in general in spring sports. And, you know, football and basketball, a year-round sports nowadays, it never really shuts down. So we stay busy coming the country for content UVA-related. He does an amazing job. His name is Jerry Rackleff. He is a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer.

It's been covering sports for more than 50 years. There's no reporter, journalist, commentator, content creator that has more institutional knowledge and institutional memory than this man, Jerry Rackleff. And his website, Jerry Rackleff.com, is a paywall subscriber-based website. It's $8 a month. And as someone who subscribes to the content himself, it is well worth the price of a cup of coffee. 50 to 60 pieces of fresh content per 30-day period for 8 bucks a month. You can't get that anywhere else, ladies and gentlemen. We really appreciate your support with that and subscribe if you get a chance.

It's like Jerry said. It's just one less drive-through Starbucks drive-through per month. It might even be less than a drive-through Starbucks. I mean, you get the super big size. Probably is. You're over. trust me, my wife likes them, over $8 right there. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera for Jerry Rackleff.

My name is Jerry Miller. The I Love Seville Show is up at 1230 p.m. And thank you kindly for watching, the Jerry and Jerry Show featuring Jerry Hootie Rackleff. So long, everybody. Nice enough, nice. Thank you.