The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Virginia Hoops Transfer Portal News And Notes; Point Guard Dante Harris Enters Transfer Portal

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: Virginia Hoops Transfer Portal News And Notes Point Guard Dante Harris Enters Transfer Portal 3 Transfer Portal Players Visiting UVA & CVille Hoo, What, When, Where On 3 Players Visiting UVA Football Spring Game News And Notes Cav Defensive Line Should Be Team’s Strength Hoo Offensive Line Might Be Team’s Weakness UVA Spring Sports Notebook – Hoo’s Doing What 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 I Love Seville show. It's a pleasure to connect with you through a network that we have pieced together over the last five years and change. Judah Woodcabra will show the studio camera as you see seven cameras, two MacBooks, what kind of three software integrations, and quite a bit of sweat equity here.

The show is the Jerry and Jerry Show. It features a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, Jerry Hootie Ratcliffe, and it airs all over social media. And we encourage you, the viewer and listener, to offer your thoughts and perspective. The transfer portal is atop of everyone's mind, ladies and gentlemen. Dante Harris has entered the portal. We know Ryan Dunn is heading to the NBA draft, and Reese Beekman will forego his COVID year and also enter the NBA draft. That means Leon Bond is in the transfer portal as well. That means Coach Tony Bennett has to reinvent yet another roster for the second straight year.

We'll talk about that today, and we'll talk spring football. The offensive line, a point of concern. The defensive line, a strength. Judah Wickauer, the studio camera, please. He's the executive producer and director of the show. And then a two-shot as we welcome a well-manicured Hootie Rackliff fresh from the barbershop on the Jerry and Jerry show. The spring game is something I want to talk about,

but I think the portal kind of trumps that storyline. Dante Harris pieces out. We have three players hitting Charlottesville in the John Paul Jones Arena this week. My friend, where do you want to begin? Well, I guess we could start with Dante Harris. I think he is a guy that most people thought would be the most likely or one of the most likely candidates to bolt from the program. And I guess once he saw that they were actively pursuing other point guards,

he saw the writing on the wall, and he decided to get out. And it's a shame because, you know, he just never really flourished or developed into the kind of guy that we thought he was going to be, especially after he came in and spent sort of half of a season with the program practicing before he got to play. Jason Williford on set, your friend, said he is an on-ball defender that was ahead of Kihei Clark's skill set and talent. He sure did. And he was a good on-ball defender that was ahead of Kihei Clark's skill set and talent. He sure did. And he was a good on-ball defender. I'll give him credit for that.

But his offense never came around. He couldn't score. He didn't really develop a jump shot that was reliable. And opponents were leaving him unguarded essentially just letting him take shots and um that was just one of the problems of last year's team when people would leave guys like him and and roadie completely unguarded sometimes done to that degree they just would let him shoot all those, if you look at their shooting percentages, it was pretty bad.

Yeah. John Blair, LinkedIn, welcome to the show. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. We'll relay them live on air. Dante Harris expected to be the torch carrier with the departure of Reese Beekman. The high ankle injury set him back. I'm curious of how much the high ankle injury impacted performance this year,

or do we characterize this as a transfer entering a system that was very nuanced, that he was not able to pick up as quickly as people thought he could? Well, certainly his playing time at Georgetown greatly diminished after his freshman year when he was All-Big East Tournament MVP. That was kind of the highlight, the high-water mark of his career. And he really never did anything after that that was notable he he i don't know i think he got into patrick ewing's doghouse and just never really got out of it and i think they kind of lost confidence in him and that led to his departure but uh it was it was strange for a guy to be that good as a freshman and then just kind of languish in mediocrity from that point on. I'm going to open the chat box, guys, for the viewers and listeners to offer their perspective as we aggregate the viewers and listeners on one feed here.

Tom Powell, the founder of the Toy Lift, says good morning, Hootie. And he says the transfer portal is a huge mistake. I know the old guard, the old school college basketball fan, is not a huge proponent of the transfer portal, but it is the college basketball world we live in right now. Yeah, I mean, I don't think the coaches would have preferred to have things go this way, and I'm sure the players are happy about it but i think i saw yesterday there's 1700 players in the portal as we speak um and again i check twitter 20 30 times a day to to to see you know to check in on the transfer portal there's guys jumping in every day still.

And from what I understand, about 50% of the top 100 ranked players in the portal have recommitted somewhere else. So that shows you that there's still a lot of players out there available and some good ones. And some of them are going to be visiting here this week. Today, actually. That's what I was going to throw to you. You have this on jerryracliff.com. Three players, including one today in Charlottesville. My friend, you cover this as well as anyone. Give us the nitty-gritty.

I think we're actually going to have two guys in today. One of them is Toby Akani, a 6'8 forward from Illinois, Chicago. That's a program that I'm not overly familiar with. He cut his list to five last week. That's how fast this process goes. And it's Virginia, L LSU Pepperdine West Virginia and st. Bonnie and he has he's he only has one year of eligibility remaining but he's coming in today he might already be here for all I know

he's already visited LSU solid player he's was all Missouri Valley Conference all defensive team, averaged 11 points, 6.8 rebounds, two blocks per game last season. So he said he's looking for the best spot. He wants to go somewhere that he can grow as a player and expand his role, but to simplify his game. And so I would think any of these forwards of his ilk, 6'8", a little bit of physicality, can see that Tony Bennett and his staff have been able to develop some pretty good NBA players at that position. One of the portal websites has him 100% lock at UVA. Did you see

that? I did see that. You never know whether to trust those rankings or not, but maybe somebody heard something that the rest of us haven't heard. He'd be a solid get. They definitely need to get some beef up front with Dunn leaving and Miner leaving. Dunn leaving, Miner leaving, Bond transferring. Bond transferring. Another guy I was visiting today that just kind of came out of nowhere,

and this guy would be a huge get if they can find a way to lure him here. It's Aiden Mahaney, a 6'3 guard, sophomore guard from St. Mary's. Previously one of his teammates, former teammates, visited here a week ago and apparently has decided Joshua Jefferson has apparently decided to go to Iowa State instead of Virginia. But this guy was his teammate, and Mahaney was a two-time WCC first-team guard. He's a combo guard. He's ranked the number two combo guard in the entire portal, the number 14 player overall in the portal. I don't know what Virginia's chances are of getting him.

He's got two years of eligibility remaining. But, my goodness, what a land this would be if they can land him. He's already visited Creighton. He's planning on visiting UConn. He's visiting here today again along with the other guy. He's going to either visit Southern Cal, Kentucky or Florida with his other visit. He was St. Mary's leading scorer last season.

Nearly 14 points a game, 2.6 assists. He's played in 69 games, started 60 for the Gales. He shot 44% from the field, shot 35.5% from the three-point line on 6.9 attempts per game last season, and is an 81% free-throw shooter and just a solid all-around player. So that would be huge if they could land him. The roster needs to be completely reinvented. We see the comments coming in. This is from Bill McChesney, the mayor of McIntyre. Hootie, if someone enters the portal and no one picks them up, what happens then? Well, for a lot of them, that's just the end of their career.

And sadly, that happens to a lot of guys. Some of them can go back to their former team if the coach will have them. A lot of times that relationship sours once a guy leaves, gets in the portal, coach doesn't want him back. But, you know, if they're not picked up by anyone, sadly for a lot of these guys, that's just the end of their college career. This question's come in. This is a very good one.

Which position is the most important of any in the transfer portal? I mean, you almost got to go the big man spot, right? I mean, you got a point guard potentially in Christian Bliss. Elijah Gertrude can handle the basketball. You got Isaac McNeely at the two. He could be backed up by Rohde at the two.

Gertrude could slide over and play either the one or the two. I mean, the front court, right now your front court is Tane Murray and Blake Buchanan. Yeah, I mean, that's concerning. Those are two decent players, but, you know but that's a wreck in terms of your overall program and where it is. You've got to have four or five guys in there that you can count on. And right now, like you said, they only have two. One of those seriously needs to beef up his body, which I'm sure he will.

You're talking Blake Buchanan? Yeah. And I think he's going to be really good by the time he leaves here, but he just needs to bulk up. And I'm sure Mike Curtis will do it. He knows how. And Tane Murray, I think even though he's got a little size to him, he's still not that guy that goes inside that much he he would prefer to linger out on the

on the perimeter and make shots but you know he can he can go inside if he has to but they definitely have to add some beef in there after losing minor and done and bond they it's they've got to have some physicality and it's got to come from the portal. It's not coming from anywhere else. Who's the face of the Virginia basketball team next year at this point? The face of Virginia basketball. Wow. Probably McNeely. I would be my guest because he he'll be a junior. He started all this season.

Some as a freshman. I'm sure he's the leading returning scorer, and he's just a really good kid that people can identify with. Clean cut, all-academic team, I think. He's just a well-rounded kid from West Virginia, and I know he's already got some NIL deals going. So I think he's probably going to be the face of the program for the next couple of years.

Michael Waddell giving you some props on Twitter. Thanks for watching the program. Hello, Mike. Renee Pettiford's got this. Fellas, do you think Trent Perry will commit to this basketball team, and do you think that's why Dante Harris left? Well, I think Harris left because he saw they were recruiting more point guards. I think someone mentioned to Dante Harris that, you know,

and this is just conjecture. Yeah. But knowing the staff, you know the staff extremely well. They're straight shooters. They're not going to lead these guys down a rabbit hole that's not best for them. And I think someone mentioned to them, look, to Dante Harris, look, you're going to have a lot of minutes caught here most likely because you know you you mentioned all the guys that are back in the backcourt and and that they're continuing to recruit guys so uh yeah they are they have meetings with each player after the season they give expectations and and they don't hide their plans, I guess you could say, about moving forward.

And if a guy doesn't really fit into those plans, they tell him up front, look, this is the situation. And sometimes it's not good news for these guys. And I imagine that was the case here but whether they'll get Trent Perry or not who knows I mean he came in friend of mine was at the airport Saturday and she saw Tony Bennett Jason Wilford Isaiah Wilkins I think the whole staff was there to greet Perry at the airport Saturday afternoon. And I have another friend who saw Tony Bennett and Trent Perry.

Those were the only two out of that party who ended up at Vivace's having dinner. So apparently he likes pasta, right? But he left sometime yesterday. Would you say he's the most important? I mean, he's a McDonald's All-American. He would be the most highly ranked player in Virginia history since they've produced rankings. Certainly Ralph would have been. They had rankings back in those days, but he would easily be the highest since they've done the rankings.

I mean, he could be a magic man. He's a big-time point guard, already committed to Southern Cal until they changed coaches and decided he didn't like the situation and is considering leaving the L.A. area to go somewhere else and play. And certainly Tony has produced a couple of other point guards from that part of California in Perrantes and Kie. Perhaps he convinced him that it would be a good move

for him. It will be a tough recruiting war because they're battling with some other big time schools for his services. Again, with all these guys, we don't know how much the NIL comes into the picture.

And we don't know how much money some of these people are willing to throw at some of these guys. I think that's the reason that they lost the kid from Harvard that ended up at Georgetown, because they didn't want to get into a bidding war with Georgetown for his services. We'll get to the Kyle Guy news with the Polish passport and attempting to play in the Polish national team. I saw that as well, Mr. McChesney. We'll mention that on air. We've got folks commenting on the NIL legislation that Youngkin just put into effect,

authored by an athletic director within the University of Virginia, and how that could impact things on today's program as well. Comments are coming really quickly here on the feed as everyone's following the transfer portal. I'll throw this to you. It's almost as if the portal has created another, probably the most important recruiting window with this sport. No question about it.

Signing day is not even close to the interest that we're seeing with the portal. Oh, no, not anymore. This is far beyond what recruiting day used to be. And there's another kid coming here this weekend, Friday, Xavier Amos from Northern Illinois, another 6'8 forward, sophomore, who's down to Texas, Virginia, Xavier, and Illinois. He started 25 games, averaged 14 points a game, six rebounds a block. Made 50% of his field goals, 57% of his two-point attempts, 38% of his three-point attempts.

A kid who's originally from Chicago scored 26 against Northwestern in a big game where he had made 11 of 15 field goal attempts and four or five three-pointers. I know a lot of people think that they got a good chance at landing him as well with four scholarships open. It would be huge if they could get Amos and O'Conney both to beef up the frontcourt and then at least one of these two guards, Trent Perry or Mahaney. For sure. And folks that are asking this question,

this is not just tied to the University of Virginia program. John Shire and Duke basketball are having to replace most of their basketball team as well. This is just college basketball in 2024, not necessarily indication of coaching staff or system. Guys just want to see if the grass is greener on the other side. Duke literally is going through this right now. Let's go to UVA graduate James Watson with this comment. Do you remember in the fall prior to the season, we were talking about Dante Harris being a Kia Clark defensive level and that that

2023-2024 team was going to be super athletic. It did not seem to turn out that way this season. We do remember that. We do remember having Coach Williford on set and making that comment. It turned into a story on jerryracliff.com, Coach Williford's comments there. And he's right. This team was not super athletic. Andaac mcneely toward the end of the year even highlighted we don't do well in the open court or in transition because we're not that athletic yeah that was uh one of the disappointing aspects of this team that and the fact that they didn't have guys who could shoot it uh and we but we thought they would we thought this would be a good shooting team. Jason thought it would be a good shooting team.

And all indications from statistics that these guys had compiled wherever they had been before indicated that these guys would be good shooters, but it never came into fruition, nor did the athletic ability. It seemed like a much more athletic team than it was. I thought Dunn and Bond would both be able to raise the athletic profile of this team, and Rohde and Groves, I just thought that they would be more athletic than what they turned out to be.

And they certainly fell short of that, no question about it. What did you make of the NIL legislation authored within the Athletic Department, UVA, and greenlit by Youngkin? Maybe some set parameters for NIL and the Commonwealth. Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how that goes. I think it essentially allows them to pay for play, which nobody else has gone out on that limb around the country. And it could change everything depending on how they approach it and how other people may adopt the same legislation.

So I think it's an awfully big piece to chew off right now and see where it goes, but it certainly opens up a lot of doors that have not been opened before. Comments are coming in. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts. We'll relay them live on air. We'll go to Twitter in two seconds. More on Facebook as the book of faces is popping right now. This is a good one for you. Do you think that if Perry commits, that the other two will follow suit? Certainly it would help.

I would think a lot of people would want to play with a guy who is a McDonald's All-American point guard because he knows how to distribute the basketball and make things happen. Those guys, they're not a dime a dozen. They're few and far between. So I would think it would certainly help if they could get a commitment like that

from either him or Mahaney, either one. I think if they can get either one of those guys early, it might help convince those two forwards to jump on board as well. Comments, let us know. We'll relay them live on air. Let's throw this one to you, Hootie. Do you expect any other current roster players to enter the transfer portal,

or is it too late for that to be the case? It's not too late. I don't think it's going to happen. I don't know who it would be. I really don't, unless it would be Rhodey. That's the only one I would think. That's the only one I would think that would even be a potential candidate for it. And, you know, I haven't heard any whispers about him at all.

Because you look at the minutes. Yeah. If McNeely, Bliss, and Gertrude are in the backcourt, and if Perry commits, Rhodey's got limited minutes there. You could make the argument that Rhodey could come off the bench at three. If Tane's the starter at three, I'm not even saying Tane's the starter at three, because Tane may be best suited coming off the bench,

not the most athletic guy, Tane Murray. But if Perry commits, the backcourt seems to be pretty set right now. Absolutely. And you're right, that would diminish his minutes. And not being any better shooter than he is, unless he improves upon that, which certainly is possible, I would think his playing time would be cut way down.

No question about it. But it's not too late. He's got a lot of time left to jump into the portal. This is a question that's a really good one. And Kevin Yancey, we'll get to your comments here. Actually, this is a good one from Kevin Yancey. If they're being paid to play with the new legislation that's out there, do the players become employees of the department?

I think from what I read of that legislation, legislation that's out there do the players become employees of the department i think from what i read of that legislation that will not happen and they were very very specific about making sure that that was not part of that legislation that players would not be employees so i don't think that's going to happen uh and Ryan Dunn news. Any chance that Ryan Dunn would make a U-turn and come back? No. I said no on the comments too. No. No chance. Yeah, this guy clearly has indicated that his future is NBA basketball right now. Anything that you want to highlight that we haven't covered, portal news, before we talk football?

I don't think so. Again, you don't know how much the NIL is going to play into all of this. I think it had an impact on Joshua Jefferson going to Iowa State. I think it had an impact on Mack going to Georgetown. So you don't know these guys. You don't know what they're all about. You don't know if they're looking for a payday or if they're seriously looking for a better place to play

where they'll fit in in a higher profile program than where they came from. So, and we may never know because unless you hear some background stories, it's hard to tell what happens behind closed doors. But I think the NIL is more of a factor in a lot of these portal decisions than we realize. This is a good one from one of the viewers and listeners. Should we be worried that no player is committed? It's a concern at this point, although it's not too late.

I mean, there's a lot of programs that have lost lots of players and still haven't yet signed anyone or maybe have signed little uh only a few uh but it's a concern because you know if you lose out on the four guys that recently visited or are visiting um where do you go from there? It's almost like you've got plan C to fall back on. And, yeah, I think that is a concern. But, you know, it's early in the week. You've got two guys visiting today.

Who knows? They could blow these guys away in their presentations, and both of them may commit tomorrow. Kevin Yancey in Waynesboro says says what true big would uva target i mean i think it i think the target is the northern illinois kid yeah i think he's the uh the prize catch right now but other folks are targeting him as well yeah no question about it and um but it seems he, of the schools that are after him, Virginia might be the premier program in that group. But, again, you don't know what he's thinking, what he's after,

how much NIL plays into it. Viewers and listeners, we appreciate your comments here in shaping the show. We've got the team at the Charlottesville Albemarle Transit Center watching the Jerry and Jerry show on the job. They just liked our Facebook post. Thank you guys for watching the program. Absolutely. He was at the spring football game. How about before X's and O's, some reaction from what you saw at spring football at Scott Stadium? Well, you know, it was an interesting first half. The second half, they just kind of turned it over to the backup quarterbacks

and used a running clock to speed up the process. But, you know, they did most of their work in the first half. And part of that was because they had 26 players who were either recuperating from off-season surgery or had been injured in the spring, like Chris Tyree, the wide receiver, kick returner from Notre Dame. He didn't participate because he got banged, nicked up in a spring drill. But I think people probably were interested in watching Musket and Calandria to see how much they might have improved since last season. And I think both of them did. That was the report all through the spring from Taylor Lamb the quarterback's coach and Des Kitchens the offensive coordinator and Tony

Elliott the head coach that that was a heavy emphasis on both those guys getting better in the spring and I think both of them did Calandria was highly accurate in the game he was 15 of 16 for 102 yards and even though he didn't put any points on the board um yeah he showed that he didn't throw any interceptions he made uh didn't make any bad decisions he didn't have much of an offensive line so he was having just move around a lot. I'm worried about that offensive line, Hootie. Yeah, well, you know, I think they may be okay once they get healthy. A lot of those guys were missing throughout the spring.

One guy in the transfer portal for the offensive line, and he's banged up and missing the year. So we're pretty much running back an offensive line that was the same as last year and that was a point of concern in 2023 yeah and it is a point of concern uh sometimes a year another year under their belt and another year in the weight room will will help a lot of these guys a lot of it's familiarity and knowing the guys on either side of you and developing some chemistry but again they haven't proven really that they can open up holes for the running game on a consistent basis and their protection of the quarterbacks last year

was really bad at times, and that's why Musket was beaten up so badly. He had a pretty decent game. He was 10 of 18 for 200 yards and two touchdowns and, again, only played a half. So I was impressed with his moxie. I mean, this guy, he has no ego of any kind. He gives all the credit to the Lord and to his teammates and his coaches. He won't take credit for anything good that happens. He's just a solid, gritty guy who wants to get the job done

and do his job and not make mistakes. Sometimes that's all you need from a quarterback. He doesn't have to be a flashy guy who puts up huge numbers. You just need somebody who does their job. Calandria misses one throw in the spring game. Granted, the yards per catch were fairly meager as he was primarily checking down. Right.

And perhaps was an offense that was vanilla for a reason, to not show too much. If you had to give one quarterback Calandria or one quarterback Musket the edge at this point, who would it be and why? I will say with Calandria, I think he was 15-16 for 106 yards through the air. What I most like from Calandria was no turnovers.

Yeah, and that's huge because... That's his M.O. last year. Yeah, that was his M.O., making bad decisions. And if they can get that out of his system, where he can become a much more reliable quarterback who makes smart decisions and doesn't do things that will beat you, that can do wonders for him. And I think it was my son, Scott, who mentioned to me,

I hadn't even thought about this until he mentioned it to me, is if Musket plays the whole season and is healthy and Calandria only plays in four games or less, he can redshirt. He could have three more years. So I'm not saying that that'll happen not saying that it will happen but I would say right now you have to give the edge to Musket because one he was the starter going into last season he didn't lose his job because he was of injuries once he was healthy again he was the starter again

he showed a lot of grit he sacrificed his body nothing has really changed there but do you think the coaching staff made and Scott Ratcliffe's in the house feel free to come on set anytime you want if viewers and listeners

and for you Hootie do we think a promise was made to Calandria at all? No. You do not? I don't. Because there was the trepidation or the concern of Calandria transferring. Yeah. Because we know he had interests.

Right. I think Calandria is happy where he is. I mean, he comes from a family that I don't think money is a problem, even though I think he got a nice NIL package. But I think he is a kid who is really grateful that he got a scholarship opportunity at this level. If you go back and look at his recruiting routes, it was mostly non-Power 5 or essentially FCS programs that were interested in him coming out of St. Petersburg. And I think he only had one Power Five offer, if I'm correct.

And I'm not even sure that's correct, but I'd have to go back and look at my notes. But I think he's grateful to be here. I think he likes it here. I think he and Musket really have each other's backs and have tried to help each other and pull for each other. And I think he knows that regardless of what happens this season, that he still has the potential to start two more years after Muscat is gone. And

with Muscat's injury history, you know, you've got to think that Calandria has a chance to, even if he doesn't start, that he'll have a chance to play in plenty of games this season if Musket can't answer the bell. Again, if he does take a redshirt year, if Musket can stay healthy, that's three more years of Calandria and the three best years probably of his career. And you know, your memory is accurate. South Florida, the only other scholarship for Calandria at that level. So you were 100% on point right there. The offensive line we talk about, we'll

see, maybe we hope some time in the weight room and with the playbook and with the coaching staff reinforces that unit. What certainly looks to be an incredible strength for this team is the defensive line. Right. And does it start with Chico Bennett? Yeah, I think so. A lot of those guys are back, and it's really bizarre,

talking to John Rudzinski about it, the defensive coordinator that we're in. I guess this is the last year of it because I guess all the COVID exceptions are over after this season. But these are unprecedented times in that realm of eligibility because they've got guys with five, six, seven years of college football. That's bananas. Seven years of college football makes a huge difference when you're playing 18-year-olds.

Yes, it certainly does. And, you know, Chico's one of those guys. He's been around for a long time. He was at Georgia Tech before he came here, and he's had injury problems. So that's added to his eligibility. But they've got a lot of experience in that front seven, particularly on the defensive line. Some of these guys, if they don't know the system by now, it's almost like they're on an NFL team. They've been around so long.

Defensive line of strength. Other points of strength for a defense that certainly is going to be under the microscope, especially how Virginia finished the season with the loss to Virginia Tech. You got a unit up front that should be able to control, we hope, the line of scrimmage. How does the linebacking crew and secondary look to you? Again, you've got some guys with some college experience in both areas.

That corner, they're a little shy. I think they'd like to add another corner uh the portal will open up again now that spring drills are over around most of the country so some guys who may have become disenchanted with what it looks like for their futures that wherever they are might be entering the portal and so you might be able to pick up another experienced corner somewhere along the way. I know they're looking at some other positions as well, but that's still a position of need, I think, for Virginia. And picking up Corey Thomas, I think, was a really good get for them he's he's a 6-4 guy who's very

athletic and I think he's he's going to be a I think a difference maker on this defense this fall he can he can defend the pass I think and defend the run so that was that was a huge pickup for the defense can Chris Tyree be the Malik Washington of this team? I think he can be. And just talking to him, he's really got a good head on his shoulders, and I think he's the kind of guy that can be a difference maker. Malik certainly had one of the best years of any receiver in recent years in college football. It's amazing what he was able to do,

especially considering he wasn't exactly surrounded by tons of talent like some of the other guys that were leading receivers around the country. And that's going to pay off for him in the draft. What, this week? I think the draft's this week. It is this week and always coincides with Foxfields. Yeah, and so I think he's going to do well in the draft, as we predicted he would.

But I think Chris Tyree is that type. He's got good hands. He's got good speed. He's got good speeds, very athletic. He's a dynamic high school player. He was mostly a running back at Notre Dame until he switched over to wide receiver, primarily his senior year. And he's a really good kick returner too, so he can make a difference there. And Andre Green, who's also a Virginia native, came up from North Carolina,

had a couple of nice catches the other day. But they had some other guys. Richards made some nice catches. Wilson did as well. Richards is a pleasant surprise. He really is. And then you've got Malachi Fields, who I think is going to have probably his best year. What's that, the Monticello product?

Yes, absolutely. And so, yeah, that's pretty good. Wilson had three catches for 79 yards and a touchdown. Richard had six catches for 118 yards and a touchdown. He had a 73-yard touchdown catch. So, and again, Green had five catches for 65 yards. Sudarian Harrison, who also had a 90 yard punt return for a touchdown,

had four catches for 49 yards. So, I think the wide receiver room might actually be deeper this year than it was a year ago. And that's got to be good news for Virginia fans because if you've got that many targets, a couple of quarterbacks who can get them the ball, they may have to, again, throw it more than they would want because, again, we're not sure how the offensive line is going to be. Kobe Pace appears to be the major running back.

Who's going to run the football? Well, it's going to be Pace. And Noah Vaughn, who came on in the spring and showed some moxie, I think they were very impressed with him. They got some new candidates coming in, but I think a lot of it's going to be up to pace to carry the load, and he's done so at Clemson before. It's just a matter of whether this offensive line can punch holes in the defense.

Yeah, and folks, who told us this? Was it Al Groh? All running backs run the same when there's no holes to run? Absolutely. I mean, I learned that from you. You learned that from Al Groh. Yeah, and never was there a truer statement on any level of football. Not many running backs can create their own holes.

So I think, you know, It's going to be huge. We'll see what happens here. You know football better than anyone. I would imagine we're going to see Musket and Calandria and a lot of action outside the pocket, running to the right, running to the left with some quick check downs or getting rid of the football really quickly

to preserve their health and to stop, to keep big hits from happening. I think you just nailed it. I think that's going to be a huge part of the offense. And both those quarterbacks have shown that. They can do that. Yeah, no question. But that also led to Muska getting banged up.

Yes. And that also led to Calandria forcing the issue. Now, maybe forcing the issue is attributable to being a freshman, a first year, with the gunslinger, Brett Favre mentality. But if they're rolling right, they're rolling left, they give themselves a little bit more time to throw the football here. It's going to put a lot of pressure and onus on the tight ends and wide receivers to create some space and some separation. No question about it. And I think they have the wide receivers to do it. But, again, they need time to develop those routes,

and it all falls back on the O-line. How would you characterize this team after watching the spring game, confidence level or concern level, after watching some live action on Saturday? I think the players are very confident. I think they're tired of losing. I think they want to prove that they can win. I'm still not sure that they have learned how to win. There were a lot of games last year that they should have won, could have won, didn't win because they didn't know how to win. And George Welch, that was a big thing with him was you've got to learn how to win.

And I think that's still an unknown factor in this program. We've got Brian Harvey, the head women's basketball coach at Ferrum College, watching the program. Coach Harvey, welcome to the show. Thank you for watching us. The pressure on Coach Elliott, that storyline is going to be very prevalent. And we, I think you, you know, I don't want to speak for you. From my standpoint, Coach Elliott managed the murders on grounds, the shooting on grounds, as well as could be managed. Coach Elliott is still working to get his personnel into play,

although he's been some years on the job now. I think there is some concern that running a pro-style offense at a university where academic standards are so high may be difficult because you may not be able to get the depth and the roster into the school. And I think there's a concern or two that the NIL infrastructure is not there to compete in big-time college football. And Vegas has it at what, four and a half the over-under? I haven't seen it yet, but I'm expecting that's what it'll be.

Three and a half last year? Yeah. This team wins four games. How does it play out? Those are all valid points. And I think the fan base is somewhat divided. Some are believing that he needs to get four years to, like you say, get his program the way he wants it.

I'll give him credit. The recruiting so far for the next recruiting class seems to have gotten a little better. They picked up a couple of recruit commitments this weekend. And some people feel like he's not the guy. I think you've got to give him a chance. Certainly the tragedies of his first year was nothing that any college program has ever had to deal with before.

And the fact that they were able to come out of that and have a year last season when they were kind of a fun team to watch at times and should have won more games than they did. They should have beaten Louisville. They could have beaten a couple of other teams. And the fact that they went on the road and stunned undefeated in 10th ranked in North Carolina is still, I think, one of the... That was one of the most exciting wins of my time following this team. I mean, I've been following this program since 1982,

and that's got to be one of the great all-time wins in this program's history. On national TV. Yeah. They didn't follow through with it. And that was unfortunate. But this team has potential. It beat itself a lot last year. And I think that goes back to the old Welsh thing

about what we said about not knowing how to win if Vegas sets it at four and a half games this year it's going to be interesting to see if they can do it because the schedule is pretty challenging particularly the November schedule. So if you want to get bowl eligible, you better make hay while the sun's shining because if you're waiting until November, you're putting yourself up against a wall because I don't know if you have the schedule pulled up or not,

but that November schedule is pretty brutal. I'll call up the schedule here. Any concerns with attendance and apathy, Hootie? It's going to be interesting to see how fans react to it. If I were a Virginia fan, i think i would get behind these guys because again they they have been kind of fun to watch even though they've beaten themselves and made some really dumb mistakes along the way but they've played some exciting football. It's not like they had their doors blown out on many occasions, although that Tech game left a really bitter taste in everybody's mouth.

That's one that's really hard to forgive. But for the most part, they were very competitive. And again, should have won a few more games. Could have been bowl eligible if they'd been able to just made a few more plays in a couple of games. Derek Jones watching the program. I'll never believe in the program until they beat Tech consistently. That's a problem because beating Tech consistently is not going to be easy to do. Mick Chesney beat Tech.

I mean, it's all over the feed. To answer your question here, schedule. Listen to the schedule, folks, to close the season. And I'm going to go from the middle of October. Louisville and Charlottesville on the 12th. Possible win. Clemson, Death Valley, 19th. North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Charlottesville, the 26th of October.

Tower Hill struggle in Charlottesville. They do struggle in Charlottesville. Pittsburgh at Pitt, 9th of November, possible win. Possible. Possible. Anything can happen in that one. It depends on what Pitt team shows up. And here's how we close.

Notre Dame, South Bend, 16th of November. Notre Dame could be a top, let's be conservative, top 20, top 15 team at that point. SMU in Charlottesville, first time SMU is hit in Charlottesville, first time in the ACC. And Hokies, Blacksburgburg last game of the year. History would suggest that game is a tough one. Oh, no question about it. Especially in Lane. Yeah, particularly after this past year where, I mean,

the state of Virginia was up for grabs, and Tech made a huge statement in that game that that they they claimed the state and in a statement backed with um i mean if if and that game is so extremely fresh in my mind they went after calandria in ways late hits multiple late hit and it was done with a purpose. And it was done to be the schoolyard bully. No question. And I don't think they had a lot of respect for Virginia. They thought Virginia was soft and that they could bully Virginia, and they did.

And then they rubbed their noses in it after the game by posing at the 50-yard line. And if I'm a UVA player, that's going to boil my blood. But we'll see. If that doesn't motivate you to go down and do the same thing to them in Blacksburg, then there's got to be something wrong with you as a football player. You should be playing big-time college football. Yeah, absolutely. What are your thoughts on multiple fans are asking about the season ticket prices? You know, I don't even know what a season ticket costs,

but I've never paid for a ticket in my life. But if it's like everything else in our economy, then I don't know how people do it because I think everybody is struggling to some degree with the economy the way it is around the country for every aspect of our lives. Certainly, if season tickets have followed that trend then i don't i don't know how family can pay for it honestly i really don't and something's got to go and you know if you're trying to put food on the table and gas in your car i keep the lights on in your house that's

that's got to be the first thing that goes, I would think. And that's the comments that are coming here. Yeah. And I don't, you know, I feel the pain because I'm with them. Yeah, that's the comments that are coming on the feed here. We'll follow it, guys. Transfer portal is going to be, I mean, it's crazy to say this. We're in April 23rd here, and the portal for football and basketball is monumentally important for these teams, both of them.

You look at the portal for football, you need secondary help. Yep. And you hope you might be able to pick up another big body for the offensive line between now and the first game of the season. Certainly would help. Would be hugely important. And basketball, you have potentially an entire front court to replace. Yeah.

And maybe a point guard with experience. If not, you're running bliss, a redshirt freshman, into the fire as your starter. Yeah, and that could be, you know, even though he's very talented and a winner and I think will be a terrific player here, it's asking a lot of a freshman to step into the ACC and be effective.

And be the most important position on the floor. Yes, absolutely. I mean, he's your quarterback. And, you know, from a media standpoint, great for the media. In this spring purgatory period of coverage, you've got something to drive the news cycle. Oh, yeah. Dude, I'm all over the website.

I'm going on Twitter 20 to 30 times a day and seeing what's on Jerry Ratcliffe. Yeah, well, we're checking it 20 or 30 times a day to see activity and trying to follow up and research these guys as soon as we hear their names. And Virginia has reached out to some other people.

I don't know that we should write about every guy they reach out to until they actually schedule a visit, or that's all we would be doing. But they've probably reached out to 30 people and um i mean it it drives interest i mean this is college fans draft so to speak i mean this is your future this is your hope this is the draft yeah this is your hope. This is the draft. Yeah. That's a perfect comparison. Yeah, this is your hope for the future. And obviously there's a lot of interest in anybody who is showing interest in Virginia.

And, I mean, we look at the numbers every day and nothing drives fan interest like the potential of getting a really good athlete. And that's why I asked you, is basketball still top dog, even with Portal? It's not even close. Not even close. Is it comparable to in-season metrics? Sometimes it's even higher.

That's unbelievable. Yeah. That's great. That's great news for media. Oh, yeah, it is. That's unbelievable. Yeah. That's great. That's great news for media. Oh yeah, it is. It truly is. Because, again, there's not a lot else. I mean, there's a lot of spring sports, and all those

sports have their pockets of followers, but it's nothing like football and basketball, and right now there's nothing like basketball because Virginia's success. Hootie, my grandmother, who is 96 years old. Bless her heart.

Bless her heart. I'm on the phone with her. She asked me about who is Virginia going to get in this transfer. She called it the transfer period. I love it. Transfer period. That's what she said. And she literally brought it up on the phone call.

That's amazing. Right? That blows me away. Unbelievable. That totally blows me away. She grew up. She's in Hampton, Virginia. Daily Press fan.

Still gets the print product. And she goes, who's Virginia going to get in this transfer period? And I said, Grandma, I could spend all night talking to you about this. And I said, we need some help. That's how I put it. It's amazing. When I look at my Twitter and e-mails and stuff, a lot of people think it's just all men all the time. There's tons of women who love these athletic programs and are live and die with them, just like guys do.

And some of our best followers and best readers are women. They love it. And, you know, I think that's awesome. We welcome all of them. 100%. 100%. And I think it might have always been the case, except now with social media we're able to identify it a little bit more. Yeah, I think you're right.

I think you're exactly right. Anything you want to highlight with the spring sports, Hootie? You want to talk Kyle Guy and the Polish passport. Did you see that news? You know, actually, I haven't seen that. He's pursuing a Polish passport to potentially play on the Polish national team. Okay. Which, hey, props to Kyle Guy.

Oh, anything that Kyle Guy does is fine with me. He's a good guy, and I wish him total success wherever he goes. I see the comments continue with basketball here. Time will tell, guys. JerryRackliff.com for all the news on basketball and on football. Anything you want to talk spring baseball or spring lacrosse? Actually, there's only lacrosse on one season. Baseball or lacrosse, Hootie?

Anything you want to add to that? Yeah, well, now that spring football is over with and the portal will probably calm down a little bit, maybe in the next week or two, we'll be focusing a lot on baseball and lacrosse as they hone in on their late season and post seasons. And that's when most of the interest seems to pick up in both of those sports. I know people follow them all year round,

but it really gets hot and heavy when we approach the late season and post season. And yes, the guy news, for those that are asking, is online. A lot of people didn't see it. He's getting a Polish passport with the goal of joining the national team in the 2024 Olympic game qualifiers. And Hootie, when you have a chance, in fact, I can show it to him, show you to him, look at the muscle Kyle Guy has put on. Wow.

That's not the Kyle Guy that played here. Not the Kyle Guy that's played here. 15, 20 pounds of muscle this man has put on his body, the 26-year-old. Easy peasy Sunday breezy with Hootie Ratcliffe, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. Anything you want to throw out there about the Sports Hall of Fame? Chris Long, Craig Littlepage, Monica Wright. That was great. I wanted to. I tried my best to make it down there, but the spring game stuff lasted

too long into the evening and I couldn't make it. It really broke my heart because I wanted to be there. Congratulations to all three of those people. I'm sure it was a special moment for them as it was for me. It was great having Will Driscoll on the show last week. And I know he's probably breathing a breath of fresh air today that all those festivities are over and he can relax for a couple of days before he gets back to work on the next class.

Hootie Ratcliffe, guys, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, the namesake of JerryRatcliffe.com. Scott Ratcliffe, also in the studio today, one of the key contributors to JerryRatcliffe.com. Judah Wickhauer, behind the scenes. MVP. MVP, Mr. Consistency. A show that airs all over social media, including right now 15 Facebook pages. Thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show. Follow the Transfer Portal extremely closely, ladies and gentlemen, as hopefully we have some positive news that comes out of the portal this week. For Hootie, for Scott, for Judah, my name is Jerry Miller.

So long, everybody.