PA Receiver is Nova Football’s 9th Recruit

Villanova football sources have declined to comment on Burke’s statement re: Big East.

Surprise!!!!

Does anyone have any idea what that comment about redshirting comes form?

 Doesn’t seem likely since they’d still have to field a team in 2012, but someone told him that. Coaching staff won’t comment on what they have said to recruits.

Finally a football recruit that isn’t 5’8″…:)
 
The story said: “Villanova is waiting to hear from the NCAA about a possible jump to the Big East”

What are we waiting to hear from the NCAA?  I thought the ball was in the BE’s court… 

Its easy to get confused!  I know I am!! lol

Villanova is not waiting on the NCAA. Perhaps that is a sign as to how much faith we should put into stories about the upgrade being told by recruits.

Nelly, The mass red-shirting is standard procedure for any programs if they are making a jump.   It may not be the whole class but it could be a very large contingent.   
Let’s say you have an incoming Class for 2012, you could redshirt almost half as freshman and the maybe the other half as sophomores putting almost all of them on 5 year plan to give yourself an extra boost after the jump with stronger older players.  
Remember that you have an increase in scholarships anyways if a jump is made so you have more bodies showing up.   
Depth can be an issue but do you think UMASS cares as much about this season where they are ineligible for the CAA Championship compared to their initial season in the MAC where they hope to be competitive enough to get recognized by fans and recruits?      .

Old Dominion used some layers of redshirting to prepare for their first few CAA seasons that begin this year.  Talley even did some of it during his build-up to 1988 joining 1-AA. 
UConn talked about redshirting nearly a whole class during their bump up to the Big East which I believe you can find their first Big East QB talking about the commaraderie of that class if you google it.  

Fordham, with their first incoming Class of Scholarship players last Fall, only put I think 3 of those players on the field and one was a monster defender who started immediately so I think they needed his skills to compete.   Those 3 players cost them eligibity for their League standings now that they are a non-conforming Patriot League program in limbo as an FCS psuedo-independent building up their scholarship numbers.       . 

The key to doing that much redshirting is to quickly evaluate the incoming freshman because some are worth the extra year and some are probably best left to turnover after 4 years.   You want as many of the 5th year players on the field after you make the jump so you can try and compete right away.          

I thought the 72 catches was an eye-opener when i posted about this kid last week but he played on a weak team with a losing record and it appears he was a huge part of their offense on short pass routes. 
The yardage is not exttemely high for 72 receptions so a lot of dump off passes went to him.   But that shows some strong durability to catch close to 7 passes a game for an entire season.   His size and speed is solid for the next level so he should do well in the Villanova offense.

Even though he blew up on the Camp circuit this summer and at 7-on-7 events, I think he is safe to stay with Villanova after verbally committing to ther first school that offered him a scholarship.   His taking the trip to Villanova in person shows he is sold on the University as a whole and not looking for anything more.  

It will be interesting to see if Villanova takes another QB in the 2012 recruiting class with the 3 youngsters competing in Camp this year.  

Sounds reasonable, Barney. I imagine if the April 10th meeting had gone differently, we’d be talking about redshirting a big chunk of this year’s class. Abdur-Rahman seems likely, as well as at least one of the young QBs.

I would hope that one or both (assuming Coach is willing to use Culicerto as the back-up again) of those young QBs will redshirt this season if they don’t win the job outright

If we have to put Culicerto into games, we are in trouble.   He is underwhelming to the say the least and I heard he looked rough again in Spring practices.  Dustin Thomas better step it up this Fall if this team wants a chance to win at least 6 or more games.  He is the one they need to keep them in games using our experienced receivers. 

They are much better off playing weaker Monmouth (picked 6th in NEC) than a strong Lehigh this year in that OOC game.  
Lehigh started to prosper a year early than expected with the their late season run last year and is expected to go back to the FCS playoffs again this year.   In their rebuilding year, Lehigh went 10-0 vs non-CAA teams and they lost to some pretty good CAA teams in Nova, UNH and then Delaware in the 2nd round of the playoffs.   This year they expected to far better.     . 
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/08/patriot_league_football_media.html 

BTW, that Nate Eachus kid (preseason PL Offensive Player) from Colgate was one that Talley missed on a few years ago when he was looking for a solid academic school to play football.   The kid was a monster back in High School and could start at most FBS schools outside the BCS.    He was bouncing between RB and LB as a freshman and putting up amazing stats at both positions for Colgate which showed how good he is as a football player.  If he stays healthy in his senior year, he may carry Colgate past Lehigh into playoffs and then god help the teams trying to stop him and anyone from Hazleton area knows what I am talking about.  
 
Monmouth info on their preseason ranking.  Interesting they open with Lehigh and then play Villanova so they should get tested harshly in both games. 
http://www.gomuhawks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205237804&DB_OEM_ID=14300 

QB  K. Newsome is leaving PSU, Talley should at least talk with him. Reminds me a lot of Whitney

The dude has an awesome shirt.

Andrew (Fact) from Fact on Villanova Sports told me that when he was watching a late-spring practice, it looked as if Culicerto was winning the job from Dustin Thomas. He clearly isn’t, but apparently his spring wasn’t that bad.

The best QB rating on the team is probably Marlon Calbi though. He’s usually just the holder, but thanks to AndyT rolling the dice in the playoffs last year, he has one career pass for a touchdown.

I’m sure the camp that told him to wear that shirt appreciates your approval.

Newsome might be looking to sit out the year and go to another FBS school. Also, Andy Talley really doesn’t like to take transfers and when he does they are scrutinized heavily by admissions.

I think that had to do with Thomas having an even  worse Spring than Culicerto.   

 The HS Coach I talked to was inside the Camp working with the Villanova staff for a few days in the spring on some coaching seminar program and he wasn’t too familiar with the players names.    But he was so unimpressed with all the Villanova QB’s that he speculated Chris Polony could waltz in and take the job this Fall.   That scared me because as much as I’ve seen Polony (and this particular coach faced him in LVC games for 2 years), he should not be behind Center this Fall as a Starter.  Polony is a good athlete and a Coach’s son who has good form (hence we gave him a scholarship off summer Camps)  but his game performance as a passer left a lot to be desired.  He gets happy feet and makes bad decisions when pressured.

We need some poise at QB and that is asking a lot of even a redshirt freshman like Thomas but someone needs to be able to make good decisions and not turn the ball over.  We have little room for error this year in a rebuilding season.   Ball control and defense will keep Villanova in games this year.  We don’t need the long ball much as we have enough receivers to spread it out and keep the chains moving.