"Oregon of the East" and Other Assorted Rumblings

First of all, apologies to my loyal readers for the recent spotty updating of the Wahooze blog. 2010 has been a busy year for yours truly... not too busy to roll around in the muck that is Virginia athletics, but [unfortunately] too busy to spend much time writing about it. Rest assured, Wahooze remains near and dear to my heart, and I'm doing my best to un-swamp myself and get back in the healthy rhythm of posting. Today, I'll try to hit you guys with some rapid-fire news and notes, starting with...

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This past weekend (Jan. 22) was a big recruiting weekend for Mike London and the Virginia Football program. Almost all of the committed class of 2010 was in attendance, along with a handful of uncommitted prospects. One of the biggest bits of news to come from the event wasn't really recruiting related. Instead, it was the buzz created by the coaching staff announcing to the players that UVA would be changing up its football uniform, and introducing many different variables and alternate uniforms. The staff announced that from a uniform standpoint Virginia would become, and I quote, "the Oregon of the East." Check a look at the above pictured overview of Oregon's 2008 uniform package, and use the power of imagination to see the possibilities in orange and navy blue.

Whether you approve of the concept of Virginia as the Oregon of the East or not, be aware that the 16, 17, and 18 year old kids we're recruiting to play football absolutely LOVE the idea. Personally, I don't really enjoy trying to connect the dots between fashion and football, but I will admit that I'm a bit of a uniform-phile. And I think we can really benefit from a bit of a "rebirth" when it comes to pretty much everything involving football. Changing the uniforms is a part of that rebirth. We went in as a sluggish, unexciting, boring, borderline inept navy blue football team, and hopefully we'll explode from the cocoon as a fast, hard-hitting, fired-up squad decked out in gaudy orange and blue 4th alternate uniforms.

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About 1000 times more important than the uniform change is the fact that Coach London has [finally] settled on an offensive coordinator to run that side of the ball. I'll have an exhaustive "meet the coaching staff" post for you soon, but for now feast your eyes on the press release naming Bill Lazor as Virginia's offensive coordinator.

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And since we were kind of on the topic of this past weekend's recruiting, we've had a few new players join the 2010 class this week:

• 3-star quarterback Miles Gooch (Decatur, GA), whose game has been compared to former UVA standout Aaron Brooks.
• Unrated offensive lineman Stephen Lawe (Norfolk, VA), who is a relative late bloomer on the recruiting scene, but who has recently drawn serious interest from Virginia Tech and a few other BCS conference schools.
• 2-star QB Jake McGee (Richmond, VA), poached from the Richmond commitment list and projected to the UVA offense as a tight end. (You might remember another unheralded 2-star high school quarterback-turned-tight end... Heath Miller? Yeah, that guy was pretty good.)

Coach London is cobbling together a fairly decent recruiting class, considering the wholly underwhelming class Al Groh left behind. It won't be a heralded group, but it could help provide some of the bedrock for what London is trying to build at UVA. Stay tuned for a Wahooze-style overview of the 2010 class, coming soon as National Letter of Intent Day approaches -- next Wednesday, February 3.