Over the next couple of weeks Wahooze is going to take a look at the prospects that the football team has gotten commitments from and the impact we think they are going to have on the program. The 2012 class is shaping up to be a doozy and already sports a good chunk of the top players in Virginia as well as a nice stable of bulls to handle the offensive line for the next 4 years. These articles are going to be in chronological order and will hopefully show how each signing has impacted the rest of the class.
Mark Hall, a linebacker from Green Run High School in Virginia Beach was the first commitment Coach London picked up way back in February of 2011. That’s quite early and caught me a little by surprise, but is a huge get. Hall was the first domino to fall and was a good start. To pick up a kid from the 757 this early in the process was a great sign for things to come for Coach London and left Wahoo fans optimistic for the future. Hall, a 3-Star recruit on rivals.com, is listed at 6-2, 208 and is projected as an outside linebacker in the future. Hall picked Virginia over Delaware, Duke, Maryland, UNC, Pitt, West Virginia, and of course Tech. Hall is ranked as the number 64 outside linebacker in the country and, more importantly, the number 18 player in Virginia. Hall also excels on the basketball court and is a very fluid player in space. He also has room to pack on weight making him ideal for an outside linebacker. Hall has the ability to both rush the passer and drop into coverage. What Hall will lack in polish he will more than make up for in athleticism. I suspect he’ll be redshirted to pack on weight but if not Hall could have an impact on special teams his freshman season (I’m seeing a blocked field goal). Regardless of what happens this signing showed the rest of the state of Virginia that UVA came to play this offseason and that the students are buying into the coaching staff. While the best recruiting tool we have is wins it helps to be able to build a strong recruiting base by landing top talent in the state, and Coach London got started on that early. This is a good pickup and will help Coach London get his players for his system.
A few points on Mark Hall:
ReplyDelete-- He's a good player, underrated due to how early he committed to UVa. A fast, run-and-hit type who should excel on the weakside in the London/Reid 43.
-- Any linebacker we sign for the 2012 class is a huge get. Look at the current two-deep. LaRoy Reynolds, Steve Greer, Aaron Taliaferro, Tucker Windle, Henry Coley, and Daquan Romero. Taliaferro graduates after this season, and Reynolds, Greer, and Windle are rising seniors. Razor thin. We need bodies at linebacker in a major way, and we'll need those guys to factor into the two-deep as early as 2012, and definitely in 2013.
-- Mark Hall's little brother, Devon, is a rising sophomore on a trajectory to be a 4- or 5-star basketball talent. UVa is his current lead school. You gotta believe having big bro at the school can only help draw Devon to Charlottesville.