2014 VA S Quin Blanding to Virginia
Say it ain't so!
Multiple sources, here's the ESPN link:
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/recruiting/football/story/_/id/8995746/quin-blanding-commits-virginia-cavaliers-2014
February 28th, 2013 at 7:48 AM ^
This had been expected.
EDIT: By the way, Blanding is a safety, not a cornerback.
February 28th, 2013 at 7:53 AM ^
Yes sir. Fixed immediately. Thanks, srs.
February 28th, 2013 at 7:21 AM ^
Since a subset of them most likely thought he was a lock to be a worthless nut! /s
February 28th, 2013 at 10:11 AM ^
Most of them had it figured out. It's FSU fans that really went full butthurt. Their 24/7 insiders are the kind who feed them what they want to hear, which is "every prospect favors FSU."
February 28th, 2013 at 3:33 PM ^
To be fair, FSU did lead for Blanding for awhile before FSU lost almost their entire defensive staff. Not sure any FSU insider thought Blanding was an option after Stoops left. I'm just glad he isn't a Buckeye. I would like for Michigan to get more of a presence in the 757.
February 28th, 2013 at 5:43 PM ^
Meh, at best they were tied at the top. I don't think there was ever a point where anyone ever said "FSU definitely leads." I would say the line has been (at least this is what the UVA reporters have said, and they're pretty sharp) that "if Blanding goes out of state, it'll be to FSU." (Ohio's presence was a more recent thing.) A couple FSU fans I've read claim they were told "if he visits [FSU] he'll probably commit," which, OK, whatever.
I think the main thing really is that FSU fans don't have any respect for most of their opponents, and don't understand how playing for a home-state school two hours up the road with a bunch of your friends and HS teammates and for coaches you really, really like could possibly trump playing for almighty Florida State.
February 28th, 2013 at 7:24 AM ^
He was Virginia all the way, but if it wasn't them it was supposedly Ohio . . .
February 28th, 2013 at 7:42 AM ^
Implicit /s
February 28th, 2013 at 7:59 AM ^
woops.
February 28th, 2013 at 8:07 AM ^
No really, he announced yesterday and surely everyone would've been surprised had he not picked UVA. I just posted it as an update since I hadn't seen a "thread" for it already. I check here regularly for virtually everything so while perusing through ESPN extra early this morning, I decided to share. Can't add tone to text though, so my bad there if it was misleading.
February 28th, 2013 at 9:02 AM ^
Keep him away from Urban and I'm ok with this.
February 28th, 2013 at 9:26 AM ^
That means we won't have to play against him.
...right?
February 28th, 2013 at 9:32 AM ^
Wrong.
Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Texas, and Notre Dame are all joining the Big Ten.
February 28th, 2013 at 9:57 AM ^
All you have to do is rotate the "G" 180 degrees and make it a 9. Big 19 baby.
February 28th, 2013 at 9:55 AM ^
I still fail to understand the logic behind "good thing we won't have to play against him" when he's still an unproven commodity. He has the stars, but that alone doesn't mean he's going to be a high-impact safety in college. And it's not like we don't have guys with a lot of stars next to their name on our roster.
February 28th, 2013 at 10:17 AM ^
The other contradiction about that kind of statement is that typically it's coming from the same kind of fan that is worried that the Big Ten isn't attracting enough talent to compete with SEC. Well, either good players come to the Big Ten and we play against them and have a better conference, or they go elsewhere and the conference continues to try to get out from under the shadow of the SEC. You can't have it both ways.
February 28th, 2013 at 11:04 AM ^
A matter of expected value - a recruit is certainly a random variable, but star ratings are basically expected value (value being contributions to the football team, helping them win games). Given that definition, I will always want Michigan to have the highest value in college football (= National Championship all the time), and at least in the B1G.
This player will likely make his team more valuable. As team value is generally measured in wins and losses, I'd prefer valuable players not play against us, as a more valuable team will more likely give us a loss. Yes, valuable teams being in the B1G is good, and I agree with having a strong conference, but UM going 14-0 is ALWAYS priority #1 to me as a fan.
Given that #1 priority: Good recruit commits to Michigan > Good recruit commits to some school we probably won't play > Good recruit commits to some school we will play > Good recruit commits to OSU (all the anger).
February 28th, 2013 at 10:02 AM ^
One of the safer bets to be a very high level BCS player. IIRC he dominated the camp circuit last year against the 2013 class.
February 28th, 2013 at 10:22 AM ^
Urban clearly didn't want him.
/11W'd
February 28th, 2013 at 10:24 AM ^
Not a Buckeye, yeah! Not a Buckeye, yeah!
February 28th, 2013 at 10:56 AM ^
The Virginia/ maryland area is absolutely loaded this year.
February 28th, 2013 at 12:53 PM ^
That team won't really threaten for anything but always seems to put out NFL talent. I expect Quin's career to follow a similar path
February 28th, 2013 at 2:15 PM ^
He gets 4 yrs of this to look forward to...
February 28th, 2013 at 2:39 PM ^
Haha, stand in your stirrups, dude.