Virginia Football Recruiting Notes

It was a pretty eventful weekend for Virginia football recruiting, with one commitment and another player leaving the 2013 class. As signing day draws nearer, where does the UVa signing class stand? Find out in this today's Recruiting Notes:

Connor Wingo-Reeves is a Cavalier

Richmond native Connor Wingo-Reeves (Monacan) got an offer from Virginia Sunday afternoon, and pounced on the opportunity. Wingo-Reeves was previously committed to Temple to play linebacker, but the opportunity to stay close to home and play in the ACC was too much to pass up. Although he was committed to Temple as a linebacker, his future position with the Cavaliers is up in the air at this point. CWR will probably play either fullback or linebacker at Virginia, and the decision on slotting him will be made, as it almost always is with "athletes", in fall camp. If I had to guess, I'd say that he will be slotted at fullback, considering UVa brought in enough linebackers in this class to avoid depth issues. Fullbacks are harder to recruit, so CWR could find a role there.

Wingo-Reeves is an intriguing addition to the 2013 class. Prior to Sunday he only held offers from Temple, Navy and William & Mary, and has really been off Virginia's radar for quite some time now. Although his name was bandied about really early in the 2013 cycle as a player who could potentially get an early offer from the Cavaliers, it never materialized until this late stage. The biggest reason for that was probably space issues in the Cavalier's signing class. The final number for the 2013 group was expected to be about 20 at most, and with UVa hovering around that number, the staff decided CWR was worth a late offer. In the past few years the Virginia staff has offered several prospects really late in the signing class, and gotten them to jump onboard (think Divante Walker in 2012 and Mason Thomas in 2011). Wingo-Reeves offer and subsequent commitment was related to another big piece of Cavalier recruiting news from Sunday....

Cavaliers, Corporan part ways

Right before Connor Wingo-Reeves got his Virginia offer, Hipolito Corporan lost his. Corporan, a Houston-native defensive back who committed to UVa on Memorial Day weekend last year, took an official visit to Utah over the weekend. The Virginia staff had apparently told the 3-star cornerback not to take that visit if he wanted to remain a Cavalier, and he chose to do so anyway. Mike London then pulled his offer, allowing him to offer Wingo-Reeves. Corporan then flipped to Utah Sunday night. This is not unheard of in recruiting, or even for Virginia. In the 2011 class, Jordan Lomax, a safety from the D.C. area, was committed to the Hoos for months before taking a last-minute trip to Iowa. Virginia then pulled his offer, and Lomax ended up signing with the Hawkeyes. Basically the idea is if you give the coaches a reason to pull your offer, and you aren't one of the more valuable assets in the class (if Taquan Mizzell wanted to take an official visit UVa wouldn't pull his offer), they have every right to do so. London and his staff are probably comfortable with the defensive backs they've brought in, and Corporan was expendable. In fairness to Corporan, he didn't bash the Virginia coaching staff (or mention it at all) on twitter, as many recruits seem to do these days.

Not long ‘til Signing Day...

We are less than one month from National Signing Day, and there has been a good deal of speculation as to how solid some of Virginia's current commitments are. One good piece of news from the weekend was that defensive back commit Malcolm Cook took to twitter to silence some of the rumors that he will land elsewhere, and he seems pretty solidly orange and blue for the time being. Several other players have scheduled official visits to other schools (Donta Wilkins and Tim Harris may visit UNC, Cook and Tyrell Chavis may visit Virginia Tech), but we'll see if those trips actually take place. Virginia's big official visit weekend is coming up this weekend, with almost all the commits in the 2013 class expected to be on Grounds. That weekend traditionally has a galvanizing effect for the signing class, and it would not come as a shock to see some of the Virginia commits that may seem open to taking visits or going elsewhere leaving Charlottesville much more solid to the Cavaliers than they were going in. With all of the coaches and commits in those players' ears, it's a great opportunity to solidify the 2013 class, and begin working on what could be a monster 2014 cycle.