uva recruiting
UVa's 2014 Football Class, While Small,
Has Plenty Of Star Power
With Quin Blanding (left), the nation's top safety and No. 4 overall player, and Andrew Brown
(right), the country's best defensive tackle and No. 12 overall player, in the fold, the Cavaliers boast
the only recruiting class in the land that features multiple Rivals.com five-star prospects.
photos by Brad Franklin
By Brad Franklin
The 2013 class of high school football talent in
Virginia was pretty impressive, boasting four fivestar players, all who were listed in the Rivals.com
top 30 nationally. However, the elite talent level
in the state in 2014 is even better with three players included in the top 12 in the country. Louisiana and California have two prospects in the top
dozen, and no other state has more than one.
In 2013, the Wahoos did well on the recruiting
trail. They signed their first five-star commitment
(running back Taquan "Smoke" Mizzell from Virginia Beach) since 2005, locked down two fourstar cornerbacks (Tim Harris and Kirk Garner),
and assembled one of the best groups of offensive
linemen in a single class in more than a decade
(tackles Sadiq Olanrewaju and Eric Smith, guards
Jack McDonald and George Adeosun, and center
Eric Tetlow, all three-star recruits).
The Cavaliers did more than just bring in qual-
