University of Richmond Athletics
Quotes from Signing Day Presser
Feb. 3, 2010
Richmond Head Coach Latrell Scott:
Opening Statement:
"Obviously, it's our first signing day as a staff. It's an exciting time for us and an exciting time for the University of Richmond. We began a new era. What we did with this class is we addressed a lot of the needs that we felt fit and we could put together and keep this team going. This team has built a great tradition and won a lot of ballgames so we needed to add pieces that fit to the school, the university and the team to keep us on track."
Verbal commits:
"When you're dealing with 17-year-olds, you worry but we wanted guys who wanted to be here at the University of Richmond. And for the most part, the guys who committed earlier stayed and the guys we picked up later in the process were kids that really, really wanted to be at Richmond. We did everything we could do as a staff and keep the entire class together."
Reaction to keep the commits at Richmond:
"It's very exciting. It worked out for us the way we wanted it to work out for us. There were a lot of thoughts and worries as to whether `this kid will come, or that kid will come' but fortunately we know a little bit more than the outsiders and we were able to keep the group together and get the guys that really wanted to be here."
On the eight Virginia signees:
"We want to recruit the state of Virginia. I want to recruit Richmond first. We've had great success with kids like Eric McBride, Kevin Grayson and Donte Boston. Now we go to Varina and Highland Springs and kids from that bunch and other kids in the state. It's important to us. I think we're able to show people we can recruit nationally. We went to Texas. We went to California to get Aaron [Corp]. We went to Detroit to get another young man. We want to recruit Richmond. We want to recruit the state of Virginia. But the thing this program has done by winning football games is sell themselves as a national program."
Richmond-based recruits:
"They all come from great programs. If you look at the state play-offs year end and year out, Varina and Highland Springs are at the top of the heap. They're both well-coached schools. Coach Johnson does a great job at Highland Springs and coach Brown does a great job at Varina. If you look at the type of players we got from Highland Springs, a dominant defensive lineman, a safety that is physical as any in the conference. When you look at Jerel Harrison, he gives us a receiver that will be able to fill the shoes of Grayson, Boston and Trey Gray when those guys leave."
On being able to relate to coaches at Varina and Highland Springs because of age:
"It's very easy. The city of Richmond is home to me. A lot of coaches are still around from when I played but there are a lot of good, young guys that I grew up in the business with that are coaching. Having a previous relationship with those guys definitely helps in the recruiting."
Filling specific positions:
"Coming into the situation, the quarterback position was a concern for us. We had one quarterback that had playing experience in John [Laub]. Aaron fills a void there. We have two experienced quarterbacks. Running back was a concern. To go down to Texas to get Josh Vaughan and Tim Hightower was huge. Offensive line-wise we've added two guys, Kurt Schmitz and Bryan Cosgrove, who are big kids and we needed to fill some voids in our offensive line. We signed a great defensive lineman out of Pennsylvania in Evan Kelley. We were able to get our different needs met and I expect us to sign one or two more guys to fill this void. The weather last week hurt us in recruiting a little bit, we didn't want to risk getting some kids in here and them getting them stuck. We've still got one or two more things to accomplish."
Ability to snare the number and quality of recruits on short notice:
"I'm going to take less credit than I ever have because our staff is so great. From our coordinators to our position coaches, these guys hit the ground running. We spent countless hours [recruiting], more than a lot of people probably would've worked. I give this staff all the credit. Coach [Byron] Thweatt, our recruiting coordinator, did an excellent job in his first stint as a recruiting coordinator. He did the things he needed to do to help us assemble a great class."
Former head coach Mike London's departure coupled with former recruit Jake McGee:
"Coach London's a stand-up guy. He did a great job here at Richmond and people gave Mike a lot of flak for this and that, but Mike did best for the University of Virginia and we totally understand that. Recruiting is a tough business. Mike did what was best for him and his program. In regards to Jake McGee, Jake handled this situation with much more class than any other 17-year-old would've. We think the world of Jake and his family. We wish him all the luck. We're very happy with the guys we got, the guys that wanted to be at the University of Richmond and want to help Richmond succeed."
Upcoming season:
"I'll be excited to coach football again. I enjoy the recruiting and the ability to market the University of Richmond but we're excited about spring practice opening on March 16th and having the ability to being football coaches again. We really haven't had the opportunity to spend a lot of time around the guys that were here. The guys that make this machine go. We had to go out and add guys to the mix to help fortify the future, but we're really looking forward to getting back to our actual team."
Influence on Richmond natives LB Eric McBride and WR Kevin Grayson with Richmond-based recruits:
"Kevin's the mayor of Richmond. Kevin did a great job pushing recruiting and Eric did as well. Those are the best representatives we have for the city of Richmond. Those kids from Richmond can see the success and the exposure Kevin and Eric have gotten and it's very easy to see that it is a great situation so we need to do the same thing."
QB Aaron Corp's influence on other recruits:
"I think him coming in did influence [the recruits] a little bit. We didn't involve Aaron in the recruiting process because we wanted Aaron to come in and be able to be a student at Richmond. To Aaron's credit, Aaron has done a great job mixing with the team and mixing with everyone that is here. You wouldn't know Aaron was a quarterback at USC last year because if you see Aaron walking around campus, he looks just like a normal Richmond student and our kids have taken to him just like they would anyone else."
Influence of transition of coaching staff to recruits:
"We had the opportunity to evaluate a lot of these kids last year at Virginia. We knew these kids, the Richmond kids, since they were young, a lot of them campers at the University of Richmond. With the other kids, we took a good look at them to see if they were what we needed and what we wanted. We also wanted those kids to feel comfortable. Any changes or thoughts that were made, were made for the good of the student-athlete and the good of the team."
Academic eligibility of the recruits:
"We don't deal with people we don't feel that can't cut it at the University of Richmond. We know how the curriculum is, we know how these great group of professors push these kids. We really shy away from people we don't feel can't make it at our place."