I've been a UVa alum, parent and lifer fan. I'd say this about early recruiting blowing up since 2013: I believe it is an employment hedge for some coaches. When the boom drops on a program after some down years it can get tough for a longer tenured coach to argue that the program isn't getting stale. I think after 2010 Dom knew he'd have a couple of tough years to convince kids and families to come. So he went really early to get an advantage to get some kids. Then he filled up classes and cleverly cross pollinated the reps and hype of very young players and just like that he can point to 4 highly regarded recruiting classes on the way. So the argument will go "why would an AD want to blow up these wonderful recruiting classes on the way?"
I see that has happened. But if UVA keeps losing with these ranked recruits it just falls apart. One of the cautionary tales yet to come is what will a 2019 or 2018 "commit" do when the coach who committed him gets the boot?
