Virgil Gray

[scine20]

I am vacationing in Phoenix and on the way to the rental car facility the driver starting talking about the various sports in the area, including the arena football team. So I got curious to see who is on the team and if I'd heard of any of them (thinking maybe a QB or RB who didn't make it in the NFL that I'd heard of because he played in major college football).

Anyways, I almost fell out of my seat when I saw Virgil Gray's name on the AZ roster and I didn't see a thread about him anywhere so I figured I'd post it here.

He is leading the team in INT's (AZ has the best record in the league and is the defending league champion) and 5th in the league with 5 (and a TD scored), he is 19th in the league and 1st on the team with 44.5 tackles (including 10 solo tackles in one game), and is also the main kick returner for the team. He was 2nd team all Arena League in 2011 as both a DB and kick returner and is in his 4th year in the league.

I was amazed that no one here had picked up on this.

[Ramulous]

Wasn't he the guy in the song "The night they drove old dixie down" ??

[OBRAM]

Virgil Gray is an amazingly talented player. I remember the Uconn Game I think in 2006, he was all over the field breaking up passes.

Here is a youtube video of him http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NwG1NNTIMM

[Hal Kopp]

OBRAM-good pick up!
Rhody has Jason Foster and Matt Hansen under NFL contract.
Virgil Gray,Willie McGinness and Derek Cassidy in AFL.
Is it a talent issue?

[OBRAM]

I think we have talent issue. A few players over the last 8 years is not enough to compete. The idea of dropping down to the NEC set the program back at least 5 years.

[Hal Kopp]

OBRAM-there are not 55 good and great HS players in the US who want to get a good education,play in the best conference and near the beach?

[OBRAM]

There must be hundreds off quality players, they want a education and play football. You have to recruit them. Look a schools like North Dakota State, Maine, Delaware out of state. They all have to recruit. And just as students wan a nice science building, football recruits want good facilities. The new SAD center will help, but our football facilities are not much better , if at all, then the facilities we had 30 years ago.

[rambone 78]

URI will never get consistently good in football unless they upgrade their facilities.

That means spending big bucks. It's all going to have to be raised via the private route, or else it won't happen.

Maybe the trickle down effect will happen once money from the BB program starts piling up. Otherwise I don't see it happening.

[Hal Kopp]

Good RB's are a dime a dozen.
Even bad teams have them.
Rhody has not had a good one in 3 years (Ferrer).

[URI96]

Wasn't he the guy in the song "The night they drove old dixie down" ??

and the bells were ringing.......