The (Kyle) Long and short of it
Jeff White
Mar 05, 2009
CHARLOTTESVILLE – It’s premature to call it a done deal, because Kyle Long must do well at Piedmont Virginia Community College to pull it off. His plan, though, is to enroll at U.Va. for the 2009-10 academic year, as Jamie Oakes reported this week on CavsCorner.com.
If all goes well for the middle Long brother, he would sit out the 2009 football season at U.Va. as a transfer – while practicing with the team – and then have three years of eligibility starting in 2010.
Kyle, as many U.Va. fans know, is the son of former NFL great Howie Long, the younger brother of Chris Long and the older brother of future Virginia lacrosse player Howie Long. Speculation has been rampant about Kyle’s plans since the news broke in early January that he’d withdrawn from Florida State, where he’d enrolled last summer on a baseball scholarship.
In a statement, FSU said that after “falling behind academically, Kyle and his family have decided that it is in his best interest at this time to be closer to home while he tries to get back on track academically.”
Since then, I’ve tried repeatedly to get on-the-record comments about Kyle’s plans, with no success. His parents want Kyle to focus on his schoolwork and see no need for him to state his intentions publicly at this time, and his former coaches at St. Anne’s-Belfield School want to respect the family’s wishes. Still, based on multiple conversations I’ve had with people who know Kyle, it’s clear that his goal is to enroll at U.Va.
He’s been released from his scholarship at Florida State and is enrolled at PVCC in Charlottesville as a part-time student. If he gets good grades at Piedmont this spring and this summer, he’ll be admitted to U.Va. in the fall. For now, at least, it appears his baseball career is over, and he’ll focus on football.
Technically, Kyle is Chris Long’s “kid brother,” but he’s actually the biggest guy in the family. Kyle has carried about 280 pounds on his 6-7 frame, and he was one of the nation’s most-coveted offensive linemen as a STAB senior. Assuming he makes it to U.Va., he’s expected to play offensive tackle for the Cavaliers and could contend for a starting job in 2010.
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If all goes according to his plan, Kyle Long will join the football team at U.Va. in the fall.
Mar. 14, 2009 at 02:26 AM
Excellent news for UVA. After landing Morgan Moses and Oday Aboushi, if they land Kyle to the mix, who arguably was a better talent than either guy, they’ll have elite offensive line talent for a few years. Add in Al Groh and Co.‘s ability to develop average OL talents into solid assets (Brad Butler/Will Barker), along with the return of Ron Prince, and the OL looks good ... and that’s where it starts. Of course, there’s the issue of finding a QB, finding enough spread option guys, but you have to start somewhere.
Mar. 8, 2009 at 06:53 PM
This is great news for UVa fans—the middle Long brother where he belongs, at the University of Virginia. I’m sorry baseball didn’t work out for him, but it’s obvious his body is built for football. I don’t know if he will be able to follow in the footsteps of Elton Brown, D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Brandon Albert, and St. Clair and the others but at the least he will be a quality starter on the O line. Great news and I bet his footwork will be a great help w/ the new spread offense (provided Groh is still around in 2010)