2009 Football Schedule, Part IV

Heading into the stretch run at 5-4 (3-2 ACC) will be enough to energize the fanbase and rally almost everyone around the program and its beleaguered coach. I assume the offense will have found some sort of comfort level as a run-first spread attack, ala West Virginia under RichRod. The defense should be solidifying into a good unit at this point in the season -- we know our d-line and secondary are stacked, so as long as the linebackers can gel, we should be in business. In other words, I fully expect the UVA football team to be rounding into form at around the three-quarters point of the season. But will it be good enough to handle these last three games?

Boston College
There is an excellent chance that BC will be the worst team in the ACC in 2009. They enter the season without an established or experienced head coach, with a new quarterback, and missing several standouts from what was a very good defense in 2008 -- Brian Toal, Paul Anderson, Ron Brace, B.J. Raji, and Mark Herzlich are all off of the roster in '09. There's still talent in the BC program, but I don't see enough for them to be able to beat us in Scott Stadium. I actually think we'll roll in this game. Hoos 38, BC 10.

@ Clemson
Heading into this game at 6-4 (4-2 ACC), we might have vague aspirations for a spot in the ACC championship game. At the very least, we'll be playing for an appearance in a fairly prestigious bowl game. Clemson could be in a very similar spot, and they have superior speed and talent on their roster. This game being played in Death Valley really hurts us, as I think Klempsun will be loaded on defense and fully prepared to play a grind-it-out type of contest against us. To win this game, we'll need to generate a handful of explosive plays in the passing game... and I don't have confidence in any of our quarterbacks (or receivers, for that matter) to come through with those in such an oppressively hostile environment. Plus, do we have any hope of containing C.J. Spiller and/or Jacoby Ford? Clemson 27, Hoos 13.

Virginia Tech
Ahhhh, here's the 800-pound gorilla. What can we do with the Hokies? How will we handle this game? Can we even hope to compete? I've got a few assorted and random things to say about this game, so here are some bullet points:

• Every UVA fan on the planet needs to be pulling for Alabama when they play VT on Sept. 6th. Obviously, we relish seeing our most hated rival lose. But perhaps bigger than that, we probably need them to lose this game so they aren't heading into the Nov. 28th game against us undefeated. Follow me here. If the Hokies are in the national championship hunt when they play UVA, we will very likely be crushed. So... ROLL TIDE!
• The above being said, I think that Virginia Tech is wildly overhyped this year. Yes, their defense will be nasty. (Isn't it always?) Yes, they have a stable of running backs that could challenge any in college football. But I think their o-line is fairly ordinary, and they have way too many eggs resting in Tyrod Taylor's flimsy basket. I think Tech is beatable, especially if you can get to Taylor and knock him around early in the game. He is SOFT, and he is FRAGILE.
• To be certain of saving his job and returning to the good graces of the almighty "powers that be," Al Groh needs to win this game against Tech. It's almost a must-win for him, I think. I know that many, many, many UVA fans would have a hard time stomaching a 1-8 record against the Hokies. Groh needs to get to 2-7 (even though that doesn't look a hell of a lot better.)
• The spread offense that Gregg Brandon ran at Bowling Green matches up well with what Tech likes to do on defense. Basically and in a nutshell, it punishes you for overpursuing, and it uses your lateral speed against you. If we can find some offensive rhythm by this point in the season, I really do think we have a puncher's chance to beat Tech.

Where the rubber meets the road, I am optimistic that we'll be able to beat Tech this season... but in an effort to be as realistic as possible with this season preview, I just cannot predict a win in this game. Our rivalry with the Hokies has been too much like the nail's rivalry with the hammer. And as much as I want to believe in Al Groh's coaching ability, I just can't see him being able to rally his troops for a victory in this game. I sincerely hope I'm wrong. Hokies 28, Hoos 20.


6-6 (4-4 ACC) to end the regular season. A trip to a ho-hum bowl game (EagleBank!) in which Al Groh will face a true "win or you're fired" situation. That's what I think we probably have in store for us in 2009.

What I haven't taken into account, of course, is the specific quality of our own team. Will Vic Hall win the QB1 job and win some games we shouldn't win with his scrambling ability? Will the new linebackers gel together quickly and turn our defense from a good unit into a truly great one? Will we [finally] find some stability in the kicking game and enjoy a renaissance of special teams under Ron Prince's capable supervision? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

This roughshod look at the schedule provides us with a baseline. .500 is how I think the season will unfold if all of the questions on our own team end up receiving lukewarm answers. I actually think the 2009 edition of Virginia Football has the potential to perform much, much better than I've predicted. And we'll start to drill down into that optimism when we begin exploring each position group in more detail in [you guessed it] future Wahooze blog posts.

Coming soon... a look at the quarterbacks!