John Brandon's This Week in College Football blog on Bill Simmons' Grantland is a very good read, and today's entry just happens to focus on the Hoos.
Tap the arrow HERE to read it.
Or just read it here (but please, give Grantland your mouse click -- it's how they pay the bills.)
I had planned on addressing the University of Virginia last week, but it seemed rude if not too on-the-nose to cast aspersions right after a tough loss like the one UVA suffered to North Carolina. So I decided to wait until after Virginia hosted Southern Mississippi, which I thought might be a win for the Wahoos. So much for that plan. I can't wait any longer. They've got Idaho coming into town this week, but how do I know they can beat Idaho? It's been bugging me for quite some time that Virginia is not better at football. It's been gnawing at me because I can't figure out why. Virginia, the state, the commonwealth, is very large and populous, yes? We're not talking about North Dakota, where there are no people, or, you know, Idaho or something. Diverse population, too. Not like, say, Vermont. In Virginia it's not exclusively pale hikers who own big, happy dogs and produce their own goat cheese.
Is the high school football in Virginia poor? Is that the lack? I think not. It ain't Texas, maybe, but it's no slouch. Talent base? There's D.C. and all its remote metro stops. Hampton Roads. Virginia Beach/Norfolk. Richmond. Roanoke. Baltimore, even, unless that recruiting juggernaut University of Maryland strikes fear into you. There's that web of Mid-Atlantic private schools that are always pooling talent. (Though maybe they make it too easy for college recruiters. The current class UVA coach Mike London and his staff are putting together has four players from Norfolk Christian Academy alone.) Charlottesville is a fine town. If it weren't, Ben Affleck wouldn't have moved there. Don't he and Jennifer Garner live in Charlottesville? I heard that. Rolling hills and pretty girls, just like any other real nice place. Just like Athens, Ga. The situations aren't totally dissimilar, UVA and UGA. They've both got a big Southern state and a nice town and only a Tech to recruit against. When Georgia was weathering its last dark period, the Ray Goff and Jim Donnan regimes, it was roundly agreed upon that it was a sleeping giant and needed only the right coach to again become a national power, and this was correct. In the wake of the pretty successful George Welsh years, Virginia hired former NFL coach and Cavaliers player — dream scenario, huh? — Al Groh, and I guess he achieved a couple of decent seasons along with his mostly mediocre and horrible seasons. Maybe the Groh years were the dark ages for Virginia.
A pretty good year here and there should not be the goal at UVA. Someone needs to wake this giant (Mike London?). Or check its pulse. Sometimes you have to wake it roughly, like by kicking it. Or get someone meaner to kick it. From my vantage in the deeper South, it was comical how long it took Virginia to do something about Groh: 2005, 3-5 in conference; 2006, 4-4; 2007, hooray, it's our occasional not-bad season, 6-2; 2008, 3-5; 2009, 2-6. Virginia should not be a program that aspires to holding its own now and then. Patience is a virtue, they say, but lying down next to the sleeping giant and going to sleep yourself … I don't know. Maybe folks in Charlottesville don't really care, but I do. I mean, if nobody cares, just shut down the program. Y'all can tool around in the hills on fall Saturdays in your convertibles, taking pictures of haystacks and quaffing the homegrown white wine. Let me cook this into a bite-size question: Is there another team in the country with so many built-in advantages that makes them amount to so little?1
Let's get past the excuse stage. That's often a crucial step. First, that old chestnut about how it's difficult to maintain good football if you have a good academic school. We hear this one out of Notre Dame whenever it needs something to blame losses on. Stanford: not exactly a one-room schoolhouse full of mule-kicked farmers' sons. Georgia Tech — I don't comprehend the names of some of the classes they offer. Michigan doesn't exactly let kids in with a fishing license, and the Wolverines have been good for a long, long time, and will be good again. They're relevant. Wouldn't that be nice, Wahoos? Relevance? OK, how about Wake Forest? In a properly functioning universe, the University of Virginia's football program would be superior to Wake Forest's. Both of you went 1-7 in conference last year, so you're starting on equal footing. The couple of years preceding that, Wake had a slightly better conference record than you, and then, of course, it wasn't so long ago that they won the whole ACC. Start there. As a standard for gridiron excellence, get the Demon Deacons in your sights.
Another of the sad excuses you'll hear regarding Virginia football is that it was placed on a downward trajectory by the Vick/Curry debacle. The way I hear it told is they had Ronald Curry all set to become a Cavalier, and therefore Vick's high school coach told Virginia not to bother coming after Vick — that, essentially, any college recruiting Vick had to choose between him and Curry. UVA couldn't court Vick because they had Curry, which allowed Virginia Tech to move in and secure Vick's services. Then Curry decided he'd rather go to UNC. Result: UVA left with no huge-time QB recruit. Gracious, fellas, who cares? It's time to let this one go. Let go of that balloon and let it disappear wistfully into the clouds. One recruit doesn't make or break a program. Nor does one area code. Another pathetically pervasive recruiting lament you'll hear is that Virginia Tech dominates the talent-rich Hampton Roads 757. Listen guys, SO WHAT? Either get in there and recruit harder or recruit somewhere else. There are states with four or five big-boy programs. Recruit harder. Recruit more. Recruit farther away. Just do something. One quarterback? One area code?
To end on a high note, remember when Virginia had the Barber twins and it stung FSU with the Seminoles' first-ever ACC loss? Wasn't that fantastic? I've described FSU's losses in the '90s as perplexing, and this one fits the bill. The Cavaliers just played their hearts out and slew that giant. It looked like maybe Warrick Dunn broke the plane there at the end, but thank heavens the zebra didn't see it that way. Sigh. The good old days, when upsets were upsets.
Of course, Brandon has a point. A bunch of points, actually. Good ones, too.
#1) Virginia Football IS a sleeping giant. There's no good reason we're not better than we are. Good facilities, great place, fertile recruiting territory, decent football fans (when you're winning).
#2) I'm guilty of making excuses. Academics, Virginia Tech's success coinciding with our lack thereof, Al Groh blasting us into a crater. It's not that these aren't legit, it's just that... I'm tired of making excuses. Let's just win games. Every summer, Becky asks me, "are we going to be good in football this year?" And I reply, "maybe... hopefully... probably not. It's a rebuilding year." And then she says: "*sigh* It's ALWAYS a rebuilding year." She's right, it is. And it shouldn't have to be.
#3) Is Mike London the guy to turn it around? His recruiting record says yes. The product on the field says... I'm sorry to say, but it's the honest-by-God truth... it says no.
I hope I'm wrong about that. I just feel like I'm vocalizing what a lot of us feel in our gut at this point.
We'll see how the rest of this season goes. We'll see how the QBs develop. We'll see how the team - IF the team - improves over the last eight games. We'll see if we can give FSU and Virginia Tech a fight of any sort. London needs (and deserves!) a full five seasons to get this thing on track. I fear he won't actually have that long, playing in front of a home crowd so apathetic it can't and won't spin the turnstiles. No bowl game this year, probably no bowl game next year (with W&M, Indiana, USM, Idaho, and Florida State replaced on the schedule by Richmond, Louisiana Tech, Penn State, TCU, and Wake Forest), and how can any coach survive three years with what looks to be something in the neighborhood of a 14-22 record? The honeymoon will be over, and 2013 will be the make-or-break season, London's 4th at UVA.
I try to be optimistic, but being a Virginia fan for so long has nudged me toward pessimism. One thing is for certain -- we need to see a more mistake-free team down the stretch if that lost optimism is going to return.
Sorry, just riffed for a while on my own. Carry on.
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