Miami

It's been civil war on the 247 message board (JOIN that site, highly recommended), with one side digging in on trashing the o-line and offensive coaching staff and the other continuing to preach patience. Tremendous post from one of my favorite posters, Hoos Inc, that I wanted to share...

They want a scapegoat to rally against. And at this point we're literally making sh;t up that has been explicitly contradicted by the staff, like: we're rotating players to give them more experience at other positions to build depth. Nope. We're not. They've said why they're rotating guys, and it ain't that.

We're talking down OL recruiting when this staff has emphasized recruiting personnel in the trenches more than any staff in living memory, both through first years and grad transfers, every year.

We project this year's experience of rotation - which is due to injury and sub-optimal execution - onto the past, claiming the staff has always rotated this way when we played pretty much the same 5-6 all of last year.

We use ambiguous phrases no one can contradict like "recruiting projects not true linemen," whatever the hell that means. What exactly do 2-10 and 6-7 teams that have had one winning season in a decade recruit, usually? 4-stars? Yeah man, all we gotta do is get a class with a D'Brickashaw and an Albert and a Moses and we're set.

The fact is, if Gellerstedt doesn't get hurt, we're in a much better position with depth this year. He did, and we're in a bad position. We are one year away from having the bodies and depth to actually judge 2J. That's just being reasonable, and guys like Kendall have been right to point that out for a couple years now. One of our starting tackles is a 6'7" 280 pound true 2nd year who looks like a TE, our other is 6'10" 300lbs, and coming back from losing a ton of weight after nearly dying from heat stroke and spending a month in a coma. He started one game for us last year though....at TE. It's less than ideal.

Right now if there's any blame, it's on Anae's scheme and Perk's execution for not getting the ball out quicker, and we'll see what he does against Miami to change that. Bronco made some promising comments in that direction.

I am not some Pollyanna who's trying to say everything is sunshine and roses. I said repeatedly before the season that the OL would put the ceiling on what we could do, and how frustrating that was with so many other pieces in place. That was before Gellerstedt got hurt. I said before the ND game that I saw no hope for us winning that game with our OL's health situation what it was. I've commented on the weak median per rush performance of the running attack against Pitt and W&M, even when the game totals looked okay. I've agreed with guys like Hawk and Benkert that some tweaks to the offensive scheme could alleviate the pressure at the line of scrimmage. I'm acutely conscious of the reality of our OL and running situation. But that consciousness is rooted in the reality of our depth and experience, and that is fundamentally the consequence of the previous staff's criminal management of the roster and our recruiting slowly improving as our program's reputation climbs out of the septic tank of 21st century Virginia football. Given the time to develop players and the number of bodies needed, the OL will be the last position group to turn the corner in any program's development, and that's more true for us with the way London left it. And, looking at the roster, 2020 is the year that page turns. This is and always was going to be a year where there would be a mismatch between the level of our defense and skill positions vs OL, and the question was would we be able to get just enough out of the OL to put up a record that extends the program's momentum into a year where the OL should go from weakness to strength, and much of the other strengths remain.

That can still happen. ND we had injuries at spots we could ill afford them, and hopefully Olu is back at center this week and good to go. But even with this OL, 11-1 is a plausible outcome for this team, which would be the greatest season in program history. And it's not like our offense is completely anemic. Even with 4 yards rushing at ND, we outgained them 338-322 (granted they didn't need a couple drives thanks to the fumbles). The OL is frustrating as hell because it is the thing holding back this massive potential we all sense. I get that. But trying to pin it on one person and feeling like if we just ousted 2J or Anae everything'd be better, I call bullshit. You know how many yards playoff-contender UGA put up on ND, at home? 339. We got 338. And they have absolute monsters across their offensive front. There is a lot to like about our offense this year, and the things people like Hawkins, Benkert, and others have noted (that I completely agree with and have tried to share here and elsewhere) are constructive tweaks, rather than overhauls.

Any of us would have taken 4-1 to start the year. Yet we're starting shit-stirring threads praising one aspect of a Duke team that just got beat at home by a team we beat by sixteen on the road? Come on.


Fuckin-a.

So, yeah, Miami this week. Tonight, actually.

I fully expect that we've used the bye week to "fix" the offensive line and install more quick-release passing to mask their weaknesses.

Vegas curiously installed Miami as a 1-point favorite. Over/under is 43, therefore, Vegas is expecting a 22-21 Miami win.

WHATTTT?!??!!

Our defense is going to dominate this game, and we'll all see that the bye week has served us well.

My pick: Virginia 31, Miami 19

I'm betting on the Hoos, and I'm going with the OVER based on some late game garbage scoring. I honestly think this is a comfortable win for the Hoos.

(My season to date: 5-0, 3-2 ATS, 4-1 O/U)