They definitely do, just on other boards. But I think the argument as a whole just tends to go in circles, you get people on both sides who are very adamant about their rightness and very little nuance to be found in the discussions. And of course the extremely ignorant ones who make our entire fanbase look bad.
Like @XHoo said above, today was a win for our athletic department. Best to focus on that for now.
If you want to argue with the crazies, go over to Twitter and have fun. But yall (on both sides of this) are just arguing against imaginary foes when you do it here.
Speaking of which, idk how you do it but thank you LRA for reasonable discussions. It seems almost impossible but here it is.
What about the people that try to shut down any criticisms or nuanced discussions by insinuating racism/sexism, using it as a self-righteous trump card? To me, that’s far more unproductive than the “Carla is the best” (mg234 types) or the “Carla is the worst because of Bronco/Tony Elliott, Tina Thompson” (many folks)
Carla has not been very proactive in managing the department/some programs, and that may have contributed to some coaching losses, most notably OAK
We are coming off what is maybe the worst UVA sports results year in something like 30-50 years
We still won a swimming title and got to the championship for Men’s Golf, so a historically bad year at UVA is better than what happens at most schools in an average year.
Carla doesn’t appear to handle PR, media relations, and fan engagement very well
Carla seems like an excellent fundraiser
After some bad hires in key sports, the last 2 (Odom & Pollard) seem like solid to great hires
Its yet to be seen if trading HOF coaches for those recent hires will net positive for those programs. We may honestly be better off with those trades or not.
Overall, a lot to debate and banter about. Let’s keep it civil as LRA always does and why so many of us like it here.
Currently I’m most impressed by how quickly Pollard changed his Twitter profile to be UVA related. Got a new profile pic of him photoshopped in UVA gear, new twitter bio that says he’s the HC of UVA, and even added a photo of The Dish for his header.
I really really hate losing Bennett and O’Connor. They were the embodiments of UVA basketball and baseball, and you really want guys like that to retire here (I guess Tony did). But… yeah, these changes might prove to be beneficial in the medium term. Hope so.
(And I give Carla credit. Two great hires, with what looked like a drama free process.)
MG used to be very, very anti Carla, suggesting she would never raise the funds for the FOC and she was highly critical of the Elliott hire. TBH I’m not really sure why she did such a 180 because she 100% out on Carla not long ago.
I think that we’ve covered a lot about Carla and the Athletics Department. While her PR/Fan Engagement is less than ideal and she clearly made a bad hire with Tina Thompson, she’s otherwise (before this year) still been above average. I would say that about 2/3rds of the people on this forum are objective, recognizing her drawbacks but also seeing the upsides. I still give her an A minus overall. I also think about other years in UVA Athletics History that were suboptimal. Here’s a summary: |Academic Year|Key Issues|
| — | — |
|2001–2002|Football missed a bowl; Men’s hoops 7–9 ACC; early NCAA exit; no major titles|
|2009–2010|Football (3–9), Men’s hoops (10–18), Baseball strong but fell short|
|2015–2016|No postseason for Football/Women’s hoops; early exits in several sports|
|2017–2018|Historic UMBC loss in Men’s hoops; Women’s soccer & hoops underperformed|
|2021–2022|No NCAA tourney for Men’s hoops; Football struggles; Women’s sports rebuilding|
|2024–2025|As you noted—several sports rebuilding, coaching turnover, fewer highlights|