Christ the King? Is this a football thread? Also, I just learned that Sue Bird went to Christ the King, so it’s not even just a single sex thing.
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Josh Hayes is in the portal.
Bronco asked the other DBs to stop him from transferring and well
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That was good.
No that’s a bad beat.
Not really sure where else to put this, but the discussion began on the basketball thread and I didn’t want to drive it too far off topic.
George Welsh 134-86-3
Al Groh 59-54
Mike London 27-46
Bronco Mendenhall 34-34
There’s an obvious gold standard for Virginia football and it starts and ends with Welsh, any expectations should begin there. London was a disaster, I don’t think anyone will argue that. Groh is surprising but the overall record hides terrible final 2 seasons where he went 8-16 and the wheels came off. Bronco makes an interesting situation. Honestly he could go either way. Last year gets an pass for COVID and he managed 5-5. Perhaps the more telling stat on Bronco is 20-25 in conference. The Hoos generally feast on the opponents they should beat, and they’ve had a regular diet of Richmond William & Mary Liberty and ODU. But the time to make a decision is nearing.
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Not really sure where else to put this, but the discussion began on the basketball thread and I didn’t want to drive it too far off topic.
George Welsh 134-86-3
Al Groh 59-54
Mike London 27-46
Bronco Mendenhall 34-34
There’s an obvious gold standard for Virginia football and it starts and ends with Welsh, any expectations should begin there. London was a disaster, I don’t think anyone will argue that. Groh is surprising but the overall record hides terrible final 2 seasons where he went 8-16 and the wheels came off. Bronco makes an interesting situation. Honestly he could go either way. Last year gets an pass for COVID and he managed 5-5. Perhaps the more telling stat on Bronco is 20-25 in conference. The Hoos generally feast on the opponents they should beat, and they’ve had a regular diet of Richmond William & Mary Liberty and ODU. But the time to make a decision is nearing.
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Respectfully, there are two coaches since the Eisenhower Administration with a winning record coaching UVA football. In fact, it may be the case that you have to be a Hall of Famer with the whistle to win here consistently.
Also, CBM has one of the three Conference/Division titles in school history.
i hear you but i’m not sure i agree that “the time to make a decision is nearing” is accurate, at least not from our admin/donor base.
let’s assume we hit 7-5 this year (and then a bowl, so i’ll be optimistic and say 8-5). If Bronco goes 8-5 for the next 5 years he’s not getting a pink slip. and looking at the '22 schedule, we could easily go 4-0 OOC (Coastal in cville probably the hardest game?). ACC road games are at cuse, at gt, at duke, at vpi… tougher home slate with miami, unc, pitt, and lousivlle but for the road 2-2 or even 3-1 is possible and if we could get 3-1 at home, we’re looking at 7-9 wins again (assuming Brannen is back for all of this). Anyways, to me, we have to backslide and miss bowls for AT LEAST 2 years for a change to be initiated by our side, and that seems unlikely based on where we sit today.
i also worry about “then what” - someone on the other thread called out that until we do have the facility upgrade, it’s not a job that is going to lure a ton of high tier coaching interest. we’d need to go the Wake Forest route and strike gold with someone who is such a good personality fit that he can succeed and not immediately get plucked off by an SEC type team.
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Bronco inherited a program that was an absolute dumpster fire though, so just going on straight record doesn’t seem fair. If you remove his first year, his record is 32-24 which seems a lot more palatable. I suspect conference record is similar. I’m not positive that Bronco is the guy, but looking around the ACC are there really that many other coaches you’d prefer? Because that’s our comparison group with the shit show that is the ACC financial structure
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Bronco Is the Brad Brownell of ACC football coaching. We know the ceiling is competing for the Coastal, but the floor is generally being in the bowl game conversation through October
Based off the conference and this program, I don’t see us “going fish” for a new coach based on the top-end talent we’d likely attract may not be any better than Bronco to begin with.
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I don’t follow football like I used to, so take this all fwiw, but the most relevant question is: should we expect UVa football to compete for that new 12-team playoff? At least, like once a decade or so, hopefully more? If yes, then I don’t think Bronco is our guy. If no, then Bronco seems fine.
The Brad Brownell comparison seems apt. Also kind of funny! (though Brownell did make the sweet 16, and at least had them in the Zion sweepstakes…)
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Full disclosure, I partially throw this out there to be the Joker and I just want to see the world burn. But it’s a topic that becomes stuck in my head every fall.
I think @Wahoo08 and @Hoohoohoo make good points in that I honestly don’t see the school making any moves anytime soon. Virginia doesn’t have a history of moving on from coaches unless things are drastically bad, and they are not at that point currently. I also think that even with a facility upgrade Virginia is not a sexy landing spot and the administration will never doll out big money for a big name. They will always have to rely on striking while hot on an up and comer, and then getting them to fall in love with all that is UVa and sticking around.
I also agree with @norfolk_hoo Bronco took on a dumpster fire and he righted that ship. But like he said, I don’t think that Bronco is the guy long term. I think he’s the guy who can get you to 6-6 7-5 but he’s not going to take the next step and become a consistent 8-9 win guy. Luckily for UVa the ACC is horrible and with Clemson relapsing the whole conference is winnable for about any program. Wake and Pitt are about to square off for the conference championship this season…
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That’s a great way to sum up all the dribble I just wrote. And I agree the Brad Brownell comparison is pretty spot on.
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I mostly wish we had that 12-team playoff back in the mid-90s, because those teams could play with anybody.
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Man. 90-98 Hoos would have been in the conversation for a playoff spot in a 12 team race. Never of thought of it that way, but I’m even more depressed/pissed about the futility of the program over the last 20 yrs
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'95 and '98 especially. i swear those teams should have been top 10. '95 got screwed (or too conservative, depending on your view of the Mercury Hayes TD catch) at Michigan, and also at Texas i believe, to go with dumb losses to UNC and then vpi.
'98 even closer, just the 3pt loss at GT (we got smoked at FSU so not thinking we could flip that) keeping us from a 10-1 regular season.
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Phil Dawson was STILL kicking in the NFL, in his mid 40s, until a couple years ago. He hit that 50 yarder. Garcia apparently hit a 56 yarder, though, a few minutes earlier.
https://stats.texassports.com/custompages/sports/m-footbl/archive/stats/95/ut-uv.htm
98 probably had more weapons, 95 better on defense. Plus, even though he just may be my favorite UVa athlete of all time, Brooks was a bit of a rollercoaster.
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That game against GT in 98 hurt me to my core. I loved me some Brooks, but he just couldn’t come through on the 3rd and long. But that team was so loaded. If I recall Thomas Jones led the national in yards per game at around 159 a game. Think about that. Wayne Taulapapa just passed 1k yards on his career after 3 seasons on the field.
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I can’t see why we’d go away from Bronco any time soon. I like him like the culture he’s building, and his recruiting is on the right trajectory. I’ve been critical of Anae and still am from play to play, but it’s hard to look at our numbers so far this year and say that guy shouldn’t have a job. Our DC though? I’d put an ad on Indeed and start collecting applications at the very least.
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