The failures of the season are masking the failures of the recruiting trail for now.
But seeing the disorganization and general demeanor, probably validating the rumors that staff alienated several high school coaches and recruits with their approach.
To be fair, our starting OL the last several games of the 2002 season, essentially, post-Penn State, was:
Brick (first year)
Bart (r/s first year)
Yarbrough (r/s second year)
Brown (second year)
Butler (first year)
And UVa was smoking idiots with that lineup. It was a good offensive concept with guys who knew their roles and, importantly, executed.
(Only one of them was a four-star recruit, too.)
We lost three commits after Mendenhall resigned. One chose BYU, one Michigan (he’d be starting right now), one VPI.
Since when is a 48-yarder in college football (Louisville game) a chip shot? UVa kickers since Hughes and Gould struggle to hit from 35!
I’ll give you Miami (33 yards). Not giving you Louisville.
Agree, but the kick hit the upright, didn’t it? Or the cross bar? I thought it was very close.
Okay 5-7 feel better?
Missed badly to the right.
I know that group well was during my time coming through. The key part is they knew what they wanted to be and were brought in to do that job and came from systems that prepared them to do that job. Again there are exceptions to every rule and absolutes do not exist especially in sports. But the odds and stats show first year new linemen… not generally a good thing. There’s a reason the Hoos had their first 1st years tackle since Brick this year… it’s not common.
Only if you factor in Armstrong injury in the BYU game, missing the ND game, being 85% for Pitt, and rolling his ankle in 4Q vs VPI.
Cuts both ways. Healthy Armstrong in those games could have been 1-2 more wins.
Things happen in games, and they usually even out over the course of a season.
(Canty’s injury probably cost us two games in 2004, for instance, but that evened out in 2007.)
There goes my memory, clearly. At about 3:22 below. I’d obviously conflated Miami doink and end of game v Lville.
All except maybe 4 of my Virginia football memories blend into 1 big ball of sad emotion. I often question my own sanity for even giving a f%ck
Yes BA is brittle…
And yes 529,600 minutes make up a year and a lot of single events can happen in that time frame that can make or break a football season.
I remember getting some good wings after watching us get torn limb from limb by USC in Scott. That’s a fond memory.
Nice wasn’t sure that reference would play on a football board.
@MaineWahoo That was one of my all time favorite weekends in Charlottesville made the sports section of the daily progress for the first time since HS. Damn near passed out at the Italian Villa… Me and my boys didn’t leave town until Monday… good times. Randomly my only memory of the TCU game is eating wings and drinks before the game and thinking Andy Dalton was the most athletic redhead I’ve ever seen by the time I left.
Best post ever.
As for Jelani Woods, give credit where credit is due. If all the NFL cared about was his size and speed, he never would have come to UVa, because he would have been drafted in 2021. But he didn’t have that option, so he chose a place where he could block AND run routes. So in 11 games, he had 40% more catches, 80% more yards, and 100% more TDs than in 22 games at OSU.
And gimmick offenses, Joe Brady’s was the gimmicky-est — as evidenced by two years of an absolute pile of dogshit at Carolina — but that gimmick didn’t seem to hurt the NFL prospects of Burrow, Jefferson and Chase.
Well damn… guess Bronco was a genius and I was the angry mob that killed the monster he didn’t understand… oh well at least I got some good content out of it.
In all seriousness @lodger96 I do give credit where credit is due. Every athlete you just mentioned who thrived in the gimmick offense have 1 thing in common, they are all stud athletes. Combine that with a system they can thrive in and they are going to be great. Woods always had the skill he just wasn’t used in OSU as you pointed out. But we can’t downplay his learning of the fundamentals there. As I said, UVa was essentially a finishing school for him where he took all those skills and got to show them off. Credit to Anae and Bronco for giving him a place to do that.
Burrow was a stud, only thing that held him down was a load QB room at OSU. We’ve seen plenty of gimmicky fringe NFL caliber QB’s who end up having tons of questions and get buried by the NFL or come in and flat out stick it up. Off the top of my head Baker Mayfield and Johnny Manzel, Zach Wilson maybe?! too soon. There are also those who thrive and the NFL see’s them and says “yeah worth the risk” Burrow, Jackson, Murray to name a few. Same with Jefferson and Chase. Creams always gonna rise.
So what you’re saying is if we recruit guys who can get to the nfl then we’ll be able to get guys to the nfl?
