I forget if it was on here or another board, but someone said they just want us to be a Wisconsin-level team. A team thatās bowling every year, with a special (10+ win) season every decade, but is always solid.
Maybe thatās unrealistic, but I think we could get there if our admin was all-in.
Iām so tired of having to pretend to be excited about winning nattyās in swimming.
I think that may have been me. I like the Wisconsin model. Lock up and develop a bunch of 3star type of guys. Build up a roster and cruise in that 7 win range with a trip to the Outback Bowl on the line with the occasional wild card year.
Iām envious of Wisconsin recruiting. Theyāve locked up 51 4-stars (as rated by Rivals) in the last 10 recruiting classes.
Weād had eight. Three of them transferred (Hubbard, Briggs, McCarron), and one never matriculated (Gentry).
McCarron transferred? Heās never really played, but I still see him on the roster.
Good catch. I was mixing him up with the QB from out West. Maybe ended up at Texas A&Mā¦.
Technically a third did ātransferā ā Hunter Stewart. He entered the portal in spring 2023. Not sure where he landed.
This guy?
Sheesh, I didnāt realize theyād recruited so well.
I went through and looked it up because work is slow and this is somehow more interesting. Wisconsin team recruiting ranking (number of 4-stars):
14 - 33 (4)
15 - 37 (3)
16 - 35 (4)
17 - 35 (5)
18 - 40 (1)
19 - 27 (6)
20 - 28 (5)
21 - 14 (8, 1 5-star)
22 - 46 (1)
23 - 57 (3)
24 - 19 (11!)
Getting ~5 4-stars and hanging around the 30-40 range every year should absolutely be feasible for us. Maybe Iām delusional though, totally possible.
Interesting I would not have guessed Wisconsin recruiting was that stout. I also think the star system and rankings for football players is far more suspect in football compared to basketball. Once you get past that initial 15-200 it gets real wonky.
That said, obviously if the Hoos want to see any sort of sustained success landing a couple 4 stars a year must happen.
I think comparing us to a B1G school with twice the undergraduate enrollment and zero in-state competition for either recruits or fan support is pretty apples to oranges.
Yeah, youāre probably right.
Probably but, also you could say all comparisons are apples to oranges. Iād be curious to know the number of comps that are small/med public liberal arts state schools, in the mid Atlantic with 1 other major in-state public school.
Thatās absolutely true. But the talent level in Virginia also dramatically outpaces that of Wisconsin. Itās not like itās Ohio which produces a ton of 4/5 star guys. We should be able to recruit comparably to Wiscy.
And weāre well-known to students in PA, NJ, NY, CT, and MA, and the first three of those states are fertile for recruiting.
I think the closest that you would come is USC east vs Clemson or less so GA Tech (not a liberal arts school and not mid-atlantic) vs Georgia. Itās all apples, oranges and lemons really,
Our best comp is UNC, frankly. Similar geography, student body size, academic profile, etc. Big difference is they sold out a while back (AFAM paper classes just one example) in ways we wonāt. And with that said, donāt let the last few years of the Mack Brown era (between 6 and 9 wins each of the last five year) fool you, theyāve been more consistent than we have the last 20-some years (post-Welsh), but not by that much, and theyāve had their own share of 2-, 3-, and 4-win seasons in there.
I didnāt include NC because there are so many additional programs in the fight there (Duke, Wake, App State and ECU at a minimum). You could argue that we have JMU, Liberty and UR to contend with but I think the NC schools provide more direct competition than what we face. Once again though, it is really hard to compare situations.
Iām curious. When do people think UVA football fandom hit itās lowest point, post-Welsh? Iāve blocked a lot of it out, so it was interesting for me to click through the wiki-articles for Groh, and London and relive some of those seasons.
Itās gotta be the 2013 season, right? This was Londonās 4th full season. Goes 2 - 10, 0 and 8 in the ACC. Ended the season with 9 straight losses.
Or maybe it was after the 2015 season, when London resigned after going 4 - 8. Shit seemed bleak at the end of that season.
I donāt count UNC because they have 3 other D1ās within 20 miles of their door, and NC State is about on par with them on the field, and Wake and Duke similar in academics. While JMU is on the up and up and so is Liberty they arenāt P5 teams in the Hoos back yard.
The USC Clemson comparison is a good comp Iād say. UGa and GT donāt quite match up when you look at the schools either UGa is without a doubt the State school of Georgia and is massive. GT is big but just doesnāt have the same footprint.
Virginia as a state is a bit of an anomaly.
Somewhere during the London eraāI am guessing 2012 was the start of rock bottom.
I think @HoosGotYourBack is in the wheelhouse. The last Groh year was rough but London after the Peach Bowl basically bottomed out the program. Bronco got out the gates slow, hit a great high with the 19 season and then stumbled down the stretch.
If I want to put on my real cynical lens, itās all been downhill since dropping the Gator Bowl in in 08 with Groh. Nothing has really clicked for more than a season since then.