The way at least Iāve heard it described is that Groh pushed it pretty darn far though, as in taking kids who were never going to survive academically at UVA even with all of the supports we have in place. Also that he didnāt even really attempt to play nice with others in the institution and burned a lot of goodwill unnecessarily. Now thatās just from message board chatter over the years, so I have no idea what the details are. Feel free to tell me Iām wrong.
My impression has been that UVA will bend when it comes to the academic pieces, but it wonāt break, so to speak. I think thatās fine and we can field a good team if we have coaching staff who understand that and understand the internal politics they have to navigate (plus how to do it without pissing everybody off, which is an under-appreciated skill but vital in any workplace). I donāt think the academics piece is really holding us back, itās been more the overall committment to the sport in resources, facilities, gameday experience, etc. Plus a couple just god awful hires.
One thing I saw last night that I think we could learn from is where Tech puts recruits for the game. Very similar to how we do basketball, recruits seats are held in rows directly behind the sideline right around the 50. Iāve never fully understood why we put our recruits in the corner than for the fact itās quick to get them off the field after seeing the entrance.
Put recruits close where they can see how things go on the sideline during a game. Make them feel like theyāre wanted to be part of the team as opposed to just special guests for the day.
lol itās a good point. UVA just doesnāt think about these things, itās institutional. Similar to how it took them 4 years to fix the audio system in Scott and 3 years to fix it in JPJ.