FOOTBALL
Virginia's football season came to a merciful end Saturday as the Cavaliers received a 37-7 whooping at the hands of Virginia Tech. I'm going to give some grades for the first year of Mike London's tenure and then make a quick prediction about next year.
QBs: C+. We got about what we expected out of Marc Verica, I think. Pretty inconsistent, but at times, a decent to even above average quarterback. When put in bad situations though he broke down. When our offense was moving, he made some surprisingly good decisions and accurate throws. Under pressure and in long-yardage situations though, watch out. He never really achieved the success that he had during the four-game winning streak of 2008, but also didn't regress back to where he was in the four-game losing streak of '08. Bright spots included a mostly sterling performance vs. Miami and a record-setting day against Duke. None of our freshmen QBs look especially ready to lead the team, so it should be a great competition to see who gets the starting nod among Michael Rocco, Ross Mentheny, Michael Strauss, and maybe true freshman and Hampton native David Watford, cousin of Marques Hagans.
RBs: B+. Keith Payne was the feel good story of the year. I believe he ended up rushing for around 800 yards and led the league in rushing TDs with 14. Perry Jones was a good change of pace back but seemed to get bottled up at times unnecessarily by dancing around too much instead of getting north and south quickly. Still, he averaged close to five yards per carry. Raynard Horne also had some nice runs sprinkled in throughout the year.
WRs: B. Not a whole lot of production out of this position beyond Dontrelle Inman and Kris Burd, but they certainly were solid performers. Matt Snyder also took on a nice third-receiver role as well. Beyond some dropped balls, I was pretty happy and impressed with our WRs. Too bad Inman won't be back, but certainly am glad to get Burd back. I've liked him since he was a freshman, and he should be the primary weapon on next year's team. Also looking forward to the return of Tim Smith, who was out for most of the year with an injury.
OL/TEs: B+. Beyond the FSU game, I don't recall Verica getting sacked too much so I thought our line was improved over last year. At times, Verica held the ball for too long and took sacks. Those sacks were not the line's fault. Our running game was bolstered by great run blocking. It was tough to see Joe Torchia go down at tight end but Colter Phillips and Paul Freedman did a nice job of filling in. The tight end was once again prominent in the offense.
Run defense: D-. If our offense was at least good at times, our pass defense was bad and our run defense was ugly. It was obvious to everyone how much the defense regressed and it came as a shock to me, since Mike London was a defensive coach under Al Groh. We had good defenses under Groh, and when London was here, they were sometimes great defenses. I feel like we have the talent on defense, but not the right scheme or coaching. It'll be interesting to see what if any kind of changes in the off season are made on the defensive side of the ball. From the first game of the year when the Richmond running back ran for over a 50-yard TD, I guess that was a sign of bad things to come.
Pass defense: D. I'll give the pass defense a D instead of a D- because of the performance against Miami and Chase Minnifield in general. We had five picks in the Miami game, but mostly struggled throughout the year and made bad to average QBs look great.
Special teams: A-. I'll give this unit the highest mark not only because of the mostly brilliantly executed trick plays, but also because the unit was solid in general. We had more than one kickoff return for a TD, punt returns were usually positive, Jimmy Howell made effective use of the rugby-style kick and still could boom one when he had to, and Robert Randolph had a solid year after starting off kind of rocky.
Team discipline: C-. I actually added this one in late. The only reason it's getting mentioned is because of the enormous amount of penalties the team racked up. You didn't hear about London's guys skipping class or doing anything illegal, but the discipline stayed off the field and didn't carry on to the field too often.
Coaching: B-. We will know more about the team in general and the coaching at the end of next year but right now, I'd say the coaching was ok, but not great. Mike London no doubt has a passion for the school and the team, but the results were not there all the time. He got the players to buy in though, mostly, and they kept fighting. The defense was lackluster at some points, even looking like it lacked effort at times. That was difficult and strange to watch, giving London's penchant for strong defenses. It was definitely one of, if not the most, surprising parts of the season. Bill Lazor seems to be a great fit on offense. Once he gets some more toys to play with, I think our offense can really be a strong suit. On D, we might need to make staff changes. I'm not sure why, but the staff just was not able to get top-notch performances out of that group.
Overall: C+. I'll say just above average, because we won only one more than expected, but it was a good win. Oddly enough, it came against a team ranked in the top 25 at the time. I thought maybe we'd be able to get one or more wins from Duke, Maryland, and BC, what I perceived to be the worst teams in the ACC besides Virginia, and we didn't beat any of them, though they were our closest losses in conference. The USC game probably ballooned expectations a little too much. That was maybe our second best game played of the year overall. Though we finished with four wins, 6-7 were definitely possible. USC, Duke, BC, and Maryland I'd argue were all within a few plays of being wins (even though the Terp score was lopsided).
Outlook for next year: We have non-conference home games against William & Mary, Southern Miss, and Idaho and a road game vs. Indiana. In the ACC, we face Duke, N.C. State, Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech at home, and Maryland, North Carolina, FSU, and Miami on the road. We don't play Wake Forest, BC, or Clemson. I say things like this every year but you'd think we could get to 3-1 or even 4-0 in our non-conference games. As easy as the nonconference schedule was this year, one of the games was USC. Next year, I imagine Southern Miss will be the toughest oppoenent, and I really don't think they will be top 25 material. We only play one FCS school so six wins would get us to a bowl. I'll say we go 6-6, with two or three of those wins coming in the ACC and we do make a bowl for the first time since the 2007 season.
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BASKETBALL
The Hoos picked up a big road win over No. 15 Minnesota Monday in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge. After being down 22-9 early, Virginia caught fire (mostly Mustapha Farrakhan) and stayed in the game up until halftime. They caught the Gophers in the 48-point range and pulled away for a relatively comfortable 87-79 win. At the 10-minute mark in the first half, Virginia was on pace to score 36 points in the game. From there though, the Cavs scored 78 points in 30 minutes. After the 22-9 deficit, Virginia outscored Minnesota 78-57. Virginia got another double-double from Mike Scott and over 20 points from both Farrakhan and freshman Joe Harris.
I love Harris early in the season. He reminds me of a poor man's J.J. Redick. I say poor man's Redick because I certainly can't place him in that echelon yet, but Harris is a scrappy looking shooter with deceiving size and he just seems like one of those players you love to have on your team (and hate as the opponent). I think he has the ability to terrorize opponents all four years of his career as a Cavalier.
Scott has always been terrific--in the not-so-big games at least. Oftentimes, Scott shies away when the going gets tough. Monday night, though, Minnesota was down six I believe with about 1:30 remaining and Scott was calling for the ball down low. He received a pass and converted an and-1 and made the free throw. Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come. Scott is maybe ready to show up in all the games, and be a leader and assertive on the offensive end. If Scott consistently shows up against marquee opponents, we could definitely win more games than people think.
Farrakhan seemingly always does this. He will have an explosive game and then go into hiding again for several games. A double-digit scoring game followed by goose eggs is not uncommon for the senior. I just hope he can keep it up as well. If he stays hot, we'll stay competitive.
Next up, Virginia travels to Virginia Tech to face a solid, though not overly impressive, Hokies team Sunday. I want a win bad so here's to the boys giving a great effort.
Virginia's football season came to a merciful end Saturday as the Cavaliers received a 37-7 whooping at the hands of Virginia Tech. I'm going to give some grades for the first year of Mike London's tenure and then make a quick prediction about next year.
QBs: C+. We got about what we expected out of Marc Verica, I think. Pretty inconsistent, but at times, a decent to even above average quarterback. When put in bad situations though he broke down. When our offense was moving, he made some surprisingly good decisions and accurate throws. Under pressure and in long-yardage situations though, watch out. He never really achieved the success that he had during the four-game winning streak of 2008, but also didn't regress back to where he was in the four-game losing streak of '08. Bright spots included a mostly sterling performance vs. Miami and a record-setting day against Duke. None of our freshmen QBs look especially ready to lead the team, so it should be a great competition to see who gets the starting nod among Michael Rocco, Ross Mentheny, Michael Strauss, and maybe true freshman and Hampton native David Watford, cousin of Marques Hagans.
RBs: B+. Keith Payne was the feel good story of the year. I believe he ended up rushing for around 800 yards and led the league in rushing TDs with 14. Perry Jones was a good change of pace back but seemed to get bottled up at times unnecessarily by dancing around too much instead of getting north and south quickly. Still, he averaged close to five yards per carry. Raynard Horne also had some nice runs sprinkled in throughout the year.
WRs: B. Not a whole lot of production out of this position beyond Dontrelle Inman and Kris Burd, but they certainly were solid performers. Matt Snyder also took on a nice third-receiver role as well. Beyond some dropped balls, I was pretty happy and impressed with our WRs. Too bad Inman won't be back, but certainly am glad to get Burd back. I've liked him since he was a freshman, and he should be the primary weapon on next year's team. Also looking forward to the return of Tim Smith, who was out for most of the year with an injury.
OL/TEs: B+. Beyond the FSU game, I don't recall Verica getting sacked too much so I thought our line was improved over last year. At times, Verica held the ball for too long and took sacks. Those sacks were not the line's fault. Our running game was bolstered by great run blocking. It was tough to see Joe Torchia go down at tight end but Colter Phillips and Paul Freedman did a nice job of filling in. The tight end was once again prominent in the offense.
Run defense: D-. If our offense was at least good at times, our pass defense was bad and our run defense was ugly. It was obvious to everyone how much the defense regressed and it came as a shock to me, since Mike London was a defensive coach under Al Groh. We had good defenses under Groh, and when London was here, they were sometimes great defenses. I feel like we have the talent on defense, but not the right scheme or coaching. It'll be interesting to see what if any kind of changes in the off season are made on the defensive side of the ball. From the first game of the year when the Richmond running back ran for over a 50-yard TD, I guess that was a sign of bad things to come.
Pass defense: D. I'll give the pass defense a D instead of a D- because of the performance against Miami and Chase Minnifield in general. We had five picks in the Miami game, but mostly struggled throughout the year and made bad to average QBs look great.
Special teams: A-. I'll give this unit the highest mark not only because of the mostly brilliantly executed trick plays, but also because the unit was solid in general. We had more than one kickoff return for a TD, punt returns were usually positive, Jimmy Howell made effective use of the rugby-style kick and still could boom one when he had to, and Robert Randolph had a solid year after starting off kind of rocky.
Team discipline: C-. I actually added this one in late. The only reason it's getting mentioned is because of the enormous amount of penalties the team racked up. You didn't hear about London's guys skipping class or doing anything illegal, but the discipline stayed off the field and didn't carry on to the field too often.
Coaching: B-. We will know more about the team in general and the coaching at the end of next year but right now, I'd say the coaching was ok, but not great. Mike London no doubt has a passion for the school and the team, but the results were not there all the time. He got the players to buy in though, mostly, and they kept fighting. The defense was lackluster at some points, even looking like it lacked effort at times. That was difficult and strange to watch, giving London's penchant for strong defenses. It was definitely one of, if not the most, surprising parts of the season. Bill Lazor seems to be a great fit on offense. Once he gets some more toys to play with, I think our offense can really be a strong suit. On D, we might need to make staff changes. I'm not sure why, but the staff just was not able to get top-notch performances out of that group.
Overall: C+. I'll say just above average, because we won only one more than expected, but it was a good win. Oddly enough, it came against a team ranked in the top 25 at the time. I thought maybe we'd be able to get one or more wins from Duke, Maryland, and BC, what I perceived to be the worst teams in the ACC besides Virginia, and we didn't beat any of them, though they were our closest losses in conference. The USC game probably ballooned expectations a little too much. That was maybe our second best game played of the year overall. Though we finished with four wins, 6-7 were definitely possible. USC, Duke, BC, and Maryland I'd argue were all within a few plays of being wins (even though the Terp score was lopsided).
Outlook for next year: We have non-conference home games against William & Mary, Southern Miss, and Idaho and a road game vs. Indiana. In the ACC, we face Duke, N.C. State, Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech at home, and Maryland, North Carolina, FSU, and Miami on the road. We don't play Wake Forest, BC, or Clemson. I say things like this every year but you'd think we could get to 3-1 or even 4-0 in our non-conference games. As easy as the nonconference schedule was this year, one of the games was USC. Next year, I imagine Southern Miss will be the toughest oppoenent, and I really don't think they will be top 25 material. We only play one FCS school so six wins would get us to a bowl. I'll say we go 6-6, with two or three of those wins coming in the ACC and we do make a bowl for the first time since the 2007 season.
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BASKETBALL
The Hoos picked up a big road win over No. 15 Minnesota Monday in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge. After being down 22-9 early, Virginia caught fire (mostly Mustapha Farrakhan) and stayed in the game up until halftime. They caught the Gophers in the 48-point range and pulled away for a relatively comfortable 87-79 win. At the 10-minute mark in the first half, Virginia was on pace to score 36 points in the game. From there though, the Cavs scored 78 points in 30 minutes. After the 22-9 deficit, Virginia outscored Minnesota 78-57. Virginia got another double-double from Mike Scott and over 20 points from both Farrakhan and freshman Joe Harris.
I love Harris early in the season. He reminds me of a poor man's J.J. Redick. I say poor man's Redick because I certainly can't place him in that echelon yet, but Harris is a scrappy looking shooter with deceiving size and he just seems like one of those players you love to have on your team (and hate as the opponent). I think he has the ability to terrorize opponents all four years of his career as a Cavalier.
Scott has always been terrific--in the not-so-big games at least. Oftentimes, Scott shies away when the going gets tough. Monday night, though, Minnesota was down six I believe with about 1:30 remaining and Scott was calling for the ball down low. He received a pass and converted an and-1 and made the free throw. Hopefully this is a good sign of things to come. Scott is maybe ready to show up in all the games, and be a leader and assertive on the offensive end. If Scott consistently shows up against marquee opponents, we could definitely win more games than people think.
Farrakhan seemingly always does this. He will have an explosive game and then go into hiding again for several games. A double-digit scoring game followed by goose eggs is not uncommon for the senior. I just hope he can keep it up as well. If he stays hot, we'll stay competitive.
Next up, Virginia travels to Virginia Tech to face a solid, though not overly impressive, Hokies team Sunday. I want a win bad so here's to the boys giving a great effort.
if the defense stays the same, i don't have much hope for us next year either. giving up 50+ pts to duke is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteyeah defense is definitely the key. if we can start having defenses even a little close to the best ones under Groh, 6-6 might be an underestimate. but if it doesnt improve much, 6-6 or worse is realistic.
ReplyDelete