Virginia unfazed by shift in plans
By Jay Jenkins
Published: March 29, 2010
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nowBuzz up!
With the quick turnover of Davenport Field on Saturday between games in a rare
weekend doubleheader, buckets of popcorn littered many of the aisles as fans
poured back into the venue.
There was no need for a broom.
That could have changed — for better or worse — with one swing or one pitch
during the pivotal series amongst the nation’s best programs.
When the dust settled, No. 1 Virginia walked away with its fifth series win of
the season by taking the nightcap with a 3-1 decision over visiting Clemson that
was fueled by a pair of homers by batters in the bottom third of the order.
“To win yet another series speaks volumes about how we are playing right now,”
Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “We lost a very tough game in the opener on
Saturday and our team responded and that was the most important thing. There
will be times in the postseason where we will have to respond to a loss and we
did that against one of the top teams in the country.”
Virginia (20-4, 7-2 ACC) did not do it the conventional way — the Cavaliers’ No.
3 through No. 6 hitters combined to hit .159 during the weekend. In all, the
middle of the order produced just seven hits and cleanup hitter Steven Proscia
went hitless in 11 at-bats, leaving it hard for the average fan to fathom how
the Cavaliers emerged with a series win.
“That’s the game of baseball,” O’Connor said. “If it wasn’t that way everybody
would be hitting .500 all the time. A baseball season is made up of individual
players having hot streaks and then going cold.
“What separates players is when they have tough weekends or tough stretches and
do they make adjustments to get it turned around. That’s the important thing.
Anybody that is struggling will make adjustments and they will be better.”
O’Connor has seen the critical pieces in his batting order struggle before,
which forced the coach to move center fielder Jarrett Parker down from the
leadoff spot last year during the postseason.
“The most difficult thing in sports everybody says is hitting a baseball,” the
skipper said. “There’s time when it is not your day and not your weekend. You
just have to put it behind you and move on.”
Virginia’s efforts were helped on the mound in the finale of the series as
junior-college transfer Cody Winiarski worked six innings while allowing just
one earned run despite allowing 10 base runners (six hits, four walks).
“I am so proud of Cody Winiarski. He showed what he is made of after a difficult
loss in the first one,“ O’Connor said. “However he did it, he may have walked a
few hitters, he made the big pitches when he needed to against a very good
Clemson team.
“This is back-to-back really good outings for Cody [including a win over Boston
College] and I think he has shown the last two weeks what he is capable of doing
and why I made the decision to put him in the third starting role.”
Winiarski (3-0) has come quite a way from his time at Madison Area Tech in
Wisconsin, where he pitched in front of crowds that you could often count on two
hands.
“We are No. 1 right now and it feels good to be able to contribute to that,“
Winiarski said. “It really feels good. At Florida State, they had a great crowd,
so it was a mental game as much as it was physical, but I think our crowd this
weekend put on a tremendous showing.
“Last weekend was 75 degrees and today was a little chillier and they brought
the sweatshirts out, but the crowd still made a ton of noise and got to
[Clemson] a little bit.”
Virginia’s pitching staff as a whole held Clemson’s powerful lineup in check,
allowing just one extra-base hit in 27 innings of work.
“That’s an impressive stat against one of the best lineups in the ACC,” O’Connor
said. “We didn’t pitch as well as we could, but we made enough big pitches in
big situations to get the series win.”
Virginia also found a new hero offensively on Saturday against the 12th-ranked
Tigers, a night after Stephen Bruno hit a two-run homer and delivered a walk-off
single.
Kenny Swab, a seldom-used junior-college transfer, mashed a pair of home runs,
with one coming in each game Saturday.
“Both swings were good swings,” Swab said. “They both felt really good off the
bat. I just try to have the right approach in every situation.”
Swab’s homer in the nightcap came as he replaced everyday starter John Hicks in
the lineup. It was the first game Hicks has not started.
“Coach puts the best lineup on the field every single game. You just have to be
ready when your number is called.”
It had less to do with Hicks’ current slump (he is hitting .253) and more about
Swab’s approach of late. The junior now has three home runs in the past eight
games.
“I liked the way that Kenny Swab was swinging the bat,” O’Connor said. “I just
made the decision to keep him in the ballgame and fortunately I did, because he
had a big home run.
“I think that’s showing the versatility that this team has and the depth that
this team has. All of a sudden, on a gut instinct you can change something up
and have confidence in the guy that you are putting in there.”
While Virginia could lose its spot atop the national rankings after No. 2
Arizona State swept California to remain undefeated, O’Connor was pleased having
extended a streak against Clemson — the Tigers (18-6, 7-2) have lost three
straight series and eight of their last nine games at Davenport Field.
“That is a big accomplishment for our program,” O’Connor said. “Everybody knows
the type of program that Clemson has on a consistent basis.”
Virginia returns to action Tuesday at 5 p.m. at home against Towson.
Virginia wins gritty ACC series against Clemson
No. 1 Cavaliers secure difficult victory for third in-conference series triumph
of early season
Andrew Seidman and Aaron Perryman, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
Baseball / Featured / Sports
March 29, 2010 0
There are days when Danny Hultzen throws three-hit, shutout baseball while
fanning 12, when Dan Grovatt hits 4-for-5 at the plate with two home runs and
when Tyler Cannon makes game-saving plays in the infield.
Then there are days like this past Friday and Saturday, when the top-ranked
Cavaliers — for perhaps the first time all season — look uncertain and
vulnerable to the ups and downs of life in the ACC.
Coach Brian O’Connor doesn’t keep a calendar.
“I don’t care how you win the games,” he said. “The thing that matters most is
that we won the series against a really great team.”
Behind a pair of solo home runs off the bats of senior catcher Franco Valdes and
junior first baseman Kenny Swab and a solid outing by junior pitcher Cody
Winiarski (3-0), No. 1 Virginia (20-4, 7-2 ACC) picked up the second game of
Saturday’s doubleheader 3-1, clinching a 2-1 series win against No. 5 Clemson
(18-6, 7-2 ACC).
But even though the final score favored the Cavaliers, it wasn’t pretty. This
weekend, the Tigers forced Virginia to play in a way it didn’t have to
throughout the first 22 games.
This time, the Cavaliers got ugly.
It was clear from the outset of the second half of a six-hour grinder at
Davenport Field that Virginia wasn’t going to play like it did against Boston
College the previous weekend, when it outscored the Eagles 22-5.
In the bottom of the first, Virginia’s RBI leader, sophomore third baseman
Steven Proscia, grounded into one of his many double plays of the weekend,
continuing his grueling 3-for-31 slump.
During the following inning, Cannon was caught stealing on a pitch-out that
suggested Clemson coach Jack Leggett might have been prepared for O’Connor’s bag
of tricks. And though the Cavaliers had some more productive plays, they still
felt about as clean as a punch to the gallbladder. Valdes’s homer in the bottom
of the third whistled through the air with the slice of a novice golfer and
barely grazed the top of the left-center field wall. Then sophomore
everything-man Danny Hultzen popped up a ball just beyond the infield grass.
Instead of calling each other off, Clemson sophomore shortstop Brad Miller,
redshirt sophomore third baseman John Hinson and redshirt senior left fielder
Wilson Boyd decided it would be better to let the ball drop as Hultzen raced to
second. The cerebral base running eventually resulted in a run with a couple of
flyouts, one of which was sophomore second baseman Keith Werman’s scrappy poke
that sliced down the left field line.
The one-run lead proved to be enough to support Winiarski’s equally gritty
performance on the mound. The righty gave up six hits, walked four and allowed
at least one base runner in each of his six innings of work. And three of his
four strikeouts came against junior right fielder Chris Epps, who entered the
game hitting an abominable .205 on the season. But regardless of how much
trouble Winiarski may have had keeping runners from reaching base, he handled
the immediate consequences almost perfectly.
“It’s all part of [pitching] coach [Karl] Kuhn — his strategy — he knows that as
a pitcher you’re gonna make your money pitching with guys on base,” Winiarski
said. “We really focus on that in the fall, and then early in the spring, and
pays off here now in the season.”
But as difficult as it was for fans to watch the Cavaliers scrape at everything
they had to win, it was even more painful to observe the team’s 8-5 loss in game
one of Saturday’s doubleheader, which marked Virginia’s first home loss to an
ACC opponent.
Freshman reliever Whit Mayberry (0-1) was saddled with that loss, while Clemson
sophomore starting pitcher Will Lamb (3-0) picked up the win. Junior starter
Robert Morey tossed six innings for Virginia, giving up two earned runs on five
hits and four walks while striking out seven.
The Cavaliers got the scoring started in the third inning, when freshman
designated hitter Stephen Bruno knocked a single off Lamb to right field. Lamb
tried to pick off Bruno at first, but his throw skidded along the ground past
junior first baseman Kyle Parker, allowing Bruno to advance to third. Bruno then
scored on junior second baseman Phil Gosselin’s sacrifice fly to left-center
field.
The Tigers then surged ahead for a 2-1 lead in the fifth, when Boyd and junior
left fielder Jeff Schaus picked up RBIs. The damage could have been worse, but
Grovatt caught Miller’s fly ball and used his rocket arm to throw out a tagging
Parker at the plate for the third out.
“That showed why we’ve been trying to pitch Danny Grovatt,” O’Connor said. “He’s
got one heck of an arm. He got behind the ball, which is what he needed to do,
and threw a strike to home plate. That was a big throw at a key time in the
game.”
Virginia tied the score at 2-2 in the sixth but let go of an opportunity with
the bases loaded and zero outs. Proscia hit into a double play — scoring
Gosselin in the process — but Parker popped out to third base to end the inning.
The tie did not last long as Clemson scored during a bizarre sequence in the
seventh. With two outs and Epps on third, Mayberry balked, and Epps walked home
to take a lead that the Tigers would not relinquish. In fact, Epps had already
set up this go-ahead play by stealing second and advancing to third on an
earlier groundout.
“I didn’t see it, I wasn’t watching [Mayberry] at that time, so I can’t
comment,” O’Connor said. “But I’m sure it was a balk because these are some of
the best umpires in the country.”
Clemson extended its lead to 5-2 in the eighth, with sophomore catcher Phil Pohl
and redshirt junior center fielder Addison Johnson collecting RBIs. Sophomore
catcher John Hicks, however, brought the Cavaliers to within one point of their
opponent by notching a two-RBI single in Virginia’s half of the eighth.
The Cavaliers had a chance to get out of their ninth-down 5-4 predicament, but
Cannon made two uncharacteristic errors in the field that led to three extra
runs by the Tigers.
“That happens,” Cannon said. “You boot some balls, you make some good plays.
That’s baseball — you just try to make more plays than you boot ‘em.”
Swab hit a solo home run to lead off the ninth, but he couldn’t bring Virginia
completely out of its slump, instead leaving it within three runs of Clemson.
Even Virginia’s dramatic 4-3 victory Friday evening, which set the stage for
Saturday’s aforementioned doubleheader, featured some unconventional Cavalier
baseball. Hultzen scattered eight hits and two walks, allowing three earned runs
in six innings of work that included a 41-pitch second inning in his toughest
outing of the year. O’Connor brought in reliever Tyler Wilson (3-1) in the
seventh, only to see the junior walk two batters and load the bases. But the
Cape Cod League veteran eventually settled in, striking out five batters in the
final three innings of the game. Wilson’s shutout work eventually earned him the
win and set the stage for Bruno’s walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth.
With the bases loaded and one out, Leggett signaled for the infield to play in,
hoping to get a force out at home. Bruno then sent a liner over the outstretched
arms of Hinson to score junior center fielder Jarrett Parker and win the game.
Had Hinson been positioned at normal depth, he most likely would have been able
to make the catch.
But no matter how ugly Virginia’s victories may have been, its ability to win
such close games against highly ranked opponents may prove crucial as the season
progresses.
“The thing about it is, our players are human,” O’Connor said. “They’re not
perfect — they’re gonna make mistakes. But I’ll tell ya, we’ve been darn near
perfect in our first 24 ball games. To win 20 out of the 24 is something that’s
very, very impressive against the competition we’ve played against.”
Cavaliers Finish 10th at NCAA Championships
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 03/28/2010
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Virginia men's swimming team finished in 10th place at the
2010 NCAA Championships, which wrapped up Sunday in Columbus, Ohio. It marks the
first time the men's program has recorded back-to-back top-10 finishes at the
NCAA meet.
"It is very important to be consistent," Virginia head coach Mark Bernardino
said. "In order to move forward, you have to be consistent, and for that, it was
a very positive outcome."
The Cavaliers finished with 123 points. Texas won the national title with 500
points; California was second (469.5) and Arizona placed third (387).
It was the second consecutive year the Virginia men have tallied with a top-10
finish at the NCAA meet. The squad placed ninth, the best in school history, in
2009. It also was the third top-10 finish for the program; the 2003 Cavaliers
also finished 10th.
Virginia concluded the NCAA Championships with eight national accolades,
including all five relays. Three of those relays - the 800 free, 400 medley and
200 free - were All-America honorees with top-8 finishes.
Two Cavaliers - seniors John Azar and Eric Olesen - concluded their collegiate
careers at these championships.
"Eric has been an unsung hero for this team," Bernardino said. "He has been the
leadoff leg of our medley relay team for several years and is a vital part of
our sprint freestyle relay. He is a tough kid with a great heart.
"John is one of the most valuable swimmers we have ever had in our program,"
Bernardino continued. "He does everything and I am really proud of him. He
brings spirit and energy to the team and is a great leader."
The 400 free relay team of Scot Robison, Peter Geissinger, Azar and Matt McLean
won the consolation race in 2:52.16 to finish ninth overall and earn honorable
mention All-America honors.
"Scot got us out to a nice lead, Peter had a spectacular split and John and Matt
brought it home," Bernardino said. "We took first place on the last event of the
season and that relay really proved where it belongs."
Robison also earned honorable mention All-American honors after his 12th-place
performance in the 100 free. The Charlotte, N.C., native finished in 43.07 and
was fourth in the consolation finals.
"Scot gave us big points tonight," Bernardino said. "He just does more for the
team than for himself. His leadoff split in the relay would have made him a
finalist but when you get three guys behind him he turns into Superman and is a
totally different swimmer."
2010 Men's NCAA Championships
Team Standings - Top 10
1. Texas 500
2. California 469.5
3. Arizona 387
4. Stanford 369
5. Florida 364
6. Auburn 277.5
7. Michigan 204
8. Georgia 143
9. Ohio State 136.5
10. VIRGINIA
123
Virginia's 2010 All-Americans
Individuals
Scot Robison, Junior
200 Free - 8th
100 Free - 12th
Matt McLean, Junior
500 Free - 10th
Relays
800 Free Relay - 4th
Matt McLean, John Azar, Scot Robison, Taylor Smith
400 Medley Relay - 7th
Eric Olesen, Tom Casey, Peter Geissinger, Scot Robison
200 Free Relay - 8th
Scot Robison, Peter Geissinger, Eric Olesen, John Azar
400 Free Relay - 9th
Scot Robison, Peter Geissinger, John Azar, Matt McLean
200 Medley Relay - 16th
Eric Olesen, Tom Casey, Peter Geissinger, John Azar
No. 3 Virginia Rowing Wins Both Its Races at San Diego Crew
Classic
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 03/28/2010
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The third-ranked Virginia rowing team won both races it
competed in at the San Diego Crew Classic on Sunday (March 28). UVa's Varsity
Eight finished first and won the Jessop-Whittier Cup, while the Second Varsity
Eight claimed the Jackie Ann Stitt Hungness Trophy with a first-place finish.
UVa's Third Varsity Eight finished fourth in the grand final for the Jackie Ann
Stitt Hungness Trophy to round out the Cavaliers' competition at the event.
The Varsity Eight of coxswain of Sidney Thorsten, Jennifer Cromwell, Summers
Nelson, Desiree Burns, Katrin Reinert, Martha Kuzzy, Kristine O'Brien, Nora
Phillips and Helen Tompkins won the race with a time of 6:34.20. Second-place
went to 10th-ranked USC with a time of 6:37.48, followed by UCLA (6:41.95), No.
16 Washington State (6:44.06), No. 14 Harvard (6:53.33) and Grand Valley
(6:58.20).
The Varsity Eight got off to a quick start and led the entire race, increasing
its lead as the race went on. The crew was 2-0 at the San Diego Crew Classic, as
the Cavaliers won their heat Saturday to advance to the grand final.
Virginia's Second Varsity Eight (coxswain Sarah Pichardo, Victoria Burke, Marie
Long, Keziah Beall, Lauren Hutchins, Lauren Shook, Christine Roper, Claudia
Blandford, Inge Janssen) was victorious and claimed the Jackie Ann Stitt
Hungness Trophy with a time of 6:50.00. USC finished in second place with a time
of 6:50.25, followed by Washington State (6:53.00), Virginia's Third Varsity
Eight (6:54.89), UCLA (6:57.07) and Harvard (6:59.54).
USC led that race at the 1,000-meter mark, but Virginia gained ground in a
back-and-forth race and nipped the Trojans in the end by a quarter of a second.
The Third Varsity Eight of Virginia was comprised of coxswain Cristine Candland,
MacKenzie Leahy, Betsy Nilan, Cara Linnenkohl, Sarah Borchelt, Ruth Retzinger,
Francesca Lauritano, Chelsea Simpson and Marelle Myers.
"This was a big trip for us, coming all the way out to California," Virginia
head coach Kevin Sauer said. "Our crews performed well and it was a great event.
The team stepped up to come away with two wins. It was awesome."
Virginia is back in action next weekend when it hosts No. 9 Michigan and No. 10
Ohio State on Saturday, April 3, at Lake Monticello. The regatta begins at 9
a.m.
No. 1 Virginia Tops Florida State and Delaware
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 03/28/2010
CHARLOTTESVILLE – The top-ranked Virginia men’s tennis team extended its home
winning streak to 69 consecutive matches as it swept a doubleheader Sunday at
the Boyd Tinsley Courts at the Boar’s Head Sports Club. The Cavaliers (25-1, 5-0
ACC) topped ACC rival Florida State 5-2 in the first match before downing
Delaware 10-1 in the nightcap.
Virginia opened the day by defeating the Seminoles (11-5, 4-2 ACC). The
Cavaliers opened the match by winning the doubles point. Drew Courtney (Clifton,
Va.) and Michael Shabaz (Fairfax, Va.) cruised to an 8-2 win over Connor Smith
and Vahid Mirzadeh at No. 1. Lee Singer (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) and Jarmere
Jenkins (College Park, Ga.) remained unbeaten as a pair with their 8-6 win over
Andres Bucaro and Anderson Reed at the No. 3 position.
In singles, the Cavaliers quickly extended their lead to 3-0 with wins at No. 5
and No. 6, as Barrick topped Reed 6-2, 6-2 and Singer downed Jordan
Kelly-Houston 6-2, 6-4. After Mirzadeh upset third-ranked Sanam Singh (Chandigarh,
India) at No. 2 to cut the lead to 3-1, Shabaz clinched the win with his 6-2,
5-7, 6-1 win over Jean-Yves Aubone at No. 1. Jenkins later added a 7-6, 6-2 win
over Bucaro at No. 4.
With the win, the Cavaliers extended their win streak against ACC competition to
52 consecutive matches.
In the second match of the doubleheader, Virginia topped Delaware (5-7) 10-1 in
a match using an alternative scoring system. The teams played four doubles and
seven singles matches, all worth one point.
The Cavaliers opened the match by winning three of the four doubles matches
against the Blue Hens. In singles, Virginia won all seven matches. Steven
Eelkman Rooda (Amersfoort, The Netherlands), Philippe Oudshoorn (Apeldoorn, The
Netherlands), Santiago Villegas (Bogota, Colombia), Julen Uriguen (Guatemala
City, Guatemala), Dino Dell’Orto (Hong Kong, China) and Brian Fang (Hacienda
Heights, Calif.) all won in straight sets and Milo Johnson (Tulsa, Okla.) added
a three-set win.
The Cavaliers return to action on Friday as they visit No. 18 North Carolina.
No. 1 Virginia 5, No. 22 Florida State 2
Doubles:
1. #17 ShabazCourtney (UVa) def. #70 Smith/Mirzadeh (FSU) 8-2
2. #60 Aubone/Bowles (FSU) def. #19 Barrick/Singh (UVa) 8-5
3. #41 Singer/Jenkins (UVa) def. Bucaro/Reed (FSU) 8-6
Singles:
1. #4 Michael Shabaz (UVa) def. #22 Jean-Yves Aubone (FSU) 6-2, 5-7, 6-1
2. #48 Vahid Mirzadeh (FSU) def. #3 Sanam Singh (UVa) 6-3, 7-5
3. #71 Clint Bowles (FSU) def. #53 Drew Courtney (UVa) 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1
4. #33 Jarmere Jenkins (UVa) def. Andres Bucaro (FSU) 7-6(3) 6-2
5. #87 Houston Barrick (UVa) def. Anderson Reed (FSU) 6-2, 6-2
6. #68 Lee Singer (UVa) def. Jordan Kelly-Houston (FSU) 6-2, 6-4
Order of Finish:
Doubles: 1,3,2
Singles: 5,6,2,1,4,3
No. 1 Virginia 10, Delaware 1
Doubles:
1. Longacre/Vorobyob (Del) def. Oudshoorn/Rooda (UVa) 9-7
2. Johnson/Dell’Orto (UVa) def. Celik/Hincker (Del) 8-3
3. Uriguen/Villegas (UVa) def. Barrer/Scott (Del) 8-4
4. Fang/Shabaz (UVa) def. Perez/Piacente (Del) 8-0
Singles:
1. #113 Steven Eelkman Rooda (UVa) def. Austin Longacre (Del) 6-3, 6-2
2. #102 Philippe Oudshoorn (UVa) def. Gokay Celik (Del) 6-3, 6-2
3. Santiago Villegas (UVa) def. Courtney Scott (Del) 6-0, 6-1
4. Milo Johnson (UVa) def. Chris Hincker (Del) 4-6, 6-3, 6-1
5. Julen Uriguen (UVa) def. Andre Vorobyov (Del) 6-2, 6-1
6. Dino Dell’Orto (UVa) def. Sam Barrer (Del) 6-2, 6-2
7. Brian Fang (UVa) def. Jeff Marshall (del) 6-1, 6-1
Order of Finish:
Doubles: 4,2,3,1
Singles: 5,3,1,2,6,4,7
Women’s Tennis Falls at No. 11 Miami
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 03/28/2010
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The No. 30 Virginia women’s tennis team concluded a
five-match road trip Sunday, falling 7-0 at No. 11 Miami. The Cavaliers fall to
10-5 overall, 3-2 in the ACC with the loss, while the Hurricanes improve to 12-3
and lead the conference with a 6-0 ACC mark.
The Hurricanes opened the match by sweeping the three doubles matches. In
singles, Miami clinched the victory with four straight wins. In the other two
matches, Hana Tomljanovic (Boca Raton, Fla.) and Jennifer Stevens (Miami, Fla.)
fell in three sets.
“You have to give a lot of credit to Miami and Florida State this weekend,” said
head coach Mark Guilbeau. “Both teams were very tough. Despite the scoreboard
today, there were some very positive steps taken within the match. The team is
competing hard and producing periods of very good tennis. The goal is to
continue to improve and take advantage of the matches to come.”
Virginia returns home for the first time in a month on Friday, April 2 as it
hosts top-ranked North Carolina. Match time at the Snyder Tennis Center is set
for 2 p.m.
No. 11 Miami 7, No. 30 Virginia 0
Doubles:
1. #7 Mejia/Vallverdu (UM) def. #50 Hardenbergh/Vierra (UVa) 8-5
2. #64 Bartenstein/Eichkorn (UM) def. #66 Tomljanovic/Stevens (UVa) 9-7
3. Mills/Wasilewski (UM) def. Fuccillo/Fraser (UVa) 8-4
Singles:
1. #7 Laura Vallverdu (UM) def. #41 Lindsey Hardenbergh (UVa) 6-4, 6-1
2. #33 Bianca Eichkorn (UM) def. Emily Fraser (UVa) 6-3, 6-2
3. #62 Anna Bartenstein (UM) def. Erin Vierra (UVa) 6-4, 7-6
4. #107 Gabriela Mejia (UM) def. Hana Tomljanovic (UVa) 2-6, 6-4, 6-2
5. Danielle Mills (UM) def. Jennifer Stevens (UVa) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2
6. Claudia Wasilewski (UM) def. Maria Fuccillo (UVa) 6-3, 6-3
Order of Finish:
Doubles: 3,1,2
Singles: 6,1,2,3,5,4
Virginia Sweeps Hokies for First Time Since ‘98
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 03/28/2010
BLACKSBURG, Va. - The Virginia softball team (18-13, 5-0 ACC) completed a sweep
over Virginia Tech (13-20, 2-4 ACC) Sunday with an 8-3 victory at Tech Softball
Park in Blacksburg, Va. It marks the first time since 1998 - the first season
the two teams met - the Cavaliers have swept the Hokies.
Junior Lauren McCaskey and senior Sarah Tacke each had a pair of hits in the win
as the Cavaliers and Hokies both finished with eight hits.
Freshman pitcher Melanie Mitchell won all three games on the weekend for the
Orange and Blue. On Sunday, she recorded six strikeouts against the Hokies. It
was her 14th win of the season in the circle.
UVa jumped out to an early lead, scoring six runs in the first. Giannina
Cipolloni led off with a single to right field and moved over to second on a
McCaskey sacrifice bunt. Nicole Koren reached on a walk and Tacke singled up the
middle to score Cipolloni. Alex Skinkis reached on a Tech error, which also
scored Koren. Tacke would come in to score on Clara Kendall's RBI single up the
middle. Skinkis and Kendall both had some solid base running and took advantage
of Hokie mistakes to score. Abby Snyder, who reached on an error, came in on a
Taylor Williams double.
The Cavaliers put up two more runs in the second. McCaskey led off with a single
to left. She scored on Tacke's two-run homer. Virginia Tech got three runs back
in the third, thanks to a three-run home run from Richelle McGarva.
In the top of the seventh, the umpires called for the tarp. After a 36-minute
delay the teams the teams took the field. The Cavaliers scored two runs on walks
and wild pitches and the game was finally called. The score reverted back to the
last completed inning, ending at 8-3.
Virginia is back in action at 6 p.m. Wednesday at James Madison.
Cavaliers Finish 11th at Murphey Collegiate
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 03/28/2010
Athens, GA - The No. 15 Virginia women's golf team finished 11th at the 23-team
Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic at the University of Georgia Golf Course.
Virginia shot 13-over 301, its best round of the tournament, to finish with a
54-hole score of 932. Duke, ranked No. 4, won by 21 strokes at 889. Alabama,
ranked No. 6, was second at 910.
The field featured 20 teams ranked in Golfstat's current top-50 standings.
Virginia was led by junior Calle Nielson, who placed 17th at 12-over 228. She
shot 79 during Sunday's final round. Cavalier freshmen Brittany Altomare and
Nicole Agnello both posted 4-over 76s in the final round. Altomare was 32nd
overall at 232 and Agnello was 61st at 238. Lauren Greenlief equaled her low
career round with a 72 to post UVa's low round Sunday. She moved up to 61st
overall 238. Eleana Collins was 93rd at 244 after finishing with a 77. Joy Kim,
competing as a non-scoring individual, was 107th at 249.
Duke's Lindy Duncan led from wire-to-wire to claim medalist honors at 3-under
213. She finished eight shots ahead of the runners-up and was the only player to
break par during the event.
Virginia will play its final tournament before the ACC Championships this
weekend at the Bryant National in Brown Summit, N.C. The event runs Friday,
April 2 to Sunday, April 4.
Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic
University of Georgia Golf Course
Athens, GA
Par-72, 6,335 yards
Final Results
Team Results
1. Duke 300-300-289-889
2. Alabama 316-302-292-910
3. Arkansas 312-303-297-912
4. Purdue
310-315-290-915
4. Auburn 310-299-306-915
6. Wake Forest 316-304-301-921
7. Michigan State 314-307-307-928
7. North Carolina
310-304-314-928
9. Denver 321-312-296-929
10. Ohio State 315-311-305-931
11. Virginia 320-311-301-932
11. South Carolina 324-309-299-932
13. Georgia State 322-305-306-933
14. Georgia 321-311-302-934
15. Tulane 319-315-303-937
16. Tennessee 318-319-301-938
17. Kent State 320-309-310-939
18. Florida 314-322-308-944
19. Furman 323-319-309-951
20. Mississippi 327-315-310-952
21. Central Florida 330-327-317-974
22. Mississippi State
343-333-315-990
22. Georgia (B) 329-340-321-990
Individual Leaders
1. Lindy Duncan, Duke 70-72-71-213
2. Stacey Kim, Duke 76-75-70-221
2. Jennifer Kirby, Alabama 77-72-72-221
4. Martina Gavier, Kent State 75-77-71-223
5. Kelli Shean, Arkansas 78-73-74-224
6. Nathalie Mansson, Tennessee 76-79-70-225
6. Marta Silva, Zamora, Georgia 74-77-74-225
6. Cheyenne Woods, Wake Forest 74-73-78-228
Virginia Results
17. Calle Nielson 74-75-79-228
32. Brittany Altomare 80-76-76-232
61. Nicole Agnello 82-80-76-238
61. Lauren Greenlief 84-82-72-238
93. Eleana Collins 87-80-77-244
107. Joy Kim* 82-88-79-249
* Competing as an individual
Skinner fading
E-mail|Link|Comments (4) Posted by Mark Blaudschun, Globe Staff March 28, 2010
07:39 PM
Boston College coach Al Skinner has dropped behind former
UCLA coach Steve Lavin in the St. John's coaching derby to find a replacement
for Norm Roberts who was fired two weeks ago. Lavin will meet with St. John's
officials Monday morning. If there are no snags, Lavin could be the announced as
the next St. John's coach by Tuesday..
According to sources familiar with the search, one of the topics that St. John's
athletic director Chris Monasch focused on in his interview with Skinner on
Friday was who would be on his staff. Monasch felt that any new coach needed a
strong link to the powerful AAU presence in New York City and wanted Skinner to
hire someone with strong connections in that area. Skinner said that he wanted
to bring his current coaching staff which included Pat Duquette, Mo Cassera and
Bonzie Colson, all who have more New England ties than New York connections.
On Saturday, Monasch interviewed Siena coach Fran McCaffery, but McCaffery was
in the process of finalizing a deal which sent him to the University of Iowa as
its new head coach.
Monasch then decided to go for a victory in the "press conference'' and made
contact with Lavin, who last coached at UCLA eight years ago. Monasch had the
same question for Lavin, who according to sources familiar with the situation,
told Monasch he had no problems in making those hires. All of it seemed to work
and yesterday sources familiar with the situation said that St. John's was
preparing a deal which will include Lavin as well as Dave Leitao, who had
experience as not only an assistant on Jim Calhoun's staff at Connecticut as
well as head coaching stops at Northeastern, DePaul and Virginia as well as
Manhattan head coach Barry Rohrssen, who has strong recruiting ties in the city.
An announcement could come as soon as today if details could be worked out.
Barring any last minute snags Lavin will be the next coach. If things can't be
worked out, Skinner would then become St. John's next option.
Virginia Football: What Went Wrong With Al Groh?
John Gilmer
Contributor Written on March 27, 2010
I am going to take a look at a question on the minds of many Cavalier fans: What
went wrong with the Al Groh era?
During his first few years on the job, the Cavaliers were playing well and
seemed to be a program on the rise. We had some good recruiting classes. The fan
base was energized and growing.
The stadium had been expanded and was bringing in record crowds. Then things
went south and Groh was unceremoniously dumped following the 2009 season after
nine years on the job. What went wrong?
First, let me ask the obvious question: Why was Groh fired? The answer: He
wasn’t winning enough games, which is closely related to his losing too many
games.
Why is it so important to win games, you might naively ask? Is it worth it to
fire a coach when you have to pay him over $4 million as a buyout? Yes, because
winning games bring money and prestige to a university—and lots of it.
The difference between winning and losing in terms of ticket revenue, donations,
apparel sales, and intangibles is much more than $4 million. Football and
basketball make money to subsidize all the other athletic programs.
Let’s take a look at Texas as an example, which I would argue is the most
successful football program (along with USC) in the last decade.
Some people think it’s outrageous that Mack Brown was recently given a raise to
$5 million a year when so many colleges are having to cut back their academic
expenses.
However, according to Texas university officials, football revenues have
quadrupled under Brown, from $21.3 million yearly in 1997 to $87.5 million in
2008.
Forbes magazine estimates that the Longhorns football team profited $59 million
in the 2009 season for University of Texas academics and athletics. I’d say
that’s a fantastic return on investment for $5 million.
I like Al Groh and was hoping that he would succeed at Virginia. I know many
fans had given up on Groh years ago, but being the eternal optimist, I supported
him and didn’t agree it was time for a change until this past season, his third
losing season in four years.
Before writing a lot of words about what went wrong, I’d like to mention a few
things I liked about Groh:
1. He was a man of integrity and ran the program with integrity.
There was never a whiff of any sort of impropriety, which unfortunately is
getting rare in big-time college sports. The players in the program actually
needed to be students first and focus on their studies.
I’ve heard several recruits over the years say something like this when being
interviewed: “Many schools use negative recruiting to badmouth other teams, but
never Virginia.”
2. He developed young men who make you proud that they wear UVA colors.
Of course, there’ve been a handful of bad apples who have gotten in trouble with
their academics or the law—just like there are among any population of college
students.
But the players have overwhelmingly been kind, humble, well-spoken, and good
role models: the sort of guys you’d want your daughter to marry.
3. He’s developed many players who are ready to excel in the NFL.
Groh is well respected in the coaching profession and ran the Virginia program
like an NFL organization in many respects.
Our players have a reputation of being NFL-ready, which has helped them get
drafted and eventually succeed in the League.
It doesn’t hurt that they are likely to be high character guys (see the previous
point), which helps them to stay productive over the long haul.
4. Groh loved the university.
He was an alumnus and his son played quarterback for the Cavs. He left a head
coaching position in the NFL, which is the pinnacle of success in the
profession, to come back to his alma mater. He was not a paid mercenary.
He is famous for his work ethic, often working more than 90 hours a week during
the season. No one can say that he lost for lack of effort.
Now let’s discuss the reasons for the demise of the program under Groh. The
following are not in any particular order.
1. Failure to develop talented quarterbacks.
If I had to choose one reason that is more prominent than others in the list,
this would be it.
Our offense was most prolific in the two years it was led by Matt Schaub early
in Groh’s tenure. Schaub is arguably the greatest quarterback in UVA history and
is now flourishing with the Houston Texans.
Marques Hagans was under center for the next two years, having his ups and
downs, but overall was a pretty decent quarterback. Since then our quarterback
situation has been a disaster.
The one winning season post-Hagans was led by Jameel Sewell, who had some nice
games that year but still wasn’t terrific.
Groh himself has said on more than one occasion that a good quarterback is the
key to winning since all the offense goes through that one position.
Whether the failure has been one of recruiting talent or developing talent is up
for debate.
But the fact of the matter is that the lack of offensive production has been the
team’s downfall, and much of that is on the quarterback’s shoulders.
The staff has also had a tough time picking the best option when multiple
quarterbacks are vying for the starting spot, sometimes not declaring a starter
until the morning of the season opener.
The most egregious case was probably in 2006, when Christian Olsen started the
first game but looked awful. Olsen and Kevin McCabe played in the second game,
and freshman Jameel Sewell was added to the rotation in the third game.
After that third game, a loss to Western Michigan where all three quarterbacks
played poorly, Groh was asked if he had any other options at quarterback.
He replied, “No, if we do that, we might as well ask everybody in this room to
try out. You can only go down so far. Otherwise, then you become a real
ham-and-egg operation.”
(I suppose a ham-and-egg operation might be an appropriate name for the
quarterback position in the last four years.)
Many fans, including myself, thought that McCabe looked like the best of the
three options. However, McCabe got into Groh’s doghouse because of a few
interceptions and never emerged.
McCabe was among Groh’s highest rated quarterback recruits (4-star) coming out
of high school and later transferred to a smaller college where he could finish
his eligibility, having an outstanding senior campaign there.
2. Failure to develop receivers and defensive backs.
Each year, I like to take a look at each positional group in order to rate their
talent and production. (See last year's article .)
With a few exceptions (like the defensive backs this past year, which was a very
strong group), the receivers and defensive backs have not been particularly
strong. These units have also developed fewer All-ACC players than other groups.
3. Unnecessary burning of redshirts.
I won’t belabor this point, since many others have already criticized Groh in
this area, but he was infamous for using true freshmen even when they didn’t
appear to be contributing much, thereby denying the players a redshirt year.
Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe has proven that redshirting almost every single
first year player is a key ingredient to winning with less talent.
Alex Fields and Maurice Covington are two players that exhausted their
eligibility after four years and would have been key starters on the 2009 squad
if they hadn’t played a few snaps their freshman year.
For true freshmen who only play on special teams, I find it hard to believe that
none of the upperclassmen could do the job just as well.
Groh has said, when questioned about his philosophy, that he’ll play any player
if the player might help them to win the game, without any thought to the
future. That regrettably is a short-sighted way to run a program.
4. Attrition.
Virginia has lost many key players over the years to academic, behavior,
attitude, or injury issues.
The most memorable example of this might be when three of the top players on the
team were lost before the 2008 season: Jameel Sewell, Chris Cook, and Jeffrey
Fitzgerald.
I think Groh made a mistake earlier in his tenure of recruiting players without
giving adequate consideration to whether the player would be able to survive the
academics on grounds for five years.
There have been fewer academic risks joining the team in recent years, though
the practice hasn’t stopped completely.
5. Roster management issues.
This is a catch-all phrase that covers a number of issues that conspire to
prevent having depth and talent in various positions.
I’ve already mentioned attrition and lack of redshirting. Some fans have
questioned how certain players have been slotted.
It also seems that he has a so-called iron-man strategy of playing starters
virtually every snap rather than letting the backups get some action, which
doesn’t allow the second-stringers to progress.
When the starter graduates or gets hurt, then the new starter is inexperienced.
This, similar to the redshirting issue, is short-sighted.
It seems like almost every year we have a “young team,” where many of the
starters are not seniors.
Another issue is that Virginia often didn’t recruit enough players to compensate
for attrition and, thus, had fewer than the possible 85 scholarship players on
the team.
This seemed to be less of a problem in later years, as the staff started to
expect a certain amount of attrition.
All of these issues led to not having the depth, experience, and talent needed
to level out the dips during rebuilding years and field a consistently winning
team.
6. Not getting enough Virginia recruits.
I don’t know if this was from lack of effort or not, but in some years the Cavs
didn’t get many prospects from in-state, particularly the top players.
When a player commits to come here, I am just as excited about them whether they
are in-state. And I love our past and current players just the same whether they
came from in-state.
That said, there are advantages of getting in-state prospects. For example, it
can create pipelines from certain high schools.
More in-state recruits mean more local fans cheering for their local stars and
clamoring for media coverage, leading to future prospects that are more likely
to be UVA fans themselves.
If more of our recruiting is in-state, this allows the coaches to spend less
money and time recruiting because the geographical footprint area in which they
are spending most of their time driving around is smaller.
Our coaches can get an inside scoop on recruits that might be under the radar,
or even if they aren’t under the radar, you can recruit them early and get a
head start.
This is because you have developed a good relationship with coaches and people
in the know in VA who tip you off to rising stars, and because you see younger
players in their freshman to junior years as you are scouting the older players.
There have been rumors that Groh’s staff doesn’t have the best relationship with
some Virginia high school football coaches.
Maybe our coaches weren’t willing to grovel before them enough. For example,
they reportedly burned bridges with Mike Smith, the coach at Hampton High
School, which used to be a UVA pipeline.
7. Inability to compete with Virginia Tech.
Groh only beat UVA’s biggest rival one time in his nine years at the helm. It’s
not Al’s fault that Tech has been so consistently good, but he has to do better
than that to appease the fan base.
Tech has been to 17 straight bowl games, finishing in the top 10 of the AP final
rankings six times and in the top 25 every year but three during that span.
Frank Beamer is a master of winning without a load of elite talent, as their
recruiting classes aren’t typically ranked in the top 20.
An important side effect is that in recent years, Tech has started to whip UVA
in the in-state recruiting battles. This sort of success makes Cavalier fans
livid with envy.
Unfortunately, winning produces fans and losing produces apathy among fans,
which means that Virginia Tech has a lot more fans than UVA these days.
This causes Tech to be more popular with recruits and media, which then feeds
back into even more success on the field.
8. Promoting Mike Groh to offensive coordinator.
Al’s son, Mike, was not qualified to be an OC this early in his career. Groh
lost much public goodwill for the move, and should have learned a lesson from
Bobby Bowden, who did the exact same thing with his son Jeff.
When things start to go south, fans will cry out “nepotism” and blame the son,
whether it’s warranted or not.
In Virginia’s case, I think it was warranted, because the offense was lousy for
all three seasons he was a coordinator. Al staked his own success on Mike’s
ability to run the offense, and the gamble did not work out.
9. Assistant coach turnover.
There have been an alarming number of coaches coming and going in the past
decade. This is partly because Groh is respected among other coaches, so his
assistants have been poached and promoted by other schools.
Groh has always said that he’s happy when one of his tribe gets an opportunity
at another school. However, it makes it hard to maintain continuity in coaching
strategy and recruiting.
During Groh’s nine years, the Cavaliers had 23 different assistant coaches. As a
comparison, during that time Virginia Tech had 14 assistant coaches, including
the same offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and recruiting
coordinator.
In fact, Tech has not had a single coaching change in the last four seasons.
Here’s a great article about how important it is for the college coaches to
build long-term relationships with high school coaches in order to be successful
recruiters.
One telling quote from the article: “The most successful recruiting pipelines
seem to develop because of a coach's prior ties there, or simply the length of
time he has been coming back to the same schools.”
10. Running the program like an NFL team.
As I mentioned before, there are certain benefits of an NFL-like atmosphere for
a college team. However, I think there are some downsides as well.
Groh’s emotionless pre-game speeches, as seen on UVA’s video website, don’t
exactly inspire the passion needed for a college team.
Virginia seemed to recruit size over speed in some instances. For example, often
players that we were recruiting for linebackers were being recruited by other
schools for defensive ends.
In the NFL, a 6’4” player weighing 250 pounds would be a linebacker because that
player also has elite speed. If they don’t have elite speed, then they can still
play linebacker for the Cavs, which is why Groh’s teams were never known for
being fast.
Richard Morgan, the coach at Oscar Smith High in Chesapeake, spoke to the Daily
Press about this .
"I think with Al having the NFL background, they were looking for the perfect
guy to fit a position, and they didn't always take the best guy available,"
Morgan said. "If you didn't fit the mold, you didn't get an offer.
Unfortunately, with high school kids, it's not like the NFL draft. You've got to
find the best players and then incorporate them into the best spot you can find
in college."
It’s regrettable that “Morgan was told by U.Va. that All-American linebacker
Jerod Askew wasn't big enough at 6-foot-1 and 230 pounds to play middle
linebacker in Groh's 3-4 defensive alignment.”
11. Poor media relations.
Groh wasn’t exactly a media darling, often coming across as arrogant and
crotchety in his press conferences, especially when asked a question that he
considered vacuous or accusatory.
As a coach, it’s important to get reporters on your side because most of the
public gets their view of the program through the media.
His one-voice policy didn’t allow his assistant coaches contact with
reporters—except in rare instances—which didn’t win him friends in the media.
By all reports, Groh is a kind, caring person who often went out of his way to
help people in need. But it would have served him well to let this softer side
show in his press conferences.
12. Academic challenges for players at UVA.
Virginia is not an easy place to survive academically. Most of the students
there earned straight A’s in high school. Like all big colleges, UVA admits
athletes that have significantly lower high school academic qualifications than
their average student.
The problem is that there are no easy majors, and the players are required to
work hard and compete in the classroom, which isn’t the case in many schools
with prominent football programs.
I would guess that players have less time to put in extra work lifting weights
or watching football film compared to many schools.
As I mentioned earlier, Groh has lost quite a few players because of poor
academics, which scares away future recruits who are afraid they won’t be able
to hack it.
According to an article where Jerry Ratcliffe talked to several former Cavalier
assistants , opposing coaches used this to recruit against Virginia.
13. Lack of support from the UVA administration.
According to the aforementioned Ratcliffe article, Virginia has one of the
smallest non-coach support staffs in the conference. Many fans have wondered if
we’d have fewer academic casualties if there was better academic support for the
players.
In another Ratcliffe article, after Groh was hired by Georgia Tech, Al said,
“There’s four teams on this side of the ACC that are pretty heavily invested in
trying to win this thing.”
He didn’t give specifics, but the implication is that there wasn’t enough
support from the administration.
If I was Groh, I would have suggested early in my tenure that the administration
take a few hundred thousand dollars out of my salary to provide the needed
support.
I am not in a position to know exactly what support is needed, or whether this
was just an excuse from Groh.
One example could be the handling of Peter Lalich, who was the Cavaliers’
upcoming star quarterback at one point. Lalich was dismissed from the team by
Craig Littlepage near the beginning of the 2008 season because of legal troubles
involving underage drinking.
Though Groh publicly supported the decision, it was widely known he did not
agree with it.
Another example of lacking support would be Virginia not allowing mid-year
admissions, i.e. players entering school in January rather than September.
This is a practice that is quite rare at Virginia but common at most other
schools, in which a player can graduate from high school early or come a
semester late.
Not only does this allow a player to have an extra spring semester practicing
with the team, but it can make the difference in winning certain recruits who
are intent on matriculating in January.
UVA has admitted one player this spring and one last spring, so the stricture
appears to be loosening, but there have been prospects who decided to go
elsewhere because of the issue.
Off the top of my mind, two prospects that were reportedly leaning toward the
Cavaliers until it became apparent they wouldn’t be admitted in January are
Jacoby Ford and Anthony Castonzo, who starred at Clemson and Boston College,
respectively.
14. Groh’s poorly written contract.
His contract did not have a buyout clause, but did have a clause stipulating
that at the end of every season, UVA had the option of rolling over his contract
to extend it another year.
It helps recruiting efforts to have at least four years left on the coach’s
contract, because it communicates to prospects that the school is committed to
keeping the coach around long-term.
In the Ratcliffe article I mentioned above, a former assistant said that it hurt
recruiting efforts when UVA didn’t roll over the contract at the end of 2006,
the first losing season since 2001.
Opposing coaches were able to use it to communicate to prospects that the
administration wasn’t committed to Groh. His contract was also not extended at
the end of the losing 2008 campaign.
Again, I am not in the position to know how much this really affected things, or
whether it’s just an excuse by the former assistants.
I do know that winning is possibly the most important ingredient to
recruiting—players want to come to a program that will win and gain national
prominence.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Cavalier’s three lowest-ranked
recruiting classes were the ones put together after their three recent losing
seasons.
I think it would be better for the contract to automatically roll over and
always have at least four years left on it, but also to have a reasonable buyout
clause.
Another contract mistake was that Groh was given a ridiculous raise before the
2005 season, when things were looking good, to make him one of the top 20 best
paid coaches in the country for the rest of his tenure.
I use the word “ridiculous” because the raise wasn’t necessary to keep Groh as
coach—he wasn’t looking around for another job—and we obviously haven’t gotten
top 20 results on the field. Though this raise didn’t contribute to his teams
losing, it did contribute to fans being disgruntled about Groh.
15. Just coaching the team.
Several times over the years, when Groh was asked for his reaction to outside
criticism, he would respond by mentioning the sign on his desk given to him by
his mentor Bill Parcells. The sign says: "Just coach the team."
This is Al’s way of saying that he coaches his team as he thinks best without
considering what outsiders think. He commented on one occasion that the pilot
doesn’t ask the passengers for their opinion on how to fly the plane.
The problem is that it does matter what others think. It matters what fans,
reporters, alumni, recruits, and players think. Aaron McFarling wrote a
masterful piece about how this attitude was one reason that Groh isn’t cut out
to be a college head coach .
I will also note that Groh was infamous for micromanaging every part of the
program. In fact, he said early in his tenure “I am the head coach of the team.
As a result, I intend to be involved in every facet of the operation: offense,
defense, special teams, off-season program, academic advisement and recruiting.
I’m going to coach the team, day-to-day, the way I think it needs to be
coached.”
I think he would have been better served by delegating more authority and
trusting his assistants—it’s even been rumored that this might have been a
reason that his assistants were happy to go elsewhere.
I would agree with McFarling that Groh doesn’t have what it takes to be a
college head football coach. A coach’s duties include, among other things:
* Hiring and overseeing assistant coaches
* Developing schemes
* Scouting opponents
* Identifying talent
* Recruiting talent
* Slotting talent
* Developing talent
* Motivating players
* Developing character in players
* Keeping players academically eligible and off police blotters
* Schmoozing with fans and donors
* Dazzling the media
* Liaising with the rest of the university (e.g. the athletic and admissions
departments)
Groh was good at some of these things, but not good enough at enough of them to
field a consistent winner on the field. I think he’d be perfect as a defensive
coordinator, which happens to be his new position at Georgia Tech.
There were some good times in the past decade for the Virginia football program.
I, for one, want to genuinely say, “Thank you, Al, for you service to the
University.”
But there were also some pretty disappointing times. The later years were
especially disappointing compared to the success we were used to under George
Welsh, and even Groh’s early years.
I think all of us fans were ready for a change. Let’s hope the next decade has a
few more good times. Let’s go, Hoos!