Call it resilience, call it heart, call the 37 straight points Virginia scored in the second half to beat North Carolina yesterday whatever you want, but Virginia Coach Al Groh deserves a lot of the credit for Virginia's second-half comebacks in recent games.
Virginia now has outscored its opponents by more than 100 points in the second half this year. Although this inspired second half play is largely responsible for Virginia's six-game win streak, Groh and the Cavaliers need to find a way to put together an entire game if they want to continue their success against Georgia Tech.
Groh, unlike his coaching counterpart who recently took the Washington Redskins head coaching job, is not the visor-throwing, hair-pulling, yelling and shouting type. He doesn't need to be that way to get his team motivated, and the results have been fantastic.
"I think an important thing in running a team is avoiding things that might make you feel good, but don't lead to helping the team," Groh said. "So getting frustrated or pulling your hair out or yelling at everybody to let your frustrations go -- that might make me feel good, but I don't know if that always helps the team."
Virginia players have responded well to the way Groh has dealt with them at halftime. Saying that he knows the players want to play better, Groh simply talks to his coaching staff and stresses fundamentals, and adjusting for the second half. As a coach, it can be easy to get down on your players, to blame them for not executing your system, but Groh commendably has taken more than his share of the blame, and refuses to get down on his players.
"I was mad, but I was mad at myself," Groh said of his demeanor in the locker room at halftime Saturday. "I don't think I had a very good half. The number one thing I wanted to make sure I did at the half is the same thing you want to try to do with your teams: I wanted to get some things corrected and I wanted to go have a better half."
Hold on. "I" didn't have a good half? How refreshing to see a coach who not only takes responsibility, but also is a teacher, not a screamer? Groh might not give fiery sermons at half time, he might say he lets the players motivate themselves, but make no mistake, Al Groh is one of the best motivators around.
Groh also understands more than most coaches that the coaches can lead by example as well. At halftime, Groh tries to accept responsibility and improve in the second half.
"Some things I think you've got to look at yourself first all the time and say, 'Hell, how can I do better?' That's what I want to do at the half," Groh said. "I thought the most important thing if our team was going to do better was that the head coach had to do better."
At the end of last season, we saw the first signs of Groh's motivating ability when Virginia played a meaningless game against Penn State. Virginia had nothing to play for, but played perhaps its best game all year. Now Groh has instilled a never-say-die attitude in the team. Even fans refused to leave at half time believing that their team would come back.
As great as this attitude is, it also can be dangerous. The Cavaliers can't get caught in the trap of thinking they don't need to show up the first half of the game, although this has been nice for the fans who needed a little extra time to get over their hangovers before the early kickoff.
With teams like Penn State, N.C. State and Virginia Tech coming up, Virginia can easily dig itself into holes it won't be able to recover from.
Statistically, Virginia has a chance to share first place in the ACC. But to do so, the Cavaliers must learn to play an entire game. These exciting come-from-behind victories might be fun to watch, but they are not going to hold up as the level of competition rises.
On a more positive note, Groh seems to have the team under his control -- the team believes in itself with a winning attitude. Groh has displayed a coaching style that exemplifies coaching maturity and principles. He now faces the test of expanding on what he has done so far and putting together a full game of football.
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