I hoped it would never come to this. Watching Western Michigan cel-ebrate on our V-sabre at midfield after pulling off the 17-10 upset Saturday left me with one of the worst tastes in my mouth following a Virginia football game.
I can deal with the home losses to Florida State and Miami. Heck, if Virginia Tech's mascot wasn't a turkey, I might even be able to sleep at night after succumbing to them.
What is just unacceptable at a university with the proud football tradition built by the legendary George Welsh is a home defeat to a school from the MAC -- on our own Homecoming weekend, for Pete's sake!
Who even knows what the MAC stands for? Mid-major Athletics Consortium? Middle Appalachian Conference? (It's Mid-American Conference for those college football junkies).
Western Michigan is from Kalamazoo. That's right, Kalamazoo. If we hadn't played them my first year and last season, I would have bet no such city existed in the entire North American continent.
This is how dreadful this defeat is: Before Western Michigan we were undefeated versus schools from the MAC, 8-0-1, and had outscored Mid-Appalachian Consortium opponents 335-113 during the last two decades before Saturday. That's an average of 48-16. Our offense couldn't score 48 points right now if we were playing 11 on 10, no matter who's behind center.
(By the way, who should we expect to start next week? Maybe Al will scrap all convention and put his son and offensive coordinator, Mike Groh, at the helm. It was only 11 years ago when the younger Groh led us to the Peach Bowl and a share of the ACC title. Can somebody check if he has any eligibility left?).
I think what scares me most is that I look at the rest of the schedule and wonder where we're going to get any more victories if we can't beat the Broncos on our home turf on Homecomings. Maybe Duke in Durham or North Carolina at home on a Thursday night, but I don't think any game is a given right now.
To be fair, I think even the modest expectations this season were overrated considering the talent lost over the past two years. In 2005, Virginia's seven players drafted by the NFL placed them tied for third most in the country. Included in that mix were first rounder Heath Miller, Chris Canty and Alvin Pearman. Last May, five Wahoos were tabbed by the NFL including No. 4 overall pick D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Marques Hagans and the ACC's career touchdown leader, Wali Lundy. Those are high-profile names, but a bigger impact might have been the departure of the guys in the trenches: men such as Elton Brown, Brennan Schmidt, Andrew Hoffman and Brad Butler.
If you're not a perennial powerhouse with recruits forever knocking at your door like USC, Notre Dame or Miami, when you lose that much fire power over two seasons, it's extremely difficult to improve and build year-to-year.
That's where recruiting comes in; this was the elder Groh's strength when he came to Charlottesville five years ago. Twelve players from Groh's first two recruiting classes were drafted by the NFL and the ball coach's inaugural '02 class was ranked in the top 10 nationally.
Recently, however, the recruiting classes have not met these standards. U.Va has tons to offer as an academically strong institution with beautiful Grounds and rich history. The school sells itself. Recruits, especially those in-state, should be lining up at McCue for the chance to play in front of 60,000-plus at Scott Stadium.
Yet in 2006, 13 of the top 15 Virginia prospects as ranked by Rivals.com left the Commonwealth. Included in that group was the country's No. 1 recruit, wide receiver Percy Harvin.
Ask Christian Olsen, Kevin McCabe or Jameel Seweel if they'd like someone like Harvin to throw to. Harvin, FYI, has eight catches for 145 yards (18.1 yards per catch) and has rushed the ball seven times for 81 yards (11.6 yards per rush) in just three games with the Florida Gators.
In the meantime, Virginia's pass efficiency and total offense is last in the conference.
I guess the only place to go from here is up. As Redskin wide-out Leslie Sheppard told the Washington Post after the Skins started the 1998 NFL campaign 0-4, "It's rock bottom ... we've got to get out of it."
So at least it couldn't get any worse. Right?
Three weeks later the Redskins lost 41-7 at Minnesota to fall to 0-7 and Sheppard had this to say: "It's rock bottom. I know I say that every week, but it gets worse and worse."
To top it off, with three straight away contests I now must cope for a month without Cavman.
Who's got a shovel?
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