There is one thing that all Virginia football fans can agree on: This season has been exceptionally frustrating to watch. After a four-year stretch during which the Cavaliers went 32-19 and appeared annually in a post-season bowl game, the Virginia football program looks to be back where it was in 2001, when the team went 5-7 in Al Groh's first year in Charlottesville.
In fact, the program may be worse off than it was five years ago. That 2001 team did not lose to the likes of Western Michigan and East Carolina. With six games left, five of which are against teams that currently have winning records, it would take a minor miracle for this Virginia squad to reach that five-win mark.
The Cavaliers will not be favored heading into any of the remaining contests, except for probably next Thursday night's home game against a pathetic North Carolina team, whose coach John Bunting will likely be fired at the end of this season. (Someone at ESPN should be arrested for putting this travesty of a game -- the 2006 ACC Toilet Bowl -- on national television.)
If Virginia finishes 3-9, it will be the worst record posted by the Cavaliers since the team went 2-9 during George Welsh's first year as coach in 1982.
This team, for a wide range of reasons, is just not very good, and it does not appear as if it is on the verge of turning a corner anytime soon.
Currently, the offensive unit is ranked No. 115 nationally, better only than Duke, Utah State, Temple and North Texas.
The story on the defensive side of the ball is not much better. Virginia's defense has had its weaknesses exposed when it has faced multi-faceted offenses (i.e. Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech and East Carolina).
There is plenty of blame to go around for why the Virginia program has regressed. There will be a more appropriate place for that later in the season and in the winter months.
(But just because I can, I do want to point out that Kevin McCabe still holds the distinction of having led Virginia on its longest scoring drive of the season. That's just some food for thought.)
Saturday's game against Maryland is likely one of the most important that Virginia has played in for a long time. Despite the fact that the Cavaliers have not lost to the Terrapins in Charlottesville since 1990, Virginia is definitely the underdog Saturday. Maryland has not played great this season, but it has beaten the teams that it was supposed to and gave Coastal Division leader Georgia Tech a major scare last weekend in Atlanta.
If Virginia can somehow pull off the upset over the Terrapins, the program will, at least temporarily, have backed away from the edge of a precipice. At this point, getting five wins should be what this team is aiming for, and a loss to Maryland would certainly deal a severe blow to that cause.
What I most want to see this weekend is some fire in the eyes of both the Virginia players and the coaching staff. With several notable exceptions, many of the Cavaliers have appeared to sleepwalk through some of the games this season.
What irritated Virginia fans will have to come to terms with is that, even if the Cavaliers do not win another game this season, Groh will not lose his job. The Athletics Department has too much money invested in Groh's contract to cut him loose only a little more than a year after granting him a five-year extension at $1.7 million per season. For better or for worse, Groh will have the opportunity in 2007 to show whether or not this season was an aberration or just the beginning of a more prolonged slide towards the bottom of the ACC.
The atmosphere at Scott Stadium could get ugly quickly this Saturday if Virginia falls behind early. A few days after the Western Michigan debacle, Groh said that the student section was the one section he did not hear booing. Even though I was up in the press box, I have been told that there actually was a good deal of booing coming from the student section. I am not saying whether or not I support booing, but to students who do wish to express their frustration, I would suggest this. Boo louder so Groh can hear you.
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