For the first time since 2001, Virginia coach Al Groh won't be preparing for a bowl game during the month of December. But that doesn't mean he won't be hard at work. Groh has already been back in the office since Sunday assessing the state of the program and will soon be heading back out on the recruiting trail.
This off-season will see much more continuity in the Virginia program than last winter. After finishing the 2005 season 7-5 with a 34-31 win over Minnesota in the Music City Bowl, Groh had to hire new offensive and defensive coordinators as well as deal with the loss of such talented players as Marques Hagans, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Wali Lundy and Connor Hughes, to name a few.
This year, it appears that the coaching staff will remain intact and there will be far less of a talent drain from Virginia's roster.
"We went through one of the cycles that lots of teams go through," Groh said. "Unless you're one of those fortunate teams that pretty much play on a downward slope, teams in most sports and most levels go through certain cycles. We lost a lot of high-end talent at this time last year, so that created the part of the cycle that we were going through this year. Some of it was just talent going through the learning process."
The main reason that Virginia posted an unsatisfactory 5-7 record this season was an anemic offensive attack. The Cavaliers averaged a mere 15.08 points per game, 110th out of 119 Division I-A football teams.
"It was definitely frustrating," redshirt freshman quarterback Jameel Sewell said. "We were shut out twice this year. That's not the way we're supposed to play."
There were some signs of improvement, however, towards the end of the season, especially on the offensive line. The Cavaliers were unable to notch over 100 yards rushing in the first four games of the season. Virginia's young line struggled to gel and learn new offensive line coach Dave Borbely's zone-blocking scheme. Over the last eight games, however, the Cavaliers accumulated over 100 yards six times.
Virginia's rushing offense, however, still ended up ranked 100th in the nation, at 99.92 yards per game.
"It's a lot of motivation to get better during this off season," sophomore left guard Branden Albert said of the poor statistical showing. "But during the season, we did get better as a team and as an offense. I think if we had played like we did during the last few weeks at the start, we would have had a better year."
Virginia's passing game also finished 100th nationally at 157.3 yards per game. The early portion of the season was dominated by an unsettled situation at quarterback as senior Christian Olsen was benched in favor of junior Kevin McCabe, who was then benched in favor of Sewell. Sewell got his first start in the 21-7 loss at Georgia Tech Sept. 21 and started every game thereafter.
The Richmond native finished the season having completed 143 of 247 pass attempts for 1,342 yards and five touchdowns. He rushed for 200 yards and four touchdowns while also throwing six interceptions and getting sacked 30 times.
Sewell had several strong performances at home but struggled mightily on the road, especially in shutout losses at Florida State and Virginia Tech.
"It's been a lot of baby steps," Sewell said. "I had a couple of good games. It's been an up-and-down roller coaster season."
Virginia's defensive play was the highlight of an otherwise middling season. The Cavaliers finished the season ranked 20th nationally in total defense, yielding 289.5 yards per game. Virginia posted two shutouts, over Duke and North Carolina, and carried shutouts into the fourth quarter of two other games -- N.C. State and Miami.
Sophomore inside linebacker Jon Copper led the Cavaliers with 81 tackles. Defensive ends Jeffrey Fitzgerald and Chris Long combined for 24 tackles for a loss, 35 quarterback pressures and 10 sacks. Fitzgerald also made two interceptions and returned a fumble for a touchdown.
"There is definitely optimism and we're encouraged by it, but we're not satisfied," Long said. "We know that we can get better. We've got to stop giving up so many big plays, and we've got to stop the run better."
After falling to 2-5, some teams would have folded. But Virginia kept fighting and finished the season winning three of their last five games, including Virginia's first-ever win over Miami.
"The whole last half of the season, we fought real hard so nobody should be hanging their heads," senior cornerback Marcus Hamilton said.
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