Yes, you read that headline correctly. Earlier this week I had a conversation with a friend who was down on the Virginia football program. Words such as "pathetic," "sorry" and "a 3-9 record in 2009" were thrown around hastily. I know on the surface this may seem to be the case, as there must be nothing like seeing one's school represented in a bowl game after a winning season. Although I - and practically every current undergraduate - have not yet seen the Cavaliers go bowling, there is much more we can look at to evaluate the success of our program during the last decade.
Not much can be said against the Cavaliers of the early 2000s, as former coach Al Groh led the team to four straight winning seasons and a 3-1 record in bowl games from 2002 to 2006. At one point during the 2004 season, Groh's Cavaliers were ranked No. 6 in the nation before losing to ACC rival and No. 7-ranked Florida State.
Sure, Groh left us with a bad taste in our mouths. With Saturday's home opener against William & Mary approaching, one of the indelible memories of the Groh era remains Virginia's shocking 24-16 home loss to the Tribe on the same weekend of the 2009 season. Nevertheless, Groh's system - which undoubtedly drew upon his extensive experience as an NFL coach - clearly produced a number of successful NFL players.
Quarterback Matt Schaub, selected in the 2004 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons and now the starting quarterback for the Houston Texans, holds nearly every Virginia passing record and is certainly no slouch in the NFL. A George Welsh recruit, Schaub was just the first of a whole slew of Groh's players to make a splash in the NFL. In 2005, the Pittsburgh Steelers invited Virginia tight end Heath Miller behind the Steel Curtain with the 30th overall pick. Pittsburgh made a sound investment as the three-year Virginia starter, who won the 2004 John Mackey Award as the nation's outstanding tight end, already has helped the Steel City to two Super Bowl victories and a third appearance last year.
The following year, the New York Jets drafted Miller's former teammate, left tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson. As a noteworthy aside, this is when I - a native New Yorker like Ferguson - began paying closer attention to Virginia football, although I then had no clue I would one day attend the school. Ferguson started 49 games for Groh and the Cavaliers, including four consecutive bowl games. As a senior, he was named to the All-American first team and was selected fourth overall in the 2006 NFL draft.
Most recently, in 2008 defensive end Chris Long became the highest-drafted Virginia player in history since Bill Dudley was drafted top overall in 1942. Long, the son of NFL Hall of Famer Howie Long, finished 10th in the 2007 Heisman Trophy race and was one of the premier defensive players in all of college football during his years at Virginia. And that same Long was recruited, coached and groomed for the NFL by Al Groh, the butt of nearly every joke told at U.Va by the time I arrived on Grounds.
After I highlighted these four great players, my friend was still skeptical of the Cavalier's success. He pointed out that schools like Southern California, Ohio State and LSU pump out first-round picks like there is no tomorrow - then again, they also probably pay their players to play. If we disregard some of the perennial BCS powers, U.Va. unquestionably fares better than most schools when it comes to producing professional football players. Since Schaub was selected in the third round of the 2004 NFL Draft, only in 2007 have the first two rounds of the draft passed without a single Cavalier being chosen. Just one year later, in 2008, Virginia offensive tackle Branden Albert was chosen 15th overall by the Kansas City Chiefs - about an hour after the Rams made Long the number two pick - which made Virginia and Southern California the only schools with two top-15 picks.
As for the Cavaliers students have been rooting for recently, Virginia has produced several early second picks. Defensive backs Chris Cook and Ras-I Dowling were the top two picks of the second round in 2010 and 2011, respectively. The talented corners were followed closely by NFL scouts while at Virginia and have the potential to develop into top NFL defenders. Finally, for my obligatory Giants shoutout, linebacker Clint Sintim was selected by Big Blue in the second round, 45th overall in 2009. Sintim already has made many positive contributions on special teams and within the shallow Giants linebacking corps.
Virginia has a storied history of producing successful NFL players, and if the past is any indication, a whole new style of Virginia pros will be created by coach Mike London. As the program rebuilding effort continues, the team may yet miss another bowl game under London in 2011, but the next time someone gives you grief about the sorry state of Virginia football the past few years, think about how many NFL players have walked these Grounds - and pray that the trend continues.
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