As we barrel toward opening day of the 2012 season, two countervailing forces shape expectations for the Virginia football team: optimism stemming from the Cavaliers’ first bowl appearance since 2007 and anxiety about the significant roster turnover.
Football returns to college campuses across the nation this weekend, and Scott Stadium opens its gates as Virginia hosts Richmond Saturday afternoon. The Cavaliers open the season exactly as they did two years ago with a matchup against in-state rivals Richmond.
Coach Mike London’s decision to reinstall junior Michael Rocco as starting quarterback made headlines.
The Wes Anderson-directed Moonrise Kingdom was my favorite film of the summer. As is characteristic of Anderson’s films, Moonrise Kingdom offered both a charming, quirky brand of humor and a thought-provoking central theme, all the while unapologetically embracing its weirdness. Once upon a time, college football was the Moonrise Kingdom of big-time American sports.
Young and inexperienced. That’s the stigma surrounding the Virginia men’s soccer team as it enters the 2012-13 season, and it is a difficult one to dispute. That’s because, of the 27 players on the Cavaliers’ roster, only two are seniors.
The Virginia football team’s New Year’s Eve loss to Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Bowl was a good summation of everything that went wrong for the special teams unit in 2011.
The Virginia volleyball team will take the court at Memorial Gymnasium Friday for the first time this season after an offseason of upheaval. Following a 10-20 campaign a year ago that included a dismal 4-16 ACC record, the Cavaliers (1-2, 0-0 ACC) hope to create more change by season’s end, especially in the standings.
As sports fans we form a bond, sometimes practically spiritual in nature, with a team or player. We build memories of that connection, that team’s achievements or that player’s incredible moments. Then the very next year many of those same players have departed. New faces replace the old, rendering the team fundamentally different from the team we remember.
Dez Bryant’s 2012-13 rules for success: 1. Focus 100 percent on football. 2. No more “allegedly” assaulting mom. 3a. Stop doing stupid things. 3b. Grow up and stop being a distraction.
For most, college is a time to gain wisdom by making the mistakes that accompany youth and independence.
The long-awaited announcement Monday that junior Michael Rocco will be the starting quarterback for Saturday’s season-opener against Richmond was the highlight of Virginia’s unveiled depth chart.
Classes are just starting, but for the No. 11 Virginia women’s soccer team, another promising run is already underway.
After surviving a 6-5 thriller against Princeton in the first round, the Virginia men’s lacrosse team unceremoniously exited May’s NCAA men’s lacrosse playoffs with a 12-10 quarterfinal loss to Notre Dame in Chester, Pa. The loss snuffed out the Cavaliers’ gambit to become the first repeat men’s lacrosse national champions since Syracuse won back-to-back titles in 2008 and 2009.
The Virginia rowing team captured its second national championship in three years in come-from-behind fashion May 27, leapfrogging the University of California, Berkeley in the final race to clinch the title. The Cavaliers erased a three-point deficit to the Golden Bears by winning the First Varsity Eight grand final race for the first time in school history.
Ahead of Coach Mike London’s Monday announcement of the Virginia football team’s depth chart, here is a first look at the squad’s offense.
The 2012 Virginia football team just became one marquee quarterback deeper. The NCAA announced today it will allow redshirt sophomore quarterback Phillip Sims to compete for the Cavaliers this season.
Current Virginia swimmer Lauren Perdue and former Cavalier Matt McLean are London-bound.
Decorated former Virginia men’s tennis star and current professional Somdev Devvarman will compete for his native India in the men’s singles portion of the Olympic Games in London later this month, the International Tennis Federation announced last Tuesday. Despite a shoulder injury that has kept him out of action since January, Devvarman received one of the ITF’s eight wild-card bids to round out a 64-player field which includes the world’s premier tennis stars, including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
The Atlanta Hawks selected former Virginia basketball player Mike Scott with the 43rd overall pick in last night’s NBA Draft. Scott netted first-team All-ACC honors during his standout last season for the Cavaliers, averaging 18 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.
The Virginia baseball team steps up to the plate tonight against struggling Duke to open a three-game weekend series at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. The Cavaliers (24-13-1, 9-9 ACC) need to overcome junior righthanded pitcher Marcus Stroman, whose 2.05 ERA leads the Blue Devils (14-24, 6-12 ACC). Though Stroman's 6-foot-5, 185-pound frame may make him look comical on the mound, the Duke ace can squat an astounding 490 pounds and leads the nation in total strikeouts and strikeouts per nine innings, which means Virginia needs a near-flawless performance to survive him. "They have a real good guy on Friday nights - Stroman - one of the better pitchers in college baseball," sophomore righthanded pitcher Austin Young said. Duke's team ERA of 3.60 is the fifth lowest in the league, and Stroman, named the ACC Conference Pitcher of the Week in early March, is the team's pitching machine.
