2 teams in different places
The Daily Progress/Andrew Shurtleff
Jameel Sewell (10) and Virginia are in the midst of a four-game losing streak and face a Clemson team on the verge of a spot in the ACC championship game.
One team has its sights set on two trips to Florida. The other is likely to have an active offseason.
Without question, December will have a different meaning at Clemson and Virginia.
The Tigers (7-3, 4-2 ACC) have aspirations of playing in the ACC championship game in two weeks and using a win on that platform to play for major pay in the Orange Bowl.
The Cavaliers (3-6, 2-4), mired in a season-defining, five-game losing streak, are expected to spend that month discussing buyouts and potential replacements for positions on their coaching staff.
With No. 18 Clemson a 21-point favorite, the two programs headed in opposite directions collide at 3:30 p.m. (ABC) inside Clemson Memorial Stadium in Clemson, S.C.
Oddly enough, a year ago it was Clemson that faced staff uncertainty and boasted an interim coach. Dabo Swinney replaced Tommy Bowden at midseason and secured the job for good after leading the Tigers to the Gator Bowl.
How quickly things can turn in the ACC, a league that is headed for just one BCS bid yet again.
That is merely wishful thinking for Cavalier fans, who support a team constructed of players who have openly stated that they merely have “pride” to play for over their final two games, the last of which comes at home next Saturday against Virginia Tech.
“I’ve never said that,” Virginia coach Al Groh said. “I think perhaps players say that because they’ve heard it, or it’s the answer to a question — ‘Now that you guys aren’t playing for the championship, are you playing for pride?’
“And the reason I preface my answer with that is I thought that’s what we were doing every week. I thought we were trying to prove something every week, and I thought we were playing for pride every week. I think you hear it at the end of the season because players have heard other players say it, or as I said, the question gets posed that way, so they answer it in the affirmative.”
If playing for pride has been the mantra of late, it has missed its mark — Virginia has lost 11 of its past 15 games. It has been over two decades since the program suffered a similar stretch.
“Everybody knows it hurts to lose,” Virginia tight end Joe Torchia said.
Defensive end Nate Collins added: “Losing really does get old. But we have to play for each other and try to win our last two games. That’s all we need to focus on.”
Clemson, with higher aspirations intact thanks to a five-game winning streak, can clinch the ACC’s Atlantic Division title today with a victory or a Boston College loss to North Carolina.
“We’ll take it any way we can get it — beggars can’t be choosers,” Clemson guard Thomas Austin said. “But obviously, we need to win the game.”
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Reader Reactions
To baddog, if acadmeic stndards are not an issue why do we never hear about a Tech player being suspended for academic reasons and Tech has a higher graduation rate for football players than we do?
Trish, you have used it before in a comment. It was pointed out; but, maybe you are a slow learner like your QB hero!!!
To trish, I could forgive the spelling mistake, but to assert that people don’t lash out at NFL players and teams for underperforming is ridiculous. I can only assume that you haven’t read a Washington Post thus far this season.
When a football team struggles the two most visible reasons why are the coach and the QB There may be many other reasons, but those are the positions that draw immediate scrutiny In this case I don’t think it is much of a stretch to say that the QB’s talent is reflected in our standing in the league. Ditto the coach.
To bwyatt56 regarding academic standards, let me tell a brief story. I was a UVa student in the mid 70’s. I quickly figured out that if you wanted to have more time for social priorities shall we say, you couldn’t take a full slate of tough academic classes. Or at least I couldn’t anyway. One of the “gut” classes I took was intro astronomy. The course covered pretty much the same stuff that I learned in elementary school. The professor kept everybody from getting an A by throwing in questions that you could only get right if you actually attended class. What a concept. If you couldn’t make it to class you were doomed to a B.
After one of his grueling exams the professor left the graded test papers out on his desk for the students to dig theirs out. One of Terry Holland’s gifted athletes was in my class, I won’t say who but I believe he later played for on an NBA championship team. I came across his test before I got to mine, he had a “45”. And I don’t recall him ever being on academic suspension.
So please, don’t throw that tired argument out, it is a red herring for the current difficulties. If tutoring and the right schedule cannot keep you academically eligible to participate in sports then chances are you are just having way too good of a time being a student-athlete. And the responsibility for that falls on the coaching staff in my mind. And I am just going to guess here and say that Duke didn’t all of a sudden decide to drop their pants in that department, and yet with a new coach on board they have beaten us two years running.
Regarding next year’s talent, what sort of recruiting class can you expect with the status quo? You can expect the guys that didn’t get an offer from somewhere else. Maybe they blossom in college, probably not. The recruiting dynamic is now a bigger burden than the lack of competent coaching. High school kids want to play for a winner, who could blame them? They have no shot at the NFL playing for a team that is never televised and cannot make it to the post season.
So either you lose the coach or you continue to lose. Pretty simple stuff, seemingly lost on the current AD. So between Gillen, Leitao, and Groh, what have we paid to buy out contracts? Isn’t there somebody in the Law School that can give this guy a quick lesson in contract law? UNC fell on hard times in basketball, they went out and hired a guy that had already won a national championship. What’s hard to figure out?
Either you pay top dollar for proven talent or you take your chances with an up and comer, and you structure his contract accordingly. With the money wasted on buying those three guys out, you could probably have Vince Lombardi raised from the dead. Just don’t sign him to a long term contract…
OMG, jokeim I guess you never made a mistake in spelling. I’m very much aware of the difference between the 2 spellings.
Regarding a new coach, what kind of football program do we want? I think we need to answer that question before we hire a new coach. Are we going to relax the academic standards so we can recruit on a more level playing field with our neighbors in B’burg? Or do we continue with the status quo and continue to deal with the issue of not getting the top notch talent located here in our own state? It doesn’t seem we can do both, although we did seem to do a much better job of this during the Welsh era.
So Mr. Littlepage what kind of program are we going to have and who will lead this program?
Trish, for god’s sake a couch is a piece of furniture!
I wish to remark about a comment made by Shushhouse that UVa will be very thin on talent next year. We really don’t know at this early date if that’s true since we don’t know who will join the roster. Speaking of talent, there is an old argument amongst sports coaches as to what is more important: experience or natural talent? Surprisingly, experience wins out, albeit narrowly. If one or two seasons of playing time really matters, then UVa will have a goodly share of experienced players next year. Problem is, will they have to learn a new system under presumably new coaches! Kinda looks like they will.
I am so sick of people constantley blaming Jameel. A key player he is but he is only 1 player on that team of both players and couches. Amazing that college teams get crucified for poor performance but you don’t see people lashing out at the NFL players/teams for losing seasons. I guess they better develope tough skin very early to survive the attacks they endure.
The things I wondered about this offense are: a) if J. Sewell wasn’t smart enough to keep his grades up, was he smart enough to learn a new offense in one off season. Guess not. b)what did Keith Payne not due to earn playing time. He seemed to be the ideal short yardage, goal line, 4Q grind it out RB. Not like UVa has had any success in those situations. c) could M. Simpson stay healthy through an entire season to be the go to RB. Guess not.
Unfortunately, the team will be pretty thin on talent next year no matter who the new coach will be.
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