Quarterback the least of Cavs’ worries
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EAST HARTFORD, Conn.
After all of the hullabaloo, it really didn’t matter who suited up at quarterback for Virginia on Saturday night against Connecticut. Johnny Unitas could have been taking the snaps and the Cavaliers would have still been under whelming.
Virginia’s problems are much more deep-rooted than the quarterback position and it showed in an embarrassing 45-10 defeat to the unbeaten Huskies at Rentschler Field.
The Cavaliers made the trip north without starting quarterback Peter Lalich after Al Groh and UVa officials decided to sit him out for a series of off the field issues. Sophomore Marc Verica, who had previously only played mop up duty in a lopsided loss to No. 1 Southern California a couple of weeks ago, was thrust into the spotlight and played admirably.
UConn dominated the Cavaliers from wire-to-wire regardless of whom Groh trotted out at quarterback.
Groh didn’t wait for reporters to bring up the controversy over the Lalich situation in his brief post-game interview.
“It’s not about in any way, shape or form anybody who wasn’t here ... our team is the team that we put on the field today,” Groh said. “I’m responsible for that. I take the blame for that. There are really no other names necessary to discuss.”
Groh couldn’t have summed up things any better.
Forget the fact that the Cavaliers brought one of America’s most anemic offenses to town (UVa entered the contest ranked No. 115 out of 119 FBS teams). Virginia, which has no running game because a largely inexperienced offensive line can’t block, was limited to going airborne most of the evening, using a five-wide and a four-wide with a tight end scheme.
While Verica did as well as anyone could with limited experience (22 of 30, 158 yards and one interception), it didn’t put a dent into UConn’s veteran defense.
UVa’s collection of quarterbacks have been intercepted four times in three games and are yet to throw a touchdown pass. Against the Huskies, the Cavs were held to 31 yards rushing compared to 382 by UConn backs.
But Virginia’s problems don’t end with the offense. The defense, which was supposed to be the strength of the team, was pathetic.
For the second time in three weeks, Virginia surrendered more than 500 yards of total offense to its opponent (UConn 506, Southern California 558).
Groh pointed out that every aspect of his defense was poor.
Huskies coach Randy Edsall motivated his offense by reminding them of last season’s loss in Charlottesville.
“Last year, Virginia stuffed our butts down there and I challenged our offense with that this week,” Edsall said.
Obviously, he got his point across.
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But all ACC schools have players in the NFL, don’t they?
I wonder how the number of NFL players UVa has compares to the number that the other ACC schools have.
Why is Al Groh still here?
Better yet: why are WE here, discussing this? LOL. I guess we must lead boring lives: no matter how bad UVa football gets, it’s more interesting than doing nothing.
Their offense is terrible, because their recruiting is terrible. To add insult to injury the best quarterback from Charlottesville was on the Huskies sidelines all game long on a recruiting trip. Mike Graham from Monticello who had 5 touchdowns 24 hours prior to the game in less than 20 minutes of play in the first half only to have the rest of the night off was really impressed by the upcoming program that is UCONN.
UVa has lied to him, and pulled him around when if they had offered it would have been a no brainer for him as he’s been a Whoo’s fan for life.
The fact is they haven’t even paid attention to the 6’5” 225lb strong armed, State Champion, 2 INT, 35+ TD in 20 games, 33 inch vertical, 4.65 running 40yd, non drinking and smoking quarterback that is right in their back yard despite a hundred other schools outside of C-VIlle taking notice.
They did sign a guy who likes to party, getting drunk and high, and a guy who had 3 TD’s his entire senior season of high school. Mike Graham had 3 TD’s in the first quarter of the last game he played in.
What gives????
Glad all the HOO Football sophisticates finally got to see all three QBs in action.bottom line if you can’t tackle people you can’t win football games ie. check Stanford w/ John Elway.Football is and always has been about blocking&tackling;.Thats the beauty of the game!Regards,B
“Forget the fact that the Cavaliers brought one of America’s most anemic offenses to town (UVa entered the contest ranked No. 115 out of 119 FBS teams). “
Last year UVA finished 101st out of 119 teams in yards/game.
Why does UVA have such a highly paid coaching staff and yet perform so poorly, particularly the offense? How does one get and keep such a high paying job when they results they achieve are so poor? Surely it must be possible to find a coach who would help the offense to at least be among the top 50%?
“Forget the fact that the Cavaliers brought one of America’s most anemic offenses to town (UVa entered the contest ranked No. 115 out of 119 FBS teams).“
Wasn’t this also the case last year—that UVA had an offense that was ranked among the worst 5% of offenses in the country? UVA has one of the highest paid coacjing staffs in the nation…what gives?
I suspect this is going to be a long season.
UVA seems to have NFL draftees every year so I presume they have talent. Maybe it’s the coaching?
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