Memory Lane: Top Season Openers of All-time

With UVA’s 2009 season-opener less than a week away, we thought we’d look back on the most significant season openers in UVA football history. Please note that this is most significant, not best openers, so some of them are losses (damn you Mercury Hayes!). And because I hate top 10 lists, I won’t rank them for you. Sorry.

1888: In the first official game in UVA history, Virginia defeated Pantops Academy, 20-0. After UVA thumped Pantops, 44-0, the following year, they stopped playing.

1913: Although Virginia had been playing at Lambeth field since 1901, grandstand seating for 8,000 people wasn’t completed until 1913. Virginia defeated Vanderbilt, 34-0, in the dedication game.

1931: Virginia opened its current home, Scott Stadium, before 22,000 people, defeating Roanoke, 18-0.

1982: In George Welsh’s first game as Cavalier Head Coach, Virginia travelled to Annapolis to face his former team and alma mater, Navy. The Midshipmen won 20-16 that day, but he got them back the following season, a 27-16 triumph at Scott Stadium.

1990: Expectations were already high for the Cavaliers, who entered the season ranked 15th in the country. Expectations only ramped up after a 59-10 thrashing of Kansas on the Jayhawks’ home field. It would be the first of seven straight wins for the Hoos that would lead to the only #1 ranking in UVA football history.

1995: In a showdown of ranked teams at the Big House (and the same day I moved into Emmett First Right for my first year), Virginia dominated the Maize and Blue for most of the game, and took a 17-0 lead into the fourth quarter. But the Wolverines came all the way back, capped off by a 15-yard touchdown pass to Mercury Hayes, who (allegedly) snuck one foot inside the chalk, on the final play of the game. It was a fitting introduction for me into UVA football.

1998: After losing at home to Auburn the previous year, the No. 16 Cavaliers marched into Jordan-Hare Stadium and smothered the 25th-rated Tigers, 19-0. Virginia held Auburn to 18 yards rushing, and handed the Tigers their first home-opening shutout in 50 years.

2001: In Al Groh’s first game as Head Coach, Virginia lost, 26-17 at No. 22 Wisconsin. In a harbinger of coaching head-scratchers to come, Virginia scored a late touchdown, and Groh elected not to go for two, which left the Cavs down two scores with less than six minutes to play.

2004: Playing at the Link in Philadelphia, the game was never close. Wali Lundy scored three times, but this game was significant more than anything else for the opening kickoff, which highly-touted LB Ahmad Brooks returned for 40 yards. Unfortunately, it was yet another tease in a UVA career that never quite lived up to expecations.

2008: Before a Scott Stadium record crowd of 64,947, Virginia hosted No. 3 USC. It was never close. The Trojans, behind Mark Sanchez, racked up 558 yards of total offense, and cruised to a 52-7 win.

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Spread 101, Part IV: What Can Possiblie Go Wrong?

This is part four in a four-part series on UVA's introduction to the spread offense. Part I discussed general spread principles. Part II focuses on what the spread will look like at UVA based on the man brought in to run the spread -- former Bowling Green Head Coach and new Virginia OC Gregg Brandon. Part III focuses on whether Virginia has the pieces in place to adequately run the spread.  This final part focuses on the pitfalls that Virginia faces as it transitions to a new offense.

You put together a better offensive product with what has traditionally been a solid defense under Al Groh, and things just have to get better, right? Well, that’s the thinking. But its far from foolproof.  Why?

(1) This is the ACC, not the MAC. Clemson has been running the spread for years. Their success, with more talent than UVA will have on hand in 2009, was uneven at best and ultimately cost Tommy Bowden his job. We know the spread can succeed in any college football conference, but we don’t know if Gregg Brandon’s version can against an up-and-coming ACC.

(2) He’s a good cook, but not good at grocery-shopping. Brandon’s best season by far as a head coach was in 2003, his first year as head coach replacing Urban Meyer, when Brandon went 11-3. After that initial season, Brandon’s team slowly regressed -- 9-3 in 2004, 6-5 in 2005, 4-8 in 2006, rebounded somewhat in 2007 with an 8-5 record, before last year’s 6-6 campaign, Brandon’s last. Football is replete with examples of coaches coming in and winning with someone else’s players for a year before regressing back to the mean. As the players Meyer recruited slowly graduated from Bowling Green, Brandon’s fortunes faded. Since Groh’s no Urban Meyer in terms of recruiting, we don’t know if Brandon can run his system successfully without superior talent on hand.

(3) The Joe Gibbs Conundrum. Even if Brandon is up to the task, we don’t yet know if he’ll be allowed to run his offense as he sees fit. In January 2006, the Washington Redskins hired offensive guru Al Saunders to run their moribund offense. He was set to handle the play calling, and was going to bring the Redskins’ offense into the 21st century. The problem? Joe Gibbs wasn’t really on board with handing over full control. Now maybe Saunders never would have turned the offense around, but Gibbs never really gave him a chance. Gibbs meddled in play-calling, handcuffed Saunders at every turn, by November, with the team struggling, announced a return to “Redskin football.” Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat itself in Charlottesville under similar circumstances.

(4) Are the pieces in place for success in 2009? As we noted yesterday, the Cavs may not have all the pieces in place at QB and WR to run a successful spread offense in 2009. Vic Hall can run, but has thrown all of two passes at UVA. Marc Verica can throw, but is more or less a statue back there. Sewell shows flashes of the ability to do both, but I don’t trust him to throw the ball accurately more than 10 yards, do you? The Cavs also lost their top five pass catchers from 2008. To run the spread, you need at least three quality starters, and a herd of WRs to play. The Cavs have the latter. There is more than some question as to whether they have the former.

(5) Better Offense + Same Defense = Success? Seems simple enough. But with the no-huddle spread offense now being run in C’ville, the defense may be on field a lot more. For all the offense Brandon’s Bowling Green teams produced, his 2007 team, which went 8-5, actually gave up more yards than they gained. His 2008 team gave up 343 yards and 22 ppg. Of course, defense is Al Groh’s problem, not Brandon’s. But its entirely possible that the Cavs’ D will be on the field more often in 2009.  Whether that's a good thing or not is something that is not entirely clear.

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Spread 101, Part III: UVA's Personnel Match

This is part three in a four-part series on UVA's introduction to the spread offense. Part I discussed general spread principles. Part II focuses on what the spread will look like at UVA based on the man brought in to run the spread -- former Bowling Green Head Coach and new Virginia OC Gregg Brandon. Part III focuses on whether Virginia has the pieces in place to adequately run the spread.

Quarterbacks – As noted yesterday, new OC Gregg Brandon likes to run the football. As evidenced by his 109 yards rushing in the season file against Tech last year, Vic Hall can run the ball. But he’s thrown all of two passes in three years while playing for the orange and blue.  Most media reports, including the DP's latest, have Hall in the lead to start the season.

Can he handle it? Well, Hall did throw for 8,731 yards in high school, and led his team to back-to-back state championships as a QB. But there’s a reason Hall’s been playing cornerback the last three seasons. At 5-9, Hall may be too small to play QB at this level. Brandon admitted that's a problem, especially with an offensive line in front of him that averages 6-6. Brandon also said that Hall is still transitioning back to quarterback. 

The closest comparison to Hall’s situation is Marques Hagans, another vertically challenged QB, who led the Cavaliers to a pair of winning campaigns in 2004 and 2005. But Hagans had the benefit of something Hall doesn’t have on his side – time. After redshirting in 2001, Hagans briefly wrested the starting QB job from Matt Schaub in 2002, but he struggled in general and more specifically with getting balls batted back in his face. By week 3, Groh had turned back to 6-5 Schaub, who wouldn’t relinquish the job to Biscuit until he graduated at the end of the 2003 season. Just as it took a while for Hagans to adjust to the size at this level, it will take Hall time. But he’s a senior, not a red-shirt freshman.

Running Backs – Mikell Simpson was built for the spread. He’s never been the between-the-tackles bruiser Groh prefers, but with the formation spread, and running lanes open, look for Simpson to run wild at times this season, so long as he stays healthy. He’ll also have to improve his blocking, as its asked more of running backs in the spread offense.

Most likely behind Simpson is redshirt freshman Torrey Mack, another undersized but speedy tailback. But as Groh was quoted as saying in this notebook, Mack’s a little behind on pass protection.  The other competitors for PT – Keith Payne and Rashawn Jackson – are bruisers better suited to the 2008 version of the Cavaliers, but they’ll still see time in obvious blocking and short-yardage situations.

Wide Receivers – Kevin Ogletree picked a heck of a year to leave early just to go undrafted. We all hope he makes the Cowboys as an undrafted free-agent, but his departure leaves the receiving corps very young. Darrell’s son looks to be the most likely to make an impact after a solid redshirt freshman campaign. More than one Cavalier is likely to make a name for himself playing in this more wide-open style of offense, but if anyone tells you today they know who that’s going to be, they’re lying.

2009 will also likely mark the end, at least in the short term, of UVA as a TE factory. If they’re one of the top 4 receivers, and that’s entirely possible with the youth at WR, TEs will play.  Third-year man Joe Torchia seems the most likely to be poised for a breakout, but with a new system in place that emphasizes run after the catch, don’t hold your breath for one.

Offensive Line – a unit that returns four starters, this should be a strength coming into the 2009 season. They only surrendered 16 sacks as a unit. They’ll be running a very different offense in 2009, but expect this veteran group to handle it well. Whether the skill position players they’re blocking for do the same may be another matter. Continue reading this post...

Spread 101, Part II: The Gregg Brandon File

This is part two in a four-part series on UVA's introduction to the spread offense.  Part I discussed general spread principles.  Part II focuses on what the spread will look like at UVA based on the man brought in to run the spread -- former Bowling Green Head Coach and new Virginia OC Gregg Brandon.

What the spread offense looks like from team to team is like anything else: its dependent on the coach’s preference, and of course, personnel, specifically the QB you have. If you’re Oklahoma and have Sam Bradford or Texas Tech and you have someone like Graham Harrell, you’re throwing the ball 40 times a game. If you’re Florida and you have Tim Tebow or West Virginia and you have Pat White, you’re running more than you’re passing.

Well, Sam Bradford’s not walking through that door. Tim Tebow’s not walking through that door. Rather, one of Vic Hall, Jameel Sewell, or Marc Verica is walking through that door. I know, not exactly Montana v. Young, is it?

But most Virginia fans know what those QBs bring to the table. What will Brandon be looking for? As most people who have read anything about Brandon know, he succeeded Urban Meyer at Bowling Green when Meyer moved onto Utah after the 2002 season. Its dangerous to read too much into what Brandon did upon assuming head coaching duties from Meyer because he would have been doing it with Meyer’s players (more on that in Part IV on Thursday). But it is fair to look at what Brandon’s teams have done the past few seasons, when control (and the players) were all his.

In 2008, Bowling Green averaged just short of 360 yards per game (for comparison’s sake, Virginia averaged just under 300 ypg). The Falcons did average more yards passing than running (225 to 134). But its not cumulative yards that tell the story. Instead, its total plays, and specifically who’s number got called.

BG’s reading rusher in 2008 was QB Tyler Sheehan, who carried the ball 105 times for 457 yards. The Falcons also had two running backs that split about 15-20 carries a game. So despite playing out of the spread formation, Brandon’s 2008 BG team still ran the ball 20-25 times a game. They did pass too. But they spread it around (no pun intended). Ten different players had at least 10 catches on the season. Five had at least 22 catches. In total, however, Bowling Green ran 681 plays from scrimmage in 2008. 407 were runs. Only 274 were passes.

The result? Bowling Green scored at least 27 points in seven of twelve games in 2008 (for comparison’s sake, Virginia cracked 27 points only twice last season).

The Falcons were a little more pass-oriented in 2007. They averaged 278 yards passing to 123 rushing. But again, the Falcons were still run-dominant when it came to play-calling. In 2007, BG ran 750 plays from scrimmage: 418 were runs, 332 were passes.

The Falcons were even more run-dominant in 2006, when they ran a whopping 505 running plays to only 195 passing plays. Its also the only year in the last three that BG actually averaged more yards rushing than passing (176 to 167). They also finished 4-8, Brandon’s worst season as head coach for Bowling Green.

What does this all mean? Advantage Hall and Sewell; thanks for playing Marc Verica. Brandon clearly prefers the running spread model. That should only be reinforced by Al Groh‘s preference (regardless of what he says) for conservative offense. Of course, Brandon has said he can tweak the system to what he has at quarterback. But his preference appears to be towards the runner, and both Hall and Sewell are better runners than Verica is a passer.

So I’d expect about 20-25 rushes per game. Hall/Sewell about 10-15 carries each. Simpson (who should thrive under the spread formation if he can stay healthy) plus whoever wins the backup job getting another 10-15 carries. When Virginia does throw, expect it to be of the short variety, which makes sense in light of the inexperience of the receiving corps this season. And almost all of it will be done out of the no-huddle offense. A winning combination? Who knows. A more exciting UVa offense? Almost certainly. Continue reading this post...

Spread 101, Part I: Welcome to the Spread

The biggest storyline coming into the 2009 season is Virginia’s introduction to the Spread Offense. It hass taken decades for the Hoos to progress past an offense that ran off-tackle for four yards on 3rd & 6. OK, that’s not exactly true. As recently as 2003, Matt Schaub chucked the ball over 400 times in a single season (of course, those attempts were largely of the Ron Prince dink-and-dunk variety, but 400 attempts is 400 attempts). So Virginia hasn’t exactly been running the wishbone all these years. But it is fair to say, especially under Al Groh, that the offense has been often underwhelming, particularly when compared to a usually reliable defense.

So Virginia has taken the leap into the next big thing with the hiring of former Bowling Green Head Coach Gregg Brandon. Surely many Virginia fans have visions of four wide-receiver sets, lots of deep passing, and 49-42 games. Well, its not quite that simple.

What exactly will the spread look like? As Wikipedia tells us (and as Michael Scott will tell you, Wikipedia is the best thing ever), the spread the spread evolved from the run and shoot. ESPN traces it back to an Oregon high school coach. Both probably have a little bit of the truth.

But its an oversimplification to think that Virginia is going to turn into the early 1990s Houston Oilers. The spread is not the run-and-shoot. Its an evolution of the run-and-shoot. And even in its original form, the run-and-shoot was never predicated on the vertical passing game. Instead, it was based on spreading the defense horizontally. Making the defense defend not only the yardage between the line and scrimmage, but the 53 1/3 yards between the sidelines.

In terms of the college game, run and shoot principles have led two one of two general variations of the spread. The first looks a lot like the old run and shoot. Four or five wide receivers, passing on almost every down. But not vertical, deep passing. Rather, with only five blockers (six if a team leaves a back in to help block), teams that run the passing variation of the spread don’t have time to get the ball down the field. Instead, passing is predicated on hot routes, quick reads, and hitting receivers in stride to run free through spread out secondaries.

The second variation is more likely what Virginia will run under Brandon (more on that in Part II tomorrow). It still usually means four receivers, but teams that run this variation of the spread tend to run as much as, if not more than, they throw. That’s easier to do because of two things: (1) the defense is spread out to cover all those receivers (think of it as having a draw play option on every play); and (2) the return of the best athlete on the field playing QB, as it often happens in high school.

Surprisingly enough, former ND Coach Bob Davie had the best breakdown of this that I’ve found on the web. If you’re really into the Xs and Os, there’s a whole website committed to the spread offense and how to run it.

Who’s running the spread? Better to ask who isn't. Al Groh maintains that his teams have been moving towards the spread for years, 2009 will represent Virginia’s first true foray into the college offense of the 21st century. More on what that is likely to look like tomorrow. Continue reading this post...

Welcome to the Seven Win Society

While UVA was in the process of searching for a new men’s head basketball coach, I looked everywhere and discovered that there was very little out there in the way of really good UVA sports blogs. With all due respect to the Sabre, which requires you to pay for content, and the print media, some of whom I worked alongside many moons ago and very much respect, I was looking for some intelligent insight on UVA sports, and most (but not all) of the time, found it lacking.

So I reached out to a few of my former brethren, and we decided we’d take our shot. Our intent is not to replace the Doug Doughtys and Jerry Radcliffes of the world, nor is that a realistic goal. Both are very good at what they do, and are more plugged in than we will ever be. But we did want to provide a forum for those of us UVA alums that are looking for another voice discussing UVA sports.

Why Seven Win Society? Well, other than a tip of the cap to the famous stewards of the University, seven wins is often viewed as a line of demarcation for a successful season, whether it be a 7-4 in football, which will usually get you a decent bowl invite, or 7-9 in ACC basketball, which puts you right on the line for a NCAA Tournament invite. From 1987 to 1999, Virginia was only one of three schools (Michigan and Nebraska were the others) to win at least seven games in each season. At the time, Virginia fans complained about George Welsh’s failure to take the program to the next level. After eight years of Al Groh, who has failed to eclipse seven wins in two of the last three seasons, most Virginia fans would take 7-5 every year (and then complain when it happens). Similarly, in hoops, it seemed (to me at least) that UVA’s hoops teams were perenially 7-9 in ACC play. The history books actually show its been somewhat rare – Jeff Jones, Pete Gillen, and Dave Leiato each registered only one such season. Still, a friend of mine said last year he’d take what Seth Greenberg does for Tech (7-9 last year, but no NCAA bid to show for it and only one bid since joining the ACC). I can only hope Tony Bennett has his sights set higher than that. I know I do. Continue reading this post...