An Incredibly Successful Season

If you are a UVA fan and are unhappy with the way the football season turned out, you are delusional. We had an amazing season, and did just about as well as you possibly could have hoped for. UVA will never contend for national championships, that is just a fact. Since we are never going to go undefeated, a 9-3 season and a trip to a respectable bowl game in Florida on or around New Years (Gator preferably, Champs Sports acceptably) is something to be very thankful for.

The absolutely best case scenario for UVA football is a 10-2 record and a spot in the ACC title game. To think that these dreams lasted until the last game of the season against your biggest rival who is ranked in the Top 10 is all you can hope for.

We played well in the Tech game too; we just lost to a better team who made more big plays. By no means did they dominate the Cavaliers. We had the ball in the 4th quarter, down by 2, and couldn’t take advantage.

To be unhappy with the way the Wahoo football season played out is to be unhappy with life. I don’t want to hear it. We played too well and had too many good things happen to be brought down by a bunch of haters, and UVA nation definitely has their fair share of chuggers. There are plenty of reasons to be happy about this season.

We played 12 regular season games, and only laid an egg in one of them. Wyoming was the only contest that the team just didn’t show up in, and we got the hell beat out of us. But to have a season in which your team had a chance to win in 11 out of 12 games, and to take 9 of them? Incredible. If you root for a good team, and not a great team, all you can ask for is a chance to win, and UVA football gave us that effort in all but one game.

This is especially impressive when you remember that we had just come off of a 5-7 season, had no impact freshman to speak of, and were picked to finish fourth in our division of the conference. Al Groh did a helluva job coaching these boys up, considering it was basically the same roster as last year. UVA has no receivers, so we didn’t try and throw the ball to receivers. Our top 3 pass catchers were Tom Santi, Mikell Simpson and Jonathan Stupar (TE, RB, TE). Groh even had the balls to continue with Simpson after he lit up Maryland for over 250 total yards instead of deferring to an older Andrew Pearman. Groh recognized Simpsoon’s talent in Game Day and stuck with it.

The Cavs finally learned how to finish out close games against inferior opponents. All that matters at the end of the day is a W, that’s what gets you good bowls. Tying a school record for consecutive wins while setting an NCAA record for most wins by 2 points is a great feeling. What does it really mean? A good bowl game. Committees are going to look at our 9 wins, not how we got them.

Watching Chris Long play is an absolute pleasure. It’s not everyday you get to root for a certain top 5 draft pick with a chance make a game changing play every time he’s on the field. The way he single handedly blew up Maryland and won the game for us was one of the few times I’ve been in awe of a defensive players and followed him instead of the ball when the Terps had possession. The shot of the helpless offensive lineman for Maryland slamming his helmet down on the sideline in frustration was such a great image of how good Long is and how bad he got into Maryland’s dome. The Terps QB probably still has nightmares about that hellacious safety. Long is definitely on roids though, good God.

Groh almost gave me a heart attack every time he called shovel pass play to Simpson, although it seemed to work every freakin time. I think the first time I saw it was in the Maryland game, and we ran it from our own 5-yard line, and I almost shat my pants. But it worked, and kept on working, and became one of my favorite plays.

Jameel Sewell is like Marques Hagans 2.0. They are both incredible at avoiding sacks, but Sewell is a better passer and more poised in the pocket. He will wait longer to bail out, and has just about the same scrambling ability as Hagans did. In honor of Doc Walker, I nominate Sewell’s nickname to be The Magician 2.0. I am excited to see what he can do next year with hopefully an upgraded receiving corp with Kevin Ogletree back. Covington is a perfect possession receiver alongside Ogletree’ awesome talent, and you know we will have good tight ends.

Mikell Simpson will be 1st team All ACC by the time he leaves. You heard it here first. So will Jeff Fitzgerald.

Best/corniest game day slogan of the year? UCONN not beat us, seen on countless free buttons before the game against the Huskies. Priceless.

I’m glad I wrote a post about Miami, just for the response it got from brother Bart. If you haven’t seen it, take a look here for a priceless image in your mind. God I wish I had been there.

Well, that about does it. A very successful season in the books, and a bright outlook on next year. I made it to 5 UVA games this year and hope to continue to do much of the same next in the ’08. First priority is getting tickets to the home game against Southern Cal on August 30th. It’s gonna be huge, and everyone should try and make it back. Until next time, hope everyone is doing well as we head into the holid