To paraphrase Al Michaels: Do you believe in the highly unlikely?
Well, if you've been watching UVA football, the answer is clearly yes.
The Virginia Cavaliers, the team that lost to Duke by 28, is in sole possession of first place in the ACC Coastal Division.
Come again?
The same team that had been outscored in its first two road games by 63 points.
The same team that was ranked last, 119th, in almost every offensive category at one point.
The same team that lost its top two quarterbacks, defensive ends, and secondary players and was tied for the second-most freshmen and sophomores in the ACC.
The 2008 season was seizing on the operating table. The doctor would have been merciful in calling the time of death after the Duke debacle. After all, most of the fans and media had.
The U-Haul was parked behind Scott Stadium for Al Groh.
How could it get any worse than that?
Well, amazingly for Virginia, it didn't.
Instead of being Jack Kevorkian, Al Groh is playing the role of Lazarus. He has brought his team (and his job) back from the dead.
It began with a 31-0 pounding of Maryland at home in a game that had every single person (particularly UVA fans) in disbelief. A game that featured (gasp) Virginia's first passing touchdown of the season!
Oh, but that was just Maryland, the consistently inconsistent team that no one can trust.
Then Virginia knocked off the mid-major darling East Carolina. The Cavaliers looked ugly early, giving the Pirates the ball in UVA territory the first three possessions, but were able to run behind Cedric Peerman to an impressive 35-20 victory that included a fake field goal attempt to seal the deal.
Of course, ECU had beaten West Virginia and Virginia Tech, but the Pirates were pretty banged up with some key injuries. Just how much could we believe in Virginia?
Then Virginia went another step further as they extended one of the more impressive streaks in school history by beating North Carolina at home...again.
In fact, UNC has not won in Charlottesville since 1981, and the demons reared their ugly heads as Marc Verica, a fourth-string QB last year, led a two-minute drive to tie the game and connected on a 20-yard pass to tight end John Phillips in overtime to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against a Top 20 team.
Still, no credit.
Critics would point out that UNC went to the prevent defense and that Butch Davis lost the game more than UVA won it. ESPN could not even pronounce UVA's QB's name correctly.
For the record, it's Ver-i-ca, NOT Ve-reek-a.
But no one can deny the shocker last Saturday.
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2 months ago
I was at the Virginia/GT game, and came away so impressed by the Cavaliers. If there's a better pure quarterback in the ACC than Marc Verica, then I don't know it. He's as poised in the pocket as any UVA quarterback since Matt Schaub. Their turnaround has been remarkable.
2 months ago
Thanks for the read Jeffrey,
I definitely agree with you on Verica. It's amazing that the loss of starting QB Pete Lalich might have been the best thing to happen to the Cavaliers. Verica is still so young and made two costly interceptions on Saturday but he has A LOT of potential and I think it his progress which has caused all this optimism. Six starts=unbelievable.
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