How do we feel about the cavahoos?
- Thread starter VT_Spider
- Start date
Yes talk smack about Spiders win over football Hoos. Hokies football win over Hoos happens every year. It had been 70 years - 1946 - since Spider football beat Hoos.
I would say it went pretty well. I saw some girls I knew from school at Boylan heights and we got a "let's go Hokies" chant started and some people were unhappy about that. I brought up the UR game to some people and they weren't really upset about that. It seems that they are so bad at football that they really don't even care and aren't surprised when they lose no matter who it is who beats them. Kind of sad honestly to see a student body like that. They are very into basketball though and were very upset about their loss Saturday.
Wasn't that way when Welch was the coach. Program tanked during the London era and it will take a few years for Mendenhall to build it back up.
Groh (2001-2009) was responsible for the post-Welsh downward spiral. He was fired before London was named.
Before Welsh, there were 8 consecutive coaches with losing records starting with Ned McDonald in 1953. On two different occasions, UVa was written up in SI as having the longest losing streak in the nation. Groh had a few winning seasons, but he was anathema to alumni and administrators before he was fired going 5-7 and 2-9 in his last two seasons. I liked him and am not sure it was all his fault. There is a huge intangible to overcome at UVa with respect to football.
UVa is the best historical example I can think of as an example of a true losing tradition in football. Welsh overcame the supernatural to be successful there. Even though he went to bowls in both of his last two years, he was very under appreciated. I am aware of his personal problem (which he overcame), but that was just used as an excuse by those in power who had little appreciation for, or had lost sight of, how it had been for the preceding 50+ years before his arrival.
I have followed UVa football since I was a young child when my father taught there. I am a fan (though never against UR) and I hope Mendenhall turns them around, but I have my doubts. I think that the attitude embedded in the powers-that-be and the losing tradition which is now a part of the school's identity have become too much for a mere mortal to change.
Al Groh was the best hire in the history for UVA. If they didn't hire him they were going to hire Jerry Sandusky. The main reason why they didn't hire him was because they were concerned he would be to preoccupied with his charity but didn't say why. UVA HR did its best vetting job ever. Kinda scary when you think about it, I wouldn't wish that disaster on any program.
Welsh is the better coach, no doubt. But they knocked it out the park with that hire considering the alternate history. Sandusky would of wiped Welsh legacy right off the map.
Ferrum is correct, Groh was the UVA best hire ever. Not positive but Sandusky may have been the first choice but too much suspicion regarding the charity. Scary stuff, can you imagine. Always been a fan of UVA, Sandusky would have totally destroyed a program on the ropes, maybe the death knell.
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