Comments on: College Football: If not Groh, then how ’bout Littlepage?

By: chrisgraham

chrisgraham — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:02:23 +0000

We’re not far behind Harvard Monday-Friday. We’re nowhere near VT on Saturday. Nor UNC or Duke or Wake in the winter. Not anymore.

But they’re all looking up at us in the spring, baby!

(Of course, who cares about the spring?)

By: Brian Rostron

Brian Rostron — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:59:37 +0000

“You can not be Harvard Monday thru Friday and VPI on Saturday.”

Well, U.Va. isn’t close to either. What they should do, or perhaps should have done ten years ago, is emulate some of the North Carolina schools such as Duke, Wake, and UNC in various ways. Try and have a decent and plucky football team that has winning records and goes to minor bowls, put together men’s and women’s basketball programs that can legitimately compete for ACC championships, and develop programs in other sports that can compete for national championships.

I mean, it worked in the 1980s, right?

By: chrisgraham

chrisgraham — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:53:39 +0000

Great points, both Scotts. I straddle the line on a lot of things, and do on this one as well. I don’t know that UVa. ever wins a national title in football, but I think we can be a consistent top-20 team who could win one if everything goes right one season. I can see us winning a national title in basketball with JPJ and our history of success in hoops, though that is beginning to fade a bit, isn’t it?

By: scott

scott — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:34:33 +0000

You can not be Harvard Monday thru Friday and VPI on Saturday.

By: Groh Era Ending Soon? : Football Rumor Mill

Groh Era Ending Soon? : Football Rumor Mill — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:11:27 +0000

[...] Virginia is somewhere in the area of where James Madison is right now, but the Cavs would be looking up at the Dukes after the six-turnover embarrassment in Durham today in a 31-3 loss that marks either the beginning of the end of the Al Groh Era in Charlottesville or the beginning of the end of both the Groh Era and the Craig Littlepage Era as well… I’ve been saying for going on three years now that Littlepage’s inability to pull the plug on the Groh Era was a sign that he and others in the administration had given up on football in Charlottesville, which is immensely sad to those of us who remember the hard work of guys like George Welsh and Jim Dombrowski and Don Majkowski and Shawn and Herman Moore and Terry Kirby and Chris Slade and Tiki and Ronde Barber and James Farrior and Jamie Sharper and Aaron Brooks and Thomas Jones and Matt Schaub and Heath Miller to take the program from doormat to perennial ACC contender. – Augusta Free-Press [...]

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:15:09 +0000

First of all, let’s forget any conspiracy theories about Casteen and Littlepaige wanting to torpedo UVA athletics. You don’t pound the pavement for $$ the way they have if you don’t want to succeed. The problems are really threefold 1) a provincial mind set that doesn’t care about anything that happens outside of C’ville (see very few neutral site games) and won’t look to outsiders for badly needed change (see the background of the last three ADs) 2) an over emphasis on coaching stability even if said coach is clearly under-achieving (see Ryan, Debbie) and 3) plain old fashioned incompetence (see the Gator bowl ticket fiasco).

Regardless the solution remains the same. Littlepaige should be removed immediately so that his successor can oversee the search for a new football coach. Said successor should come from UNC with a free hand to remove whomever they see fit. The mindset should be that UVA will not play second fiddle in the Commonwealth, will win conference championships in ALL sports and that academic standards attract smart, disciplined athletes to our programs.

By: Brian Rostron

Brian Rostron — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:15:03 +0000

Al Groh always struck me as a bit of an odd fit for U.Va. in that whereas there are plenty of successful college coaches who don’t succeed in the NFL (e.g. Spurrier, Saban, etc.) he seems like a reasonably successful NFL guy who can’t build a good college football program. And for some reason U.Va. is paying him $2 million a year as though he were an elite college coach.

By: chrisgraham

chrisgraham — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:19:29 +0000

I know people (even commenting in this thread) who are not chipping in to pay the salaries of Groh and Littlepage until something is done to get the course corrected. So maybe that has an influence.

By: qbubbles

qbubbles — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 13:14:50 +0000

Their first problem is giving scholarships to insipid little children who dont know the first thing about integrity and responsibility. Who have toddlers at home. Who dont go to class. Who spend their days getting laid and smoking up.

That goes for football AND basketball.

By: Brian Rostron

Brian Rostron — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 12:04:59 +0000

Who’s going to chip in to buy out Groh’s contract?