You want to see something positive from Virginia’s 16-6 loss to Virginia Tech on Saturday. You want to because moral victories are all you can try to conjure up if you’re on the UVa. side, and your program has just lost its 10th straight to its in-state rival.
OK, the ‘Hoos kept it close. Forget that the offense never got anywhere near the scoring zone in the second half, even as the defense kept the game within striking distance.
Forget that Mike London went ahead with his plan to bring Greyson Lambert in the game, and gave Lambert the whole fourth quarter, with the game on the line, running plays obviously schemed for a David Watford-led offense. And that Lambert went a woeful 4-for-16 passing with the game on the line, looking more like he was just throwing the ball up for grabs than trying to run the offense.
Here’s what you can take away from this game. The crowd was close to 50-50 UVa. fans/Virginia Tech fans. And as the UVa. fans streamed for the exits late in the fourth quarter, when the game was clearly out of reach, the Hokie contingent, good at rubbing it in after all these years, serenaded them on their way out.
“Ten more years! Ten more years! Ten more years!”
It’s been since 2003 that Virginia has picked up a win in this series. Al Groh was 1-9 against Tech in his tenure. Mike London is now 0-4. Which means that combined, the two have as many wins against Frank Beamer as Mickey Matthews, fired this week by FCS JMU, whose 2010 team won 21-16 at Virginia Tech.
Virginia’s last win at Tech came way back in 1998. back in an era that had the ‘Hoos winning eight of 12 in a stretch dating back to 1987.
Seems like forever ago, those days.
Virginia football is now the doormat of the ACC. The loss on Saturday drops Mike London’s record through four years to 18-31, and 8-24 in the ACC. Al Groh was 22-27 in his last four years, 15-17 in the ACC, and that was enough to get him canned, but London has the support of athletics director Craig Littlepage, and that will be enough to give London an inexplicable fifth year.
With a schedule that includes UCLA, at BYU, at Florida State, at Duke, at Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, finishing at Virginia Tech, it’s hard to imagine the ship getting turned around in 2014.
The last 10 years – the era of Hokie dominance in the in-state series – Virginia Tech is 99-34, and Virginia is 55-66.
Do we really have 10 more years of this to look forward to?
The answer, sadly, is yes.
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AFP
