weekend review. also, i hate football.

One of my favorite things about Al Groh is his answers to media questions that he doesn't want to answer. Some people call this a negative. Perhaps, they say, the program's image would be better (at least, it would have been better pre-W&M - these days all bets are off) if he wasn't so cantankerous with the media. Myself, I don't agree. There's no more useless aspect of the media's coverage of football than the halftime sideline interview, and those people ask some of the dipshittiest questions known to man. My day is always brightened when Groh plays the crabby old man and hilariously refuses to answer. It's an endearing quality.

But I digress. Doug Doughty at the Roanoke Times asked one of those questions on Sunday that Groh didn't want to answer, and the result was vintage Groh, with a twist.

"What would you say to the people who are calling for a coaching change?"

After about a four-second pause, Groh responded, "I don't have anything to say."

He paused for another 4-5 seconds and then added, "I know a lot more about the situation than probably anybody. Maybe some day I'll say what that is."

Doughty writes that there was a "cryptic tone" to Groh's answer. Tone schmone. That answer is dripping cryptic-ness. The Windtalkers would be proud. Of course, what with the pauses and such, it could be that Groh is just simply tired of hearing about all this. No doubt that's the case anyway. It has to take a toll on a man.

Then again, it doesn't take a great deal of curiosity or biting insight to be able to read a lot more into that. "Maybe someday I'll say what that is." Given everything we've heard out of Groh in the past, it's easy to conclude that's just him being cranky as usual. And what situation? The one that got us where we are today and that Groh rather justifiably believes he knows more about than most of his loudmouth critics? Again, that would be vintage Groh. Or maybe "the situation" is Groh's actual job situation and there's actual information to be had on this and he doesn't feel like sharing, or has been instructed not to. If you're not so much a Groh supporter, it's easy to read that and hope he means he's already been privately axed and is being allowed to play out the string.

While we're on the subject of local writers, Jerry Ratcliffe thinks the lack of a run game was our downfall. Good lord, the man couldn't be more wrong if he told you Virginia Poly's uniforms were stylish. Take away Jameel Sewell's stats against Duke (in other words, throw out the sacks which really were pass attempts and stick with just the running backs plus Vic Hall's reverse) and we averaged 5.1 yards a carry. That's actually pretty good! Outstanding, Private Pyle, I think we finally found something that you do well! And it makes sense. There are four units on any offense: quarterbacks, receivers, running backs, and line. Three of those four are lousy, and they're the three required for a passing game. The problem is not that our running game is bad, the problem, obviously, is that we don't use it. The passing game is so pathetic and yet used so frequently that we actually averaged more yards per run play than per pass play. That's absurd. Stop passing the ball so damn much. It'll help the defense out, too.

I'd have had this link up sooner, but I didn't. Last week's ACC roundtable roundup is posted at the now officially defunct 850 The Buzz blog, which is now 620 The Buzz and doesn't really have a blog any more.

You might have noticed I'm just skipping all the usual weekend review stuff. This is because there's nothing worth bothering with on the recruiting front. But I think we will go ahead and take our usual spin around the ACC, only we'll just take a look at the losing teams, I think. Winning is for snobs.

- Wake got stomach-punched just like we did. And their loss might even have been worse because they were much better-positioned for a bowl bid than we were, and poised for a major upset that would have made that bowl thing happen. And then bam. And it turns out Blogger So Dear is also a Cleveland Browns fan, which is about the only NFL fanbase that is allowed to lord it over Lions fans in the misery department. At least the Lions only lose games. Cleveland once lost its whole team and needed two years to find it.

- YANCSTSB is chock-full of misery this week, and who can blame him? NC State is "where defense goes to die:"

When you watch your team rally to score a go-ahead touchdown with 3:50 and yet are convinced that the game is lost, that's the essence of N.C. State fandom these days.

Funny, we have the exact opposite problem. It's eerie. Duke scored to go up 18-17 with basically exactly that much time left on the clock. And I felt exactly the same way. When you have 3:50 to drive approximately 60 yards in order to score just one measly field goal and yet are convinced the game is lost, that's the essence of UVA fandom these days. I have an idea. We don't play NC State this year. Let's team up. Our defense, their offense. We'll be the North Virginia State CavPack (or Wolvaliers, that sounds kinda cool) and get ourselves bowl eligible. We can send our offense and their defense to go compete in the D-III playoffs.

- I couldn't do this without talking about Va. Poly. You know you enjoyed watching that game. You know you loved it. You know it was the best part of your weekend and that really sucks because it wasn't even our own game and it didn't even happen on the weekend. Losing to UNC took it out of College Game Balls pretty hard: he goes into what he calls a semi-angered rant in which the strongest word up to that point is "miffs." This from the guy who wrote this. That is a rant.

As for Gobbler Country, his game recap consists of a picture of a turtle. Your guess is as good as mine. I guess that's what they call art. Either the turtle represents the long, slow march to death that we all must take in our lives and therefore speaks to the futility of our efforts, or he thinks that's the particular ACC team the Hokies looked like on Thursday. Your call.

- It's hard to stand out in the misery-filled ACC this week, but I seem to have managed it. Thank God I waited to post until after I was done with my SEC-fan-on-Youtube stage or who knows what words of mine might have been broadcast for the wide, wide audiences of Greater Internetia. Actually, I do know what words I'd have used. All of them have four letters and I wasn't allowed to say them growing up.

So. Basketball season in eleven days. I'm excited for that, and with any amount of luck, February 1 will get here and I won't already be similarly counting down the days til baseball and lacrosse.