Sunday, November 10, 2013

well that was stupid

I don't know what the hell possessed me the other day, but God forbid I ever again show an ounce of enthusiasm over this sad-sack bunch of poorly coached misfits.  David Watford is quoted saying, "We haven't been executing like we were before."  I'm sorry, when was that again?  I must have missed it.  I suppose it must have been VMI and maybe the first 20 minutes of Duke.  I'm not sure VMI counts.

And Mike London continues to be quoted as saying, "I need to coach better."  Well, yes, admitting you have a problem is more or less the first step, according to Alcoholics Anonymous.  London's been admitting this for months now, and then continues making decisions with his ass.  Sort of like an AA member stumbling in drunk to his 20th meeting in a row.

Case in point, obviously, is accepting a holding penalty to give UNC a 3rd and 15 instead of a 4th down.  The London explanation?  "It could have been fourth-and-5 and they kick the field goal or you take them back, blitz them, knock them back again."  Really?  You were counting on a 15-yard sack? That was the basis of your brilliant strategy?


I saw it jokingly suggested on TheSabre's forums that we should just forfeit the Miami game and spend all the extra prep time on VT.  Bad idea.  Giving this group of players more time with this incompetent coaching staff is likely to double the number of touchdowns we lose by.  The staff is going to be on the road recruiting next weekend.  My suggestion: Take an early start, and stay out late.  Send the players back to their high schools for two weeks - that way they can get their coaching from the guys who molded them into four-star prospects instead of the guys molding them into a 2-win juggernaut.  In this way maybe we will lose to Miami by 14 instead of 40.

It would be much easier to listen to the announcers patronize us with "Virginia fans just need to be patient" if the team weren't regressing mightily the more "coaching" they get.  You could maybe even brush off a seven-game losing streak and say "wait til next year" and use the youth excuse if these were close losses.  The patience line is a pander, not their real opinion - their real opinion came when they suggested that going down 14-0 after one quarter and small change would be the end of the game.  "This team sucks too bad to come back from that," was the suggestion, and damn if they weren't right.

Enjoy your Sunday.  I'm off to go watch old tapes of the Lions' 0-16 season under the illustrious Rod Marinelli so I can remember what a well-coached, disciplined football team looked like.

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Prediction wise, I forgot to review them last week.  It doesn't matter: I didn't get any of them right this week or last.  So 19-of-40 turns into 19-of-49, plummenting below the 40% mark.  My overall predictions go to 5-4-1 ATS and 6-4 overall.

Tomorrow's post won't be the usual weekend review; that'll go Tuesday so I can preview the VCU game in a timely manner.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brendan, assuming London gets one more year and then is let go, who from the current staff would you want to keep after he leaves? O'Brien? Tenuta? Lewis? Poindexter? Brown?

I feel like the defense would be better if not for the injuries and the ineptitude of the offense. Not impressed with special teams, but at least they aren't as big of a liability as last year. Maybe none of these guys stick around, but if you could keep some continuity, who would you hang on to?

Anonymous said...

Does anyone else hate the fact that London and company preach patience and talk about a "young" team when this is the 4TH(!) year of his recruiting and system? These aren't Groh's recruits, this is all on London. And we sent ONE player to the league last year.

Justin, do you still see us holding onto these class?