UVA Football week 2 Review:What ya gonna do now Coach Groh?
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by user BigPPup
This past weekend marked Homecoming for the University of Virginia. Traditionally this is an occasion for alumni to come back to their school, and see how successful the football team has become since their years attending there. It is typical and commonplace of the home team to win the homecoming game. Many teams go as far as to seek out certain lower ranked teams to help insure a victory. Troy St, Buffalo, Richmond and Middle Tennessee State have all become popular choices for teams to schedule for homecoming.
However at the UVA they do things a little bit differently. They seek out teams that will pose a challenge for a struggling and rebuilding football team. So for the 2006 homecoming UVA had the liberty of hosting 2-0 Western Michigan. The same team that nearly pulled an up and defeated Virginia in last years season opener. Well, fool me once shame on me fool me twice shame on you. In their second trip to Charlottesville, Western Michigan would take full advantage of the opportunity and defeat the Hoo’s on their home field.
Al Groh answered the Medias questions and many of the Cavalier fans prayers by allowing junior QB Kevin McCabe to start the game. A week ago McCabe came in during the fourth quarter to jumpstart a stagnant UVA offense, and guide the Hoo’s to a victory. His first colligate start would not go so smoothly. On the opening drive McCabe overthrew his receiver and was picked off by a WMU defensive back giving them the ball on the Virginia 21 yard line.
The Cavaliers would bounce back interfering a long drive downfield, that was capped off by Jason Sneiling TD run. The game would remain tied for much of the first half before a second Kevin McCabe pass was picked off, this time it was returned for a TD. That would be the end of the day for McCabe; Coach Groh pulled the junior in favor of 5th year senior and former starter Christian Olson. Later in a post game conference Groh stated that pulling McCabe had nothing to do with the two picks, but rather he had changed or called the wrong play in the huddle twice during the first half, and Groh would not accept that behavior from a QB.
With Christian Olson back under center he led the Cav’s to a field goal. Olson would go 4-6 on the day for 27 yards including the drive that led to a field goal. However, he never appeared comfortable in the pocket, and still was unable to get the ball downfield opting to throw the short hitch and flare routes.
As a result of both is QB’s shaky play, coach Groh would turn to his third string QB Red shirt freshmen Jameel Sewell. This would be the first action that Sewell has seen in his colligate career. In his first bit of action Sewell answered well to the call before him. Guiding the offense downfield, Sewell showed off his athletic ability by evading oncoming defenders. He would go 7-10 on the day for 51 yards. He also carried the ball 4 times for 17 yards adding a new wrinkle to the offense that none of the previous QB’s could provide.
Despite the newfound spark provided by Sewell he would not be enough to lift the Hoos. The Broncos would step up and take the game 17-10.
The Cavaliers are in a lot of trouble. The majority of the second half of Saturdays game the Cav’s had WMU trapped deep in their own territory. The average starting position for the Cavalier offense was on the CMU 45 yard line. Translating starting position that was that good should have been a give me. Instead they struggled converting third downs and were forced to punt the ball away. Often times Virginia found themselves in third and long situations. These are typical passing downs. The Virginia offensive line provided no protection for their QB’s. It does not matter who the QB is, or how athletic they are, if they do not have time to step up into the pocket and at least scan the field they will not be able to complete a pass down field. None of the three UVA QB’s was granted that time.
With the team record at 1-2 and a difficult road game on next week on Thursday at Ga. Tech the Hoo’s are at a major crossroad for the season. Over three games they have shown no stability on offense. The instability is only increased by Groh’s inability to find and stick with one starting QB. There is no quicker way to destroy a team’s offensive stability than platooning the QB’s. Al Groh named his starting QB on Friday night in a team meeting. That means Kevin McCabe had a little over 12 hours to mentally prepare for the first start of hi career. It also means that McCabe and Olson split the reps in practice during the week. This means that neither QB was able to get the number of reps they needed to build an appropriate rhythm heading into the game on Saturday.
Going into the rest of the season the Cavaliers need to find one QB, and stick with them. This means letting them ride it out, no matter how many picks they may throw. Everyone knows the team is going to be bad this year, so they may as well gain something of substance from the season in finding a QB for the future.
Christian Olson has looked like a good QB in practice and in the Spring Game. However, in real games he freezes under pressure and makes poor decisions. More importantly the one statement we have been told about this years UVA team is they are young, and need to rebuild. Christian Olson is a fifth year senior, he is old and will not be here for the future. If Virginia is rebuilding and working for the future, then Olson is not the answer at QB. If they play him all season long, he only eats up one more year of eligibility for Kevin McCabe and then he will have to come in next season as a senior and the Hoo’s will be in the same position that they are right now.
Kevin McCabe has shown talent as QB. He is not a scrambler but he is able to move within the pocket and buy time. He also has a strong accurate arm, and makes great decisions with the ball. Despite throwing two picks on Saturday, both of them hit off on hit the intended receiver and then bounced into the air for a turnover. However, after hearing what Coach Groh said about McCabe I question him as a QB, which in turn makes me question him as a leader. A QB and the coaching staff need to be on the same page. This means the staff needs to be able trust that the plays they call will be called in the huddle. Apparently Kevin McCabe has a problem with that.
Jameel Sewell is young player who is small and athletic and a southpaw. The comparisons to Marques Hagans are impossible to ignore. In his first bit of action on Saturday he seemed very comfortable at the helm of the Virginia offense. Out of the three QB’s he definitely has the most upside. Being so young also means the staff would have time to work with and mold him into a star player one day. The biggest knock again Sewell will be the UVA offense as a whole.
Coach Groh came to UVA and implemented his pro-style offense from the Jets. When he first got to UVA he had the perfect personnel to run that offense. Matt Schaub is a prototypical NFL QB. Brad Butler, Elton Brown, D’Bricksaw Fergusson are all NFL linemen, and so is Heath Miller. All those players are gone now. More importantly Jameel Sewell is not in that mold. When Sewell had to drop directly back from under center the o-line had trouble protecting him and Sewell struggled to make plays. He was most effective when he rolled out of the pocket and used the open space. His speed makes him a double threat that defenses have to acknowledge. Sewell can be a great QB for UVA, but UVA needs to adapt their offense to use all his talents to their fullest ability.
Virginia needs to make adjustments to their team and quickly if they want to attempt to salvage some of this season, and more importantly gain some learning experiences from it so they will not repeat this embarrassment next season. If they fail to make the adjustments, then Virginia will be the team being scheduled for schools homecoming in future seasons, rather than looking for other teams to play.
Date
Sun 09/17/06, 7:52 pm EST
