2010 ACC Football Preview - Coastal Division
Wednesday, September 01 2010 by Tim - 0 comments
Overview In the preseason AP media poll, there are 5 ACC teams included in the top 25. Four of those are Coastal Division teams. Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Miami and North Carolina could all win the division, or just as easily finish 4 th . At the bottom of the division is Virginia and Duke, who have, understandably, been given no shot of winning the division. Miami It seems almost retro to pick Miami and FSU to face each other in the ACC Championship game. One argument for the expansion of the ACC was that a Miami-FSU championship game would generate a lot of attention (read: money) for the...
2010 ACC Football Preview - Atlantic Division
Wednesday, September 01 2010 by Tim - 0 comments
Overview The Atlantic division champion has lost the ACC Championship game the past 3 years, after winning the first 2. It seems that, once again, there is more talent in the Coastal than in the Atlantic. That said, the Atlantic division, while a bit top-heavy, is not lacking for talent. Florida State In a lot of ways, this FSU team looks vastly different from the one that we are used to seeing over the past few decades. There is the obvious difference of Bobby Bowden being gone, and new head coach Jimbo Fisher taking the reins. Furthermore, longtime defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews also stepped...
2010 Football Schedule Analysis - The Second Half
Monday, August 30 2010 by Tim - 0 comments
Overview By the midway point of the season, the Cavaliers will have faced three non-conference opponents and three conference opponents. We predicted Virginia would hold a 3-3 record at that point, though only two of those wins would count for bowl eligibility. The second half of the season begins with the final non-conference game, as Eastern Michigan comes to town. After that, it’s five consecutive ACC games – including three on the road - to close out the season. Let’s take a look: vs. Eastern Michigan (October 23th) Tiki – There are 120 teams in Division I-A, and I would wager that I can name...
2010 Football Schedule Analysis - The First Half
Wednesday, August 25 2010 by Tim - 0 comments
Overview At 6pm on September 4th, the Mike London era officially begins at Virginia. In a nice ironic twist, the Cavaliers will take on Richmond, London’s most recent coaching assignment and the place where he won an FCS National Championship (not to mention his alma mater). That game is the first of two games against FCS opponents (only one of which will count towards bowl eligibility) – VMI comes to town on September 25th. Sandwiched between those two games is a decidedly not-FCS caliber opponent in Southern Cal. With three of the four non-conference games out of the way, the Cavs head into a...
2010 Football Preview - The Defense
Thursday, August 19 2010 by Tim - 0 comments
On Tuesday, we talked about the Offense for the 2010 edition of the Cavaliers and what it will mean to the potential success of this season. One could probably sum up that preview with a bunch of question marks, because there is little certainty about how any of the offensive units will perform. What about the defense? Let's find out. The (Much-Maligned) 3-4 Much has been written about the Wahoo’s change from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 defense. While there is certainly some merit to much of the writing, the truth is that the base scheme is significantly less important than how it is implemented...
2010 Football Preview - The Offense
Tuesday, August 17 2010 by Tim - 2 comments
With fall football camp in full swing and the open practices behind us, it’s time to continue our pre-season look at the 2010 Virginia Football team. We begin today with a look at the offense. We’ll start off with an admittedly painful look at the recent history of the Virginia offense before we dive into a look at what we can expect from this year’s squad. The Past After a couple of decades of pro-style offenses based on a cadre of great running backs (names like Terry Kirby , Tiki Barber , Thomas Jones , and Wali Lundy ), the previous Wahoo coaching staff decided to join the spread offense revolution...
Football Meet the Team Day
Sunday, August 15 2010 by Tim - 2 comments
I stopped by Scott Stadium today to take part in the festivities of meet the team day. First, a couple takeaways from my experience: There were a lot of people there. Lots of kids, lots of adults. Seems like the planners got the events right as the lines for concessions, apparel, moon bounce, etc seemed to be about right – they were all in use, but there were no long lines. There were however REALLY long lines for autographs from some of the players. The players were lined up in numerical order starting from the west gate side and wrapping around the colonnade to the east gate side. The first couple...
Fall Football Practice Starts
Saturday, August 07 2010 by Tim - 0 comments
I dropped by football practice for about an hour yesterday and thought I’d drop off a few comments real quick. I intend to watch more practices over the next couple days and I’ll report anything I find that is worth reporting. I’ll say that if there’s one common thread that runs across all the positive comments below, it’s “potential.” Verica is a head above the other QBs, and that shouldn’t come as any surprise. He’s the veteran with the most experience. He had a couple of nice deep throws, including one bomb to Burd for a TD that had the players and crowd cheering and the coaches running to congratulate...
Fall Training Camp 2010 Roundtable
Thursday, August 05 2010 by Tiki - 0 comments
With fall training camp starting in just tomorrow, it’s refreshing to realize that football season is right around the corner. Most years, we at Dear Old U.Va. like to kick off the new season with a roundtable discussion. This year is no different, but we've added a twist: a guest writer! Dear Old U.Va. is pleased to have Brian Leung from StreakingTheLawn.com join us in the discussion this year. Without further delay - let's get to the questions! The ACC media picked us to finish 6th in the Coastal Division. Do you agree with this? What is your prediction? Tiki: Come on, we’re not worse than Duke...
Football Meet the Team Day: August 15th
Wednesday, July 28 2010 by Tim - 0 comments
Virginia announced today that the first Meet the Team Day of the Mike London era will be held August 15th at Scott Stadium. Here’s the press release , and a few relevant details follow: Players will be available for photos and autographs from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Gates to the stadium open at 1:30 p.m. Tours of the locker room will take place and fans will have the opportunity to purchase the latest 2010 officially licensed sideline apparel from Nike as well as the 2010 football fan t-shirt. There will be plenty of activities for young Cavalier fans. A kid's zone will feature inflatable games and...