Dear Old U.Va.

Virginia Football Preview: Part I: Introduction

Wednesday, August 01 2007 by Tiki

I've  been thinking about how I want to break this preview down.  The obvious way would be offense/defense, or each position separately.  But there are probably 100 previews broken down like that.  And, interesting as they are, its not necessary to have another one. 

Therefore, I am going to try something different.  I'm going to break it down into how I expect various players to perform this year. 

What does that mean?  It means the first group will be players I expect to have great seasons.  After that will be players that I expect to have solid seasons.  It will continue like that.  Obviously, the next question is, how do you define a great season.  If the starting RB rushes for 1000 yards, is that great?  Perhaps.  What if the 2nd string RB rushes for 250 yards, is that solid?  Again, perhaps.  If a RB rushes for 1000 yards on 300 carries, well that is not great, is it?  However, if the 2nd string RB rushes for 250 yards on only 50 carries, that is superb. 

I plan to take the expected depth chart into account.  A player who is not expected to start at the beginning of the season will not need to have as good a year, in terms of production, to be listed as great or good.  However, a player who is expected to start all year but do nothing spectacular will likely be considered poor.  Furthermore, age will play a role.  The same production from a redshirt freshman is clearly superior to that of a 4th year player. 

Obviously, some players will see little or no playing team.  This includes walk-ons, most incoming freshmen and some other players who just haven't cracked the depth chart.  I will include these players in a separate section.

Discussing specific players is completely different from talking about team performance.  Some teams outproduce their individual performances and some teams underproduce.  The thing is, despite what "experts" love to say, it is impossible to predict this.  A team with more individual talent is more likely to succeed than a team with less individual talent.  But, as Wake Forest proved last year, this isn't always going to hold true on the field.  Everything from coaching, to the weather, to the bounce of the ball is going to affect a team's performance of the course of a season. 

The "experts" love to talk about chemistry.  But isn't it funny that winning teams always have good chemistry and losing teams always seem to have bad chemistry.  All teams have players that get along and some that don't.  I dont know these players, and I do not know what goes on behind closed doors.  This is why I focus on individual performances.  If most of the players perform well, the team should win.  If everybody struggles individually, the team will suck...again. 

Disclaimer

Please know that I have the utmost respect and admiration for every single player on the team.  I'm also jealous of all of them because I wish i'd been able to play football for Virginia.  Which is why I love the NCAA football games so much. 

When I rank a player as "poor", I'm not talking about the players character, or intellect, or anything personal about them.  I'm not even necessarily saying I don't think they are a good football player.  Hell, they're all better than me.  Sometimes its not their fault.  Coaching, specific cirumstances, injuries, etc, can affect a players performance on the field. 

Also, this is all in fun, I'm do not wish to hurt anybody's feelings, even though I inevitably will.