The Commonwealth of Virginia's Ultimate Blog

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Is This The Next Level Groh?

I miss George Welsh. George Welsh actually made an impact on this program. We were nothing before he got here. We'd never been to a bowl game, and had a mentality of failure. That all changed with him.

Al Groh promised to take it to the next level, but that simply hasn't happened. Times Dispatch sportswriter Bob Lipper's article today has a punishing critique of the Groh era so far, and the bad thing is that things seem to be going downhill over the course of the last four years. Is time running out? I hope not. But he's 2-10 so far against Florida schools and Tech...that's awful! 1-4 against Tech. George Welsh dominated Tech at times.

Last four years:
2002: 9-5
2003: 8-5
2004: 8-4
2005: 6-5 (with bowl game remaining)

I don't like that trend.

3 Comments:

Blogger GOPHokie said...

In Groh's defense (and believe me I hate him more than you), Welsh played much easier VT teams than Groh has.
I still think Groh is a great recruiter but a terrible coach.
Thats fine with me though, let him keep losing. That makes me happy :)

1:52 PM

 
Blogger Shaun Kenney said...

Allow me to defend Coach Groh:

(1) UVA players make open field tackles now. Didn't see that when Welsh was coach.

(2) The ACC is a much better conference today than it was under Welsh. Back then, UVA looked forward to FSU, maybe GT as big games. Now Wake Forest has stepped it up, UNC is on the move, Maryland is up and coming... not to mention BC, VT, and Miami.

(3) I still don't think Groh has gotten the type of team he really wants. It's close, but when has Groh ever worked with a running QB before Hagans? Hoos are short a couple of receivers (why do you think Hagans threw to Heath Miller all the time last year?).

Hoos are much better than they were five years ago - true or false?

I think the conference has stiffened up. Groh gets a couple years left before UVA should consider putting him on the chopping block. I'd hate to see a repeat of what they did to Coach Gillen...

3:12 PM

 
Blogger Shaun Kenney said...

I'm a huge Pete Gillen fan, remembering that Virginia basketball wasn't much to brag about at all before Gillen came to the scene.

Never seen a guy work harder, either.

6:28 PM

 

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