The Official UVA Game Thread

[Captain Kangaroo]

I deleted the other UVA game posts...they weren't too substantial and cluttered the board. We'll see how this goes:

Last weeks loss to MTSU still disappoints me. Two consecutive years of losing the home opener by blowing a 4th quarter lead. And, in front of the largest crowd of the season (Marshall will be larger, but 50% will be Herd fans). What a massive disappointment...

How do we beat UVA? I have no clue. I assume we'll be missing our best defensive player in Blackburn? He looked like the Chase-of-old Saturday, until the injury. Can Howe, Stokes or one of the other Fr's make a big debut Saturday? They'll need too.

The hurricane looks to be in full force for the game. That should even the playing field a bit? Maybe it's shades of the '96 Va Tech game, where we battled Drukenmiller, Oxedine and Cornell Brown down to the wire with a team that had no business doing so. The 1st half was played in the tail end of a hurricane.

I want a victory like anyone else, however...like others have said...if we play a mistake free ball game, fight for 60 minutes and leave the game as a respected opponent, I have to be happy. That didn't happen vs. Penn State.

I'm 50/50 on travelling to the game...even though I have hotel reservations. Hurricane is putting a damper on my plans...

[dave_rickart]

glad to know our visits to your barren message boards were viewed as unsubstantial clutter. pretty classless boardhosting.....

[zff]

Well then I gues you have to choices:

1. Try to have a decent conversation about the game saturday.

2. Kiss my and

We have a nice little boad with or without you!!!!!

[Guest UVAis4me]

Well Dave I couldn't disagree more. I've read all the post these past few days from UVA fans and for the most part they were clutter. Yours in particuler seemed that way as all of your post seemed rather mean in nature describing how this will basically be a practice game for us playing a team that in your opinion couldn't beat a high school team, much less us.If you didn't mean it that way then I appologise but that sure is the way your post read to me.

It's their board and they have every right to expect respect from others visiting their board instead of somone flaming. After all you don't like it when people come over and flame on UVA's boards do you?

I for one welcome the Zips to town this wekend and expect a pretty good game from them. I'm looking forward to seeing their QB play and how our secondary handles it. All in all I think anyone that travels to C-Ville this weekend should have a good time and the weather isn't looking as bad as we once thought. It could be fairly dry this weekend as they think that Ivan may stay down south. Drive careful. Lets have a good game and pray for no injuries.

GO HOOS!!!!!!!!

[Dr Z]

Do any Hoo fans know if there is any local coverage on the game?

It's not on the ESPN gameplan.

I checked the tv listings and the LSU / Auburn game is on 19 at 3:30.

[dave_rickart]

zff - we won't be kissing your ass, we'll be kicking it on Saturday.

Dr. Z - it appears this game (as well as our Syracuse game the following week) won't have TV coverage, unfortunately.

[Guest Hoobris]

Here's how to beat Virginia.

First off, football is about matchups. That's at least one of the reasons you get unexpected results so often. I know only a little about Akron (just what I've read in pre-season pubs and a bit on this board), so I have to guess at the matchups. I hope one or more of you will correct me when I'm wrong.

About Virginia:

Offense:

Line: Maybe the best we've ever had. We'll see as we go on through the season. They've always been good at pass blocking. This year, they appear to be good (with the caveat that the competition has been weak) at run blocking, as well.

TE: Two draft picks this year. Heath Miller is probably the best TE in the country. He'll be a high draft pick as a Jr. Patrick Estes is a terrific run blocker and will be a middle round pick. Probably the best set of TEs in the country.

WR: Average, at best. There's some talent here, but it's young talent. Michael McGrew is a senior and is solid, but just solid. The Hoos are also thin, here.

RB: Very strong. All the RBs can run and catch. We have three who are very close to each other in skill, though with different strengths and weaknesses. Wali Lundy will start. He's our most versatile RB and is a power runner. Alvin Pearman will also run and sometimes play in the slot. He caught 16 passes, last year, against FSU. Michael Johnson is the youngest of the three (RS soph). He's the one with breakaway speed, but gets knocked down more easily than the other two.

QB: Hard to know for sure. He's currently the 3rd ranked passer in the NCAA, but he's really thrown only a few passes (79% completion rate). He's mobile and has a strong arm, but he's also very short. Being short is far from ideal in the modified West Coast offense we run.

Defense:

Line: Supposed to be one of our strengths, but the jury is still out on exactly how strong. DE Chris Canty is a genuine All-American candidate and high-round draft choice this year. The other two are solid to good.

LBs: Rated #1 or #2 in the country by most pre-season pubs. Three of the four will play in the NFL barring injury. One (Ahmad Brooks) is a freakishly good athlete. I haven't seen a college LB with ability like his since Lawrence Taylor. But he's not as good as Lawrence. Not yet. He is 260 lbs. and fast enough to return kick-offs for us, though. All in all, I'd say this unit hasn't gelled, yet. Maybe it will reach its potential and maybe not. We'll see.

Secondary: Weakest spot on our team. How weak? Once again, it's hard to tell. It's the fastest secondary we've ever had and probably the most talented. It's also dreadfully inexperienced.

Special teams: Good on returns. So-so on coverage. Field goal kicking is a big strength. Punting appears to be ridiculously weak.

So, how to beat the Hoos? No suprise. It's going to come down to the Zips' offense, I think. You have to turn this game into a shootout and get your QB and receivers matched up against our inexperienced secondary. If I were the coach, I'd consider spreading the field in a 4 WR set with your best combination RB and blocking back in the backfield. That should give you the best opportunity to get one or more of your receivers open in our secondary. You buy time for your All-World QB with rollouts, sprint-outs, bootlegs, swing passes to the back, shovel passes, and the occasional run.

I think you'll need several big plays, and the spread offense matching your strength against our weakest point should provide the best opportunity for this.

On defense, the whole world knows we're going to run. Your team's strengths and weaknesses appear to be a lot like those of North Carolina, so the game plan should be about the same. You can't let us run. If we do, we run the clock (and you want Frye to get as many touches as possible), beat hell out of your defense, and make it a long, long day for the Zips. I'd put 8 or even 9 in the box and force our average WRs and generally unproven QB to beat you through the air. It might work or it might not, but it gives the Zips a fighting chance.

The hurricane is a wild card. Right now, it's scheduled to be in Tennessee on Sunday afternoon, so it may play no factor at all in the game. On the other hand, if it's rainy and windy, that's going to hurt your passing game and ours. I think that sucks more for you than us, but we'll see.

I don't think you can plan that way, though. I think if it becomes your running game vs. our defense, and our running game vs. your defense, the odds that we win increase dramatically.

But, I could be wrong. I really, really welcome input from those who know more about the Zips.

All the best.

[zff]

Hey Big Dave

Your big bad Hoo's should be kicking butt on saturday.

When you get blue chip players you are supposed to do that. I really didn't need you to come over to the Zips board and tell me that.

[dave_rickart]

Note to zff - there is nothing in the NCAA rule books preventing Akron from recruiting good players.

Obviously, you'd have to have a good school, a good football program, a good coach, good facilities, proven ability to develop NFL talent, a real conference, and fans that gave a crap in order to attract such talent.

No wonder this board is a wasteland.... you guys have a quitters' mentality.

[Zipsrifle]

There you go, our school sucks 'cause our football team sucks. Well, at least we're better Yale or MIT.

I'm willing to bet that if Virginia lost the rest of their games this year and got the snot kicked out of them for the next 10 years, Dave would be rooting for VT and their board would be dead too.

I'm also willing to bet Dave didn't even go to Virginia. Dave probably graduated from North Central Virginia Institute of Fine Arts. Their football team sucked, so he decided that he was a Virginia fan cause they're good. See, like I've said before, It's easy to root for a winner. You ususally win, you get the good players and you load up your early schedule with struggling teams. Then, you can go on other people's boards and talk smack and not have to get much shit back....It props up your little ego.

He's "over here to talk football", looks to me that he's just over here to gloat about how good his team is. Why aren't you discussing thing with the other fans on your board....oh, because they probably know that you're opinion means about as much there as it does here...ZIP. I will be sure to catch the FSU game when you guys get waxed. I'm no expert on the Zips but everything that's been posted about Virginia so far came right out of a magazine that anyone in the country can pick up. Glad to see that the fans are educated too 'cause from what I've seen on the UVA page, the best you can do is copy and paste he gozips.com notes.

The folks over here are not fair weather fans. We're here 'cause we put our money where our mouth is and support the school we went to, even if they suck. We're not going to bail out when times get bad....cause they are. If we were quitters we would be on the OSU board right now talking smack about a team that generally wins.

Now, thanks to you guys, every Zip here has the impression that the Virginia fans are Assholes. Not many people have done that over the past few years. So, even though we can barely read with our UA Diplomas, since our football team sucks, we're smart enough to see through you guys. I'm done with these punks.

So, before this turned into yet another thread with Virgina fans spouting off their worthless mouths, I think this was a prediction thread. I've got to back the team so here goes (oh yea, put me in the sunshine column) :

No Hurricane. Defense makes another step up and we somehow keep their running attack to an average game. UVA QB has an off day and we come up with a few picks and are on the good side of some fumbles. We finally turn the corner in the red zone and turn a few of those turnovers into some scores. Biggs keeps their D honest and Frye, who is used to scrambling by the way, lights it up for 400 yards. We also run a kickoff back for a TD. Somehow the guys actually learned something from JD and hold onto the ball the whole game. We kick a fieldgoal with time expiring to win 45-42.

Does anybody know if we can get the game on web radio? I won't sign up for college sports pass cause I got all the games last year for free and will see at least 7 games this year.

Go Zips!!

[zff]

Attn: Dave.

I was just having some fun with you.

[Guest Guest_racer]

as for some of the other post about not having talent,or owens leftovers. i dont want to wait five years unitl he gets what he wants as far as talent. hell i would like a million dollars. no one forces anyone to take the u of a job. brookhart took the job willingly.they need to keep working , keep improving, and not make excuses for that ya dont have. the mac looks like it's no world beater this year'so their is no reason not to win some mac games. this week for the zips hopefully the rain will stay away. i think it would really hurt our passing attack.i still think this offense can put up some good numbers ,and points.their is still enough talent at wr and a great qb.at this point though unless we get a bunch of turnovers im not sure the defense will be able to stop them.

[Guest ua-fan]

To Hoobris:

Good analysis. You're right, our best hope is to have success passing, move the ball, and get into the end zone. And hope the Cav players & coaches are totally flat, uninspired, disinterested, and looking past Akron to the next game.

Problems:

1) Good d-line play with pressure on Frye along with some blitzing will make it very difficult for us to sustain enough drives for long enough to score enough points.

2) Our run defense is too weak and big TD running plays from scrimmage will be flushbacks of the Penn State game.

3) Our secondary is probably just as inexperienced as yours and assuming your QB has decent throwing skills and your receivers are fast, they will be wide open from time to time. We're not good at pass rushing so you will have plenty of time to find them. This will be a good opportunity to work on your passing game.

That being said, I believe the future has never been brighter for Zips football, and most outsiders don't have a clue of this but I believe they will soon...

The current administration is committed to succeeding in football (and all sports) as evidenced by the fact that they raised the bar and brought in a new coach after several seasons of .500 play (same for hoops), we have just completed a new indoor practice facility/locker room/weight room/medical-trainers space and on-campus practice field whereas the players used to drive 15 mi. to the off-campus stadium to practice, speaking of which, plans are also being made for a new on-campus stadium. I believe recruiting will improve dramatically and we already have several transfers from Pitt & WVU and a couple of verbal commitments 2 games into the season. There are also some major improvements being made to the campus itself which will make it a lot more appealing to potential recruits. It's just that we're currently caught in an ebb of poor overall recruiting by the previous staff plus a weakened Fr. class due to the coaching change, lost some of our best talent to graduation, and have a track record of too many players quitting the team in frustration or lack of interest.

So now you know a little more about the Akron football program and when we start getting good in the next couple years you can tell your friends you saw it coming.

Enjoy the game Sat., let's hope neither team sustains any serious injuries. And thanks for coming by.

[dave_rickart]

Hey Zff, I see you!

And, yes, there was a layer or two of sarcasm in my previous post. Apparently a class Zipsrifle forgot to take.....

[Guest Hoobris]

Thanks so much for your thoughtful response! Now I know a bit more about the Zips than I did before. A couple of comments on your observations.

>>Problems:

1) Good d-line play with pressure on Frye along with some blitzing will make it very difficult for us to sustain enough drives for long enough to score enough points.

As you may know, we run a 3-4. In the base 3-4, there's only a three-man rush. Generally, though, at least one linebacker will rush along with the down linemen. The issue for opposing offensive lines is identifying and picking up that LB. UNC did a good job of this, and tended to burn us when we rushed more than one LB. I think they have a better-than-average O-line (their center is really good). Their QB (Darian Durant) is very, very, good, but probably not as good as Frye.

We blitzed a big, mobile QB at Temple (Washington) enough to hurry him a lot and get five sacks, but you should know that, at this time, our blitz doesn't appear to be effective enough against good O-lines to keep a good QB from burning us badly.

>>2) Our run defense is too weak and big TD running plays from scrimmage will be flushbacks of the Penn State game.

While our running attack appears to be good (we don't know for sure just yet how good it is), we have seldom broken long gainers. There's just one gain of over 20 yards, and that was for 25. So, we're a Woody Hayes-style "three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust" offense at this point. Well, that's not exactly true. Our average gain is 5.6 YPC. We have one RB capable of breaking it long (M. Johnson), but he goes down too easily to break many tackles. So, I really don't expect to see many long gainers on the ground. I think it will be more of a pouding attack.

>>3) Our secondary is probably just as inexperienced as yours and assuming your QB has decent throwing skills and your receivers are fast, they will be wide open from time to time. We're not good at pass rushing so you will have plenty of time to find them. This will be a good opportunity to work on your passing game.

I'm not sure what Groh will do regarding the pass. I think he'll stick to the ground if that's working, with the occasional pass just to keep the Zips from stacking the box. On the other hand, if the Zips do stop the run by putting too many bodies in the box for the Hoos to block, he'll go to the air, for sure. Our modified West Coast offense tends to be a possession offense with very few deep balls. Our QB hasn't really been tested to this point, so how well he would handle that burden remains to be seen. If you can just drive the O-line back a bit, he's going to have trouble seeing. He's 5'9" tall and the average O-lineman is 6' 6". That's not a good thing for the WC offense because it requires the QB to be able to see well enough to make reads and check off to various receivers. He's a mobile QB, but he'll stay in the pocket as long as he can.

On occasion, he'll roll out and appears to be good throwing on the run. If he takes off and gets in the open field, he could be dangerous. He used to be our punt returner.

Once again, THANKS for the feedback! That's helpful.

Good luck on all your games but this one.

Hoobris

[Guest Guest]

Zips Rifle,

I'm very sorry if Virginia fans upset you. Though I cannot speak for all Virginia fans, as you cannot speak for all Akron fans, I can say that I most certainly did not come to your board with even the remotest notion of "gloating."

We Virginia fans are a bit like Cubs fans. We are used to disappoinment and, over the years, we have lost many, many games to teams the prognosticators thought we should beat handily. A few years back, we had a tendency to get up by 21 points or so and lose, seemingly, every time. During my four years as an undergrad at Virginia, we won a total of six games, beating only such notable football powers as VMI, Lehigh, and two against Virginia Tech (before they got good). We had two other wins against near-high-school teams, but I forget who they were.

In those days, the ACC was considered among the weakest of the football conferences. It had been 25 years or so since an ACC team won a national championship. And Virginia was the weakest team of a weak conference. We made the bottom ten every year. I don't know Zips' history well, but you may never have had a team with the long-term record of futility that many Virginia fans have endured.

So, I do, indeed, know what it's like to have a team that disappoints me to the point of self medication ... early and often.

I'm here because I know the Zips can win. I believe that the probability may be low this year, but it is not anywhere near zero. If you can score, you can win. I have no doubt that you will score and, frankly, your offense's strengths go against our defense's weakness. That makes the Zips a very dangerous team, and you gave us all we wanted two years ago.

I enjoy games more when I know what early keys to look for. That's why I'm here. I just want information. Yes, I can get some information from the pre-season pubs, but that's not as good as eye-witness observations from people interested enough in football to frequent a board such as this one.

It may very well be, as you say, that I am an "asshole," "punk," and have a "worthless mouth." Or, it may be that you have misjudged me. I will extend an invitation to you. You are most welcome to visit my house, eat at my table, drink my beer/wine/liquor, meet my family, and engage in whatever discourse you so choose. If, at the end of that time, you still think I'm an "asshole," "punk," and have a "worthless mouth," then I assume I will have earned your scorn. But you may change your mind. Stranger things have happened.

I'm actually quite serious about the invitation. You may reach me at ltlawrence@hotmail.com.

Here's hoping the Zips go on to win all their remaining games (save one).

Hoobris

[Guest Go Hornets]

Hey zips fans, I haven't been here since Kevin Grant (from Herndon High School, home of the Fighting Hornets [/geek]) signed at Akron. Speaking of which, is KG getting any playing time? Probably not, but it would have been cool.

Anyhow, the other Hoos have accurately stated UVa's strengths and weaknesses. One thing they've failed to mention, is our fullback Jason Snelling, is probably the most dangerous player in our offense. He is one of our top 2 or 3 runners, blockers, and recievers, and Groh likes to get him involved in all aspects of the game. If your linebackers do not account for him, he will kill you. I look forward to seeing Frye, as from what I've heard, he's big shit, and likely the next Ben Rothlisberger.

Oh, and it's ok to be a Hoo fan and not have gone to UVa. I went to Ole Miss (I actually drank with Eli at a bar) but was born and raised a UVa fan, and they're who I follow.

[grohinuva]

Hey zipsrifle....dont hold your breath waiting for us to get waxed by FSU...wouldnt bet on that if i were you

[Guest Guest]

The good news is Frye is good at scrambling and throwing on the run. The bad news is he's usually running for his life. We have a "veteran" offensive line but a "good" offensive line is subject to considerable debate. Your front 3 will probably be enough to get him flushed out of the pocket. If our receivers can get open he will find them, although v. MTSU he forced a few and had a couple of INT's.

This will be the week you break some long gainers. I hate to throw a wet blanket on the game and I hope I'm wrong but it just seems pretty likely based on what we've seen so far.

Do you think you'll be able to pound the ball on the ground against all of your ACC opponents? Even if they start stacking the box? I would think it would take a little bit of balance to compete for a division title. If Groh was smart he would work on that against the Zips instead of just running. Maybe he doesn't want to show more than he has to but QB/receivers need some game reps at some point.

Hopefully it won't pour down rain the whole day. Everybody says Frye will be an NFL starter one day soon so I hope he can put on a good show for y'all.

Have fun at the game!

BTW, what is a Hoo?

[Guest Rifle's_Wife]

Hey Guest,

Back off my man! You might be from Chicago... "Boys Town" maybe? The invitation sounds a little funny to me. Maybe it is just "Southern Hospitality" but us Yankees don't see it that way. He won't be choosing any other "Discouse" except with me! He may be down 'cause of the team, but he's not THAT down. Might as well go over to the Syracuse board and start looking for your next friend.

Jealously,

"Rifle's Wife"

[Captain Kangaroo]

Hey Guest,

Back off my man! You might be from Chicago... "Boys Town" maybe? The invitation sounds a little funny to me. Maybe it is just "Southern Hospitality" but us Yankees don't see it that way. He won't be choosing any other "Discouse" except with me! He may be down 'cause of the team, but he's not THAT down. Might as well go over to the Syracuse board and start looking for your next friend.

Jealously,

"Rifle's Wife"

Hey "Rifle's Wife"...did you and your husband have a shotgun wedding?

Too easy to pass up.