Bronco Mendenhall stepping down at Virginia / Tony Elliott hired | Page 5 | Syracusefan.com

Bronco Mendenhall stepping down at Virginia / Tony Elliott hired

About 49 or so weeks from now, SU may be inquiring with Elliott or Gattis, so whomever UVA hires may ultimately affect SU.
 
To me, UVA is case study #2 of why the head coach is everything when it comes to college football (Miami is case study #1). My daughter is a first year there, and there's nothing not to love about the school -- great academics, great campus vibe, excellent facilities, good weather, deep-pocketed alumni, and specific to football, a fertile recruiting region. And yet, with rare exceptions, UVA football has been utterly mediocre forever. Makes no sense to me, and I imagine it's because they never had a truly killer HC.
 
Scooch said:
To me, UVA is case study #2 of why the head coach is everything when it comes to college football (Miami is case study #1). My daughter is a first year there, and there's nothing not to love about the school -- great academics, great campus vibe, excellent facilities, good weather, deep-pocketed alumni, and specific to football, a fertile recruiting region. And yet, with rare exceptions, UVA football has been utterly mediocre forever. Makes no sense to me, and I imagine it's because they never had a truly killer HC.
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It's been mediocre since the 1950s. Professor Robert Gooch (who played football as an undergraduate) wrote a report at the behest of the then-president about how to deemphasize football. It cost us a Sugar Bowl bid (making us the last school that always played Big Boy Football to go to a bowl game) and one of our all-time best coaches (who switched to Vandy). It took until George Welsh in the 80s and 90s to recover.
 
Scooch said:
To me, UVA is case study #2 of why the head coach is everything when it comes to college football (Miami is case study #1). My daughter is a first year there, and there's nothing not to love about the school -- great academics, great campus vibe, excellent facilities, good weather, deep-pocketed alumni, and specific to football, a fertile recruiting region. And yet, with rare exceptions, UVA football has been utterly mediocre forever. Makes no sense to me, and I imagine it's because they never had a truly killer HC.
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I think the FB culture isn't there for UVA nor UNC. Plus VA Tech is in the same state. UVA should be where they have been under Mendenhall or where they were under Al Groh. Anything above that IMO is overachieving.

The problem is what really separates UVA, UNC, GA Tech, VA Tech, Louisville, Pitt, NC State? They all can't be over .500 at the same time in conference. Someone has to lose. It creates mediocrity.
 
HRE Otto IV said:
I think the FB culture isn't there for UVA nor UNC. Plus VA Tech is in the same state. UVA should be where they have been under Mendenhall or where they were under Al Groh. Anything above that IMO is overachieving.

The problem is what really separates UVA, UNC, GA Tech, VA Tech, Louisville, Pitt, NC State? They all can't be over .500 at the same time in conference. Someone has to lose. It creates mediocrity.
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Thing is, each of those schools you listed has had a few truly standout seasons over the years. GaTech won a title, VaTech played for a title, Louisville had a couple top 10 finishes, as did UNC, etc. UVA has never had that. Their highest season-ending rank ever is 15th. They've won 10 games a single time in their history, and that was 32 years ago. It's just puzzling to me, given all the things I mentioned. And I suspect it's largely because they've never had a great coach.
 
Scooch said:
Thing is, each of those schools you listed has had a few truly standout seasons over the years. GaTech won a title, VaTech played for a title, Louisville had a couple top 10 finishes, as did UNC, etc. UVA has never had that. Their highest season-ending rank ever is 15th. They've won 10 games a single time in their history, and that was 32 years ago. It's just puzzling to me, given all the things I mentioned. And I suspect it's largely because they've never had a great coach.
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Might be lack of institutional focus (ie football just isn’t as important as other peers)
 
Scooch said:
Thing is, each of those schools you listed has had a few truly standout seasons over the years. GaTech won a title, VaTech played for a title, Louisville had a couple top 10 finishes, as did UNC, etc. UVA has never had that. Their highest season-ending rank ever is 15th. They've won 10 games a single time in their history, and that was 32 years ago. It's just puzzling to me, given all the things I mentioned. And I suspect it's largely because they've never had a great coach.
Expand...
Groh was Coach P like with What losses that kept them from higher rankings and 10 W seasons.

Also 10 Ws is hard to use as back in the day teams played 11 games. In 1994 and 1998 they likely get 10 Ws with a 12 game schedule. 1998 is still a long time.
 
it will be interesting to see how he does when he has a team not filled with ultra elite kids. they didnt this year and that offense was bad even with a real good D.
 
Hoo's That said:
It's been mediocre since the 1950s. Professor Robert Gooch (who played football as an undergraduate) wrote a report at the behest of the then-president about how to deemphasize football. It cost us a Sugar Bowl bid (making us the last school that always played Big Boy Football to go to a bowl game) and one of our all-time best coaches (who switched to Vandy). It took until George Welsh in the 80s and 90s to recover.
Expand...
UNC de-emphasized football at about the same time, going from Choo and 3 consecutive 'New Year's Day Bowls to mediocrity that lasted (save 1 Gator Bowl champ) for 2 decades. UNC football has repeatedly shot itself in the foot every few years since.
 
Scooch said:
Thing is, each of those schools you listed has had a few truly standout seasons over the years. GaTech won a title, VaTech played for a title, Louisville had a couple top 10 finishes, as did UNC, etc. UVA has never had that. Their highest season-ending rank ever is 15th. They've won 10 games a single time in their history, and that was 32 years ago. It's just puzzling to me, given all the things I mentioned. And I suspect it's largely because they've never had a great coach.
Expand...
I thought that Sugar Bowl team with the Moores (Herman and Shawn) was Top 10.
 
WoadBlue said:
I thought that Sugar Bowl team with the Moores (Herman and Shawn) was Top 10.
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We were rated #1 for 2 weeks until we lost to eventual co-champ Ga Tech on a last second FG. We lost to MD and VPI in the next two games because Shawn Moore hurt his thumb. We finished #23 in the final poll after losing to Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl by 2.
 
Our ranked finishes have been 13 (51), 20 (84), 18 (89), 23 (90), 15 (94), 16 (95), 18 (98), 22 (02), and 23 (04). Not as good as a bunch of teams' decades. We've only had 2 seasons (95 and 98) in which we've been ranked every week of the season. It will be a while before that happens again since no one ever ranks us in pre-season polls.
 
Hoo's That said:
We were rated #1 for 2 weeks until we lost to eventual co-champ Ga Tech on a last second FG. We lost to MD and VPI in the next two games because Shawn Moore hurt his thumb. We finished #23 in the final poll after losing to Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl by 2.
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I completely forgot about that loss to VPI. That UVA team was excellent across the starting 22 but lacked depth.
 
CuseLegacy said:
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I hope he ends up being a decent coach for UVa. It is going to be tough being a first time HC in the ACC.

It is going to be tough adjusting to the huge drop in talent coaching players at UVa from Clemson, He has almost no experience coaching anyone but HS AA level players.

It is going to be tough adjusting to recruiting for UVa, where I assume the academic requirements are much higher than at Clemson.

I think it would have been smarter to hire someone who is at least used to identifying HS players with high ceilings that might eventually develop into good players. Someone who has a lot of experience developing these types of players into finished products.

This is why I think Elko is likely going to have the most success of the new ACC Coastal hires. At least of the three program build projects (UVa, VT and Duke). I do like the hire of Cristobal at UM. I suspect he is going to do the best job recruiting South Florida UM has done in a long time.
 
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