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Who are you, and what have you done with the UVA football team?
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Courtesy: David Petkofsky/UVa Media
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With #18 North Carolina coming into town on Saturday, I was worried.
Virginia had won two games in a row. Those two wins breathed hope into a season that looked hopeless.
It would have been just like Virginia to lose yesterday. I was expecting them to.
But Virginia pulled off a thrilling 16-13 overtime win over UNC, claiming another win in the South's Oldest Rivaly.
The thing that has shocked me the most this season is the difference between the first four games and these last three.
USC ran us over. We were lackluster against U of R and after losing Peter Lalich, we looked worse against UConn and Duke.
I thought it was going to be another one of UVA's off seasons. But under the leadership of Cedric Peerman, Marc Verica and, dare I say it, Al Groh, this VIrginia team is two wins away from bowl eligibility and is becoming a competitor in a weak ACC.
If you had said that Virginia would have a chance at making the ACC championship game three weeks into the season, I would have laughed in your face.
Before yesterday's win, fans were screaming for Groh's head. Rumors from the Virginia Athletic Foundation say that a buyout of Groh's contract has been agreed upon and the money is in place. I was one of those fans. In all likelihood, the elder Groh's career at Virginia is nearing its end.
Groh has done more than enough to keep his job until the end of the season, and I'm not completely convinced that Virginia fans should be so quick to call for Groh's firing.
Although Groh has lost several top prospects to suspension and has rubbed enough people wrong in Charlottesville, Groh continues to attract top prospects. If Virginia wants to be a big football school like Tech (encouraging students to wear orange t-shirts instead of oxfords and sundresses, getting rid of the old pep band, the season ticket prices, etc.), they need top players. Groh has shown his talent for bringing in top talent at Virginia, and if we want to be a big football school, we have to have top talent.
Virginia fans should also realize the changes that Groh has brought about in his team.
Groh has taken the third-string quarterback from the beginning of this season and turned him into an efficient game manager who could make a case for all-ACC honors. Groh's defense went from giving up 128 points in four losses to 38 points in three wins.
It's almost like he went out and got a whole new team.
Groh deserves credit for this win, and he deserves the rest of this season and possibly another to prove he's worthy of a contract extension.
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