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The most important game of Al Groh's career
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Southern Miss? Yes, Southern Miss. What once looked like an innocuous, fairly random non-conference opponent, lined up to fill the schedule between fall camp and the ACC slate, has become the team Al Groh must beat to save his coaching tenure at UVa.
This isn't to imply that this is like a playoff chase - win and you're in, nothing else needed. Nor is it to suggest Groh will certainly be fired following a loss - though it shouldn't be ruled out either.
But a loss here has severe implications for the rest of the season. The most obvious is that the team would be 0-3 heading into a long bye week, which everyone with an interest in UVa football will spend speculating on the usual morbid questions that surround a perceived lame duck coach: When will the axe fall? Who will coach the team in the interim? Who are the candidates for replacement? What qualifications are we looking for? After a shocking loss to I-AA William & Mary and a lackluster offensive effort against TCU, UVa fan message boards such those as TheSabre and CavsCorner have already come alive with just such questions.
Actually, to be perfectly accurate, they've been asking those questions on and off since at least 2007. But starting a season 0-2 when you weren't supposed to has a way of firing up the fire-the-coach contigent.
0-3 is a bad enough record, but it's worse when the fanbase was thinking 2-1 by this point, and when the two games that were supposed to be wins were seen as necessary for the team to achieve bowl eligibility. If you're 0-3 against one of the easier sections of your schedule, what's going to happen when you have to visit Miami? 0-3 means the team would have to go at least 6-3 over the rest of the season, and maybe 7-2, in order to get to a bowl, and bowl eligibility is the yardstick by which struggling coaches like Groh are measured.
Ah, but if the team pulls off a victory on Saturday? 1-2 is not a wild improvement, but it's better than a goose egg. And it's more than just having the number in the win column - a road win would be proof that there's fight as well as talent left in this team. And suddenly a bowl game - and the potential rescue of Al Groh's job - looks that much more doable, with winnable games against Indiana and Maryland on the horizon. A jolt of new-found confidence would be just the thing for this young team looking to find its way in rough weather.
Saturday's game against Southern Mississippi isn't a guarantee of anything. But given the upcoming schedule, the chasm between 1-2 and 0-3 is huge. The team has historically been lousy on the road, but getting away from the poisonous atmosphere at Scott Stadium may be just what the team needs. A win would settle down the fans somewhat and make the path to success much easier; a loss would effectively be the end of the season. With Al Groh already on notice (the administration not having extended his contract last year when they had the chance) the end of the season will not be a friendly time if it comes before the final game.
