Thursday, September 14, 2006
Groh bashers not always right with their facts
Olsen likely choice at quarterback
Doug Doughty
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I wouldn’t want to come across as a guy who defends Al Groh all the time, but it’s amazing how much misinformation you can come across in a week’s time.
As I was listening to ESPN Radio last Saturday morning, talk turned to Southern Cal and the seniors it had lost to the draft. One of the commentators hastened to point out that SC’s recruiting classes had been ranked No. 1 in the country for two or three years, so the Trojans need to be considered perennial national contenders.
At that point, Beano Cook jumped into the debate.
Virginia has had recruiting classes ranked in the top five or six, Cook pointed out, “and Al Groh has fallen on hard times,” he said.
Cook, a former Pittsburgh sports information director, lives in Pittsburgh and no doubt was aware of the 38-13 pounding Virginia had taken from the hometown Panthers. A 13-12 overtime squeaker with Wyoming did little to belie his “hard times” evaluation.
But, here’s where he was wrong. If Virginia has had a top-five recruiting class, it was only one, Groh’s first full recruiting class in 2002. And, I’m not sure which services, if any, had the Cavaliers in the top five.
SuperPrep had that class ranked ninth, followed by classes that were ranked 11th, 18 and 14th. You could make the case that four straight Top 25 classes should produce a Top 25 team, but there seems to be a perception that Groh brings in top-10 classes each year and that hasn’t been the case.
In fact, last year, Virginia’s recruiting class was ranked 40th by SuperPrep and that was based on a 24-player class that has since dwindled to 16. That caused many to wonder if Groh had lost his recruiting touch, but the early response from the class of 2007 would suggest that 2006 was an aberration.
While I would never say that recruiting rankings are infallible, I still think that the overall success of a program comes down to players and not whether a team is using a 3-4 defense, as opposed to a 4-3. Groh and Co. have made some recruiting mistakes along the way and they’ve also had some bad luck, particularly with the vaunted 2002 recruiting class.
Of the 2002 recruits who remain, running back Michael Johnson was the most highly-touted coming out of high school, but Johnson, a Parade All-American at Heritage High School in Newport News, seems destined not to live up to his press clippings. Marcus Hamilton has had a nice career, but he was one of the top 10 players in Virginia; he should have had a nice career.
It would have helped to have safety Willie Davis, whose career ended with a 2003 collision at South Carolina, or linebacker Kai Parham, but Parham apparently misjudged his pro potential and passed up his senior season, only to be dropped by Dallas in the preseason’s first cutdown.
Ahmad Brooks was also a member of that 2002 recruiting class, as well as the 2003 recruiting class. He was one of four 2002 UVa signees who never got to Charlottesville – the kind of information that rarely is taken into account when the rankings are done.
SO, WHO DO you think will start at quarterback for Virginia on Saturday against Western Michigan. I think Groh will stick with fifth-year Christian Olsen for one reason.
Groh has said that he will base his decision on practice performance. If it comes down to practice, we can only assume that Olsen got the job because he was a superior practice player over a month of spring practice and a month of preseason practice.
Kevin McCabe certainly outperformed Olsen in leading Virginia to a 13-12 overtime victory over Wyoming, but is he suddenly going to become a superior practice player when he has always lagged behind Olsen until now?
Groh has not forgotten that McCabe called the wrong play when UVa had a fourth-and-1 midway through the fourth quarter against Wyoming.
Could that kind of absent-mindedness be one of the reasons that Groh has been reluctant to commit to McCabe in the past?
“Some of it, yes,” Groh said.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for a sign that Groh might go with McCabe this Saturday, consider some of the moves he made last week, when safety Tony Franklin and cornerback Chris Gorham were demoted following the Pittsburgh loss.
Groh has always said that the same standard should apply to quarterbacks as applies to the other positions – what player gives the team the best chance to win. If he could bench Franklin, a fifth-year senior who he invited back after much soul-searching, he definitely could bench Olsen.
You make the call
- Who should quarterback UVa? Take the poll
What do you think? Take the accompanying poll.
THURSDAY WAS THE drop-dead practice for Western Michigan quarterback Ryan Cubit, who missed the Broncos’ game with Toledo last Saturday as a result of a cut suffered in their opener at Indiana.
Cubit had been throwing with two of the fingers on his right hand taped together and still has stitches in one of his fingers that will not be removed in time for Saturday’s game in Charlottesville.
Cubit played in only three games last year, missing the trip to Virginia with an injury that predated the leg injury that ended his season against Temple. In his last full season, he passed for 1,887 yards and 14 touchdowns in 2004.
Three Western Michigan quarterbacks combined to throw for 2,712 yards last year but the Broncos passed the ball on only 15 of 47 offensive plays in a 31-10 victory over Toledo.
