While there is no doubt next Saturday should be CML's last game as his teams have both had losing records, he certainly had no help from JO and the schedulers. When looking at the numbers consider that two of the current top 3 teams, OSU and Clemson have not played a single 25 team on the road
UVA's past 23 games break down as follows
7 road games against Top 25 teams (2014 - BYU, Duke, FSU and G. Tech and 2015 - UCLA, Pitt and UNC).
2 home games against top 10 teams at home (2014 - UCLA and 2015 - N. Dame).
3 home games against much lesser opponents (2014 - Richmond and Kent and 2015 - William and Mary).
That leaves 11 games against teams that were roughly our equals. We won 6 (2014 - Ville, Pitt and Miami and 2015 - Cuse, G. Tech and Duke) and lost 5 (2014 - UNC and V. Tech and 2015 - Boise State, Miami and the Ville) Of those 5 losses, we played one dog of a game (Boise State), and played the rest down to the following possession. Interesting, of our 6 wins, only the Miami game did not come down to the final possession.
So in 2014 - we played 5 teams where we were heavy underdogs, 4 of them on the road (BYU, G. Tech, FSU and Duke) and one at home (UCLA). As a result to win 6 and go bowling, UVA needed to beat one or more those teams or win 6 of the remaining 7. UVA did win 5 and should have won the other two (UNC and Va. Tech). Bottom line, that season was designed to fail unless UVA played like a top 25 team, which we were not.
In 2015 we played 4 teams who were better than us, 3 of them on the road (UCLA, Pitt and UNC) and one at home (N. Dame). Therefore, to win 6 and go bowling, we needed to win 6 of the remaining 8, but only had one game against a lessor opponent. We have won 4 of 7 with Va. Tech remaining.
No coach or team trying to work their way back should have to face such a structural road block. 3 ACC wins should let you go bowling. This year we could win 4 in the ACC and still not go bowling.
These kids have deserved better from the coaching staff and they certainly deserved better from the schedulers. They have deserved to go bowling the last two years.
UVA's past 23 games break down as follows
7 road games against Top 25 teams (2014 - BYU, Duke, FSU and G. Tech and 2015 - UCLA, Pitt and UNC).
2 home games against top 10 teams at home (2014 - UCLA and 2015 - N. Dame).
3 home games against much lesser opponents (2014 - Richmond and Kent and 2015 - William and Mary).
That leaves 11 games against teams that were roughly our equals. We won 6 (2014 - Ville, Pitt and Miami and 2015 - Cuse, G. Tech and Duke) and lost 5 (2014 - UNC and V. Tech and 2015 - Boise State, Miami and the Ville) Of those 5 losses, we played one dog of a game (Boise State), and played the rest down to the following possession. Interesting, of our 6 wins, only the Miami game did not come down to the final possession.
So in 2014 - we played 5 teams where we were heavy underdogs, 4 of them on the road (BYU, G. Tech, FSU and Duke) and one at home (UCLA). As a result to win 6 and go bowling, UVA needed to beat one or more those teams or win 6 of the remaining 7. UVA did win 5 and should have won the other two (UNC and Va. Tech). Bottom line, that season was designed to fail unless UVA played like a top 25 team, which we were not.
In 2015 we played 4 teams who were better than us, 3 of them on the road (UCLA, Pitt and UNC) and one at home (N. Dame). Therefore, to win 6 and go bowling, we needed to win 6 of the remaining 8, but only had one game against a lessor opponent. We have won 4 of 7 with Va. Tech remaining.
No coach or team trying to work their way back should have to face such a structural road block. 3 ACC wins should let you go bowling. This year we could win 4 in the ACC and still not go bowling.
These kids have deserved better from the coaching staff and they certainly deserved better from the schedulers. They have deserved to go bowling the last two years.
