The 2009 regular season ends with quite a bit of interest in Charlottesville and College Park-- both schools had to decide if they wanted a tenth year with an alum who had led their team with class but not to recent success...more on the move and non-move later.
Way to represent-- with the Atlantic and Coastal Divisions clinched, Clemson and Georgia Tech went bellyup in rivalry games... the Tigers getting trounced by South Carolina and the Yellowjackets getting outscored by Georgia. Can't wait for the ACC title game...in primetime!
Coaching Carousel-- Notre Dame and Florida State dominated the 90's (Irish reign actually from 88 to 93)... and find themselves at the crossroads after essentially waving bye to their coaches. While Charlie Weis leaves with a 35-27 mark and only a few close losses to USC as feathers in his cap, Bobby Bowden built Florida State from a revenue-sieve that scheduled payday games at major programs into a GIANT...one that dominated the ACC for ten years. Bowden deserved much better than this ignominious finish-- but the program he built deserved better than what's become of it since the conference expanded. Weis, meanwhile, deserves much less than the mondo buyout he's getting because of how impressive his first seven games at the helm were.
Alma Mater Update-- Syracuse wrapped up the Greg Paulus era with a 56-31 loss at Connecticut... concluding the first season under Doug Marrone at 4-8 (equalling Greg Robinson's best season at SU). Paulus set the school's single-season completion record--and prevented any of the Orange's true freshmen from burning their redshirt seasons. The Corner can't wait for 2010...
MARYLAND in its 19-17 loss to Boston College gave fans hope for the future... as Jamarr Robinson in limited minutes led the Terps to both of their touchdown drives. Unfortunately they couldn't escape their present, which is a 2-10 season. Terrapin Triumphs-- no turnovers on offense, while the defense held the Eagle offense in check all afternoon--limiting BC to four field goals. Terrapin Troubles-- converting just three of fourteen third downs... eight penalties... not the kind of things that help propel you past the opponent.
State of the Program: I thought the Terps would keep Ralph Friedgen for at least one more season-- he's built up enough goodwilll over his tenure... the buyout with two years remaining would be rather egregious...and this team should be much more experienced and quite a bit better in 2010. What remains to be seen is if there will be a shakeup of his staff-- the team had new offensive and defensive coordinators after back to back 5-6 seasons...and it would figure there would have to be something done this winter.
VIRGINIA TECH and VIRGINIA played their annual intra-state game...and for both sides it was more of the same... a close game for a half followed by the Hokies scoring 28 points in the final three and a half quarters-- VT's 42-13 rout an exclamation point on their season-- and a period on Al Groh's tenure with UVa. Hokie Highlights-- Ryan Williams led the 298 yard effort on the ground with 183 yards rushing and four touchdowns, wrapping up ACC rookie of the year honors. Hokie Humblings-- they let an inferior team stick around for more than half the game; here it didn't hurt them-- but against North Carolina it did. Cavalier Congrats-- Jameel Sewell ran for 104 yards and a touchdown, concluding a nice comeback year for somebody who didn't play a down in 2008. Cavalier Catastrophes-- two lost fumbles set up the Hokies for their second half run...and outside of Sewell, there wasn't much offensively.
State of the Cavalier Program: Al Groh was fired with two years and 4.33 million dollars remaining on his contract, making him the third high-profile revenue coach UVa has decided to go in a different direction from this decade--with basketball's Pete Gillen and Dave Leitao being kicked to the curb after supbar tenures. It'll be interesting who exactly they'll pursue... for a school that is more than happy to thump its chest about how great it is academically (and complains about how hard it is to recruit football and basketball athletes who can get by admissions), they're certainly pouring a lot of money into making sure they compete athletically.
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