Rebuilding?
This has to be a make-it-or-break-it year for Virginia football coach Al Groh. Right?
Groh, who was given a raise to enter the $1.7 million-a-year club before last year's 7-5 campaign, is most certainly feeling the heat of expectations that he brought with him to Charlottesville from the NFL six years ago.
You utter the words "national championship" in your welcome-to-Grounds press conference, and hey, stuff happens.
So if you're a Cav fan, and you hear the guy making the big bucks talk about the "significant rebuilding job" that the program is facing this fall, well, I can guess that your head will eventually have to stop spinning.
"We have a significant rebuilding job in front of us. We're eager to get started on that particular job," Groh told reporters this week as the program worked to get ready for spring practice.
Groh didn't sound all that eager to get started on the 2006 season - which begins at Pittsburgh and concludes with a brutal November stretch of at Florida State, at home versus Miami and at Virginia Tech.
"The last two seasons there were only three teams that had a chance to win the championship on the last day of the season. Our last three games are comprised of those three teams," Groh said.
"So, in order to make a run at the end, which is the significant part of the season, then this team that we are in the process of putting back together again is going to have to mature quickly through the first nine games to be ready for the final three games," Groh said.
Getting to those final three with a chance at something other than a bowl sponsored by a tire company would seem to be imperative for Coach Groh.
- Chris Graham