We’re all used to Virginia football being bad by this point, but this Virginia football team is bad in a somewhat interesting way. Traditionally under coach Mike London, it’s been the Cavalier defense that has had to bail out the offense. This year, the roles have reversed.
There’s a lot on the line for London and his assistants this season, and deciding whether to bring back a coaching staff is somewhat like deciding to reelect a sitting president. Since we’re focusing on what’s going on with defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta’s squad today, ask yourself, Virginia football: Are you better off now than you were four years ago?
We’ll get to that answer in a little bit.
First and foremost, the defense this year is really bad. The Cavaliers rank No. 100 in FBS in yards allowed per game and No. 110 in points allowed per game. Pass defense is clearly the team’s weakest point, where Virginia ranks No. 110 in yards per game. Anyone who watched Boise State completely destroy our linebacking corps with short passes or Notre Dame run the hurry up offense knows this.
But it gets worse. Out of the 128 college football teams in FBS, Virginia is one of just two that has yet to force a single turnover. It’s one of just eight teams with zero interceptions on the season and one of 12 without a single fumble recovered. The Cavaliers have the second-worst turnover margin in the country at minus-9.
Recovering fumbles is said to be kind of fluky, with about a 50-50 chance of turning one into a turnover. But Virginia has only forced five fumbles, meaning even if the team wasn’t getting unlucky, it’d still only have two or three turnovers.
The Cavaliers do actually have 10 sacks on the season, which is tied for No. 23 in the nation. However, in watching the games, that type of pressure isn’t apparent. While all our FBS games were either against true freshmen or back-up quarterbacks, none of those signal callers seemed particularly anxious in the pocket, no thanks to the defensive line. As one of my best friends constantly points out to me, “Where the hell is Andrew Brown?”
While the numbers are bad, how do they compare with other London teams through four games? They’re the worst. By a longshot.
In terms of yards per game, this season’s mark is the worst by about 40 a game, and in terms of points, it’s the worst by more than eight a game. In his third season, London’s run defense was slightly worse (we gave up 461 rushing yards to the Georgia Tech triple option in week three), but the passing defense this year is the worst yet.
You might argue that a lot of that has to do with playing top college football programs like Notre Dame, UCLA and Boise State. However, Virginia’s performance against William & Mary was London’s worst ever against an FCS team.
Before their bout with the Tribe two weeks ago, London’s Cavaliers had never given up more than 19 points to an FCS opponent. William & Mary scored 29. The 371 yards Virginia gave up in that game was the second-highest total of the London era against FCS competition. But even in the worst game in terms of yards allowed — against Richmond last year, when the Spiders amassed 422 — the Cavaliers forced seven turnovers. This year was London’s second time in six tries not forcing a turnover against the annual FCS opponent. It was also the Cavaliers’ worst rushing defense performance (145 yards allowed) against an FCS team in 14 years.
But we’re forgetting that we’ve played top-notch teams to start the season every year, and the defense has never been this dreadful. Last year it was UCLA and BYU, the year before that was Oregon and BYU, and before that was TCU and Georgia Tech. Even in London’s first year he had already played USC and Florida State through four games.
So what’s going on?
It’s tough to say. There seems to be a debate on message boards and fan posts as to whether the blame can placed on the players or the coaches. Certainly with the losses of Eli Harold and Max Valles, the talent isn’t as strong. But there also seems to be a bit of confusion in terms of coverage assignments. Boise State threw short all game, yet the corners played 10 yards off the line of scrimmage. On top of that, the Broncos sent a bunch of receivers out of the backfield and it was rare to see a linebacker ever pick them up. That screams inadequate coaching to me.
As I noted in my expectations column from earlier this season, Virginia doesn’t need to be great this year. All the Cavaliers need to do is make strides. However, it’s looking more and more unlikely that that’s going to happen.
Matt Comey is a weekly Sports Columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at m.comey@cavalierdaily.com. Follow him on Twitter @matthewcomey.
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