The Cavaliers can still win the ACC, or at least a share of it. Innumerable scenarios still exist for the end of the season, but the best case for Virginia football includes a tie with Florida State atop the conference. The two would then be declared co-champions, and even though FSU beat the Cavaliers in the regular season, Virginia would have a slim chance to advance to a BCS bowl depending on the final national rankings.
In other words, the season is not over. The vibe since Saturday's loss to Miami has been defeatist and, I have to add, very similar to fans of the pre-2004 Red Sox. Don't take just my obviously biased word for it, as even head coach Al Groh made the unprompted comparison in yesterday afternoon's press conference.
"Boston lost three in a row in the [American League Championship Series], where you could almost smell the odor of negativity -- 'the season's over, what's wrong with the Red Sox?'" Groh said. "That was a marvelous job on the part of that organization, that manager and those players to stay focused, take what they had and try to win the next game."
Groh also expressed his disappointment of the sudden turnaround in public and media perception of a team after just one game. He reminded everyone yesterday for the umpteenth time that every game counts for just one in the standings, yet Saturday's loss seemed to reverberate harder than it should have.
"If things don't go well, the winds of negativity blow in like a hurricane," Groh said.
It was an apt pun and simile Mr. Groh used to explain the pessimistic buzz hovering over Charlottesville the past 72 hours, as it was indeed the Miami Hurricanes who swept in and seemingly sucked the life out of Wahoo Nation.
Groh then proceeded to lecture the assembled sportswriters on the difference between the job of the team and the task of the scribe.
"Our job is to get ready for games and to win," he said. "Your job is to keep the readers interested. You can create all the scenarios, analyze the mindset of the players and coaches and all that business. I like to read about other teams because I'm a fan at heart, too. Players can't be fans -- they have to be players."
Therefore, don't listen to anything I have to say. I'm serious. Read what I and other writers theorize about, discuss it with friends as a point of conversation, but do not truly listen to or fully believe in anything I say about intangibles such as momentum, mentality or psyche.
Though I may (or may not) be able to concoct compelling analysis or offer plausible outcomes on the Virginia team, nothing I say in this space will change the results of the game each Saturday. That's especially the case with this Cavalier team that has shown unshakable resolve since the beginning of the season. Groh has stressed all year that this squad has a particular sense of purpose about it that has been uniquely impressive.
The primary purpose of this year's team is of course to win the ACC title. That Virginia can still be crowned at least co-champs has made Saturday's loss easier for the Cavaliers to stomach.
"It should -- that's the goal in the first place," Groh said. "There are none of those intermediate targets during the course of the year for us. I've said repeatedly, if you're in a conference, you're in it for one purpose: to try and win the conference championship. Otherwise, you might as well be an independent."
Forget any notion that Virginia might still be reeling from the loss to Miami come time by kickoff of Saturday's showdown with Georgia Tech.
"You start all over again every week," Groh said. "Win, lose or draw, we start all over again. I don't really think you can do that on the basis of momentum. It starts all over again every Sunday morning."
Two mornings ago, Virginia awoke as a team with two conference losses. So did Miami, and so did Florida State. Virginia Tech may only have one, but they have three remaining ACC games. That's a lot of football to be played, and if Groh's comments from yesterday are to be believed, I may or may not know what I'm talking about.
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