The headline of this column is what senior Vic Hall called the Virginia formation with Hall under center Saturday.
The Hoo-cat, the Wildcat, the Vic-cat, whatever you want to call it — it was certainly a curveball, and it most certainly worked. Hall ran for 109 yards and two touchdowns, almost fooling Virginia Tech into its first loss to the Cavs since 2003.
“Probably because we got 3 less points, it probably won’t be remembered quite as well,” Virginia coach Al Groh said. “But it had to be one of the best performances ever in this series by an individual player.”
Now, the big question that Wahoo fans have — particularly in the bitterness of defeat to Virginia’s fiercest rival — is, what took so long? Why did it take three years for the coaching staff to put Hall — who owns the Virginia high school records for rushing yards from scrimmage (13,770), passing yards (8,731) and passing touchdowns (104) — under center?
Here was Groh’s answer Saturday.
“He’s not a big man,” Groh said of Hall. “Four months of that, who knows if he’d be able to withstand up to that. In fact, there was one time today where we were told that he wasn’t available, but fortunately that didn’t last for a few seconds.”
Groh is right; Hall is not a big dude. And he’s probably also correct that Hall can’t take the majority of the snaps as he did Saturday.
But yet, Groh was still in some sense dodging the question; it wasn’t whether Hall could be used every game to the level that he was used against the Hokies but whether Groh ever thought of giving Hall snaps at quarterback before this game.
And the fact is, Hall should have been used at quarterback long ago. Groh would certainly have a tough time defending the status quo; assuming this year’s rankings don’t change dramatically, Virginia will finish outside the top 100 in total offense for the third straight season.
What’s more, many of these problems can be traced to the man taking the snaps. Most of Virginia’s offensive difficulties this season relate to sophomore quarterback Marc Verica’s 16 interceptions in 10 games. Verica’s decision-making this season — or at least the three interceptions that he tossed against Clemson two weeks ago — is indeed what led Groh to leave the offense in Hall’s hands Saturday.
“The difference between those two teams last weekend was turning the ball over,” Groh said. “We felt that our team needed a spark, needed somebody to believe in; there’s nobody in this team that the players and the coaches believe in more than Vic Hall.”
That’s just what I don’t get, though — the weeks before that, and in fact the years before that, haven’t seen particularly laudable play from Virginia quarterbacks, either. Quarterback Jameel Sewell wasn’t as bad about turnovers but he was rough around the edges, to say the least, with downfield accuracy — he completed just 58.8 percent of his passes in 2007 and 57.9 percent the year before
Yet, with the athletic Hall in uniform to witness all of the offensive hardship, the coaching staff waited until the last week of this mediocre season, against a perennially terrific defense, to give Hall a shot.
The most amazing part, which lends credence to the fact that this offense should have been tried well before the final week of Hall’s third non-redshirt season, is that even given these circumstances, Hall made it work. With one week’s notice, in one of the most hostile environments in the ACC, against an accomplished defense motivated by the incentive to make the conference championship, Hall was magnificent.
“To do that on a few days’ worth of practice is unbelievable,” Groh said.
Just imagine what could happen if Hall had two weeks. Or training camp.
“It’s like riding a bike,” Hall said. “You never really forget something you’re blessed with.”
But of course, Groh wasn’t second-guessing himself.
“That’s not the way I live,” he said.
Fair enough — hindsight is 20/20.
But now, foresight might be pretty clear as well — next season, use Hall as often as possible.
Like Groh said, though, Hall might not last a full season taking as many snaps as he did Saturday — but he wouldn’t have to. With Sewell back after missing this season because of academic ineligibility, Virginia now has all kinds of options. If Sewell can return to the form he had in 2007 — which was not exceptional, but certainly passable for a starter — he could be the primary quarterback, with Hall as the change of pace. If Verica can recover from his issues with turnovers, Groh could run a system similar to that of Virginia Tech’s with Tyrod Taylor and Sean Glennon — plus another healthy dose of Hall.
“The proof is in the pudding,” Hall said.
Yes, Vic, it is. Unfortunately for the Cavs, with one year of eligibility remaining for Hall, they will at best only get a taste.
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