Are Hoos Suffering From Pressure Paralysis?

Is the Virginia football team feeling the pressure in trying to earn a bowl bid?
Kurt Benkert and the Hoos need one more win to become bowl eligible. ~ Mike Ingalls

The Virginia football team opened the season 5-1 much to most observer’s surprise. Immediately, visions of bowl possibilities began dancing in Wahoo heads. Then the Cavaliers promptly went 0-2 in a pair of games where they never really threatened to win.

After the 41-10 loss to Boston College, UVA coach Bronco Mendenhall and players described the letdown as the team getting ahead of itself. Too much focus on bowling and not enough on executing each step. The 31-14 loss at Pittsburgh followed. Mendenhall and players talked about handling assignments, but lacking the fire needed to compete on a football field.

“I thought our team played sluggish and uninspired after watching it,” Mendenhall said. “We were right by assignment a lot of the time on Saturday, but not right by mindset and edge and emotion and passion.”

“We were pretty assignment sound, we were doing our job, but it was the mindset was a little off,” senior captain Micah Kiser said. “If we can get back to playing our UVA football, get back to believing in it, and playing to that new standard we were preaching then we can right this ship.”

I think the performances over the last two weeks caught Cavalier fans by surprise, and not simply because of the losses, the level of competition, or lopsided margins either. The Hoos appeared to lack enthusiasm, sharpness, or preparation.

Many fans had a similar reaction to it: How could that be possible? For a program trying to get back to bowl eligibility for the first time since 2011, why wasn’t there any emotion? How can five wins leave the Cavs looking satisfied?

After all, this team openly talked about this being a turnaround year and expecting to win games. The players adopted and then boldly promoted publicly a ‘new standard’ descriptor for the way they wanted to play after the fast start.

Wanting so much to turn things around and restore the program, but showing no emotion when the chance came? Those two sides of the coin don’t add up. It does make sense, though.

I think the Hoos are suffering pressure paralysis. Everything they describe fits that mold.

  • Distracted by the big prize of bowl eligibility
  • Seem fine in practice, but not on game day
  • Mental mistakes and concentration issues (missed assignments against BC and dropped passes against Pitt for example)
  • Lack of emotion – sometimes when players want something so much, the result is a fog of frustration; a ‘why can’t I get it going’ type of feeling
  • Not having fun

While no one uttered the word pressure, it’s all in there.

“It’s just really getting back to enjoying the game with the guys we’ve put all this work in [with],” UVA quarterback Kurt Benkert said. “Just consciously making it fun again, just not so stressful and trying to press so much because football’s fun.”

“We just need to get back to playing with that edge that we had,” Kiser said. “Early on in the season we were happy with any kind of success we were getting. It was all about those little victories. … When we got third down stops, every one of them was a huge deal. We were out there celebrating with each other. This last game … we were just out there to be out there. We weren’t really enjoying ourselves. We need to start taking advantage of every opportunity that we have because they’re not guaranteed. We need to just get back to having fun and playing with that grittiness and that edge we had earlier in the year.”

Mendenhall said Monday, as he has many times before, that this new challenge is part of the process toward being a consistently successful program. Earn the right to win through work and details. Be consistent and get some wins. Earn the right to play in more meaningful games … and so on.

The process part of that doesn’t go in a straight line. The pressure in meaningful games can’t be simulated in practice, it has to be experienced. Whether this year’s team can shake off that pressure paralysis and get moving again remains to be seen. Only four chances remain to make a bowl breakthrough, however, so that feeling is only going to heighten until the team gets a win or the season ends.

To get past it, the team needs to acknowledge that the pressure exists and adopt the baseball program’s mentality that pressure is a privilege. They need to find the fun in the heightened expectations and the possibilities.

“It’s just all part of exactly where our program is and this team is. Handling some success and also handling setbacks with higher expectations of themselves and a different level of optimism,” Mendenhall said. “I think that’s making some of the downward thing more vibrant and alive than when you know you’re going to win the next one. You’re just expected to get back on track. What I’m learning now, and I sensed it as I watched the team come in today in their body language, we’re working through it, but it’s not worked through is where I would describe this. I love the challenge, but some of these roots are deeper than what I’ve experienced before, which just – it will make it – I think I’ll have more gratitude and be gratified more when we overcome it.”