The Cathartic Cavaliers Helping Fans Return At Virginia

Excitement continues to build for the Virginia football team, which enters November with a 6-2 record and the program’s first national ranking since 2011. The Hoos entered the polls at No. 22 (coaches) and No. 23 (Associated Press) Sunday. They’ve also qualified for back-to-back bowl appearances for the first time in 13 years.

So, yeah, UVA fans are getting excited.

But during Saturday’s 31-21 win against North Carolina, something else struck me about the atmosphere at Scott Stadium this season. It goes beyond excitement. I think you could call these the Cathartic Cavaliers. Coming to games – and, perhaps, for those following from afar as well – seems like an act of catharsis.

Virginia fans have waited for years for the football team to return not only to success, but to a sustainable style of play. One of the first steps to winning fans back over had to be with the quality of football being played. Fans needed to see a cleaner brand with fewer mistakes and fewer frustration points. As the program floundered prior to this recent surge, everything from penalties to turnovers to missed tackles to missed blocks to substitution issues to ‘losing your cool’ moments after whistles accumulated.

Let’s just say, a boiling point could be reached rapidly.

That meant coming to and powering through games could be more chore than cheering for many. Bronco Mendenhall sensed it during his game one debut, a poor outing that resulted in a 37-20 loss to Richmond. He basically said the stadium, and the sidelines as well, felt heavy with those frustrations.

Now, however, sentiments have shifted. The Hoos aren’t perfect and, as always, Mendenhall is deliberate with his words, noting that the program is still developing not developed. Yes, a few remnants of past frustrations may pop up here and there – a missed tackle on Saturday solicited a loud ‘C’mon tackle!’ once from the stands Saturday, for example – but many of the chief flashpoints of the lost years bring a nice applause or an approving nod from the bleachers these days.

“So it’s hard to find now things that were the reasons we didn’t play well,” Mendenhall said. “There’s things stacking up that are ‘this was good,’ ‘that was good,’ ‘this was solid,’ ‘this was solid,’ and that’s becoming more of who our team is.”

Penalties? UVA had one enforced against UNC for five yards. That brought the season total for five home games (counting Nashville for Ohio) to 17 penalties. That’s tied for second in the nation. The Hoos had just 13 penalties in all of October and they’ve been hit just 34 times all season. The latter mark, by the way, ranks eighth nationally. Virginia was 37th last season. There are seldom moments where a substitution mistake, the play clock running down, or an after-whistle dust-up draws a flag these days. The Cavaliers generally play a clean and efficient game in this department.

Turnovers? This is one of those areas of imperfection for the team as they still have 12 turnovers on the season, but five of those came in the two games around the bye week against NC State and Miami. The Hoos have put the ball on the ground just nine times and only lost four fumbles this season. Still, that sense of dread that used to hang in the air at times among fans worrying about the next give-away? That seems to be gone.

Tackling? A theme among some posts on the message boards this season has been about the noticeable difference in tackling for the program. The players generally take the right angles, generally break down their footwork, and generally wrap up to finish tackles. There aren’t successive strings of missed tackles leading to piles of yards like fans saw in the past. The effort to chase down tackles has been obvious too, the Bryce Hall sprint against Miami being the poster child for that. It’s one reason that three ACC opponents – Louisville, Duke, and North Carolina – have finished with fewer than 100 rushing yards this season. The last time the program pulled off that feat was 2014 when Louisville, UNC, and Miami all missed the century mark.

Blocking? The offensive line continues to grow and still has some big misses at times, but the development and consistency there is obvious too. Certainly a mobile quarterback in Bryce Perkins hides some of those misses by getting away, but the coaches have mentioned a different resolve and determination among the offensive line’s blocking since the bye week. This is a work in progress area, but it’s not one that is forcing frustrated groans out of fans.

Field goal kicking and scoring points? For nearly two and a half seasons, the Hoos hadn’t made a kick from 40 yards or more. Thanks to Brian Delaney, now they have. The program hasn’t averaged more than 26 points since 2005, but this year that currently sits at 28.3. Obviously, we’ll have to see where November takes that number but the don’t score enough days appear to have improved at least. Plus, there’s a lot more exciting explosive plays than before these coaches arrived.

Those are just some of the flash points of frustration, but almost all of them have been addressed and are continuing to show improvement. Now instead of remember when the Hoos used to mess that up? It’s remember how George’s teams used to look like that?

So for fans that file into Scott Stadium, it’s almost like a therapy session or picking up a prescription. Stand up and let out a scream when something goes well to release those pent up feelings. Take two of these Bryces and call me in the morning. Here’s an O-Z Pack for what ails you. And when that dark cloud completely passes, you can thank the Cathartic Cavaliers.