The new semester has started. The basketball team is making a run at the NCAA Tournament. Signing Day is right around the corner and the official visits are done. The Bears are about to win the Super Bowl. Spring practices creep ever closer. So that must mean it is time to put UVa’s 2006 football season to rest with the last of the review columns. This week, the defensive backs.

It is hard to separate the play of the safeties like Tony Franklin and the cornerbacks.

When One Really Is Two. In many ways, it is unfair to break apart units – the defensive line from the linebackers, the linebackers from the defensive backs, etc. – in evaluating the performance of the defense. After all, every unit has to work together for the defense to perform. So having said that, it follows that it is ridiculously unfair to break apart a unit itself – defensive ends from defensive tackles, inside linebackers from outside linebackers, etc. – in reviewing the performance of a single unit.

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