Awful call and totally unforced error. I’m still mad about it, particularly because it didn’t feel like we had some magic play up our sleeve.
at 4-1, no less. idk what your fans want to get them into the games but yeesh. like, yea, the wheels are maybe possibly about to fall off but cmon, 4-1 start was absolutely beyond what was predicted for you guys at this point.
Students were gone home but that doesn’t explain the rest of the stadium. We’ve lost a generation at least of UVA football fans. You gotta have the state invested and not just students or alums.
nah, we have good numbers even for dogshit seasons. 3-8 a couple years ago had 98% attendance and that was without our game, those numbers were top 25 nationally and 3rd in the conference. only Nebraska and VT lost 8+ games that year and averaged 60k+ fans. it's self-perpetuating, honestly. fanbase builds a rep and then everyone works together to keep it going. you guys don't care as much about football, flat out. not sure how you guys solve your problem beyond being extremely good for a really long period of time. I thought maybe things would change a bit under Bronco when you were annoying as fuck to play
You are still not all that far removed from the Beamer years. And what was there before that? It’s a long slow descent into irrelevancy, but you guys are basically where we were under Groh. I dunno, maybe Pry turns it around or the next guy gets the magic back. But it’s not like VT has some secret sauce that keeps fans showing up. You have a culture that hasn’t eroded yet. That doesn’t mean you’re immune to it:
would a stretch of play like you guys had post-Groh turn down attendance? absolutely. but it's not going to look like Scott, it's just not. we without question care more about football, top to bottom. you guys have more success across the board and just don't care if football isn't what it should be because stuff like basketball and Olympic sports carry your fandom. if we're shit in football we're miserable practically the entire year as an overall fanbase so fixing it is far more important than doing so at UVA. Lane looking like Scott would take a generational amount of nonstop, subpar performances with absolutely no peaks in between. like, a Colorado-esque cratering of the program for 25+ years. I just don't see it happening. even the prospect of being good will get VT fans out.
Best case scenario is he wanted to tee it up for his top assistant to have this season to prove himself.
My guess is either something health related for him or his family or he was gearing up for the season and realized he just couldn't do it. At this point, I cannot imagine what Virginia basketball is without Tony Bennett. Just gut wrenching.
I was too young to really understand what George Welsh or Terry Holland stood for, and things were a lot different back then. But to have a coach for 15 years in the modern era is so rare. It's basically impossible to imagine what Virginia basketball is anymore without Bennett. It just doesn't compute.
I'd call you nuts, but it seems like Tony thought so too. There's no way for the old way anymore. I'm hopeful we can keep him around Charlottesville somehow.
https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...rence-i-felt-i-was-the-one-holding-them-back/ Some really good quotes in here