Jeckell and Wahoo???

I have witnessed two football games in the last 10 days that have me very confused. I saw one in person, so I have reliable evidence that the event did actually occur (see the photo on the left as proof). Yes, I'm talking about the aberration that is the University of Virginia football team. If you haven't been following the UVA football season, I'll get right to the point: WE LOST TO DUKE 31-3. Let me repeat that for you: WE LOST TO DUKE 31-3. This was a record breaking achievement (but not in the good way):

• Duke's first ACC win since Nov. 13, 2004 (vs. Clemson) snapping a 25-game conference losing streak.
• Duke's largest margin of victory in an ACC game since a 49-16 win over Maryland on Sept. 3, 1994.
• Duke's largest margin of victory against anybody since beating Northwestern 44-10 on Sept. 12, 1998.

That loss put UVA sitting at 1-3 after the first four games of the season with some rather dubious distinctions:

• UVA was ranked 119 out of 120 teams in total offense. Take that Florida International!!
• Dead last (#120) in scoring offense
• Ranked 82nd in total defense
  
• This is an unofficial stat, but most players leaving program while not graduating: 10. This included smoking ganja while on probation (QB Peter Lalich), leave of absence for personal reasons (DE), and the UVA unique getting kicked out for honor code violation (DE Fitzgerald).

Take a look at the UVA game by game stats up to this point:

1) USC: L 7-52, 187 yards on offense
2) Richmond: W 16-0, 295 yards on offense
3) UCONN: L 10-45, 219 yards on offense
4) Duke: L 3-31, 304 yards on offense

This all set the stage for a strange evening last Saturday night. I watched the UVA-Maryland game on ESPNU HD (thank you FIOS) and everything went perfectly. UVA won 31-0, Verica, our former 3rd stringer QB before academics and the aforementioned ganja bumped him up to starting job, went 16-19 for almost 200 yards and accounted for 3 touchdowns...in the first half!! It didn't stop in the second half; UVA held on for the shutout. It was a big enough blow out that the Washington Post almost decided not to print the story. (For those who don't read the Washington Post, a UVA win gets Column C on page 7, Maryland wins get front page of the paper).

When I went down to the East Carolina game on Saturday with my family, I had no idea what team to expect. Would this be the team that crushed Maryland or got crushed by Duke by the same amount? While it certainly wasn't as perfect a game as Maryland, UVA looked pretty good for most of it and came out with the 35-20 victory. The offensive load was carried by Cedric Peerman (the Rev) with two long touchdown runs (79 and 60 yards) and 173 total yards on the ground. It was a tense third quarter, but we held on with the best fake field goal I've ever seen.

All of a sudden we are putting up 30+ points and 420+ yards of total offense with regularity (we are now #98 in total offense). Why the change? It's hard to tell. I think it's a combination of UVA playing much better at home (Duke and UConn were away), having Peerman back full-time in the lineup, and a young QB learning from a few tough drubbings. I'm slightly less embarrassed to be a UVA football fan...sweet. We'll see what happens next week, bring on UNC!