University of Virginia Library

On The Inside

Agreement

From Doug Doughty

THERE ARE SEVERAL REASONS a head football coach at
the University of Virginia, should be or should have been fired.
First of all, in replacing a coach whose sole fault was a record
of five wins and six losses his final season, Mr. Lawrence has
led his team to consecutive seasons of 3-8 and 4-7
Presumably, he was hired to win, obviously he hasn't.

It is, secondly, the idea of many, that for the purpose of
reviving an admittedly wheezing football program, the choice
of the inexperienced Mr. Lawrence was scarcely a tonic. The
final argument, the validity of which is unquestioned, is that,
in an era when the competition (i.e. the other teams in the
ACC) has been able to fill its rosters with the state of
Virginia's finest football players, the University has not.

BUT, I'D LIKE TO AGREE WITH STEVE SEBO. "You
don't break a window and then ask around whether you can
pay for it." Don Lawrence's contract has one more year to
run, and, to my mind the decision of University President
Edgar Shannon and Athletic Director Gene Corrigan to issue
Mr. Lawrence a vote of confidence last week is presently
justifiable and, once you think about it, fairly acceptable.

Mr. Lawrence, as mentioned above, took over for George
Blackburn after Blackburn had a 5-6 year, preceded by a 3-7
season and a career record of 29-32. Very rarely do you start
recruiting the best players around to come to your school
when you have an established losing tradition.

Last year was Mr. Lawrence's first recruiting year. He had
the unfortunate task of trying to sell the Virginia football
program after a season when the Cavaliers had had a miserable
3-7 mark and had won those three games by a total of only 10
points.

OBVIOUSLY, TO FIRE MR. LAWRENCE NOW would
maybe convince the Alumni that Virginia is committed to a
winning football program, but certainly it would not give to
Don Lawrence a fair chance to show that he can effect such a
winning program. It is probably for the second reason that I
give above for firing the coach that he should be retained. Mr.
Lawrence is inexperienced, he makes mistakes, he can be
second-guessed, but the more time he spends on the sidelines
the fewer mistakes he is going to make.

Finally, to rebut my third argument, there is a good reason
why North Carolina schools year-after-year expatriate the state
of Virginia's best high-school prospects. 80 per cent of all
Virginia residents currently playing for ACC schools other
than Virginia have SAT combined scores of 900 or less. In
many cases that would not even merit another look by the
Charlottesville admissions hierarchy.

And that should be. Because, as long as Virginia continues
to stress academics over athletics, this kind of commitment
should be honored. If all our priorities turn towards athletics,
then drop the scholastic requirements and let's get ourselves a
football power.

THERE IS ONE FINAL REASON why I'd like to see Mr.
Lawrence around next year. Probably 95 per cent of his
players have the utmost respect for Mr. Lawrence.

He is completely accessible and I think it is said best when
Harrison Davis, kept out of action at the quarterback position
for six straight weeks when he admits that he should
have been playing, says in the next breath, "I'm to the point
where I can talk to him about anything. If I'm dissatisfied I
can go talk to coach Lawrence with no reservations at all."