University of Virginia Library

THE FIFTH
QUARTER

by John Marshall

ON HIS SUNDAY-AFTER TELEVISION show following
the Maryland game, George Blackburn summed up
his third year as Virginia head coach: "I'm pleased—
it was a good season." You would tend to agree with the
Coach's evaluation if you had just reread some of the
pre-season predictions; most of the "experts" had the
Cavaliers finishing up 1-9 or 2-8.

You would again tend to agree with the Coach's evaluation
if you had seen only the team's overall 5-5 record;
after all, you have to go all the way back to 1952 to find
a Wahoo eleven with a better record. Consider also that the
Cavaliers finished strong with three straight victories including
triumphs over the more traditional conference
rivals—North Carolina and Maryland.

BUT SOMEHOW IT IS NOT EASY to endorse Coach
Blackburn's optimistic appraisal. Looking back over the
Saturdays of September, October, and November is not
particularly satisfying. Perhaps memories of enduring the
Duke collapse and the VMI debacle in Scott Stadium
are not readily erased. The fourth-quarter surrender to a
South Carolina team that was clearly outmanned is hard to
forget also. And the fact that the combined overall record
of North Carolina and Maryland was 2-17 takes some of
the luster from the late-season Cavalier victory surge.
As Kenneth Denlinger put it in the Washington Post,
"The Maryland victory enabled Virginia to achieve mediocrity."

PERHAPS THAT IS WHAT IS so disturbing. Playing
.500 ball—though an achievement of sorts here at the
University—is only mediocrity and this year's football
team was definitely much better than mediocre. Through
hard work and dedication, they developed outstanding
potential. But putting it all together seemed always just
out of reach; the 1967 season saw the Cavaliers suffer
the fate of mythology's Tantalus.

Undoubtedly, the Tulane game was the outstanding effort
of the year. But this was a mild upset indeed—the teams
being rated about even—especially when one remembers
the Georgia Tech and West Virginia games just past.
Only two teams on the schedule—Army and North Carolina
State—were markedly better than the Cavaliers on a
man-to-man basis. That leaves eight games that could
quite conceivably have ended up in the Virginia win column.

THIS IS NOT TO FAULT the effort put forth by the
team. A more dedicated, hard-working group of Virginia
football players is difficult to imagine. This was the first
year in recent memory when the Cavalier defense clearly
outshone the Cavalier offense. And this was not because
the offense was bad; surely, it was a well-balanced, potent
strike force.

But while the offense was good, the defense was great.
Much credit must go to new coaches Don Lawrence and
Maury Bibent and their never-tiring captain Mal MacGregor.
The unit cohesion of the defense was contagious
and soon spread to the entire team.

THE 1967 CAVALIERS BECAME a team in the
fullest sense of the word—and this was perhaps their most
noticeable accomplishment. Entering the campaign, Frank
Quayle was the only player in the star category. But by
season's end, Quayle was one outstanding player on a whole
team of outstanding players. Whether or not the Carolina-and-South-biased
conference writers recognize a single
Cavalier on the All-ACC team cannot diminish this fact.

IF WE CANNOT AGREE WITH Coach Blackburn's
evaluation of 1967 as a "good season," it is because we
know this was not a mediocre 5-5 team. Our opinions are
perhaps colored by the distance between what could have
been and what actually happened. For a team that developed
good potential for a 7-3 or 8-2 record, finishing up 5-5
seems a definite disappointment. Maybe it was just the
bad breaks. Maybe overcoming the losing tradition of
Virginia football takes more than just a good team and
outstanding effort. But the record stands forever mediocre
and 1967 will always remain a season of "almost" and
"if only."