University of Virginia Library

THE
SPORTS
SCENE

By Bob Cullen

IT MUST HAVE BEEN EASIER to be a part of Virginia
football in the early Sixties. Those were the good old days when
Bill Elias was hailed as a genius, second maybe to Knute
Rockne, because he pulled out a 16-0 upset over William &
Mary. After all, nobody had been upset with his predecessor,
Dick Vooris, until he lost his twentieth straight. People didn't
demand much, because they didn't remember the days of Bill
Dudley and Art Guepe, the days when things were different,
when the Cavaliers were a football power to be considered with
the best of the South.

But just as the people then didn't remember Dudley, the
people now don't remember Vooris, and they will definitely not
be satisfied with a season full of wins over the likes of William &
Mary. Five years ago, a win over Duke, especially one of the
magnitude of last week's would have made an entire season a
success. All anyone wanted was just one party where they
wouldn't need to drink to forget. It was all they could hope for.

AND NOW IT IS NOT ENOUGH. The victory last Saturday
is already just a pleasant memory. What happens this Saturday is
all that counts. If the Cavaliers can't cut Saturday in Raleigh,
they will return to the Grounds, and the prevailing attitude will
be, "What have you done for me lately." It's all very ironic.

For in a sense, the football team is a victim of it's own
success. They are finding that it is probably better not to
improve at all than to improve just a little bit, or even quite a
bit. They have given their supporters an inch. Saturday, those
supporters will find out whether they can take the mile that
they have been craving for so long. Bill Elias was elected ACC
coach of the year in 1963 with a 4-6 record. It looks like George
Blackburn will have to produce a bowl team to gain the same
stature in the minds of the Cavalier fans. What stands in the way
of being a bowl team will be waiting for Virginia on the field
Saturday.

THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT ways a school can build a
good football team. Virginia has employed a lot of them in the
past four years. But the splendor of college football remains the
fact that George Blackburn and Earl Edwards are not going to
sit down in front of 30,000 people Saturday and compare
recruiting programs. What is going to happen is that Frank
Quayle is going to try to run over every red jersey he sees. If he
and his team mates can do that, they will win. It's beautifully
simple in the final analysis. You have to do it on the field.

What happens on the field should be an elemental battle of
strength against strength. Both teams eschew the pass when they
find it possible to move the ball on the ground. Both teams are
weak on pass defense but vicious against the run. Both teams
know this about each other and will be working on their passing
game all week in hopes of gaining an advantage in the air. We
don't think either one will. The winner Saturday will be the
team that took away the other people's running attack and
made their own work.

WE THINK THAT TEAM WILL BE VIRGINIA. On paper
the game is just about a tossup. But the Cavaliers have one big
advantage, and that is the explosive nature of their offense. In
each of the last three games, Virginia has pulled off a big play
and scored the first time they had their hands on the ball. NC
State has lost two games, to Oklahoma and SMU. In each of
those games, the Southwest Conference team jumped out to a
quick lead. They won because the Wolfpack is simply not geared
to play catch-up football.

Virginia is capable of doing the same. And if the game
goes the other way, and it is the Cavaliers trying to catch up,
that same explosiveness will again be an asset. A good day on
the part of Gene Arnette would be an additional plus. A viable
passing game is as valuable to a ground attack as an extra tackle
blocking up front.

THERE WILL ALSO BE AN OLD SCORE to settle
Saturday. Since Virginia entered the ACC, State has won every
time the two schools met on the gridiron. Nine straight defeats
are a lot to swallow. And even more important is the game's
implication for the ACC championship.

Since Virginia entered the Conference, only two
championships, both in lacrosse, have come back to
Charlottesville. NC State stands in the way of a third. For those
who still remember when Frank Howard referred to Virginia as
the "white meat of the league," there is a lot of incentive. So
this is the big game, the one that in a very real sense can make
or break the season. This is Virginia's year. The people at State
will be trying to take it away from us.