University of Virginia Library

From The Sidelines

Premature
Boos

By Hugh Antrim

FOLLOWING SATURDAY'S GAME with Clemson Coach
Blackburn held a brief question and answer session with the press.
One unidentified reporter made the observation that it was the
first time that he could remember that Wahoo fans had been
booing their own team.

Now one dictionary defines the very legitimate interjection
boo as "an exclamation used to express contempt,
disapprobation etc., usually shouted by an audience at a
performer." One had the distinct impression that the booing
floating out of the west stands Saturday afternoon was directed
at the Offense, quarterback Danny Fassio, Coach George
Blackburn, or any combination of the three. The logical
conclusion to all of this being that Fassio and his offense played
disappointing football and the crowd knew it, and that Coach
Blackburn's handling of the situation was called into question.
What is not so quick in coming is the deus ex machina type
judgment that would chain Fassio to the ear phones and
Blackburn to the used car lot for not chaining up Fassio.

TRUE, FASSIO COMPLETED only six of 23 passes, hardly a
debut worthy of praise. With second and eight on Clemson's 32
an errant aerial was intercepted and a Virginia threat cut short.
The Senior quarterback did turn out to be the leading Wahoo
rusher, but perhaps there were times when he kept and didn't
pitch back on the wide option, and vice versa.

The criticism is clear; it's splattered over the stat sheets and
over quickly fading memories of Clemson's slim margin of
victory. But justifying this criticism is a much more debatable
venture. Anytime a football team loses seven starters off the
offense, the attack will lose a little in the process. Anytime an
inexperienced and relatively small line goes up against a defensive
platoon that averages some 220 pounds a man, that offense will
hardly have an easy time of it, much less the quarterback.

THE GAME WITH CLEMSON was close; the statistics blurt
out that too. Virginia actually accumulated more total offense
than Clemson, 256-212, and more first downs, 14-7. No, the
offense didn't look great; they simply couldn't move the ball
when opportunity beckoned. No, Danny Fassio didn't pass well
either; he knows it and Mr. Blackburn knows it.

So why didn't the coach start Mike Cubbage or Larry Albert
at the outset of the second half instead? Mr. Blackburn has
followed the quarterback situation ever since the graduation of
Gene Arnette, and he has explained the starting role's going to
Fassio for the past ten days. To Coach Blackburn Danny Fassio is
a constant; he has stated that Cubbage and Albert are on a par
physically. Blackburn has stuck with Fassio because of the
quarterback's consistent ability to call the right plays at the right
time. It is Fassio's mental agility on the field that has him starting.

FURTHER SPECULATION as to why Fassio played the
whole game is only opinion; perhaps he needed the additional
experience, or perhaps the coach felt Fassio deserved a chance to
better his first half performance. It remains the fact that Mr.
Blackburn is the coach, and that his point of view as coach is a
truly legitimate one from which to judge the relative merits of his
players.

There may be disagreement with his judgment, but Mr.
Blackburn is hardly a stupid man; he wants to win not lose. And
if he thinks Fassio can do the job, Fassio will get the call

BUT BACK FOR a last look at the booing, that "expression of
contempt." Was the purpose in that display aimed at letting the
football team know they were not performing well, or was it
simply to accuse Coach Blackburn of wrongdoing? Either way the
art of booing is hardly a worthy pursuit for would-be
sophisticates and gentlemen; before, only the civic minded who
filled old D.C. Stadium and assailed the Redskins exercised such
proficiency. After all, they did pay their seven dollars for that
arbitrary privilege.