Virginia Football Won't Have an October To Remember

(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

For North Carolina, the memories of an overtime loss last season to the Virginia Cavaliers have hardly faded.  The Tar Heels saw their ACC Coastal dreams turn into a nightmare on a Saturday afternoon in Charlottesville as the Cavaliers continued their unexpected dominance over UNC at home.

For Virginia though, those memories are a distant memory, a painful reminder of what could have been.  The Cavaliers are currently mired in the worst losing stretch during the Al Groh era.  A loss this Saturday would leave Virginia in an eight-game skid that could result in one of the ugliest seasons in the past few decades.

Last year, the Cavaliers were in pretty poor shape as well.  In September of 2008, the Cavaliers went 1-3, being outscored by a combined score of 128-36.

Ouch.

The Virginia Cavaliers looked like they were doomed, but then the impossible happened.  Al Groh's team somehow rebounded from sheer obscurity to go undefeated in the month of October.  In the course of 31 days, Virginia went from the bottom of college football to leading the ACC Coastal Division.

Can Virginia simulate a similar comeback this season?

In a word, no.  Sorry to burst your bubble.

Although Virginia would love for history to repeat itself, there were three factors that helped drive the Cavaliers towards success in 2008.  It just so happens that none of these things exist this time around.

1. Home, Sweet Home

Virginia, like most mediocre teams, are much better at home than on the road.  While Groh's team have typically been lucky to win more than one or two road games every year, Scott Stadium has treated the Cavaliers well in the past.

It is no coincidence that last year's turnaround began at home against a rival in the Maryland Terrapins.  The Terrapins were coming in expecting a rout and that's exactly what they got.  Just turns out that Maryland was on the wrong side of it.

In a night time atmosphere, Virginia's Marc Verica found a rhythm and absolutely torched the unprepared Terrapin secondary for 226 yards and two touchdowns.  In total, Virginia had 31 points, only five points short of what they had scored the entire month of September.

Virginia used that confidence to knock off East and North Carolina in consecutive weeks.  The 3-0 home stand concluded with a dramatic overtime score to knock off the ranked Tar Heels and Virginia's momentum helped them continue the good play into Atlanta to defeat the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

This year though, October's schedule is not so kind to the Cavaliers. 

First, Virginia must go to North Carolina who were stung by the Yellow Jackets the week before.  Desperation to stay in the Coastal race mixed in with revenge and the crowd will be crazy next weekend. 

Not a good combination for a team like Virginia still seeking its first win of the season.

Virginia's three home games this time are not in consecutive order, making it more difficult to get a winning streak going.  However, even if Virginia played every game at home this season, it would make little difference.

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