– Andy Bitter
Greetings from lovely Jacksonville! (I’m thinking of trademarking that phrase). Well, I’m back in the River City (I don’t know if that’s what it’s called) for the Gator Bowl between Virginia and Texas Tech a month after being down here for the ACC championship game. So I don’t really have any new observations about the town.
But I’ve got to write something, so here goes:
– At The Landing yesterday, I thought this was going to be a completely pro-Virginia crowd. Then I found out I happened to be walking through the Cavaliers pep rally. Apparently the Texas Tech one later in the day was not as well attended. Who knows what that means? I will say that right now, the crowd’s about even as it trickles into the stadium.
– Beautiful weather for the game. Really, you can’t ask for much better. There’s a little wind, which a lot of people say would affect the Texas Tech passing game. Those people obviously don’t know much about Lubbock, Texas, which is like a wind tunnel most of the time from what I hear. It will take more than wind to slow the Red Raiders’ passing attack down.
– I’m legitimately excited to see this game. Normally, bowl matchups aren’t this intriguing, but I honestly want to see how UVa, with a month to prepare (supposedly Al Groh’s strong suit), can come up with something — anything — to slow this offense down. It will be especially interesting to see how the Cavaliers do it without Chris Cook, who, despite Groh’s reluctance to say so, is Virginia’s best cornerback.
– Texas Tech coach Mike Leach is a trip. At this final press conference before the game, he arrived wearing a black Under Armour shirt with a blue blazer over the top. I wrote an article about him earlier this week, but it didn’t come close to doing him justice. Here’s a much, much, much better article by Michael Lewis of “Moneyball” fame. It’s long, but has a bunch of stuff about Leach’s obsession with pirates. It’s well worth a read.
– The Cavaliers allowed 37 and 31 points in their last two bowl games. I’m guessing they’ll give up more in this one.
– There is no finer food at 1 a.m. in Florida than the Waffle House’s All-American breakfast. Kudos to our waiter, who repeatedly said he was, “Livin’ the dream.”
– Prediction time: Virginia normally shows up in these bowl games, but I think it’s just too undermanned in the secondary to stop Texas Tech. Remember how Sean Glennon carved the Cavaliers up at Scott Stadium late in the year? I see a repeat performance of that. UVa will score, but not enough. Final: Texas Tech 45, Virginia 38.
