In July of 2008 Dave Koehn joined Virginia Sports Properties as the director of broadcasting and play-by-play announcer for Cavalier radio broadcasts. He is the “Voice of the Cavaliers” for the Virginia football, men’s basketball and baseball teams.
And as Virginia gets set for their Thursday night showdown, Dave answered Five Burning Questions for us on the state of their program:
1. What are your thoughts on Virginia’s season to date?
The jury is still out on this one. The stated goal going into the season was to reach the post-season. While that might seem like a formality, with a young team and no bowl berths since 2007, a post-season would signify that the program is headed in the right direction.
Aside from that, the biggest thing that Virginia needs to show is consistency. That has been missing. My sense is that with more stability at the quarterback position starting this week, you might start to see more of that.
2. In year two under Mike London what is the feeling in Charlottesville and Cavalier-Nation?
I don’t think there are many Virginia fans who fail to see the good and the promise in Mike London. In addition to an infectious personality, his recruiting has been as good as anyone’s lately and his second full year to recruit talent has again proven to be a good one. After netting a top 20 recruiting class last year, Coach London’s biggest challenge this year might just be finding space for all of this upcoming class to fit in with relation to the 85 scholarships.
However, in year two under his watch Virginia fans are needing to see results on the field to fully buy into the resurgence of the program. In football, that often takes time and requires patience as young kids get bigger and more experienced with a couple of seasons in a program. Virginia fans are trying to be patient, but itching for success on the field in the way of wins.
3. How do you feel about Virginia’s match up with Lamar Miller and the Miami offense?
This will clearly be a big key to the game. Much like Miami, the Cavaliers did a nice job slowing down the Georgia Tech running game, but Miller presents a different challenge. Virginia’s defense has shown a vast improvement from a season ago, but this could be the biggest test of the year for them against a conventional speed-burner in a pro-style offense. Knowing assignments and avoid mis-tackles, two areas that hurt UVA last year will be key.
4. Virginia defeats Miami if ?
The Cavaliers need to get a good game from Michael Rocco. When he and David Watford struggled to make throws last week against NC State it made everything stop. Virginia has a good ground attack, but it needs to get some help from the passing game to open things up. Rocco needs to prove that he is a threat to hurt Miami through the air.
5. Players people watching Thursday night should keep their eye on?
In addition to Michael Rocco, I’ll be keeping an eye on Virginia’s safeties. I think they’ll need to help out and make good decisions against both Miami’s deep threat passing the ball and in helping against the run and an explosive weapon in Lamar Miller.
Bonus: You’re a Kansas guy – is the end near for the Turner Gill experiment?
Ha, I’m pretty removed from what’s going on over there these days, but I would hope that it’s too early to pull the plug at this point. I understand he’s done a decent job with recruiting and as I noted above, righting the ship in college football takes time…call off the dogs for now!
Follow Dave on Twitter @WahooVoice.
