Monday Motivation: Much to look forward to for Wahoo fans

So I’m minding my own business the other day and I got randomly perturbed and confused all at once completely out of nowhere. And I blame Virginia Football’s official Twitter account.

I mean, otherwise I might not have been aware that night that Dontayvion Wicks had been named to Athlon Sports’ preseason All-ACC first team with Keytaon Thompson and Nick Jackson on second and Brennan Armstrong and Billy Kemp on third.

Yeah, you read that right.

Who knew that Athlon Sports was such a huge Robert Anae fan?! Because how else can you explain having Armstrong third?

What else could be at the heart of having the guy who flirted with setting the league’s single-season passing record (and would have too had he not gotten injured at BYU) fall to third team the ensuing summer? Especially when surrounded by arguably the best wide receiving corps in school history?

Look around the ACC. Are there a lot of talented quarterbacks in the league? Sure! Sam Hartman at Wake Forest is pretty dang good. And NC State’s Devin Leary had a solid 2021 and appears ready for a leap. Tyler Van Dyke down at Miami must be one of the big reasons why Athlon also has the Canes, despite a coaching change, tabbed as the Coastal favorites.

Speaking of, and not to go on a tangent or anything, but UVa gets picked fifth in the division in that aforementioned poll, behind Miami, Pitt, Carolina, and Virginia Tech. It doesn’t take long looking at that list to develop….some quibbles.

Many, many quibbles in fact.

So the same Pitt program which lost Kenny Pickett, Jordan Addison, AND offensive coordinator Mark Whipple is going to just reload? Just like that, huh? USC transfer Kedon Slovis is a fine replacement and their line is strong but, I mean, c’mon man.

Carolina, which lost the best QB in school history, is going to just reload? Just like that? And what is wild is that Athlon picked UNC third in the division while also including this in the team breakdown: “Although quarterback Sam Howell’s departure is significant, it’s not the biggest concern on offense.”

I must be on drugs.

How can you put the Heels there if the biggest issue for the UNC offense isn’t losing THAT quarterback? During a year in which Carolina was already woefully below expectations?

Well Brad to be fair, you might be thinking, maybe they just think that poorly of Tech and UVa?

If so, that’s on them.

I won’t make an argument for Tech—I’m contractually obligated to do the exact opposite—but UVa has plenty of reasons for optimism. (To be fair, in the non-sarcastic sense, Athlon did list UVa as one of the two teams that were the hardest to evaluate.)

Listen, if you’re going to give Pitt and Carolina the benefit of the doubt, you can’t also then make the argument that UVa’s bountiful losses on the O-line combined with lackluster D a season ago somehow render the Hoos unable to contend.

It’s a fool’s errand when it comes to these things to expect that UVa is going to get the benefit of the doubt. And if you’ve followed Virginia sports for long enough, you know exactly what I mean. Only in the rare year when Tony Bennett and Co. have it really cooking or when Bryce Perkins is your quarterback apparently can those who choose these sorts of things not give everyone else the benefit of the doubt.

I won’t sit here and try to tell you that Garett Tujague doesn’t have a whale of a task on his hands rebuilding the offensive line wholesale. I also won’t sit here and try to argue that the Wahoos don’t have defensive concerns; they do.

But what I really can’t wrap my mind around is how the dude who put up all those numbers last year is somehow knocked down a peg while other offenses are apparently A-Okay despite losses of their own.

I don’t have any delusions when it comes to Armstrong’s 2022 numbers and the likelihood of him repeating what he did last fall. Tony Elliott wants to run the ball. Des Kitchings wants to run the ball. Hell, the running backs want to run the football! But if you’re not going to give No. 5 his due now, coming off that season, then what in the world does the kid have to do to get something resembling respect?

It’s not like the ACC is returning Trevor Lawrence, Lamar Jackson, Phillip Rivers, Matt Ryan, Charlie Ward and Vinny Testaverde. There’s talent, sure, but nothing that requires someone with the body of work of Armstrong to fall to third team.

But, hey. It’s June. What better time to get riled up for no reason about something that doesn’t matter all that much?

It’s all good though, right? I mean, that just means football season is getting closer…