Jeff Hafley was named head coach of the Boston College Eagles in December of 2019. Hafley was fondly remembered by POVer’s who recollected his time at Pitt with Dave Wannstedt. He was an ace recruiter during that time. After Wanny was fired, Hafley spent a year at Rutgers. At the time of his hire, Hafley had coached in the NFL for the previous seven years.

The Eagles went 6 – 5  (5-5 conf, 1-0 OOC) in the 2020 Covid season. It seemed to be a promising start for Hafley and the Eagles. Results were mixed in 2021. A second six-win season but it was built on the back of the OOC schedule (4-0). Conference wins dropped to two. 2022 ended with a 3 – 9 record (2-6 conf, 1-3 OOC).

You can see the results in the following schedule section because we are moving on.

The Duke Blue Devils was my ACC surprise team of 2022. Guided by first year HC Mike Elko, Duke turned on a dime and added six additional wins over the prior year (2021 – 0-8 conf, 3-1 OOC, 2022 – 5-3 conf., 3-1 OOC and a bowl win).

Elko took over after the end of the 14-year stint of HC David Cutcliffe – the QB whisperer. Though Cutcliffe had a good run in his early years including a division championship, he was only 10-25 in his last three seasons. It was time to move on.

Mike Elko was the DC at Texas A&M  prior to taking the Duke job. He worked his way through the DC position starting with Bowling Green to Wake to Notre Dame and A&M.

Elko may not have been the first person I would have hired but he and his staff was just what Duke needed.

Tony Elliott became HC of the Virginia Cavaliers on December 10’th 2021. He replaced Bronco Mendenhall who very unexpectedly resigned.

From the Deseret News :

 “I would love to say there’s been this buildup and a long amount of epiphanies and thought, but clearly this week, there was a sense of clarity to me that I needed to step back from college football and reassess, renew, reframe and reinvent — with my wife as a partner — our future and the next chapter of our lives,” 

I am happy for Bronco. I did the “reassess, renew, reframe and reinvent” twice in my life (but without a wife). After deliberation, I moved to Texas to become a rancher. Later, after my first wife died I did it again. I decided to retire early if I got remarried. I did and I did.

But this is not about me, it is a review of the Cavs 2022 season.

It was a bad year for Virginia. Not only on the football field but for an incident resulting in the death of two players and the wounding of a third.

On to the review starting with the 2022 and 2023 schedule: