Autumns in Charlottesville (Bowl Bound)

[MoonlightGraham]

Hi, everybody.

The start of the season put me in the mood to tell a college football story.

Originally, I was going to create it with The College Years, but I encountered an formidable obstacle. The laptop where I had TCY installed is no longer with us, and when I went to the Solecismic website to download a fresh copy, my antivirus program told me it was infected.

So, I went in search of a new (to me) college football game. I've had a lot of fun with Grey Dog's take on college basketball, so I decided to give their college football game a try, too. I've had some fun over the past few days taking Bowl Bound on a test run, getting more comfortable with the game and discovering I like playing it. I'm still learning, but I think it's time to begin my story.

Our protagonist, Coach Graham Brockhouse, played at Vanderbilt, where he appeared in 18 games at quarterback, starting four. After coaching receivers and QBs and serving as a recruiting coordinator for his alma mater, he became offensive coordinator at Bucknell. As the 2022 season begins, Coach Brockhouse is the new head coach at the University of Virginia. The game created him as a 50-year-old coach with 25 years of experience.

The first-year coach faces a formidable job. The Cavaliers are picked to finish 12th in the 14-team ACC. A quick look at their depth chart reveals a lot of red, the color that denotes the last talented players in college football. UVA alumni want their team to be "somewhat competitive" in the conference, showing improvement and perhaps pulling off an upset or two. Even these mild expectations might be tough for Coach Brockhouse to achieve right away.

I'll be back with a quick summary of my early-season tasks, and then we'll take a look at the 2022 'Hoos.

Hopefully, we'll all enjoy the story of a coach who's been hired to return UVA football to some degree of national relevance, a team good enough to prevent Cavaliers supporters from starting their countdown to basketball season in early September.


P.S. Speaking of basketball, I haven't abandoned my FBCB story. I'm sure the arrival of cooler weather and Midnight Madness will have me in the mood for some basketball, too.

[MoonlightGraham]

Camp 2022
Week 1

During the first week of training camp, we set our budget and hire our scouting service. We have $1.9 million to spend on recruiting, scouting, and staff, and I'm spending every dime of it.

We can't afford a top-of-the-line scouting service, so I'm going with Brothers Scouting, an Average-rated outfit that specializes in our Atlantic East region. Coach Brockhouse will concentrate on finding players fairly close to home; programs with Below Average prestige (45) like ours don't have much national reach.

Next week, we'll start figuring out some Xs and Os.

[MoonlightGraham]

Camp 2022
Week 2

This week, we'll set our offensive and defensive philosophies.

Our offensive coordinator, Russell Hale, favors a Balanced offense. That's a decent fit for our personnel; right now, "a decent fit" means "keeps more than one Red player out of the starting lineup." The Balanced offense gives a formation bonus to the Pro Set and I Formation.

Defensive coordinator Raymond Mitchell likes to run a 4-3 base defense. Once again, this formation allows us to get some of our more talented players on the field in positions where they're comfortable. We'll use our Nickel and Dime packages in passing situations. We can staff all these formations with players no worse than Orange.

[MoonlightGraham]

Camp 2022
Weeks 3, 4, and 5

During the next three weeks, we put together our non-conference schedule. At first, I had this task delegated to the AI, but when I was presented with a slate that contained four home games and eight away days, I decided to reload my game, take over scheduling responsibilities myself, and try again. Here's the schedule Coach Brockhouse will face in his first season at UVA:



Adding a fifth home game gives us one more opportunity to bring a recruit to campus.

[MoonlightGraham]

Camp 2022
Week 6

Now it's time to set the Cavaliers' roster for the 2022 campaign. Who will Hoos Nation be cheering on this season?


The QB job is Ryan Barlow's for now, but he'll be pushed by promising redshirt freshman Doyle Robinson. George Bell can't be counted on as more than an emergency backup, because his grades are so poor.


David O'Connor and Victor Hanna will split time at halfback. O'Connor is faster, while Hanna has better hands and runs with more authority. They're both young backs with promise who will be forced to learn on the job.

We'll feature our fullback, senior Thomas Warren, fairly heavily as a ballcarrier and receiver. Indeed, the presence of Warren was a big reason why we chose an offense that has a place for an old-school fullback. Freshman Darrell Thompson has a bright future if he can handle his academic responsibilities.


We have several talented, promising players in this group, but the best of them are going to have to spend additional time working on academics. That means less time and energy for developing their football skills.

Senior Gary O'Dell is the team's best player. He's a complete receiver with very good hands and solid route-running ability, and he's the fastest man on the team. He'll line up as the X, or split end. John Heath will be the flanker (Y receiver). He's more of a possession receiver with a high football IQ. Ken Saucier and Brandon Waddell provide depth, and Waddell is our best kickoff returner.

True freshman Lawrence Ramirez will be a weapon in the passing game and a solid blocker, too. Edward Davis is known for his ability to do damage on kick coverage.


We have some decent young offensive linemen, but we lack depth. Every single one of our backups has a 1.0 overall rating right now.

Redshirt sophomore Chad Bergman and true freshman Curtis Brown will man the tackles. Guard Troy McDaniel is our most well-rounded lineman. Joseph Bingham will start at the other guard spot. Center Brandon Torres is the veteran of the group.

Offensive linemen get banged up. We're in trouble if this group suffers more injuries than usual.


We face the same lack of depth along the defensive front.

Cameron Koch is a fearsome pass rusher, but he seems to lack the drive to be a truly outstanding player. The other DE, John Shaw, has potential and two more seasons to realize it.

Roberto Lopez and David Finn are somewhat undersized, but they're surprisingly tough at the point of attack. Both of them could spend more time with their studies, however.

First years Ismael Joseph and Roy Scott have promise.


Middle linebacker John Short sets the tone for this group. He's a tough run stopper with a nasty streak; he was a destroyer on our kick coverage units until he became a starter. Mark Allison is a solid, experienced deputy.

Joe Wood is our most dangerous pass rusher, and he's quite good in pass coverage despite his stocky frame. Duane Maples is slated to start on the weak side, with promising freshman Marcus Craft pushing him for playing time.


Thomas Russell is usually considered our best defensive player. His most notable characteristic is his speed, which enables him to pose a threat as a punt returner. John Riley is an exciting player, an especially fearsome tackler for a cornerback. The nickel corner, Robert Pickens, excels in press coverage. We think we have a future star in freshman William Humphrey, whom we might redshirt this season.

Curtis Johnson and John Ellis are the safeties. Sophomore Ellis has a ton of potential. Behind them are two or three decent backups.


Our kicking specialists are both younger players with some ability. James Sims should be an adequate placekicker and a very good kickoff specialist. Freshman David Simons looks like he's taken over as our punter, relegating senior William Ray to duty as Sims' holder.


Overview: We're dangerously thin along both the offensive and defensive lines, and none of our running backs will strike fear in opposing defenses. Our receivers can make plays, but only if we have a quarterback who can get the ball to them. We'll probably struggle to score points against ACC-caliber defenses.

Our defense is a bit more promising, with a playmaker or two in each player group. And we've got some intriguing depth at linebacker and in the secondary.

I hesitate to predict how many games we'll win...aside from saying we won't win many.