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I just finished an east coast college tour with my high school senior daughter. While I want her to go to the best university in the world I think she wants to get as far away as possible.
So today we visited Virginia. We went to the introductory session they give and it was quite good. But before it began I saw that the Cavalier Marching Band was practicing on The Lawn. So I went out and spoke to Patrick Zampetti, the drumline instructor. (First question he asked of me was whether my daughter played a musical instrument. I told him she sang.)
Zampetti was friendly and accessible. We chatted about the upcoming UCLA game. He was glum and said the Cavaliers have had a downturn in their football fortunes of late. So no one is expecting anything good to come out of next week's game.
Students were moving in and I asked a few of them if they were going to the game. (Football stadium -- David A. Harrison III Field at Scott Stadium, -- is on campus, of course.) They were going, but they, too were glum and thought the game would be a blow out.
Who knows what the weather will be next week, but yesterday it was about 85 at 10:30 in the morning with humidity around 90%. As we drove to Dulles Airport it rained hard for about 30 minutes.
All I could think of as I left UVa as they call it, was that our Bruins should take this game seriously. The Cavalier fanbase will be out filling the stadium, and anything can happen.
Good people at UVa. Now if only we could convince Gene Block to go back and take Dan Guerrero with him.