UVa Insider, the column: ex-boss calls Fairchild choice “a home run”
Virginia football fans of a certain age will remember that the opening game of the 2002 season pitted UVa and visiting Colorado State in the Jim Thorpe Classic.
Colorado State, then coached by Sonny Lubick, held on to beat the Cavaliers 35-29 when Rams’ cornerback David Vickers recovered a Marques Hagans fumble with 10 seconds remaining.
My game story indicates that the ball was only inches from the goal-line, but my recollection is that Hagans intentionally fumbled the ball into the end zone when it appeared that he had been stopped.
Hagans, then a redshirt freshman, was backing up junior Matt Schaub at the time. In hindsight, it’s remarkable to think that Schaub, who would later break all of UVa’s passing records, was sharing time with Hagans in the first game of his fourth year in the program.
Schaub was redshirted in 1999, played in three games and had eight pass attempts in 2000 and split time with Bryson Spinner in 2001.
Nowadays, a talent like Schaub would have been long gone if he wasn’t the full-time starter as a redshirt sophomore. Times were different, but so was Schaub. He patiently waited his time and look where he is now, coming off a second Pro Bowl appearance last weekend in Hawaii.
BUT, I DIGRESS. While Virginia and Colorado State have met before, Steve Fairchild was not with the Rams that day.
He is a former Colorado State quarterback, an offensive coordinator under Lubick and the Rams’ head coach from 2008-2011, but in 2002 he was coaching running backs for the Buffalo Bills.
Nonetheless, in his eight-year stint as a Colorado State assistant, 1993-2000, Fairchild was part of a staff that put the Rams in a position where they would be selected for one of the preseason games that were popular at that time.
Colorado State won 10 or more games in 1993, 1997 and 2000 and was ranked in the final poll after each of those three seasons. Fairchild was the offensive coordinator for the 1997 and 2000 teams.
“I think you’ve hit a home run with Steve Fairchild being your offensive coordinator,” Lubick, who retired in 1997 and lives in the Fort Collins area, said earlier this afternoon.
(Presumably, Lubick was talking about Virginia hitting a home run and not the media, which will consider it a home run if Fairchild is a quote machine).
Lubick, himself, served as Colorado State’s offensive coordinator during the mid-1980s. But, when he became the Rams’ head coach, it wasn’t a case of Fairchild having the title and Lubick calling all the shots.
Immediately preceding his appointment as Colorado State head coach in 1993, Lubick was the defensive coordinator at Miami (Fla.) from 1989-2002.
FAIRCHILD HAS BEEN described as a proponent of a strong running game, but who isn’t?
“He’ll adapt his philosophy to the players he has,” Lubick said. “It depends on what kind of quarterback he has, whether he has a running quarterback or a throwing quarterback.
“He’s not going to make them do something they can’t do. He’s pretty good at changing his philosophy to make it work for the players. He’ll get the best out of the players by letting them do what they can do best.
“We had some teams when he was here where he had a running quarterback. We had some where we were pretty much strictly drop-back and the quarterback couldn’t run a lick, and we could still do our thing.”
Lubick said he envies Fairchild for getting to live in San Diego for the past year and now moving to Virginia.
“Those are two pretty good places,” he said.
IN ST. LOUIS, Fairchild had access to one of football’s most innovate football minds in head coach Mike Martz, whose teams were described as “the greatest show on turf.”
Martz had a bacterial infection of the heart that caused him to leave the team during the 2005 team, his and Fairchild’s last with the team. Fairchild was hired by Buffalo, where his second stint lasted two years before he took the Colorado State head-coaching job.
Fairchild was 16-33 as the Rams’ head coach but the program had started to go downhill before his return. Colorado State was 17-31 in Lubick’s last four seasons.
In San Diego, Fairchild worked this past season as an offensive assistant under head coach Norv Turner, one of the few head coaches who called his own plays.
Of course, Martz and Turner are known for throwing the ball, as was Fairchild as a college player. As a senior at Colorado State in 1980, his only season as a full-time starter, the economics major passed for 2,573 yards and 15 touchdowns.
January 31, 2013 - 4:15 PM
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Same old story for Uva football. “Wait till next year when we take back dominance in the state.”
Doug: watched that game in 2002, a great game to kick off a great season.
The 2001 Schaub would not have left these days because he was not very good. The 2001 Schaub would NOT “have been long gone if he wasn’t the full-time starter as a redshirt sophomore” because he was not very good. There was a reason he was splitting time with Spinner in 2001. He was slow deciding and made bad reads, etc., throwing many more INT’s than TD’s. After Hagans’ performance in the opener in 2002, many thought Hagans would be the starter. If I remember right, Hagans started the next week at FSU, with Schaub coming in at the half–what turned out to be his coming out party. It was only after that FSU game that Schaub became (on the field) what we know him to be: smart, savvy, good in the huddle, able to through pinpoint out routes, good with the audible, and tough (which may surprise some Texans fans.)
Thanks for the great article.
MSM2
Miles is exactly right in his recollection. Schaub was pulled from the CSU game much the same way as Kevin McCabe was, and it seemed like he might never see the field again. Then Hagans was destroyed in the first half vs. an outstanding FSU team, while Schaub threw 3 TDs in the second half. Schaub started from that point on, but I don’t give a lick of credit to Al Groh. If FSU had not been so dominant or Hagans had put together a better game, Matt Schaub might have never played another down at QB.
All the coaching turnover this year, and the installation of new defensive and offensive systems, means next year could be one in which UVa performs beneath its talent level. Good news: 8 home games. Bad news: Virginia won’t be favored in many of them. In the longer term, though, the talent level is rising and the coaching staff is now much more experienced and proven. If O’Brien sticks around for, say, 4-5 years, the Cavs will be competing for division championships and going to bowls regularly.
This could be a perfect marriage. UVA certainly has the backs to run all over much of their competition and that’s not even including No.1 stud back Taquan Mizzell.
But it would be a waste not to use the receivers London has tirelessly collected these past 3 recruiting cycles. There is some big time talent that has now had 3-4 years of college experience. That while inconsistent each has shown at different times to be game breakers.
Of course the most interesting thing will inevitably be who he tabs as ‘his’ quarterback .. if London is truly backing off having any say on offense.
My initial thought is that it will be Phillip Simms. He has all world potential and now everyone is on the same level in regards to knowledge of the offense. But with all the talk about Greyson Lambert during the fall I could see a new co-ordinator go young and tab the freshman as his choice and maybe force a similar situation to Shaub and Hagans if things don’t go well.
In saying that about the quarterbacks his biggest project will be to get the offensive line back in shape. The line play wasn’t not up to it’s usual standards and with Aboushi gone to the NFL and Kelby Johnson out of the program figuring out who works best where and building chemistry is vital to this team bouncing back.