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Disappointing Season Leads To Questions And Changes A By Shane Mettlen fter what seemed like a breakout season in 2011, in which Virginia won eight games and made a trip to the Chik-fil-A Bowl, 2012 began with head coach Mike London facing the highest expectations of his stint leading the Cavaliers. The Wahoos returned a do-it-all tailback in fourth-year Perry Jones, potential NFL offensive linemen in fourth-year Oday Aboushi and thirdyear Morgan Moses, redshirt third-year Tim Smith leading a steady group of wide receivers, and defensive leaders such as fourth-year linebackers Steve Greer and LaRoy Reynolds. And, of course, there was Michael Rocco, the quarterback who steadily improved throughout his second-year season to secure the starting job and guide the Cavs to within one win of the ACC championship game. Yet the 2012 season didn't turn out the way anyone associated with the Virginia program had expected or hoped. The Cavs had survived a series of close calls in 2011, only to see the trend reversed on the way to a 4-8 record with just two ACC wins in 2012. Once again, the year began in promising fashion with the Hoos dismantling Richmond and surviving Penn State to start 2‑0. But six consecutive losses followed, including thrashings at the hands of Georgia Tech, TCU and Duke, and close calls against Louisiana Tech, Maryland and Wake Forest. "We were very successful in the first two wins," London told reporters in a teleconference a day after the season ended. "Then we hit that losing skid there that really took a lot out of the team, particularly not being as old and more mature as I thought that, perhaps, we would be. "You go back and you look at your roster and look at a lot of players that you're counting on to play and make significant contributions, you're looking at a lot of freshmen and redshirt freshmen and sophomores. But that's the reality of football. You have to play with the guys that are on your team and you have to be able to perform." So late November and December, a time London once figured would be reserved for bowl preparations and recruiting, became a time for a close look at what went wrong. "We're going to look and evaluate everything with the program from top to bottom of how we do things," London said. "We have a team meeting tomorrow morning at 8:30 to talk about various aspects of continuing on, about winter conditioning and all those types of things. "That's my job. My responsibility is to look at the program at its entirety, and taking today and tomorrow to do those types of things. I will do that, and we'll look at it and we'll go from there." What resulted from those meetings was a shakeup in Charlottesville. Defensive coordinator Jim Reid, defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator Jeff Hanson, running backs coach Mike Faragalli and tight ends coach Shawn Moore were all out when London made changes to the coaching staff, though Moore, a former star quarterback for the Cavaliers, remained a part of the athletic department. Marques Hagans, also a former standout quarterback with the Wahoos, was promoted from graduate assistant to a full-time position, and London made a splash with the other new assistants, pulling former Boston College and North Carolina State head coach Tom O'Brien back to Charlottesville, where he was once an assistant under George Welsh. Also joining the staff were longtime ACC defen-