Groh: Cavs entering new phase this year
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© July 26, 2005

HOT SPRINGS, Va. — Nobody has to remind Virginia coach Al Groh that NFL camps open this week.

Click here It seems that half of last year’s team is in one.

A school-record seven players were selected in this year’s NFL draft. Three other starters graduated.

Between them, those players started 322 games over four seasons. Five of them were first-team All-ACC selections last season. Two of them — tight end Heath Miller and guard Elton Brown — were first-team All-Americans.

Those players formed the foundation of Groh’s program, which is entering its fifth year. Thrust into the lineup as freshmen and sophomores, they grew up together, and helped Virginia produce 25 wins over the last three years.

Now that they are gone, Groh’s program enters a new phase.

“Would I like to have some of those players in the lineup? Sure,” Groh said Monday at the ACC Football Kickoff. “But there’s no sense lamenting it. That’s like a dog baying at the moon.”

Groh would have more to bay about than most. Virginia returns fewer lettermen — 33 — than any team in the ACC. Gone are the team’s leading rusher, Alvin Pearman; the leading receiver, Miller; as well as pass rush specialist Darryl Blackstock and defensive anchor Andrew Hoffman, among others.

Change is a constant in college football. Players cycle in and out. But because Virginia relied on so many young players during the building phase of Groh’s program, the Cavaliers were less affected by it than most teams.

Now, “We have the opportunity for the baton to be passed on,” Groh said.

Are Groh’s recent recruiting classes as good as advertised? This will be the year we will begin to find out. Touted recruits who have waited their turns for a season or two will be expected to step into the lineup. How well they play will in large part determine how the Cavaliers fare. On Monday, Virginia was picked by the media to finish third in the Coastal Division, behind Virginia Tech and Miami, ahead of Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Duke.

Virginia finished 8-4 last year, winning the games it was supposed to but failing in the season’s three most crucial contests — against Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech. A team that had been built block by block over Groh’s first four seasons finished with a sense that it had failed to accomplished what it set out to do, which was to break into the national elite.

“To me, it was a disappointing season,” quarterback Marques Hagans said.

Hagans and the team’s other returning veterans have tried to turn that disappointment into motivation. Most of the team spent the summer in Charlottesville, where there was a big emphasis on older players mentoring younger ones.

Players bowled together. They went to theme parks. They even went tubing together. Groh said the idea is to build “team power.”

“Over the summer, that team power was as important as bodybuilding power,” he said.

Teams have cultures, Groh said. Traditions. Ways of doing things. The good programs pass their culture along from class to class. Players come and go. If a culture of winning and excellence endures, a team can excel from year to year.

Groh, who has spent four years trying to build a winning culture with a core group of players, will find out this year if it’s been passed on to the next generation.

“It’s a new cycle,” he said. “And we’re enthusiastic about starting it.”

The 12-team league will be a big player in BCS
Published July 26 2005
David Teel

HOT SPRINGS -- No conference welcomes college football season like the ACC. Posh resort with wicker rocking chairs on the front porch; golf course suitable for framing; fine cuisine and trendy libations, both in unlimited supply; even a hot stone massage for the bargain-basement price of $130, plus a 20-percent gratuity added for your "convenience."

But of course.

Here at The Homestead this year. At Pinehurst, N.C., Kiawah Island, S.C., and Reynolds Plantation, Ga., in others. Conference honchos, coaches, a smattering of players, bowl reps, network suits and even media rubes are welcome at this boondoggle.

If only the product merited such fuss.

The ACC, naturally, begs to differ. This season the conference debuts its 12-team alignment, stages its inaugural championship game and basks in unprecedented television exposure courtesy of ABC and ESPN.

Established powers Miami and Florida State, Virginia Tech and Virginia lurking, northern exposure in Boston College: What's not to like?

Besides, the ACC crows, just look at our record. Over the last three seasons, only the Big Ten has a better winning percentage against the other five Bowl Championship Series conferences. During the past four years, no conference has won more bowls.

All well and good. However ...

The ACC has not produced a team ranked among The Associated Press' final top five since Florida State in 2000. And here's the kicker: Name the last ACC team other than the Seminoles to finish among the AP's top five.

Georgia Tech with Joe Hamilton under center in 1998? North Carolina with its impenetrable defense (Greg Ellis and Dre Bly) in 1997? No and no.

Try Georgia Tech in 1990, when the Yellow Jackets were second to Colorado in the AP poll and No. 1 in the coaches' poll. Prior to that, head back to Clemson's 1981 national title bunch and Maryland's third-ranked team of 1955.

At the risk of drawing an unnecessary roughness penalty: Since the inception of the BCS in 1998, no ACC team has earned an at-large bid. Moreover, ACC champions are 1-6 in BCS games, the victory coming at the Sugar Bowl following the 1999 season, when Florida State survived Virginia Tech and Michael Vick to win its second national title.

That, friends, Romans and countrymen, is not the record of a football power.

But might the landscape be shifting? Might the recent additions of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College elevate the ACC to a par with the Big 12, Pacific 10, Big Ten and, risking blasphemy, the Southeastern Conference? Can ACC football ever hope to approach the perennial excellence of ACC men's basketball?

More specifically: Can Boston College recapture the Flutie-to-Phelan glory days? Will the Florida contingent remain national powers indefinitely? When will Clemson and North Carolina stop underachieving? And can the Hokies and Cavaliers from our fair commonwealth continue to progress?

The ACC has convinced many of influence that the future is, indeed, promising. Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech groveled to join the conference; Jacksonville, Fla., outbid a handful of cities to host the championship game, and ABC bumped the Big 12 title game (take that, Mack Brown) out of prime time in favor of the ACC.

"There's great potential out there to be the equal of any league, and to be superior to any league," Virginia coach Al Groh said Monday.

Perhaps, but how to realize that potential?

"Sustained quality of play," Groh said.

That won't be easy this season. Clemson's Charlie Whitehurst AND Georgia Tech's Reggie Ball are the ACC's only quarterbacks with more than one season as a starter, and conference top dogs Virginia Tech, Miami and Florida State are breaking in new starters at the game's most critical position. Florida State had nine players selected in the NFL draft and returns only nine starters, four fewer than anyone else in the conference.

"You can get records to say whatever you want," Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said. "But if you keep stats long enough in the ACC, I think you'll find it's the best conference in the country."

Maybe some day, but not yet.

Hokies top Coastal League in preseason poll
By BRYAN STRICKLAND : The Herald-Sun
bstrickland@heraldsun.com
Jul 26, 2005 : 12:40 am ET

HOT SPRINGS, Va. -- When Virginia Tech defensive end Darryl Tapp first glanced at last season's ACC Football Kickoff preseason poll, Tapp said he considered it a slap in the face.

One year later, Tapp and the Hokies have received a pat on the back.

"I'm proud of the fact that you guys think we have a team that's capable of finishing at the top," Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said Monday, after his Hokies were installed as the preseason favorites in the ACC's fledgling Coastal Division. "But I also know it's what we do to get there, and we've got a lot of work to do and a lot of good teams to play and a very balanced league to try to play through."

The Hokies were picked sixth in their inaugural season in the league but responded by winning the conference championship. This season they've been picked to reach the inaugural ACC Championship, along with Atlantic Division frontrunner Florida State.

While those teams got pats on the back from the 92 media members casting votes at ACC Football Kickoff, UNC and Duke were among the teams trying to let the poll results roll off their backs.

The Tar Heels were picked fifth in the Coastal Division, while Duke was sixth, finishing just two votes shy of being a unanimous last-place pick.

UNC coach John Bunting and Duke coach Ted Roof had similar reactions to the poll -- Bunting playfully ripping a copy of the results, Roof balling one up.

"We know what we're up against, Bunting said. "We have a very difficult schedule."

That response wasn't limited to teams picked near the bottom. Boston College coach Tom O'Brien, whose Eagles were picked second behind FSU in their first ACC season, felt much the same.

"I believe in the tooth fairy more than I do preseason polls," O'Brien said.

Still, one of O'Brien's star players did find a treat under his pillow -- defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka was named preseason player of the year in the first preseason all-conference vote ever taken at ACC Football Kickoff. Kiwanuka, a dominating presence in the Eagles' 9-3 performance last season, was the only Boston College player selected to the 25-member team.

The all-conference team also was the domain of Virginia Tech, which led the way with four selections. Five teams had three players selected, including N.C. State and Wake Forest. UNC was represented by offensive guard Kyle Ralph, while Duke was the lone team without an all-conference selection.

Despite the positive prognostications, Beamer isn't counting on a repeat performance from his Hokies. Two years ago, in their last year in the Big East, the Hokies were labeled as BCS contenders but finished 8-5.

"We just didn't handle it very well," Beamer said. "But for about six straight years in the Big East, we finished higher than we were picked, so we've experienced both sides of it.

"Whichever way you are, the key is to stay in the present. You'll never see me again get tied up in what should happen."

Virginia Tech received 62 first-place votes in the Coastal Division, more than double the total for runner-up Miami (29). Virginia came in third with the remaining first-place vote, followed by Georgia Tech, UNC and Duke.

"As far as worrying about this, nah. Maybe I'll get a few laughs out of it, but it's fine," Roof said. "We've got to go faster than the bar of the league is going up, and the bar of the league is going up pretty fast.

"If we're going to make headway, we've got to go faster."

In the Atlantic Division, Florida State got 65 first-place votes to 29 for Boston College, followed by N.C. State (3) and Clemson (1). Maryland and Wake Forest rounded out the poll.

In 2001, Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen's first season, the Terrapins won the ACC title after being picked seventh in the preseason.

"I'm kind of happy where I'm picked," Friedgen said.

The winners of the two divisions will meet in the inaugural ACC Championship on Dec. 3 in Jacksonville, Fla. The game will be broadcast by ABC at 8 p.m., after the Big 12 and SEC championships kick off earlier that day.

"There's no question in my mind that it's going to be one of the most exciting additions to Atlantic Coast Conference football," Beamer said. "I think it's really going to be something.

"And I tell you, I think the TV people know it's going to be something, putting us on at 8 o'clock, in prime time. I think they've got a pretty good feeling for it, too."

ACC gaining power
By Nathan Warters
Lynchburg News & Advance
July 26, 2005

The Atlantic Coast Conference - forever a basketball juggernaut - used to be well-respected for football.

Now it has the potential to be one of college football’s superpowers.

Boston College begins play this fall in the ACC, completing the conference’s expansion vision. The 12-team, two-divisional format that was first conceptualized years ago is finally a reality.

What that means in terms of the conference’s prestige or national reputation for football is yet to be known, but the league’s coaches and players seem to think the new ACC will rival the other power conferences - SEC, Big 12, Big Ten and Pac 10 - for college football supremacy.

“I think it will challenge the best leagues year in and year out,” Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer said. “Kids want to go to play in the best programs against the best teams, and I think you can say that in the Atlantic Coast Conference.”

One of the biggest benefits of expansion was the opportunity to split the conference into two separate divisions - the Atlantic and Coastal - and stage a championship game to decide a true football champion, much like the SEC and Big 12 conferences do.

The title game, which will debut in Jacksonville, Fla., on Dec. 3, should be lucrative for the ACC and give it more national exposure leading into the bowl season.

“I think (the championship game) is going to be a great, great addition,” Beamer said. “And it’s settled. This is what the Atlantic Coast Conference is going to be for a while, and who knows, maybe forever.”

Virginia Tech and Miami joined the conference last year and immediately added punch. The Hokies won the ACC championship in their first season and Miami finished third behind Tech and traditional frontrunner Florida State.

This fall, the addition of Boston College, which beat North Carolina last season in the Continental Tire Bowl, should boost the ACC’s profile even more.

“I’ve always thought the ACC was a great league. That’s one of the reasons why I chose to come to play in it,” Duke senior tight end Andy Roland said. “And adding perennial powerhouses like Miami and Virginia Tech and Boston College just makes the league even better. I think it definitely competes as one of the best leagues in the nation.”

For the longest time, the ACC’s football reputation came almost solely from the success of Florida State, which won or shared conference titles in 11 of 12 seasons from 1992-2003. But things started to change in 2001. That’s when then-rookie head coach Ralph Friedgen led Maryland to its first ACC championship in 17 years.

That championship signaled the conference’s first major makeover in more than a decade (although Florida State did claim the next two ACC titles).

Then came the rumblings of conference expansion.

Few knew what the final picture would look like, but it was obvious the ACC was determined to keep up with the rest of the major college football world.

The power conferences were balanced. The SEC had Florida, Georgia, LSU, Auburn and Tennessee competing for the national championship in any given year. The Big 12 had Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska. The Big Ten, with Ohio State and Michigan, was the same way. Adding powerful programs like Miami and Virginia Tech was the best way for the ACC to develop a similar pedigree.

The ACC championship game should have national title implications on a yearly basis. Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech have competed for national championships in the last six years.

“I think it’s going to be better for the respect of the league,” Miami head coach Larry Coker said. “You want to play the best and be the best. If you can’t hang with it, you don’t deserve to be in a national championship game.”

Said Beamer: “I think what we’ve done is right. You add that extra game that probably you’ve got a 50-50 shot of winning before you play in the national championship game. There’s no question you’ve made it a lot tougher.”

Through it all - expansion, the divisional format, the championship game - the ACC appears to be on its way to a much bigger role in college football.

“I don’t want to call it a powerhouse yet, but in the next five years, it might be,” Florida State running back Leon Washington said. “It’s become a conference that’s to be reckoned with.
 

Pursuing the dream
Strong summer effort lifts former Cav closer to steady work in NBA Mason home to stay?
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Jul 26, 2005

Greece was great for Roger Mason Jr., but the former University of Virginia star believes he belongs in the NBA, and he's been pursuing that dream this summer.

Mason, whom the Chicago Bulls selected with the second pick of the second round in the 2002 draft, went through a four-day minicamp with the Orlando Magic before averaging 12 points for the Magic's entry in the Las Vegas summer league. In his final game, the 6-5 guard scored 29 points in a victory over the Washington Wizards.

His play in Vegas impressed Miami Heat officials, who invited Mason to join the franchise's summer-league team in California this month. Mason played with the Heat in its final three games in Long Beach.

"They basically just wanted to take a look at me at the point and see me run the team for a game or two," Mason said in a phone interview from his home in the Washington, D.C., area.

His agent, Mark Bartelstein, said a number of NBA teams are interested in signing Mason as a free agent for the 2005-06 season.

"We're just trying to find the best situation for him," Bartelstein said. "I think his versatility is a real plus: the fact that he can play the 1 and the 2."

Mason had established himself as one of the ACC's premier players when, as a U.Va. junior, he dislocated his right shoulder in a Jan. 15, 2002, victory over Wake Forest. He didn't miss any games, but his shoulder continued to bother him in the offseason, and Mason later re-injured it during a workout for the Detroit Pistons.

That setback forced Mason, who'd left U.Va. with a season of eligibility remaining, to miss the NBA predraft camp. Lingering questions about his health knocked him out of the first round. Then, in a September 2002 pickup game, Mason dislocated his shoulder again while dunking on Juwan Howard.

This injury required surgery, and Mason missed the first 55 games of the 2002-03 season.

The shoulder has "been fine since then," Mason said, "but I just never would have known that getting hurt in that game against Wake Forest would have so much impact on my career."

He played in 17 games for Chicago in 2002-03, averaging 1.8 points, and three games in '03-04 before being traded to Toronto. With the Raptors, Mason appeared in only 23 games that season, in which he averaged four points. His prospects for significant playing time in 2004-05 weren't good. After an extended stay on the injured list because of a sprained ankle, Mason decided drastic measures were needed to revive his career.

He asked the Raptors to release him. They complied in December.

"We had a situation where I wasn't playing, and basically I just wanted an opportunity to play," said Mason, 24, whose career highs in the NBA are 18 points, six assists, four rebounds and two blocked shots, respectively.

After leaving Toronto, Mason said, he expected to land with the Denver Nuggets, but a deal never materialized. So he headed to Greece, where players drawing paychecks included his close friend and former U.Va. teammate Travis Watson.

In January, Mason signed with Olympiacos, which Bartelstein called "one of the most prestigious teams in Europe." He quickly became a prominent player for the first time as a professional.

"Roger wants to play, and he can only get better by playing," Bartelstein said. "He had a great opportunity to go overseas and play for a top team and then come back and play in the NBA.

Mason enjoyed and benefited from his experience in Greece, but he's confident he'll be wearing an NBA uniform again in 2005-06.

"I am," he said. "I'm not going to go overseas any time soon. I'm going to find the best situation for me, and hopefully this'll be the year for me to leave my mark."

 

BC defensive end is named ACC preseason player of year
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Jul 26, 2005

Mathias Kiwanuka, a senior defensive end at ACC newcomer Boston College, has been voted the league's preseason player of the year.

This is the first season the ACC has compiled a preseason all-league team. Voting was conducted yesterday among media members attending the ACC Football Kickoff at The Homestead resort.

Kiwanuka was the defensive player of the year in the Big East Conference last season.

Four players from Virginia Tech and three players from Virginia were named to the preseason squad. There were no unanimous selections. Kiwanuka and Florida State tailback Leon Washington were named on 39 of the 40 ballots. - Mike Harris
OFFENSE

QB - Charlie Whitehurt, Clemson; RB - Chris Barclay, Wake Forest; Leon Washington, Florida State; WR - Calvin Johnson, Georgia Tech; Tramain Hall, N.C. State; TE - Jeff King, Virginia Tech; OL - D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Virginia; Will Montgomery, Virginia Tech; Kyle Ralph, North Carolina; Steve Vallos, Wake Forest; Eric Winston, Miami.
DEFENSE

DL - Mathias Kiwanuka, Boston College; Manny Lawson, N.C. State; Darryl Tapp, Virginia Tech; Mario Williams, N.C. State; LB - Ahmad Brooks, Virginia; D'Qwell Jackson, Maryland; Ernie Sims, Florida State; DB - Tye Hill, Clemson; Greg Threat, Miami, Pat Watkins, Florida State; Jimmy Williams, Virginia Tech.
SPECIAL TEAMS

K - Connor Hughes, Virginia; P - Ryan Plackemeier, Wake Forest; Specialist - Devin Hester, Miami.