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'A little crazy,' Marcus makes Cavs stronger
By John Galinsky  / Daily Progress staff writer
August 10, 2003
 

He makes them lift weights until their muscles give out. He makes them run until they drop from exhaustion. He makes them change their eating habits, denying them candy and chips.
In short, Evan Marcus makes the Virginia football players suffer — and they love him for it.
“He’s the greatest strength coach in the world,” sophomore guard Brian Barthelmes said with a smile, putting his hand on Marcus’s shoulder. “But he’s also a big jerk.”
UVa’s new strength coach doesn’t mind that characterization. In fact, he likes it. As Marcus, 35, sees it, his job is to make things difficult for the Cavaliers, to build their toughness along with their power, speed and agility. To strengthen their character along with their bodies.
“I want to push them out of their comfort zone,” said Marcus, who was hired in January from among dozens of applicants for the vacant job. “I don’t want them to be comfortable. I want them to work through their discomfort.”
Formerly the assistant strength coach for the New Orleans Saints and at five other colleges, Marcus didn’t take long to make an impression at Virginia. When he was first introduced to the players, said center Zac Yarbrough, “he scared the hell out of us.”
One reason is appearance. Marcus is a dead ringer for Goldberg, the pro wrestler with the bulging biceps, bald head and goatee. He looks like a strength coach ought to look. Acts like one, too.
Shortly after his arrival, Marcus had the players running in the snow. He also told them they were not allowed to show fatigue or pain, no matter what they were feeling.
“At first, they thought I was nuts,” Marcus said after practice Saturday. “That’s good. I always want them to think I’m a little crazy. All strength coaches are. But I also want them to know there’s a method to my madness.”
Look in the Virginia locker room, and the results of Marcus’ madness are evident. Most of the players who needed to gain weight are significantly bigger. The ones who needed to lose weight appear more streamlined. Almost everyone is stronger, faster and, presumedly, better and tougher.
Just ask Yarbrough, who says 60 players set personal bests in weightlifting over the summer.
Or ask sophomore tackle Brad Butler, who gained about 30 pounds since last season and now tips the scale at about 295. “Under E’s program, anything’s possible,” Butler said.
Marcus says his methods are not unconventional. He emphasizes the same things most strength coaches emphasize — lifting free weights, running sprints and longer distances, agility drills and common-sense nutrition.
“There are a lot of ways to get strong. I try to create an atmosphere the players want to be in,” he said. “People ask: What’s the best program? I say: The one players will do.”
Most of the Cavaliers seem willing to do whatever Marcus asks.
“He’s a players’ type of weightlifting coach,” Butler said. “He’s going to work your butt off. He’s really going to work you hard. But he likes us, cares about us and genuinely wants to help us become better players.”
“He’s brought a new attitude, a new level of intensity and a new mindset to the team,” said sophomore tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson, who has added about 10-15 pounds of muscle since last season.
Indeed, UVa coach Al Groh says, there are many players who have obvious muscle mass and tone they lacked a year ago. For that, he gives a lot of credit to Marcus, who has fit nicely into the coach’s overall program.
“He’s one of the tribe. He’s like the rest of us,” Groh said. “That was the compelling characteristic that showed in his personality before he came here.”
For 11 years, Marcus was an assistant under strength coach Rock Gullickson, whom he followed from Arizona State to Rutgers to Maryland to Texas to Louisville to New Orleans. His first job as head strength coach seems to be going well. Perhaps too well.
Told that the players claim to like him, Marcus smiled and said, “Maybe that means I’ve been too easy on them.”

Note. Sophomore tailback Wali Lundy, who was taken from the field in a cart Friday, was back at practice Saturday. He was merely suffering from cramps. “Wali’s perfect,” Groh said.

 

 

 

Tech captures its ACC dream
It took a team of heavy hitters to make it happen.
By MARK BERMAN
THE ROANOKE TIMES

Virginia Tech has been welcomed into the conference it has always dreamed of, and some major political figures are now taking bows for it.

Gov. Mark Warner, Attorney General Jerry Kilgore and U.S. Sen. George Allen all played a role as Tech lobbied for Atlantic Coast Conference inclusion, sued the conference after being snubbed and was finally brought into the ACC fold.

"This had more twists and turns," Warner said recently before a Richmond Hokie Club dinner where he and Kilgore basked in standing ovations from Tech boosters. "When it all started, I couldn't even have imagined this positive a result."

Few could have imagined how involved Virginia politicians would become - so involved that Hokies football coach Frank Beamer has credited Warner with helping to make the happy landing happen.

Driven by concerns about how Southwest Virginia and the university might be damaged if Tech were left behind in a lower-profile league, several key politicians crossed party lines and worked for the same goal. Rarely, if ever, political analyst Larry Sabato said, have senior politicians in the state spent so much "time, energy and political capital on a sports issue."

"This one became hyperpolitical. I got many a call from media across the country who were fascinated by the interplay," said Sabato, a University of Virginia professor. "Are the politicians taking too much credit? The answer is, 'Is the pope Catholic?'"

The three officeholders - the Democrat Warner and the Republicans Kilgore and Allen - said they became involved because of the importance of Tech football to regional businesses on home-game weekends.

"The economic cost had Tech not been included would have been a serious hit for Southwest Virginia," Warner said.

Kilgore said the politicians also became involved because Tech's football success helps the school with admissions and with its national profile.

The Casteen factor

When word surfaced in April that the ACC was chatting with Big East Conference member Miami and was considering adding three schools, Tech officials began lobbying for the ACC to take the Hokies along with Miami. On May 16, ACC presidents snubbed Tech and voted to hold formal talks with Miami and fellow Big East members Syracuse and Boston College. Virginia President John Casteen cast the only dissenting vote among the nine presidents.

The presidents debated in June whether to add the three schools; at least seven yes votes were required to extend offers. The presidents of Duke and North Carolina had reservations, and Casteen tied his vote to the Hokies' inclusion. On the presidents' third conference call, on June 18, Casteen proposed putting Tech back into the mix. Six days later, the presidents voted 7-2 to invite Tech and Miami to come aboard next year.

Before and after the May 16 vote, the three officeholders and state legislators asked Casteen to weigh in on Tech's side.

"It was not a hard sell," Warner said. "President Casteen ... understood how important it was that both Virginia schools get protected."

"A lot of people infer that the governor and I put pressure on Casteen," Kilgore said before the Richmond Hokie Club dinner at a Richmond hotel. "John never once said to me, 'I don't want Tech in the ACC.'"

Sabato said that while Casteen was indeed pro-Tech, he also was worried about satisfying Warner, who as governor appoints the members of the UVa Board of Visitors, and Kilgore, a potential future Republican candidate for governor.

Casteen "knew very well what the governor wanted him to do," Sabato said. "He wanted to do the right thing for UVa; that's his job. If it could please the governor and attorney general too, terrific."

Allen said that as a former Virginia ecretary of ducation, Casteen understood "the statewide picture."

"Casteen was doing the right thing the whole way out," Allen said in his Washington, D.C., office. "I don't think he had to be bludgeoned."

Pitching in

Warner talked with Casteen and other ACC presidents, the governors of other states with schools in the ACC and Miami President Donna Shalala as he lobbied for Tech's inclusion in the ACC. Warner told them that 30,000 Hokies fans showing up when the Tech football team is on the road would boost each ACC town's economy.

Tech athletic director Jim Weaver has said Warner, Kilgore and Tech President Charles Steger spent an inordinate amount of time on Tech's fate from April through June. Steger said he frequently consulted Warner about strategy.

Some UVa fans weren't happy with Warner's efforts.

"There were a number of weeks where, at least on the UVa message board, I was getting creamed on a daily basis," Warner said. "The level of the intensity of the rivalry sometimes surprised me."

Allen's outer office contains a photo of him playing quarterback for UVa, but he, too, became a Tech advocate. He said he was in constant contact with Tech during the saga.

In May, before the ACC chose Miami, Syracuse and Boston College as its expansion targets, Allen pushed for Tech's inclusion in a letter to ACC presidents and in conversations with some of those presidents. As a former UVa quarterback, Allen figured his views had credibility. But Allen found that the presidents were interested in adding Northeast media markets, not Tech.

The lawsuit

Tech and fellow Big East football schools Connecticut, West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Rutgers sued the ACC, Miami and Boston College in Connecticut Superior Court, seeking damages and an injunction to stop the defections. The lawsuit was filed in early June, four days before the ACC presidents' first conference call about whether to add Miami, Syracuse and Boston College.

"If we hadn't filed suit, the vote would've been taken, and it would have been too late," Kilgore said. "It slowed the process down. Schools like North Carolina, Duke and Virginia then sat up, listened and started looking at the end result."

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has said one of his goals with the lawsuit was to stop Miami and Boston College from defecting. Blumenthal has been the most prominent political figure in the saga, carrying the legal and public relations load for the plaintiffs.

Kilgore, however, said he saw the lawsuit as not only a way to stop expansion but also as a "bargaining chip" to revive Tech's ACC hopes.

"The end result worked. We filed the suit to get Virginia Tech in the ACC," Kilgore said. "I didn't think the act of filing suit doomed Tech from that point on from never being considered for the ACC. I still had hope. Virginia and Carolina and Duke, you could already see they were hiccupping anyway."

Kilgore said he talked with Steger even before Tech became a plaintiff, discussing what potential action could be taken to stop ACC expansion. At Steger's request, Kilgore signed off on Tech's becoming a plaintiff.

Kilgore's name was not on the lawsuit when it was filed. Two members of Kilgore's office who work at Tech - Tech's general counsel and assistant general counsel - were listed. Kilgore said his name was left off "in the haste" of filing the lawsuit. Kilgore said that when he added his name to later motions, it was not to ratchet up the pressure on Casteen but simply to conform with what his Connecticut and West Virginia peers had already done.

The ACC announced its invitations to Tech and Miami on June 25, prompting Tech to withdraw from the lawsuit later that day.

Changing course

Like Tech itself, Allen and Warner reversed course after Tech was rejected in May by the ACC. Warner went from pitching Tech as an ACC candidate to calling in June for Big East-ACC mediation as a way to halt expansion.

Allen and U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., joined the U.S. senators from Connecticut, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New Jersey in signing a May 23 letter to the presidents of Miami, Syracuse and Boston College, imploring them to stay in the Big East. The letter noted that women's sports could be hurt if Tech and the others had less football revenue to rely upon.

Allen said they wrote the three presidents in an attempt to "shame them into doing what's right." He said that for the sake of Tech's other sports, he wanted to make sure Tech football remained financially sound and in a Bowl Championship Series conference.

"My goal from the very start of this was for Tech to be in the ACC. When it looked like it wasn't, then you band together with folks I rarely band together with," said Allen, referring to the Democratic senators who signed the letter.

Courting voters?

Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said Warner and Kilgore deserve more credit than he and his fellow state legislators do.

"The attorney general and the governor were the big guns," said Griffith, the House majority leader. "They brought together public opinion and showed it was a little bit more than a football issue."

Sabato said Warner, who might run for Allen's seat in 2006, and Kilgore were seeking to attract voters for future campaigns.

"Warner was looking to a rural constituency, and Virginia Tech supporters ... are disproportionately concentrated in the western, rural half of Virginia," Sabato said. "He strengthened his tenuous hold on rural voters.

"Kilgore's base is Southwest Virginia, which is Hokie territory."

And next year, the ACC will be Hokie territory, too.

"It was not the most glamorous, pretty play," Allen said. "But through it all, it achieved the score."

 

 

 

'HOO
wants the
Heisman
By Dave Johnson
Daily Press
Published August 10, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Not long after Virginia dismantled West Virginia in the Continental Tire Bowl last December, the Cavaliers' media relations office sought head coach Al Groh's blessing to begin hyping quarterback Matt Schaub for the 2003 Heisman Trophy. Groh's response: Go for it.

So on July 17, Schaub4Heisman.com was launched. With a click of the mouse, you can read Schaub's biography, check his stats, ask him questions, even view baby pictures courtesy of Mom. The cover of U.Va.'s media guide features Schaub in a tuxedo, looking a little like James Bond, with the words "Heisman Trophy Candidate" above his name.

Phase One is now complete. Phase Two, assuming he's still in the picture, will begin in October.

"We're just putting out the call to say, yes, he's a candidate," said Cathy Bongiovi Stewart, an assistant director of media relations who heads an eight-member committee to spread the word. "Obviously, people in the state of Virginia know, and obviously people in the ACC know. But they don't know it nationally."

At least, not yet. Schaub was your Cinderella Story in 2002 - booed and demoted after the opener; named ACC Player of the Year three months later after a record-setting junior season. He goes into his senior year considered one of the seven or eight best quarterbacks in the country, right up there with N.C. State's Philip Rivers, Washington's Cody Pickett and Mississippi's Eli Manning.

Sure, Schaub is a longshot. But, really, who isn't in August? Southern Cal quarterback Carson Palmer, last year's winner, wasn't on anybody's radar screen 12 months ago. Few outside of the state of Iowa had heard of Brad Banks, who became last year's runner-up.

In fact, in its preseason issue last year, The Sporting News listed 16 candidates for the Heisman. None of the eventual top-four vote getters - Palmer, Banks, Penn State's Larry Johnson and Miami's Willis McGahee - were included. Nor were they among oddsmaker Danny Sheridan's 12 preseason favorites.

This preseason, Schaub isn't even considered the best candidate in his state or conference. Virginia Tech tailback Kevin Jones is listed in just about every publication as a top-10 hopeful. So is Rivers, though Schaub beat him out for ACC Player of the Year and first-team quarterback last year.

Tech isn't planning anything special for Jones. Bryan Johnston, an assistant sports information director, said the school will introduce a Web site (allstars.hokiesports.com) to promote 11 players who are considered candidates for national awards. Each will have his own page, and Jones will be among them.

"If Kevin or DeAngelo (Hall) is having a season worthy of starting a Heisman campaign," Johnston said, "we'll go from there."

N.C. State began PhilipRivers.com on Aug. 4, but Annabelle Vaughan, NCSU's media relations director, said the school isn't planning a promotional campaign. "Right now, he's on almost everyone's watch list," she said, "so I think I've simply got to keep the information flowing."

For Virginia, this level of hype has been close to a foreign concept. The last player to be featured solo on the media guide's cover was Shawn Moore, who went into the 1990 season as one of the top returning quarterbacks in the nation. As the Cavaliers reached No. 1 in the polls, U.Va. stepped up its effort with postcards and video highlights. Moore finished fourth.

In 1992, Virginia produced a poster featuring seniors Chris Slade and Terry Kirby with the theme "Thunder and Lightning." When other players expressed resentment, Welsh instructed the media relations office to focus more on the team concept. Virginia did send out orange highlighter pens to promote tailback Tiki Barber in 1996. But in '99, it did embarrassingly little to hype Thomas Jones, who had led the ACC in rushing the previous year.

Bongiovi Stewart said Schaub4Heisman.com is averaging roughly 1,500 hits a day. If the first half of this season goes well - it's not inconceivable that Virginia could be 6-0 going into the Florida State game on Oct. 18 - the Cavs will begin the second phase. That would include what Bongiovi Stewart called a "souvenir giveaway" along with "additional media blitzes."

She wouldn't say what the souvenir item might be, but Schaub has ruled out the idea of a bobble-head doll - Marshall's campaign last year with quarterback Byron Leftwich.

"In May, we surveyed schools that previously had candidates, because a lot has changed since Shawn Moore's year," Bongiovi Stewart said. "We wanted to know what worked (and) what didn't work. And all the successful campaigns had made their big pushes in October because by then, you know how the player was performing."

Bongiovi Stewart called the campaign's budget "significant," but neither she nor other U.Va. officials would disclose the exact figure. Rich Murray, the director of media relations, said it was "comparable" to the budget for Moore's promotion in '90.

As for all the attention, Schaub has enjoyed it - to a point.

"It was fun during the offseason, but now it's time to play and get down to business," he said as practice got underway Wednesday afternoon. "It's been fun. You only get to go through it one time in your life, so you want to enjoy it. Now it's time to go out and play football."
 

 

 

Douglas ready to run
By BRYAN STRICKLAND : The Herald-Sun
bstrickland@heraldsun.com
Aug 9, 2003 : 10:47 pm ET

DURHAM -- Any mathematician will tell you that it's impossible for an athlete to be more than 100-percent healthy.

But a computer-science student at Duke -- a student who also happens to be an athlete -- will tell you otherwise.

Chris Douglas, a speedy running back significantly slowed by a high-ankle sprain last season, proclaimed Friday that he had completely recovered from the injury. In fact, Douglas said he was even better than before.

"As far I'm concerned, I think my health is right at 100 percent -- maybe even a little better," Douglas said. "We've been working real hard in the off-season, getting in the weight room and getting our muscles and tendons strong to try to prevent injury in fall and at the same time rehabbing old injuries.

"I think right now we're probably the healthiest we've ever been and in the best shape we've ever been."

Douglas, a senior out of Bandys High School, set a school record with 1,849 all-purpose yards as a sophomore and had hoped for more of the same last season. But Douglas never was the same after injuring his left ankle in the second game of 2002.

He only missed one game -- sitting out the Florida State game to try to recover -- but his playing time and his effectiveness were limited. Douglas' nagging injury, combined with the breakout season enjoyed by his former roommate, Alex Wade, added up to an 830-yard drop in all-purpose yards.

Those numbers hurt doubly when combined with these numbers: Duke went 2-10 and lost five games by five or fewer points.

"It is behind me, but it was frustrating," Douglas said. "Just to see my team come so close in so many games and not being able to put in the 100-percent effort that I know I'm capable of -- I feel like I could have made a difference in those games that were close.

"But Alex Wade did a great job last year running the ball, and the line stepped up and blocked their hind ends off. A lot of people stepped up."

Now, the Blue Devils are counting on Douglas to play well and help turn those close losses into victories. Despite dropping down to 640 yards rushing last season -- 300 yards short of his sophomore numbers -- Douglas enters the season as the ACC's active leader in career rushing yards at 1,984.

"He has a bunch of speed, and now he gives us a bunch of experience," Duke coach Carl Franks said. "He's a guy who has been playing a long time and has had a bunch of different things happen to him on the field. He knows what to expect. He gives us the ability to hit the big run, to hit the big play.

"He didn't have the year that he's capable of having, but if he can stay healthy, he's got a chance to have a big year along with Alex. It would be a heck of a tandem."

Wade, a bruising back, ranks fourth among active ACC players in career rushing yards on the strength of 979 yards last season. The Blue Devils will spend much of preseason practice leading up to the Aug. 30 opener at Virginia hashing out how to best use Douglas and Wade in unison.

Douglas isn't worried.

"It's not a concern at all because we're expecting to both have big years this year," Douglas said. "It would be a great thing if we could both hit 1,000 yards this season.

"There hasn't been a thousand-yard back here in a few years, but if we could have two thousand-yard rushers, that would really carry this team a long way."

Duke hasn't had a 1,000-yard back since Robert Baldwin in 1994. If Wade reaches 1,000 yards, he'd crack the top five on Duke's career list. If Douglas reaches 1,000 yards, he'd become Duke's all-time leading rusher and would likely become the ACC's all-time leader in all-purpose yards: He trails former UNC running back Leon Johnson by 1,518 yards.

But while those records would be nice, Douglas is more concerned with Duke's win-loss record. Of that, Douglas is 100 percent certain -- at least.

"This is the best team we've had in a very long time," Douglas said. "We're very close as a team and we're very dedicated to each other.

"As far as I'm concerned, my goal for this team is to win every game. But definitely one of our big goals is to take this team back to a bowl game, and we definitely feel like this is the year to do it."


 

 

Talented linebackers join Cavs class
Brooks, Parham could be best of Virginia's accomplished '02 class
GREGG DOYEL
Raleigh Bureau

An epic freshman class turned Virginia, predicted to finish eighth in the ACC last season, into a nine-victory team that blasted Maryland 48-13 before routing West Virginia 48-22 in the inaugural Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte.

Fourteen true freshmen played last season for the Cavaliers, nearly twice as many as any other team in the ACC. They included tailback Wali Lundy, who ran for 826 yards and tied an ACC freshman record with 58 receptions. They included linebacker Darryl Blackstock, who set an ACC freshman record with 10 sacks. They included starting left tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson, punter Tom Hagan and kicker Connor Hughes.

They were good, but get this: The best of that recruiting class hasn't been seen yet.

Linebackers Ahmad Brooks and Kai Parham were the highest-rated players in Virginia's 2002 recruiting class, but neither was able to play last season. Brooks did not qualify, and Parham missed the season with a stress fracture in his lower back.

Both were on the field this past spring, Brooks after enrolling in January and Parham after being medically approved to compete in drills.

Coach Al Groh said his linebackers now have the look he's been seeking.

"Size- and speed-wise," Groh said of his linebacker corps, "they're finally starting to look like what they're supposed to look like."

Not that Virginia's linebackers were all that shabby last season.

Angelo Crowell and Merrill Robertson combined for 277 tackles, and while both are gone, Blackstock is not. Blackstock, who was honored by several sites as the national freshman defensive player of the year, could be flanked this season by the two more heralded linebackers in the 2002 recruiting class, Parham and Brooks.

If so, that trio will know exactly what Groh wants from them.

"If we want to be a championship team, we'll have to stop the run better than we have the past two seasons," Groh said.

Enter Brooks, an enormous college linebacker at 6-foot-4, 249 pounds. He was the USA Today national defensive player of the year in 2001 out of Woodbridge, Va., where he recorded 207 tackles as a senior.

Virginia fans are wondering about this: If Blackstock, supposedly a lesser player than Brooks, could dominate as he did last season, how good will Brooks be with a spring practice under his belt?

Virginia players are wondering the same thing.

"Coming in for the spring, getting that extra understanding, he's ahead of the game," said senior cornerback Almondo Curry. "He's a great player -- fast, strong, great football instincts. He's athletic.

"He's a football player."

According to recruiting analysts, Groh has done almost as well as any coach in the country in terms of signing such players.

Last year's recruiting class was rated among the top 10 in the country, and Groh's 2003 version was from a similar vein.

"We had gotten a terrific class last year, and I said if we got one more like it, we'd be really good," Groh said. "And if we got two more, we'd be as good as anybody.

"We're on track with that."