Groh, Cavaliers focused on Wyoming
UVa coaching staff has been studying film of season-opening opponent for months
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
August 3, 2007

For weeks, Virginia football fans have openly debated the most important game on the upcoming schedule.

Many, for obvious reasons, have predicted the final regular season contest, a home date with rival Virginia Tech. That argument has merit given the one-sided head-to-head results of late and the Cavaliers’ recent losses in recruiting battles for in-state talent.

Others have pointed at ACC road games with North Carolina, North Carolina State, Maryland or Miami. The reasoning could include the Cavaliers’ dire record in league games away from Scott Stadium - UVa has lost eight of its last nine ACC road games (the lone win was at Duke last year).

Some, also needing no argument, point clearly towards the season opener at Wyoming, a game that could answer questions, deliver new ones or develop both.

Al Groh agrees that Wyoming, which went 6-6 last year, classifies as the most pivotal game - for now.

Virginia’s coach, staying true to cliché form, always points at the next game, regardless of the elements, foe or venue.

“It is the first one we play so right now it is the hugest one we play,” Groh said last week. “After we play that one the next one will be the hugest one. I know the staff feels that way and I certainly think most of the players do, and if they don’t then they better figure it out in a hurry.

“College football right now has become such, as we see from a number of different results every week, that if you are not on your game every week then you are in trouble.”

As has been the case with past openers, Groh said the coaching staff has studied film on Wyoming for months. Changes that are made to the generic game plan for the opener will be done in regards to the performances, good or bad, that are witnessed during Virginia’s training camp, which opens on Monday.

“When it is the opener in college football there are no preseason games to look at or anything,” said Groh, who is 3-3 in season openers at UVa. “We have all the information that we are ever going to have. Certainly teams change things from the end of one season to the next, but they are changes that we are not usually privy to, nor is the other team privy to any changes that we are going to make.

“It has usually been our procedure to have that first plan pretty closely made and then adjust it to what our players’ skills show themselves to be during training camp.”

Given the change that Virginia and Wyoming made at quarterback during the 2006 season, both programs likely focus more so on late-season contests. Neither of the replacements saw action in the Cavaliers’ 14-13 victory over Wyoming last year.

For UVa, Jameel Sewell started the final nine games, compiling a 4-5 record.

Karsteen Sween, who like Sewell was a redshirt freshman, led the Cowboys to a 5-2 mark after replacing Jacob Doss. Sween passed for 1,073 yards, seven touchdowns and seven interceptions as the starter.

“As far as any concrete information that we are going to have on [Wyoming] - we are not going to exchange scrimmage tapes or anything - we have the tapes that we are going to have,” Groh said.

Cavs remain unranked

UVa will start the 2007 season the same way it finished the ‘06 and ‘05 campaigns: unranked in the USA Today Coaches’ poll.

The Cavaliers have company. When the poll was released Friday, it included only two teams from the ACC - Virginia Tech was at No. 9 and Florida State was No. 21).

While Virginia was blanked, six ACC teams received at least one vote on the 60 ballots turned in by head coaches at the Division I-A level.

Boston College and Georgia Tech, essentially tying for the 26th spot in the poll behind No. 25 Texas A&M, received 150 points each, which was 59 points shy of being ranked.

Other ACC teams receiving votes included Miami (91 votes), defending ACC champ Wake Forest (71), Clemson (30) and Duke (1). The Blue Devils lone vote was cast by South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, who said he cast the vote because Duke offered him employment on two occasions when he did not have a job.

Virginia has not been ranked since Oct. 16, 2005, a stat that includes the AP poll, but will have its chances to directly sway the voters.

In seven games this year, including the season opener against Wyoming and coach Joe Glenn, the Cavaliers will face a head coach on the voting panel. The others include the following: Frank Beamer (Virginia Tech), Butch Davis (North Carolina), Randy Edsall (Connecticut), Jim Grobe (Wake Forest), Tom O’Brien (N.C. State) and Rick Stockstill (Middle Tennessee State).
 

Leitao may have a new aide hired
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com | 978-7251
August 1, 2007

Scattershooting around the ACC, while awaiting confirmation on whether Virginia has hired former NBA player Rick Brunson as an assistant coach ...
Rumors are flying that the nine-year NBA veteran will replace Rob Lanier on UVa coach Dave Leitao’s staff. However, there’s no official comment coming out of the Cavaliers’ basketball office.
One source insisted that it’s true that Brunson, a Temple graduate, will join the staff. Another source said he didn’t believe the report.
It is interesting to note that Brunson was one of the lead counselors at the NBA Top 100 Camp at John Paul Jones Arena earlier this summer. The former pro worked last season as the player development coach for the Denver Nuggets and would be an asset to any staff as a recruiter and to help develop guard play.
Stay tuned ...

Overheard
The annual ACC Football Kickoff, held last month at Pinehurst resort in North Carolina is a great place to pick up gossip and other nuggets of information.
While the league is preparing to receive bids on a host site for its football championship game (which will be hosted in Jacksonville, Fla., for the third straight year this December), a lot of the coaches would just as soon as have it in Charlotte, N.C., but under one condition.
“Dome the stadium in Charlotte and hold it there,” said appropriately named Duke coach Ted Roof.
Seemed to be a popular opinion because the only factor that has been holding back a move to Charlotte, or so it seems, is a possible weather problem in early December. Don’t expect Jacksonville to let the game get away without a strong fight.

Big games
ESPN’s GameDay will visit Blacksburg on Sept. 1 for the Hokies’ emotional home opener against East Carolina. ... The Atlanta Sports Council, headed by president Gary Stokan, is about to announce a deal that would bring Florida State to the Georgia Dome for a non-conference game in 2008. It should be noted here that FSU will meet Alabama this season in Jacksonville. Stokan is also negotiating with Duke to play its 2010 game with Alabama in the Georgia Dome.

No-text zone
Clemson coach Tommy Bowden said that he will do cartwheels when the NCAA no-text rule goes into effect.
“I have to text,” he said at the Kickoff. “I texted last night, I’ve texted since I’ve been here, and I’ll text when I get home tonight,” Bowden said of the text-messaging that became so popular in recruiting prospects.
The NCAA is cutting out the process and not a moment too soon for Bowden.
“Three months ago, they all answered their texts,” the Tigers coach said of prospects. “Now, none of them do. I haven’t gotten a reply on a text yet. All I got to do is hit a button and I’ve got nine coaches texting the same guy. So does every school that’s after the kid, which means a kid is getting 50 or 60 texts a day.”
Howie Long, whose son Kyle was rated the No. 1 football prospect in Virginia prior to his committing to play baseball at Florida State, told this columnist that his son was getting close to 200 text messages on weekends from recruiters.
It was amusing that Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said he didn’t know how to text or do anything on a computer. Then again, he doesn’t have to.
“When you’re the winningest coach in the history of college football and you walk into a school or into a home, it’s pretty impressive,” said son Tommy Bowden. “He overcomes the lack of technology with his accomplishments.”

Short yardage
Good news for Wahoo basketball fans. John Brandenburg, a 6-foot-11 center from St. Louis, has narrowed his college choices to Virginia and Stanford. The four-star prospect, who is expected to announce his final decision in September, will visit UVa on the weekend of the Cavaliers’ first home football game against Duke. ... Smithfield running back Dyrell Roberts, who will likely play wide receiver in college, committed to Virginia Tech this week, choosing the Hokies over Virginia and Penn State. He is Tech’s 16th commit. ... Congratulations are in order to our pal Warren Swain, former “Voice of the Cavaliers” football and men’s basketball program. Swain has been named the new play-by-play man for Ohio University, where he will be reunited with former Nebraska head coach Frank Solich. Swain left Virginia to become the Cornhuskers’ play-by-play guy on its giant radio network and felt a comfort level with Solich. Interestingly enough, Swain will return to the state of Virginia early this season when Ohio’s Bobcats visit Lane Stadium to take on Virginia Tech.
 

U.VA. NOTES
Friday, Jul 27, 2007 - 12:06 AM Updated: 12:56 AM

Basketball team eyes big man from St. Louis
With Benedictine High's Ed Davis having committed to play basketball at North Carolina, John Brandenburg, another touted big man, has become even more important to Virginia.

Brandenburg is a 6-10, 235-pound rising senior at DeSmet Jesuit High in St. Louis. His father said yesterday that Brandenburg plans to take an official visit to U.Va. the weekend after Labor Day.

"I think the two schools he's most interested in now would be Virginia and Stanford," said Jim Brandenburg.

Other schools, including UNC and Kentucky, have contacted John Brandenburg recently, his father said, "but I don't think he's interested."

Two-time defending NCAA champion Florida also may be making a late push for Brandenburg, who has an unofficial visit to Stanford planned for next month.

Brandenburg, an outstanding student, attended the NBA Players Association Top 100 camp at U.Va. last month. He and his father toured the university after the camp ended.

"I think John is well aware of Virginia's academic excellence," Jim Brandenburg said.

Another big man with impressive academic credentials is 6-10 Frank Ben-Eze, a rising senior at Bishop O'Connell High in Arlington. U.Va. has intensified its pursuit of Ben-Eze this month. Like Virginia players Tunji Soroye and Solomon Tat, Ben-Eze is from Nigeria.

Update McCue Center will be first class
The $3 million face-lift of the McCue Center is expected to be complete by the start of football season.

The building's second floor will include a football hall of fame area. On the first floor will be areas recognizing U.Va. players and teams.

"We collectively thought that it was really necessary to do a much upgraded presentation of people who've led Virginia football as players and what they've accomplished and what teams have," football coach Al Groh said recently. "Tradition is a very important part of any organization, and we needed something on a much more expansive basis than [what was previously at the McCue]."

Most important, however, are the improvements to the locker room and training room, Groh said.

"Between what we have [at Scott Stadium] and the improvements that we made last year [on the practice fields] with the FieldTurf, and now what's being done with [the McCue Center]," Groh said, "we're now, I would say, up to scale with everything that's needed. Whether it's as big or bigger or not as big or whatever as someplace else, it's everything that's needed to run a top-flight organization."

Groh No.1 in at least one ranking
In six seasons as coach at his alma mater, Groh has compiled a 42-33 record. The Cavaliers have advanced to four bowl games, winning three, and are 25-23 in ACC play.

That doesn't impress SI.com columnist Stewart Mandel, who recently picked Groh as the nation's worst coach. That distinction in Mandel's annual rankings went to Georgia Tech's Chan Gailey in 2005 and N.C. State's Chuck Amato last season.

"I don't have a lot of comment on it," Groh said about Mandel's ranking. "I take my perspective from my players and my peers and my colleagues, whether it's in terms of a pat on the back or constructive criticism."

Rounding out Mandel's bottom five this year are Texas A&M's Dennis Franchione at No.2, Clemson's Tommy Bowden at No.3, Washington State's Bill Doba at No.4 and UCLA's Karl Dorrell, whose team upset Southern California last year, at No.5.

Scholarship honors Cavs' associate AD
The Virginia Sports Information Directors Association has named a scholarship for Rich Murray, U.Va.'s associate athletic director for public affairs. The assocation annually will present the Rich Murray Scholarship for Sports Journalism, worth $500, to a high school student in Virginia.

Murray, a Washington and Lee graduate, is in his 24th year at Virginia. Before coming to U.Va., he was sports information director at James Madison University. -- Jeff White

 

Hokies' Hyman has date in court
Senior wide receiver charged in June with credit card fraud
Saturday, Aug 04, 2007 - 12:07 AM
By DARRYL SLATER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

BLACKSBURG -- Virginia Tech senior wide receiver Josh Hyman was arrested in June on a charge of credit card fraud of less than $200 and is scheduled to appear Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in Montgomery County General District Court in Blacksburg.

According to a criminal complaint filed June 23 by Laurie Lee Brogdon, Hyman, 24, used her debit card without permission to make a $49.99 purchase. Brogdon, who is Hyman's former girlfriend, noticed the charge on June 11.

"Big soap opera," Hyman said yesterday. "It's nothing to be worried about. I'm not focused on that. . . . She's trying to just get me in trouble. I never used her card at all."

In April, Hyman pled no contest to driving under the influence. After Hyman's arrest last October on a charge of DUI, Tech coach Frank Beamer suspended him for the Hokies' game at Boston College.

As a part of his no-contest plea, Hyman was given 350 hours of community service and had his driver's license suspended for a year. If he keeps a clean record, the charge will be dismissed in April.

The credit card fraud charge is a Class 1 misdemeanor, the most severe kind. Class 1 misdemeanors carry a penalty of up to 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine.

"I can tell you that we're confidence that Josh will be vindicated at trial," said David Sullivan, Hyman's Norfolk-based attorney, who declined to discuss details of the case.

Hyman, of Chesapeake, was slotted as backup to senior Eddie Royal when the Hokies opened practice Thursday. Hyman had 16 catches last season for 111 yards.

"I think that's one where you just wait and hear the end result," Beamer said of Hyman's fraud charge.