Glaspy goes from walk-on to leader
By Chip Knighton
Published: August 12, 2008

Coming out of high school in New Jersey in 2004, Byron Glaspy expected to get a shot at BCS football. He had no way of knowing just how far he’d come.

Having gone from an open-tryout cut in 2004 to a starting safety position just over a year later, the senior is now one of the most experienced players on Virginia coach Al Groh’s defense.

“I’ve been around here so long,” he said. “I know what coach Groh is trying to do with the defensive scheme that he’s putting in. To help the young guys develop and understand is one of my roles this year.”

Two juniors and a sophomore are expected to join Glaspy in the UVa secondary this season. He made a meteoric rise of his own during his days as an underclassman, joining the starting lineup one week after getting his first playing time against Temple in 2005. He hasn’t left the field since, missing just one start as a sophomore in 2006.

“When I was first thrown out there, I felt a little bit over my head,” he said. “The game was a little bit fast to me. Coming back to everything, settling down and getting into a rhythm is when I started getting comfortable out there.”

Since then, Glaspy has become one of the Cavaliers’ most dependable veterans, drawing raves from coaches and scouts alike for his smart play.

“Byron’s one of those players that this game makes perfect sense to,” Groh said. “That’s a talent that separates certain players. If everybody had it, this coaching thing would be a lot easier.”

Glaspy has had to rely on that savvy to make the transitions between three defensive coordinators during his UVa career. He played under Al Golden, now the head coach at Temple, as a freshman before spending the next two seasons learning from current University of Richmond coach Mike London.

Now his mentor is another guy who came back to football after a short hiatus. Former Marshall coach Bob Pruett, who won a national Division I-AA championship with the Thundering Herd, is in his first season as UVa’s defensive coordinator.

Pruett is working strictly with the safeties. Steve Bernstein, the program’s defensive backs coach, is focusing on cornerback play. Bernstein has known Pruett since the 1970s.

“It makes it a lot easier for the kids,” Bernstein said. “We can give a lot more individual attention, so it is really a good thing.”

“I feel that I’ve learned so much from him this past off-season,” Glaspy said of Pruett’s expertise. “His knowledge is overwhelming — just little, simple things that he can teach you that can help you a lot.”

Those simple things will help Glaspy and secondary-mates Ras-I Dowling, Vic Hall and Brandon Woods as the Cavs replace their entire defensive line. Glaspy thinks his crew is ready to pick up the slack.

“I think we can have one of the best secondaries that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of talent — a lot of young guys coming up now that can really contribute this year. We’re excited about what we can do out there.”

 

Dowling lets his play do the talking
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: August 12, 2008

Don’t expect any long-winded conversations with Virginia starting cornerback Ras-I Dowling. If a question can be answered in 20 words, Ras-I can do it in 10.

“I let my game do my talking,” Dowling said proudly.

Enough said.

If that is the case, then his game offered up a lot of smack last season when the Chesapeake native was one of only five true freshmen to play for the Wahoos. His two interceptions tied for the team lead and his nine pass break ups (PBUs) led the defense as he played in 12 games.

With those kinds of numbers, Dowling became the first true freshman to win the team interceptions competition since Jerton Evans back in ‘99, and the five PBUs against N.C. State tied a school record for most in a game.

Now, what does he do for an encore?

Setting the bar high

“He had a good break-in season for a rookie ... very promising,” Virginia coach Al Groh said of the sophomore. “Ras-I is fun to work with because he’s a very humble player. He takes coaching very well and makes adjustments to his game.

“Because of that fact, he can clearly see where the bar is. He may have set the bar high for a first time player, but the bar for a big-timer corner is a lot higher than what he set it at last year,” Groh said. “But, he has ambitions to do that.”

The question is, what does Dowling have to do in order to take his game to that level Groh referenced?

“Development is an easy answer, just for him to see more plays,” Groh said. “The more he sees, not only will he develop his skills but his confidence.”

But there’s much more than that and the coach sort of struggled to put it in printable language for a family newspaper.

“There’s got to be a little bravado that goes with playing corner,” Groh chuckled. “A player’s got to have some snickers.”

Selective memory

Dowling, who played at talent-rich Deep Creek High before a prep year at Hargrave Military Academy, wasn’t quite sure what his coach was talking about, but acknowledged that playing corner isn’t an easy assignment.

“Corner is one of the toughest positions out there,” Dowling said. “If you get burned, you have to go out there and forget about it. You have to go out and make plays.”

He’s part of a secondary with a fair amount of experience with himself, Vic Hall and Mike Parker at the corners, while Byron Glaspy and Brandon Woods return at safety. There’s some talented backups at both positions: redshirt freshmen Chase Minnifield and Dom Joseph at the corners, with Matt Leemhuis, Trey Womack, and Rico Bell at safety.

Groh feels pretty confident in his secondary, which is sure to get a test with Southern Cal comes to town for the opener on Aug. 30. The Trojans boast talent galore and are not afraid to throw the ball deep.

“That’s a good team to open with,” Dowling said. “They have a reputation of being good every year. I have looked at everybody on their team and they’re pretty solid. But it’s just football.”

Maybe it’s because he’s only a sophomore, but if Dowling was intimidated in any way, shape, or form by USC, he wasn’t showing it.

He was neither impressed or surprised by last year’s deeds when he was named an ACC All-Freshman team member by the Sporting News and by winning the Dudley Award, which goes to the Cavs’ most outstanding freshman. His 44 tackles (3.7 per game) ranked eighth among all ACC rookies and fourth among true freshmen.

Dowling showed dogged determination on the kickoff team when he blew away the rest of his teammates by recording 16 tackles, one of the most accurate gauges of how aggressive a player can be.

While he may have appeared to be under control at all times last season, it didn’t come that easy. Playing in front of 60,000 fans was quite a transition from high school and military school.

“The biggest challenge for me last year was to be calm and controlled out there,” Dowling said. “I had never played in front of that many people. But you just learn to zone that out.”

Mostly what he took away last year other than the confidence that he could be successful at that level of football was how to deal with shortcomings.

“I didn’t really have any doubts that I could play,” Dowling said. “I learned to play hard and fast. You’re going to make mistakes. When you get down on yourself, you have to have that short memory and just keep playing hard and never give up. I’m going to make mistakes. I’m not perfect. You just have to shake it off and keep going.”

The short memory he mentioned helped him bounce back and make interceptions in back-to-back games, the first time a UVa corner had accomplished that feat in quite some time. In fact, his pick against the Wolfpack was the first interception by a Cavalier corner last season. He also stole one from Wake Forest the following week.

A hard hitter, Dowling caused two fumbles last season while being in on 424 plays, building an impressive resume for a true freshman. He was one of the components of a defense that finished fifth in the nation in rushing touchdowns allowed with only nine (second-lowest in the ACC).

All Dowling has to do now, is make sure that he picks up his game where it left off with seven tackles against Texas Tech in the Gator Bowl. He’ll get plenty of chances to make plays against Southern Cal.

That’s when Dowling can show Groh just how much snickers he really has.
 

Virginia's picture shows better receiving
Wealth in wideouts eases task for offensive assistant Lineburg
Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008 - 12:07 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE He left the University of Richmond in March 2007 and headed west on I-64, the freshly hired wide receivers coach at the University of Virginia.

Wayne Lineburg had no idea what challenges awaited him at his alma mater.

Later that month, Lineburg saw his most talented pupil, Kevin Ogletree, go down in spring practice with a season-ending knee injury. Then, when the Cavaliers' recruits reported last summer, the medical staff diagnosed wideout Kris Burd with a back injury that required season-ending injury.

Lineburg's hard luck continued when the season started. An experiment that had shifted Mikell Simpson from tailback to receiver failed to produce the desired results. Finally, Maurice Covington, who in Ogletree's absence was considered the team's No. 1 receiver, suffered a hand injury in Virginia's third game.

Covington missed the next four games, which meant that for a chunk of last season Lineburg's top receivers were true freshman Dontrelle Inman, converted cornerback Chris Gorham and walk-ons Staton Jobe and Cary Koch, who have since been put on scholarship.

"So he was starting new, they were starting new, his inventory was down," U.Va. coach Al Groh said. "But it certainly indoctrinated Wayne in his position quickly into the next-man-up concept."

Covington said: "You're a new coach, and you're coming in there having to start walk-ons and a freshman receiver. That's a big challenge, but I think he did real well with it."

Lineburg, a 1996 graduate of U.Va., played quarterback there when George Welsh was coach. He downplays the adversity he faced in 2007.

"I had a good, hard-working group of guys that really stepped up," said Lineburg, whose father, Norman, had a legendary career as Radford High's football coach.

Statistically, though, the receivers' contributions were modest. Only Covington caught more than 20 passes in 2007. Lineburg probably will be disappointed if at least four of his wideouts don't surpass that total this season.

"To compare this year to last year, it's like night and day as far as my comfort level with what we're doing and also with the players," Lineburg said. "We've got a much more experienced group of kids that have kind of been around now for a while. The guys like Staton Jobe and Dontrelle Inman played 13 games last year. Cary Koch got to play a lot of snaps. We have guys who from game experience are that much better. . . . It's an experienced group with some guys who can do some things with the ball."

Counting true freshman Javaris Brown, Lineburg has eight scholarship wideouts with whom to work this season, plus walk-ons such as Zach Mendez-Zfass (Collegiate) and Matt Snyder (Deep Run).

The jewel of the group is Ogletree, who caught 52 passes and received all-ACC honorable mention as a sophomore in 2006. Healthy again, he's "a big-time receiver," Covington said of No. 20.

Lineburg said: "Kevin's a very, very talented kid. He's very good with the ball in his hands, he's running good routes, he's working hard, and we're expecting a lot of nice things out of him this year."

Even better for Virginia, Ogletree's presence should create more opportunities for the other wideouts, especially Covington and Inman. No wonder Lineburg's spirits are high.

"He's walking around smiling a lot more," Groh said, only part in jest. "We don't see as many frowns on his face."

 

State QB races hard to predict
David Teel
August 13, 2008

The chalk bet is a pair of 7s. Northern Virginia 7s at that. Similar frames, styles and pedigrees. One glib, one reticent.

Yes, absent the unexpected this preseason, Sean Glennon and Peter Lalich figure to earn the starting quarterback jobs at Virginia Tech and Virginia, respectively.

But the chalk isn't as secure as it might or should be, and come the season openers, anticipate at least one wild card.

Here's why:

Glennon, the most tenured quarterback in either camp, faces stern competition at Tech from Tyrod Taylor. Moreover, Hokies coaches seem more comfortable scheming for a mobile quarterback like Taylor.

Lalich, the most acclaimed passer to sign with Virginia in memory, should tower over his challengers. But questions about his maturity loom, and no position demands reliability more than quarterback.

The peculiar nature of the Cavaliers' search emerged Sunday at the team's media day, where Lalich, Scott Deke and Marc Verica refused to answer questions. "We'll talk when we've done something on the field" was the theme of a statement Deke read into a television camera.

Whatever.

Whether hatched by the players or suggested/mandated by coach Al Groh, the blackout bordered on juvenile.

Really, what's the harm in yapping with reporters? For better or worse, fans and media hunger for quarterback news, so why not toss out a few bread crumbs?

Unless the real purpose was to shield the media-shy Lalich, who recently was cited for underage alcohol possession.

If that was the case, Lalich should take a cue from teammate Will Barker. A returning starter at offensive tackle, Barker survived his fourth-estate encounter, despite prying questions about his recent arrest for stealing beer at a Charlottesville club.

Inquiries are much more unpleasant after bad throws and bad games. But that's part of the job, and if Lalich plans on ducking out every time adversity strikes, he's not going to become a first-rate quarterback.

A 6-foot-5 pro-style passer from West Springfield High, Lalich is blessed with more tools than Deke or Verica. But he needs to learn that commitment and discipline are as important as a sweet spiral.

If Lalich grows up, the Cavaliers' offense could be one of the ACC's most diverse and productive, a marked upgrade from 2007. Mikell Simpson and Cedric Peerman form the conference's second-best tailback tandem, behind Clemson's James Davis and C.J. Spiller, while receiver Kevin Ogletree brings playmaker skills to the perimeter.

Like Lalich, Glennon wears No. 7 and hails from suburban D.C. (Westfield High). He's a 6-4 pocket passer and last season won MVP honors at the ACC championship game.

At most schools, a fifth-year senior with 22 career starts would be a lock to remain first-string. But Taylor is not most sophomores.

He is uncommonly poised for his age and showed flashes of potential last season after Glennon was benched in Week 2. Perhaps most important, his skills mirror those of Tech's recent all-star quarterbacks: Bryan Randall and the Vick brothers.

During the spring, Hokies offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring traveled to West Virginia, where he huddled with Mountaineers coaches about their spread offense. Now before envisioning Taylor as Pat White and Kenny Lewis as Noel Devine, understand that coaching staffs swap X-and-O nuggets all the time — Virginia offensive coordinator Mike Groh visited Texas Tech during the offseason, but don't expect the Cavs to chuck 75 passes a game.

Stinespring said he was most intrigued by West Virginia's rushing attack out of the shotgun and hopes to employ some of those principles this season.

The guess here: If plied with truth serum, Stinespring and head coach Frank Beamer would prefer that Taylor clearly win the job and perform accordingly, thereby building a foundation for what could be a crazy-good team in 2009.

Quarterbacks coach Mike O'Cain raves about Glennon and Taylor but still believes Taylor would benefit from a redshirt season. Don't hold your breath.

Glennon, who revels in media attention, would have to dust Taylor during training camp, rarely falter during the season and avoid serious injury. This because barring an August epiphany for Cory Holt, the Hokies have no capable quarterbacks behind Glennon and Taylor.

On Aug. 30, Virginia hosts Southern California, while Virginia Tech faces East Carolina in Charlotte. The Trojans are, well, the Trojans, and the Pirates are stacked on defense.

You couldn't ask for more compelling openers, even without the quarterback intrigue.

Stair becomes rookie on Virginia offensive line
By Dave Fawcett
Published: August 12, 2008

CHARLOTTESVILLE – For all the experience Zak Stair brings to the offensive line, he will, in one sense, enter his final college football season at the University of Virginia as a rookie.
A tackle by trade since his all-state playing days at Osbourn Park High School as well as during his first three seasons with the Cavaliers, Stair is Virginia’s projected starter at left guard for 2008.
It’s a position he’s never played before in a game, but Virginia needed a veteran player to fill that spot.
And Stair fit the bill. Outside of returning starter Eugene Monroe at tackle, Stair is the only other offensive lineman with more than three years of playing time for Virginia.
“He was our sixth man a year ago,” said Virginia offensive line coach Dave Borbely. “The thought process was let’s try to start this thing with who our best five guys are and go from there.”
With a veteran group last season, Virginia ranked sixth in the ACC in rushing yardage per game (135.6 yards). But guards Branden Albert and Ian-Yates Cunningham and center Jordy Lipsey are now gone.
Stair replaces Albert, who after starting 37 games for Virginia bypassed his senior season to turn pro and was the 15th overall pick by Kansas City in the NFL Draft.
Stair had played some guard in practice before the switch, but he has been a reserve tackle for most of his college football career.
“One of the biggest things I’ve learned in my career is you do what you can do to help the team win,” Stair said. “If I have to play guard or kick the ball, I’ll do what it takes.”
There have been adjustments and Stair is learning as he goes. Being a senior, there also isn’t a more experienced guard on the team he can take pointers from.
But Borbely said Stair is adapting.
“Zak is a really smart player,” Borbely said. “He’s picked things up extremely well.”
Junior Will Barker, who besides Monroe is Virginia’s only other returning starter on the line, sees Stair in the same light.
“He brings a little maturity and a little experience as well. I think he’s been doing a great job so far” Barker said.
Both Barker and Borbely said the three newcomers on the line are meshing well with the returning starters.
“I think overall, we probably have a little more size” than last year’s group, Borbely said. “We probably have a little more pop in there maybe than we had a year ago. Right now, we’re trying to just really make sure that we can gain the element that we had a year ago, which was great communication.”



 

Nebraska dismisses 2 wrestlers from team for allegedly posing nude on Internet porn site
By ERIC OLSON | AP Sports Writer
8:44 PM EDT, August 12, 2008
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) _ Two Nebraska wrestlers, including one who won an NCAA championship in 2007, have been dismissed from the team after posing naked for videos and photographs on an Internet pornography site.

Paul Donahoe and Kenny Jordan were let go Tuesday, three days after a blog posted images of them taken from Fratmentv.com, a Web site featuring naked or partially clothed male athletes.

"The history of behavior of these men, including the current matter, does not reflect the standard of excellence we aspire to on and off the mat," coach Mark Manning said in a statement. "We have outstanding student-athletes in our program and we will move forward in a positive manner toward our goals.

"I want to personally apologize for any embarrassment that may have been caused for our athletic department, the university and our fans."

Manning didn't address the nature of the wrestlers' past transgressions, and didn't immediately return a message left on his cell phone seeking comment.

Jordan and Donahoe have had a series of run-ins with the law in Lincoln. Jordan has paid fines for possessing or consuming alcohol as a minor, trespassing and assault, and Donahoe for maintaining a disorderly house and having an open alcohol container.

Donahoe did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment. The Associated Press has requested interviews with the men through the athletic department. Personal phone numbers couldn't be found.

The athletic department became aware of the images on the Internet late last week, assistant athletic director for compliance Josh White said. Donahoe and Jordan were declared ineligible because they violated an NCAA rule that prohibits athletes from appearing in pictures for commercial use, White said.

Donahoe and Jordan would have to apply to the NCAA for reinstatement if they choose to wrestle for another school, White said.

Donahoe, who would be a senior, won the Big 12 championship at 125 pounds in 2008 and placed third in the NCAA tournament after winning the title the year before.

Jordan, a junior 133-pounder, was fourth in the Big 12 and failed to place at nationals this past season.

The Scarlet Project, a blog that touts itself for reporting "news, scandal and gossip" at the university, posted the pictures online but altered them so that they didn't show full nudity. The blog reported that they were obtained from an anonymous person.

John Marsh, who operates Fratmentv.com and two related Web sites catering to gay men, said he's spoken with Donahoe and Jordan and that both indicated they want to continue as college wrestlers. He said Donahoe was a "dynamite" wrestler.

"If Nebraska is going to be pigheaded and kick him off unreasonably," Marsh said, "there has to be another wrestling program that's going to want him."

Marsh said most photo and video shoots are done in Los Angeles, where Fratmentv.com is based, but that some are done at other locations. Members of Fratmentv.com pay $24.99 for access to hundreds of images and videos.

Marsh wouldn't say how much he pays models or how he hires them.

"It's not money that they would be making working as a waiter," he said. "They get well-compensated. It's better than beer money."

Marsh said his models typically don't care about videos and pictures of them being seen on the Web.

"I'm in my mid 40s, and my generation has a stigma about porn," he said. "The kids, the generation of the student-athletes, don't have that stigma. They really don't care.

"They've come from a Paris Hilton, Tommy Lee-Pamela Anderson sex tape generation, Myspace pages. The shame and stigma aren't there for them. They're mostly worried about what their parents are going to think, because their parents think it's horrifying."