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To shake Wake, Cavs must hang on tight
 By JOHN GALINSKY / Daily Progress staff writer
Sep 28, 2002

 
Who will giveth, and who will taketh away?

Tonight's Virginia-Wake Forest game at Groves Stadium could be determined by one of the simpler aspects of football: Holding onto the ball.

With these teams, that is easier said than done. The Cavaliers and Demon Deacons are tied for first in the nation with 16 takeaways, an average of four per game. Virginia has recovered 11 opponent fumbles and snagged five interceptions. Wake Forest has picked off seven passes and fallen on nine opponent fumbles.

Neither defense is particularly adept at stopping anyone - in fact, they are the ACC's worst in yards allowed - but both are opportunistic and ball-hungry. Each defense emphasizes what UVa coach Al Groh calls "ball disruption" - stripping the carrier or otherwise going after the ball.

By forcing turnovers, both teams prevent opponents from scoring even more often than they already do.

"Unless you're really an overwhelmingly dominant team, I think you'll find that teams having a good season have two thing in common," Groh said. "They are usually pretty injury-free, and they have a positive turnover ratio."

Neither team has been free of injuries. The Cavaliers lost their best offensive lineman (Kevin Bailey) and outside linebacker (Raymond Mann) to knee injuries in the second game. Wake Forest's top tailback (Tarence Williams) and receiver (Jason Anderson) have been hurt most of the season.

But both teams have forged out 2-2 records due in large part to positive turnover ratios. In its first two games, both losses, Virginia committed nine turnovers while forcing six. The Cavaliers turned that around in their past two games, both victories, forcing 10 turnovers while committing only two.

The Demon Deacons have been careful with the ball all season. They have lost just four fumbles and senior quarterback James MacPherson has not thrown an interception. Meanwhile, their defense has swarmed to the ball when opponents make mistakes.

"I think it's probably half dumb luck and half effort on the part of the defensive kids," said Wake coach Jim Grobe, whose team leads the nation in turnover differential at plus-3 per game.

Both defenses figure to have trouble making stops tonight without forcing turnovers. Virginia's main problem is stopping the run. The Cavaliers are last in the ACC in rushing defense, while the Demon Deacons are first in rushing offense.

Wake's weakness is preventing the pass. The Deacons have given up a league-high eight touchdown passes; Virginia has thrown for 13 scores, most in the conference.

So for both offenses, yards should not be hard to come by. The trick will be getting the ball in the end zone before the defense can take it away.

"We really, really emphasize taking care of the ball, and that's what we'll have to do against Virginia," Wake offensive coordinator Troy Calhoun said. "They have an awful lot of ways to create havoc and they get two or three guys around the ball. … I think the team that makes the fewest mistakes is going to win."

 

 

Patience paying off for Virginia’s Schaub
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© September 28, 2002

As usual, the crowd around Matt Schaub’s locker at Virginia’s weekly media day last Monday was deeper than the crowd around any other player’s.

And, as usual, Schaub answered all queries with patience and thoughtfulness. The Cavaliers’ quarterback is nothing if not even-keeled. He says he tries not to get too high or too low, “not only in sports, but in any situation.”

That personality trait has come in handy for the 21-year-old junior, who will lead Virginia in an ACC game at Wake Forest tonight. Last year, he lost his starting job twice and was pulled from games half a dozen times.

Just four games into this season, he’s already lost his job once. But since regaining it, he’s shown no sign he’ll relinquish it.

Once known for being consistently inconsistent, Schaub has been reliable and accurate lately. Over the past 10 quarters, he’s completed 57 of 80 passes (71.3 percent), thrown for 11 touchdowns and just two interceptions.

Has Schaub turned a corner?

“I’ve been doing this since 1968, and I don’t feel like I’ve turned the corner yet,” coach Al Groh said. “So I wouldn’t say that my quarterback has turned the corner after 2 1/2 games.

“But he is in a nice groove right now.”

Groh declared Schaub the starter after he completed 18 of 23 passes in the second half against Florida State on Aug. 31. Schaub and Marques Hagans had shared the position before that.

Schaub said being named the clear No. 1 had a relaxing effect. He no longer worries that his next mistake will get him yanked.

“In sports, you can’t really hold back,” he said. “When you’re out there, you’ve got to let it go.”

Groh said Schaub is making throws he wouldn’t have made a year ago. His decision-making has also improved. He hasn’t been sacked in two weeks, an indication that he’s not holding the ball as long as he used to.

Schaub ranks seventh in the nation in passing efficiency, fifth in completion percentage.

Virginia’s success in spreading the field the past two weeks has also opened up things for its running game. The Cavaliers averaged 159.5 yards rushing per game, 53 more than a year ago.

“Coaches like to talk about the techniques we teach and the schemes we use,” Groh said. “But one thing all those great running games have in common are great running backs that can make yards on their own. Runners are a big factor.”

True freshman Wali Lundy gives Virginia the type of elusive back it lacked last season. Sophomore Alvin Pearman has also shown an ability to make tacklers miss.

“BYOB” may mean one thing to many Virginia students. But to Lundy and Pearman, it means something else entirely.

“Be Your Own Blocker,” Lundy said. “Coaches are always telling us that.”

Lundy ran for 103 yards against Akron last week, and Pearman had 81.

“You can go hard, knowing the guy behind you can also produce,” Lundy said.

Or, in Schaub’s case, knowing the guy behind you isn’t likely to replace you anytime soon.

 

 

Cavaliers' Groh returns to site of growing pains
Al Groh returns to a familiar setting today when his Cavaliers face the Demon Deacons today in Winston-Salem, N.C.

By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   When Virginia visits Wake Forest today for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff, UVa football coach Al Groh will step onto the grass at Groves Stadium for the first time since his last game as coach at Wake Forest in 1986.

    He has been on a Winston-Salem, N.C., campus since then, but not at Wake Forest.

    "The last time I was here was to work out Oronde Gadsden," said Groh, who was an assistant coach with the New England Patriots in 1994 when Gadsen was a senior at Winston-Salem State.

    Gadsen became a proven wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins, although neither Groh nor anybody else was impressed enough to draft him. Gadsden had been out of college for four years and was with the Portland (Ore.) Forest Dragons of the Arena League before Miami signed him in 1998.

    Certainly, Groh has other memories from his days at Wake Forest, where he had just joined John Mackovic's staff in 1981 when Mackovic resigned on the eve of spring practice and Groh was elevated to head coach.

    Groh stayed for six years, 1981-86, and compiled a 26-40 record. He could have stayed, too, but had irreconcilable difference with then-athletic director Dr. Gene Hooks.

    "The first time I was a head coach, I was of an age that, when I look back on it, my evaluation is that I didn't know [squat]," Groh said this summer.

    Groh is a UVa graduate and when his son, Mike, signed with the Cavaliers, father Al had even more reason to pull for the Cavaliers against the Deacons.

    One of his fondest memories is from a UVa-Wake game he did not attend. Groh had just returned from a Patriots defensive meeting in 1994 when he saw the message light blinking on his hotel phone.

    The message was from his son, Mike, who, Al was to learn later, had replaced injured starter Symmion Willis and tossed three touchdown passes in a 42-6 Cavaliers' victory at Groves Stadium.

    That was the same stadium where Mike had carried the cord for his father's headset as a pre-teen. Today, Mike Groh will be wearing his own headset as the receivers coach on his father's staff.

    When the Grohs were in Winston-Salem, the Deacons defeated Virginia 38-34 in 1983 and then didn't beat the Cavaliers again for 17 years in the second-longest streak of that nature in ACC history. (Clemson's 29-game winning streak over UVa was the longest.)

    When the Deacs ended the streak last year in Charlottesville, 34-30, it marked the first game in Charlottesville for UVa alumnus Jim Grobe as Wake coach. At the time, it was the fifth straight loss for Virginia and left the Cavaliers 3-6 and with no hope of a winning season.

    "Seventeen years seems like a long time not to beat somebody, but I know we were fortunate to beat them last year," Grobe said earlier this week. "These guys will be after us. We've got a little bit of a target on our chests."

    UVa was a 4 1/2 -point favorite against the Deacs last year. Wake is a two-point favorite today - the first time it has been favored against the Cavaliers since the early 1980s.

    The teams tied for seventh place in the ACC last year, and they have identical records (2-2, 0-1 ACC) this year. When the Cavaliers were picked eighth at the ACC's Football Kickoff this summer, they were one spot behind the Deacs.

    Groh obviously has other things on his mind than the Groves Stadium homecoming.

    "It was a place I enjoyed coaching," Groh said, "but that was then. This is now."

 

 

ACC voters miss again on UVa standout

Evidence suggests Brill is addled

By DOUG DOUGHTY
 Exclusive to roanoke.com by 5 p.m. Thursdays

The ACC took such great offense when I questioned the selection process for the 50th anniversary football team that I'm not going to suggest that the voting was rigged for the men's basketball team.

Assistant commissioner Mike Finn swears the team followed the voting and I respect Finn implicitly, but I've got to question the sanity of the 125 "voters" who made up the selection committees.

Who are these people?

Actually, I know who some of them are. One of them is my esteemed, longtime former boss, Bill Brill, now of Durham, N.C. I know some of the players that Brill left off his football ballot and it just confirms what everybody already knew, that Brill was a basketball guy.

But, you even have to wonder about that with the revelation that Brill did not include Virginia's Bryant Stith on his list of the top 50 basketball players.

Stith was a three-time, first-team All-ACC selection from 1990-92 who scored 2,516 points in his UVa career -- fourth on the conference's all-time list and 71 points out of first.

"If I'd thought about it, I would have put Stith on there," Brill said Thursday.

(Think he forgot anybody from Duke?)

Of the top 10 scorers in ACC history, eight made the 50-member 50th anniversary team. The two who didn't were both from Virginia, Stith and No. 10 Buzzy Wilkinson.

Wilkinson scored 2,233 points in 78 games from 1953-55 and his 28.6-point career scoring average is the highest in ACC history.

I'm not saying that the voting should be based solely on statistics, but I think it's pretty hard to overlook the No. 4 scorer in conference history. Maybe the Cavaliers didn't win an ACC title during Stith's career (or most other players' careers) but they won 20 games in all four of his seasons; played in the NCAA Tournament three times, including an appearance in the final eight (Brill covered it), and won the NIT.

I have no argument with the three Virginia players who did make the team: Ralph Sampson, Barry Parkhill and Jeff Lamp. Parkhill's statistics didn't compare to some of the other choices, but he was the player who put UVa basketball on the map.

Sampson and Lamp played together and I can tell you what Lamp was. He was Bryant Stith one decade earlier. Lamp was a little better shooter who didn't have the benefit of the 3-point shot, but Stith was a better rebounder.

Six UVa players have had their numbers retired. They are Sampson, Parkhill, Lamp, Stith, Wilkinson and Wally Walker. Some people may think Walker belonged on the team; after all, he led the Cavaliers to their lone ACC championship, but the biggest oversight was Stith.

FORK UNION FOOTBALL COACH John Shuman can understand why there's been so much commotion about FUMA defensive tackle Robert Armstrong. "He came here as a sleeper and now he's probably a pro," Shuman said Thursday.

Shuman also said there was no substance to the rumors that Armstrong had backed out of his commitment to Virginia and would sign with Pittsburgh.

"If a guy were going to do that, don't you think he'd step up a rung [and] try to go someplace hot, like a Virginia Tech or Tennessee," Shuman said.

Shuman said that players were unable to talk with recruiters by phone or e-mail until this week. He speculates that Armstrong had been talking with teammate Curtis Lewis, a 2001 Pitt signee now at Fork Union, and may have led a Pitt assistant to believe he was interested

"It seems he may have sprinkled some stuff out there," Shuman said, "but he talked to [Virginia] coach [Al] Groh and coach [Mike] London today and they know he's firmly committed. I'm with him most of the day but there's about a 45-minute break when he could have gone to the computer lab."

There have been occasions when a school has placed a player at Fork Union and then cooled on him but there's no way that was the case with Virginia and Armstrong, Shuman said. London scouted Armstrong (6-3, 304) at a recent Fork Union game.

"That's a guy they need to be on full in force," Shuman said. "He feels a little slighted. He knows that [Ahmad] Brooks can go there [from Hargrave] after half year and he's got to stay here with coach Shuman. He's real smart. I can see him qualifying the first time."

Shuman passed along an interesting statistic on the seven ex-Fork Union players now at Virginia, all of whom have started at least one game this year. Three scored touchdowns in the Cavaliers' 48-29 victory over Akron: wide receiver Billy McMullen and defensive players Darryl Blackstock and Art Thomas.

Three of the four players vying for playing time at cornerback -- Thomas, Jamaine Winborne and Muffin Curry -- played for Shuman. Thomas, who has two defensive touchdowns in his UVa career, is the biggest enigma.

"He drives you crazy," Shuman said. "At times he looks like a pro; then, at other times, you wonder what's going on."

VIRGINIA, AN UNDERDOG to Wake Forest for the first time in close to 20 years, will visit Winston-Salem, N.C., on Saturday without one of the Cavaliers' projected playmakers, junior outside linebacker Raymond Mann.

Mann has not played since suffering a knee injury Sept. 7 in Virginia's 40-19 loss at Florida State. When asked Thursday whether Mann would make an appearance before the end of the season, Groh responded, "I hope so."

"I don't have any specific date myself, so I couldn't give you one," said Groh, confirming that Mann will not play Saturday. "This was a player, going into the year, that we anticipated would be one of our better players. And, [he's] played six quarters now."

Mann, if he did not play again this season, would meet the criteria for a successful hardship appeal. However, it's likely that the Cavaliers would want him back as soon as possible, given that Blackstock and second-year Bryan White are getting virtually all of the time at outside linebacker.

There was no discussion of another outside linebacker, Dennis Haley, in any of Groh's news conferences this week. Haley, who did not dress Saturday for Akron, was in the locker room Monday for the media's weekly visit and showed no signs of injury.

Haley started the opener against Colorado State but has not dressed since then for what Groh termed "personal reasons" and later "a complex matter."

A STEADY RAIN DID NOT keep the Cavaliers from practicing outside Thursday, although it is possible that inclement weather will have left the area by the time UVa and Wake tee it up Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

"We'll go outside today under any circumstances," said Groh in his 11:30 a.m. teleconference. "I was remarking to one of our assistants that between games and practices and whatever, it's been so long since we've had a football outside when it's raining that it's beyond my memory.

"Since we haven't dealt with it in some time, it would be my preference to go in it."

 

 

Never too late to uncover a "sleeper"

Injuries fell sportswriting elite

By DOUG DOUGHTY
 Exclusive to roanoke.com by 5 p.m. Fridays
The coverage of football recruiting has reached the point where there are few real "sleepers" nowadays, but lineman Lewis "L.A." Watson from Heritage High School comes close to meeting that description.

East Carolina has offered a scholarship to -- and is the team to beat for -- Watson, a 6-foot-5, 290-pounder who did not play as a junior as the result of a torn growth plate.

The only place I have seen Watson listed, before his grandfather wrote me, was in the new preseason yearbook that The Sporting News has devoted to high-school football.

Watson did not have a head coach to promote him until Heritage named Chris Jones, formerly the head coach at Bath County, which won the 2001 Group A Division 1 state championship.

Before going to Bath County, Jones coached at Sussex Central, where he developed a relationship with Trey Magee, which explains the East Carolina connection. Magee is a redshirt freshman offensive lineman for the Pirates.

Watson made his first appearance on recruiters' computer screens when he was timed in 5.0 seconds for 40 yards at the Nike camp in State College, Pa. He also bench-presses more than 400 pounds and "has unbelievable strength," Jones said.

Watson has a 3.1 grade-point average and a score of 1,100 on the SAT. Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Virginia and Maryland all have expressed interest, but only East Carolina has offered.

"Nobody knew about him," Jones said.

If Jones accomplishes what he hopes at Heritage, he thinks he can attract recruiters on a more regular basis. He's already touting junior Don Alexander, a 6-7, 190-pound wide receiver who has two touchdown receptions and also plays safety.

AN EFFORT TO KEEP UP with the state's top 100 football prospects and their postgraduate destinations has whittled to seven the number of players who are unaccounted for (SEE UPDATED CHART).

Among those players whose whereabouts I have been able to determine are 6-3, 355-pound Hampton High School offensive lineman Steve Williams, rated the 51st-best prospect in the state. Williams is at St. Augustine's in Raleigh, N.C.

Others are No. 53 Jesse Pellot-Rosa, a wide receiver from George Wythe High School in Richmond (Fork Union); No. 75 Onrea Jones, a wide receiver from Bruton in Williamsburg (Hampton); No. 84 Brandon Carter, a defensive back from Smithfield (Fork Union); and No. 97 Travis Akers, a defensive tackle from Radford (West Virginia walk-on).

Carter is the younger brother of former Virginia Tech tight end Derek Carter, and Jones once was the chief target of Hokies' quarterback Bryan Randall.

"The best hands I ever saw," said Bruton coach Kyle Neve, rejecting any questions about Jones' speed. "Somebody missed out on him because he can play at the I-A level."

Neve said Jones' speed was evident when he won the 110-meter high hurdles at the Group AA state track meet, but Jones had academic issues that were not resolved until most teams had met their allotment of scholarships.

HARGRAVE MILITARY ACADEMY football coach Robert Prunty said Virginia and Virginia Tech have expressed interest in Chris McDuffie, a 6-4, 310-pound offensive lineman from George Washington (Danville) who was rated second on The Roanoke Times "waiting list" of players with Top 25 talent whose academic status was in question.

McDuffie is repeating the 12th grade and Prunty thinks he'll qualify. Prunty also said that Tech and North Carolina State have offered scholarships to Michael Hinton, a 6-3, 186-pound Hargrave cornerback from Burlington, N.C., and that Virginia has expressed enough interest to suggest an offer might be imminent.

Prunty said the Hokies are interested two of his other players: Ma'tron Church, a 6-2, 235-pound linebacker from St. Petersburg, Fla., and Shane Lucas, a 6-3, 305-pound defensive lineman from Angier, N.C. Virginia has a commitment from Hargrave's Ahmad Brooks, a 6-4, 236-pound linebacker from Woodbridge who was rated the state's No. 1 prospect last year.

"I heard about how good he was," Prunty said. "I didn't realize he was as fast as he is."

EVEN SOME VIRGINIA TECH insiders were surprised by the suddenness of the commitment the Hokies got this week from G.W.-Danville running back Kenny Lewis Jr., whose father was a 1,000-yard rusher for the Hokies during the late 1970s.

The word I'm getting is that when Tech assistants would ask about Lewis, head coach Frank Beamer would respond that he was taking personal responsibility for Lewis' recruiting. Injuries have kept Lewis from becoming the phenom that was projected in 1999, but he has three things going for him: speed, pedigree and grades.

FOR THOSE READERS who have been following the misadventures of Roanoke Times sportswriter Randy "Nappy" King, we are saddened to report that King's trip to Texas A&M this past weekend did not pass without incident.

As it turns out, King has been hobbled all week by an injury suffered when he fell asleep in a Continental Airlines jetliner. King was struck by a beverage cart guided by a flight attendant who did not see King's knee in the aisle.

King accepted the flight attendant's offer of a free beverage -- actually, beverages -- and reportedly was feeling fine by the time he returned to Roanoke, only to awaken in pain (from his knee) the next morning.

IN THE SAME VEIN, it wasn't till Friday morning (today) that I saw Gregg Doyel's column from the Monday Charlotte Observer entitled, "Beamer shouldn't be in game of selling Virginia Tech scoops."

I know that reporters find it difficult to compete with BeamerBall.com for scoops but it hasn't affeceted me much because most of what I write about Tech deals with recruiting. School- and presumably coach-affiliated sites are not allowed to report on recruiting.

What struck me about Doyel's column was the following paragraph:

"Imagine Beamer and the Virginia Tech beat writers bellying up to a bar in Kalamazoo, Mich., this Friday night, the eve of the Hokies' game at Western Michigan. Bragging, Beamer cackles to one of the hacks, 'I've been scooping you like melted sherbet,' and a brawl ensues."

All that analogy lacks is a beverage cart.

OUR THOUGHTS ARE with Tucker McLaughlin, portly sports editor of the News & Record of South Boston, who will undergo surgery Monday for a torn quadriceps muscle. The injury, suffered while walking down the steps at the newspaper, was expected to keep McLaughlin from the Taco Bell 300 as well as other assorted upcoming media feedbags.

 

 

Cavs look for road, ACC win
Virginia looks for its first conference win against Wake Forest as Demon Deacons prepare to take on the Cavaliers, Schaub will hope to lead Virginia to third straight offensive success
Joe Lemire
Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
The Virginia football team plays their first match in a crucial five-game stretch of conference football as they head south to take on Wake Forest tomorrow at Groves Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C. Game time is 6:30 p.m.

Virginia and Wake Forest enter with identical records (2-2 overall, 0-1 ACC) and are beginning the primary stretch of their ACC schedule.

"It's going to be a challenge

-- we're back in the ACC," senior linebacker and co-captain Angelo Crowell said. "If we want to be in the ACC race, we're going to have to beat this team."

It was not always a challenge for the Cavaliers to knock off the Deacons; Virginia had boasted a 17-game winning streak against the team until Wake Forest won last year, 34-30, at Scott Stadium. Virginia enters with the momentum of soundly defeating Akron last week, while Wake Forest will ride the wave of their 24-21 upset of Purdue.

"They're a hard team to beat these days," Crowell said. "We knew even before they beat Purdue that this was a pretty good ball team."

Virginia's offense clicked against Akron en route to a decisive 48-29 victory. Junior quarterback Matt Schaub looked especially impressive, tossing five touchdown passes. Particularly notable is the wide arsenal of weapons at Schaub's disposal, as a different receiver caught each touchdown pass.

Freshman Wali Lundy and Sopomore Alvin Pearman led the way for the Cavalier ground attack, combining for 183 of the team's 212 rushing yards. More surprisingly, however, was the presence of reshirt freshman quarterback Marques Hagans occasionally aligned as a running back. Hagans also returned two punts and intercepted a pass on Akron's failed punt fake.

Hagans is "very versatile for us," Schaub said. "With his talent, it's hard to keep him off the field."

Returning to the conference schedule generally means teams are more familiar and better acclimated to each other's style of play -- this is usually the case, but Virginia's bounty of freshmen have faced only powerhouse FSU in the ACC before. But Coach Al Groh is confident the team will be able to get its bearing, based on Wake Forest's similarities to recent opponents and strategies culled from archived game tapes.

"Their defensive system is along the same style as South Carolina and Clemson," Groh said. "There are some notable differences, but it gives us a good orientation point with the players."

Wake Forest presents a unique style of offense, combining several different formations and types of rushing plays. The Deacons led the ACC in rushing last year (221.6 yards per game) and are averaging even more this year (230.5 ypg). They have employed a host of featured backs, five of whom have aaccumulated at least 125 but no more than 225 rushing yards.

"Offensively, they're probably quite unique to the teams that we've played this year," Groh said. "I can see elements of bi-formation, power running, wishbone offense and a little wing-T. In terms of comparison, they're a blend of Air Force and Nebraska. They run it more and pass it less than anybody."

Wake Forest relies on senior quarterback James MacPherson to spread the wealth, handing off frequently and being a reliable passer -- his 56.2 completion percentage, zero interceptions and 128.2 quarterback rating attest to his proficiency in taking care of the ball.

Senior wideout Fabian Davis is both their leading receiver (14 catches, 213 yards) and third leading rusher (172 yards and 9.6 yards per carry). The head of the team's running back by committee is junior Nick Burney.

 

 

Grobe not feeling nostalgic about visit from Cavaliers
WFU coach, who played for Virginia, focused on winning

By Dan Collins
JOURNAL REPORTER
 

Jim and Holly Grobe have friends coming into town this weekend, mostly old college pals from the days when Jim was a student at Virginia.

Problem is, Jim is scheduled to work tonight. He said he hopes his friends have a good time, but only up to and after tonight's football game between Wake Forest and Virginia at 6:30 at Groves Stadium.

As head coach at Wake Forest, Grobe's goal is to see that no one rooting for Virginia enjoys the game itself.

"It would be fun to try to be nostalgic and all that kind of stuff," Grobe said. "But the fact is, when (the Cavaliers) roll in here on Saturday at 6:30 and they try to break our nose, it's not going to be a deal where you can afford to be.

"There aren't a lot of warm fuzzies in football."

Al Groh, the head coach at Virginia, has long since learned the same lesson. His trip down memory lane to Wake Forest, where he coached for six years (1981-86), will merge back into the here and now by kickoff and he goes about trying to win the game.

Both teams are 2-2, so both need the victory badly. Raising the stakes is the fact that it's a conference game, and since assuming their current duties at the start of last season, both Grobe and Groh have won only three ACC games each.

It was last year's 3-5 conference record, Grobe said, that kept the Deacons from playing in a bowl following their 6-5 regular season. For this year's team to avoid a similar fate, a victory tonight may well prove critical.

Virginia is talented, but young, with six freshmen listed on the first team and six more on second team. If Wake Forest lacks the Cavaliers' overall level of talent, then at least the Deacons are more experienced.

The 22 players listed as first team for Wake Forest have, among them, started 269 games in college. Five Deacons - fullback Ovie Mughelli, tight end Ray Thomas, defensive end Calvin Pace, nose tackle Montique Sharpe and free safety Quintin Williams - have started more than 20 games each.

But the experience thins out quickly at linebacker, where the Deacons may be playing without senior Jamie Scott. Scott sustained a concussion this week in practice, and Grobe said yesterday that Scott's availability for tonight will be determined during warm-ups. If sidelined, Scott will be replaced at outside linebacker by junior Jamaal Argrow.

Also Quintin Williams has a broken thumb, but will play with a cast covering his wrist and forearm.

Both starting quarterbacks, after a stumbling start, apparently have hit their stride.

Junior Matt Schaub of Virginia, who was so ineffective in the season-opening 35-29 loss to Colorado State that he lost the starting assignment against Florida State, is on a streak of 57 completions on 80 attempts for 560 yards and 11 touchdowns. He threw for five touchdowns in last Saturday's 48-29 home victory against Akron, and is ranked seventh in NCAA Division I-A in passing efficiency (164.3).

"I really like their quarterback," Grobe said. "Schaub's playing well right now."

Grobe also had nice things to say about his own quarterback, James MacPherson, who last Saturday completed nine of 12 passes for 120 yards in a 24-21 victory at Purdue. MacPherson suffered through one of his most dismal performances the week before at N.C. State (seven completions on 15 attempts for 104 yards), but was about as good against the Boilermakers as he has been since assuming the starting position midway through last season.

Wake Forest's offensive scheme doesn't require that the quarterback accumulate gaudy statistics, but Grobe is looking for one who can direct the team with a steady hand and avoid mistakes. MacPherson has completed 41 of 73 passes this season (56.2 percent) for 547 yards and two touchdowns, and has yet to throw an interception.

"I hate to say it because I don't want him to read it, but yeah he was more Saturday (against Purdue) like the old James of last year," Grobe said. "He seemed to have a little more determination and he had a little more fire in his eyes. He, of course, threw the ball so much better Saturday.

"We saw glimpses of it in the East Carolina game and then I thought he took a step backward against N.C. State. Any time you've got a guy who completes 75 percent of his throws, you should be able to move the football a little bit."

 

 

Getting to the points
Cavs turn to big tight ends for touchdowns

 
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER		 Sep 27, 2002
 
CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Among the former University of Virginia football players at Scott Stadium last weekend was Chris Luzar, whose brother, Kase, starts at fullback for the Cavaliers. After U.Va.'s 48-29 victory over Akron, the older Luzar chatted with Pat rick Estes, who, like Heath Miller, had caught a touchdown pass in the homecoming game.

"He pointed out that we had seven touchdowns between the two of us," Estes said. "I think he was a little jealous."

Miller, a 6-5, 256-pound redshirt freshman, and Estes, a 6-7, 258-pound sophomore, play tight end for Virginia. Luzar, a rookie, plays that position for the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, so he doesn't begrudge his successors their success. Still, their ability to find the end zone - with ball in hand - hasn't escaped Luzar's notice.

During his U.Va. career, Luzar had 53 receptions for 598 yards. Never, however, did he catch a touchdown pass. None of Virginia's tight ends, in fact, had any in 2000 or'01.

Times have changed. Miller has caught a TD pass in every game he's played for the Cavaliers (0-1, 2-2), who visit ACC rival Wake Forest (0-1, 2-2) tomorrow night. Estes, a former Benedictine High star, didn't break through as a true freshman, but he has three TD catches this season. Miller leads the Wahoos with 24 points, and Estes is second with 18.

By comparison, Virginia's All-America wideout, Billy McMullen, has 16 points.

"Heath and I have been fortunate to get the opportunity to get the ball in our hands by the goal line," Estes said. "Because we've made the catches, I think they're going to keep going to us."

U.Va. would be foolish to do otherwise.

"They both run very good routes," junior quarterback Matt Schaub said. "They know how to get open out in the middle of the field, and they both have good hands. They're big targets, so it's hard to miss them."

Estes has yet to start a college game, but offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave frequently employs two-tight end sets. In one such instance, in Virginia's Sept. 7 win over South Carolina, Miller threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Estes on a trick play.

U.Va. coach Al Groh said he's not sure what percentage of the time Estes and Miller play together. "But when their plays are tallied at the end of a grading session, they're close enough to make it very apparent that they're in there a lot together," Groh said.

Like all players, Estes, who rooms with Miller on the road, would like to start. He realizes, though, that he and Miller are unusually similar in size and speed and talent. "So it doesn't really bother me at all," Estes said, "because I know we'll both be in there together and we'll both have our turns in there by ourselves."

As a Benedictine senior, Estes had schol arship offers from Tennessee, Ohio State and Florida State, among others. But he couldn't resist the pull of his father's alma mater, even after George Welsh - to whom Estes had committed - retired in December 2000.

"Even though I went through the whole recruiting process, I kind of knew in the back of my mind that Virginia was where I wanted to go," Estes said.

Mike Estes, U.Va. class of'74, couldn't be happier. He didn't push his son toward Virginia, "but he loves it," Patrick Estes said. "He's really excited after every game. The whole family, they love coming up and watching the games."