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Pass-happy but arm-weary
Schaub's return a success in Virginia's 27-24 win over Wake
By John Galinsky  / Daily Progress staff writer
September 30, 2003
 

Matt Schaub has what Virginia coach Al Groh likes to call “a rubber arm.” Normally, he can throw all day and never get tired or sore.
Last Saturday, however, Schaub’s rubber was stretched pretty thin. In his first game since separating his right shoulder four weeks earlier, the senior quarterback threw 45 passes in UVa’s 27-24 victory over Wake Forest.
He got off to a great start, completing 18 of 22 throws in the first half for 203 yards. But he struggled in the second half, throwing three interceptions while going 12 for 23 for 123 yards.
After watching film later, Groh said Schaub “might have gotten a little arm weary” as the game went on, though he said that was understandable.
After all, Groh said, Schaub’s injury originally was diagnosed as a grade 3 separation, the most serious. Also, since the injury occurred on the opening drive of the first game, he had not seen enough action to build arm strength.
“It was, in effect, Matt’s first game of the season,” Groh said. “I thought he was very sharp on a lot of throws given the circumstances, but not as sharp as he might have been had it been his fourth game of the season.”
Schaub threw just seven interceptions in 418 passes last season, so his mistakes against the Demon Deacons were glaring. The first interception, on a pass to tightly-covered Ottowa Anderson, was “a bad game decision,” Groh said.
Another came on a deep ball to Anderson and the last was an errant screen pass.
“I think I might have gotten a little bit tired toward the end,” Schaub said Monday. “I just had to try and get past that and make the throws we needed at the end.”
Indeed, Schaub came through, completing 6 of 10 passes for 57 yards on a drive that ended in Connor Hughes’ game-tying 53-yard field goal with 1:51 left. After a Jamaine Winborne interception, Schaub threw a 15-yard strike to Heath Miller, setting up Hughes’ winning 38-yard kick with 10 seconds on the clock.
“All things considered, for his first outing, and playing with and against players who were in their fourth game,” Groh said, “I thought he kept up to speed pretty well.”
Just as importantly, Schaub said his shoulder and arm felt fine Monday. He plans to play Saturday and throw as often as necessary against North Carolina (0-4, 0-2 ACC).
“I’m healthy,” he said. “It’s good to get back and get in a rhythm again.”

Whither Hagans? Now that Schaub is back as the starting quarterback, Groh must figure out what to do with Marques Hagans.
Hagans, the No. 2 quarterback last season, switched to receiver in the spring. He moved back to quarterback after Schaub’s injury and threw three touchdown passes against Western Michigan in his only start. He also practiced solely at quarterback last week, partly because of uncertainty about Schaub’s availability.
Now what?
“His situation is exactly as I talked about in the spring,” Groh said. “He’s a dynamic player who’s proven himself to be a dynamic playmaker at Virginia and when he’s on the field, it’s good for our team.”
Hagans played just two snaps against Wake Forest, as the upback on punts. Groh wants to get him in the game more, but he said it would be “tricky” to get Hagans adequate practice time as both a receiver and a backup quarterback.
“He’s just learning to play the receiver position. It’s not like he’s a veteran receiver,” Groh said. “The same can be said about quarterback because there’s so much to learn there, too.”
Regardless of which position he plays, Hagans is likely to resume his punt-return duties this week, Groh said. Alvin Pearman did that against Wake Forest, returning three punts for 20 yards.

No safety in numbers. With starter Willie Davis sidelined by an injured shoulder, the Cavaliers are pencil-thin at safety. Juniors Jermaine Hardy and Jay Dorsey have been inconsistent, and their backups are freshmen Lance Evans and Robbie Catterton.
Asked if he lost sleep because of his safety situation, Groh joked, “If I lost any of the sleep that I get, I’d be a zombie.”
Groh said Evans and Catterton have received many reps in practice the past few weeks to get them ready. Winborne, a cornerback, also could play safety if necessary, Groh said.

Unranked, unrankled. Groh, who votes in the USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll, did not put Virginia in his top 25 this week. The Cavaliers (3-1, 2-0 ACC) are third among teams that also received votes in the poll.
“As a 3-1 team under our circumstances, we have a lot more to prove,” Groh said.
UVa has not faced a ranked team this season and will not play one until hosting No. 5 Florida State on Oct. 18.

ACC honors. A trio of Cavaliers received conference player-of-the-week awards Monday.
Hughes, who made all four of his field-goal attempts against Wake Forest, was named specialist of the week. The offensive lineman of the week was tight end Heath Miller, who caught seven passes for 96 yards and a touchdown, while Winborne received defensive back honors after making nine tackles and the game-breaking interception in the final minute.

Extra points. Many fans at Scott Stadium wondered why the Cavaliers called timeout with 14 seconds left to set up Hughes’ winning kick last Saturday. Groh said he wanted to let the clock tick down to two seconds but a player on the field called timeout prematurely. … Groh said he did not know if guard Elton Brown, who missed the Wake Forest game with a concussion, would be able to play against the Tar Heels. … Virginia’s game at Clemson on Oct. 11 will kick off at noon and be televised by the Jefferson Pilot Sports Network.

 

 

 

The real ACC talk from fans: No. 12?
By Jerry Ratcliffe  / Daily Progress sports editor
September 30, 2003
 

When the ACC conducts its annual fall meetings beginning this morning in Charlottesville, expansion isn’t officially on the agenda.
But everywhere you go in this conference, from the Chesapeake Bay to palm tree-lined South Beach, that’s all the conference’s fans want to talk about. Who’s gonna be the 12th team?
Notre Dame, Boston College, South Carolina? Some would love to see an SEC defection of the Gamecocks, Kentucky, Florida or Georgia. Others fantasize about Penn State making an earth-shaking move. Pitt, West Virginia, UConn, Syracuse? Everyone has an opinion, including my man Lee Corso, who was in town Monday for the inaugural Gene Corrigan golf tournament at Glenmore.
Corso, who knows more about college football than anyone in the country, still believes the ACC should listen to the plan he suggested back in the spring.
“What I would do is take Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Boston College to go along with Virginia Tech and Miami,” said the ESPN analyst. “I’d take them all. Then you’ve got yourself one of the premier conferences in America.”
The positives
Corso said there are great advantages in stretching the length of the eastern seaboard. Recruiting areas open up, a couple of strong basketball programs (Syracuse and Pitt) join the league and the ACC then qualifies for a championship football game. Not to mention the TV opportunities for both sports, having a greater say in the postseason picture and legislation of collegiate rules.
“After they took only two, I said I couldn’t believe they didn’t have it locked up with a championship game before they did this ... that’s a big mistake,” Corso said. “Eleven is no good with the Big 10. Ten is no good with the Pac 10, in my opinion. You’ve got to get it up to at least 12.”
He was surprised that the Pac 10 and Big 10 didn’t offer strong support of the ACC’s proposal for leagues with 10 members to stage a conference championship game in football.
“I thought they would at least be with [the ACC], then have the option of joining them [for a championship] later on if they desired,” Corso said.
He likes adding the three remaining Big East schools for a lot of reasons, including the fact it would help all three of those schools.
“The Big East is not going to be a really good major conference with Louisville and Cincinnati going in there,” Corso said. “It’s going to be good for basketball but it’s not a great football situation.”
Cremins weighs in
From the basketball perspective, former Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins, who played on Corrigan’s winning team Monday, said he hates to see the league go to a formula that doesn’t include complete round robin play but realizes a 20-game conference schedule is not practical.
“You see these expanded leagues and they don’t play each other twice,” Cremins said. “What we loved about our league as coaches is that we played
each other twice.”
Cremins, who is now an analyst for Jefferson-Pilot’s ACC coverage, would like to see his alma mater South Carolina back in the league but believes the Gamecocks are firmly entrenched in the SEC.
“Notre Dame would be very prestigious and you might take another run at Boston College,” Cremins said.
Corrigan, who was ACC commissioner in the expansions that brought Georgia Tech and Florida State into the league, said he thinks things will work out for the conference.
“I don’t think it’ll be hard (to add a 12th team),” Corrigan said. “I think a lot of people will jump at the opportunity to be part of it. It’s just how [the ACC] wants to go about it. It’s up to them as to when it happens.”
Corrigan said he has empathy for what his successor, John Swofford has been going through during the expansion process but has confidence that the commissioner, the athletic directors and faculty reps will get things figured out.
Meetings over the next two days may not broach the 12th member issue, but they are expected to decide formulas for schedules and whether or not to conduct divisional play in 2004 when Miami and Virginia Tech join the league. The Hurricanes and Hokies will be represented at these meetings.
Personally, I still think the solution is to admit Notre Dame and allow the Irish to play a five-game ACC schedule by playing all the members of its six-team division. That would allow the Damers to continue to play a national schedule until they figure out that life in the ACC is pretty sweet.
After a couple of years, Notre Dame would likely be content to play a full compliment of games from its own division and some cross-over games and reduce some of its national competition.
If that doesn’t work, then Boston College was almost giddy about joining the league before the presidents from Virginia, Duke, UNC and N.C. State botched things up. A peace pipe could probably mend feelings enough to bring the Eagles in ... but as Corrigan said, it’s all a matter of timing now.
It is too late to stage a 2004 championship game regardless of whether the NCAA changes its mind about the subject. 2005 is now the focus for such issues, but that is another column and more meetings down the road.

 

 

 

ACC athletic directors grappling with schedule
By ROB DANIELS, LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE, The Virginian-Pilot
© September 30, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Meetings of ACC’s athletic directors typically come and go without comment or critical decision. The addition of Miami was discussed secretly for years before they took concrete action.

This time will be different. By the time the administrators adjourn from their expansion-generated meetings here Wednesday, they intend to declare who is guaranteed to play whom annually in football, and they may have the answers in basketball, too.

Until the next expansion announcement, that is.

In admitting Miami and Virginia Tech effective July 1, 2004, the league must end round-robin play in football. Its members will play eight ACC games per season but will bypass two opponents annually on a rotating basis.

League officials have said a round-robin, 20-game league schedule in basketball will be discussed, but coaches are overwhelmingly opposed to that because it’s too challenging and leaves little room for flexibility in scheduling attractive nonconference games. The league’s television partners would eagerly embrace a full round-robin format, but they lack leverage after signing a contract through 2011.

The more likely scenario is maintaining the current 16-game league schedule but jettisoning the round-robin schedule that has distinguished the ACC from the Big East, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC in recent years.

“If you talk with the TV partners, of course they’d like to have a double round-robin,” said Ron Wellman, Wake Forest’s athletic director. “The basketball coaches are not on that page. And the athletic directors have to discuss it (today) and Wednesday.”

This week’s meetings, at the U.Va. football stadium, will mark the first participation of the two newest members in official ACC business. ADs Jim Weaver of Tech and Paul Dee of Miami were expected to arrive late Monday.

The issue the ADs must address in both major revenue sports is which schools will play every year. For example, it’s fair to assume that North Carolina, N.C. State and Duke will play one another annually in football and twice per basketball season. You can assume Virginia and Virginia Tech are made for each other, as are Florida State and Miami.

But who else for the Cavaliers, Hokies, Seminoles and Hurricanes? What about Wake Forest, which has sought to distance itself from the belittling suggestion that it’s nothing more than that little college in the Big Four?

Nobody seems to know yet.

“There area all kinds of models being considered,” Wellman said, “and there’s no consistency to any of the models at this point as to who the protected partners are. It could be absolutely anyone.”

There also is the possibility that anything announced this week would apply only to next season. By then, the ACC may well have a 12th member, currently the minimum necessary for a league to conduct a championship football game. That expansion, which is not on this week’s official agenda, would create two divisions of six teams each and would trigger new scheduling issues.

As long as the league stands at 11, however, Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage thinks schedules will not be set more than two years out.

“In two or three months, we could be at 12 schools,” he said. “A shorter time frame gives us time to assess the balance of competitive power, for example.”
 

 

 

What to do with Hagans “tricky” problem for U.Va.
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© September 30, 2003

As talented and versatile a football player as he is, Marques Hagans has yet to find a way to make a play from the sideline.

But the sideline is where Hagans will remain, at least for the time being. Virginia coach Al Groh said Monday that Hagans is more valuable right now as a backup quarterback than as a starting receiver.

He’ll remain behind starter Matt Schaub, who returned to action Saturday after missing four weeks with a separated shoulder.

“When he went to receiver, we didn’t say this was necessarily forever,” Groh said. “What we’re saying about him at quarterback,” Groh said, “is, 'This is for now.’”

Groh said all along that, after Schaub returned, deciding what to do with Hagans was going to be a “tricky” proposition.

Hagans is arguably the most dynamic athlete on the offense, and Groh had to weigh his desire to get him on the field against the need to provide Schaub, who is still in the recovery process, with the most capable backup.

Groh said last week that Hagans could possibly play both positions. But he’s recently backed off that statement.

“I don’t want to turn him into a pingpong ball,” Groh said after Virginia’s 27-24 win over Wake Forest on Saturday. “He’s here, he’s there, he’s everywhere. He’s nothing.”

Hagans, who attended Hampton High, didn’t play Saturday. But in the previous game, a 59-16 win over Western Michigan, he took nearly every snap, completing 12 of 20 passes for 162 yards and three touchdowns and rushing nine times for 68 yards.

Hagans was pressed into duty for the Western Michigan game after Anthony Martinez, who had been Schaub’s backup, played poorly in a 31-7 loss to South Carolina. Hagans had moved to receiver in the spring and had practiced just a handful of times at quarterback before starting against Western Michigan. By remaining at quarterback, Hagans can keep his skills sharp, should Schaub go down again, Groh said.

As for the possibility of playing receiver, Groh said Hagans is not experienced enough to play it without practicing.

“It’s not as if he’s a veteran,” Groh said.

Hagans played on the punt protection team Saturday — just two plays. Groh said it’s possible Hagans will also return punts. He’s returned eight this season for an average of 8.1 yards.

For his part, Hagans has said he’ll do whatever it takes to help the team. Though playing quarterback is his first love, he said he’d rather be a first-string receiver than a second-string quarterback.

“As long as I’m on the field,” he said, “it doesn’t matter.”
 

 

 

 

Lundy breaking new ground in '03
By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

CHARLOTTESVILLE - After catching a total of five passes in Virginia's first four games, Wali Lundy isn't likely to approach the receiving record he notched as a freshman.
"We'll see," said Lundy, whose 58 receptions in 2002 tied an ACC record for freshmen.

While Lundy no longer ranks among the ACC's top receivers, he took over the conference rushing lead when he carried 27 times for a career-high 137 yards Saturday in a 27-24 victory over Wake Forest.

"In the first couple of games this year, nobody had very many catches," said UVa head coach Al Groh, who explained that a more experienced offensive line has given the staff more confidence in its running game.

"We probably couldn't have given the ball to an individual 27 times [last year] for 137 yards. His all-purpose yardage might have been up around the same number, but it might have come on 15 carries and nine catches. Some of those catches have become runs now."

Lundy has rushed for 381 yards, compared to 238 after four games last year, when he finished as the Cavaliers' leading rusher.

Lundy, an all-state receiver in his junior year at Holy Cross High School at Holy Cross High School, had a key 16-yard reception Saturday when quarterback Matt Schaub was flushed from the pocket on third-and-10.

"It didn't just happen that [Lundy] was on the scene," Groh said. "He recognized the situation and very quickly switched to a receiver's mentality. He positioned himself against the defender and relatively close to the [first-down] sticks. He gave the kind of body language to the quarterback that creates a connection."

Lundy has had back-to-back games with 100 or more rushing yards since he carried nine times for 35 yards in Week2 at South Carolina, where a pulled hamstring left him with little "juice," in Groh's estimation.

"My first thought was, 'How long is this going to last?'" said Lundy, who first injured the hamstring in the preseason. "It really hurt me not to be able to go 100 percent. I'm such a competitor that not being able to compete at my top level was really frustrating."

HAGANS SAGA: Marques Hagans, hero of Virginia's 59-16 victory over Western Michigan after moving from wide receiver to quarterback, got his only two plays Saturday as the personal protector for Tom Hagan on the punt team.

"I would like to get him in the game," said Groh, who also fielded questions about Hagans after the game Saturday and in a Sunday teleconference. "When he went to wide receiver, we didn't say this was necessarily forever, but it was for now. What we're saying about quarterback in this case is, 'This is for now.'

"He's going to be the backup quarterback. Remember, he practiced there the week before Western Michigan, the week before Wake Forest and three days during the bye week. So, he's had 10 or 11 practices at quarterback. For him to be able to function against some of the opponents we've got coming up, he's going to need more than 11 practices if it came up that we had to put him in the game."

STEPPING UP: Groh credited Braden Campbell, a 6-foot-5, 278-pound sophomore from Slippery Rock, Pa., for the tackle with 5:17 left after Wake had elected to go for a first down on fourth-and-short from the UVa 8 with the Deacs leading 24-21.

Campbell was in the game in place of starting defensive lineman Chris Canty, who had turned an ankle. Campbell played five plays all day and had two solo tackles.

ODDS 'N' ENDS: The ACC announced that Virginia's game Oct.11 at Clemson will be televised by Jefferson Pilot with a noon kickoff. The Cavaliers (3-1, 2-0 ACC) will visit North Carolina (0-4, 0-2) at 1:30 p.m. this Saturday for a game that will not be televised. ... Groh said that sophomore tight end Heath Miller, who had career highs of seven receptions and 94 receiving yards, had his best blocking game of the season and maybe of his 18-game college career. ... Former Giles County running back Carson Ward, an invited walk-on prior to the 2002 season, has rejoined the team.

 

 

 

Sports Focus: ACC Fall Meetings
Expansion still on agenda 12th school needed for football title game
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Sep 30, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE The Atlantic Coast Conference holds its fall meetings today and tomorrow at the University of Virginia, and participants are certain to discuss, if only informally, potential candidates to become the league's 12th member.

The agenda, though, primarily concerns scheduling. The ACC will grow to 11 schools next summer with the addition of Miami (Fla.) and Virginia Tech, and the conference must decide soon what scheduling models it will use for football and basketball and the Olympic sports for 2004-05.

Attending the meeting will be ACC officials, including Commissioner John Swofford, and three representatives from each of the 11 schools that will make up the league in 2004-05: the athletic director, faculty representative and senior woman administrator.

Football is the top priority. Teams will return to playing 11-game regular seasons next year, and for ACC schools, eight of those games will be against conference foes. That means many ACC teams will have the pleasure of taking on Miami and Florida State in the same season.

The football teams aren't expected to be split into two divisions. That's an option, but given an NCAA committee's recent rejection of an ACC request regarding football, the conference probably will group all its teams together.

The ACC has appealed to the NCAA to reduce from 12 to 10 the number of schools needed for a conference to stage a title game in football. If its request were approved -- and that still might happen in April - the ACC could set up divisions of five and six teams, respectively, and hold a lucrative championship game in 2004. But few observers believe the NCAA will support the ACC's proposal.

In any event, said Mike Finn, an assistant commissioner with the ACC, the league's athletic directors will decide this week "what scheduling model they want to go by." The ADs also must decide how teams will be rotated off the others' schedules.

Finn said the ACC hopes to release its 2004 football schedule in mid-December.

ACC Associate Commissioner Fred Barakat said last night that he's not sure what men's basketball issues will be resolved this week. He discussed several possible models - for 16-, 18- and 20-game conference schedules - with the ACC's head coaches early this month. Barakat later met with the athletic directors of the ACC's nine current schools and, finally, with the ADs from Virginia Tech and Miami. The ADs could leave Charlottesville having selected a scheduling model, but they may not get that far, Barakat said, "because football has to be done first."

Duke's athletic director, Joe Alleva, said yesterday that he expects the ACC "to end up with a 16-game schedule. I think 20 conference games is just too many. You start beating each other up . . . and it takes away a lot of the flexibility that you have of scheduling other games against national opponents."

If ACC schools opt for the 16-game conference schedule, each would be assigned an undetermined number of "primary partners" with which it would play a home-and-home series every season.

Whatever models are ultimately selected, don't count on seeing them used after 2004-05. The ACC is likely to pursue a 12th member that would join as early as the 2005-06 school year, and that would probably lead to divisions for at least football.

Given that the NCAA isn't likely to relax its title-game requirements for football, Virginia Athletic Director Craig Littlepage said Saturday, the ACC should feel a renewed sense of urgency about finding a 12th school.

"Particularly because of the financial implications," Littlepage said. "Expansion was to keep us whole, and a big piece of that plan was the football playoff game. So sitting at 11 doesn't meet all the revenue needs that were identified."

A title game in football would probably mean at least $7 million annually for the ACC.

 

 

 

Schaub's injury was severe
By Dave Johnson
Daily Press
Published September 30, 2003

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- More than four weeks after it happened - and, more to the point, two days after the player in question came back from it - Virginia coach Al Groh was finally forthcoming on the severity of quarterback Matt Schaub's separated right shoulder.

In his weekly press conference, Groh told reporters that Schaub's was a third-degree separation, the most serious, and that surgery was briefly considered. Not having any experience with the injury, and not knowing whether Schaub was quick healer or not, Groh had no timetable for a return date.

Schaub ended up coming back 28 days after the injury and completed 30-of-45 passes for 326 yards and two touchdowns. The yards were the third-most of his career, as were the attempts. The three interceptions he threw were the most of his four seasons.

Schaub was 18-of-22 in the first half, 12-of-23 in the second. All three picks came in the third and fourth quarters. Groh said he had no pitch count on Schaub but acknowledged the drop-off in the second half.

"He might have gotten a little arm-weary," Groh said. "I thought he didn't have as much steam as he might normally, although I thought he had a lot on a few balls. He threw a lot of balls during the course of the game. Technically, he was out for two games, but he hadn't played in full-speed action since last December. I don't really count 11 plays (against Duke) as being full-speed.

"All things considered, against players who had been in games for a month, I thought he kept up his speed pretty well."

Schaub said his shoulder felt "good," adding he had some "normal Monday" soreness.

TAKE THE BALL. He couldn't remember if he had done it before, but in any case he hasn't done it often. When he wins the pregame coin flip, Groh - as do most college coaches - normally defers the decision until the second half.

Not last week. The Cavs won the toss against Wake Forest and took the ball.

"I wanted to get our offense on the field early," Groh said. "I wanted to get Matt into the game right away. And had (the coin) landed the other way, that would have been true on the other side. If Wake was going to win the toss and take the ball because they wanted to, then I didn't want to win the coin toss and defer and make it 100 percent they could get what they wanted."

Wake Forest had taken the ball the last two times it had won the toss.

NO VOTE. One of the voters in the USA Today/ESPN poll, Groh said he did not vote for his team in the top 25 this week.

"I think a team that's 3-1 and in our circumstance has a lot more to prove," he said. "And after seven or eight teams, there's about 30 teams that could make up the next 10. How many 3-1, 4-1 teams are there?"

SHORTS. Place-kicker Connor Hughes, who made two field goals in the final two minutes to lift Virginia to a 27-24 victory against Wake Forest, was named ACC Specialist of the Week. Hughes became the first Virginia kicker to win a game on a field goal in the final minute since Todd Braverman, who beat North Carolina 20-17 on a 50-yarder with 27 seconds left in 1999. ... The Virginia-Clemson game for Oct. 11 has been set for noon. ... Groh on North Carolina's Darian Durant, who has thrown for 923 yards and seven touchdowns this season: "I love my quarterback, and I'm a big fan of (N.C. State's) Philip Rivers. But Darian Durant is as good as any quarterback in the league." ... Virginia is second in the conference in rushing at 172.5 yards per game. Wali Lundy is the league's top rusher at 95.2 yards per game.