UVa looks for redemption
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
September 9, 2006

A number of Virginia’s football players, like the fans, have been counting down the days for the home opener.

Originally, the reasons varied from starting for the first time in front of a Scott Stadium crowd to simply being in uniform as a true freshman.

Those reasons took a back seat last Saturday at Pitt.

After suffering a 25-point loss, Virginia (0-1) just wants a second chance to make a first impression.

That opportunity comes today with an odd opponent. Wyoming (1-0) made a cross-country trek to play the first game ever between the two programs. Kickoff for the non-televised game is slated for 3:30 p.m.

“I just wanted to leave Pittsburgh, come home and have a day where I could sit and reflect on the [Pitt] game and then it was time to move on,” said defensive end Chris Long. “I have looked at that tape a couple of times and then it was all Wyoming.

“This is an exciting new opportunity. That’s the way you have to be each week. You can’t dwell on the wins or the losses.”

Trying to forget Pitt should be easy. There was little worth remembering.

The Cavaliers mustered only 52 rushing yards, scored only one touchdown and gave up what coach Al Groh referred to as “four one-play touchdowns.”

Wyoming spent its opening game on the opposite end of the spectrum. The Cowboys scored 28 unanswered points, including 21 in the fourth quarter, to dismantle Utah State, 38-7, snapping a six-game losing streak that dated back to the 2005 campaign.

History should help Wyoming, a 9½-point underdog. Last year, the Cowboys played at Florida and Ole Miss, winning the latter.

“It is tough to get on a plane and fly two-thirds of the way across the United States, get off and get on a bus and ride in there and play,” Wyoming coach Joe Glenn said this week. “But I’m excited to see us do it. We did it at Ole Miss, and I think we’re capable of being in this game.”

The contest has an interesting twist. Both teams employ a 3-4 defensive alignment, something Groh has never faced at UVa.

“The only novelty in the defensive scheme is it’s novel for us to face it,” Groh said.

Glenn does not seem overly concerned about sending out his defense onto the field in a formation that Virginia routinely practices against.

“It’s what it is,” Glenn told reporters. “I don’t know. I just don’t see any advantage there, really.”

Offensively, Wyoming uses a “one-back” set and spreads the ball around to a number of wideouts.

“It bears some resemblances to - to try and paint a picture of it - of the old run-and-shoot in the past,” Groh said. “A lot of unusual combinations, teams that throw a lot of what I like to call ‘Likely to be caught’ passes.”

“Like last week, they threw nine or 10 screens in the game. Now we like to throw screens too, but that’s a lot of screens in a game, and they have five or six different types of screens.”

That could put added pressure on Virginia’s secondary, a group that entered the season with lofty expectations only to struggle at Pitt.

“The mistakes we made are correctable, granted we made a lot of them, but it is a matter of discerning between correctable mistakes and mistakes that you are not going to be able to repair,” Long said. “These are mental errors and these are correctable things. We know we are going to improve.”

Virginia’s offense, desperate for a “do-over,” hopes to improve in the second career start for quarterback Christian Olsen.

The fifth-year senior completed 17 of 34 passes for just 133 yards as Pitt routinely blitzed past Virginia’s offensive line.

Olsen said he hopes the pressure keeps coming.

“I like when teams blitz us,” the former Notre Dame transfer said. “We’re going to be able to find open guys, and the more we play the more those guys are going to be able to take 6-yard passes for 50-yard gains.”

Olsen hopes to follow in the footsteps of former UVa signal-callers Matt Schaub and Marques Hagans, both of whom struggled in their respective debuts.

Can Virginia fans expect the same kind of turnaround?

“We’ll see,” Groh said. “It’s easy to say that about those other guys, because that’s hindsight speaking.”

Quotable

“My biggest excitement is the opportunity to go play a game that fits a lot more closely into what my picture of what football art is. I’d be happy to play in the Barracks Road parking lot Wednesday night, to tell you the truth. There certainly is a great thing about being home … but if you make too much out of playing at home and what a great deal it is and what a big lift it should be, you know ‘Protect our house,’ and all that business, then what you’re really saying is that you are pretty much expecting to win your home games, and when the other team has the other circumstance, then psychologically you are expecting it’s going to go the other way.”

- Coach Al Groh on Tuesday discussing today’s home opener.
 

Game tickets will be scanned
By Sean McLernon / Daily Progress staff writer
September 9, 2006

The tipping point for Dirk Katstra came during the second half of the 2004 season.

The executive director of the Virginia Athletics Foundation could not recall at which game it happened, but he had no trouble remembering that about 200 counterfeit tickets were sold to fans outside of Scott Stadium. A few dozen people got through the gates with the fakes before stadium staff began to catch on.

“People bought [the counterfeit tickets] on the street,” Katstra said. “They weren’t perfect, but they were pretty good duplicates.”

With a new ticket-scanning system in place for this football season, the athletics foundation has found a way to avoid making that mistake again - while cornering the market for online ticket sales and turning a profit in the process.

Beginning with today’s home opener against Wyoming, all tickets will be electronically scanned instead of torn when fans enter the stadium. The foundation also has implemented both a ticket exchange system online, allowing season ticket holders who cannot make a game to transfer a ticket electronically to other fans, and a ticket marketplace, where season ticket holders can put their tickets up for auction to the general public.

“It’s a secure marketplace,” Katstra said. “It functions similar to all the other marketplaces, except all of this is electronically controlled.”

For all ticket sales on the online marketplace, which can be accessed through the official athletics Web site at www.virginiasports.com, the Virginia Athletics Foundation charges a 15 percent service charge. The foundation also charges a $5 fee to the buyer on top of the service charge.

There is no limit to how high a season ticket holder can set the price of a ticket on the marketplace. Some student tickets for the 2005 game against Virginia Tech with a face value of $50 were put up for auction on eBay and sold for more than $150 each. If the tickets were sold on the Virginia Ticket Marketplace, the VAF would have accrued more than $25 in fees for each ticket.

Katstra said the athletics foundation implemented the system to achieve security and convenience rather than profit and that a portion of the revenue goes to maintenance of the system.

“We didn’t do it to try and make money, we did it to provide a place to get tickets outside of buying or selling them on the street,” Katstra said.

Unlike eBay and other sites where fans can put their tickets up for auction, the exchanges on the Virginia Ticket Marketplace are completely electronic. Fans do not need to physically transfer the tickets from buyer to seller. Instead, the bar code on the original tickets will be deactivated and the buyer prints out new tickets with an active bar code.

While the ticket scanners at Scott Stadium will find the original tickets invalid, denying fans with fake tickets entry to the stadium, the originals will still look authentic in every way. So if the original owner, after selling his tickets through the Virginia Ticket Exchange, attempts to sell the invalid, authentic-looking tickets to another fan on the street or through e-Bay, the fan would have no way of knowing the tickets are fake.

The only way, then, to ensure that a ticket is authentic is to buy it from the UVa ticket office or the Virginia Ticket Exchange. Katstra acknowledged this element of the system, but said it was not implemented for that reason.

“The primary focus on going to this was not trying to control the marketplace on the selling or buying side,” Katstra said. “That’s a by-product or feature of this system. We wanted to have an efficient way of controlling the inventory of tickets.”

With the new exchange system, there is even more risk than usual when it comes to purchasing tickets on the street outside Scott Stadium.

“If somebody wants to try and be dishonest about it, there’s a chance for someone to get burned,” Katstra said.

The electronic scanning, as well as the ticket exchange and ticket marketplace, debuted during the 2005-06 basketball season. Athletics Director Craig Littlepage said the department received nothing but positive feedback.

More than anything else, he said, this system is about giving season ticket holders an easy way to transfer their tickets.

“I think that as we get into the year, people are making their decisions from week to week about their ability to get to the game,” Littlepage said. “This system provides a stress-free environment from which they can allocate those tickets or sell those tickets.”

Olsen clan busy with football
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
September 9, 2006

Chris and Sue Olsen’s original plan for watching their sons play college football was fairly simple.

Throw on some Notre Dame apparel. Travel to South Bend. Make the mural of Touchdown Jesus their favorite work of art.

In 2003, the undertaking became trickier when their sons transferred - Christian to Virginia and Greg to Miami.

This season, with Christian having earned the chance to start at quarterback, and Greg having established himself as one of the top tight ends in the country, the couple is in a real quandary - which son do they watch?

Making matters more complicated is the fact that Chris has games of his own on Friday nights - he’s the head football coach at Wayne Hills High in New Jersey. The Olsens also have another son, Kevin, who plays quarterback for his junior high team.

“There are four schedules that we have to look at,” Chris Olsen said. “It’s hectic, but it’s a lot of fun. It’s what you’ve waited all these years for.”

The Olsens were able to watch both Christian and Greg in their season debuts - Virginia played at Pittsburgh on Saturday, while Miami hosted Florida State on Labor Day night.

Today, however, they have a conflict. Virginia is home for Wyoming at 3:30 p.m. Some 3.5 hours later, Miami plays host to Florida A&M.

What to do?

Well, the Olsens have elected to take in Christian’s home debut. That is, if they can keep their eyes open.

Because Wayne Hills had a game on Friday evening, the couple wasn’t planning on leaving New Jersey until around midnight. They were expecting to drive through the night and arrive in Charlottesville around 7 a.m.

“We’ll sleep a few hours,” Chris explained, “and then go to the game.”

Next Saturday presents another dilemma: Virginia plays host to Western Michigan and Miami is at Louisville. The Olsens plan is to watch Christian again.

The following week, the couple receives a respite - UVa plays on a Thursday night at Georgia Tech, while Miami is off - but there are games that overlap in five of the last nine weeks.

Chris Olsen says his wife is in charge of trying to orchestrate the chaos.

“She has a calendar with all four of our schedules and kind of maintains that and lets me know what’s going on,” he said.

One week that does not present a scheduling conflict: Nov. 18 when Miami comes to Charlottesville.

“We plan on the whole family being there,” Chris Olsen said. “That’s the first week of the playoffs in New Jersey. Hopefully we’ll play Friday night, which will free me up for Saturday.”

Christian, who teamed with younger brother Greg to win back-to-back high school state championships, laughed when he was asked who his parents will pull for.

“I think they’ll just be rooting for both offenses to do well and get a lot of points,” he said. “It will be tough for them to root for anybody, so I think they’ll just root for both of us to do our best.”

Last season, Olsen said his parents played it safe with their wardrobe during Miami’s win over Virginia.

“They just wore all orange, so that way it’s not Virginia or Miami,” he said. “They can sit in both sections and not have to hear any [grief] from other fans.”

Olsen said he and his brother have already talked about this year’s rematch.

“It’s going to be really exciting to finally get to play against him and actually be on the field and have a hand in trying to win the game,” he said, “but we have a lot of important games before that. There’s a lot of stuff we have to take care of before then.”

Last week, in the loss at Pittsburgh, Christian went 17 of 34 for 133 yards and an interception before giving way to backups. Greg caught two passes for 8 yards in Miami’s loss to Florida State.

Chris and Sue Olsen say they try and stay calm during games.

“We don’t do a lot of yelling,” Chris said. “We just kind of sit there and watch them and let things unfold as they will. [We’re] just proud of our boys for working so hard to get where they are.”

Now, if they can just stay awake.

 

Wahoo Memories
Charles Way
Drew Hansen / Daily Progress staff writer
September 9, 2006

Charles Way

AGE: 33

HOMETOWN: Philadelphia

PLAYING WEIGHT: 238 pounds in 1994

CURRENT WEIGHT: 250 pounds “But my NFL playing weight was 247, so I haven’t gotten too big,” Way said.

HEIGHT: 6-foot-2

PERSONAL: Married to wife Tahesha, a UVa law school graduate, for 10 years. They have three children: Fallon, 9; Farrah, 6; and Faythe, 3.

PRESENT OCCUPATION: Director of Player Programs for the NFL’s New York Giants. Way coordinates the Giants’ participation in the NFL’s Player Programs, which are aimed to help players adjust to their careers in professional football and to develop skills that will help transition to a successful life after football.

“We try and give guys opportunities to get back to school in the offseason,” Way said. “A lot of guys leave college without getting a degree.”

WHILE AT VIRGINIA: Way was a two-time honorable mention All-ACC fullback with the Cavaliers in 1993 and ’94 who rushed for 1,330 yards and 20 touchdowns in his four years.

Way made a name for himself as a tough runner who turned short-yardage situations into large gains. He had two 100-yard games in his career, including a 136-yard affair against Maryland in 1993 in which he scored three touchdowns and was awarded ACC Offensive Back of the Week honors.

A two-time All-ACC Academic selection as a civil engineering major, Way was co-captain of the 1994 Cavalier team that finished 9-3 overall and defeated TCU in the Independence Bowl.

SINCE LEAVING VIRGINIA: Drafted in the sixth round of the 1995 NFL Draft by the Giants, Way played five seasons in New York, where he provided a reliable rushing and receiving presence. He was the Giants’ leading rusher in ’97 when he gained 698 yards to go along with 304 receiving yards and five touchdowns.

Way’s career was cut short due to a knee injury suffered in the 1999 season. He started 55 of 75 games in his career with the Giants, rushing for 1,356 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also added 118 receptions for 898 yards and four scores.

He underwent surgery to stabilize his knee in late 1999, where the cartilage in his knee was replaced by the cartilage of a cadaver. The surgery was the first of its kind for an athlete, but it couldn’t save Way’s career.

Way transitioned into his current position in the Giants’ front office in June 2000.

FAVORITE CAVALIER MEMORY: “It was my first touchdown my redshirt freshman year (in 1991). It was the Wake Forest game and everyone was telling me I’d get in and have a chance to score. It was one of the first games I’d ever gotten into and I was really excited.

“So in the second quarter I scored and I did a dance. Coach George Welsh meets me out on the 20-yard line and says ‘Never do that again.’

“I got another TD in that game and I just put the ball down and ran back to the sideline. George came up to me again and, in his own special way, said ‘That’s the way we do things here.’

“But I learned a lot from Welsh. He taught me so much about not just football but life. Him and all the assistants … they really did a big part in molding me into the man I am today.”

WORST CAVALIER MEMORY: “I guess being around a No. 1 team my redshirt year (in 1990 when the Cavaliers started the season 7-0 and were ranked No. 1 for three weeks) and all that excitement, and then we lost four games. It was devastating not just for the team but also the town … Scott Sisson’s winning kick for Georgia Tech is probably one of the most depressing moments in Cavalier history.”



 

5 Burning Questions for UVa Football
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
September 9, 2006

1) Can the Cavaliers develop amnesia and forget about the season-opening loss at Pitt?
They had better or they might find themselves 0-2 just eight days into the season. UVa coach Al Groh was asked this week if he had seen anything from his team to indicate a turnaround was likely.
Groh elected not to take the bait, pointing out that “in the long run, I don’t want to fall back on the same answer all the time, but frankly the answer for most weeks is going to be ‘We’ll see on Saturday.’”
There were not too many positives from the Pitt game, albeit a few such as placekicker Chris Gould and linebacker Jermaine Dias. The mistakes, however, must be corrected and the players think that will happen.
“I think it is encouraging that we find [our mistakes] out in Week 1,” said staring inside linebacker Jon Cooper. “We have a lot more football to play and I think each week we are going to improve and just continually make some things happen.”

2) Can Virginia’s offensive line buy quarterback Christian Olsen enough time to actually get accurate passes off downfield?
Wyoming only allowed 74 yards of passing last week against Utah State. Virginia, of course, is a lot better than Utah State, a team that went 3-8 last year. That will matter little if Olsen is forced to throw “hot routes” play after play and if the Cavaliers can’t run the ball.
“[Olsen] had a tough go of it because he didn’t have much of a running game to go with and he had a lot of squeeze on the pocket that he couldn’t deal with,” Groh said. “He didn’t get the kind of help that any quarterback needs to have.”
To Olsen’s credit, he spoke like a team captain should this week when he applauded the effort of the young, inexperienced group working in the trenches.
“I don’t think they played bad, and I don’t think at all that they were the reason we lost the ballgame,” Olsen said. “For as many first-time starters as we have, I thought they did a heckuva job.”
It still must get better.

3) Can punting win or lose the game for either team?
Groh has talked about this facet of the game from Day 1, so he certainly thinks so. Wyoming has one of the best punters in the country in junior Billy Vinnedge, a junior-college transfer from Arroyo Grande, Calif.
“[Wyoming has] a punter who averages 47 yards a kick, and that is consistent with his junior college yardage,” Groh said. “There is a lot of field-position swing, that’s 3 yards short of half the field. Any time the ball moves half the field on one play that is pretty significant. If you had seven 50-yard passes during a game, that would be a pretty good game passing the ball.”
Thanks to Vinnedge, Wyoming has adopted a “punt-first” mentality.
“A punt’s not a bad thing,” Wyoming quarterback Jacob Doss told reporters during the preseason. “We were just talking, doing some percentages and stuff. Any time you get the ball inside the 20, you have a 3 percent chance of scoring.”
Virginia must counter that with its return game and improved punting from either Gould or fellow junior Ryan Weigand.
“We have to figure out a way to bring that back to minimize the net punting,” Groh said, “or to improve our net punting so that the deferential doesn’t change the field position swing as it just keeps adding up.”

4) With UVa defensive end Chris Long drawing countless double teams, can the local standout stay positive and productive?
Long, who made only one tackle against Pitt, certainly thinks so.
“It is OK to be marked,” Long said. “I feel like, if there is extra emphasis being put on you, then other openings will come in the defense. Part of being a veteran player is understanding that and just understanding if you take two [defenders] somebody is going to be freed up. I am fine with whatever my role is on this defense.”
That, in turn, puts added pressure on Long’s fellow defensive linemen, nose tackle Allen Billyk and end Jeffrey Fitzgerald. The duo combined to make 10 tackles last weekend.

5) Given Coach Groh’s background with the 3-4 defense, does the fact that Wyoming runs the 3-4 play into Virginia’s hands on offense?
It should, at least in theory. This is the same defense that the Cavaliers went against throughout the spring and training camp, but just as Virginia must get better in the secondary and on third downs, only the game will tell.
“I’m kind of excited to go against the 3-4,” Olsen said. “Coach knows all about that defense, so he also knows how to beat the 3-4. I think we’ll be ready for it.”
The only other team Virginia has played against since Groh started in 2001 that runs a 3-4 defensive alignment is Maryland, but even the Terps play with what resembles more of a 4-3.

 

Cavaliers see opportunity for redemption in home opener against Cowboys
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Sep 9, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- The only way for the University of Virginia football team to silence its critics is to get back on the field and play well. It's been a long week for the Cavaliers, who were embarrassed in their opener at Pittsburgh, but the opportunity for redemption is finally at hand.

U.Va. (0-1) plays its home opener today against Wyoming (1-0) at Scott Stadium. Kickoff can't arrive too quickly for the Wahoos.

"That's the tough part about football," senior quarterback Christian Olsen said. "Basketball, you lose and you play two days later, and one or two losses don't kill you. In football you have to wait a whole 'nother week to play."

In its 38-13 loss to Pitt at Heinz Field last week, U.Va. struggled in virtually every area. The Panthers intercepted two passes -- one by Olsen, the other by backup quarterback Kevin McCabe -- and returned them for touchdowns. Virginia surrendered TD passes of 72 and 78 yards. The Cavs punted poorly, blocked weakly, tackled inconsistently and, in general, played abysmally.

U.Va. coach Al Groh was asked this week if he believes, as many of his peers say they do, that a football team improves most between its first and second games.

"I try to stay away from that old coaching bromide that everybody spits out at this time of year, whether they think about it or not," Groh said. "It's certainly got merit, but I'd like to think that our team would continue to im- prove progressively during the course of a season . . . That's what we're looking for, not a dramatic jump from one week to the next and then stay there."

Unlike Virginia, Mountain West Conference member Wyoming started the season with a performance for which it did not feel compelled to apologize. At home, the Cowboys totaled 460 yards of offense and whipped Utah State 38-7. Wyoming's new 3-4 defense -- similar to the one U.Va. favors limited the Aggies to 129 yards.

All of which delighted Joe Glenn, of course, but Wyoming's longtime coach doesn't expect a repeat in his team's first game against Virginia. Utah State is expected to be one of the Western Athletic Conference's weaker teams this season.

"You have to keep in [mind]: We played Utah State, we didn't play Pittsburgh," said Glenn, whose record at Wyoming is 174-79-1.

"We were able to win the line of scrimmage. [U.Va. has a] little different type of athletes, and it'll be a different kind of battle in the trenches this week."

The Cavaliers are "a very big, physical football team," Glenn said. "We're not the littlest team in the world, but at the same time . . . I hope we can hang."

Wyoming's offense includes elements of the run-and-shoot. When that offense stalls, punter Billy Vinnedge can bail out the Cowboys. He starred at Allan Hancock Community College in 2004 and '05, and his only punt against Utah State went 47 yards.

Questions surround U.Va.'s punting game. Chris Gould converted both of his field-goal attempts against Pitt, connecting from 48 and 42 yards, but averaged only 39.1 yards on seven punts. Groh expects more from Gould, and so does the junior from Lock Haven, Pa., who also kicks off for the Cavaliers.

"I was very disappointed," Gould said Tuesday. "It was just one of those things where I wasn't extending my arms to get the extension and leverage I need on the ball. I'm going to work really hard at this this week because I know the team needs a better punting performance if we want to win football games this year."

If Gould seemed determined to improve on his opening-night performance, so did the other Cavaliers who met with reporters at John Paul Jones Arena early this week.

"This is a huge week for us," Olsen said. "We're 0-1, but we can win a bunch of these next games and people will forget about this Pittsburgh game that we played."

 

Cowboys up next because of Moon
A readin goes here and here and here four decks.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

Why Wyoming?

If Virginia football fans aren't asking that question today, they might be asking it next year, when the Cavaliers visit Laramie, Wyo.

The Cowboys furnish the opposition at 3:30 p.m. today, when Virginia (0-1) has its home opener and tries to eradicate the sour taste left by last Saturday's 38-13 loss at Pittsburgh.

Virginia and Wyoming have not met previously; in fact, the Cowboys haven't played an ACC team since 1961, when they played the second of two games with North Carolina State.

For today's matchup and next year's return trip, the Cavaliers have one person to thank, former Roanoker Lee Moon.

Moon, a one-time VMI football player who had two stints as a Virginia assistant, was the athletic director at Wyoming when the current two-year home-and-home series was arranged.

"What's really good and one of the reasons we took this game is that they're returning the favor," Wyoming coach Joe Glenn said Thursday. "A lot of teams, they'll just buy you out or say, 'Come to town and play us or you don't play.'

"It's the same way with Nebraska. It's the same way with Colorado, and we're neighboring states. I just really appreciate the fact that teams like Ole Miss, although they weren't happy about coming here, and Virginia and Syracuse have agreed to come and play in front of our fans."

It was Moon who hired Glenn in 2002, one year after Glenn had won a Division I-AA national title at Montana.

"He's just a tremendous, tremendous coach," Moon said. "He's a tremendous fit for Wyoming. He's a laid-back-cowboy kind of guy. If you find a piano, he'll play a piano and sing. He plays by ear. He's just a laid-back, genuine guy. And, Al's, uh, intense."

The reference was to UVa coach Al Groh, who was the Cavs' defensive end coach in 1972, when Moon was a graduate assistant under then-UVa head coach Don Lawrence.

Groh left Virginia for North Carolina and Moon got a full-time job at Duke, only to return to Virginia as an assistant for six years under Dick Bestwick.

"I love Charlottesville; I wish I could be there this weekend," Moon said. "But, we've got a game down here."

Since 2004, Moon has been senior associate director of athletics at Alabama-Birmingham, which hosts East Carolina. Basically, he has been responsible for day-to-day operations of the department under Watson Brown, who is the Blazers' football coach.

Moon had been the AD at Wyoming for seven years before he was terminated by school president Phillip Dubois during the summer of 2003. It's not surprising that Moon still has some hard feelings about that situation.

"Sure, I do," he said.

In his efforts to upgrade the Cowboys' schedule, Moon added a home-and-home series with Mississippi in 2004-2005. Wyoming won both games, including a 24-14 victory last year in Oxford, Miss.

"Virginia needed a game and they weren't paying enough money to buy somebody," Moon said. "I had been trying forever with [Virginia administrator] Gerry Capone to get them to give us a bunch of money to come and he wouldn't do it.

"Finally, they needed a game for this year and we had a date and I said, 'If you'll just come back, we'll do it,' and I put a big buyout in it so they couldn't buy out of the game."

Groh has been known to accommodate former colleagues like Gary Darnell, who was the head coach at Western Michigan when the Cavaliers visited Kalamazoo, Mich., in 2003, but he only worked with Moon for one year.

"Frankly, this is one of those cases where persistence paid off," Groh said. "He kept asking and kept asking and kept asking, and Gerry kept coming to me and kept coming to me and kind of suggesting the game and we needed a game for this slot and finally I said 'sure.'"

Moon might want to wait a while before pushing for a home-and-home series between UAB and UVa.

"I would not say that a precedent has been set," Groh said.

Glenn's second Wyoming team defeated UCLA 24-21 in the 2004 Sun Bowl and the Cowboys were 4-1 last year before losing their last six games. They come to Charlottesville as 912-point underdogs, having opened the season with a 38-7 thumping of Utah State.

"It's not like when I was scheduling these money games and going to Tennessee [in 2002] and knowing you didn't have any chance," Moon said. "Obviously, if they won both games with Ole Miss, I scheduled that series at the right time. Hopefully, maybe I scheduled Virginia at the right time."

That doesn't mean that Moon, whose two sons were born in Charlottesville, will be pulling for the Cowboys.

"I've got a degree from Virginia," said Moon, who has a masters in education from UVa. "As much as some of my friends might feel that devalues their degrees, we can't forget that."

1. Rush for at least 150 yards. The Cavs had 21 carries for 52 yards last week in a 38-13 loss at Pittsburgh. Virginia does not have the kind of passing game that can sustain the offense by itself.

2. At least two sacks. Virginia's only sack against Pittsburgh was on a blitz by safety Tony Franklin. UVa needs more pressure from its defensive line, particularly junior end Chris Long.

3. Limit Wyoming's big plays. Big plays killed UVa at Pittsburgh, where the Panthers had three scoring plays of more than 70 yards -- two on touchdown passes and one on an interception.
 

Pearman move a long and twisted tale
Preseason top 40 list available -- again
Doug Doughty

Here at The Roanoke Times, we like to pride ourselves on “Landmark Cooperation,” Landmark being the conglomerate that owns daily newspapers in Roanoke, Norfolk and Greensboro, N.C., as well as some television stations and smaller papers like the Galax Gazette.

So it is that the idea for this week’s Notebook Plus comes from Jeff Carlton, a reporter from Greensboro who called earlier this week to ask if I could provide salaries for assistant football coaches at Virginia and Virginia Tech. In the process, Carlton also asked if I knew the real story about first-year North Carolina assistant Danny Pearman.

Pearman, who coaches the Tar Heels’ defensive ends, previously had served for eight seasons as an assistant coach at Virginia Tech, where he was in charge of the Tech tight ends and offensive tackles. Tech also had an offensive-line coach, Bryan Stinespring, but Stinespring’s principal position was as the offensive coordinator, so Pearman did not lack for responsibility.

The tight end has become an increasingly valuable part of the Hokies’ passing game, as evidenced by Jeff King’s 51 receptions over the past two seasons, but, in a news release Feb. 24, Tech reported that Pearman had been “reassigned within the athletics department.”

That was the only mention of Pearman in a news release that otherwise concentrated on the hiring of three new assistants, quarterbacks coach Mike O’Cain, receivers coach Kevin Sherman and offensive-line coach Curt Newsome. Who knows if there was any discussion of what role Pearman was to fill in the Tech athletics department because, six days later, North Carolina announced that Pearman had been named to John Bunting’s staff.

Considering Tech’s success rate over the past eight seasons, it was somewhat surprising that the Hokies would have wanted to “reassign” Pearman, but, as I told Carlton, I’ve always suspected that the wheels started turning when archrival Virginia lost four assistants in early December – three to head-coaching positions.

Among the coaches who left Virginia was Ron Prince, the Cavaliers’ offensive coordinator and five-year offensive-line coach, who went to Kansas State. Head coach Al Groh’s first impulse was to fill the offensive-line job and worry about the coordinator’s position later.

In mid-December, Groh brought Newsome, then a James Madison assistant, to campus. Newsome had vast connections in the Hampton-Newport News area and came recommended by Hampton High School coach Mike Smith, with whom Groh has had lukewarm relations at best.

Newsome also had cordial relations with the Tech staff and I’m told that Beamer long had eyed him as a future Hokie staff member. Word was that Beamer, having learned of the Virginia interview, had asked Newsome not to make a move before alerting him first.

That said, Newsome had such a favorable visit to Virginia that, according to friends, he was inclined to take a UVa job if offered. And, his impression when he left Charlottesville was that an offer likely would be forthcoming, but maybe not until the Cavaliers returned from the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn.

It never happened. Instead, Groh hired Dave Borbely from the staff of ousted University of Colorado coach, explaining that Borbely had been part of a Buffaloes’ running game that was very similar to the Cavaliers’ scheme. Along the way, he thanked Smith for his recommendation of Newsome, which was thoughtful but not necessarily well-received.

Here’s where I’ve got questions. With Virginia’s decision to hire Borbely (or not to hire Newsome), I’m not sure why Tech was in a hurry to hire Newsome, unless assurances had been made during the period before Virginia officially filled its spot.

You’d probably never get Tech to say that – and definitely not on the record – but there’s also one other variable. The word in recruiting circles was, wherever Newsome went, that’s where Hampton quarterback Tyrod Taylor was going. Taylor is the No. 1 prospect in the state and a possible franchise quarterback in the mold of Michael and Marcus Vick.

Taylor committed to the Hokies in July.

Who’s to say that another school – say, a North Carolina – couldn’t have swooped in and tried to hire Newsome, either because of his connections to Taylor or because of his recruiting acumen in general? If Beamer eventually wanted Newsome on his staff, why continue to roll the dice?

Stinespring wasn’t necessarily looking to shed his offensive-line duties, but he knew he could work with Newsome, an old friend. He could have coached the quarterbacks, which might not have thrilled some Hokie fans, but Beamer had Mike O’Cain in mind to do that. So, tight ends looked like the best fit for Stinespring, given his other duties.

Beamer probably could have lived with Pearman for a ninth year and possibly beyond, but Pearman had not been one of Tech’s most effective recruiters. On many staffs, the tight-ends job is reserved for an assistant who is a terrific recruiter – UVa’s Bob Price is an example of that – but Tech was getting its best production out of other recruiters.

Of course, Pearman also worked with the offensive tackles. At Virginia, Price’s work with the tight ends should not be undervalued, with the Cavaliers priding themselves as Tight End U., but, if there was a member of the Tech staff who was expendable, it was Pearman.

My understanding it that Tech running backs coach Billy Hite put in a good word for Pearman with Hite’s former North Carolina teammate, John Bunting. When Bunting hired Pearman, a Charlotte, N.C., native, there was genuine happiness among former Tech colleagues that Pearman had found a home in a good neighborhood.

ONE OF THE PITFALLS of writing this column, now in its ninth year, is that the writing usually occurs on Friday and its “publication” sometimes takes place after I have left town for a weekend assignment.

Such was the case last Friday, when, prior to driving to Pittsburgh, I left a column for on-line editor John Jackson that was to be accompanied by a preseason list of the top 40 football prospects in the state.

However, in the process of attaching the column to an e-mail, I failed to attach the list, which had been completed. As a result, the column was shorter than usual.

“To be honest, your last two columns were a bit weak,” a reader named “Paul” e-mailed me last week.

I don’t know if he was referring to Friday’s Notebook Plus and last Thursday’s UVa Insider, but it got me thinking that maybe I should see if the preseason top 40 had ever been posted.

It hadn’t.

It’s been up there since Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, but here it is again. In the near future, we hope to have this and other links that will be accessible through a “recruiting” link on roanoke.com.

 

Al Groh put aside bloodline when he promoted his son
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© September 9, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE - The Grohs, father Al and son Mike, weren't playing along.

It was an August afternoon, 10 days into preseason practice, and inquiring media minds wanted to know what set father and son apart. How were their personalities the same? Different?

"That's a family matter," Virginia coach Al Groh said with a trace of a smile. "That's not for the public to know; that's for the Grohs to know."

About a half an hour later, standing in the sun on the Scott Stadium concourse, his eyes hidden by dark sunglasses, Mike Groh, Virginia's new offensive coordinator, also showed little interest in responding to that line of questioning.

"I don't know," he said. "I guess I've got some of my mom's genes in me, too."

Had they been asked back in June, father and son might have been more forthcoming. But with camp under way, they were in football, not family, mode. They prefer to maintain a sort of church/state divide between the professional and the private.

At work, Mike Groh isn't Al's son, he's the offensive coordinator. Al Groh isn't Mike's father, he's his boss.

"I'm just like every other assistant coach that's ever worked for him," Mike said. "That's the way I approach it, and I'll continue to do so."

He is and he isn't. None of Groh's other assistants grew up in the head coach's house, tagged along with him to practices, got pulled from school early for recruiting trips or road games.

None of the other coaches has his last name, which is why Mike Groh could be the most-scrutinized coordinator U.Va. has ever had. Coordinators often have their play calls second-guessed. The heat can be more intense when the coordinator is the coach's son. Just ask Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden and his son Jeff, the offensive coordinator and a frequent target of Seminoles fan fury.

Mike Groh, 34, has been on his father's staff for six years, coaching receivers and quarterbacks. He was promoted to coordinator in February and made his debut in last Saturday's 38-13 loss to Pittsburgh. It wasn't much of an occasion for second-guessing. Virginia's spotty offensive line made it a night of survival, not innovation. But the Grohs know Mike will be watched closely.

"It's a lightning rod position in any program," Al Groh said. "We all recognize that's the nature of it."

The senior Groh realized promoting his son would raise eyebrows, but said the potential fallout wasn't a major factor in his decision.

"We just had to consider: Look, what's the best way for the team to be coached right now," Al Groh said.

His choice was a former U.Va. quarterback who embarked on a career as a stockbroker after a short pro stint that ended in 1997 in the World League of American Football.

Mike Groh worked in Richmond, where he described his job as "a lot of sitting in front of a computer and staring at little numbers all day long, and making calls to people."

As a player, the younger Groh performed better in games than at practice, occasionally frustrating his coaches. As a student, he was more interested in doing well on tests than in learning for its own sake, occasionally frustrating his father.

In short, he was motivated by competition. After a couple of years as a stockbroker, he called his father and told him he needed to get back to it.

Groh joined his father's staff as an assistant for the New York Jets in 2000, then followed him to Virginia. This is their seventh season together, which would lead to some professional familiarity even if they weren't father and son.

"Although we don't always think alike, at least I know where he's coming from," Mike Groh said. "I can anticipate a lot of times what he's thinking, and vice versa."

Said Al Groh: "He knows how I think, about as well as anybody can, more so than we think the same."

At the office they are Coach Groh and Coach Mike.

"If you didn't know their last names, no one would even know they were father and son," quarterback Christian Olsen said.

The Grohs will admit that working together has allowed them to see a side of each other that other family members don't see. Growing up, Mike thought he had a good idea of what his father's job entailed. But there are things he didn't find out until he began working with his father, now 62, every day.

"His energy," Mike Groh said. "It really surprised me. It's unbelievable. We try to keep up with him."

As for the inevitable criticism he's opened himself up to, Groh says it comes with the turf. He's jokes that his father isn't the only one with "unbelievable" energy.

"It always amazes me how we spend 100 hours a week on our job," he said. "And other people can do ours and theirs at the same time."

 

Angry Cavs await refreshed Cowboys
By Adrian Dater
Denver Post Staff Writer

When the 2005 season came to an end Nov. 19, Wyoming coach Joe Glenn knew he was about to endure the longest test of patience in his adult life. And Glenn's first name is Joe, not Job.

"I've never had a sour stomach longer than that," said Glenn, coach of the Cowboys. "I had a chalkboard waiting for 284 days."

That was the number of days between that November day and Saturday, when Wyoming beat Utah State 38-7.

Glenn's wait for a victory was longer, stretching back to Oct. 1, the day the Cowboys beat Nevada-Las Vegas. Six straight losses and an unbearably long offseason are finally history.

Wyoming's reward for its first victory in nearly a year is a trip to Charlottesville, Va., to play the Virginia Cavaliers.

The Cavaliers are playing their home opener after losing 38-13 Saturday at Pittsburgh. A Cavaliers team that is as angry as the Cowboys were jubilant in finally getting a win.

Glenn, however, does not believe his players are self-satisfied or heading for an emotional letdown.

"We'll find more out about our football team this week. But I think you'll see a tough Wyoming football team go into Charlottesville and play their heart out," Glenn said. "We'll saw wood. We're not going down there to be a scout team for the Cavaliers, I guarantee you."

Wyoming's chances for victory could be enhanced with the return of starting senior running back Joseph Harris, who served a one-game suspension in the opener.

Saturday will be Harris' first game since 2004: He redshirted the 2005 season because of a torn ACL in his left knee. Harris (5-foot-7, 206 pounds) ran for 409 yards on 94 carries in 2004.

"Harris is a powder keg. He can move the pile," Glenn said.

Wyoming was hoping senior running back Ivan Harrison would be back against Virginia, but Glenn said Harrison might not be ready because of an undisclosed injury. Harris and sophomores Devin Moore and Wynel Seldon figure to get most of the carries against the Cavaliers.

"Our offense was really gelling," Seldon said after last week's win. "As running backs, we're really comfortable with the offensive line."

Seldon ran for 99 yards against Utah State, while Moore had 110 yards of total offense.

"We'll mix (Harris) into the mix," Glenn said. "We'll work with those three guys, but we've got to keep Devin getting the football. He's too fast not to get some touches.
"The price of poker will go up now. (Virginia) looks good getting off the bus. ... They look like a BCS football team."

GAME BREAKDOWN
Players to watch

Wyoming - Senior running back Joseph Harris is playing in his first game since the 2004 season, after redshirting 2005 because of a knee injury. The Cowboys are counting on his return to form after a solid junior year in 2004. Quarterback Jacob Doss threw for 209 yards and three touchdowns in the season-opening win. He'll face a tougher defense in the Cavaliers.

Virginia - Senior running back Michael Johnson averaged 5.3 yards per carry last season, but ran for just 3 yards on two carries last week in a 38-13 loss at Pittsburgh. Named the Cavaliers' starter this year by coach Al Groh, quarterback Christian Olsen completed 17-of-34 passes at Pitt, with no touchdowns and one interception. Groh expects more this week.

Key stat

The Cavaliers were only 3-for-14 on third downs against Pittsburgh.

Key for Wyoming

Coach Joe Glenn needs to get another solid outing from his defense, which converted to a 3-4 front this season. How Doss handles his first road test as a starter, in a tough stadium, will be big.

Key for Virginia

The Cavaliers simply must do a better job of running the ball. Virginia was held to 52 yards on 21 carries.






 

Cavaliers seek to rebound
Virginia quarterback Christian Olsen must play better today against Wyoming than he did last week at Pittsburgh.
BY DARRYL SLATER
247-4641
September 9, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- The day after the debacle, Kevin Ogletree picked up his phone and called Christian Olsen. The night before, at Pittsburgh, Ogletree and Olsen were involved in a play that, in part, epitomized the incompetence of Virginia's 38-13 loss.

Ogletree, a wide receiver, called his quarterback "just to check up on him to make sure everything was all right."

"We know everyone wants to bounce back, and it starts with Chris Olsen," Ogletree said Tuesday. "I just told him to keep his head up."

Olsen's first start was a head-hanging disaster: 17-of-34 passing for 133 yards, though most of those completions were short passes thrown under pressure. In the third quarter, he threw from his own 2-yard line, thinking Ogletree would run a slant route. Instead, he ran a fade. Cornerback Darrelle Revis intercepted the ball and ran it back for a touchdown.

Olsen's predecessors, Matt Schaub and Marques Hagans, also struggled in their first starts, only to rebound the next game. Olsen's chance to do that comes at 3:30 p.m. today, when Virginia hosts Wyoming, which should pose less of a challenge than Pittsburgh did.

Schaub was a sophomore when he started his first game, Hagans a redshirt freshman. Olsen is a fifth-year senior.

"It's easy to say that about those other guys (improving) because that's hindsight speaking," Virginia coach Al Groh said. "Some guys have that ability and some guys don't."

Asked what Olsen could improve on, Groh said, "We just need a better overall performance. We certainly didn't get much in terms of big plays. We didn't get things that could sustain the drives."

In fairness to Olsen, he didn't get help from an inexperienced offensive line. When Pittsburgh burst through on blitzes - and that happened often - Virginia's running backs and tight ends had to cut off their routes and let Olsen get the ball away for short passes.

"If we don't break off like that, we're going to get sacked, and it's going to be fourth and 20," Olsen said.

Though Olsen didn't get sacked, there was chatter earlier this week that an ankle injury could sideline him. Olsen said Tuesday that he was healthy.

"There was no injury, there is no injury, there is no threat (of Olsen not playing)," Groh said Thursday. "I may not bring (injuries) up, but I don't lie about them."

The season opener was offensive coordinator Mike Groh's debut. As for the new coordinator needing a few games to mesh with his players ...

"I don't think it's so much a case of the coaches meshing with the personnel as with the personnel being able to execute the calls," Groh said. "Personnel meshing with the calls, rather than with the coaches."