Cavs have a mountain to climb
Virginia must overcome altitude, road woes
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
September 1, 2007

DENVER - One way or the other, Virginia will make history today in its season opener at Wyoming.

The Cavaliers, looking to rebound from their first losing season since 2001, are facing an opponent in search of revenge.

Last year, Virginia escaped with a 13-12 overtime win over the Cowboys. That defensive struggle, however, was played at Scott Stadium.

Today’s return game comes in Laramie, Wyo., at cozy War Memorial Stadium, which sits 7,220 feet above sea level, easily the highest figure in major college football.

Having never played in Wyoming, the opinions on elevation and its impact differ.

“It is what it is,” said Virginia coach Al Groh. “[Wyoming] is playing at the same altitude.

“We’ve researched it and got all sorts of different opinions. From ‘No real effect at all’ to ‘You’ll be lucky to get out alive.’”

The questions were so rampant among fans and press members, Groh employed an “altitude ban” for his players.

Wyoming quarterback Karsten Sween said that is the wrong approach.

“It’s cool if Virginia wants to ignore it, but elevation is definitely a factor, especially in that fourth quarter,” said Sween, who went 5-2 last year as the Cowboys’ starting signal-caller. “It’s a huge factor. It took me about 10 days to get used to it, and I am from California and I was at about 2,000 feet. So I wasn’t at sea level, but I came up here and when we dove right into the workouts, your muscles want to tighten up.

“You have to drink a lot of water and everything. It’s kind of like when we came down to Virginia last year. We knew it was going to be hot and humid, something that we are not used to, so we had to work on our hydration.”

For now, the altitude is the least of Groh’s worries.

Finding a way to win on the road has been troublesome enough for the Cavaliers. In fact, Virginia has lost six of nine non-conference games under Groh on the road, with the last victory coming at Syracuse in 2005.

While the results are puzzling, many of the Cavaliers said the mentality remains the same.

“We have a 60-minute road attitude,” said Virginia running back Cedric Peerman. “Away games are just like home games. We treat them all the same.”

Virginia certainly has experience on its side. The Cavaliers return 18 starters, including sophomore quarterback Jameel Sewell, who set nine different program passing records for freshmen last season.

Sewell’s obvious improvement last year, coupled with the experience gained by an offensive line that remains intact, should give the team a much-needed scoring boost.

Virginia averaged 11.0 points in its seven losses.

Wyoming, which finished ninth in total defense, had similar struggles on offense last year. The Cowboys ranked No. 91 in the nation and seventh in the Mountain West in total offense.

Those numbers will mean a lot less to Wyoming today. A missed PAT at Scott Stadium, however, looms larger as the two-game series concludes.

“I wouldn’t say ‘revenge’ is the word,” said Wyoming coach Joe Glenn. “But I’ve heard some people say ‘redemption.’

“You know, we did a couple things in that game that you just can’t do.”

 

UVa ready to quiet its critics
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com | 978-7251
September 1, 2007

DENVER -- High noon in cowboy country. What a perfect setting for the drama that is Virginia football.

The heat is on Cavaliers coach Al Groh like never before. Half of Wahoo Nation is impatiently awaiting the next hiccup. The other half is hoping that Groh can steer the Good Ship Wahoo back on course in today’s opening game at Wyoming, a two-hour hike north of where this columnist found a resting place.

Pressure-packed season

While Groh downplays the significance of opening on the road, where his teams have had a penchant for stinking up the joints, most outsiders are convinced that this is the most important road game of the veteran coach’s seven-year career with UVa.

Lose this one to the Cowboys and the heat gets turned up considerably. Win it and maybe, just maybe, the Cavaliers can get on a roll and silence the critics.

Playing it cool

Either way, that’s pressure, pressure that Groh denies he feels. Like most coaches, Groh said all the pressure on his broad shoulders is produced from within. He has higher expectations than do his critics.

For months now, all I’ve heard people say is that the Wyoming game is the biggest game of the season for Virginia.

Groh doesn’t buy into that theory.

“I think any first game will show us a lot about a team, but it’s one of 12 [games],” the coach said. “We don’t believe the result of this game will affect the result of the upcoming game.”

Playing head games

That’s the way coaches think. To a degree, it’s correct. One game shouldn’t affect how a team plays the following game.

In reality, it doesn’t work that way, especially with 20-year-olds. When they win and everyone’s behind them, they gain confidence almost to the point that they believe they’re bulletproof. If they lose and the newspapers, message boards and talk shows are down on them, it can have a negative effect and even build the next opponents’ confidence.

When fans get down on a program or a coach, or both, the only thing that brings ’em back is winning.

Behind the scenes, Groh seems excited about this team’s potential. We can understand why. The defense, ranked 17th nationally last season, returns almost intact. The offense, which, let’s face it, was simply putrid last season, should be considerably better.

While Wyoming, which found ways to lose a bitter 13-12 decision in Charlottes-ville last season, returns a lot of its team, there’s some question as to whether the Cowboys’ offensive and defensive lines will hold up against a bigger bunch of Wahoos.

We think Groh might even have a few tricks up his sleeve for this opening game. Even without wrinkles or surprises, this team, particularly on offense, should be able to line-up and play some physical, ball control and let the defense shut down opponents.

Yeah, there’s pressure because it’s a road game. Groh tells us that good teams win in every place. Easier said than done.

Then there’s the elevation thing.

Outside my room here in Denver, there’s a sign that reads: Elevation 5,420 feet.

Didn’t affect my golf game on Friday in the red rocks of Littleton. I know, it’s not football.

But I personally don’t believe that when Virginia walks into Laramie’s War Memorial Stadium, the highest college football venue in Division I-A at 7,220 feet, that it’s going to mean a hill of beans.

Yeah, I know it’s 6,600 feet higher than Scott Stadium back home. I just don’t buy into this altitude thing.

Today marks the 41st season that Groh has been a football coach on some level - high school, college or pro. It may very well be the most important of his life, and today may set the tone for the rest of the most important season of his life.

“Oh sure, every one of them is the same,” Groh said when asked about whether he still gets butterflies in his stomach before the first game of the season. Those butterflies may have gray beards and may dine on a diet of Maalox and Geritol, but they’re still in residence.

“Once [season openers] stop being the same, there’s a message there,” the coach continued. “It’s always about the next season and the next challenge. Frankly, it’s that way for 12 weeks.”

Al Groh can cool his hot seat considerably this afternoon if Virginia can look at the Rockies in its rearview mirror with a big ‘W’ in tow. Groh’s not ready to quit coaching, and that may be all the motivation he needs.

 

Kickers could be key again
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
September 1, 2007

DENVER -- When Wyoming placekicker Aric Goodman missed an extra-point attempt at the end of the first overtime, giving Virginia a one-point victory in last year’s game in Charlottesville, Cavaliers’ coach Al Groh compared it to a more noted missed kick.

“I was lucky enough to be part of a team to win the Super Bowl on a kick on the last play of the game that went wide right,” Groh said. “This one felt almost as good.”

Naturally, Groh was referring to when he was an assistant with the New York Giants and their win over the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV when Scott Norwood’s field-goal attempt missed.

During the Cavaliers’ celebration, several of them went over to console Goodman, who was, not surprisingly, anguished with the fact that he had lost the game for Wyoming.

In the year that has passed, Goodman transferred from Wyoming and has now surfaced at the University of Colorado. Virginia kicker Chris Gould said he could easily relate to what the Cowboys’ kicker went through last season.

“I talked to [Goodman] in the offseason and he thanked me for some of the things I said after that game,” said Gould, who struggled much of last season after taking over kicking duties for Connor Hughes.

During one of Wyoming’s early scrimmages this month, coach Joe Glenn grimaced when a couple of his kickers missed extra points, perhaps thinking back to the UVa game.

“You can’t miss extra points,” Glenn said. “It’s like a layup, or a gimme putt in golf. You just shouldn’t miss it.”

Gould has done his research on Laramie, Wyo., and quickly recited what he will be dealing with in the opener.

“It’s 7,284 feet, right?” Gould said to a small group of sportswriters, all of whom took his word for it. Further research noted that the official altitude of War Memorial Stadium is 7,220 feet, but the Cavalier kicker wasn’t far off.

“Our punter, Ryan Weigand (a California native), says the ball really flies out there,” Gould said.

During the offseason, Gould changed his technique and is now using a two-step approach, popular among some of the NFL kickers, and he believes it has increased his range.

Last season, Gould was 11 of 19, hitting all seven attempts from inside 40 yards, but was 4 of 10 from between 40 and 49 yards and missed both attempts from beyond 50. His longest kick was 48.

Gould said he believed he could make kicks from 53 yards this season, but noted that there weren’t many attempts from that range in 2006. That said, he thinks the two-step and added leg strength could make him more consistent between the 40 and midfield.

 

A closer took at the Virginia-Wyoming game
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com
September 1, 2007

WHY VIRGINIA WILL WIN

Finally, 2007 has arrived

Much was made last year about how Virginia was playing the 2006 season with 2007 in mind. The Cavaliers and coach Al Groh took their lumps in the process, finishing 5-7 overall last year. With 10 starters back on defense and the entire offensive line back intact, the Cavaliers are ready to move on with an eye on the future and memories stewing from the past.

“Coach Groh is the kind of guy who turns the page - he moves on,” said UVa tight end Tom Santi. “At the same time, he knows what happened, just like we know as players that it happened. It is not a taboo thing to talk about last year, but just like us, Coach Groh knows that it is something that we can learn from and get better from.”

They do run, run

After employing a one-back system last year with former standout Jason Snelling, Virginia boasts a stable of capable running backs and can suddenly pick its poison. Andrew Pearman, while weighing in at 168 pounds, possesses tremendous speed. Redshirt freshman Keith Payne, clearly a bruiser at 234 pounds, will give would-be tacklers fits. Expected starter Cedric Peerman is a happy medium.

“[Virginia] will get on the field with two and three tight ends and pound the ball,” predicted Wyoming coach Joe Glenn. “It might be like goal-line football, especially with young receivers.

“I’m guessing that we might see a little bit of ‘Ground Groh Offense,’ if you will.”

Call it the great talent divide

Quite frankly, Virginia recruits a different type of athlete. Last year was a prime example - UVa finished 25th in the country in recruiting, landing seven four-star prospects and 11 three-stars. Wyoming, meanwhile, finished 89th in the nation as its 21-member class featured six three-star athletes. The Cavaliers also boast a handful of players that are considered a lock to play for pay in the NFL, including defensive end Chris Long.

When asked how he scouted and prepared for Long and Virginia’s other talented players, Glenn seemed at a loss.

“We don’t have those kinds of guys walking around here,” Glenn said. “If we did, they would be playing.”

WHY VIRGINIA WILL LOSE

Check the dateline

Virginia’s struggles outside of Scott Stadium are well-documented. In the past two years, the Cavaliers have won just two of their 11 road games. The lone road victory last year came against Duke, a program that finished winless.

While the stats are telling, Groh offered an explanation.

“If you have a good team, you win every place,” said Groh, who is 10-23 on the road with Virginia. “Our issue is trying to put together a really good team.”

The BCS factor

In a way, today’s game is the most important contest Wyoming will play. Attracting a BCS school to play in Laramie, Wyo., is a chore. Syracuse, in fact, has bailed out of a return game with the Cowboys scheduled for 2008.

Ticket sales have been brisk for today’s game and a sellout is expected, which has helped to create an extra buzz in the air.

“It’s always a big deal to have a big-conference school come in and play on our home field,” said Wyoming linebacker Sean Claffey. “Virginia is a very solid team and I think a lot of people are going to come watch us play. They know how the game went last year at Virginia, and I think they are expecting the same kind of game out here.

“There should be a big crowd for us.”

Wyoming is not Duke

Virginia will play few teams this year that boast the positive energy possessed by today’s opponent. Frankly, the Cowboys will not roll over and play dead. Wyoming emerged as one of the better teams in the country last year after the insertion of quarterback Karsten Sween, now a sophomore. With the new signal-caller on the field, Wyoming won five of its last seven games and was eligible to play in a bowl game.

“We really think we’ve got a good one [in Sween],” said Wyoming coach Joe Glenn.

With Sween’s abilities and the speed of tailback Devin Moore in mind, Wyoming tinkered with its attack.

“We’re going to run some schemes you haven’t seen on offense, some things we haven’t done before,” Glenn said. “[Moore is] the fastest human being I’ve ever been around. It doesn’t take much of a crease for him to just split it.”
 

Cavs, Pokes puzzled
Each team offers up some unknowns as things have changed
Saturday, Sep 01, 2007 - 12:07 AM Updated: 01:06 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

LARAMIE, Wyo. -- On the main road into town, the marquee next to the State Bank of Wyoming bears this message:

Go Pokes

Beat Virginia

It might be a stretch to say that Laramie is abuzz about the University of Wyoming football team's opener, but a sellout crowd is expected this afternoon at 30,514-seat War Memorial Stadium.

The Cowboys, of the Mountain West Conference, will entertain the Cavaliers, only the second visit ever to Laramie by an ACC football team. In 1961, Wyoming edged N.C. State and its star quarterback, Roman Gabriel, 15-14.

U. Va.'s quarterback doesn't have the résumé of Gabriel, but sophomore Jameel Sewell, a left-hander from Hermitage High, showed considerable promise after taking over the starting job last season.

The same is true for Wyoming sophomore Karsten Sween. A left-handed Californian, Sween went 5-2 as the Cowboys' starting QB last season.

Sewell, who had surgery on his throwing wrist in December, sat out the Wahoos' spring game in April. But he participated fully in training camp, and "it went as well for him as we hoped it might have," Virginia coach Al Groh said yesterday after his team's brief visit to Wyoming's stadium.

Like Sewell, Sween didn't play last Sept. 9 at Scott Stadium, where U.Va. won 13-12 in overtime when Wyoming's Aric Goodman missed an extra point. Because of that, Groh said Tuesday, he's not sure how much bearing last year's meeting will have on the rematch.

Both Sewell and Sween had a "very positive impact on their teams in the second half of the season," Groh said. "I'm sure each team is anticipating that with experience and the spring and training camp, that each one of those players will be that much better. That will be one of the interesting storylines of the game: which player can be that much better than he was on the last day of last year. Of course, the defense that he's playing against will have something to do with that too."

Wyoming ranked 53rd nationally in scoring defense last season, allowing an average of 22 points per game. The Cowboys lost six starters from that unit. Virginia, by contrast, has 10 starters back from a group that ranked 22nd (17.8 points per game) nationally. Defensive coordinator Mike London's charges want to crack the top 10 this year.

"This defense really believes we have the capability of doing it," said sophomore end Jeffrey Fitzgerald, another Hermitage graduate.

This is the Cavaliers' longest regular-season trip since 1999, when they won at BYU. Provo, Utah, is about 4,500 feet above sea level. Altitude figures to be more of an issue for U.Va. players today. At 7,220 feet above sea level, War Memorial is the highest football stadium in the United States.

"We've researched it and got all sorts of different opinions," said Groh, who last month fielded numerous questions about the altitude of Laramie.

"Really, we kind of feel that our interpretation of it is that it's kind of like people going on a cruise. Some people get seasick when the boat rocks, and some people can go through a hurricane."

The Cavaliers are favored today, but their record in road games under Groh is 10-23, so this is anything but a lock for the visitors. Virginia has dropped 9 of its past 11 games away from Scott Stadium.

Groh likes what he's seen from his players since the end of last season, but he knows the picture is incomplete.

"The answer to any question from this point is supplied by the players for three hours [today]," Groh said yesterday.

 

Walk-ons a runaway success
Current and former nonscholarship players making a big impact all over the field for the Cavaliers
Thursday, Aug 30, 2007 - 12:07 AM Updated: 10:35 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE - The linebacker who led the University of Virginia in tackles last season joined the program as a walk-on.

The former engineering student who started the most games at safety of any U.Va. player in 2006 did the same thing.

The special-teams standout who blocked two punts last year also matriculated without a scholarship, as did the speedster from Austin, Texas, who is No. 1 on the depth chart at wide receiver.

The first three of those players -- Jon Copper, Byron Glaspy and Josh Zidenberg -- are now on scholarship. The fourth, wideout Staton Jobe, is likely to receive one, too.

When Virginia opens its seventh season under coach Al Groh at Wyoming on Saturday, several walk-ons and former walk-ons will be in prominent roles.

"I guess what it says is that there's equal opportunity for everybody here," Groh said. "Once a player gets here, it doesn't make any difference to us the path he took to get here."

The success of players such as Copper and Glaspy also shows that recruiting is an inexact science. They were "underevaluated by everybody that had the opportunity to recruit them, including us," Groh said.

Copper, a graduate of Northside High in Roanoke, was determined to suit up for the Cavaliers. He spent a year at Fork Union Military Academy, where he played for legendary postgraduate coach John Shuman, and then joined Groh's program as a walk-on in 2004. By his redshirt sophomore season in 2006, Copper was a starter at inside linebacker, and he finished with the year with a team-high 81 tackles, including four sacks.

Glaspy, a junior, was born at St. Mary's Hospital and lived in Henrico County for four years before his father, a former standout at Hampton University, was transferred out of state. Glaspy graduated from Ridge High in New Jersey with no scholarship offers from Division I-A colleges. But he was accepted into U.Va.'s engineering program -- Glaspy since has changed majors -- and headed to Charlottesville, hoping to earn a spot on the football team.

He failed to impress the coaching staff during his first semester, but he tried again the following spring and was added to the roster. Glaspy ended up starting the Cavs' final three games in 2005, ahead of scholarship safety Jamaal Jackson.

"Walk-on, full scholarship, half scholarship, National Librarian Association award winner, it doesn't make any difference to us," Groh said that season.

Zidenberg, a senior who starred at tailback for Poquoson High, is listed as a fullback at U.Va. At 6-0 and 213 pounds, he's undersized for that position, but he's distinguished himself on several special-teams units.

Jobe, a redshirt freshman who as a schoolboy attended U.Va.'s summer camp, also is a candidate to return punts this season. His rise on the depth chart can only enhance Virginia's appeal to non-scholarship players.

"A young man coming into a team in this situation rightly wants to know, 'What's the realism that I'm going to get an equal-opportunity chance?'" Groh said.

"History says it's not just a coach saying something nice. History says that clearly you're going to get a chance, and if you're the best guy for the job, you're going to get it."

 

ALL EYES ON: MIKE GROH
Thursday, Aug 30, 2007 - 12:07 AM Updated: 10:33 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Last season wasn't especially fun for either Groh on the University of Virginia coaching staff.

The Cavaliers finished 5-7, their first losing record since 2001. U.Va. fans grumbled, and head coach Al Groh was not the only target of their criticism. They blamed Mike Groh, the older of his two sons, for Virginia's futility on offense.

Offensive coordinator Ron Prince left U.Va. after the 2005 regular season to become head coach at Kansas State. His successor was a controversial choice, and Mike Groh's first season overseeing the offense did nothing to dissuade those who believe Al Groh should have picked a more experienced candidate.

Out of the 119 teams in Division I-A, U.Va. ranked 113th in total offense. It finished 110th in scoring offense. In passing offense, the Wahoos were 104th.

Given the many obstacles Mike Groh encountered, there's no guarantee another coordinator would have done much better. Virginia entered last season with three unproven quarterbacks, one returning starter on the line and no true fullback. Moreover, the Cavs played most of the season without Deyon Williams, who in 2005 had emerged as an all-ACC candidate.

"There was a lot to manage," said Mike Groh, who was a standout quarterback at U.Va. under George Welsh in the '90s.

As he enters his seventh season on his father's staff at Virginia, the younger Groh says he's better prepared for the challenges of being coordinator.

"I think any time you take on a new responsibility and are doing things for the first time, I don't know if it's uncertainty, but once you have a chance to go through it once you really know what to expect," he said.

His offense should be more potent this season. Eight starters are back, including quarterback Jameel Sewell.

"We've got a chip on our shoulder, and we're ready to prove to everybody -- prove to ourselves -- that we can get things done," Sewell said.

 

Cavs' defense well stocked to play smash hits this year
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© September 1, 2007

Mike London will turn 47 next month, but he tries to stay current on what's hot in music and fashion among college students less than half his age.

"If you're going to be successful dealing with people, you've got to know the people you're dealing with," he said.

Fair enough. So London, Virginia's defensive coordinator, has been known to mix in Hip Hop with his highlight tapes. Mike Jones, a Houston-based rapper, is a particular favorite.

"I use the clean version," London hastened to add.

If things go as planned, London will have many more highlights to mix this year for his unit. Virginia opens the season today at Wyoming with a defense that returns 10 starters, and is expected to be one of the best in the ACC, if not the country.

Last year, London's first as coordinator, the defense ranked 17th in the nation, allowing 289 yards a game. It was their lowest average in 27 years, the highest ranking of the Al Groh era and a far cry from the days not so long ago when Virginia defenses yielded well over 400 yards per contest.

With all but one starter back, players see no reason why the defense can't crack the national top 10 this season. The unit has set a goal, known as "36/

36" of having three sacks and forcing three turnovers a game for all 12 games.

"The defense really believes we have the capability of doing it," end Jeffrey Fitzgerald said. "Our coaches believe it, so we're just really confident right now."

Players credit the fiery London with instilling that confidence, as well as for implementing an aggressive, risk-taking style of play.

"He's got a go-getter mentality," linebacker Jermaine Dias said. "We're not just sitting back and seeing what the offense is going to do. We try to dictate the pace of the game."

London served as a defensive line coach under former coordinator Al Golden from 2001-2004 but left in 2005 to take a similar job with the Houston Texans. When Golden left to become Temple's head coach last season, London returned as defensive coordinator.

London inherited a defense short on experience but big on athletic ability. As a whole, the unit is quicker and more athletic than the defenses that preceded it.

Smaller, too. Gone are the days of blocky, 300-plus-pound defensive linemen. The three linemen in Virginia's 3-4 scheme - ends Chris Long and Fitzgerald and nose tackle Allen Billyk - are long and relatively lean, standing at least 6-foot-3 and weighing between 270 and 280 pounds.

Billyk, a fifth-year senior who has been in the program since 2003, said the sleeker players represent the evolution of the Cavaliers' scheme.

"It's evolved since I first got here and since the coaching staff got here," Billyk said. "Every year, we kind of tweak it a little bit. After a couple of years of doing it, you see the type of guys who have some success, and then you recruit those kinds of guys."

Recruited as an end, Billyk moved to nose tackle last year. Not especially fast on the outside, he's quick for a nose tackle. Long, an All-American candidate, and Fitzgerald, a freshman All-American last season, are quick, too. Both are among the best size/speed athletes on the team.

The linebackers are also a fleet group. Virginia's had superb individual talents before - like current NFL players Ahmad Brooks and Darryl Blackstock. This year's group is notable for its cohesion, coach Al Groh said.

The secondary, often a weak link over the years, is faster and more athletic than previous groups. Players are hoping that the return of three starters should prevent some of the breakdowns that plagued the unit a year ago.

Overall, the expectation is that another year of playing together should make the entire defense faster and more instinctive.

"You become one step quicker when you are anticipating things," Billyk said.

Having London back is a bonus for the defense as well. A Bethel High graduate, he was a candidate for the ODU head coaching job before pulling out in the spring.

London will almost certainly be a head coach some day, perhaps soon. For now, he said he's trying to create a culture at Virginia that says it's OK to have fun on defense, to run and hit and fly to the ball with abandon.

Players have clearly bought in.

"We took a lot more chances last year," linebacker Clint Sintim said. "Sometimes we got burned. Sometimes we made big plays. But defense wins championships, so you can't be too timid."

Or, in London's case, too old to learn new tunes.

 

Cavaliers, Groh confident defense portends road victory
Doug Doughty

LARAMIE, Wyo. -- After so many previous road setbacks, what reason is there to believe that the 2007 Virginia football season will be any different?

"Defense travels," seventh-year UVa football coach Al Groh said on more than one occasion this week.

Those two words, more than anything, speak to the level of optimism that Virginia brings into its opener at Wyoming at 2 p.m. today.

The Cavaliers welcome back 10 starters from a unit that ranked 17th out of 119 Division I-A teams last year in total defense, although a stout defense didn't prevent Virginia from finishing 5-7 last year.

Certainly, there were extenuating circumstances, most notably the five touchdowns opponents scored on interception returns. That didn't count the short scoring drives that resulting from other UVa turnovers and special-teams snafus, but Cavaliers opponents gained fewer than 300 yards per game in 2006.

"Defense always travels easier than offense travels," Groh said. "There are elements that come in the game, more natural elements, that coaches can't plan for. They have a greater effect on the offense on any team than they do on the defense."

With the temperature expected to top out at 80 degrees, the elements won't be an issue, unless altitude is considered an element. Jonah Field at War Memorial Stadium is located at 7,220 feet, the highest elevation for a Division I-A football venue.

The Cavaliers have never played a football game at a higher elevation than 4,500-foot Provo, Utah, where they defeated Brigham Young 45-40 in 1999.

Virginia has a 3-3 record in openers under Groh, including road losses at Wisconsin in 2001 and Pittsburgh last year 2006. The Cavaliers have lost nine of their past 10 road games under Groh, who is 10-23 away from Scott Stadium.

In Wyoming, they face a team that went 5-2 over its last seven games last year to finish 6-6. The Cowboys lost two early overtime games, including a 13-12 loss at Virginia when freshman Aric Goodman missed an extra point that would have forced a second overtime.

The Cavaliers scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 25-yard pass from Kevin McCabe to Kevin Ogletree, who had a team-high 52 receptions last season but was lost for 2007 when he tore an ACL on the third day of spring practice.

Also gone is McCabe, who was replaced by redshirt freshman Jameel Sewell one week after the Wyoming game and never played again.

McCabe subsequently transferred to Division II California University of Pennsylvania, leaving Virginia without an experienced quarterback in the spring, when Sewell was nursing a surgically repaired left (passing) wrist.

Sewell has had few limitations during the preseason and is one of the primary hopes for a rejuvenated UVa offense.

"He's obviously got a much higher level of confidence," said Groh, who watched Sewell pass last season for 1,342 yards, a UVa freshman record.

The Wyoming game was the only game in which Sewell did not see action. Neither did Karsten Sween, who became the Cowboys' starting quarterback in the sixth game last season.

The comparisons do not end there. Like Sewell, Sween is a left-hander who passed for 1,304 yards and nine touchdowns.

Sween did not throw a touchdown pass of more than 44 yards, which is good news for a Virginia defense that allowed touchdown receptions of 78, 77, 72, 66, 58 and 49 yards last season. Veterans Nate Lyles, Byron Glaspy and Jamaal Jackson will get most of the time at safety but it remains to be seen if they can contain the deep ball.

"I'm not convinced of anything till I see it," Groh said. "Obviously, this is revisionist history, but if we could have eliminated just a few of those long pass plays and the points that were scored when the defense wasn't out there, the [yield] would have been way, way down.

"Most of them just had to do with player error. There was no good reason for them to occur, other than execution mistakes."

1. Score at least 20 points. Virginia failed to score 20 points in five of its seven losses last year and was shut out in two of its last three games.


2. Not give up a touchdown by the Wyoming defense or special teams. Opponents scored five touchdowns on interception returns last season.


3. Match Wyoming's kicking game. Coach Joe Glenn said Cowboys punter Billy Vinnedge is the best kicker he has ever had.
 

Of headaches and Fat Tires
Picking Saturday’s winner a tough challenge.
By Doug Doughty

Can’t say I wasn’t forewarned.

About a month ago, I ran into Carol Moon and complained to her that I had her ex-husband to blame for a cross-country trip to Wyoming in late August.

Lee Moon, originally from Roanoke, was the athletic director at Wyoming when a two-game home-and-home football series with Virginia was scheduled.

“Make sure you get out there early,” said Carol Moon, now back in Roanoke. “You’ll have a headache for two days.”

I didn’t have a headache before accepting the recommendation from the Comfort Inn desk crew to try dinner at Wingers, a restaurant up the street.

My fellow assistant sports editor, Steve Hemphill, told me that I needed to try Fat Tire, a beer brewed in Fort Collins, Colo, the home to Colorado State University, Hemphill’s alma mater.

Along the two-hour drive from Denver to Laramie, Wyo., somehow the conversation turned to beer and Richmond sportswriter Jeff White said that microbrews frequently give him a headache.

I don’t know whether Fat Tire qualifies as a microbrew. I’m not embarrassed to say that I had two of them, particularly since we weren’t driving, but here I sit Friday morning with a headache.

It must be the elevation.

It’s funny, but you make the drive from Denver to Laramie and you’d never guess you’re at 7,200 feet. About 10 miles up the road, before you drive into the valley where Laramie is located, the elevation is 8,640.

I’m still trying to figure how we got so high (pun intended). You fly through Kansas into the Denver airport and the only mountains you see are in the distance. You drive from Denver to Cheyenne, Wyo., and it’s mostly flat. There is a steady incline on the 40-mile drive from Cheyenne to Laramie, but you don’t climb any mountains, nothing even to rival the drive up Afton Mountain on the drive to Charlottesville.

There are some stunning rock formations on the way from Cheyenne to Laramie, but enough of the topography. For months, I’ve been saying that Virginia’s season-opener Saturday against the Cowboys -- or “Pokes,” as in Cowpokes -- was the biggest of the seven-year Al Groh coaching or tenure.

Now, I’m not so sure.

The implication is that a loss to 3 ½-point underdog Wyoming would put the Cavaliers in a hole from which they would not recover, or that a victory over the Pokes would put UVa on a path back to the eight- or nine-win level, but this probably won’t be the Cavs’ biggest game of the season.

The biggest game will be the season finale at home against Virginia Tech.

When pundits talk about Virginia Tech’s 2007 team and where the Hokies might finish, the general consensus is that Tech probably will lose in Week 2 at LSU and maybe one other time, perhaps at Clemson or Georgia Tech.

Nobody, especially my estimable colleague, Randy King, is giving the slightest consideration to a possible Tech loss at Virginia in the season’s final week. Never mind that the Cavaliers traditionally have played well at Scott Stadium, where they have beaten Florida State and Miami in back-to-back seasons.

If Virginia were to beat the Hokies, nothing that happens Saturday in Laramie is going to matter. If Virginia were to beat Wyoming and go into the season finale with a 7-4 record, for instance, a repeat of the 2005 Tech-UVa game would have Cavalier fans screaming for Groh’s head.

That was the year that Tech obliterated UVa 52-14 and, while it’s hard to imagine the Cavaliers’ defense ever giving up that points, special teams tend to skew the results when the Hokies are involved.

After saying all summer that Virginia would go 6-6, my prediction in The Roanoke Times’ preseason “tab” was for 7-5. And, that included losses in Week 1 to Wyoming and Week 3 at North Carolina.

It didn’t include a home victory over Virginia Tech, but I figured the Cavaliers to win at Middle Tennessee State and at N.C. State. If they don’t beat N.C. State, I think they’ll go at least 1-2 in ACC road games at Carolina, Maryland and State.

Virginia still has to prove it can win on the road, particularly on occasions like Saturday, when they are slight favorites. I am reminded of last year’s UVa trip to East Carolina, where the Cavaliers lost 31-21, but ECU actually was a 3 ½-point favorite in that game.

The last game I can remember when UVa went off as less than a touchdown favorite on the road – and then won – was at Georgia Tech in 2004. That was the game when Marcus Hamilton intercepted two passes in a 30-10 Cavaliers’ win.

Readers of the print edition of The Roanoke Times have seen that I’ve picked Wyoming to win Saturday, but I’ve been wrong before. As White is quick to remind me, I predicted UVa to lose at Western Michigan in 2003 in a game the Cavaliers’ won 59-16 and I had Duke last year when it lost 37-0 in Durham, N.C.

Maybe I should have asked Carol Moon for a winner Saturday
 

Cavs don't care if the air is rare
Altitude has no effect on Cavaliers' attitude as they open the season at Wyoming.
Melinda Waldrop | 247-4634
September 1, 2007

Virginia's players aren't allowed to talk about it. The school's head athletic trainer doesn't expect it to cause any problems. And one person who's dealt with it says it wasn't a factor.

But it is a fact: When the Cavaliers open the 2007 football season in Laramie, Wyo., today, they'll be playing at an altitude of 7,277 feet. In Charlottesville, they practice and play at an altitude of 558 feet.

Just don't ask U.Va. head coach Al Groh if he thinks that difference will affect his team when it takes on Wyoming at 2 p.m. today.

"We put an altitude ban on things," Groh said. "It is what it is. (The Cowboys) are playing in the same altitude, right?"

Well, yes, but they play there all the time, at an elevation 6,227 feet higher than the Empire State Building.

U.Va. junior linebacker Jon Copper abided by the company line, saying neither he nor his teammates have thought much about either the altitude or the distance — more than 1,688 miles — the Cavs will travel.

"Coach Groh is, I would say, a master planner at all those details and has our schedule down to a T, probably had it down a month ago," Copper said. "We're flying out a day early. I think that'll help us in terms of getting settled there. I'm not worried about it and I don't think any of the other guys are worried."

Buzz Bernard, a meteorologist at The Weather Channel who has climbed Oregon's Mount Hood, said there will be some noticeable differences at the Cowboys' War Memorial Stadium.

"There'll be roughly 20 percent less oxygen available than at sea level," Bernard said via e-mail. "No problem if you're used to it, but it helps to be acclimated. ... If you're not used to the altitude, you'll get winded more rapidly than you would at sea level. Also, at higher altitudes, you'll get dehydrated more quickly because your respiration rate is higher (and the relative humidity typically lower). For the Cavaliers, that sounds like frequent substitutions, extra oxygen and lots of water to me."

The Weather Channel's forecast for today's game calls for mostly sunny skies, with high temperatures around 80 degrees, relative humidity near 25 percent and wind speeds of six to 12 mph.

Ethan Saliba, the Cavs' head athletic trainer, said the U.Va. sports medicine staff began focusing on the players' hydration before they left for Wyoming. That happened on Thursday, when the Cavs flew to Cheyenne to give themselves an extra day to acclimate.

"There's not a lot you can do in such a short time," Saliba said. " ... We try to be very thorough. You try to keep them pre-hydrated, make sure they stay hydrated, and just keep a close eye if you have any crampers."

Saliba said the Cavs won't have oxygen on the sidelines. "(Teams) haven't found that to be effective or necessary," he said.

When Ole Miss traveled to Laramie on Sept. 25, 2004, trainer Tim Mullins closely monitored players who had asthma or sickle cell anemia, diseases that can cause shortness of breath. But there were no problems and no more cramping than normal, Mullins said.

That's not to say the altitude played no role in the Rebels' 37-32 loss.

"I think it was more of a mental aspect," Mullins said. "So many people bring it up. The players start reading the paper and believing there's a problem, and there's not."

Bernard predicted that kicks and passes would travel farther than at sea level, much like baseballs at Coors Field. But Mullins, whose team had a Friday walk-through in Cheyenne before their 2004 game, said he didn't notice that.

Mullins had some very simple advice for a team preparing to play in Laramie: "Don't get caught up in the hype. It's not that big of a deal," he said. "I'd just tell them to go out there and play ball and beat them and come back home."

Today's game
WHAT: Virginia at Wyoming, 2 p.m.

WHERE: War Memorial Stadium, Laramie, Wyoming.

TV: Versus. RADIO: WTAR/850AM, WRVA/1140AM, WKWI/101.7FM.

NOTES: The Cavaliers needed overtime and a missed extra point to beat the Cowboys 13-12 last season in Charlottesville. But Virginia returns all but two starters on offense and 10 of its 11 defensive players from 2007's 5-7 team, and if that experience is going to mean improved play, the proof begins today. Both teams feature young, left-handed quarterbacks who assumed command of their clubs last season as redshirt freshmen. U.Va.'s Jameel Sewell threw for 1,342 yards, five touchdowns and six interceptions, while Karsten Sween threw for 1,304 yards, nine TDs and eight picks as the Cowboys went 6-6. Seven starters are back on offense from a squad that averaged 311 yards per game in 2006, while five starters return on a defense that allowed 263. Three offensive and three defensive linemen are gone from Wyoming, as is safety John Wendling, a sixth-round pick of the Buffalo Bills. The Cavs' defense, which gave up an average of 290 yards last year, is led by junior linebackers Jon Copper and Antonio Appleby, who combined for 149 tackles, while junior tailback Cedric Peerman heads a cast of talented but untested skill players on an offense that averaged just 15 points per game.
 

Wyoming hosts Cavs in telling season opener
Opening game at Wyoming to answer questions about unpredictable Cavaliers
Aaron Perryman, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor

Nearly every Virginia student who attended last year's first home football game against Wyoming remembers the closing seconds. With the Cavaliers up by a point in the first overtime, all the Cowboys needed to do was make the extra point to send the game into a second overtime. The normally automatic extra point sailed right, however, and the Cavaliers escaped unscathed with a dramatic 13-12 win.

Tomorrow, the Cavaliers pay a visit to Laramie, Wyoming for the first game of the 2007 football season against those same Cowboys. If last year's game is any indication, this year's should be challenging and fun, too.

"That first game at Wyoming is going to be a challenge," senior tight end Tom Santi said. "Just going out there is going to be a long trip, a different atmosphere. I'm excited about going out there. Those guys played as hard as anybody we played against. They were pulling out all the stops, fake punts, bringing the ball six yards deep out of the end zone. They want to win. It doesn't matter to them. They want to beat an ACC team."

Wyoming did indeed pull out all the stops last year, namely converting two first downs on two fake punts. In the offseason the Cavaliers focused on preventing such mental mistakes.

"These are awareness things, situational things," coach Al Groh said. "It's really been at the forefront since the start of practice in the spring. There are certain things that we put in categories called 'things that make you win or cause you to lose' that go beyond tackling and blocking."

Even though these two teams clashed last year, some of the faces on the teams are different. Both teams were relatively inexperienced last year, but this year both teams return a wealth of starters. Virginia returns 10 starters to a defense that ranked 17th in the country last season.

On offense, the main difference for both teams is that the quarterbacks that start Saturday did not even play in last year's meeting at Scott Stadium. Sophomore quarterback Jameel Sewell started the final nine games for the Cavaliers, throwing for 1,342 yards and five touchdowns. Sophomore quarterback Karsten Sween of Wyoming threw for 1,304 yards and nine touchdowns last season.

"Both of those players had a very positive impact on their team in the second half of the season," Groh said. "I'm sure each team is anticipating that with experience and the spring [training] and training camp, that each one of those players will be that much better. That will be one of the interesting story lines of the game: Which player can be that much better than he was on the last day of last year."

Much preseason discussion has centered on who will start at wide receiver opposite junior Maurice Covington for Virginia. Groh has decided that walk-on redshirt freshman Staton Jobe will get the nod. Jobe had been vying for playing time with junior Cary Koch.

"I can't wait to get out to Wyoming," Jobe said. "I've dreamed my whole life of playing college football, and this is definitely exciting for me."

The Cavaliers' dismal road record of 2-9 during the last two seasons is a weakness players said they do not think about.

"We just to have focus on this year and just be prepared to play anywhere," sophomore defensive end Jeffrey Fitzgerald said.

If the Cavaliers want to improve on their road woes, they know that a key is scoring first. The Cavaliers boast a 37-15-1 record on the road dating back to 1987 when they strike first.

Several well-documented questions surrounding the 2007 football team will finally be answered Saturday in a place the players do not know a lot about.

When asked what he knew about Wyoming, Fitzgerald said, "It's a long way from here."

 

UVa expects its defense to carry the day at Wyoming
By Andy Bitter
Lynchburg News & Advance
September 1, 2007

As far as season openers are concerned, none could have gone much worse than what Virginia endured at Pittsburgh last year. The Cavaliers were barely competitive in a 25-point loss, the worst of the six openers coach Al Groh has had in his time in Charlottesville.
That's not to say Groh didn't see it coming.

"Actually, that was the least enjoyable one to deal with but probably the least unexpected," he said.

Groh is less pessimistic heading into Virginia's opener today at Wyoming (2 p.m., Versus), despite the Cavaliers' well-documented woes on the road, where they are 10-23 in the coach's six years at the school.

That's because he is confident in one seemingly universal truth.

"Defense always travels easier than offense," Groh said. "It's less affected by different conditions, whether it's November weather or rain storms, ? elements the coaches can't plan for that have a greater effect on the offense than the defense."

Virginia has plenty of reasons to be optimistic on the defensive side of the ball. Ten of them to be exact, as in the number of starters returning to a unit that ranked 17th nationally last year.

Take away Wyoming's two fake punts that netted 60 yards in a 13-12 overtime loss at Scott Stadium and the Cowboys gained 263 yards of offense, 26 less than the Cavaliers allowed on average last season.

Of course, Wyoming's defense is just as good. The Cowboys, who employ a similar 3-4 defensive scheme, were ninth in the nation in total defense last year, allowing 262.9 yards per game. Their pass defense was the eighth best in the country.

Credit head coach Joe Glenn, whose diversified schemes have benefited both his defense and offense, which spreads the field and forces opponents to defend from sideline to sideline.

Glenn has seven seasons of 11 or more wins to his credit, getting four at Division II Northern Colorado and three at Division I-AA Montana before taking over Wyoming.

"It would probably be hard to find many coaches in the country who have done that," Groh said.

That makes Virginia's rare, 1,700-mile trip out west even more difficult. The Cavaliers haven't ventured this far west for a regular-season game since a 1999 trip to Brigham Young. Their last voyage west of the Mississippi River was the 2004 MPC Computers Bowl in Boise, Idaho, which ended in a disappointing 37-34 overtime loss.

Few Virginia players have been to Wyoming, let alone the Mountain time zone, meaning the trip is a new experience.

"(But) it's mostly business," linebacker Jon Copper said. "We're going out there to play a football game and I think that's what's on everybody's mind."

Despite being 3?-point favorites heading to Laramie, history shows that making a trip anywhere has proven to be a stumbling block for the Cavaliers.

UVa is 2-9 on the road in the last two years, with victories coming at Syracuse in 2005 and Duke last year. The Orange went 1-10 in 2005. The Blue Devils were winless last season.

The key? Act like it's not a road game.

"We just have a 60-minute road attitude. Just treat them like home games," tailback Cedric Peerman said. "They're all the same. They're games."

To Groh, winning on the road isn't a mystery at all.

"If you have a good team, you win every place," Groh said. "Our issue is trying to put together a real good team."


 

Cavaliers open with elevated outlook
September 1, 2007 12:35 am
By TAFT COGHILL JR.

There have been 44 practices and countless interviews with the media.

Now Virginia football coach Al Groh is ready to see his team in action. The Cavaliers open their 2007 season today at 2 p.m. at Mountain West Conference opponent Wyoming.

"We've been talking about our team ad nauseam here for a couple of months," Groh said Wednesday. "It's nice that the talking is over, and we're going to find out what the reality is."

The reality for today is this: the Cavaliers (5-7 last year) will enter a frenzied environment in Laramie, Wyo., for a game Cowboys fans have been anticipating since the end of last season.

Wyoming (6-6) is expecting a sellout crowd and the athletic department has asked fans to buy tickets in advance. Fans also have been asked to arrive early.

Cowboys fifth-year head coach Joe Glenn said the atmosphere should be "fever pitch." He added that the campus hasn't been so anticipatory about a game in his tenure.

"This is the crescendo," Glenn said. "The kids are ready. The coaches are ready. Every place I go, everything is abuzz."

Part of the reason Wyoming is so enthusiastic about today's contest is that no Atlantic Coast Conference team has visited Laramie since 1961.

The Cowboys are also looking forward to getting another shot at the Cavaliers after they left Scott Stadium last year with a 13-12 overtime loss when kicker Aric Goodman missed an extra point.

"I wouldn't say it's revenge, but I've heard people say redemption," Glenn said. "We did a couple of things in that game, you just can't do."

The Cowboys have five starters back from the ninth-ranked defense in the country. Sophomore quarterback Karsten Sween returns after starting nine games as a freshman last season.

Sween wasn't the quarterback in the Cowboys' loss to Virginia, but neither was the Cavaliers' sophomore signal-caller Jameel Sewell.

Sewell also started nine games last season, and like Sween, had mixed results. He and the Cavaliers finished with the 113th-ranked offense (out of 119 Division I-A teams) in the nation. Wyoming finished 91st.

"I'm sure each team is anticipating that with experience, each one of those players will be that much better," Groh said. "That will be one of the interesting story lines of the game--which player can be that much better than he was on the last day of last year."

Groh added that both defenses will have a lot to say about how the quarterbacks perform.

Like the Cowboys, the Cavaliers also boasted a top-20 national defense. Virginia, which finished ranked No. 17 in the country in total defense, returns 10 starters from that unit.

The Cavaliers did surrender 313 total yards (168 on the ground), to Wyoming last year, but held the Cowboys out of the end zone for all of regulation. Sixty of those rushing yards came on two unexpected fake punts in the first half.

Cavaliers sophomore defensive end Jeffrey Fitzgerald said the Cowboys' offensive line wasn't physical, but that their offense can cause problems with its zone blocking schemes and quick passing plays.

"They were kind of this quick-hitting, try to get to the edge, speed type of team," Fitzgerald said. "I feel they're going to try to do the same scheme this year."

Fitzgerald said the focus for the defensive linemen will be batting down balls instead of rushing the quarterback. He said the Cavaliers also must be prepared to limit yards after the catch.

He and his teammates have talked about Wyoming for months, knowing it was the first game on the schedule. But like Groh, they're tired of talking.

"We know what type of season we're capable of having," Fitzgerald said. "We've talked about it. We've gone through it. Now we just have to go out there and perform it."

 

An injury away from the spotlight
David Teel
August 29, 2007

John McCain's stock response to vice-presidential queries is accurate, amusing and applies to the football teams at Virginia and Virginia Tech.

The vice president's chief responsibilities, McCain says, are to cast tie-breaking votes in the Senate and "inquire daily as to the health of the president."

Much the same can be said about backup quarterbacks. Their job is to patrol the sideline and inquire daily as to the health of the starter.

Which brings us to the Cavaliers and Hokies. If preseason practices are an accurate barometer, the second-best quarterbacks in the respective programs are true freshmen Peter Lalich of West Springfield High and Tyrod Taylor of Hampton.

Such news is good and bad as the teams prepare for Saturday's openers: Virginia at Wyoming, and Tech versus East Carolina.

Good because these acclaimed young men are approaching the absurd expectations created by the 21st century recruiting beast.

Bad because serious injuries could force them onto the field earlier than preferred.

You know the drill, college football fans. Most quarterbacks, heralded and otherwise, need a redshirt year. They need to noodle the playbook, read zone blitzes and master Laundry 101 (wash reds in cold water!).

Oh, there are exceptions. After injuries sidelined starter Jerry Colquitt and backup Todd Helton (now a Gold Glove first baseman for the Colorado Rockies), Peyton Manning went 7-1 as a starter at Tennessee in 1994, including a Gator Bowl victory over Virginia Tech.

But history and common sense — the college game is so much faster than high school — tell us a redshirt year is best. And that is what Virginia hopes for Lalich, and Virginia Tech for Taylor.

However, neither program has much depth at quarterback — blame previous recruiting mishaps. Moreover, Lalich and Taylor have performed well this summer.

"Everyone's been impressed with his diligence and his study," Virginia coach Al Groh said of Lalich. "He's come in and really worked to get on top of things and made improvement on a daily basis."

"He's thrown the ball very accurately for the most part (in practices) and in scrimmages," Tech coach Frank Beamer said of Taylor. "He's made some plays with his feet, and he's shown some good poise. There's some things there that certainly get your attention."

Preserving the rookies' redshirt years will be easy if starters Jameel Sewell and Sean Glennon are effective and remain healthy. Lalich and Taylor can benefit from taking the No. 2 snaps during practice, and if mop-up duty is required during a game, Scott Deke can handle the chore for the Cavaliers, Cory Holt for the Hokies.

So it went for Virginia Tech in 2005. Glennon served as Marcus Vick's backup but was able to redshirt because Vick remained healthy and Holt mopped up.

But what happens if Sewell or Glennon is sidelined long-term, even short-term during a close game? Remember, Sewell had offseason wrist surgery, and Glennon is operating behind a makeshift line that faces a daunting defense next week at Louisiana State.

And what happens if Sewell or Glennon proves ineffective early and often?

Off comes the redshirt? Absolutely. A coach must give his team the best chance to win, even when that means sacrificing a year of eligibility for the greater good.

The cautionary tale most familiar to locals is another Hampton High alum, Ronald Curry, the best prep quarterback these parts have ever seen. North Carolina didn't plan to redshirt Curry in 1998 — he was also a basketball player and didn't figure to linger five years in college — but certainly planned to ease his transition.

But on the Tar Heels' fourth play of their opener, starter Oscar Davenport sustained a knee injury. Enter Curry, who hadn't lost a football game in three years.

North Carolina, ranked 12th and a 19-point favorite at home, lost that night to Miami of Ohio 13-10. A week later, in his first college start, Curry passed for 304 yards and two touchdowns in a victory at Stanford.

It was fool's gold. Curry wasn't quite ready, and although he graduated as the school's career leader in passing yards and total offense, his premature starting role retarded his progress — as did injury, basketball and coaching instability (three offensive coordinators in four years).

One of those coordinators was Mike O'Cain, now the quarterbacks coach at Virginia Tech. In evaluating Taylor, he echoed most coaches' thoughts on young quarterbacks:

"I've said it from day one, and I'll say it today. It would be best if we could redshirt him."

Backup quarterbacks wait in the shadows
Tyrod Taylor
Height: 6-2

Weight: 185

Strengths: Quickness, arm strength, footwork

Bio: Led Hampton High School to group AAA Division 5 State Championship, passed for over 1,500 yards, ran for over 1,000 yards

Peter Lalich
Height: 6-5

Weight: 227

Strengths: Size, arm strength, leadership

Bio: Threw for 2,700 yard and 25 touchdowns as a junior at West Springfield High School
 

Hoops target visiting UVa
Greenberg and Co. will be off campus
By Doug Doughty

The sight of Virginia Tech men’s basketball coach Seth Greenberg doing a shot for ESPN’s First Take on Friday immediately raised the question of how Tech recruits might respond to Saturday’s emotional football opener with East Carolina.

It probably won’t have any effect on Greenberg’s basketball recruits. Greenberg, well-spoken in his interview with Dana Jacobsen, won’t be there. Neither will his staff or players

Recruits are allowed to take official recruiting visits as soon as school is in session, but Greenberg’s basketball team will be in Canada this weekend for an exhibition series. If the Hokies had gone to Canada before the start of school, Greenberg could not have used his freshmen, a major factor in his decision to play the exhibitions now.

While Tech will not have any basketball prospects on camp, Virginia, which does not have a home basketball game, will be entertaining Sylven Landesberg, a 6-foot-6 swingman from Holy Cross High School and Flushing, N.Y.

Holy Cross is the alma mater of UVa football player Kevin Ogletree, who, ironically enough, is injured and did not make the trip. Ogletree was a high-scoring senior on the 2004-2005 Holy Cross team on which Landesberg was a freshman and has said he will get together with Landesberg and his family this weekend.

Generally speaking, college coaches prefer to have a player’s first visit unless they can be assured of the player’s final visit. Presumably, the latter will be the case for UVa with John Brandenburg, a 6-10 post player from DeSmet Jesuit High School in St. Louis who will be in Charlottesville later this month.

The Cavaliers can hope for better luck with Brandenburg than they did with the first DeSmet big man to catch their eye. In the early 1980s, Steve Stipanovich stayed home and played for Missouri rather than join 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson on Virginia teams that routinely were strapped for a second inside presence.

Brandenburg went to Stanford unofficially and has narrowed his choices to the Cardinal and UVa. Landesberg still has visits scheduled for Georgia Tech and St. John’s, so the competition is formidable in a field that also includes Kentucky and Texas.

Virginia is also in the picture, as is Virginia Tech, for 6-10, 230-pound Frank Ben-Eze, who plays at Bishop O’Connell in Arlington. Ben-Eze, a Nigerian native who has been playing organized basketball for only three years, is an outstanding student who was seen on Marquette’s campus this past week.

The Hokies expect to get a visit from Ben-Eze as well as Tyshawn Taylor, a 6-3 point guard from St. Anthony’s Prep in Jersey City, N.J. The Hokies are considered the favorite for Taylor, who also has been listed with Georgia Tech, St. John’s, Cincinnati and UVa.

That last piece of information comes courtesy of PrepStars, which did not have Tech listed with 6-8 Victor Davila from Starmount High School in Boonville. PrepStars, which has Davila rated 89th on its most recent list of the nation’s top juniors, has him considering Memphis, Clemson, South Carolina and Iowa State. The Hokies are expecting a visit from Davila.

There is also a growing possibility that Tech will get a visit from 61st-rated Ralph Sampson III, a 6-10 post player from Northview High School in Duluth, Ga. Georgia Tech is among the schools recruiting Sampson, whose father, the above-mentioned Ralph Sampson, was a three-time national player of the year at Virginia.

The younger Sampson lives with his mother and the perception is that she doesn’t want him to follow in his father’s footsteps at UVa, but rival recruiters are finding that the elder Ralph Sampson has had an involvement with the recruiting.

UNCOMMITTED SENIOR football prospects at the Hokies’ game with East Carolina will include a pair of preseason SuperPrep All-Americans, offensive lineman Vinston Painter from Maury High School in Norfolk and running back Ryan Jackson from Stonewall Jackson in Manassas.

Painter and Jackson are rated the Nos. 3 and 5 prospects in Virginia by SuperPrep, and the Hokies also will be entertaining the No. 15 player on that list, defensive lineman Antoine Hopkins from Highland Springs.

Before then, Tech may take a commitment from D.J. Coles, a running back from Goochland who has seen as a prospective wide receiver in college. Coles, who probably would need to spend a year in prep school, is SuperPrep’s 13th-rated player in Virginia.
 

UW-Virginia: Part II
By Bob Hammond
Boomerang Sports Editor

It was 358 days ago that a stunned University of Wyoming team limped off the field in Charlottesville, Va., after Cowboy freshman place-kicker Aric Goodman’s extra-point attempt in overtime sailed wide right of the goal posts, leaving home-standing Virginia with a 13-12 victory.

Now, 1,688 miles to the west, the two defensive-oriented teams will pick up where they left off when Wyoming and Virginia open the 2007 season today in War Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is set for noon (MDT).

“I wouldn’t say revenge is the word … it’s more like redemption,” said Wyoming fifth-year coach Joe Glenn. “We did a couple of things in that game last year that you just can’t do. But really, we are just looking for a great start and appreciate the fact the Wahoos will come out here to Wyoming and hold up their end of the bargain. We’re looking for a great day and a big crowd.”

It should be a great day with the forecast calling for temperatures in the low 80s. And a big crowd is already assured. UW officials announced late Friday that the game had been sold out, with attendees in excess of 30,000, which marks the best season-opening home crowd in Wyoming football history. The old mark for a home-opening crowd is the 29,134 that showed for the Air Force game on Sept. 14, 1985.

Today’s game comes with a warning, however. If you’re a connoisseur of wide-open offenses and plenty of points on the scoreboard, you may be disappointed. This one has all the makings of being another knockdown, drag-out defensive battle, similar to the one that was staged last year in Charlottesville.

In that game, the Cowboys and Cavaliers battled for 60 minutes, and all they had to show for it was a pair of field goals by each team. Both teams managed to score a touchdown in the extra period before the missed PAT brought the game to an end.

The defensive play by both teams continued throughout their respective seasons. For the year, Virginia surrendered an average of only 289.5 yards and 17.8 points per game, while Wyoming gave up 262.9 yards and 22.0 points per contest.

Virginia returns nine starters from that defense, led by senior All-American end Chris Long and junior inside linebacker Jon Cooper.

“Defensively, I bet this is as good a defense as we will see all year,” Glenn said of the Cavaliers. “And I think our defense is pretty good, too.”

Wyoming has five defensive starters back, including junior inside linebacker Ward Dobbs and senior corners Julius Stinson and Michael Medina. Although the Cowboys don’t have as many defensive returnees as the Cavaliers, they have been able to fill the gaps with some quality young players.

The key to today’s game is which team can generate enough offense and which team can do the best job of protecting the football.

Both teams saw significant progress in their respective offenses following last year’s early-season meeting after changing to redshirt freshman quarterbacks. Jameel Sewell took control of the UVa. offense in the team’s fourth game, while Karsten Sween became Wyoming’s starter during the second half of the Cowboys’ fifth game.

“Each team has certainly evolved from that point,” said veteran Virginia coach Al Groh. “Both of those players had a very positive impact on their team in the second half of the season. I’m sure each team is anticipating that with experience and the spring and training camp, that each one of those players will be that much better. That will be one of the interesting story lines of the game … which player can be that much better than he was on the last day of last year.”

Sewell and Sween may be a year older and wiser, but both will be operating with some limitations today.

Although Sewell has his entire starting offensive line back, led by tri-captain Branden Albert, his wide receiver corps is very inexperienced. On the flip side, Sween has an experienced and talented wide receiver group, led by seniors Michael Ford and Hoost Marsh, but his offensive line has three new starters.

That means Virginia will most likely try to impose its will on Wyoming on the ground, while the Cowboys will probably try to get their passing game going.

Cedric Peerman (510, 208) will get the start for the Cavaliers at tailback with junior Andrew Pearman (5-10, 168) and touted redshirt freshman Keith Payne (6-3, 234) slated for playing time. They will be running behind a super-size fullback in sophomore Rashawn Jackson (6-1, 254) and an O-line that averages over 300 pounds per man.

“Al Groh is very much a pro-mentality coach in that he likes to play a real tight field-position game,” Glenn said. “They’re not going to hit long field goals. They will punt it and try and get it inside the 10 (yard line) and let their defense do it and pin you down. He likes to play a field-position game. Punting is not a bad thing for him … punt it and get that sterling defense out there.

“We will probably be a little bit like that with our young offensive line as well. My hunch is they will come in here and try to be ‘Ground Groh.’ They’re going to run it, and there may be some option with (Jameel) Sewell, who is such a good athlete. I don’t think the emphasis will be to throw too much to their wideouts. They have to throw it some, but I really feel we are going to see three tight ends (seniors Tom Santi and Jonathan Stupar and junior John Phillips) on the field. They’ll be conservative on offense and let their defense set them up in position to win the game,”

The Cowboys didn’t generate much offense against the Cavaliers last season, but Glenn says his team has made some adjustments that should help.

“We’re going to do some things different on offense,” Glenn said. “And my pat line is, ‘You’re going to have to be there to see it.’ We have made some changes and you’re going to see some things you haven’t seen.”

Some of that will undoutedly involve junior running back Devin Moore, who has been a standout during the Cowboys’ fall camp.

In Glenn’s mind, the key to today’s game will come down to whichever team does the best job of taking care of the football.

“I look for this game to be a slug out, but it would be safe to say whoever protects the ball better is going to win the game,” Glenn added. “I’ve asked our team to work hard to score on defense, to score on offense and to score on special teams. I’m thinking it is going to take three scores to win the game.”

Following today’s opener, Wyoming will remain at home to play Utah State next Saturday, while Virginia returns to Charlottesville to open the home season against Duke.