Uninspired?

Doug Doughty - Roanoke Times

New defensive coordinator Bob Pruett should be moved from the press box to the field to help inspire his unit.

It was a scene that was re-enacted on numerous occasions during Virginia's 9-4 football season in 2007:

The UVa defense would come to the sidelines after a critical stop and there would be defensive coordinator Mike London to greet them with a chest bump or a high-five or some other sort of congratulatory gesture.

Sometimes, London would be there to chastise them, to get in their faces if the situation warranted. As a former Richmond police detective, he could be a disciplinarian.

London is the head coach at Richmond now, so he isn't around to meet the UVa defense on its way off the field, not that there's been a whole lot to celebrate. What seems strange is, while London isn't on the UVa sideline, neither is his successor as defensive coordinator, Bob Pruett.

Observers on both sidelines Saturday at Connecticut were struck by the absence of emotion displayed by the Cavaliers on and off the field. Head coach Al Groh huddled with the defense periodically, but, when play resumed, he had to go back to watching the game.

The only UVa assistant coaches who were on the sideline were Anthony Poindexter, Dave Borbely and Bob Diaco. It's a good thing the players were behaving themselves. If an altercation had broken out, the staff might have been powerless to contain it.

In London's two seasons as Virginia's defensive coordinator, Groh was heavily involved in the defensive game plan and called defensive signals on game day. London had served as UVa's defensive line coach from 2001-04, so when he returned from a one-year hiatus with the NFL's Houston Texans, he knew what to expect.

Some would say that London was the Cavaliers' D-coordinator in title only, but the players liked him and they respected him, which is not to say they don't respect Pruett. But, the idea of having three assistant coaches on the field and six in the press box is not the way that most teams do business.

Moreover, two of the coaches who are on the field, Borbely and Poindexter, are offensive coaches. Borbely coaches the offensive line and Poindexter the running backs. Diaco is nominally the linebackers coach, but his primary responsibility is special teams. In effect, Groh is the linebackers coach.

Groh has tremendous faith in his own football instincts, but, in this case, he's spread too thin. The Virginia players should have been angry Saturday during a 45-10 loss to UConn, but the defensive unit sat quietly as the final minutes ticked off the clock. There was nobody in their faces. Not a coach. Not another player.

In 2007, maybe London would have been rallying the troops. Or maybe it would have been defensive end and co-captain Chris Long. A coach familiar with the UVa operation said that Long and his father, NFL Hall of Famer Howie Long, had a "larger than life" influence on the UVa program.

The Longs lived in Charlottesville, so players could go home with Chris and talk football or they could get away from football. Long's constant encouragement spurred roommate and close friend Clint Sintim to an outstanding season in 2007. Is it a coincidence, in Long's absence this year, that Sintim is still waiting to get on track?

The Cavaliers aren't going to get Long back. They aren't going to get London back. In his mid-60s, Pruett does not have the same demographical profile as London, 48, but he has always had a reputation as a players' coach. Why not put him on the sideline and find out?
 

Run, Forrest! Run!
Eric Strow
Published: Tuesday, September 16 2008

See the title of this column? Sub in coach Al Groh for Forrest, and that’s the message I have for the U.Va. football team. It worked for Mr. Gump, and it can work for the Cavaliers, too.
Let’s put everything out on the table right now. It’s been really hard to watch Virginia football this year. I mean, really, really hard. Two blowout losses in three games is not how any team wants to start a season, especially for a team that went 9-4 a year ago. And the quarterback situation only makes things worse. I don’t need to go into any detail on that, but I will say that I support Peter Lalich, and sitting him against Connecticut didn’t make any sense.
But what gets me angry more than anything else? The disappearance of the running game. I don’t want to inundate you with numbers, but after putting together some research I think there are some stats you simply need to see. Let’s get to it.
Last year, Virginia racked up 1,763 net rushing yards in 13 games. Running backs Cedric Peerman, now a senior, and Mikell Simpson, now a junior, comprised 65.5 percent of that rushing offense, while then-sophomore quarterback Jameel Sewell ran for 15.8 percent of those yards. As you know, Sewell is not playing for Virginia this year, and the quarterback position this season will likely not match his production. But, let it suffice to say, the core of the running game came from the tailback position anyway.
In the 2007 season, Virginia out-rushed opponents in 9 games (and tied the other team in rushing yards in one more). Virginia had more than 100 rushing yards in nine games. Virginia won nine games. See a trend here? In only one game did the Cavaliers out-rush the opponent, rush for more than 100 yards and lose ... and that was against Texas Tech in the Gator Bowl. And, in only one game did the Cavaliers not out-rush the opponent, rush for less than 100 yards and win (in the game against Wake Forest). So, I’m convinced that running the ball effectively had something to do with Virginia winning football games.
This year, Peerman and Simpson are still here. Junior fullback Rashawn Jackson is still here. Sophomore fullback Keith Payne — who comprised 12.4 percent of the rushing offense as a tailback last year — has moved to fullback, but is still here. Yes, Sewell is gone, as is Andrew Pearman, who was the main running back in only one game last year, against Connecticut. But the backfield is essentially the same this year as it was last year.
And yet ... we stopped running. In Virginia’s game against Richmond, the Cavaliers ran 38 times for 91 yards, and won. One week later, at Connecticut, Virginia ran only 14 times. Fourteen! That’s just strange to me. Where’s the faith in the running game? I’m not claiming to be able to coach, but I can’t be the only one who sees that when Virginia runs the ball, it does better than when the Cavaliers don’t run. You might say Virginia ran less against Connecticut because it was playing from behind the entire game, but I say that if the team ran the ball from the outset, maybe things wouldn’t have been so ugly.
Is the concern surrounding the offensive line so great that Virginia simply stopped running the ball? Obviously you need a decent O-line to run the ball well, but I find it hard to believe that Virginia doesn’t have enough talent on the line and in the backfield to muster more than the 31 rushing yards amassed this weekend. Senior left tackle Eugene Monroe is projected to be a top draft pick. Junior right tackle Will Barker started all 13 games last year. The others on the line might be inexperienced, but is that really a reason to not run?
You saw how good Peerman and Simpson can be last year. Each played six games as the main tailback and each averaged around 19 attempts per game. Peerman averaged 97.5 yards per game in his six games, including the meager 19 yards he netted in his sixth game when he got injured. Simpson recorded 96.5 yards per game in his six weeks as the feature back. What do these numbers say? Just give them more chances, coach! Fourteen rushing attempts as a team just won’t cut it!
The running game could be the bread and butter of Virginia’s offense but, for whatever reason, the play-calling isn’t letting that be the case. Virginia has two weeks to prepare for Duke, which should be like studying for your little brother’s sixth-grade math test. While Duke is 2-1, the Blue Devils allowed 188 rushing yards to James Madison. If we can’t outrun JMU ... well, simply, we can.
So, coach Groh, I implore you. Run the football. Things can’t get any worse if you do.

Virginia-Duke game set for ESPNU telecast
Tuesday, Sep 16, 2008 - 12:07 AM
 
If the University of Virginia is playing football, there's a good chance ESPNU is carrying the game.

U.Va.'s Sept. 27 game at Duke will start at noon and be televised by ESPNU, the ACC announced yesterday. That will be the third consecutive U.Va. game shown on ESPNU, which isn't widely available in this state.

Virginia (1-2) is off this weekend, as is Duke (2-1). Neither has played an ACC game this season. The Blue Devils have lost 25 straight conference games, but they're likely to be favored Sept. 27 at Wallace Wade Stadium.

The Cavaliers lost 45-10 at Connecticut on Saturday night, and quarterback Peter Lalich was held out of the game. Lalich, who started Virginia's first two games, has a Sept. 26 court date, and it's not clear if he'll play against Duke.

Three UConn players, incidentally, were honored yesterday for their performances against U.Va. Tailback Donald Brown, who rushed for 206 yards and three touchdowns, is the Big East offensive player of the week, and cornerback Darius Butler and quarterback Tyler Lorenzen made the conference's weekly honor roll.

In addition to playing defense, Butler ran 13 yards for a touchdown, caught two passes for 40 yards and returned two kickoffs for 49 yards.

Lorenzen tormented Virginia with his running and passing. He completed his first 11 passes Saturday night. -- Jeff White

 

Right in Leitao’s backyard
Jeff White
Sep 16, 2008

CHARLOTTESVILLE – Tucked away on a picturesque campus about 15 miles from John Paul Jones Arena is a basketball player whom Dave Leitao would love to add to his roster for 2010-11.

Mychal Parker, a 6-6, 180-pound swingman, is in his first year at the Miller School in western Albemarle County.

Parker, who’s from Little Washington, N.C., is a boarding student at Miller, where he’s a junior. He’s ranked No. 76 in the Class of 2010 by Rivals.com, and his stock is rising.

Others Virginia is pursuing in the 11th-grade class include Travis McKie, a 6-6 forward whom Rivals.com ranks No. 78. McKie attends Community High in Richmond but plays for John Marshall High.

The NCAA’s latest evaluation period opened last Tuesday, and Leitao was at Miller to check out Parker, with whom he’s formed a strong relationship. Parker plays AAU ball for Tony Squire’s Richmond-based program.

Other schools interested in Parker include Virginia Tech and Florida, Miller coach Fred Wawner said.

Parker is likely to play shooting guard for Miller, but he “potentially could play point for us,” Wawner said. “He handles the ball better than I thought he would.”

Also at Miller is senior Marshawn Powell, who was seriously interested in U.Va. but ultimately decided to commit to Arkansas. All parties agreed, Wawner said, that Arkansas is a better fit academically for Powell, a 6-7 forward from Newport News.

SWITCHING SPORTS .... These results struck me on my way home from Hartford, Conn., as I considered the current plight of Al Groh’s football team:

*In 2004, U.Va. beat Temple 44-14.

*In 2005, U.Va. beat Temple 51-3.

*In 2008, Temple, now coached by former U.Va. defensive coordinator Al Golden, took Connecticut to overtime before losing. A week later, U.Va. was embarrassed 45-10 to UConn in a game that was 28-0 after the Huskies’ first four possessions.

It’s dangerous to compare scores, I realize, and the Temple-UConn game was played in absolutely wretched conditions on Sept. 6, courtesy of Tropical Storm Hanna.

Still, it seems entirely reasonable to think that U.Va. would struggle with Temple, which as recently as 2006 was one of the nation’s worst teams. And that’s a sobering thought for Virginia fans.

Posted by Jeff White