White: What To Look For Saturday At Scott Stadium
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com Release: 09/01/2009
By Jeff White

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- So, your Saturday plans are set. Football season is finally here, and you're looking forward to a splendid September evening at Scott Stadium.
More than nine months have passed since the Cavaliers played at home, and much has changed at the stadium since then. You may walk out Saturday night buzzing about the new videoboard, but that's not the only part of the game-day experience that's different this season.
For starters, you're welcome to bring a bag or backpack to the game. But when you're ready to enter, you'll be directed to the entry point farthest to the right at your gate. There, stadium personnel will check your bag or backpack.
Gates open two hours before kickoff, and the entry process goes more quickly if you don't bring a bag or backpack. If you do, however, make sure it doesn't contain any of these prohibited items.
OK, you're inside the stadium now. As you head to your seat, look toward the north end. What you see towering over the Hill may surprise you. The stadium's new videoboard, at 1,824 square feet, is more than three times larger than the old one (588 square feet), which was installed in 1998.
And that's not all. The board's resolution and brightness have improved, and it uses a 16x9 widescreen format.
The upgrades, paid for by CBS College Sports Properties as part of its agreement with the University, cost $2.4 million. They also include LED wings that will feature out-of-town scores, individual and team statistics from the UVa game, and messages from sponsors. Moreover, modifications have been made to improve the stadium's sound system.
In general, you'll find it easier to follow the game as you move around the stadium. See those televisions on the concourses? They'll show the UVa game live, as well as key information -- quarter, time remaining, score, down and distance -- in a banner across the top of the screen.
On the right column of the screen, rotating panels will display game statistics and ACC standings, along with information about upcoming games and the Virginia Athletics Foundation. At the bottom of the screen, a banner will display scores from other college games.
At halftime, during timeouts and between quarters, trivia questions for fans will be shown on the TVs, as well as on-field ceremonies. TVs in the suites offer the same features.
With kickoff approaching, you settle into your seat. As in years past, you have the option of renting a stadium seat on game day. But there's a new option this year: You can order a seat that will be installed for the entire home schedule. For more information, visit www.cavalierseats.com.
The game starts, and your focus turns to the field. You get thirsty. Concession stands can be found around the stadium, but you don't have to leave the stands to to get a drink.
At a UVa game last season, 45 hawkers might have been working. This season there will be about 55 or 60 at each game, wearing distinctive red aprons and selling soda, water and other drinks around the stadium and in the stands.
Hungry for more than typical stadium fare? A tent at the north end of the stadium, underneath the pergola, will sell specialty food items. The menu will change each game. The special this weekend, with William and Mary in town, is crab cakes. Other concessions will be available at this tent, too.
Want a cigarette? That won't be as simple as in years past.
Smoking, already prohibited in the stands, now won't be allowed anywhere at Scott Stadium except a designated area outside the southwest gate. You may not leave and then re-enter the stadium without a separate game ticket unless you are using the smoking area.
This change may not please every fan, but it reflects a new policy at the University. Smoking is now prohibited at all UVa athletic facilities.

A Brave New Media? Posted 2009-08-31
Colleges Hire Official 'Sports Writers'
By Dustin Dopirak

HARRISONBURG - The weirdest transition for Jeff White was his work apparel.

Journalism requires unbiased objectivity, so a cardinal rule of being a sports writer is to give no one reason to believe you're a fan of a team you cover. That means not wearing anything resembling the team's school colors and certainly not donning anything with the team's logo on it.

Ever.

So it felt a little odd to White, who recently joined the University of Virginia's athletic media relations department as its "director of news content" after covering the Cavaliers at the Richmond Times-Dispatch for nine years, to wear blue and orange U.Va. polo shirts to the office.

"I've gotten used to it, but I've got to admit, the first day it was pretty weird," White said recently.

White's not alone. With the newspaper industry in an economic downturn and new media competing for sports fans' attention, athletic departments have begun looking for ways to add better content to their official Web sites. White, a sports journalist in Richmond for 21 years, is one of several reporters nationwide who have recently moved over to what he referred to in his first U.Va. blog as the "Dark Side" - working in the media/public relations departments of schools they once covered.

According to a survey provided to the News-Record by Tiffany Carpenter, the director of public relations at Tennessee's athletic department, 10 Division I-A schools and one major conference had former sports writers working on their Web sites in mid-July. Since then, at least two more major colleges - Tennessee and Northwestern - have added former journalists to the staff.

It's a recent trend. All came aboard since 2004, and 12 of the 13 were hired since 2007.

While public relations has been a refuge for burned-out reporters for years, what makes this trend different is that the universities hiring the writers don't want them to simply produce press releases. They want them to continue to "act" like newspaper reporters - just as long as they remember who signs their paychecks.

Obviously, an official Web site isn't going to break news that the university doesn't want people to know about. It also is unlikely to permit tart or hard-hitting analysis. For that type of reporting, fans will still have to rely on traditional media (such as newspapers and ESPN) and independent Web sites (such as ESPN.com or Yahoo Sports).

But for lighter fare - or, perhaps, even for inside information that the team doesn't want to keep secret - official Web sites give a new generation of Web-obsessed fans another outlet.

The trend started in the professional ranks, where sites like MLB.com and NFL.com employ what are essentially beat writers for each of their teams. It's happening in the other major sports, as well, with ChicagoBulls.com recently hiring longtime Chicago Tribune beat writer Sam Smith.

For those who value the integrity and unbiased objectivity of sports journalism, it's a disturbing trend.

"There's the whole question of independence," said Malcolm Moran, a long-time sports reporter at USA Today, the New York Times, Newsday and the Chicago Tribune who is now the Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society at Penn State University. "I think it could be and it will be a serious threat [to newspapers and traditional media] as long as these institutions feel that it's in their best interest to bankroll it."

The reason they are bankrolling it, athletic department officials from several schools said, is to attract more traffic to their Web sites and to have more of a say in the information that comes out about their program. Instead of trying to pitch feature stories to newspapers and magazines - especially about athletes in minor sports - they've taken matters into their own hands by adding a professional writer to the staff.

"We wanted to create a position that informed our fans directly," said U.Va. executive associate athletic director Jon Oliver. "We wanted to bring in a reporter with expertise that could tell everyone the things that we do. People don't write about all the stories. They write about the most sensational. We're creating this position and we brought Jeff on board to show how things really work in the athletics department."

Said Carpenter, who recently hired former Tennessee beat writer Drew Edwards from the Knoxville News Sentinel for a position similar to White's: "We were looking at Web sites and saying, ‘What can we do that's different?'"

For many of the new "official" sports writers, their typical, day-to-day responsibilities don't change that much from their newspaper jobs. The schools want feature stories and game coverage to sound similar to those that appear in newspapers.

"They told me they wanted me to mostly do what I had been doing at the Times-Dispatch," White said. "... When it comes to the typical college basketball or football feature, 80 to 90 percent of the time, it's the same kind of story."

The schools even want their "reporters" to be, to a small degree, critical of the teams they cover. For example, in one of White's blog posts, he points to Virginia's subpar kicking game as one of the reasons the Cavaliers' football team finished 5-7 in 2009. Several athletic department executives who created positions like White's said that allowing some criticism is important to give their Web sites credibility.

"We don't want just fluff pieces that tell everybody that everything's all great and roses," said Tennessee's Carpenter. "We're coming off a 5-7 football season. You can't deny that."

But there's a line. Athletic departments won't allow their newly hired Web writers to break stories they don't want the public to know about. For instance, if an athlete gets arrested or a coach is fired, athletic directors wouldn't want their Web writer to publish anything before the school had shifted into damage-control mode. And they certainly wouldn't want their reporters digging up NCAA violations or other athletic department malfeasance. The watchdog function - a key role of the press - would remain with newspapers, magazines and major national broadcasters.

"They told me there's going to be situations that will arise, I'll run things by people," White said. "And they'll say, ‘We can't go with that right now.'"

Said Carpenter: "That's one of the things we talked about. When you've got injury reports or players that are being punished, there will be situations when [Edwards] knows the reason and can't say it. I think our policy will be he'll have to go to sports information and go with whatever they're saying. He can't be breaking the news."

Not unless the university wants its writer to do so. Oliver, for instance, said that if U.Va. were to conduct a major coaching search, White would not cover the story in the same fashion as an independent sports writer - reporting, for example, on which coaches were finalists or had been interviewed. But when a coach was actually hired, Oliver said, Virginia would try to make sure White got the "scoop."

"When we do announce if we have a coaching change, he's going to have the most information about that as it's released from us," Oliver said. "If you look at this overall model, part of the point is [sports writers] aren't going to win the race any more. That's part of it."

And it's a part that concerns Moran.

"The issue is, as it pertains to either leagues or individual teams or schools, are they in fact now in competition with the people that have traditionally covered them?" Moran said. "If so, what does that mean to the dynamic? If you're a beat reporter for State University X and you're covering a high-profile coaching search, you're competing against the Web site that has access to information you don't have access to."

The advantage journalists will maintain, Moran said, is that discerning readers will understand that university Web sites are not unbiased. Savvy fans, for example, will still rely on newspapers to report about those coaching finalists - reporting that, in effect, allows the public to vet candidates before one is hired.

There is a question, though, about how many fans care about objectivity and independent reporting.

"How much discernment is truly out there?" Moran said. "How much do people pay attention to whether they're reading something on a computer screen written by a 20-year veteran with a high level of knowledge and sources or some guy in his parents' basement sounding off on whether Team X should trade its star player? There's more and more of a question of how closely a sizeable section of the population really is paying attention."

So why do newspaper reporters abandon independent journalism to become part of a PR operation? The primary reason is that newspapers, hit hard by the Internet and the economic crisis, have been cutting back on coverage and staff.

Tim Peeler, a pioneer in the trend, took a job as North Carolina State's Web writer in 2004 after he had parted ways with the Greensboro News & Record. He had a 2-year-old child and a 6-month-old baby at the time. He didn't want to leave Raleigh, where he lived, and a full-time job at N.C. State was too much to pass up.

"It was a perfect solution for a difficult problem for my family," Peeler said. "And given my experiences, I thought the trend of newspapers was going to get worse before it got better."

It did. The University of Colorado recently hired former Buffaloes beat writer B.G. Brooks, who was working for the Rocky Mountain News before the Denver newspaper ceased publication on Feb. 27. Northwestern picked up long-time Wildcats beat writer Skip Myslenski, who was laid off by the Chicago Tribune.

Former Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Wendell Barnhouse, one of the nation's most respected college football and basketball writers, was in no danger of losing his job. However, budget cuts made it impossible for him to continue being a national beat writer and traveling to games all over the country. He said he was offered the Texas A&M beat, but he wondered whether additional cuts would make that more difficult in the coming years. Instead, he took a buyout and decided to write for the Big 12 Conference's Web site.

"I thought, ‘Hey, who knows? In a year maybe they decide to downsize again,'" Barnhouse said. "It's kind of a Russian Roulette thing where you never know when you're going to end up in the wrong situation, and I felt like if I waited, I wouldn't have the safety net of the Big 12. My analogy is it was kind of like getting the last helicopter out of Saigon."

White was in a similar situation at the Times-Dispatch. He'd survived two rounds of newsroom layoffs at the paper, which he felt fortunate about, but he didn't want to wait to see if he'd make it through a third.

"I know U.Va. is still going to be here and viable in 10 years," White said. "I wish I could say the same for the T-D and newspapers."

That might be a doomsday scenario - newspapers are busy reinventing themselves as multi-media entities - but it was enough for White, even if he's wearing shirts he never thought you'd catch him in.

Groh won't reveal much about U.Va.'s new offense
Dave Fairbank
September 1, 2009
E-mail Print Share Text size CHARLOTTESVILLE

Virginia coach Al Groh chose a snazzy, two-piece tan suit over standard coaches' garb Monday morning, perhaps reasoning that cards held closely to the vest against designer threads look better than against a golf shirt.

Groh provided few details to his media friends as the Cavaliers began the runup to Saturday's opener against William and Mary.

His reticence was part honest, part tactical. Football is built on disguise and deception, as well as execution. Without games and results, coaches and players are mostly evaluating intramurals, which is every bit as enlightening as it sounds.

"In every area," Groh said, "coaching, playing, offense, defense, special teams, we haven't done anything yet, OK? It's all nice talk.

"And have we done, from our perspective, the proper things to this point to position ourselves where maybe we can do something? We do feel confirmed about that. We had a good off-season program. We have had a good camp. We have had good performances. We have had the players really clued in hard in these first three days of (game) preparation. All of the right things are being done, but that hasn't won any games yet."

Much chatter has revolved around an offense that underwent a Ty Pennington-sized makeover. The Cavaliers last season finished 12th in the ACC in scoring, total offense and rushing and 11th in pass efficiency.

Academic issues and serial stupidity forced the Cavaliers to rely on their No. 3 quarterback, Marc Verica, much of last season. Still, Groh jettisoned son Mike as offensive coordinator and replaced him with former Bowling Green head coach Gregg Brandon and his spread offensive scheme.

Groh elder and younger obviously had a rapport that the head coach cannot duplicate with his new offensive coordinator. Since Groh himself appears to be on a short contractual leash with losing seasons two of the past three years, it doesn't sound as if he will cede control of the offense to Brandon.

"It's our belief that the head coach is responsible for what happens to the football," Groh said.

Head coaches, Groh said, range from being their own offensive coordinators and calling plays to standing on the sidelines as spectators while their coordinators do the heavy lifting.

"But no matter how it goes," Groh said, "until the end result, the head coach is responsible for what happens to the ball. So from our perspective then, that defines how far autonomy goes."

Quarterback is the most discussed position, naturally, given its importance in the big picture and that in less than one season the Cavaliers went from zero experienced triggermen to three: Verica; Jameel Sewell, who returned after a year's academic suspension; and converted cornerback Vic Hall, who threw a scare into Virginia Tech in last year's finale and has worked there during the spring and summer.

Groh said that he still envisions using all three, sometimes in the same game. He wasn't inclined to reveal a starter, or if or when he would designate a No. 1.

"Whenever seems appropriate, whenever the moment is right," he said, sounding a little like a Cialis commercial. "Whenever the scales tip in one direction or the other."

Hall said that as of Monday, an off day for the players, he had no idea if he would start or how much he would play. He said he didn't need any lead time to get his chakra in line, that he would be ready whenever his number is called.

Groh is ready to start playing games, as well, so that he might begin to gauge what his instincts and experience tell him.

"What we have always been interested in, one, offensively, is making the ball move," he said. "Whatever system best fit the players that we had, that's what we have always been interested in."

Groh said he wouldn't characterize his system as run-oriented or pass-oriented, as pro style or an open offense. It's a "move-the-ball" offense.

"So when the ball moves, we're comfortable," he said. "And when it doesn't, we're less comfortable. So, we are very comfortable with what we're doing. And we chose it. It's like, 'Do I like this suit?' Sure, because I bought it."

One press wiseguy said that his wife, Anne, probably bought the suit for him. Groh insisted otherwise. He pointed out that Anne was out of town, so he even did the Tim Gunn thing, putting together the entire morning ensemble.

"Doesn't mean I know how to call plays," he joked, "but I could pick my tie out."

If his new offense is as crisp as his Monday attire, the Cavaliers could do worse.

 

W&M’s Archer will try to beat U.Va. team he cheered for as child
By Michael Phillips
Published: September 2, 2009

WILLIAMSBURG R.J. Archer never has had a view this good at Scott Stadium. He's also never faced odds this long.

William and Mary's senior quarterback will try to shake up the football establishment Saturday as he leads the Tribe into the stadium in which he spent many childhood weekends.

"I've been coming since I was old enough to be carried," he said. "We've had the same seats forever at the front of the upper deck on the 40-yard line."

He's seen his fair share of great games and upsets -- mentioning the 1995 game against Florida State as a favorite -- but this time, he'll be a part of the history, hoping to silence the orange-clad crowd.

That won't be easy. Oddsmakers don't even set lines when Football Championship Subdivision teams head to their Football Bowl Subdivision counterparts for games, but if they did, Virginia likely would be favored by a few touchdowns.

In 30 years at William and Mary, coach Jimmye Laycock has a 1-6 record against the Cavs. The victory came in 1986. He said mistakes will be magnified against the bigger and stronger opponent.

"You get one guy out of position or a block isn't sustained or whatever, and that's something you might get away with against a lesser opponent," he said. "But it gives us a chance to get rid of those problems before they can come back and hurt us later in the season."

Laycock said he'll spend the week preparing his team to play with strong fundamentals, instead of specifically game-planning for the Cavs.

Virginia has yet to announce a quarterback, and it will debut a spread offense, creating unknowns for the opposition.

Tribe coaches will watch for anything unusual and try to adjust.

"It's enough that it's the first game against an opponent we haven't played recently," Laycock said. "But this is a first game against a new opponent running a new offense. . . . So we've got to be ready to make adjustments."

U.Va. is preparing to adjust to Archer, who threw 21 passes last year in his lone start at quarterback. Though the Cavaliers have three starting seniors among the four linebackers, there isn't much game experience in the group.

"I'm sure they will test us, and I look forward to that," linebacker Aaron Clark said. "They have a lot of wrinkles in their offense."

William and Mary's players are no strangers to what it will take against a top-notch school, as the Tribe has taken on a FBS team every year dating to 1998. That was the year of its last victory against a big school, a 45-38 takedown of Temple.

For the Tribe to have a chance Saturday, it will come down to Archer having a breakout game in his hometown, as well as the defense holding its own against the Cavaliers' spread offense.

Regardless of the outcome, Laycock knows his players will remember playing in front of tens of thousands of people for years to come. "That's a part of their college experience," Laycock said.

Young U.Va. fan returns home as W & M's QB
By Dave Fairbank
247-4637
September 2, 2009

WILLIAMSBURG - R.J. Archer has no recollection of it, but the story goes like this: At age 5 or 6, he's sitting in the stands with family at Scott Stadium for a University of Virginia football game.

The couple seated in front of him know little about the Cavaliers, so Archer, who grew up in nearby Earlysville and attended Virginia games before he could walk, tells them all about the Cavs. Team record, best players, the whole shebang.

Years later, Archer's life has come full circle. He will walk into Scott Stadium on the first September Saturday of his senior year as William and Mary's starting quarterback and do everything in his power to defeat the school of his boyhood idols.

"The way it sets up for us, it should be a real exciting season," Archer said. "It's a storybook ending, or more like a storybook beginning, to your season."

In the season opener for both, the Tribe and Virginia meet for the first time since 1995 at 6 p.m. Saturday.

It's William and Mary's annual foray against a Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) program, while the Cavaliers will debut a new-look offense and hope to win their season opener for the first time since 2005.

As Tribe coach Jimmye Laycock said, his players have plenty of memorable moments in their careers, but years later, it's the games against Virginia Tech or Penn State or Georgia or Virginia — big programs with big crowds in big stadia — that resonate.

"They will remember that experience," Laycock said.

Rush James Archer II — he is named after his father's uncle — almost certainly will remember. His father, Al, graduated from Virginia in the late '70s. R.J. wasn't one of those kids who frolic on the hill behind the north end zone at Scott Stadium. He was into the games and the players.

He has vague memories of the Shawn Moore-to- Herman Moore connection in the early '90s. Though he was only 8, he vividly recalls the Cavaliers' 33-28 victory against Florida State in 1995, the Seminoles' first-ever ACC loss.

"A direct snap to Warrick Dunn," Archer said, referring to the game's final play, "and Anthony Poindexter stuck his helmet into the ball and stopped him about an inch short (of the goal line)."

Archer neglected to mention Cavs linebacker Adrian Burnim on that same play, but you get the idea.

Archer became a star quarterback at nearby Albemarle High and attended football camps at U.Va. Former assistant Mike Groh invited him to walk on, but at 6-foot-2 and 175 pounds as a high school senior, he thought that William and Mary provided a better fit athletically.

Archer began his W&M career as a quarterback, but switched to wide receiver his next two seasons and totaled 69 receptions. He moved back to quarterback heading into his redshirt junior year, since the Tribe needed a dependable backup to starter Jake Phillips.

Archer's mantra for both moves: Whatever helps the team.

"I had a great time playing receiver," said Archer, who has bulked up to a solid 220 pounds. "Some people have to wait until their junior or senior years just to get on the field, but I was lucky enough to be able to start early in my career and then play quarterback again."

Archer filled in ably last year in a loss against nationally ranked Villanova when Phillips went down with an injury. He completed 21 of 37 passes for 307 yards and a touchdown. He always tried to prepare as if he was needed at a moment's notice.

The coaching staff tutored Archer gradually last spring, then accelerated the pace during preseason to include a multitude of throws, reads and situations.

"The push and the pressure that we've put on him in preseason," Laycock said, "hopefully will pay off once we get going and get playing. I feel like he's become a much better quarterback than he was at the end of spring practice."

That said, Laycock doesn't want Archer to think that he has to win games himself. An improving, veteran defense removes some pressure from the offense. And the Tribe's offensive line, running backs and receivers will aid the quarterback's comfort level.

"We have the tools," Archer said, "we have the weapons to have a very good offense."
 

Virginia won’t sleep on Tribe
By Jay Jenkins
Published: September 2, 2009

Outside of the nuisances added from Virginia’s new spread offense and potentially a new quarterback, it may come as a surprise that very few wrinkles will catch the opposition off-guard Saturday inside Scott Stadium.
Virginia and William & Mary, the Cavaliers’ season-opening foe, ensured that long before game preparation began when they swapped film from every contest in the 2008 season.
That serves as a two-way street, for better or worse.
“They have seen as much of us as we have of them,” said Virginia coach Al Groh.
What the coach spotted certainly caught his attention.
On the way to a 7-4 record last year, the Tribe and coach Jimmye Laycock’s offense dropped an average of 32.8 points per game and beat five opponents by 20 or more points.
“It’s one of the highest scoring teams that they’ve had in coach Laycock’s 30-year tenure,” Groh pointed out.
Virginia linebacker Aaron Clark added: “William & Mary, they are a solid team. We definitely have to be ready to go and play our best game in the first game of the season. We definitely can’t sleep on a team like William & Mary.
“They have a lot of wrinkles in their offense. They can do a lot of different things so it’s definitely not an easy game. It is going to be fun to play against.”
Two games in particular stuck out to Groh: the contests at North Carolina State and a home affair with league foe Richmond.
After spotting the Wolfpack a 14-point lead, William & Mary crept back into the contest and finished with more first downs (16 to 11) despite losing 34-24.
Against Richmond, which won the Football Championship Subdivision last year, it took an overtime session before William & Mary was ousted, 23-20.
“We can only take by comparison the games against N.C. State and Richmond, which bookended their season,” Groh said. “Clearly we have a very high regard for the Richmond team that we played.
“We know the competition that N.C. State went up against, and that was a very, very challenging game for N.C. State, so that gives us a pretty good perspective of what that match-up is.”
The Tribe struggled against the run last year, finishing ranked No. 69 in the FCS in run defense, but it was considered one of the best defenses in the Laycock era.
“William & Mary has a very physical defense [and] very experienced guys that have been in that defense for some years now,” said Virginia quarterback Vic Hall. “They know exactly what to do with it and they are going to cause some problems if we don’t take care of them.
“We are preparing just like we are playing any other team.”
William & Mary is in a similar spot as Virginia with the installation of a new quarterback.
Last year, Jake Phillips started and helped the team average almost 400 yards of total offense per game.
Phillips, the younger brother of former Virginia tight end John Phillips, befriended numerous Cavaliers over the past four years, but has completed his eligibility.
“We are watching the film and I am seeing Jake Phillips out there slinging the passes, so that is kind of interesting, playing with his brother, and me and John being roommates for three years,” Clark said. “That was fun to watch because he is a great quarterback.”
The proverbial torch was passed to former Albemarle High standout R.J. Archer, a former wide receiver who is now in his senior campaign.
Thanks to the film exchange, Virginia had footage of Archer starting against Villanova last year, a game that the Tribe lost 38-28.
“We have had a chance to watch some of the games that he played in previous years as a wide receiver, and we also respect the fact that we have a pretty good quarterback (Marques Hagans) here in 2005 and 2006 that played wide receiver the previous two seasons,” Groh said. “We have a very high appreciation of how a guy can step in and do very well, especially when he’s a veteran player.”
 

Deleted scenes: U.Va. training camp
Michael Phillips
Sep 01, 2009

As we figure out how to best use this blog (we - it’s a two-way street here), I figure I’ll throw in some clips from each day’s story that had to be left out of the print edition for whatever reason.

One thing I found interesting is that QB Vic Hall said it was “almost easier” practicing in the non-training camp environment, because there was time to rest instead of the continual demands during that short period.

Also, in light of the Michigan situation, it’s probably appropriate to include a primer on the NCAA rules - the team living together is fine, since the coaches aren’t involved. The other rule is that you can’t conduct two-a-day practices on back-to-back days. There’s also a one-week period without pads before full-contact drills can begin.

Saving the best for last, coach Al Groh gave an extended answer when asked about bringing the players together. Here’s the full response after I asked him what he did to promote team unity:

“There’s a lot of things we like to do with that. One is, it does have to be promoted. It doesn’t just occur naturally. That’s a long process. There’s a lot of different things involved in that.

But amongst the things that we see within ourselves is that clearly every team that runs through the tunnel in every stadium that has the same color jerseys on and same helmets on, people in the stands identify as being a team…but there’s really quite a difference between being a team and just a collection of players in the same colored jersey.

And that’s the challenge every year - and that’s when we say that every year, we have to put the team back together again, because the personalities change. Players leave your team, they graduate, they go on, and so do those connections and those bonds and those things that really create a team.

There’s a very good statement, I don’t have it verbatim, but it was Rich Schubert, who was an offensive guard on the Giants team that won the Super Bowl, and he was saying that in his experience, and he’d been in the league for a while, that it is not possible for a team to achieve at the highest level without having those really strong type of connections, and then part of his statement, he went on to say, it’s not necessary that every player necessarily likes every player in the locker room, but that you don’t hold any grudges, you put aside your differences and for those players that you really love, that you play your heart out. That’s what creates a team.

You see certain circumstances in the NFL, people who have owned teams who maybe were not career football people, thought that they could have best record by buying all the best players. But those players just all wore the same jersey. They never became one team.“

Cavs coach Al Groh gave an extended answer when asked about bringing the players together. Here’s his full response about creating team unity.
 

Coaching overlap - a generational battle
Michael Phillips
Sep 01, 2009

Headed out the door to Williamsburg, where I’ll relay the latest from the William and Mary camp going into Saturday’s opening-night game against the Cavs.

While the teams haven’t played in over a decade (1995, to be exact), there is some coaching overlap. U.Va. assistant coach Wayne Lineburg has twice been a member of coach Jimmye Laycock’s staff at William and Mary. Most recently, he was running backs coach and recruiting coordinator for the Tribe in 2000-03.

Cavs coach Al Groh will pick Lineburg’s brain for any tidbits that could help his team out on Saturday, saying that “to not do so would probably be negligent in terms of doing due diligence.“ As an analogy, he offered that if a writer was going to do a story about a subject, he’d probably read up on what other authors had written about that person first.

As to what might be gained - well, probably not much. William and Mary probably won’t look to do too much out of the ordinary on Saturday, instead getting their offense into shape for the brutal CAA schedule.

Groh also joked that him and Laycock are of a similar generation. Both have also enjoyed extended tenures at their schools - Laycock is entering his 30th season with the Tribe.

“Actually the last time we played one of Jimmye’s teams was back in the 80’s when we were at Wake Forest, so it’s a tribute to his longevity there,“ Groh said. “You don’t stay in one place as long and as successfully as Jimmye has without being an outstanding coach, and his record is clearly a testament to that fact.“

While W&M and U.Va. haven’t played in over a decade (1995, to be exact), there is some coaching overlap. U.Va. assistant coach Wayne Lineburg has twice been a member of coach Jimmye Laycock’s staff at William and Mary.
 

The view from Williamsburg
Michael Phillips
Sep 01, 2009

William and Mary coach Jimmye Laycock doesn’t have to spend all week addressing the quarterback situation - he’s got one, R.J. Archer. But he did pass along an update, that backup Mike Callahan, a junior, has suffered a knee injury and will likely be out for the season. Sophomore D.J. Mangas will step into the backup role - he played limited snaps as a wide receiver in his freshman season.

Aside from a big payday, Laycock feels that games like Saturday’s mean a lot to the players involved, because it’s a chance for them to be a part of a BCS school gameday, and is close enough to home so that family and friends can come enjoy it.

“These guys will remember Virginia, West Virginia, that type of experience,“ the coach said. “That’s part of their college football experience.“

He reminisced on previous trips to Charlottesville, including the 1990 season when Virginia was the top team in the ACC. The Cavs won that game 63-35. “We were able to put up some points,“ Laycock recalls.

Under Laycock’s oversight, the Tribe has prevailed just once in Charlottesville in seven attempts - that coming in a 41-37 victory in the 1986 season. That victory is a bittersweet one for the W&M family, as one of the team’s equipment managers suffered a broken neck during the game.
 

For Phillips family, game is a year too late
Michael Phillips
Sep 01, 2009

While doing film study of William and Mary this week, Aaron Clark couldn’t help but chuckle.

“We’re watching the film, and I’m seeing Jake Phillips out there slinging passes, so that was interesting,“ Clark said.

Phillips was the Tribe’s quarterback last year, but his brother, John, was a standout tight end for the Cavs. As John’s roommate, Clark was right in the middle of it.

“I’d imagine that household will be a fun one on Saturday,“ he said. “I was wondering whether Jake will pull for his old school or for the people he knows here.“

Reached by phone today at Bath County High School, where he’s helping out with his alma mater’s team, Jake said there is no such dilemma. He’ll be at Scott Stadium pulling for the Tribe.

“My family just wants to see a good game,“ he said. “They know a lot of the players and have followed both programs for the last five years, so they’ve still got an emotional stake.“

Jake has been flying around to various NFL cities for tryouts. John is currently with the Dallas Cowboys, and is the favorite to make the team as the third tight end.

Unfortunately for both players, Saturday’s game didn’t happen a year ago, as was the original schedule. U.Va. moved it back a year to accommodate an opening game against USC.
 

Cav up on hard drives and drive blocking
UVa hopes offensive lineman Landon Bradley will be as efficient as a blocker as he is at operating a computer.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

Without having started a game, redshirt sophomore Landon Bradley has emerged as a go-to guy for his Virginia football teammates and roommates.

If any of them have a problem with their computers, Bradley is the person to see.

"I only played football in high school because my friends were playing," said Bradley, who has the assignment of replacing first-round NFL Draft pick Eugene Monroe as UVa's left offensive tackle.

"I was more into computers. I still do a lot of computer stuff. Taking them apart. Putting them together. My brother built a computer and I helped him do that."

His predecessor, Monroe, was also a computer junkie. In a profile done by the NFL Players Association, Monroe was asked what three items he would want if stranded on a deserted island. He chose a computer, a cellphone and a bicycle.

"It is kind of funny," Bradley said. "Must be some sort of left tackle syndrome. We've had a lot of conversations about computers."

Seemingly, that's where the comparisons between Monroe and Bradley would end, but not so fast. Bradley is the only newcomer to an offensive line that returns four starters, but he's no fifth wheel.

"I'm really excited about him and have been since we signed him," UVa offensive line coach Dave Borbely said. "From a technique standpoint and an intelligence quotient, this guy's unbelievable. He's very much like Branden Albert was in terms of being able to understand things conceptually, but at a much younger age."

Albert, who started at left guard for three years, was selected in the first round of the 2008 NFL Draft.

Bradley, from Conway, S.C., was redshirted as a freshman in 2007. He received hundreds of repetitions at left tackle in the spring of 2008, when Monroe was injured, but played sparingly last season.

In fact, he played in only one game, when he took over for right tackle Will Barker in the final quarter of a 45-10 loss at Connecticut.

The Cavaliers wanted Bradley to know both tackle positions in case of emergency, but he has been projected as Monroe's eventual successor almost since his freshman year.

However, Bradley weighed as little as 255 pounds once he got rid of the baby fat that had enabled him to report at 270. He now carries 285 pounds on a more-chiseled 6-foot-7 frame.

"He doesn't have the size and the girth that Eugene had," Borbely said, "but he's not small."

In the world of offensive linemen, everything is relative. Barker weighs 320 pounds, as does UVa offensive guard Austin Pasztor.

"I feel great," Bradley said. "I've never felt overpowered or that I needed more behind me. Hey, 'Brick' played at 260."

That reference was to ex-UVa offensive line D'Brickashaw Ferguson, another first-round NFL pick.

It is somewhat surprising that Bradley is so technically sound because he was not an interior lineman until his senior year at Conway High School. As a junior, he was a 225-pound tight end.

"And, not explosively fast," Bradley said. "Our receivers coach came up to me and said, 'Look, man, you can't coach height. You've got the height. Gain some weight, we'll move you to tackle and I promise you, you'll go to school somewhere and they'll pay for it.'

"At first, I was skeptical. I didn't really know anything about football. I had never been to a college game. I probably watched some college football on TV but I never paid any attention to it."

Ex-Virginia assistant Levern Belin persuaded Bradley to attend Virginia's big-man camp, but it was months before the Cavaliers offered a scholarship.

Bradley isn't sure if he had any other Division I-A scholarship offers, although LSU and South Carolina both sent scouts to watch him.

The Cavaliers had only one other player from South Carolina, Dontrelle Inman, but Bradley had no problems fitting in.

"I'm not exactly a shy guy," said Bradley, who rooms with Barker and a pair of starting defensive linemen, Matt Conrath and Nick Jenkins.

Often in those situations, teammates can provide emotional support. Bradley is available for technical support.

"Matt came up to me the other day and said, 'Hey, I need you to look at my computer; it's running a little slow,'" Bradley said. "Anthony Mihota and Lamar Milstead came up to me during the summer and they were looking at buying some computers.

"A lot of people don't understand what they need and what they don't need. So, I gave them both leads to computers that were cheap and had enough memory for what they were going to be doing."

Some would say it will be impossible for Bradley to replace Monroe, but, in some respects, he already has.

Epic games
Aaron Perryman
Published: Wednesday, September 2 2009

In anticipation of another Cavalier football season starting Saturday, I would like to share with you the top-10 Virginia games that I have experienced live. The list consists of mainly home games, but also one away game and one bowl game. The time frame spans from 1999 and 2000 — when I attended three games in each season — to 2001 — when my family bought season tickets — and to last year. In all, I’ve seen 58 Virginia games in person with an overall record of 43-15 (stats I became curious about once I started this column). I’ve missed two home games since 2001 — a surprise 34-21 win against No. 22 South Carolina in 2002 when Virginia was 0-2 and an even more shocking 31-0 trampling of Maryland last season the week after Virginia got blown out by Duke ­— yes, Duke.

Okay, on to the list. Unless otherwise specified, the game was played in Charlottesville.

10. Sept. 9, 2006; Virginia 13, Wyoming 12 OT

Had I not been going to Virginia games for seven years before this game, it would definitely be higher on the list. This was my first home game as a student. Although Virginia played a sub-par Wyoming team in a low-scoring game, it could not have induced more thrills. Wyoming used fake punts to convert on the fourth down not once, but twice. The Cowboys fumbled on the Virginia one-yard line in the third quarter, missing a chance to go up 13-3. Virginia scored on the first possession of overtime to go up 13-6. Wyoming answered with a touchdown, but missed the tying extra point. My, that kicker must’ve been sick after the game.

9. Sept. 15, 2007; Chapel Hill, N.C.; Virginia 22, North Carolina 20

During the fall of my second year, I had the opportunity to cover Virginia football games as a sports associate editor. This was one of two away games I attended (a 29-24 loss at N.C. State was the other). This game had it all, as explained by the opening in my Cavalier Daily article the following Monday: “In a wild game that featured a dramatic two-point conversion attempt to tie the game in the final minutes, a wacky field goal and a malfunctioning clock, it was clear that anything was possible — even a road victory — when Virginia traveled to North Carolina to take on the Tar Heels Saturday.” The “wacky field goal” was a long, 48-yarder by Chris Gould in the third quarter. The kick was clearly good, but was initially ruled no good. The Cavaliers challenged the play and the call was overturned. Running back Cedric Peerman ran for 186 yards.

8. Nov. 23, 2002; Virginia 48, Maryland 13

“Maryland easy.” These were the words I remember Kirk Herbstreit saying during College Gameday the morning before this game. The opposite was true, however, as the Cavaliers absolutely destroyed the defending ACC champion, No. 18 Maryland. Cavalier quarterback Matt Schaub completed 23 of 27 passes for 249 yards and three touchdowns. While I don’t know if Herbstreit fueled any of Virginia’s fire, Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen did. In a virginiasports.com article following the game, Virginia linebacker Merrill Robertson said players were furious after Friedgen had said that he expected his team to beat Virginia, comparing the Cavaliers’ level of play to that of Duke’s. Oops, big mistake there, Fridge.

7. Nov. 3, 2007; Virginia 17, Wake Forest 16

Though there were a few close games in 2007, this one sticks out in my mind for a few reasons. The Cavaliers would simply not be denied a victory in this game. Yes, luck was involved. Wake Forest’s All-American kicker Sam Swank missed two of his three field goals. But on a couple of occasions, the Wake Forest offense drove deep into Virginia territory only to be turned back by a stellar defensive performance. I was in the press box for this game along with alumnus Ernie Washington, former Cavalier Daily Gameday Editor. You are supposed to remain quiet in the box and not show your allegiances and, at one point, a reporter told Ernie to keep his voice down. It was that type of intense game. When Swank missed the potential game-winning field goal wide right, we were holding on to each other and shaking to stave off the shouts of joy.

6. Dec. 28, 2002; Continental Tire Bowl, Charlotte, N.C.; Virginia 48, West Virginia 22

A complete drubbing of West Virginia concluded coach Al Groh’s first nine-win season at Virginia. It also ended a four-bowl game losing streak for Virginia. Cavalier running back Wali Lundy gained 239 all-purpose yards and scored four touchdowns. West Virginia fans were not the most cordial during that game. They used a “your mom” insult against my dad and actually took a sign away from a Virginia fan — a child, I believe — in a wheelchair. Yes, I saw it with my own eyes.

5. Nov. 6, 1999; Virginia 45, Georgia Tech 38

The incredulousness alone of this game should have landed it higher but competition is tough at the top. Georgia Tech came in ranked No. 7 with Heisman Trophy contender Joe Hamilton at quarterback. In the second game I ever witnessed live, Virginia quarterback David Rivers, starting for the injured Dan Ellis, made the most of his first and only start as quarterback, completing 18 of 30 passes for 228 yards and three touchdowns. Running back Thomas Jones was tremendous, rushing for 213 yards and two touchdowns. Virginia stormed back to win the shootout after falling behind 17-0 after the first quarter.

4. Nov. 10, 2001; Virginia 39, Georgia Tech 38

This one is eclipsed only by field-rushes and a win against the arch rival. A lowly 3-6 Virginia team went blow-for-blow with the No. 20 Yellow Jackets, as the teams combined for 43 fourth-quarter points. Virginia quarterback Bryson Spinner completed 32 of 46 passes for 327 yards and five scores. The go-ahead touchdown in the final seconds was jaw-dropping. With Georgia Tech up 38-33 and Virginia on the Tech 37-yard line, Spinner hit receiver Billy McMullen around the 27-yard line, who tossed a lateral to running back Alvin Pearman, who caught the ball and went streaking up the sideline for the touchdown with 22 seconds left. After the seconds ticked off, pandemonium ensued.

3. Oct. 18, 2008; Virginia 16, North Carolina 13 OT

The game itself wasn’t spectacular until Virginia’s tying drive in the fourth quarter. Then it took off. With the Tar Heels up 10-3 and two minutes left, Cavalier quarterback Marc Verica completed seven of his eight passes on the tying drive and running back Cedric Peerman scored to make it 10-9. But then there was the extra point. No problem, right? Wrong. The ball got tipped in mid-air but still barely made it over the cross bar. I’m pretty sure at that point I had to sit for a minute in complete and total shock. Could I stand an overtime period? The Cavaliers made it look easy in overtime, though. They held North Carolina to a field goal and then Peerman scored his second touchdown to get the win. Rushing the field launches this game into the top three.

2. Oct. 15, 2005; Virginia 26, Florida St. 21

I missed my senior Homecoming dance for this one. Great choice. Ten years after Virginia handed Florida State its first ever ACC loss, the Cavaliers were at it again. Virginia’s scrambling quarterback Marques Hagans was so elusive; Seminole coach Bobby Bowden quipped after the game, “We couldn’t stop that dadgum No. 18.” The senior completed 27 of 36 passes for 306 yards and two touchdowns. Virginia entered the fourth quarter up 26-10 and was able to hold on when Tony Franklin intercepted quarterback Drew Weatherford in the closing minute, preserving the win against the undefeated No. 4 Seminoles. With my parents in the nosebleed section, I told them I’d catch them later back at the car and ran down to the field.

1. Nov. 29, 2003; Virginia 35, Virginia Tech 21

No rushing the field in this one. Just a good old-fashioned beatdown of your arch rival. Senior quarterback Matt Schaub was brilliant on senior day, completing 32 of 46 passes for 358 yards and two touchdowns. Down 14-7 at halftime, the Cavaliers scored 21 consecutive points in the second half to take the lead. The Hokies pulled to within a touchdown, but a final touchdown drive that included a fake field goal pass to tight end Heath Miller clinched Groh’s only win against Tech. The feeling I had as I actually got to watch Tech fans walk down the aisles before the game was over was indescribable.

If you were lucky and actually attended Virginia’s epic 33-28 win against Florida State in 1995, the come-from-behind victory at Virginia Tech in 1998, or you’re a little bit older and were a witness to the Cavaliers’ first-ever bowl win — the 1984 Peach Bowl against Purdue — then let me know at amp9f@virginia.edu or write a letter to the editor. I’d love to hear about your experiences.

Well, that’s my Top 10 list of the best Virginia games I’ve seen live. Hopefully at least one during the upcoming season will make the list. A win against a particular team Nov. 28 would most certainly compete for the top spot. I’m crossing my fingers now.

London's Calling: From Cop to Coach
By Les Carpenter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 1, 2009

RICHMOND -- In an alley, on the south side of town, Mike London is sure he is about to die.

It is the late 1980s, and for three years, London has been a detective on the Richmond Police Department's street crimes unit, hunting the Southside Strangler and chasing drug dealers. At a time when the city's murder rate climbed as high as third in the nation, the former University of Richmond defensive back has proven particularly adept at running down criminals in neighborhoods of broken lives and sputtering gunfire. His sergeant has noted that he has a brilliant future with the police.

But on this night something is wrong. The van he is pursuing -- containing suspects in the robbery of a fast food restaurant -- has whipped into an alley that London does not recognize. After trapping the van with his car, London climbs out holding his badge aloft. Suddenly the van's driver attempts to break away, sending the van lurching toward London. Instinctively, he runs to the van's window and reaches in to turn off the ignition.

This is when London sees the gun in the driver's hand. It is pointed at his head.

He hears the unmistakable click of a finger pulling a trigger.

Then nothing.

So what do you do when you get another chance at your life? When the gun that was supposed to kill you never fires? Twenty years later, Mike London sits in his office, the head football coach at the University of Richmond, telling this story, wondering what it was that saved him that night. Did the gun malfunction? Was it empty all along? He will never know. By the time the van was finally stopped and its occupants arrested, the gun had been thrown away. The workers in the fast food restaurant were too terrified to testify. And the people in the van were minors. Without a gun or witnesses, prosecutors had little to work with.

And that's when London realized he didn't want to be a police officer anymore.

"I was going to catch bad guys," London says. "Then here I was the victim and nothing was going to happen to them."

Given a second chance at life, Mike London decided to become a football coach. He called Dal Shealy, his former coach at Richmond, who helped get him a job coaching outside linebackers at his alma mater. Thus began a two-decade expedition that took him from Richmond to William & Mary, back to Richmond, then the New York Jets, Boston College, Virginia, the Houston Texans and back to Virginia. Until, finally, last year, he returned to Richmond, a head coach for the first time.

In a small lobby outside London's office door sits the division I-AA national championship trophy his team won last season. Beside it rests one of three national coach of the year awards he received after one of the greatest head coaching debut seasons ever.

In a matter of months, London went from being a largely anonymous assistant coach to one of those names raised every time a head coaching job opens at one of the big schools. At 48, he has the right mix of youth and experience that alumni and athletic directors crave. The black coaches' association has him on a short list of candidates to consider, and with just seven African American coaches among the 120 division I-A schools, it seems only a matter of time before London makes it eight.

And yet in the face of this, London laughs. Maybe because he has never seen himself as a football coach in the mold of so many others he has known, designers of great schemes who deal with their players on only a formal basis.

London freely admits he is no master of college football's hottest new trend, the spread offense. He chuckles at the thought of becoming a mastermind of great schemes. He can't stand any distance between him and his team, constantly calling his players and their parents to check on grades, inviting them into his office to sit in the two high-backed leather chairs across from his desk to talk about their lives, their dreams, their fears, their hopes.

"People don't care about how much you know until they know how much you care," he says.

He is certain he has something to give beyond football. If three years on the front lines during one of the city's worst crime periods can't provide inspirational material, what can? If telling the story of the trigger going "click" doesn't lock a young man's gaze on the man talking, what will?

"It's like having a big brother or a mentor for your football coach," says Patrick Weldon, a junior linebacker. "He's the most emotional person out here."

London's pregame speeches are like nothing his players have ever experienced. A self-described "faithful person," he has a preacher-like cadence that can fill a room: his voice normal at first, then rising higher until it grows into a bellow, his eyes on fire and his words rattling off lockers, a tide pulling the players with him until the whole room is alive with the howls of frenzied football players.

"When you get a coach who matches your intensity and emotion, you can just look at that person and know that at some level that coach is going to be with you through the thick and the thin," said St. Louis Rams defensive end Chris Long, who played under London when he was a defensive line coach and defensive coordinator at Virginia. "When he got that job at Richmond, all I could think was, 'What a steal for them.' "

'I Can Call It a Miracle'

Mike London loves to tell stories.

He tells how he was raised in Hampton and played on some of the worst teams in Richmond history. He tells how he married his girlfriend in college and how they had their first child while he was still in school. And he tells of how he joined the police after being released by the Dallas Cowboys in 1983 in part because he wanted to be in the Secret Service and in part because he and his wife had three children at that point and he needed to work. He tells too of how he was divorced a few years later, meaning he was a single father for a time. And he tells of how he remarried and now has four more children, a family almost as big as a football team.

"I think I know about people," he says. "I do know about being a parent. I know about being a police officer. I do know about being young and married. I know about being divorced.

"There isn't much [his players] will face that I haven't experienced in some way."

One of his favorite stories comes from when he was a detective and was sent to a house to serve an arrest warrant on a man. The home was filled with the man's relatives, all of them angry, suspicious. Sensing a riot about to break out, he resisted the urge to drag the man from the door and instead calmly talked him into walking outside with him and invited the family to follow along to provide their support. When the man agreed, London was stunned.

And the lesson stuck: There is always another way through a dire situation.

"What it boils down to is this is a people-oriented business," he says.

But there is one more story he tells, and it is the hardest one, one that always leaves his voice hoarse and quavering.

It begins in 2000, while he was working at Boston College and doctors discovered his 4-year-old daughter Ticynn had Fanconi anemia, an inherited blood disorder that eventually leads to bone marrow failure and often leukemia. The doctors said she needed a bone marrow transplant soon or she would likely die. But a match was impossible to find. They tested relatives. They scoured the national registry. Nothing.

London took a job at Virginia as a defensive line coach, hoping that being closer to home would offer inspiration. He worked in Charlottesville during the week, rushing out of his office on Friday afternoons to drive five hours to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, where Ticynn was undergoing radiation. Her body was weakening. She needed the bone marrow.

Finally, with nothing left to try, a doctor decided to test London's blood. It was a futile pursuit, the doctor said. Parents almost never make good bone marrow matches. Then the results came back: London was an excellent match.

Quickly, the doctors drained Ticynn of all her white blood cells. Then they hooked London to a machine that pulled blood from one arm, separated out the white blood cells and placed the rest of the blood back in his other arm. When he had given enough, he sat with the rest of his family in Ticynn's room as the IV with his healthy white blood cells dripped slowly into her body.

Each hour a nurse came in to examine Ticynn's white blood cell count, reading the results aloud. If the numbers went up, it meant her body was accepting her father's blood. If they didn't, it meant her body was rejecting the transfusion, and she could become gravely ill.

As the counts came slowly, the Londons waited.

The first hour: 60.

Then the next hour: 120.

And the hour after that: 600.

The transplant was working.

"It was almost like a game," London says. "'He's at the 5, the 15, the 20, 25 . . . he's going to go. All. The. Way.' It sounds like a silly analogy, but that's really what it was like. You're so euphoric that it's taking. But you're still on pins and needles. What you don't want to hear is: 'It's at 600, now it's at 200 -- oh, danger.' "

He smiles.

"Doctors don't want to say 'miracle'; they all say 'rare' or 'very rare.' But I can call it a miracle. You go through that registry from all over the world, and the only marrow that can match is mine, and then it works? And I can save my daughter's life?"

He shakes his head and looks away.

"I can tear up in a heartbeat," he says. His voice trembles. He turns in his chair and pulls a photograph off a bulletin board. It is a picture of him and Ticynn in the middle of her chemotherapy, a hat covers her head. It is in the middle of the worst time, and yet they are smiling.

"One day she was coloring while my wife was combing her hair, and the hair was coming out in globs," he says. "My wife was crying, and finally Ticynn looked up at her and said: 'Just tell the nurse to cut it all off,' and she went back to coloring. That was it: 'Just cut it all off.' "

London dabs at his eyes and sighs.

"So when a player comes in and says, 'I got a sore ankle,' I'm like, 'You're barking up the wrong tree.' "

'How Does It Feel?'

Last season did not start well for Richmond. After seven weeks, the Spiders were 4-3, the third loss coming to James Madison on a punt return in the final seconds. Then a strange thing happened: Richmond started to win, beating Massachusetts, Georgetown and Hofstra. The playoffs, which seemed impossible three weeks before, suddenly appeared realistic. And that's where the Spiders were when London received a call from Harry Lee Daniel, a redshirt freshman wide receiver from Richmond. Daniel's mother was dead.

After a victory over Delaware, the team presented the game ball to Daniel, each player signing it before it was placed in his hands -- a group of men he was still getting to know, offering to become his new family. Days later, at the funeral, with many of the players and coaches filling seats in the church, Daniel walked slowly toward his mother's open casket, clutching the ball the team had given him, and placed it in the casket beside her.

London was overwhelmed. Here he had spent months telling his players the narrative of his own life, pulling meaning from his stories, certain he had something to relate to any problem a player brought. Then a redshirt freshman gave them a lesson in selflessness none of them could have imagined.

"To witness the power of relationships to people is an amazing thing," London says, his voice suddenly soft. "To see what he gave up, to see him make the ultimate sacrifice, I will never forget it. The team will never forget it.

"That's something that galvanizes a team. And they left that funeral like they were brothers."

When the playoffs came, the Spiders kept winning. They scored twice in the second half of a first-round game to beat Eastern Kentucky, then blew out Appalachian State on the road in the second round. Then, in the semifinals, they drove the field with no timeouts in the last two minutes at Northern Iowa to score the winning touchdown with 18 seconds left to reach the championship game in Chattanooga, Tenn., where they faced heavily favored Montana.

On the night of that final game, broadcast live on ESPN, Richmond ran for 208 yards to Montana's 39. The final score was 24-7, and it wasn't even that close. And as the Richmond students poured across the field in a jubilant sea of red and blue, ESPN's commentator for the game, Brock Huard, grabbed London for the traditional interview of the winning coach and asked the most obvious question: "How does it feel?"

How does it feel when the gun never goes off and you live to save your daughter's life and then you win a national championship in your first year coaching at the school where you played?

London tried to answer. His mouth moved. His voice gurgled.

Then right there, live on national television, on the night of his greatest victory, his biggest moment, Mike London buried his head in a towel and cried.

 

Haverford School's Barker could be Virginia's next NFL draft pick
By TED SILARY
Philadelphia Daily News
silaryt@phillynews.com

MOST COLLEGE KIDS, at least to some degree, dread the resumption of school.

Dragging themselves out of bed. Trudging to classes on all corners of the campus. Pulling all-nighters with the hope of notching at least respectable grades.

And then there's Will Barker, star tackle for the University of Virginia's football team and a product of Haverford School.

School? Did someone say school? This semester, that barely computes.

Barker was redshirted in the fall of 2005 and, thus, has completed almost all of his course work toward a degree in anthropology. He's now taking just one measly class, in his major, and the time requirement is only 2 1/2 hours spread over 2 days per week.

The downtime will not be wasted. He promises.

There's a large picture here for the big-'un (6-7, 320) and Barker sees it clearly. While making 37 consecutive starts at right tackle, he has continued to blossom and improve and even become dominant, and some folks project him as an upper-round selection in next spring's NFL draft.

Yes, that's exciting. It's also back-burner material . . . Kinda.

"For me," Barker said, "it's all about getting ready for our Sept. 5 opener against William & Mary. That's where my focus is."

Such a mind-set is understandable. Team comes first. College comes before pro. But with such great possibilities looming not far off, it would be impossible, even unwise, not to consider them and prepare accordingly.

As Barker acknowledged, he could have graduated on time and eased into a postgrad curriculum. He purposely followed this path, though, with a pay-for-play future in mind.

"Our offensive line coach [Dave Borbely] says a lot of guys wait until their senior season to try to make a name for themselves, and to do everything they can to perhaps play at the next level," Barker said. "I've been trying to work at that for the past couple years, and now I've reached my goal of being able to really focus on football this last semester.

"When I came here, I wanted to play, of course, but I never saw myself starting for 4 years. I got thrown in there as a redshirt freshman and things didn't go perfectly at first, but it was part of the experience and I've come a long way since then.

"To be able to do this at a school like Virginia, and to play with and against guys who've gone on to the pros making millions of dollars, and to learn from them, I couldn't be happier. I definitely feel blessed."

To know that lofty o-line heights can be reached out of Virginia, Barker, a Bryn Mawr resident, needs only to reflect on recent seasons.

D'Brickashaw Ferguson went No. 4 in the 2006 draft, followed by Branden Albert at No. 15 in '08 and Eugene Monroe at No. 8 last spring.

So, how did this all happen? When you see that a guy stands 6-7, the immediate thought is basketball.

Though Barker did play hoops until about age 16, football and lacrosse were always his passions.

Lacrosse? Yeah, and it wasn't as if he had to settle for barely-out-there status. He was a 2-year defensive starter for powerhouse Fords' squads and, yes, he knows the required footwork and agility helped him immensely with football.

Defenders spent most of their time backpedaling, so it was no surprise that Barker's line-play strength became pass protection. Path-clearing is also now part of the process, thank you.

"No doubt lacrosse helped me," he said. "A lot."

To a degree, Virginia football is Philly South.

The Cavaliers' roster includes five players from our city leagues, thanks to quarterback Marc Verica (Monsignor Bonner), defensive backs Trey Womack (Malvern Prep) and Dom Joseph (Roman Catholic) and defensive end Justin Renfrow (Penn Charter) in addition to Barker.

"It's always cool to talk Phillies and Eagles," Barker said.

Bury oneself in anthropology? Not as much.

"I'm not planning on digging up any dinosaur bones," he said, laughing. "I mean, I've found this interesting, but I wouldn't be looking to make my career in anthropology. Just something I decided to pick when I had to declare a major as a sophomore."

Meanwhile, Barker's bio in Virginia's media guide describes him as a "skilled artist." Alas, we aren't talking Picasso II.

"I won't be painting any portraits of coach [Al] Groh," he cracked.

He continued, "Actually, I just took my first art class this summer. It was very interesting. I liked it. Makes me think what things would have been like as an art major . . .

"I have a natural ability to draw, and people find that to be pretty unique. It's not necessarily something I love to do, but when I'm bored you can find me drawing things. Mostly things from my imagination."

It's next April 22. Time for the NFL draft. What's it like to get picked?

Well, Barker won't have to imagine. *
 

UVA Basketball: Cupcake Schedules Equal More Taste, Less Filling by Ben Gibson (Columnist) Written on August 30, 2009
Ben GibsonColumnist, Featured Columnist

The University of Virginia, along with every other ACC team, released it's full men's basketball schedule earlier this week.
Last season, the Cavaliers suffered through one of the worst campaigns in the last 40 years, only managing to win 10 games.
A putrid offense and an inconsistent defense left Virginia fans scratching their heads in disbelief at the performances being put forth.
That amount of losing forced the resignation of coach Dave Leitao after just four years at the helm and ushered in a new era with the hiring of former Washington State coach Tony Bennett.
Well, Bennett was already experiencing the joy of low expectations; now his job got a whole lot easier heading into this season.
Why? As Dick Vitale would say, "This schedule is Cupcake City, baby!"
Last year, here were some of the notable games on Virginia's out-of-conference schedule: home against Xavier, at Syracuse, at Minnesota.
The year before that Virginia had games against Xavier, Syracuse, Arizona, and even a tricky team like Drexel.
This year, the games take a slightly different hue. Virginia will play in the Cancun Challenge and could potentially meet up with the Kentucky Wildcats if the cards fall a certain way.
If that fails to come to fruition however, the two big games on the docket this year will be Stanford and Penn State.
Outside of that, Virginia's home contests are highlighted by games against Longwood, Rider, Oral Roberts, Hampton, Texas-Pan American, and NJIT.
That's right, Virginia is playing the New Jersey Institute of Technology, a school that made it's name by losing 51 straight games before breaking through with a 10-point victory last season.
Oh, but the scheduling Gods did not just help Virginia out of conference, the Cavaliers are going to be playing a schedule nearly identical to the one they played in 2006-07.
That means Virginia will play both North Carolina and Duke only once. They also get to avoid playing at Cameron Indoor, an opportunity every ACC team would covet.
The five teams Virginia must play twice are Maryland, Virginia Tech, Miami, N.C. State, and Wake Forest.
Oh, by the way, in 06-07 when Virginia had that easier road, they finished 11-5 in conference, tied with North Carolina for first and made their first NCAA appearance in six years.
So for the Virginia fans out there, the 2009-10 season is definitely going to be a case of good news, bad news.
On one hand, there's the great taste of winning.
Let's face it, nobody likes losing. It's hard to watch a team trying hard each and every game and reaping no rewards.
We would all love for our team to take down the national powerhouses and we may laugh when teams are lapping the competition of Longwood and Hampton, but at least they're winning. It certainly beats the alternative.
The good news is that the Cavaliers are going to win more than 10 games this season. For a young team desperate for confidence, this is just what they need.
The current Cavalier players are becoming further removed from that 20-win season just three seasons ago. Many have never experienced the confidence and determination it takes to win.
Winning is a culture and it is one that has disappeared from the Cavaliers after their close loss at home to Syracuse two seasons ago. Knocking around cupcakes may not be glamorous, but it is effective when your goal is to restore feelings of self-worth.
Virginia may want to run with the big dogs but they're going to have to crawl before they can even walk.
Which leads us to the bad news. Cupcakes may make you feel better about yourself, but that usually doesn't spread to the rest of the basketball world.
The Cavaliers are not going to win the respect of anyone playing teams like this. If the miracle of miracles happened and Virginia had the record to become eligible for the NCAA tournament, you know that the selection committee is going to punish them for such a light strength of schedule.
Heck, even the NIT will probably give Virginia a hard time if the Cavaliers were to have a suitable record.
However, the worst part is that lapping Longwood by 50 is not going to help you beat teams in the ACC. It pads the record, but it hurts the bottom line.
Case and point, I had a fellow colleague tell me that if he could put truth serum on coaches and ask them one question, it would be about blow out wins.
He would take the coach aside and ask him, "Honestly, what did you learn about your team from this game? What could you have possibly gotten out of this?"
To a degree, it's true. The only revelations that come from cupcake scheduling usually involve whether a walk-on can hit a three-pointer in the final two minutes or not.
Virginia may have only won 10 games last year, but they won some of them convincingly. 29 points against Longwood, 26 against Hampton and 24 against Brown did not help stem the tide of losing which resulted in an 83-61 loss to UNC or a 75-57 loss to Clemson.
Tony Bennett has been saddled with the responsibility of not only bringing Virginia back to the forefront of ACC basketball but to help keep it successful in the long-term. There are certainly advantages to scheduling easy, but is it really worth it?
It should also be mentioned that while Tony Bennett may want wins to ease his transition into the head coaching position, it might help if there were fans actually watching.
After all, if Virginia wins and no one sees it, did it actually happen?
The palatial John Paul Jones Arena saw a severe dip in attendance last season, and for good reason.
While a new coach is going to raise interest in the program, it's not going to get sell out crowds against teams with RPIs in the lower 200s. Particularly if your main selling points are stingy defense and shot selection.
Effective? Certainly, but definitely not a sexy or exciting brand of basketball.
In a down economy, you have to give the fans a reason to come out. First and foremost is winning. If your team is successful than the fans will respond, even if you win games 19-17.
However, short of that, it would be nice to bring the big names to town. It's exciting to see teams like Syracuse, Gonzaga, Arizona, and Xavier come to Charlottesville.
Fans want to see how Virginia stacks up against the elite teams in the country. Even when things go awry like they did in football against the Trojans of USC, it gives your program national exposure.
For a team looking for a new era, national exposure is definitely an incentive. Bennett is selling a brand and while this season may have it's delicious moments, be afraid of empty calories.
 

Weight of season-ending NCAA loss still lingers after long stint at No. 1
Big Red defeat No. 1 Virginia in third round; emotional season sets stage for 2010
Jack Bird, Cavalier Daily Senior Associate Editor
Published: Wednesday, September 2 2009

All-American Danny Glading led the Cavaliers to a 13-1 season. His career ended in disappointment, however, after a 16-5 loss to Cornell in the NCAA tournament. His loss leaves a big hole to fill on offense. Because the Virginia men’s lacrosse team spent the preseason atop most of the polls, subsequently posted a 13-1 season and entered the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 seed, it has been difficult for some team members not to express disappointment after failing to capture the championship.

“It’s a season I’ll look back on that the kids and the staff did a good job,” Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. “At the same time, I’ll tell you that quite frankly, we were certainly disappointed by the end of it and by our performance on the last day. These are the kind of things you hope to learn from and do it better the next time around.”

The Cavaliers finished just two wins short of a national championship when they fell 15-6 to the Big Red in the third round of the NCAA tournament.

“I’m still not completely over the end of the season for us,” Starsia said. “I think we were all disappointed in our performance against Cornell in the semifinals. You spend your summer wracking your brain trying to figure out why one thing happens or another.”

Cornell and Virginia met early in the regular season in Charlottesville for a game in which the Cavaliers notched an impressive 14-10 victory against the Big Red. It seemed that, heading into its semifinal matchup, Virginia would cruise past Cornell with the momentum it had built up during the tournament’s first two rounds. After devastating Villanova in the first round, the Cavaliers handed Johns Hopkins its worst loss in the history of the NCAA tournament.

“I think in athletics there aren’t always simple explanations,” Starsia said. “Coming off our performances against Villanova and Hopkins in the first two rounds, I certainly felt we were ready and prepared to play that semifinal game, and I’m not sure I would have changed anything going into the game. We just didn’t play at the level we needed to, certainly against an inspired Cornell team.”

Even before the NCAA tournament, Duke dashed Virginia’s hopes for an undefeated season in the Cavalier’s second-to-last game of the regular season.

“They are the type of team that can definitely play with our team,” junior goalie Adam Ghitelman said. “They have athletes, like us, at every position ... they play great team defense and team offense. Virginia lacrosse sometimes, the way we play — if a team gets to you sometimes — it doesn’t go in your favor. Just because we are so run-and-run and they are just very ... system-based.”

Two games later the Blue Devils also derailed Virginia’s shot at an ACC championship, dominating the Cavaliers 16-5 — their worst loss of the season.

“Sometimes it gets a little overshadowed by the very end of the season,” Starsia said. “We had a terrific season overall. We had some wonderful moments. For an athletic team to be No. 1 in most of the pre-season polls and be seeded No. 1 going into the NCAA tournament speaks directly to the quality of the effort overall over the four months of the season. On top of what this team went through in the fall with Will Barrow’s passing — it was a very emotional season overall for us.”

The emotional season included four games decided by one goal — an away win against then-No. 1 Syracuse, another away victory against Johns Hopkins, a seven-overtime win against Maryland and a win in the Meadowlands against North Carolina.

The Cavaliers must now begin to prepare for next season — without graduated senior attackmen Danny Glading and Garrett Billings.

“We are going to be a lot more midfield-oriented with that new attack coming in,” Ghitelman said. “Guys are going to have to prove themselves and compete for those three spots. So we’ll be young at attack but we’ll be very experienced at midfield.”