Transcript from Al Groh's Weekly Press Conference
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com Release: 09/28/2009
Courtesy: Jim Daves/UVa Media Relations
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COACH GROH: I had a very interesting college football weekend. I got a chance to
get a much broader perspective on things, obviously, than when you're not
playing, you have the remote in your hands, you can kind of see what college
football around the country looks like.
It certainly revealed that there's probably far too many teams and players that
are anointed way too early in the season and far too many teams and players that
are condemned too early in the season to see the significant turnarounds that
occur in so many games, that the season is to be played out rather than to be
seen in microcosm. I realize that's not the reality of the way things go, but
the way that they may seem but that's the reality of the way things go. It also
looks like there are an awful lot of teams this year that are essentially the
same teams, an awful lot, certainly more than a Top 25 poll would be able to
encompass and that there are a few teams that are clearly superior, and that
outside of that, it's a pretty good battle every week to see who comes out with
it.
But the out comes of some of the significant ACC games were once again it's not
just about fundamental execution or game plans, it's just what happens to the
ball. Probably three of the most significant games in the conference were all
determined by turnovers, interceptions, fumbles, blocked kicks, or returns,
either the absence of them for some teams or the availability of them for the
other ones that profit by that, so it's such a tricky thing as those particular
things go. It's been a positively productive week for our team. We found some
things to our team has done some things that certainly make us look better on
the practice field, as was the case before the previous game. Also, I was
intrigued by the results of those games, the three earlier opponents that we
had, I think they now stand 10 1, so we would like to think that this has tested
us in a way that will have us best prepared for the conference season that's
coming up.
And now we are playing one of our most traditional rivals, which is always one
of our most enthusiastic and energetic games from the standpoint of fans,
players, everybody else and since it combines with being our first conference
game of the year, that we are certainly looking forward to, I guess it is
tomorrow, getting into our actual game preparation for the game.
Q. Did you practice any more last week just to kind of build on what you learned
from Southern Miss than you might have ordinarily on an early bye week?
COACH GROH: Yeah, I think one of the things that I'll go back to is how we have
said on so many occasions that it sometimes and certainly a lot of, I'm sure,
coaches are feeling this way even more so today after some of the events of this
weekend -- but sometimes it takes three or four weeks out there for teams to
find an identity and by identity, I mean it's personality, it's strengths, the
concerns that you have about the team, to really, really show itself.
Having had three weeks to do that, it confirms some of our thoughts that we had
going into the season, also certainly pointed us in certain directions, and
clearly showed that we are profiting by more time in the systems that we are in,
that continued with the practices. But practice is one thing and the game is the
other. But at least the practices were more efficient and particularly in terms
of movement of the ball.
Q. By the way all of your first five opponents were undefeated going into
Saturday.
COACH GROH: Is that right? I had not looked at it that way. All five of them
almost stayed that way.
Q. Interesting weekend, probably revealed that far too many teams are anointed
early in the season and too many have been condemned is there a message there
for your team? Do you feel maybe some people have condemned your team at this
point?
COACH GROH: That's not really our issue. Our issue is just playing better, and
as it is every week, and just get ready for the next game and things that you
need to do, but clearly that's based on past performance also. That's not just
looking at the opponent. That's based on your past performance and where you're
building strength and where is it now beginning to show that you have
significant concerns that have to either be masked or overcome. There's so much
going on that all a team can really deal with is what it knows internally.
Q. Obviously you can't go back and erase anything, but does the ACC kind of give
you guys a fresh start? Do you look at it that way, because if you win you're
1-0 in the conference?
COACH GROH: Well, every year I think when you're in a conference, the reason
that you're in a conference is to win the conference championship and so that
dominates over every other circumstance and so now we get into conference play.
Probably with this team, we hope that subsequent games will confirm this. We
have seen progress in most phases of the team on a week to week basis, and with
the installation of some of these new operations, we hope that, as I say, that
it's a trend there in taking some time in getting these things installed and
going the way we want them to.
The competition steps up every week. Although clearly, I can remember saying,
exactly I can remember sitting at that round table in Greensboro with the media
kickoff there in saying that I thought that TCU would be a legitimate contender
in this conference and somebody said to me, "You really think they are that
good"? I said, " yeah, I really do." And it's easy to think, because just go on
their past performance. But they now have two wins and have gone to one of the
more challenging places to play, a team that was I think was picked to be one of
the top contenders in that division, and won down there, so they clearly are a
legitimate contender in this conference as they would be and as they certainly
are in their conference.
To have now played, besides our ACC games, I think Southern Mississippi with
what they did at Kansas is showing that they are comparable ACC, wherever they
would rank in there, comparable ACC type competition. So we have had to go up
against that type of competition, and we can only we look at the positive side
of it, and hope that the lessons are what level the team has to perform to go
against those kind of teams.
Q. When a team has two weeks to prepare. How much time is actually spent
preparing compared to fixing your own issues?
COACH GROH: It's certainly a different circumstance with each year and each team
when that bye comes. With ours coming after the third game and our belief that
it takes a few weeks to really get a handle on who your team is, that when it
comes to that particular stage, then regardless of what your record is at that
time, it's an excellent time to make a self assessment and have a real good what
are the areas that we are going to really emphasize here that can we do well,
what are the areas we try to improve upon, and when you can designate and what
you can really do well, and you would like to have balance between run and pass
and offense and defense or whatever, but sometimes you don't, and you just go
with what you have. You learn the personality of your team. I think at this
stage, our first year players have been here and have been in our system for two
months. Some of them now have the opportunity to have a little bit more
background where they might be able to make more of a contribution.
So when it comes to this time frame, we had one after the first week, really
wasn't that valuable. It just came too soon to be able to make an assessment of
any production. We had one before the last game and you only get ready for the
last game and rest your team. So sometime in this time frame is where it has the
chance to work the best for a team. So at this stage, our priority here was
pretty much taking care of ourselves rather than getting way ahead on the
upcoming game.
Q. With Dominique (Wallace) out, what about the location at tailback, and Torrey
(Mack) was on the field a lot against Southern Miss, does he get some of those
carries?
COACH GROH: Yeah, definitely. Dominique was certainly right up there and put
himself in a position to be one of the top players in that rotation. It's really
an indication of his will and his toughness of how long he played in that game
with that injury, when, as it turned out, over two quarters after he was hurt.
That's a particularly painful injury.
In fact, before this type of surgery was developed, it was often a career ending
injury. This surgery has saved the careers of a lot of players. This is the same
doctor to whom a lot of NFL teams send their players and the same doctor to whom
Cedric Peerman went. I had never heard of the injury frankly before I came here.
Maybe we had had players with the injury that in staff meetings we were told
then it was not perhaps referred to by it's medical name, but this Lisfranc
fracture, I had never heard that term before and now we have had three running
backs with it, two of whom it cost them the whole season. We know unfortunately
quite a bit more about that than we would like to. But it would certainly put
Torrey Mack up there where he has the chance to see the ball a lot more.
Q. When you decided to change philosophies before the Southern Miss game, how
much did that weigh on you to make those changes? What prompted you to make the
changes and what have you seen since from the team that you liked?
COACH GROH: Just the ongoing process of thinking about our team, where is it,
what can it do. As I said, we are very acutely aware of that early season time
frame from where competition shows you so many more things about your team than
practice does. And whether it's game plan schemes that the other side thinks of
that maybe your coaches didn't think of, they had a different idea, or matchups
or that type of thing.
So early in the year, that's always a very ongoing thing, what to do more of,
what to do less of, what we might change to, and just at that time, I felt that
we had a system that had a proven record of success. It's not snake oil. It
worked very well before. It's working very well around the country, and we had
players who had a proven record of success.
But at that time, there wasn't a clean mesh. And clearly, more time will provide
that. But we look at every week as you only get 12 of these a year, and you
know, I think a player spends between five and 10 percent of his football life
in games; a coach clearly spends a whole lot less, so in that one to five
percent that we get to actually have games, that's pretty precious time. And so
when we think some things need to be done the very next week to help us the very
next week, we are very proactive on those things so, that's kind of what led to
all of that.
Q. Did you suggest it to Gregg Brandon, did he make suggestions to you, did you
basically decide together that something needs to be done and how involved were
you and how involved was he?
COACH GROH: Does your wife make suggestions to you or do you collaborate on
those things? (Laughter).
Q. So you played the role of wife in the operation (Laughter).
COACH GROH: Didn't answer the question.
Q. She makes suggestions and if I know what's good for me obviously for somebody
COACH GROH: It's funny how so many things in life overlap and are the same.
Q. The way you just put it, makes it sound like you hit him over the head.
COACH GROH: No, I didn't say that. I would say that we all want what's best for
the team and we can all recognize that there are certain things that would give
us a better chance.
Q. It seemed like it was how dramatic it was, there was a lot of little things,
maybe not one acute difference, but a lot of little things.
COACH GROH: I'd say that's pretty accurate, yeah.
Q. When Vic does get back, is that a good problem to have, all of a sudden
having two quarterbacks? Jameel seems to have gotten himself into a better flow,
being the guy, definitely a little bit of a balance act there?
COACH GROH: We have got a lot more games to see how that's going to go, but
where we stand right now. First of all you are exactly right. He's got a little
bit of momentum going. Certainly can play better but he has been playing better.
That's been his history his previous two years as a starter, to continue to get
better as he accumulated more starts.
And you have to remember that this is a player who once he did get into that
type of rhythm two years ago, won nine games for us. So I think as is the case
in any sport when a person is proven to be successful and there is a little bit
of a history of how that's come about, that when he first became a starter in
‘06, those of you who watched some of those first two or three games, it was a
little bit rocky but then we went on and had some real good wins and he had some
real good games. And the same thing was true in '07, and as the season picked up
momentum, so did Jameel, or maybe they coincided with each other. So I think you
need more than two to have an accurate sample but at least we have a little bit
of precedent in that case and we can only be positive and think that history
might have a chance to continue.
Q. Does Vic Hall need surgery on his hip and if so how long will he be out?
COACH GROH: Not at the present time.
Q. What were your thoughts on North Carolina watching that game?
COACH GROH: I look at the team in the big picture, not in any one particular
game, so I had watched quite a few games previous to that game. Very impressed
with their defensive team. There are a lot of players on that team that are
really good. Obviously they showed that to us last year when they were here, and
continue to do that during the course of the season.
Of the four games this year and the final half of the season last year, thinking
back to their Bowl game, the only two games they lost was when the opposing
quarterback had a career game. Pat White in the Bowl game last year had a career
game which enabled his team to win, and Nesbitt had an outstanding game the
other day, probably a career game for him, too, or one of his very best, which
enabled his team to win.
So usually against a defense of that strength, it takes that, it takes the
quarterback to step up and do something spectacular. Each one of those
quarterbacks did it in a different way for their team and it's one of those
games where -- Miami did the same thing to Indianapolis the week before, but the
time of possession, but unfortunately for the Colts they had Peyton Manning and
when your team only has the ball 14 or 15 minutes in the game, it's going to be
difficult to get a lot of points in the game. For those circumstances, and the
fact that obviously our offense is quite a bit different than the Georgia Tech
offense, that we tend to not use that game a lot in terms of our preparation.
Q. As you mentioned earlier, all of the bye weeks are different in terms of
timing. I think you won nine of your first 11 games following the bye week. And
then last year you lost both of your games following the bye week. Is that
something that you looked at this past offense and something you go back and
change?
COACH GROH: Well, I had not thought about the bye weeks of last year, I think
one was before the Duke game. That was when we were going through as I recall
that was Mark's first game as a starter, or the other one, he really didn't have
full preparation for. So that week previous to that game, we actually saw a lot
of progress with the team but unfortunately that fell into the category that I
mentioned this week where the teams turned the ball over six times, so those six
plays in themselves made it impossible to demonstrate the degree of improvement
that might have been made. Now that showed up the next week. And the next week,
I don't remember who we played.
Q. Clemson.
COACH GROH: We played pretty decently in that one too but once again that was a
multiple turnover game. That's just the reality of it. That's just the thing
that you hear coaches about talk about this issue all the time, but that skews
your results. You can have an inefficient day offensively and get points off
special teams and defense because you take the ball away. Or you can have a
pretty efficient day in many aspects of your team and if you give the ball away,
you're going to have a hard time holding on to the game. But yet there might be
a lot of players who played really well. And I know that was the case when we
played Clemson. They had a lot of players who played really well in that game
and against a very good team and a team that was on a real roll then but because
we gave the ball away so much, the scoreboard didn't reflect that. But that's a
necessity to be a good team. It's not just about your schemes or your execution,
it's about the ball. Sometimes we are just bringing it to the meeting, look, all
of the assignments that everybody has, and you have to adjust to this formation
and you have to make this call with this person; you have this hot read,
tackling is important, blocking is important.
It's about what happens to this; it's about what happens to the ball on every
play that determines the outcome of the play. The ball is the thing. And so
those two things now that I reflect back on it, the ball was the thing in those
games. And clearly that's going to be the issue with that team when your margin
of error is such or your margin of success is pretty small, as most of these
conference games are, the ball is the thing. And if you have a team that gets it
and doesn't give it away, you have a real good chance to accumulate a lot more
wins than the other way around.
Q. Having watched a few games myself this weekend, Virginia Tech, Miami,
Redskins, Lions, Colts, Cardinals, the losing team simply could not block the
other team. Seems like that's been the problem with your team this year; how do
you get that group to perform better?
COACH GROH: In that case a lot of drilling. If you have players that have been
successful, it comes back somewhat to the question of earlier, about getting
some of these players to return to what some of these players have had success
doing; and that maybe they could be as successful. Most likely they could be
successful doing other things, but while the season may last quite a few months,
it lasts a very short time, the number of games and so we are not a knee jerk
operation, but sometimes when we see things that are reality, we react to
reality.
Q. As far back as signing day, you said there was a chance Tim Smith would play
this season. What did you see as a high school player that made you confident
and what have you seen from him thus far?
COACH GROH: The most obvious thing was speed, and that he would increase the
speed level at a position that significantly needed it. Clearly he has been able
to do that. Now, the speed isn't quite as striking on our videos as they were on
the high school video because on most of those, he was the fastest player on the
field, or thereabouts. Now he's playing against lots of players who were
recruited on the same basis.
But when we look at it, it's still a case at that position, is matching up
better with the other team's speed than what has been the case in the past.
Q. The wide receivers really seemed to take a step up at Southern Miss. How will
that allow you to develop the offense and can you do more things as they
progress?
COACH GROH: It almost feels foolish answering the question this way. But they
just ran faster. And they ran faster out of conviction and confidence of what
they were doing, just another week of what they were doing, because even with
the interjection of some things that we have done in the past, even with those
things, not many of the returning receivers have much background in those things
and nobody has background in many of the other things that we are doing.
So Burd has never really played in games that we see very much, he was a special
teams player last year, Brown has never played, Green has caught 12 passes in
his career, Smith has never played. So there are just a lot of players in their
first games and running those routes and reading the coverage for the first time
so we are just seeing these things developing faster and getting into the
secondary with more burst and more push, so it was just a simplistic thing like
that has been part of the process.
Q. Corey Mosley -- the pass interference against Southern Miss - was than an
egregious error, or is that a horrible judgment call that went against him?
COACH GROH: That was one of the easier there were some calls in that game that
were challenging for the officials, but that was one of the easier calls.
Q. What kind of conversations are you having with Corey?
COACH GROH: Each one of them has really been significant in the outcome of the
game. So we can't withstand too many more of those clearly. Too many, meaning,
zero. If they affect games to that degree, clearly.
Q. Did Ras-I elevate his game at all?
COACH GROH: He very definitely did. We are pleased with where he went and in
Cook's absence, Minnifield was really the first player this year that
significantly had to be the next man up and did a nice job with that. Can he
play better yes, he can. For as much as he played last year, he's just still a
second year player, so there's a lot of room for that to happen but that will be
our collective challenge to make sure that it does.
Q. So much talk about three leading tacklers going from last year and the task
ahead. Through three games, what's your overall assessment of the linebackers?
COACH GROH: Positive, although for the last three years, and particularly
through the previous two, one of the players that we were replacing was a real
big play player in Clint Sintim, if I have this information correctly he led the
country in linebacker sacks last year and that's a lot of big plays. If you look
correctly, now that we are playing some conference games, we are starting to
look at more of last year's games, when you play the non conference teams, and
you want to look at us against them last year, and just to see some of his
blocked destruction that he did to blow up plays and make it second and 11. So
he was really a playmaker linebacker for us.
And in Jon Copper, we had a player who had some really awesome plays during the
course of his career, but we can't check them off as sacks as such, but in
answering your question, one of the things that comes to mind is two years ago,
we played Connecticut here and we turned the ball over in the first two
possessions and we have a chance to be in the hole 14 0 right away. And the
defense holds both times and they kick field goals and it's 6 0. That's a
tremendous difference. On each one of those plays, Jon makes a third down stop.
One was third and which caused a field goal and at the end of the half Jon
strips a receiver in the red zone on like the last play of the half and we get
the ball so there's X amount of plays that are not going to show in the national
statistics, other than a tackle for Jon but those were game changing plays. So
those two players in particular contributed to a lot of plays that really
changed the course of the game where it helped us manage the game. So we are
getting good, solid play there but we are not getting the game changing plays
yet that we have gotten previously from that position.
Q. In the case of Dominique's injury, you mentioned you have done some research
during the offseason. I think in the past five years there have been about five,
six NFL players is there any explanation as to the rise of this and the cause of
it?
COACH GROH: We obviously have been very intrigued by that stat. We have asked
our medical player to look into it. Is it more games or turf or is it more games
on grass? Wali (Lundy) did it twice, one more severe than the other but both
were on grass fields, one here and one at Clemson. Cedric (Peerman) did his on
artificial. Dominique in this case did his on artificial. There are more games
in the NFL being played on artificial turf than there have been in the past but
the field turf plays so much like grass. How much like it? Well, there is no way
to measure that but people that we have spoken to have said that if these were
on formerly hard Astroturf surface it might be attributed to artificial but this
surface plays so much like natural grass, it's difficult to say.
So really whether it's bigger, stronger players making more severe cuts; in
Lundy's case, he was just running. There was no cut. In Peerman's case and
Dominique's case, it was a plant and drive and it happened at that moment. Wally
he was just running down the sideline and all of a sudden I remember it very
well, he was just hip-hopping coming down the sideline. So in answer to your
question, we have not been able to come up with anything that just leads from
one to the other. We wish we could obviously.
Q. Are the coverage teams going to look different on Saturday? Have you shuffled
that around at all?
COACH GROH: I could say yes or we will try to make them look somewhat the same.
One of the issues with those coverage teams in the second half is that they were
already looking different; that players who were not on the first half coverage
teams who were I'll put it this way -- who were on the first half coverage
teams, because of injury or whatever, were not on the second half coverage
teams, and that definitely was we wore thin and wore out, clearly our
performance in all three phases was not as strong at the latter part of the game
as it was early and that as was definitely the case in terms of coverage. So we
hope to be able to get some of the people who were absence on some of those back
into the lineup as well as look at somewhere we think we could improve that
performance.
Q. Following up on that, special teams in general, if you had won the special
teams, you might have one or two wins at this point. I can't imagine you can
stretch them anymore? Do you put any more emphasis on or discuss them more?
COACH GROH: One part of my answer would be to myself is regardless of how much
we are discussing practicing them, we should do it more. By the same token, I
also think to do more would almost say that we would abandon practicing on
offense and defense. I mean, just to one third of the operation, it's difficult
to we devote four significant periods a day to it now, as well as a 40 minute
period on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, we devote four periods to it, and on Sunday
we devote 40 minutes to it, more than half of the practice, and on Thursdays we
devote 28 minutes to it.
So we are pretty heavy in the time devoted to it. So with that, sometimes you've
just got to get better execution or demand better than what we are getting.
Q. What games did you watch this weekend?
COACH GROH: Well, there's a lot of things that interest me in football: Where my
close friends are, what different systems are, where certain competition is.
Actually, I was going to say I have the male disease of having a quick trigger
finger, but Mrs. Football is pretty interested, too. So she was doing a good job
with that remote herself. And so it wasn't all up to me.
We watched the North Carolina/Georgia Tech, Indiana/Michigan, a little
Yale/Dartmouth for the fun of it, Alabama and Arkansas, we watched quite a bit
of that, Texas and UTEP, Virginia Tech and Miami; Oregon State and Arizona, we
watched quite a bit of that game because a good friend of ours is coaching
there. Some of Purdue/Notre Dame. And we watched quite a bit of Houston and
Texas Tech for the entertainment value of it, and managed to do a few other
things, too.
Q. What are your thoughts on your running game right now?
COACH GROH: Like everything else, we want to see it get better and that's pretty
much the way we feel about our team.
Q. What did Georgia Tech able to do defensively in particular? Obviously their
offense is not something you're going to simulate but defensively they had a big
game.
COACH GROH: Very situationally appropriate pass rush, which gave them a lot of
success on third downs and contributed to their time of possession, most
particularly out of number 91, Morgan. He's a good player. Our players last
year, there was another player there who had quite a bit of height, Johnson. But
Morgan is a player that Eugene is a pretty good guy to measure, because I think
he's a pretty good judge of who is a good pass rusher -- and they were much more
impressed with Morgan on Saturday. He's a real good player.
There are a lot of really outstanding players on this North Carolina defense,
which is why their results have been so good, but one of the really eye catching
players is number 42, the right defensive end. He can go. He's really an
impressive looking player. He just comes off the edge like few players can. He
and Morgan were very similar in terms of that during this game.
White: 'Hoos Hope Bye Week Pays Dividends
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com Release: 09/28/2009
Check out White's blog
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Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Al Groh
By Jeff White
jwhite@virginia.edu
CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Like a lot of other people who had the day off, Al Groh spent
much of Saturday in front of the TV, watching college football.
That's not the norm for him this time of year, and it was a enlightening
experience, Groh said Monday during his weekly news conference at John Paul
Jones Arena.
"I had a very interesting college football weekend," he said. "I got a chance to
get a much broader perspective on things. Obviously, when you're not playing
[and] you have a remote in your hands, you can kind of see what college football
around the country looks like."
Among his conclusions after shifting from coach to spectator for a day:
"It certainly revealed that there's probably far too many teams and players that
are anointed way too early in the season," Groh said, "and far too many teams
and players that are condemned too early in the season to see the significant
turnarounds that occur in so many games.
"A season is to be played out rather than to be seen in microcosm. I realize
that's not the reality of the way that it's seen, but that's reality of the way
things go."
Groh's Cavaliers are one of those teams that many have written off for the
season. Virginia is 0-3 for the first time since 1982, and it's the only winless
team left in the six conferences with automatic tie-ins to the Bowl Championship
Series.
Of the 120 teams in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision, UVa ranks 97th in
scoring offense and 100th in scoring defense. In kickoff returns, Virginia ranks
119th.
An unbeaten team might not have welcomed an early-season break. For the Wahoos,
however, their first and only bye week may have come at an opportune time.
After losing 37-34 to Southern Mississippi in a Sept. 19 game they led 34-17 in
the third quarter, the 'Hoos had the next weekend off.
The Cavaliers play their ACC opener Saturday afternoon against North Carolina
(0-1, 3-1) in Chapel Hill. Still, they spent more time in practice last week
working on their strengths and weaknesses than preparing for UNC.
"Our priority here was pretty much taking care of ourselves rather than getting
way ahead on the upcoming game," Groh said.
If the 'Hoos can take a positive from the three losses -- to William and Mary,
TCU and Southern Miss, whose combined record is now 10-1 -- it's that none was
to an ACC foe. Win Saturday at Kenan Stadium, and UVa will find itself in the
upper third of the Coastal Division standings.
"This is the ACC, so it's like a whole different season," sophomore safety
Rodney McLeod said Monday. "We're trying to win an ACC championship. We would
definitely like to get back those three games that we had, get wins, but you
just gotta move on to the next game."
Groh said it sometimes "takes three or four weeks out there for teams to find an
identity, and by identity, I mean its personality, its strengths, the concerns
that you have about the team ... Having had three weeks to do that, it confirms
some of our thoughts that we had going into the season, and also certainly
pointed us in certain directions, and clearly showed that we are profiting [from
more practice time].
"Practice is one thing, and the game is the other. But at least the practices
were more efficient, particularly in terms of movement of the ball."
After totaling 268 yards of offense against W&M and 177 against TCU, Virginia
modified its new spread attack, with impressive results. UVa piled up 390 yards
against Southern Miss -- 78 rushing and 312 passing.
The 312 yards marked a career high for quarterback Jameel Sewell, a fifth-year
senior who for the second straight game took all the snaps for UVa.
Vic Hall, who started at quarterback against William and Mary, has missed all
but one play of the past two games with a hip injury. When Hall returns --
perhaps as early as this weekend -- Groh and offensive coordinator Gregg Brandon
will have to figure out exactly what the converted cornerback's role will be.
For now, though, Sewell looks increasingly comfortable as leader of UVa's
attack. He threw two late touchdown passes against TCU and then torched Southern
Miss for most of the first three quarters.
"He's got a little bit of momentum going," Groh said. "Certainly can play
better, but he has been playing better. That's been his history his previous two
years as a starter, to continue to get better as he accumulated more starts."
As a redshirt freshman in 2006, Sewell started the final nine games for a team
that finished 5-7. A season later, he started every game as the Cavaliers went
9-4.
When Sewell first got the job, in 2006, it "was a little bit rocky," Groh
pointed out, "but then we went on and had some real good wins, and he had some
real good games. And the same thing was true in '07, and as the season picked up
momentum, so did Jameel, or maybe they coincided with each other."
Virginia desperately hopes that's the case again this year.
"The Southern Miss was definitely a tough one for us, just knowing that we had
the game in our hands and we just let it slip away," McLeod said. "We just gotta
move on to the next game. We know our mistakes. What we have to do. It's a new
season. The ACC is here."
Not since 1982 have the Cavaliers started 0-4. That was the team's first season
under George Welsh, who by the time he retired in 2000 had become a coaching
legend. This is the Wahoos' ninth season under Groh, whose record at his alma
mater is 56-47.
* * * * * *
Virginia's next home game, Oct. 10 against Indiana, will start at 3:30 p.m., the
ACC announced Monday. The game will be available over the Internet on
ESPN360.com.
That's Homecomings weekend at UVa. The Cavaliers haven't played at Scott Stadium
since Sept. 12.
* * * * * *
Sophomore safety Corey Mosley, a second-year starter, has committed a costly
penalty in each game this season. Against Southern Miss, he was called for pass
interference on a third-and-37 heave.
That gave the Golden Eagles an automatic first down. The drive ended with a
touchdown that pulled Southern Miss to 34-31.
"There were some calls in that game that were challenging for the officials,"
Groh said, "but that was one of the easier calls."
Asked what he's said to Mosley about the penalties, Groh said, "Each one of them
has really been significant in the outcome of the game. So we can't withstand
too many more of those, clearly. Too many, meaning zero."
* * * * * *
Three of UVa's four starters at linebacker last season -- Clint Sintim on the
outside, Jon Copper and Antonio Appleby on the inside -- were seniors.
At inside linebacker, redshirt freshman Steve Greer and senior Darren Childs
have played most of the snaps this season. On the outside, returning starter
Denzel Burrell, a senior, is splitting time with classmate Aaron Clark and
sophomore Cameron Johnson.
The play of the linebackers has been positive, Groh said, but the defense has
missed Sintim and Copper in particular. Sintim led the nation's linebackers in
sacks last year, and Copper led the Cavaliers in tackles for the third
consecutive season.
"We are getting good, solid play there," Groh said, "but we are not getting the
game-changing plays yet that we have gotten previously from that position."
White: Scott Stadium to Undergo Transformation After U2 Show
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com Release: 09/25/2009
Check out White's blog
Visit VirginiaSports.com
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Scott Stadium
By Jeff White
jwhite@virginia.edu
CHARLOTTESVILLE -- The Rolling Stones played at Scott Stadium on Oct. 6, 2005.
Nine days later, UVa upset Florida State in football on that same field.
Fast forward four falls. Another world-famous rock 'n' roll band is coming to
Scott Stadium. U2 plays there Thursday night -- Oct. 1 -- and UVa again is
looking at a quick turnaround after the concert.
Virginia hosts Indiana at Scott Stadium on Oct. 10.
"Our goal is to be able to go from a rock show to a football game in nine days,"
said Jason Bauman, UVa's associate director of athletics for facilities and
operations.
This will be the third concert at Scott Stadium this decade. The Dave Matthews
Band played there April 21, 2001, but that was out-of-season, and crews didn't
have to work overtime to get the field ready for a sporting event.
The Stones show fell in the middle of football season, and UVa had contracted to
buy replacement sod if necessary. The field survived the concert, however, and
was in good condition by the Florida State game.
UVa doesn't expect to be that fortunate this time. U2's stage, located in the
stadium's south end, is massive. Aluminum panels stretching about 75 yards, from
the south end zone to the opposite 35-yard line, will cover much of the field
for more than a week.
"It's likely the grass will die and not be safe and playable," Bauman said.
Still, a final decision won't come until Oct. 4, when all the concert equipment
has been removed. UVa's football team has five home games left, starting Oct.
10, and the Virginia High School League will play two state finals at Scott
Stadium on Dec. 12.
Live Nation, which is promoting the concert, will bear the financial
responsibility if the field must be replaced.
"This has been a partnership with Live Nation," Bauman said. "They understand we
have football games to play. They want that to go well for us, and they want the
concert to go well, too."
If the field has to be replaced, a Charlotte-based company, Carolina Green, will
begin removing the playing surface Oct. 4. A day later, the installation of
thick cut sod, grown for UVa in Maryland, will begin.
Thirty tractor-trailers would deliver the sod to Charlottesville, said Jesse
Pritchard, UVa's sports turf manager.
The sod would cover the playing surface, as well as a six-foot perimeter around
the field. Thick cut sod weighs 18 pounds per square foot. Normal sod weighs two
to three pounds per square foot.
The schedule calls for the sod installation, if necessary, to be completed Oct.
7 and the field to be painted Oct. 8 and 9.
"It's a tight schedule, but we've got the right contractor and the right sod,"
Pritchard said.
Bauman said: "We're not like an NFL stadium that [replaces its field] routinely,
so there's a little trepidation, but Jesse is really good."
U2 played at Soldier Field in Chicago on Sunday, Sept. 13. A week later, after
the turf was replaced at Soldier Field, the Bears hosted the Steelers there.
Pritchard has talked to his counterpart in Chicago and to other turf managers
who have worked with U2. He's confident UVa will have the field ready for the
Oct. 10 game.
"It'll work," Pritchard said.
If the thick cut sod is installed, it'll be gone by the start of the 2010
season. New sod that's more compatible with UVa's sand-based system would be
installed in the spring.
"This would be a temporary field to get us through this season," Bauman said.