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Make no mistake, rivalry resumes today
 By JOHN GALINSKY / Daily Progress staff writer
Oct 19, 2002

 
As their coaches would freely admit, neither the Virginia nor North Carolina football teams have operated with a large margin of error this season. Both are a bit undermanned on the lines. Each has a young roster. Neither is stocked with talent - at least not yet.

So to win games, the key for each team has been to minimize mistakes, avoid giving up big plays and cut down on penalties and turnovers.

So far, the difference is that the Cavaliers (5-2, 3-1 ACC) usually have operated within their margin of error, while the Tar Heels (2-4, 0-2) all too frequently have turned their games into a comedy of errors.

"That's youth, that's inexperience, that's losing momentum and then losing confidence," UNC coach John Bunting said of his team's penchant for mistakes.

Carolina has committed an ACC-high 18 turnovers while forcing a league-low 11. Virginia, by contrast, has committed 14 turnovers and forced 21.

The Tar Heels also lead the conference in another bad stat: penalties. The Cavaliers are the ACC's least-penalized team.

Otherwise, the two teams are similar. Neither has run, or stopped the run, effectively. Both have passed prolifically and been adequate on special teams. But little mistakes, and big ones, have made North Carolina a disappointment. Virginia, on the other hand, has been one of the league's surprising success stories with five straight victories.

"We haven't beaten ourselves this year, which we did sometimes last year," UVa linebacker Merrill Robertson said. "We let other teams beat themselves, or we help them beat themselves."

North Carolina is willing to take risks, which makes it a volatile but dangerous opponent. Sophomore quarterback Darian Durant is averaging more than 270 passing yards per game, easily the most in the ACC. And he doesn't dink his way downfield. He is averaging more than 14 yards per completion, a high number these days. His favorite target, senior receiver Sam Aiken, is averaging 17.3 yards per catch.

"This is certainly the most challenging passing game we've played against," Virginia coach Al Groh said.

The Cavalier secondary will have to be up for the challenge.

"I can't wait," cornerback Jamaine Winborne said. "We've proven that we can defend the deep ball. I'm glad they throw the ball deep. … They go for the big play, but that means we have a chance to make a big play too."

Durant has been personally responsible for 13 turnovers - eight interceptions and five fumbles. His Virginia counterpart, Matt Schaub, has been much more careful.

Many of the recent games in this series, the oldest rivalry in the South with 106 meetings, have been decided by mistakes. Last year, safety Dexter Reid's 67-yard interception return keyed North Carolina's 30-24 triumph. In 1996, a 95-yard interception return by Antwan Harris sparked UVa's 20-17 comeback victory.

Since 1982, the team committing fewer turnovers has gone 13-4-1. The Tar Heels have not won at Scott Stadium since 1981, a string of 10 straight road defeats. To end that streak today, they can't afford to goof up.

"I don't think we're going to get bigger, faster or stronger in one week - that's almost impossible," Bunting said. "But I think we can get smarter."

 

 

Pearman performing superbly for Cavaliers
 By JERRY RATCLIFFE / Daily Progress sports editor
Oct 19, 2002

 
Teammates look at Alvin Pearman in amazement, almost in total awe of what the sophomore running back has done the past two weeks with his right hand in a cast. It's almost like he's playing the position with one hand tied behind his back.

Let's take inventory of what Pearman did to Duke and Clemson after breaking his right hand in practice the week of the Wake Forest contest. In those two games, the Charlotte, N.C., product ran the ball 27 times for 40 yards and a touchdown. He also caught four passes for 61 yards and was nimble enough to take a handoff, turn and toss it back to quarterback Matt Schaub for a flea-flicker pass play that set up Virginia's clinching TD against the Blue Devils.

While his rushing totals against the Tigers and Devils may

not be impressive, consider that 15 of those carries came late in the games when everyone in the joint knew who would get the ball as Virginia tried to milk time off the clock. That's when a running back's true mettle is tested.

"What Alvin has been able to do with a cast on his right hand is pretty amazing," said Schaub.

The day after Pearman suffered the break and showed up wearing a cast that must have had more tape than an Egyptian mummy, Schaub looked over his running back and said: "Are you going to be able to catch the ball?"

Pearman answered in the affirmative.

"Anywhere you throw it to me, I'll catch it," said the tailback.

Schaub was a bit amused and flabbergasted at the same time. "I told him, 'OK, if you say so. I'll make sure to put it between the 2 and the 1,'" said the quarterback.

Since then just about all of the passes to Pearman's No. 21 have been right on the money and Pearman hasn't dropped a single one. Nor has he fumbled a single handoff in spite of defenses trying to rip the pigskin from his grip.

"We didn't think he would be able to do it with one hand, carry the ball and not fumble," said UVa linebacker Merrill Robertson. "He proved us all wrong.

"He's playing great and I give him total respect. He's even catching passes and that's phenomenal."

Phenomenal indeed, particularly with the emphasis these days on stripping footballs from offensive personnel.

"I know I'm trying to take the ball on every play if I see a running back with one arm out there," said Robertson. "I know that's what teams are trying to do and he hasn't given up the ball one time."

That was the main concern of coach Al Groh and even Pearman himself once he made it back to practice for the Duke game. In fact, Groh points to the long walk from the visitor's fieldhouse to Wallace Wade Stadium during halftime of the Duke game as an important moment in that close victory for the Cavaliers.

Groh came up to the young back and asked Pearman if he honestly thought he could carry the ball and hold onto it.

"I told him that I thought I could, so I went out there and thank goodness, everything went well," said Pearman this week as he braced for the North Carolina defense.

Knowing the positive-thinking Pearman, would he have told Groh that even if he had not been sure he could hold on? "More than likely I would have, then dealt with it as it went," confessed Pearman.

But this kid is just as mentally tough as he is physically and none of his teammates question Pearman's durability.

The cast shrunk considerably after the first week, to something much more manageable for the Duke and Clemson games. He reported that he has more mobility in his fingers now, which makes a big difference.

"It's just a matter of getting used to it," said Pearman, who has now worked with a cast for more than 20 days. "I've gotten used to it now and I've gotten enough reps to figure out how I can get by with having an immobile wrist."

He made up his mind from the first day of the injury that he wasn't going to feel sorry for himself or dwell on how difficult it might be to play with a cast.

"I was just going to cope with it," he said.

And he has.

Pearman has actually improved his left-hand coordination by eating meals and writing with his left hand rather than his natural right hand.

Meanwhile, he is constantly pursued for advice on how to play one-handed football from several of his teammates who have experienced a rash of broken hands since Pearman's injury. Four other Cavaliers were wearing casts on their hands in the Clemson game: cornerbacks Jamaine Winborne and Muffin Curry; safety Shernard Newby and center Zac Yarbrough.

"Alvin's a couple of weeks ahead of me so as he progresses, I get him to let me know what I can do, how much the pain level is going to be from week to week, things like that," said Winborne, who broke his hand the Wednesday before the Clemson game. "I don't think I could catch the ball like Alvin does. That's amazing."

 

 

College transition no biggie for versatile U.Va. back
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© October 19, 2002

Wali Lundy thought long and hard about the question he’d been asked so often since coming to the University of Virginia.

What, people wanted to know, is the biggest adjustment in going from high school to college football?

Then one day it hit him. Or rather, they hit him: big, ornery linemen. Snarling linebackers. Head-hunting safeties. They all unloaded on Lundy, and the answer became as clear as the bruises forming on his body.

“It took me awhile to notice it, but they hit a lot harder,” Lundy said. “That’s not the biggest difference, though. The biggest difference is that you really have to learn to take care of your body. And you can’t lose your focus. You’ve got to know you’re going to get hit, and get hit hard, and you’ve got to get back up and be tough.”

Lundy, 19, knows something about getting back up. Orphaned at 8 when his mother died, he knows about pain, too, and loss.

But he also knows about love and family. His success is a testament to both.

“I had a lot of support,” he said. “I was never alone.”

Lundy had three older brothers he idolized and followed into football. He had teachers and coaches looking out for him as well.

Mostly, though, he had his maternal grandmother, Etta Davis. “She never missed a beat,” Lundy said.

Davis and her late husband, Frank, had raised seven children and retired to Florida when their daughter, Joann, died of cancer at age 33. Joann’s husband, Brian, had died of a stroke four years earlier in 1988, at age 30.

“We let go of everything and came back to New Jersey,” Davis said.

Her task: raise four boys under the age of 13. She viewed it as missionary work.

“I had a lot of help,” said Davis, 73. “My daughter, their mother, had a larger church family, and they were always there for us.”

The boys also had sports. Wali, the youngest, tagged along behind his older brothers and eventually joined two of them, Jamaal and Mikal, on the varsity at Florence Township High. A cousin, Najee Lundy, started at quarterback.

The Lundys led Florence Township to the state title game. Jamaal, a senior, signed with Connecticut, where he’s a starting linebacker. Mikal eventually signed with Towson University, where he’s a tailback. Shaheed, the oldest brother, graduated from Rutgers last spring.

“Athletics kept them off the streets and gave them scholarships,” Davis said. “That’s the important thing, to get some education so they can get a job.”

After his brothers graduated, Wali transferred to Holy Cross High, where he was an all-state receiver as a junior. He moved to tailback last year and was rated the nation’s 14th-best running back by Rivals.com.

Lundy appeared headed to Boston College before signing with Virginia. In a class stocked with high school All-Americans, Lundy didn’t stand out — not until he got on the field, that is.

“It was apparent very early that this is a multi-skilled player,” U.Va. coach Al Groh said.

Lundy ran for 94 yards in his college debut and has been the No. 1 tailback ever since. He leads the Cavaliers in rushing with 308 yards. He leads the team, and the ACC, in receiving with 38 catches. He’s second in the ACC in kick return average (25.9) and fourth in all-purpose yardage (125.7 per game). He’s caught 25 passes in the last three games, including a U.Va. record-tying 11 against Clemson last week. He’s also thrown a touchdown pass. Were it not for the emergence of N.C. State tailback T.A. McLendon, Lundy would be the likely front-runner for ACC rookie of the year.

“He’s just a football player,” teammate Ottowa Anderson said. “We’re glad he’s on our side.”

Lundy, 6-foot-1 and 212 pounds, was recruited heavily as a receiver, and it shows in his sure hands and reliable routes.

“He runs great routes for a running back,” quarterback Matt Schaub said.

For anyone, actually. Lundy seemed embarrassed about tying receiver Billy McMullen’s game record for catches last week and said it should rightfully belong to McMullen.

“I thought I broke the running back record,” he said.

Lundy needs 21 catches to break the ACC record for receptions by a freshman. At his pace, he’ll need just four weeks to do it.

Maybe he’ll get the record in front of Davis — she’s been to one game and plans to come to another soon. Or in front of one of his brothers. They talk often on their cell phones.

“Our family’s real close,” Lundy said. “That’s the way we grew up.”

The way they thrived.

 

 

Heels face familiar roadblock
North Carolina, which is 2-0 on the road this season, faces UVa in Scott Stadium, where the Heels haven't won since 1981.
By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   Chalk it up to curiosity.

    North Carolina football coach John Bunting was on a recruiting trip last spring when he found himself near Charlottesville as bedtime neared.

    After checking into a motel and before his morning departure, Bunting decided to stop by Scott Stadium, which he had not visited since he played there in 1971.

    As he prepared for his second season as the Tar Heels' coach, Bunting might have been wise to check out a setting where Carolina had experienced nothing but frustration in recent years.

    It turns out, he had no idea.

    North Carolina, which visits UVa today for a noon kickoff, has lost all 10 of its games at Scott Stadium since 1981.

    "I found that out right after the game," said Bunting, referring to Carolina's 34-17 loss Saturday to visiting North Carolina State. "I don't look very far ahead and I don't look backwards very often, either.

    "Somebody hit me with that moments after we lost and I said, 'Wow.' I wasn't aware of that. It's a really shocking statistic, but it is what it is and I'm certainly not going to dwell on it."

    Neither Bunting nor second-year Virginia coach Al Groh was part of the streak, one of the few that remains from the 19-year tenure of ex-Cavaliers' coach George Welsh, who never lost to the Tar Heels at home.

    Much to his chagrin, former Tar Heels' coach Mack Brown was 0-5 at Scott Stadium, losing with teams that were 7-1 in 1993, 5-1 in 1994 and 8-1 in 1996.

    "To me, it's year in and year out," said Bunting, who did not lose to the Cavaliers in three years as a player. "What kind of talent do you have? What kind of situation are you in with injuries? Have you been winning? Have you been losing? Have you been playing well and losing? Have you been playing poorly and winning?

    "We've done a little bit of both."

    Remarkably, Carolina has not won at home, but the Tar Heels (2-4, 0-2) are 2-0 on the road, with the victories at Syracuse before the Orangemen hit bottom and at Arizona State when the Sun Devils had just scored 65 points one week earlier against Stanford.

    "It was a pretty high-powered game, full-throttle all the way," said Groh, referring to the Tar Heels' 38-35 victory in Tempe, Ariz. "If you'd have seen that game, you'd have to say that was the most impressive you'd seen anybody."

    Virginia (5-2, 3-1) enters the game with a five-game winning streak, including conference victories over the teams picked fifth (Clemson), seventh (Wake Forest) and ninth (Duke) before the season.

    North Carolina was picked sixth, but a victory for 4 1/2 -point favorite Virginia is no foregone conclusion. The Cavaliers tied for seventh in the ACC last season and were an eighth-place pick before this season.

    Another ACC win would give the Cavaliers more victories overall and in the conference than it had last year, when UVa was 5-7 and 3-5, and two more wins would make them bowl eligible.

    Groh is available to the media almost every day of the week, but the subject of a possible bowl bid never came up before Wednesday.

    "We see ourselves as a team that has some confidence from winning five [straight] games, and we're just a team that's trying to win on Saturday," Groh said.

    "People who talk about those things are people who don't have to concern themselves with being hit on Saturday."

 

 

Cavs and Hokies leaving room in their inns

Interest rising in Campbell County junior

By DOUG DOUGHTY
 Exclusive to roanoke.com by 5 p.m. Fridays
 

If every scholarship football player with remaining eligibility were to return next season for Virginia Tech and Virginia, the Hokies and Cavaliers could sign no more than 12 and 16 players, respectively.

So, how can Tech and Virginia be talking about signing 21 and 25?

In Tech's case, three of the 12 players who have committed to Tech are expected to enroll at mid-year, in which case they can count against either the Hokies' 2002 or 2003 quota. If the Hokies were to sign 21, then as many as four would enroll at mid-year.

UVa typically does not admit student-athletes at mid-year, although 2002 signee Ahmad Brooks could go that route if he meets NCAA eligibility guidelines this fall at Hargrave Military Academy.

"Are you sure Virginia is going to sign 25?" gadfly Jeff White asked Friday.

Well, not exactly. I don't think Groh has used the number "25" but, when you add Brooks and fellow UVa signees-turned-postgraduates Keenan Carter and Robert Armstrong, I bet the Cavaliers are close. Counting those three, the Cavaliers have 12 commitments already.

Where does Virginia get the extra scholarships? I think that's pretty clear, based on the delay before coach Al Groh awarded scholarships to seven walk-ons early this season. Groh wanted to make sure that the Cavaliers weren't liable for the scholarships for the remainder of the players' eligibility.

Three of the walk-ons (Ryan Childress, Bryce Coffee and Trey Moeller) are fourth-year juniors who would not necessarily return for a fifth year in 2003. Two are third-year sophomores, David DeLaureal and Jon Thompson, whose scholarship renewal will hinge on a late-summer review of the Cavaliers' numbers.

Six of Tech's scholarship players are walk-ons, including senior Billy Hardee, who transferred to his father's alma mater after one year as a soccer player at a Florida junior college. The others are underclassmen Mark Costen, Doug Easlick, Brandon Manning, Will Montgomery and Carter Warley.

Easlick, Manning and Warley are starters, so you'd have to expect that they will return, although, in Warley's case, he could get beaten out by Nic Schmitt or Brandon Pace. Or, his current back problems might persist to the point where he passes up his fifth year.

In either case, it is apparent that Tech and Virginia can't get to their desired scholarship totals by bringing in players at mid-year or not renewing some walk-on scholarships. There will have to be some attrition, which has been a recent trend in both programs.

By my count, Tech already has lost nine members of its 1999 recruiting class (Lee Baker, Ryan Angelo, Andrae Harrison, Deon Provitt, Marvin Urquhart, Joe Wilson, Thomas Woodley, Charlie Hattan and Simington). That doesn't mean that there will be similar attrition in the 2000 and 2001 recruiting classes, but even with Tech enjoying unprecedented success on the field, players do leave.

UVa traditionally has not had as much attrition as Tech, but the Cavaliers have lost 10 players out of their 1999 recruiting class (R.C. Cosby, Bryson Spinner, Beau Dickerson, Jay Green, Colin McWeeny, Sharif Rosales-Webb, Terrell Ricks, Larry Simmons, Shomari Chism and Boo Battle).

Clearly, the attrition creates space for big recruiting classes, but there is a flip side. With all of the players who have left the Tech and UVa programs of late, supporters and administrators can shudder at what future graduation rates might look like.

UVa's football program always has had high graduation rates and Tech has taken pride in its improvement along those lines, but the time is coming when both will take a dip.

UNLESS I GOT my letters mixed up -- and, in this case, that's a distinct possibility -- Virginia got a visit this past Saturday from Tom Zbikowski, a 6-foot, 185-pound quarterback and defensive back who has scored 24 touchdowns this season for Buffalo Grove (Ill.) High School.

Zbikowski is an all-purpose threat who has passed for 797 yards and rushed for 740, according to statistics published in Thursday's edition of USA Today. He has run 100 meters in 10.49 seconds and is a nationally ranked boxer, according to SuperPrep.

Zbikowski, named to SuperPrep's preseason All-America team as the No. 16 skilled athlete in the country, did not mention the Cavaliers in a diary he writes for espn.com that was updated Thursday.

In an earlier column, Zbikowski had talked of the rapport he had established with UVa graduate assistant Andy Heck, a former Chicago Bears linemen.

A PROMINENT IN-STATE JUNIOR at Scott Stadium on Saturday was Cedric Peerman, who has put up some mind-boggling numbers in coach Brad Bradley's high-powered offense at William Campbell High School. Peerman, a two-time Virginiapreps.com selection as Group A state player of the week, has had a pair of 200-yard rushing games and also is a promising defensive player.

POMPANO BEACH, FLA., running back Tyrone Moss is the only prospect taking an official visit to Virginia Tech this weekend but the Hokies are entertaining approximately 30 prospects unofficially. The biggest name on that list is Rodney Kinlaw, a 5-10, 180-pound running back from Stratford High School in Goose Creek, S.C.

Kinlaw, related to ex-Hokies defensive back Pierson Prioleau, is rated the No. 5 prospect in South Carolina by SuperPrep.

 

 

Pressure is on Durant
QB having up-and-down season for UNC
 
By BARRY SVRLUGA, Staff Writer

 

North Carolina quarterback Darian Durant is on pace to set a slew of single-season school records. He leads the ACC in passing yards per game and total offense. His numbers, it would seem, are excellent.

Yet, with the Tar Heels' record at 2-4 heading into their noon game today at Virginia, Durant has had so much good sprinkled with too much bad.

"Sometimes he's got to take those easy throws," UNC offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill said, "and we haven't been doing that."

The last word was hardly out of Tranquill's mouth before he caught himself.

"I shouldn't say that," he said. "The guy's doing pretty well."

Pretty well, so far, hasn't been good enough for the Tar Heels to overcome a porous defense. So there is significant pressure on the sophomore quarterback.

"Yeah, you feel it," Durant said. "I'm not going to even lie about it. You feel it."

The coaching staff will try to relieve some of that pressure by improving Durant's decision-making.

In 2001, Durant split time with senior Ronald Curry in a two-series-on, two-series-off rotation. Somehow the combination worked, and the coaches believed it took some pressure off each player.

Now?

"It's pretty much all on [Durant] now," tight end Zach Hilton said. "He knows he's the man. He doesn't have the comfort of coming off the bench. It's always easy to be the backup, because everybody's going to be rooting for you in the first place. It's a little bit tougher to be the man."

Durant acknowledges as much. But there are so many factors. Last season, he pointed out, Carolina's defense was so good it presented the offense with plenty of opportunities. This year's defense is last in the ACC.

"I'm not putting the blame on the defense at all," Durant said. "But at the same time, we had a lot more opportunities [in 2001], and the mistakes that we made were kind of overlooked because we had the ball so much.

"I think [this year] we put a lot of pressure on ourselves as an offense, the way our defense has been struggling lately, that we have to do things. That's what's messing us up more than anything."

Durant has thrown an ACC-high eight interceptions. Some turnovers, notably a fumble deep in UNC territory during the 34-17 loss to N.C. State a week ago, have stood out. In six games, he has fumbled eight times and lost four.

"I think what he's tried to do so far, and we keep harping on it, is he's trying to create sometimes when there's nothing there to create," Tranquill said. "He's moving around in the pocket too much and not throwing the ball away when he should throw the ball away. ... That's where we've gotten into trouble."

Because Durant has occasionally broken free for gains on the ground, he can be tempted to run when he sees an opening. Occasionally, it works: He scored on a 27-yard run against Texas. Sometimes it doesn't.

"There's a difference between running and moving in the pocket," Tranquill said. "Sometimes you move in the pocket to throw the ball, and I think what Darian's been doing is running in the pocket. He takes off and runs. And then things disintegrate."

As they did against State. After the game, UNC coach John Bunting waited for Durant to finish explaining the loss to the media and then grabbed him around the shoulders, showing support.

"I thought that he was taking a lot of that loss on himself," Bunting said. "He only shares a small percentage of it. We all lost that game. I wanted to make sure he understood that."

But Durant also understands his decisions in the coming weeks will be crucial.

"I can tell him what to look at," Tranquill said, "but he's got to make the ultimate decision."

 

 

Blizzard expects frigid reception in Virginia
 

By Bill Cole
JOURNAL REPORTER
 

Bobby Blizzard, Kevin Knight and six other North Carolina football players will have a homecoming of their own today, when the Tar Heels play Virginia in Charlottesville.

The eight players are all products of Virginia high schools. Some were recruited by Virginia, and Blizzard, a tight end, had committed to the Cavaliers on what was supposed to be one of the greatest recruiting nights the program had ever experienced.

Blizzard will be back in Charlottesville for the first time since Sept. 4, 1997, when he, Ronald Curry and Darnell Hollier committed to Virginia. They were highly recruited players, in town to attend the Virginia-Auburn game that night.

All were seniors at Hampton High School. They had been together in school since they were 6 and wanted to stay together in college. Almost immediately, though, Blizzard had second thoughts.

"We had a football game (at Hampton) a couple of days later, and I sat down and I thought about my decision," Blizzard said. "I decided that I wasn't thinking for myself, as far as what I wanted to do in college."

Blizzard, who could also play receiver, wanted to catch passes. He didn't want to be used only as a blocker.

"I didn't think UVa., at the time, was going to help me do that," he said. "I had to take back my commitment. I took mine back a week later."

Blizzard signed with Kentucky, enthralled by an offense that passed 63 times in one game. Curry strung out Virginia for eight months before signing with North Carolina. Hollier was the only one to keep his commitment, but he stayed only two seasons, playing in just one, and is no longer in Virginia's program.

Curry was always treated harshly when he returned to Charlottesville with the Tar Heels' football and basketball teams. He had objects thrown at him on the football sideline while being taunted with chants of "Benedict Curry."

Blizzard knows what Curry went through. He will keep his helmet on at all times today. About 20 family members will travel from Hampton for the game.

"I hope they don't do me like they did Ronald," Blizzard said. "If they do, it won't bother me. I'm just ready to get my hands on my old (high-school) teammates. Maybe we can win and I'll have bragging rights for a year."

Knight was recruited by Virginia while in high school in Suffolk, but he never visited the campus. Last season he made the play that saved North Carolina's 30-24 victory in Chapel Hill, recovering an onside kick with a minute left.

Playing in Charlottesville could provide a spark for the Tar Heels.

At this point, North Carolina is looking for just about anything to help it win in Scott Stadium.

The Tar Heels haven't won there since 1981, which is 10 games. North Carolina, 2-4 overall, will also be seeking its first ACC victory of the season after two losses. Virginia has a five-game winning streak that has improved its records to 5-2 and 3-1.

Both of North Carolina's wins have come on the road.

"I am not concerned about where we play," Coach John Bunting said. "I just want our team to play better each week and try to prepare to play their best game. We were on our way to playing our best game against N.C. State. We were on our way. And we lost it."

 

 

Groh Just Keeps Score
Outcomes, Rather Than Statistics, Usually Favor Cavs
   

By Jim Reedy
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, October 19, 2002; Page D06

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Oct. 18 -- Confronted with the raw numbers, Virginia Coach Al Groh does not attempt to argue in favor of his Cavaliers. He realizes his team, in each of the past four games, has allowed more yards than it has gained.

What interests him more is Virginia has won those games, extending its overall win streak to five for the first time since 1998.

"That's that 'other numbers' issue," Groh said last weekend after Virginia beat Clemson, 22-17, despite the Tigers' advantages in most statistical categories. "How much did you run for? How much did they run for? How many first downs did you make? How much was your time of possession?

"The only thing I was looking at was it was 10-6 [at halftime] and we were in the fight."

The Cavaliers (5-2, 3-1 ACC) have led at halftime only once this season, but in every game they have outscored their opponents in the second half -- an aggregate margin of 140-70 after halftime, including 85-43 in the fourth quarter.

"In a game like football, somebody has to give. We're not going to let that be us," said tailback Alvin Pearman, who had 77 all-purpose yards against Clemson despite playing with a broken right hand. "That's really been our mentality, and that's the way we're going to keep it."

Virginia's first shot at its sixth win will come Saturday at noon against North Carolina, which is winless in its past 10 visits to Scott Stadium. The Tar Heels (2-4, 0-2) lost 34-17 to No. 13 North Carolina State last week after taking a 17-7 lead with 10 minutes left in the third quarter.

"It seems like we come out of halftime and we're lacking a little bit of energy," UNC quarterback Darian Durant said. "Hopefully, we can pick up that energy and be able to finish games off strong."

Virginia has been able to do just that this season, thanks in part to a defense that has allowed 58 fewer points in the second half than the first. But Saturday the Cavaliers will have to contend with Durant and senior Tar Heels wide receivers Sam Aiken and Chesley Borders, the leaders of a passing attack that has produced an ACC-high 286.8 yards per game.

"We have not played a team this year that presents as dramatic a vertical passing threat as North Carolina does," Groh said. "Durant . . . can easily get the ball to any area on the field and they've got three or four guys who can really go get it. . . . It is an area that we've given considerable attention to and we see it as a major factor in the game."

Virginia may swap one injured linebacker for another this week, with junior Raymond Mann making his long-awaited return while senior co-captain Angelo Crowell sits out. On Thursday, Groh said he was not yet sure whether either would play, but he was optimistic the Cavaliers could "get some plays out of" Mann, who started on the outside in the first two games before hurting his knee.

Crowell, the team leader in tackles, continued Virginia's season-long epidemic of knee injuries when he suffered his second in three weeks against Clemson. This injury, Groh said Monday, does not appear as severe as the previous one, which happened to Crowell's other knee and kept him out only a few days.

Freshman tailback Michael Johnson may play, Groh said, though the ankle injury that sidelined him the past four games is still keeping him from "being the Mike that we saw in the first two games."

The Cavaliers have spent much of the season plugging the holes caused by a rash of injuries in their first five games. And game after game, the halftime score tilts toward their opponents. But they haven't been fazed yet.

"That's been our team," Groh said. "The players have refused to let other teams get up and run away from them. They've got enough reinforcement -- and they've been able to reel some teams back in."

 

 

In the End, Durant Stayed True to Blue
QB Leads the ACC in Total Offense
   

By Jim Reedy
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, October 18, 2002; Page D09

Darian Durant doesn't want to go into it.

The 5-foot-11 quarterback has been asked countless times why he quit the North Carolina football team in February -- less than two months after he concluded the best season for a freshman quarterback in school history -- and he answers with only the vaguest of explanations.

Durant has never discussed the personal reasons that prompted his five-week absence from the team. Not with his coaches. Not with his teammates. And he may never reveal them.

"I just felt like that's what I needed to do at that time," Durant said as the Tar Heels (2-4, 0-2 ACC) prepared for Saturday's game at Virginia (5-2, 3-1). "I'm not going to elaborate too much on that, because really I'm trying to get over it."

But on Feb. 25, Durant announced at a news conference that he planned to transfer to another school. The Florence, S.C., native read a 183-word statement that attributed his decision to "personal reasons" he had "thought hard about" -- and not to the impending competition with Florida transfer C.J. Stephens for the starting job or any unhappiness with the Tar Heels program -- then left the room without taking questions, stopping only to give UNC Coach John Bunting a quick hug.

"Darian is a young player that I think was making a bad decision at that time," Bunting said this week. "I think he wasn't sure why he was leaving. He certainly never gave us any reason of any substance."

During the five weeks he was away from the team, rumors circulated as to where he would transfer. He was a hot topic for recruiting analysts trying to pinpoint his next move. But as Durant finished the academic semester at North Carolina he never started looking for a new school, he said this week. At the end of March, he met with Bunting and asked to return to the team.

"I realized that this is my family," Durant said Wednesday. "This is where I needed to be and this is where I wanted to be. This is where I felt most comfortable."

After getting what he described as a wholehearted endorsement from the team's 20-player leadership committee, Bunting welcomed back Durant, who rejoined the team on April 1 midway through spring drills.

"When he decided that he wanted to return, I was not totally surprised," Bunting said. "That's why I had said when he left the program that I would leave the door cracked open for him. I won't do that for every player."

Durant seems to have moved on quite nicely. He beat out Stephens for the starting job in the preseason and has been one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC this season.

"Overall, I think this is probably the most dangerous quarterback that we've seen [thus far]," Cavaliers Coach Al Groh said. "He can get out and go, he's elusive in the pocket, he's got a live arm. His numbers certainly would indicate that."

Durant, a 226-pound redshirt sophomore, leads the ACC with 272.5 passing yards per game, ahead of N.C. State junior Philip Rivers, the nation's top-rated passer. With an added 21.2 yards per game on the ground, Durant also is first in the conference in total offense (and ninth in the nation).

He showed some of that ability last season, when he finished second to Florida State quarterback Chris Rix in ACC rookie of year balloting. Alternating with incumbent senior Ronald Curry, Durant set UNC freshman records for passing yards, completions, touchdown passes and total offense as the Tar Heels capped the greatest turnaround in school history. UNC won eight of its final 10 games after starting 0-3.

Durant's progress this season has not been without its missteps -- he threw three interceptions in a season-opening loss to Miami (Ohio) and all but handed N.C. State the go-ahead score last week by fumbling on his 4-yard line in a 34-17 loss.

But more often he has looked like the player who carried UNC to a 38-35 win at Arizona State two weeks ago while tying one program record with five touchdown passes and setting two others with 417 passing yards and 426 yards of offense.

"I think I'm coming along pretty well," he said. "When things get rocky, it makes you stronger."

 

 

Will Cavs stay hot at Scott vs. Heels?
UNC hasn't won at U.Va. since'81

 
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER		 Oct 19, 2002
 
 

CHARLOTTESVILLE - For decades, University of Virginia football players had to answer questions about why they couldn't beat Clemson. North Carolina knows it can defeat Virginia, having done so four times since 1991, including last season in Chapel Hill.

The Tar Heels' problem has been beating the Cavaliers at Scott Stadium.

UNC hasn't won in this city since Nov. 14, 1981, when John Bunting was a Philadelphia Eagles linebacker. That's 20 years, 11 months and some change.

"That's a long, long time," said Bunting, in his second year as coach at Carolina, his alma mater. "Obviously we'd like to take care of that problem this weekend."

Today at noon, Virginia (3-1, 5-2) plays host to UNC (0-2, 2-4) in the latest installment of the South's oldest rivalry.

"I spent five years in Chapel Hill, so I have a sense of the rivalry from both directions," said U.Va. coach Al Groh, a UNC assistant from 1973 to'77.

The Cavaliers have won five straight games since falling at Florida State. They received votes in both major polls this week. They need only two victories to become bowl eligible, which would be a stunning achievement for a team picked to finish eighth in the ACC. And, of course, they've won 10 straight at home over UNC.

Big deal, Groh said. He's proud of his team's accomplishments but knows its margin for error couldn't be much thinner. Virginia has been outgained in each of its past four games. It trailed at halftime in two of those contests and was tied at the break in another.

"That's why when people try to approach me about, 'Hey, your team can do this, your team can do that,' I say, very realistically, that we're just trying to find where we can win a sixth game," Groh said. "If we win six, then we'll try to find where the seventh one is. If we should be so lucky to get seven, we'll try to find where we can win the eighth one.

"That's how precise we have to be. That's what our challenge is. That's why if we get out of whack with what we have to do, it doesn't make any difference who or where, we're going to have a difficult time."

When he looks at the Tar Heels, Groh said, he sees a mirror image of his own team.

"They have very, very good wide receivers, a lot of freshmen and sophomores playing, a lot of guys getting on-the-job training," he said. "I see a lot of games that have gone very similar to the games that we've played, whether it's in the outcome or not."

Virginia quarterback Matt Schaub, a junior, ranks fifth nationally in passing efficiency. UNC's Darian Durant, a sophomore, leads the ACC in passing yards per game (272.5). His favorite target, senior wideout Sam Aiken, averages 17.3 yards per reception. Look for UNC to test U.Va. deep, early and often.

"This is certainly, at least as a dropback team, the most challenging passing game that we've played against," Groh said. "It certainly is the most vertical passing game that we've played against this year."

Bring it on, U.Va. cornerback Jamaine Winborne said. "I think every time we get challenged, we can prove to people that we can defend the deep ball."

Carolina has struggled to defend anything. For one game, at least, the Wahoos won't have the lower-rated defense on the field. The Heels rank last among ACC teams in scoring defense and total defense. They're eighth - ahead of Virginia - in rushing defense and seventh in passing defense.

"They graduated a lot of guys defensively - thank God," U.Va. tailback Alvin Pearman said.

Those alumni include ends Julius Peppers and Joey Evans, tackle Ryan Sims and linebacker David Thornton, all NFL draft picks. Peppers and Sims were among the first six players chosen.

"When you're playing college football with NFL defenders, you have a decided advantage," Groh said.

The Tar Heels have lost that edge. Still, Pearman said, the Cavs "definitely don't want to get complacent and overlook them, because they're a very good team. Right now we're in no position to overlook anybody."

NOTES: About 1,000 tickets remain for today's game. The cost is $32. . . . Linebacker Raymond Mann and tailback Michael Johnson may return for Virginia. Each has been sidelined with an injury: Mann (knee) since Aug. 31 and Johnson (ankle) since Sept. 7. . . . Ohio University's renowned marching band - the Marching 110 - will perform at halftime.