Cavs make most of power shift
Virginia's talented players are changing the look of a series Clemson once dominated.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129
The Roanoke Times

CHARLOTTESVILLE - When Clemson was beating Virginia 29 straight times in football between 1955-1990, there was a disparity in talent that matched the disparity on the scoreboard.

Now, Clemson coach Tommy Bowden knows the feeling. "Right now, he's getting more out of his [players] than I'm getting out of mine," said Bowden, referring to his UVa counterpart, Al Groh. "They're pretty talented, though. You'll see all those guys playing on Sundays.

"It's my job to get similar-type players and do a better job of coaching."

Bowden had longed for a game when the Tigers wouldn't be overwhelmed by turnovers, but, when the turnovers were even Thursday night, it didn't matter.

Tenth-ranked Virginia handed Clemson its most lopsided defeat in the history of the series, 30-10, before a crowd of 61,833 that was the third-largest in Scott Stadium history.

"Coming into the season, I felt Clemson was going to be one of the most talented and best teams in the conference," Groh said. "I still feel that way. We did a very good job on their dynamic playmakers today."

It was the fourth straight loss for the Tigers (1-4, 1-3 ACC) and the competition will be considerably stiffer when Virginia (5-0, 2-0) travels to Tallahassee, Fla., to face eighth-ranked Florida State next Saturday at 7:45 p.m.

"We remain in the hunt," Groh said. "That's our way of thinking, nothing more, nothing less. I'm sure Florida State is not particularly impressed by it.

"We could be less ready, but I don't know if we're ready enough. We're playing World Series competition. We'll try to rise to that level because we've never been to the World Series."

One week after losing marquee defensive end Chris Canty for the season, the Cavaliers emerged from Thursday night's game relatively unscathed. Sophomore fullback Jason Snelling suffered an early ankle injury that prevented him from returning, but the running game did not suffer.

The Cavaliers, held to 53 rushing yards last year in a 30-27 overtime loss at Clemson, rushed for 161 yards in the second half and 239 for the game Thursday night.

UVa junior quarterback Marques Hagans completed 14 of 26 passes for a career-high 225 yards, frequently scrambling until receivers could come open.

"When we had Woody Dantzler, they couldn't tackle him," Bowden said. "We couldn't tackle [Hagans] sometimes and I give them that. God made their guy do that.

"I don't give them that other stuff. The second half, he threw the ball and he didn't scramble."

The Cavaliers converted a whopping 70 percent of their third downs (14-of-20) and it wasn't all third-and-shorts. UVa picked up three third-and-eights, a third-and-nine, a third-and-10 and a third-and-11.

Junior tailback Alvin Pearman, who got 102 of his 104 rushing yards in the second half, had one of the most critical third-down conversions when he took a screen pass from Hagans on third-and-nine and gained 18 yards to the Clemson 4. Two plays later, Pearman scored on a 2-yard touchdown run that made it 23-10 on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Pearman did not have a rushing attempt Sept.28, when he replaced an injured Deyon Williams at wide receiver, but the Cavaliers had them both Thursday night. Williams, the speediest of UVa's wideouts, had five receptions for 83 yards.

As good as the UVa offense was, it had nothing on the Cavaliers' defense, led Thursday night by fifth-year linebacker Dennis Haley from Salem. Haley was credited with a team-high nine tackles (seven solo, two assists) on a night when nobody else had more than five.

It was difficult for anybody from Virginia's defense to put up big numbers on a night when Clemson had 49 offensive plays, 21 in the second half. The Clemson offense was on the field for seven plays in the third quarter when UVa had the ball for more than 11 minutes.

"I'm not going to be mad if I'm standing over there on the sideline and the offense never comes off the field," UVa linebacker Ahmad Brooks said. "If we keeping getting three-and-outs, you can't do any better than that.

"I look forward to going down to Florida State. When I was in high school, I visited there. The fight is on."

Groh turns to role model
Senior tailback Alvin Pearman rushes for 102 of his team-high 104 yards in the second half.
By Mark Berman
981-3125
The Roanoke Times

CHARLOTTESVILLE - For three series Thursday night, Alvin Pearman got to be a workhorse tailback for the Virginia football team.

Pearman ran for 102 of his team-high 104 yards in the second half of the Cavaliers' 30-10 win over Clemson. He also caught two passes in that half and ran for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. "Whatever role Coach [Al Groh] needs me to play, I'm willing to do so, and today it just happened to be carrying the rock a little more - and I'll take that," Pearman said Thursday after the No.10 Cavaliers improved to 5-0.

Pearman, a senior backup, became the first Cavalier to run for more than 100 yards against Clemson since Thomas Jones in 1998. It was the fourth 100-yard rushing game of Pearman's career. One of three tailbacks who see action for the team, Pearman entered the game with only 140 yards rushing on the season.

UVa ran for 239 yards Thursday, including 161 in the second half.

"Our running game was a little spurty at first, but we knew we'd wear them down," Pearman said. "We wanted to make them crack, and they did so in the second half."

Pearman had one carry for 2 yards in the first half, but he got 16 carries in the second half. He didn't have any carries in UVa's previous game, when he played receiver because of an injury to Deyon Williams.

Pearman replaced Wali Lundy after Lundy fumbled to end UVa's first series of the second half. Groh said it was not because of the fumble and that he had already planned for Pearman to play the second series. Pearman had two carries - one for 18 yards - and a catch, paving the way for a field goal that extended the lead to 16-10.

"You just know when Coach calls your number to be ready," Pearman said. "That's something I really pride myself on."

Groh decided to stick with the hot tailback. Pearman gained all 43 yards of UVa's next series, which began with his 20-yard run. On third-and-nine, he caught a screen pass and headed upfield for an 18-yard reception. Pearman capped the drive with a 2-yard TD run.

Pearman ran for 52 yards and scored on another 2-yard run on UVa's next possession. He had a 4-yard run on third-and-four and a 5-yard run on third-and-three. Six of his 10 runs on the drive were for 5 yards or more. He averaged 5.8 yards per carry in the game.

"That's what happens when you run the ball consistently - defenses wear down," Pearman said. "You could see guys bending over, putting their hands on their knees. When you see that as an offense, it kind of gives you that extra boost, like we're about to break them, and I think we did."

Pearman said his offensive line was exceptional.

"I can't wait ... to go back and see the game tape about how much really they dominated Clemson's front four," he said. "As a running back, you love to see that happen. You love to see holes open up."

And on Thursday, Pearman got the chance to run through them.
 

Gillen explains recruiting philosophy
"We don't run people off" he says
By Doug Doughty
THE ROANOKE TIMES

Does anybody else see a connection between the way Virginia men’s basketball coach Pete Gillen uses his scholarships and uses his timeouts?

They both seem to burn a hole in his pockets.

When I advanced this theory to Gillen the other day, he didn’t automatically dismiss it. While he can be touchy on the subject of timeouts, he repeated a line I had heard previously, that he wasn’t going to be like Dean Smith, the former North Carolina coach who retired with 4,000 unused timeouts.

(Personally, if I were a coach, I wouldn’t mind comparisons to Dean Smith. The last time I looked, he had more career victories than any other Division I coach, but I know Gillen wasn’t being critical of Smith and he was just pointing out a difference in philosophy).

In any case, by the time I spoke to Gillen on Tuesday morning, he had to know that the Cavaliers would take an oral commitment from Steve Kendall, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from Charlottesville who is in his second year at the Blue Ridge School, located in Greene County, just north of Albemarle County. Kendall went to Albemarle High School before transferring to Blue Ridge, where he repeated his sophomore year.

The four commitments that Virginia has received from seniors mean that the Cavaliers will have at least 12 players on scholarship next year, if nobody leaves. Because all 12 of those players will be underclassmen, the addition of Kendall would put Virginia at 13, the NCAA men’s scholarship limit.

There is no doubt in my mind that, if Virginia could get a commitment from either 6-8 Alfred Aboya or 6-7 Uche Echefu, two native Africans who are considering the Cavaliers, Gillen would take it. That would put the Cavaliers at the limit for next season and Kendall would put them at 14 for 2006-2007 — again, if nobody leaves.

“The nature of college basketball today is, the situation will take care of itself,” Gillen said Tuesday. “The way attrition is, people leave. We don’t run people off.”

When Derrick Byars announced this spring that he was leaving Virginia after two seasons, he became the 14th player to leave the program before the end of his eligibility. Gillen wanted Byars to stay, it’s safe to say, and it’s hard to argue with him when he says he has not run anybody off.

Even in the case of Keith Jenifer, a guard on the Cavaliers’ 2002-2003 team, it wasn’t Gillen who made the decision to cut the cord. It was the athletic department that advised the basketball program that all parties would be best served by Jenifer finding a new home. The same for Jenifer’s fellow backcourtman and classmate, Jermaine Harper. Jenifer is at Murray State and Harper is at Fullerton State, where their remaining two years of eligibility start with this season.

The “defectors” have included Roger Mason, who made himself available for the NBA Draft following his junior year in 2001-2002. You can’t blame Gillen for that, and there’s no way that Gillen would have wanted big man Nick Vander Laan to pass up his final season of Division I eligibility and transfer to Concordia (Calif.), where he became an NAIA All-American in 2003-2004.

True, Gillen may not have told any players to leave, but, the way he recruits, he may have exerted a more subtle pressure. Byars had to see the backlog of players at his position, small forward, and just felt there was no way that he would ever play more than 20 minutes per game. How was Byars going to play that much if Virginia also had to find time for Devin Smith and Gary Forbes?

You can see the same thing happening next year when two 6-5 players, Mamadi Diane and Brian Moten, enter the programs. I’m told that Diane is more of a ‘3’ man and Moten a ‘2,’ but there’s going to be competition from Forbes and J.R. Reynolds for at least two seasons, and then Kendall comes in the year after that.

I thought, for a while, that Virginia might have offered a scholarship to Kendall, as a Charlottesville resident and the son of two UVa graduates, knowing that he might be able to pay his way if the Cavaliers find themselves over the scholarship limit. Not true, I was told by somebody close to the program. Virginia offered Kendall a scholarship at this time because, if it hadn’t, there was a chance that some other ACC programs — maybe a Duke or a North Carolina or a Maryland — might have entered the picture.

“Everybody has a different recruiting philosophy,” Gillen said. “Mine is, one, be as good as you can be right now, and, two, there’s going to be attrition. At Virginia, we hear all the time, ‘I love the school, I love the team, but I’m not playing enough.’ "

You could blame Gillen for over-recruiting or you could blame a Byars, or a Vander Laan, or a Maurice Young or a J.C. Mathis for underperforming. When Young left after the first semester of the 2001-2002 season, he hadn’t played much, but there would have been opportunities for him in 2002-2003, if not sooner.

Vander Laan and Mathis had their chances and, frankly, were painful to watch. Byars had more athletic ability than any of them but was maddeningly inconsistent and, when he could have found himself a niche by providing much-needed rebounding help, couldn’t deliver. It will be interesting to see if he finds a structure that suits him better at Vanderbilt.

I don’t want to sound like a Gillen apologist here, but, if the team doesn’t perform, he will be asked to leave. That almost happened last season. If the players don’t perform, it will be reflected in their playing time, but, if Gillen is honest about his “don’t run people off” assertion, then it will be their choice if they leave.

Do I think it’s advisable to have 13 players on scholarship when almost nobody plays more than 9-10? Ideally, no. If I were running a team, I’d stay away from the survival-of-the-fittest approach, but Gillen is right about one thing. That’s the nature of the game these days.

Chill deepens for Clemson’s year
By BOB SPEAR
Sports Editor
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.

Clemson football coaches spent the off-season down-playing the unexpected departures of Donnell Washington and Derrick Hamilton, a couple of playmakers who bolted to the pros after their junior seasons.

“We'll be fine,” the party line went. “So-and-so” — the names changed— “will fill in nicely for Donnell in the defensive line, and So-and-so will take Derrick's place and we won’t miss a beat.”

Call the mantra a case of over-optimistic expectations, dreadful errors in judgment or downright lies, but the holes in the argument have been obvious for some time now and never moreso than in the Tigers’ 30-10 thrashing inflicted by Virginia in an Atlantic Coast Conference Thursday night special.

The value of Hamilton, a go-to receiver who made defenders cringe, has never been more evident. His absence has a trickle-down affect and the once-potent offense has become milquetoast.

“We gained almost 400 yards against Virginia last season,” coach Tommy Bowden said after his team dropped its fourth consecutive game, and he promised to search for the difference in Thursday's sad performance.

His quest should not be too challenging. Look at the players here and the ones during last season's strong finish, and the answer is not very elusive.

Apply the same formula to defense and the lack of a player of Washington’s caliber cannot be covered up. Virginia ran at will, and teams that cannot defend the ground attack will not win many games.

That’s Clemson today.

An unlikely leading scorer. One fact on the statistics sheet emphasizes the Tigers’ woes: Justin Miller is the team's leading scorer.

Miller plays cornerback and returns kickoffs, and if a player at his positions creates most of the team's points, tough times follow. Bowden promised to find players who could make a difference, but the season's halfway point seems a rather late hour to decide that changes must be made.

“We can still be a good football team,” Tigers quarterback Charlie Whitehurst claimed after Thursday's debacle, but he would find few believers among the Clemson faithful. The fact that two of the Tigers’ losses have come against nationally ranked teams cannot disguise reality.

The Tigers scored a touchdown on their first possession, and Whitehurst expected more.

“We were optimistic we could do that again,” he said.

But the Tigers finished with a skimpy 211 yards to show for their offensive endeavors, running 49 plays to Virginia's 80 — a prescription for defeat.

Clemson's field goal drive, the public address announcer intoned, covered 16 yards in eight plays. No further explanation is required.

Wholesale yardage. Virginia’s veteran offensive line treated the Tigers' defensive front like a public enemy, shoving them aside and chewing up yards in wholesale lots. Clemson needed to blitz on almost every play to have any hope of slowing the Cavaliers.

“They didn't punt but once,” Bowden noted in the definitive statement on his team's defense.

The offensive unit’s three-and-out series play a role, but time eventually comes that the defense must get itself off the field. Rather than delivering their responsibility, the Tigers made Virginia quarterback Marques Hagans resemble an All-American.

Chansi Stuckey showed the potential to deliver in Hamilton’s place with a spectacular opening game against Wake Forest, but the Tigers cannot get him the ball now. A reverse went for lost yardage, and he caught one pass for 12 yards. His 22-yard punt return set up Clemson's field goal, but Virginia took that possibility away by not punting again.

The focus has been on turnovers — the myriad committed by the offense and the lack of forcing them by the defense — in explaining the Tigers' plunge to mediocrity — or lower. Bowden said he wanted to see how his team played without the bobbles.

Now he knows. Each team committed one. Bowden talked during the week of starting over and delivering another strong finish to a season, but his words rang hollow late Thursday night.

What now, Tigers?

Tight end Ben Hall pondered the question, shook his head and said, “Back to the drawing board.”

But only those looking through rose-colored glasses believe the pieces to complete the puzzle will be found this year.

Bowden still is scratching his head
Clemson coach accepts blame for Tigers’ 1-4 start but has no answers
By JON SOLOMON
Staff Writer

CLEMSON — Clemson’s record sounded so foreign that Tommy Bowden double-checked himself.

“Is our record 1-4?” he asked Friday in a teleconference with reporters. “I’ve never been 1-4 in my life. It is different.”

Bowden spent the day conducting another thorough evaluation of the Tigers, whose 30-10 defeat Thursday to No. 10 Virginia marked their fourth consecutive loss. There are no more players to use who could help, Bowden said, so much of the burden falls on himself and his staff.

Bowden accepted blame, mainly for what he describes as an inability to finish games strongly. Clemson has been outscored 72-25 in the second half during the losing streak, compared to 54-37 in the first half.

“It starts with me, and it’s going to roll downhill to the coaches and players,” he said. “I’ve never been in this position before. One of the reasons I haven’t is we pretty much had a pretty solid plan, on both sides of the ball and special teams, and it’s always worked out.”

Clemson is enduring its worst three-game offensive stretch in Bowden’s six seasons. The Tigers averaged 211.3 total yards and 12.7 points during the three-game road swing, both lows under Bowden.

Clemson’s offense has not scored in the second half of the past three games. Then again, the Tigers have barely touched the ball after halftime.

In the second half of the past three games, opponents held possession for 62 minutes, 2 seconds and succeeded on 60 percent of third-down conversion attempts. Clemson maintained the ball for 27:58 and converted 19 percent of third-down plays.

Bowden tried a new wrinkle on offense against Virginia. Clemson opened the game with two tight ends and two receivers, rather than the normal spread offense. The Tigers even huddled on a few instances.

Hoping to create better blocking numbers, fullback Cliff Harrell often went in motion and served as a lead blocker on some plays that were essentially I-formation runs. But the Tigers ran for only 45 yards, the fourth time they finished with 85 yards or fewer this season.

The longest run was a 9-yard gain by Duane Coleman on the opening possession, setting up a 56-yard pass to tight end Ben Hall off play-action on the next play. After Coleman ran for 18 yards on the game’s first three plays, Clemson rushed for 27 yards on 18 attempts — and none were negative plays by sacks.

“I wish we could take the defense off the field longer by sustaining drives and by running the ball,” said Bowden, who noted Hall could become a more prominent factor in the offense.

Virginia converted 14 of 20 third-down plays, and it could have been worse. Two of the missed conversions came when the Cavaliers ran out the clock at the end of each half.

Three conversions came on screen passes, following a tactic Florida State used effectively against Clemson on Sept. 25. Bowden said better judgments should have been made defending the screen.

Most unsettling for Clemson was how Virginia converted many long third downs. Seven of the 14 conversions came when the Cavaliers needed 7 yards or more — a passing situation when defenses can attack the quarterback.

Virginia was sacked once, on a blitz by linebacker Leroy Hill. Defensive linemen have accounted for 38 percent of Clemson’s 16 sacks, down from 54 percent by linemen in 2003.

“We can’t get four-man pressure right now,” Bowden said. “We have to blitz. I wish we could, but we can’t. ... That’s something, schemewise, we’re going to have to address. And I don’t know what the answer is. If we can’t get four-man pressure, then we have to find a way to get five- or six-man pressure and tighten up outside.”

No one has the answers as a long weekend begins. Bowden would not discuss what message he gave his assistants in a staff meeting Friday. He stressed to reporters “reinventing” is not needed, rather prioritizing the right schemes in the right way.

“I think we’ve got enough people to have more success than we’ve had,” Bowden said.

A needed boost to his confidence
After a shaky stretch in September, Connor Hughes regains his form in Virginia's 30-10 victory over Clemson.
BY DAVE JOHNSON
247-4649
Published October 9, 2004

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Connor Hughes hadn't pushed the panic button, nor had he placed any long-distance calls to Jason Elam or Adam Vinatieri seeking advice.

But after a September he'd rather forget, Hughes felt a lot better after Thursday night's 30-10 victory against Clemson. Hughes looked like his old automatic self by making all three of his field-goal attempts during the game. One was a chippie from 21 yards, the second a tougher attempt from 43. The third was from 50 yards, his fourth career field goal from at least that distance, and it probably would have been good from 60.

All in all, a nice confidence boost.

"I think it was a good game to have," Hughes said. "To say I needed it is kind of an overshot, but we have confidence in the whole operation - me, my holder and my snapper. This week, we improved a lot. I felt really comfortable with what we had going."

Hughes was so steady last season as a sophomore that his teammates took to calling him Automatica - the same nickname as Tampa Bay Bucs kicker Martin Gramatica. In 25 field goal attempts, Hughes missed twice. He became the first kicker in school history to hit at least three 50-yarders in one season.

Hughes went into his junior season having made 28 of his 31 career attempts, and all but one of his 57 extra-point tries. But in the season opener at Temple, he missed attempts from 49 and 43 yards and bounced a PAT off the upright. He went into Thursday's game 3-of-6 in field goals and 23-of-25 on extra points.

"Really, it was just about loosening up," Hughes said. "I was kind of rushing a lot of things, a lot of my kicks."

After working with the same snapper and holder the past two seasons, Hughes is breaking in new players at both positions. Zac Yarbrough has replaced Ryan Childress at snapper; John Phillips has taken over for Matt Schaub at holder.

An extra few days of work during the off week helped. Still, on his last few attempts during pregame warm-ups Thursday night, Hughes hit a cold stretch.

"When I went back to the sideline, I just said, 'I've got to believe in myself,'" Hughes said. "Coach (Al) Groh drew the analogy to golf - that good golfers don't have to find their swing every time they go out. He was just saying, let it happen. Let it work itself out."

That's what Hughes did. As Virginia's offense struggled to find the end zone for the game's opening 20 minutes, Hughes' kicks from 21 and 43 kept the Cavs close, trailing 10-6. His 50-yarder in the third quarter put Virginia ahead 16-10.

"Real good night for Connor Hughes," Groh said. "(Those kicks) were very important. The score was 30-10, so it doesn't look like they were that decisive in the game, but they were significant at the time they occurred.

"In speaking with him today, it was clearly a boost to his morale. My confidence in Connor is the same that it's always been."

NOTES: Groh said fullback Jason Snelling has a sprained ankle that "will make his participation in the short term probably doubtful." Snelling was injured on Virginia's first possession and did not return. Brandon Isaiah will start in his absence.

Also out indefinitely is backup defensive end Chris Long, a true freshman who has mononucleosis.

Once just a dream, 5-0 is now reality
Published October 8 2004
David Teel

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Virginia faithful committed the date to memory the moment they saw the schedule. Third Saturday in October, the 16th to be precise.

Virginia at Florida State. Unbeaten Virginia at Florida State.

That's how the schedule fell. Five games the Cavaliers should win, followed by one they yearned to win.

And so it is.

First Temple and North Carolina, then Akron and Syracuse. None close.

And Thursday, Clemson. With a punishing second half, Virginia cruised to a 30-10 victory at Scott Stadium.

Next stop, Tallahassee. Or, as Cavaliers linebacker Ahmad Brooks put it, "The fight is on."

Clemson, a 17-point underdog, showed some early fight, strolling 80 yards on the game's opening possession to grab a 7-0 lead. How would Virginia respond to a challenge? How would defensive end Kwakou Robinson, subbing for the injured Chris Canty, match up against Clemson left tackle Barry Richardson, all 6-foot-7, 350 pounds of him? And, perhaps most important, how would the Temptations (Al Groh's favorite Motown act?) sound during their halftime gig?

The Cavs were better than the Temps (lost a step and perhaps an octave).

Quarterback Marques Hagans converted third downs with a variety of plays from the chalkboard and the schoolyard; tight end Heath Miller showed why he'll make a mint in the NFL; Connor Hughes kicked three field goals; reserve tailback Alvin Pearman owned the second half with 102 of his 104 yards; and the defense, Robinson included, was stingy when it mattered.

Say what you will about Hagans' crazy-good passer rating. It's all true.

But here's the play that defined him against Clemson: On third-and-4 from his own 31 early in the third quarter, Hagans scrambled from the pocket near the Tigers' sideline. Sensing the sticks were near, Hagans lowered his shoulder and bulldozed through safety Jamaal Fudge for 6 yards and a first down.

"When guys step up and lead their team, that's what they do," said Groh, Virginia's fourth-year coach.

OK, so the drive ended when tailback Wali Lundy lost a fumble. Doesn't matter. Hagans made his point, and his teammates responded, scoring 10 points on their next two possessions to finalize their itinerary to Tallahassee.

Two weeks ago, Clemson lost by 19 at Florida State. So if any team could handicap the Cavaliers and Seminoles ...

"It's hard to compare," Clemson quarterback Charlie Whitehurst said. "But (Virginia's) definitely pretty good."

Funny how these things work. The Cavaliers began this season ranked 16th by the Associated Press. The only Virginia team rated higher in preseason was the 1990 bunch at No. 15, and the mission that year was to survive the opener at Kansas and prepare for Armageddon in Week 2, at home against Clemson, a team the Cavaliers had never defeated. Twenty-nine games, 29 losses.

Sure enough, Virginia rolled Kansas, returned home and whipped Clemson for the first time. Later that season, the Cavaliers rose to No. 1 in the polls, only to be done in by a thumb injury to quarterback Shawn Moore and a suspect defense.

My, how times change. This season, Clemson was the nuisance Virginia needed to dismiss before confronting the gorilla in the room: Florida State.

Yes, the Cavaliers have defeated the Seminoles, in a Thursday-nighter in 1995. And no, this is not a vintage Bobby Bowden team. Not in the neighborhood.

But we're talking about Doak Campbell Stadium, where Florida State is 48-1 in ACC games, the one defeat coming in 2001 against North Carolina State. Virginia is 0-6 in Tallahassee, with an average margin of 23.8 points, and only the 1996 game, a 31-24 defeat, was remotely close.

These Cavaliers, ranked 10th, are better. They have the speed and strength necessary to compete, on the road, against the defending conference champions. Two years ago in Tallahassee, players such as Darryl Blackstock, Elton Brown, Hagans and Miller weren't quite ready for prime time, and they lost 40-19 at Doak Campbell in the August heat.

This will be different.

"We could be less ready," Groh understated. "But I don't know if we're ready enough. We'll see what it brings."

Groh has taken to baseball analogies to describe this season, saying Virginia has progressed from AA to AAA to major league competition. Florida State?

"We're playing World Series competition," he said. "We'll have to rise to that because we've never been to the World Series."
 

Virginia is 'money' on third downs
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
October 9, 2004

The most important snap in football comes on third down.
In football circles, it’s known as the “money down.”
Offense or defense, games are often won on third down.
That was exactly the case on Thursday night as the 10th-ranked Virginia Cavaliers made a statement to the college football world with a 30-10 victory over Clemson at Scott Stadium.
Offensively, Virginia thrived on third down. Virginia offensive coordinator Ron Prince watched his offense convert 14 of 20 opportunities.
That number is somewhat misleading.
Take out quarterback Marques Hagans’ kneel-down to end the first half and his final scramble to run out the clock at the end of the game and the Cavaliers were 14 of 18 on third down.
On three of those four non-conversions, Virginia placekicker Connor Hughes promptly jogged onto the field on fourth down and nailed a field goal. So, you could actually call it 17 of 18.
Virginia finished the contest with 190 of the 464 yards that they totaled in total offense on third down alone. They also averaged 9.5 yards per play on third down.
The main factor lies in the play of Hagans. With his arm and his legs, Hagans did it all.
He completed 14 of 26 passes for 225 yards and rushed for 26 yards.
“He played very well,” Virginia coach Al Groh said. “He made real good decisions with the ball. He’s kind of got the blueprint in his mind now, in front of his eyes on every pattern. He knows where those guys are going to be. He’s a lot more comfortable in waiting around.”
Defensively, Virginia was just as impressive against the Tigers.
For the game, Clemson converted on just 5 of 14 tries on third down, but two of those conversions came in the fourth quarter when Virginia had a commanding lead.
It is nothing new for Virginia’s defense.
The Cavaliers entered the game having allowed the opposition to convert 22.6 percent of the time on third down.
It was only a bonus for the defense that Virginia’s offense ran 80 plays on offense, 31 more than Clemson.
“It is certainly a nice feeling to have,” Groh said of the offensive-play differential. “That has made it overall a lot easier on our defensive players. They have themselves to thank for that but also the ability of the offense to stay on the field for a continuous series of plays.”
It will not get easier for either unit with a date set in Tallahassee on Oct. 16 against Florida State.

Fan for a day. Even though Virginia is off for the second straight Saturday, Cavalier fans can still enjoy college football today.
They can pull for Louisiana Tech, Penn State, Syracuse and Tennessee - at least for a day.
All four have a chance to help Virginia climb in the polls as those teams look to play spoiler today against programs that are ranked ahead of the 10th-ranked Cavaliers.
Louisiana Tech plays No. 6 Auburn, Penn State battles No. 9 Purdue, Tennessee travels to No. 3 Georgia and Syracuse hosts FSU, the No. 8 team in the country.

News & notes. Virginia fullback Jason Snelling left the Clemson game during Virginia’s opening drive on offense. “He’s got an ankle sprain,” Groh said. “I’d say that will make his participation here in the short-term, probably doubtful.” Senior Brandon Isaiah filled in for Snelling against the Tigers and received a good review from Groh. …
Local standout Chris Long did not play against Clemson because he has mononucleosis. The St. Anne’s-Belfield product played in the first three games for UVa. He dressed and did not play against Syracuse. “We have six more games to play this year and if he can help us win some games, I’m sure that we will be using him,” Groh said. ...
After reviewing film of the Clemson game on Friday, Groh gave the team the weekend off. The team will begin practicing on Monday for Florida State.

Sports Focus: Virginia Football
Sold on a Hughes stand After early struggles, junior's resurgence was kick-start for Cavaliers
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Oct 9, 2004

CHARLOTTESVILLE Look at the final score of ESPN's Thursday night game - Virginia 30, Clemson 10 - and it's easy to discount the impact of junior Connor Hughes' three field goals. Take them away, and 10th-ranked U.Va. still wins 21-10, right?

Maybe, maybe not. Hughes' field goals "were very significant at the time they occurred," Cavaliers coach Al Groh said late Thursday at Scott Stadium.

"I felt good about that," Hughes said. "I felt they did a little bit for our momentum. I was happy to contribute to the team that way."

Until Thursday night, Virginia (2-0, 5-0) hadn't trailed by more than three points all season. But the Tigers (1-3, 1-4) scored a touchdown on the game's first possession, putting their ACC rivals in unfamiliar territory.
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The Cavaliers' first drive stalled inside the Clemson 5, but Hughes booted a 21-yarder to make it 7-3. Early in the second quarter, he connected from 43 yards to make it 10-6.

On his third and final attempt, Hughes nailed a 50-yarder that would have been good from 55. That made it 16-10 with 3:30 left in the third and gave the Cavaliers their first - and only - points in a quarter they dominated. Senior tailback Alvin Pearman rushed for two TDs in the final quarter to help Virginia win going away, but his coach made sure to point out the contributions of No.6.

"Real good night for Connor Hughes," Groh said.

U.Va. fans came to expect such brilliance from Hughes in his first two seasons. He made 5 of 6 field goal attempts as a freshman and 23 of 25 as a sophomore and entered this season as a Lou Groza Award candidate.

Hughes has a new snapper, Zac Yarbrough, and a new holder, John Phillips, this season, though, and the operation hit some rough spots. Coming into the Clemson game, Hughes was only 3 for 6 on field goals and had failed to connect from longer than 39 yards. He had also missed two extra points.

Thus, his 50-yarder "was a big boost of confidence, just the way my year's been going," Hughes said. "But this whole week, the whole operation has been going really well. I couldn't ask for anything more from my holder or my snapper."

Groh said he spoke to Hughes yesterday, and the Clemson game "clearly was a boost to his morale, maybe his morale more than his confidence. It was good to see."

Next up for the Cavaliers is a trip to Florida State (2-1, 3-1) next weekend for another nationally televised game. FSU plays at Syracuse (3-2) today.

Don't expect to see fullback Jason Snelling vs. the Seminoles. Snelling, a sophomore from L.C. Bird High, sprained his right ankle on U.Va.'s first series Thursday, and the injury will "make his participation here in the short term probably doubtful," Groh said last night.

Some good news for Virginia: Sophomore wideout Fontel Mines, who broke his collarbone in the Sept.4 opener at Temple, said Thursday night that he'll return for the FSU game. Mines, a Hermitage High graduate who started against the Owls, will beef up a perilously thin receiving corps.

The Cavaliers also have little depth at defensive end. Not only did they lose all-ACC performer Chris Canty to a season-ending knee injury Sept.25, promising freshman Chris Long is sidelined with mononucleosis. Groh said he's not considering a medical redshirt for Long, whom the Cavs plan to play again as soon as he's healthy.