Starting over
Eugene Monroe makes progress after his demotion.
Doug Doughty

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- For Virginia football fans waiting for offensive tackle Eugene Monroe to live up to his buildup, it was not particularly reassuring to hear that Monroe had been relegated to the second team prior to a Sept. 21 visit to Georgia Tech.

Here was Monroe, rated the No. 1 prospect in the country by SuperPrep in 2005, and he couldn't start for the 110th-rated offense in Division I-A?

There were extenuating circumstances, for sure. Monroe suffered a dislocated kneecap early in spring practice and underwent surgery that threatened to jeopardize his 2006 season.

Doctors cleared Monroe for the opening of preseason practice, knowing that he would be slowed at first, but feeling that he would be available for the start of the season.

He was available and started. He wasn't very good, so, after three games, he fell below Zak Stair on the depth chart.

Head coach Al Groh declined to say if he was trying to motivate Monroe, but the move did have that effect.

"Me not starting kind of sparked me up a little bit," Monroe said after practice Tuesday night. "I've been preparing for these games a little better and I played a lot better in the Duke game than I had been playing, so things are moving forward pretty well."

The operative word there is "moving." Monroe's development is moving forward because, physically, he's starting to move a little better.

"Frankly, I was a little bit concerned about how he was running during the middle part of last week," Groh said. "I actually said to [line coach] Dave Borbely before the Thursday practice, 'You need to watch this guy. You need to back off on him today,' based on what I'd seen at the previous practice.'"

Fast forward four days to Monday's practice:

"I felt just the opposite last night, when we were doing the conditioning after practice," Groh said Tuesday. "Probably, this is the most ease with which we've seen him run in some time."

Monroe, a 6-foot-6, 315-pounder from South Plainfield, N.J., played in every game last year as a true freshman. He got some early scrimmage time at right offensive guard until it was decided to leave him at left tackle, where he did an apprenticeship under D'Brickashaw Ferguson.

Ferguson was a two-time All-ACC selection who was the fourth player chosen in the NFL Draft. In Monroe, the Cavaliers felt they had Ferguson's heir apparent.

Since Monroe was on top of the recruiting rankings coming out of high school, there were expectations -- lofty ones -- that he would be at Ferguson's level of ability immediately.

"He was pretty much the top [college] lineman in the country last year," Monroe said. "I can't come into this year with the mind-set of, 'I've got to fill his shoes,' because that's not the case. From the outside looking in, it is, but that's not how it goes.

"I can't look to replace anyone else. I've just got to do the best that I can."

When Monroe sustained his injury last spring, the pain told him that he could be out for a while, possibly for the entire season. In that context, the dislocated kneecap was a welcome diagnosis, although it limited his offseason work.

"My original timetable was that I would be ready for workouts with the team, as far as running in July, which happened," Monroe said. "Then, I'd go to camp. At the beginning of camp, I was restricted a little bit. After a while, I got into it and I was full-go."

But, there was pain then, and there is pain now.

"At first, I was leery," he admitted. "I'm just fortunate now that I've been able to tolerate the pain. I don't even think about it."

Anybody who watched Monroe in the opening game Sept. 2 at Pittsburgh could tell that his mobility was limited, but the whole Virginia line was having problems. Ferguson and fellow 2005 seniors Brad Butler and Brian Barthelmes had accumulated more than 100 career starts.

"Nobody cares that we're young," Monroe said.

What did excite them was the sight of Monroe and fellow sophomore Branden Albert blowing up defenders on back-to-back 27- and 23-yard runs by Duke's Jason Snelling on Saturday.

"I wouldn't call it 'rewarding,'" Monroe said. "That's how things are supposed to go. There wasn't anything spectacular about it. I'm supposed to get out there and block people like that."
 

Williams' fate still uncertain
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
October 5, 2006

For Deyon Williams, getting through security at airports compares to a trip to the dentist’s office.

Thanks to the metal screw in his right foot, traveling to road games has become a major hassle. Williams, in fact, admitted that he had to tell one security officer during a recent road trip about the screw when it was detected by a hand-held metal detector.

It was because of the metal screw that Williams was able to make his return to Virginia’s football team last weekend at Duke - he played on one drive, catching a 2-yard pass.

Whether the process continues likely depends on an X-ray taken this morning, another the following Thursday and the senior’s ability to handle an increased workload in practice. Should there be a setback, Williams could still elect to shut it down for the season and apply for a medical hardship, which would give him another season since he would have played in less than 20 percent of the team’s games.

For Williams, redshirting is a dirty word and at no point did UVa coach Al Groh mention it.

It was Williams that painfully brought it up.

“The week we played Georgia Tech, I told him if I didn’t come back by the Maryland game that I was thinking about redshirting,” Williams recounted. “[Coach Groh] sat there and told me, ‘Well, I wouldn’t put that in your mind just yet.’ He said, ‘Basically, what you want to do is when you come back on the practice field you want to evaluate yourself. Only you know how you feel. We know it is going to take you some time to get back into the game, to get back into playing football mode, to get back into playing fast.’

“He said, ‘If you feel like you’ve been away for three years, then you shouldn’t do it, but if you feel like you have been away for a day, then we will go ahead and start playing, we could start fitting you in on teamwork and we can start you off.’”

Williams felt liked he did not miss a beat and he knows the questions and desires of many to have him redshirt will linger until the Cavaliers play Maryland. That’s fine, but he wants to play. He wants to be on the field with his teammates on Saturday when the Cavaliers (2-3) play the final contest in a three-game road trip at East Carolina (1-3).

Even though Virginia needs to win four of its last seven games to finish .500 and have a shot at a bowl game, Williams said the decision was easy.

“I could come back next year and something could happen,” Williams said. “I really didn’t base [my comeback] off the record because who knows, people could say we could have a good team, things could look good for next year for the future, but who’s to say that is really going to happen.

“Who’s to say we couldn’t win out? Who’s to say that things couldn’t turn around this year?”

That remains to be seen. What’s certain is that Williams invested a lot of time and hard work to get back on the field. From using a bone stimulator for 20 minutes a day to picking the brain of tight end Jonathan Stupar (he also had a stress fracture during his career), Williams has tried everything.

Williams, who is lactose intolerant, even popped more than his share of mint-flavored Tums.

“I was eating them like candy,” Williams laughed. “Whatever had calcium in it.”

Williams also got a scouting report on stress fractures from an unlikely outlet - Virginia’s field hockey team, the receiver said, averages two stress fractures per season.

Of Virginia’s athletic training staff, Williams said: “They really have a good idea of how to take care of this injury.”

While sidelined, Williams spent time working out in a swimming pool. He worked next to his position coach, John Garrett, to help fellow wideouts. He studied hours of film. He even watched Virginia’s rotation of quarterbacks closely with doubts of who would be throwing him the ball when he returned.

Most importantly, Williams said he just tried to remain patient.
“I never really looked too far ahead,” he said. “I basically was trying to take it one day at a time.”

That was taxing as Virginia opened the season 1-3 for the first time in two decades with an offense that ranked among the worst in the nation.

“Seeing them out there when we are struggling and not winning was hard,” Williams said. “For me, being on the sidelines hurt, and it made me realize how much I really miss the game of football and being out there with my team. I really learned a lot being away.”

An important lesson also followed. Williams knows now that he should have had a better line of communication with the training staff.

The original injury, Williams said, could have actually happened at some point last season. It was sore throughout the spring and summer, but he elected to blow it off. He was willing to play with some nagging pain until it got much, much worse.

“We were doing punt return, and I was on first-team punt return, and I came off the ball and I felt it,” Williams said. “I was like ‘What’s this awkward feeling in my foot?’ I said, ‘Oh well,’ and I just kept going on in practice.”

He finished that preseason practice, the third of the season, but told Assistant Athletics Director and Head Athletic Trainer Ethan Saliba about the pain. Williams pointed to the spot on his foot at the fifth metatarsal. Concern mounted on all fronts, Williams was scolded and an X-ray the following morning showed the break.

Dr. David Diduch, the team’s orthopedic surgeon, performed the surgery on Williams and inserted the screw. That darn screw. That wonderful screw.

His parents actually plan on framing an X-ray that shows the screw in place.

It’s a screw that will remain with Williams for his life, he says, perhaps reminding him of a painful time in his life that took him in a new direction - one way or another.
 

Groh not feeling sorry for Pirates
October 5, 2006

Scattershooting around the ACC, while wondering why ECU alum Sandra Bullock never returns my phone calls ...

Aaaarrrrg! Well, mateys, it’s time to take on the Pirates this week, Virginia’s first trip to Greenville, and the experts have made East Carolina a touchdown favorite.

Skip Holtz, who inherited his father’s penchant for espousing bullfeathers, has complained all week about his players being sick and experiencing a rash of injuries.

Could be a trick. They are Pirates, ya know.

Virginia’s Al Groh wasn’t buying into it.

“Remind me to send him a box of tissues,” said Groh after hearing Holtz’s diatribe.

Somehow we believe the Pirates will be in good health when UVa hits town this weekend.

This is the first of a two-game series, set up specifically because of Groh’s respect for Terry Holland, the former Virginia athletics director and basketball coach, who is now AD at East Carolina.

Holland originally wanted a three-game deal, one in Greenville, one in Charlottesville, and one in Charlotte, but the third seems to be on hold for now.

For Wahoo fans making the trip, including this columnist, it will be great to see Holland again, one of the true good guys in college athletics.

Horns and halos

A halo for Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer for being honest when asked if he thought that Georgia Tech should be ranked above his Hokies in the polls after the Yellow Jackets whipped Beamer’s team in Blacksburg last weekend.

“I’d put them ahead of us ... they beat us,” said Beamer on Wednesday.

And, horns to you NCAA for coming up with the new clock rules that shorten games in the wrong way and take away the number of plays in what was the most exciting brand of football on the planet.

Quote of the Week

Virginia coach Al Groh was asked about his rather animated discussions with the refs during last week’s game at Duke, to which Groh said tongue-in-cheek:

“I try to be an all-purpose, general nuisance,” Groh said with a wide smile and a sparkle in his eyes. “I just try to help out where I think I’m needed.”

While we’re at it, let’s clear one thing up. I keep getting e-mails and questions from fans who have the impression that Groh is always nasty to deal with and treats the media shabbily.

That’s not the case.

Sure, any coach can get rough when he thinks it’s necessary, but often Groh injects humor into his several press briefs with media each week and is very accessible, holding those briefings five days every week.

No playoff for Bobby

It probably doesn’t help the cause for a national playoff among Division I-A football schools when the sport’s all-time wins leader, Florida State’s Bobby Bowden, comes out against a playoff.

While Penn State’s Joe Paterno and most other coaches on the I-A level came out this week in support of a playoff to decide a true champion every year, Bowden stuck to his guns in opposition on Wednesday.

“That’s one of the few things that Joe and I would disagree on,” Bowden said.

“I’m not interested whatsoever in a playoff. I can finish my lifetime without one.”

Bowden’s 362 career wins over 41 years represent the most ever in major college football, leading No. 2 Paterno.

“I don’t know how we could do it,” Bowden said. “We’d be in summer school before we finished a playoff.”

What this columnist doesn’t get, is if Divisions I-AA, II and III can have a playoff, why can’t Division I-A?

And another thing in this get-it-off-your-chest Thursday - why did college presidents state opposition to adding a one-game championship after the bowls are played, noting it would stretch the season too long and strain the players, then turn around and give approval to a 12th regular season game for every I-A program in the country?

Speaking of the Noles

Florida State won’t wear them tonight in Raleigh, but the Seminoles have displayed their special black uniforms that will be worn for the Oct. 21 home game against Boston College.

The all-black ensemble with garnet numbers and gold trim, will feature the words “unconquered” and “Seminoles” up one pants leg and down the other. It’s a tribute to the Seminole Indian Tribe, which has graciously allowed FSU to use the name when the NCAA has banned Native American mascots and nicknames in college sports.

Why black, a reader asked a few weeks ago? The Seminole Tribe’s official flag features the colors red, yellow, white and black.

Stat of the Week

Virginia is ranked 20th nationally in total defense, giving up 263.4 yards per game, the Cavaliers’ best per game average since 1969 when they led the ACC with 235.8 per game.

Hot Seat Bowl

That’s what you could call it when North Carolina goes to the Orange Bowl to play host Miami this weekend.

Could it be that the coach who loses will be the first to go? Both UNC’s John Bunting and Miami’s Larry Coker are the most likely candidates among ACC coaches to get fired at season’s end.

Carolina’s defense has given up 94 points and 1,025 yards in their last two outings and one of those was against Division I-AA Furman.

Boosters hired airplanes to circle the Orange Bowl last weekend for Miami’s narrow escape over Houston, with messages that Coker must go.

Meanwhile, Bunting said he’s not paying attention.

“I don’t listen to that,” Bunting said. “I know what we are doing with this coaching staff and with these players. We have a lot of football to be played. If I was to get consumed by something like that, I think I’d probably absolutely lose my mind.”

Short yardage ...

... How’s the ACC’s instant replay system faring? Of the 74 plays that have come under review thus far this season, only 18 have been overturned. … By the way, the average length of the replays is 1 minute, 17 seconds, but it sure seemed longer in Durham last Saturday. ... Duke has been outscored 86-0 this season by the state of Virginia (37-0 to UVa; 36-0 to Tech; and 13-0 by Richmond). That’s three shutouts in four games and heading to Alabama this weekend. Duke hasn’t been shutout four times in a season since 1931 when Wallace Wade was coach.

... On the injury front, it looks like Clemson has lost wide receiver Chansi Stuckey for most of the rest of the season with a foot injury. ... If Georgia Tech beats Maryland this week, it will be the Jackets’ first five-game winning streak since 2000. ... It was interesting hearing former UVa offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave (now OC for the Atlanta Falcons) speak on Jed Williams’ “Best Seat in the House” radio show the other night. Musgrave didn’t present himself as the offensive wizard that was responsible for the big turnaround in 2002. Rather, Musgrave, a great guy, gave current UVa OC Mike Groh credit for calling the famed hook-and-ladder play that stunned Georgia Tech in a huge win that season. ... N.C. State is 4-4 in its last eight games against FSU. ... And get this, Clemson, which rolls into Winston-Salem this weekend looking to contend for the ACC title, treads lightly because Wake Forest (5-0) has beaten the Tigers twice in the last three years, both times in Tar Heel State. In the other game, Clemson won, 37-30 in double overtime. ... And, speaking of Clemson, Fork Union alum Jacoby Ford continued to light things up in Tiger Town last week with a dramatic 94-yard kickoff return for a TD. The freshman already returned a punt for a TD this season.

The picks

Last week: 5-1. To date: 32-11. Tonight: Florida State 27, N.C. State 24. Saturday: Alabama 40, Duke 7; Georgia Tech 36, Maryland 13; Miami 38, UNC 20; Clemson 30, Wake Forest 14; East Carolina 21, Virginia 14.

 

ACC NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch Oct 5, 2006

DIFFERING OPINIONS: Georgia Tech is 2-0 in the ACC and 4-1 overall. Virginia Tech is 2-1, 4-1. The Yellow Jackets, who lost on opening day to Notre Dame, traveled to Blacksburg last weekend and whipped the Hokies 38-27.

"I was very impressed with Georgia Tech," Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer said yesterday on the ACC coaches' teleconference.

Some of Beamer's peers aren't as impressed with the Jackets. In the latest USA Today coaches' poll, Georgia Tech, at No.20, is two spots behind Virginia Tech.

"I'd put them ahead of us. They beat us," said Beamer, who's among the 63 Division I-A coaches who vote on the USA Today poll.

In the latest Associated Press poll, Georgia Tech is No.18 and Virginia Tech is No.21.

CLASS OF HIS OWN: Asked how many wide receivers he's seen in the college game who are as gifted as Georgia Tech junior Calvin Johnson, Beamer said, "I've seen zero that have what he has: the size, the speed and the good hands."

Johnson had six catches for 115 yards and two touchdowns against the Hokies. He's caught at least one pass in 29 consecutive games.

THE LAST WORD: Florida State's Bobby Bowden, the winningest coach in the history of major-college football, says he's "not interested whatsoever in a [Division I-A] playoff . . . I can go and finish my lifetime without one."

SHOW OF RESTRAINT: Asked if he's been tempted to play tailback Keith Payne this season, Virginia coach Al Groh said, "A little bit. Every time I watch him run in practice I think, 'Whoa, this is going to be fun.'"

In all likelihood, the fun won't start until 2007. Groh plans to redshirt Payne, a 6-3, 243-pound true freshman who was The Associated Press' choice as Group AAA player of the year as an Oakton High senior in 2005.

TIME TO MOVE ON: N.C. State's comeback victory over Boston College on Sept. 23 and the "way it was won dramatically - really in the last 90 seconds - will live on in the history of this university forever," Wolfpack coach Chuck Amato said. "That'll be on the tape forever."

State edged BC 17-15, giving Amato's team a confidence boost that "was well-needed for the players," he said. "Winning is a great remedy for anything and everything in athletics. Unfortunately, that big win is only worth one win."

N.C. State (1-0, 2-2) plays host to 17th-ranked Florida State (1-1, 3-1) in an Atlantic Division game tonight.

NAME TO REMEMBER: In his first start, Javarris James rushed for 148 yards - a Miami record for a true freshman - in a 14-13 victory over previously unbeaten Houston at the Orange Bowl last weekend.

James is a cousin of former Hurricanes great Edgerrin James.

"I've been around some great backs in my career, and you don't have to study those guys very long to say they're special," Miami coach Larry Coker said.

"The good ones, they can take a 2-yard loss and make a 4-yard gain out of it, and I think Javarris has that kind of ability."

RUN FOR GLORY: Next up for Georgia Tech is a game against Maryland (3-1) on Saturday in Atlanta. This will be the ACC opener for the Terrapins, whose coach, Ralph Friedgen, is a former Jackets assistant.

"I've been impressed with the athleticism of the whole Georgia Tech team," Friedgen said. "They've got guys who can run."

That's by design, according to Chan Gailey, the Jackets' fifth-year coach.

"We're not the biggest team around, and when we came in, we said we're going to base our team around speed, offense and defense. So if you're not big, you better move, and you better move quickly. And that's what we've tried to do."

PLAYING CATCH-UP? Boston College (1-1, 4-1) and Virginia Tech, both off this weekend, meet Oct. 12 at Chestnut Hill, Mass. The Hokies lead the series 9-3, in part because they've generally been faster than BC.

This is Tom O'Brien's 10th team at Boston College. Asked about its speed, O'Brien said, "I think we're a little better, but we're awful young, and that's what we're fighting through this year. I think each and every year we've gotten a little better in that category, but we're certainly not up to the Virginia Tech speed level right now."

TIMELY RETURN: Senior safety Ryan Glasper made his 2006 debut in BC's win over Division I-AA Maine last weekend.

In April, Glasper had surgery on his left hip. His recovery didn't go well, however, and it appeared he might have to miss the whole season. With 22 career starts, Glasper adds much-needed experience to a team dominated by underclassmen.

"I felt an energy rush before I went out on the field," Glasper told reporters after the Maine game, "and I felt part of something again, and it's one of the best feelings of the world." - Jeff White
 

Fitzgerald quickly becomes a terror on UVa's defense
By Andy Bitter
Lynchburg News & Advance
October 5, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Two years removed from the last time he played an actual football game, Jeffrey Fitzgerald sat in the locker room in Pittsburgh just prior to Virginia's season opener a bundle of nerves.
Was the knee OK? Even if it was, did he have confidence in it? Would the game be too fast? Too physical? Too much to handle?

"Going to Pittsburgh I expected the worst," the redshirt freshman defensive end said.

In fact, it's been just the opposite. Through four games, it's the 6-foot-3, 279-pound Fitzgerald who has proven to be too fast and too physical for opponents.

Fitzgerald has been every offensive lineman's nightmare this year, registering 2? sacks, eight tackles for a loss and a team-best six quarterback hurries. Against Duke last week, he was a multi-faceted disruptor, picking up a fumble and rumbling 23 yards for a touchdown and later intercepting a pass that got popped up into the air.

"He's really putting together an unbelievable year," fellow defensive end Chris Long said.

He's waited long enough. Fitzgerald blew out not one, but both knees at Hermitage High in Richmond. He tore his right ACL his sophomore year when he got hit from the side, ending his year early.

His senior season never even got underway. In the final scrimmage, not long after he had committed to UVa, Fitzgerald blew out his left knee while making a cut. He didn't find out it was a season-ending ACL injury until he underwent surgery.

"Missing my senior year, that hurt a lot," he said.

That fall and winter, he gained a lot of weight ("I didn't do much but sit around the house and eat," he said) but began his road to recovery that spring, joining the track and field team to get back in shape. A competitor, he finished second in the Group AAA meet in the shot put and seventh in the discus.

Once he got to Virginia, though, his football patience continued to be tested. He worked behind Long at right end last year but never got in a game, redshirting instead.

He made the most of it. He always does. Be it practice, film sessions or game situations, teammates and coaches marvel at Fitzgerald's ability to improve his game.

"He's like a sponge," Long said. "He really just absorbs every bit of coaching. ? I think what you're seeing is the reflection of a guy who said, 'OK, I'm going to sit for a year, I'm going to redshirt, but I'm going to take advantage of my time.' And this is kind of the result of that."

"He's just one of those players who's got a knack for improvement," Virginia coach Al Groh said. "He's alert. He's aware."

He's just like Brennan Schmidt, a workmanlike four-year starter lost to graduation who Fitzgerald replaced when he moved to left end in the spring. That's when Fitzgerald came into the public consciousness. He earned the Rock Weir Award as the most improved defensive player in the spring and beat out sophomore-to-be Alex Field for the starting job.

Fitzgerald hit the ground running when pre-fall practice began and has looked every bit the next standout defensive end at UVa, following in the recent footsteps of Chris Canty, Schmidt and Long.

In fact, early in the season, teams often loaded up against Long, whose reputation as a disruptor warranted the extra attention. That freed up Fitzgerald on the other side.

Now, the opposite is happening.

"I'm hoping toward the end of the season that teams will scheme more for me, and that's going to free him up even more," Fitzgerald said. "If I continue to play like I am and knowing what Chris is capable of, it's going to be hard for teams to scheme against us."


 

Running in place
Virginia has struggled to move the football on the ground
By Nathan Summers
The Daily Reflector
Thursday, October 05, 2006

Skip Holtz thinks Virginia's offensive line looks like one of the toughest his East Carolina team will see all season.

But given the stagnant production by the Cavaliers' inexperienced front five in two wins and three losses to start the season, and ECU's potential struggles to run against a tough UVa. front seven, Saturday's meeting could be like kite-flying on a calm day for both teams.

But ECU (1-3) will have a decided offensive edge in senior quarterback James Pinkney, who has a couple of years as a starter from which to draw in trying to blaze scoring trails against the Cavs, who have allowed 1,317 total yards (263.4 per game) to five different teams to date.

Pinkney's 1,046 passing yards to date suggest he'll be able to get some of his numerous receivers involved, whereas Virginia's offense appears to still be finding its way in both the passing and the rushing game.

For ECU's defense, Holtz is hoping UVa.'s superior size up front won't be intimidating.

"They're extremely young on the offensive line, but when you look at them, they're all 6-foot-6, 300 pounds — they're anywhere from 295 to 320 across the board," Holtz said of Virginia's two juniors, two sophomores and a freshman on the offensive front. "When they come into that stadium, we need to put up a big blind or a screen or something so we can't see them warm up."

Much like his analysis of his own team's early-season returns, Holtz feels like the UVa. offense, through which lead running back Jason Snelling has produced a meager 220 yards and three touchdowns in five games, has made a few game-changing mistakes.

In other words, he can sympathize with Virginia coach Al Groh who, like Holtz, is waiting for his front line to learn how to block on every run play and against every defensive front before the big plays start rolling in.

"They have good running backs, a very athletic quarterback, big, tall, rangy receivers that can go up and get the ball — they have all the tools to be a very talented offensive football team ... they're going through a growing period right now," Holtz said.

Virginia had given long, pondering looks to both junior quarterback Kevin McCabe (23-32 passing, 222 yards, 3 interceptions, 1 touchdown) and senior Christian Olsen (34-63, 270 yds., 2 int.) before settling on freshman Jameel Sewell, the most versatile and athletic of the bunch in Holtz's estimation.

That key position represents the basis for Groh's current dilemma. With the departure of two-year passer Marques Hagans and steam-rollers like D'Brickashaw Ferguson on the line, production has vanished quickly.

Sewell, listed at third on the preseason depth chart printed in the team's media guide, has compiled passing numbers identical to Olsen's and has added two touchdowns. After the Cavs bruised Duke last week 37-0, Sewell seems to be the man in charge of the UVa. offense.

"They're really starting to settle in on Sewell, and I think he's an excellent athlete," Holtz said. "You could almost start to see it coming together at Duke. He was much more settled, much more calm, much more poised in the pocket, and I'm sure he'll be even that much better this week.

"That's the great thing about playing young players, you get to see them mature, like we're watching our defense mature right now."