Memo to UVa: Run the football
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
October 6, 2006

Leave it to a pirate to steal from others.

Through four games, that has certainly been the case for East Carolina’s defense. The Pirates (1-3) enter Saturday’s showdown with Virginia (2-3) ranked among the national leaders in takeaways - only three teams, in fact, have forced more turnovers than ECU.

It has certainly grabbed Virginia coach Al Groh’s attention.

When asked this week about starting redshirt freshman Jameel Sewell at quarterback in a hostile environment, Groh shifted gears.

“There’s nobody sitting in those stands that’s going to intercept any passes, but there are quite a few guys in the coverage, particularly those four veteran guys in the secondary, who have caused quarterbacks a lot of difficulty,” Groh said. “We really haven’t addressed the crowd, but we heavily addressed the circumstance of the East Carolina ability to hawk the ball.”

East Carolina coach Skip Holtz has discussed his concerns with his defense since the start of the season, but those worries do not include his defensive backfield, a group that includes three seniors and a junior. Only nine of the 99 passes thrown by opposing signal-callers have netted more than 20 yards.

And, of course, who could forget those eight interceptions ECU has registered.

“Their secondary is very much a veteran secondary,” Groh said. “I think they had five [interceptions] against Memphis State, returned two for touchdowns. It’s very attention getting.

“It’s certainly something for us to be very alert to address, and, as we’ve been speaking here today, we do have a young quarterback, and [we must] make sure that he understands that people on the other side want to catch his passes as much as his guys do. And those kind of things usually whet a secondary’s appetite and they kind of get the fever, and when they get the fever, they want a few more.”

The Pirates’ secondary will matter very little if Virginia is able to run the ball, something it struggled doing until last weekend.

ECU is 11th in Conference USA and 111th in the nation in rush defense.

What Holtz wants to see is consistency.

“Our defense played well against West Virginia and did some very good things, but that doesn’t make you a very good defensive football team,” Holtz said, referring to the Pirates’ 27-10 loss to the Mountaineers. “What makes you a good defensive football team is when you can consistently do it week after week, and that’s the challenge that we have right now. We don’t want to be the one-hit wonder where we look back and say we had one good week against West Virginia.

“The reality is we still gave up 27 points, and that’s too many, especially against a defense that Virginia has that will be way too many. I’m excited about the defensive growth of this football team. A lot of the younger guys are starting to mature into their roles. We can still improve from where we are now.”

 

Another call for UVa hall
Roof gives Sewell favorable mark
Doug Doughty

This will be an abbreviated UVa Insider as I head off to a fundraiser for the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, but the day’s activities got me thinking.

(OK, it’s a captain’s choice golf tournament, but fundraiser sounds better).

Speaking of fundraising, have I ever said that the University of Virginia needs a sports hall of fame?

There’s a hall of champions room at Scott Stadium and large action portraits of ex-star football players on the Bryant Hall walls and now there will be a walk of fame at the new John Paul Jones Arena, but no department-wide hall of fame.

They seem to be dancing all around the floor but not in the middle.

It made me stop to wonder how many members of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame had UVa ties.

Here’s the list: Bill Dudley, Terry Holland, Henry Jordan, Buck Mayer, Lee McLaughlin, Joe Palumbo, Barry Parkhill, Sonny Randle, Eppa Rixey, Ralph Sampson, Tom Scott and Buzzy Wilkinson.

Lee McLaughlin was a three-year UVa letterman and captain of the 1940 team but he was best known as the coach at Washington and Lee before he was tragically electrocuted in the late 1960s.

(McLaughlin was also the great uncle of ink-stained South Boston sports editor Tucker McLaughlin, a familiar target on this site.).

What strikes me is the number of UVa football inductees -- Jordan, Palumbo, Scott and Randle -- who played during the ‘50s, an era not usually associated with great UVa football, although Scott played on three straight eight-win teams from 1950-52 and Palumbo on teams that won 23 games between 1949-51.

I didn’t watch UVa football during the ‘50s, but I do know that John Papit rushed for 3,238 yards between 1947-50 and held the UVa career rushing record for 42 years before it was broken by Terry Kirby in 1992.

Kirby’s record was broken, in turn, by Tiki Barber in 1996 and Thomas Jones in 1999.

Papit isn’t in the hall of fame. Neither is Jim Bakhtiar, who ranked among the nation’s top 10 rushers for three straight seasons (1955-57)..

IT’S INTERESTING with all of these hall of fames to note the people who haven’t been enshrined and compare them to some of the people who have.

It’s clear, in the case of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, that nobody gets in overnight.

Sampson is the only inductee with UVa connections who has actually played in the past 25 years.

Shawn Moore, whose last game as Virginia quarterback was in 1990, was the best UVa football player I ever saw. He’s not in the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. Neither is Herman Moore, who had a better NFL career than Shawn and once held the NFL record for receptions in a career.

I’ve got believe that Bryant Stith, a Virginian and the all-time scoring leader in UVa men’s basketball history, will get in some day. I don’t know how you could leave out Jeff Lamp, but when you look at all the people that aren’t in, you wonder when they get around to the Moores and the Stiths and the Lamps.

That doesn’t even take into account the Bruce Arenas of the world. Arena won five NCAA men’s soccer championships at Virginia but I don’t see how he goes in before George Welsh, who changed the face of Virginia football.

There’s one way to reward the deserving. Virginia needs to form it’s own all-purpose hall, but that would be too obvious.

LAST SATURDAY’S Duke-Virginia football game pitted two young quarterbacks, Virginia redshirt freshman Jameel Sewell and Duke “true” freshman Thaddeus Lewis, who may be seeing a lot of each other over the past two years.

Duke coach Ted Roof candidly discussed the aftereffects of Lewis’ head injury at Virginia Tech and how it may have eroded his confidence Saturday, when Sewell and the Cavaliers clearly had the upper hand in a 37-0 victory.

“I thought [Sewell] was very efficient,” Roof said. “When we started pressuring him, they were throwing a lot of three-step stuff and he was very efficient getting rid of the football. We got to him sometimes, just like they got to Thad, so there was some tradeoff there.

“I thought he did a good job of managing the game and moving their team.”
 

Doing unto others
U.Va. defensive back Hamilton is a hard hitter with a soft heart
JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Oct 6, 2006
VIRGINIA AT ECU
TOMORROW: 6 p.m. ON THE AIR: TV - CSTV; radio - WRVA (1140), 5

CHARLOTTESVILLE - At a moment when some athletes might have taunted, University of Virginia cornerback Marcus Hamilton consoled.

Hamilton and teammate Chris Gould stood over Aric Goodman and comforted Wyoming's distraught freshman kicker, whose missed extra-point in overtime had clinched Virginia's 13-12 victory on Sept. 9.

Hamilton is deeply religious, and his sense of compassion was evident again last Saturday. After his blindside hit on Thaddeus Lewis caused Duke's shellshocked freshman quarterback to throw a wobbly pass that was intercepted, Hamil- ton approached the dazed Lewis and offered words of encouragement.

"In competition, you want to win, you want to do good things, but you never want to hurt somebody or see somebody hurt," said the 5-11, 198-pound Hamilton, who made the all-ACC second team in 2005.

"That's not what the game is about. So in any situation, if I can help somebody out or pick somebody up, whether after I hit him or after he missed a kick, that's what I'm going to try to do."

At Centreville High, Hamilton's secondary coach was his father, Greg. The elder Hamilton wasn't surprised by his son's actions against Wyoming or Duke.

"He has a genuine concern for people," said Greg Hamilton, who played football at Boston University. "He doesn't have a mean streak in his body when it comes to that."

Hamilton, 22, earned his bachelor's degree in sociology last December - three-and-a-half years after enrolling at U.Va. - and is playing as a graduate student. He's more than a nice guy who practices the golden rule. He's a team captain and a player whom U.Va. coach Al Groh holds up as an example.

"When Marcus was a young player, he frustrated his coaches a little bit," Groh said. "They were looking for more diligence, more contact, more awareness. Now, if there's a young cornerback and we want to try to give him a good model, we say, 'See that guy over there? Just follow him around and see how he goes about getting ready.'"

Hamilton has 13 career interceptions, a total surpassed by only one active player in Division I-A - Utah's Eric Weddle. Hamilton had two picks last weekend against Duke, a performance that helped him earn ACC defensive back of the week honors.

Part of the heralded recruiting class that entered U.Va. in 2002, Hamilton saw his first action in the second game of that season. It didn't go well for the Cavaliers or Hamilton.

U.Va. lost 40-19 at Florida State. Hamilton suffered a knee injury that required arthroscopic surgery. He didn't play again that year and ended up taking a medical redshirt.

"Everything happens for a reason, and it's not my position to question what God's plan is for me," Hamilton said. "It gave me an opportunity to study film, study receivers and just know the defense a lot better than I would have had I had to be thrown in there."

A reserve in 2003, Hamilton won a starting job the next season. He later lost it, however, to true freshman Philip Brown. With his family's support, Hamilton persevered and, after intercepting two passes in a victory at Georgia Tech, reclaimed his spot on the first team late that season.

As a junior, Hamilton led the ACC with six interceptions. He's tied with Virginia Tech sophomore Victor "Macho" Harris for the conference lead this season - each has three picks - despite having missed a game with a shoulder injury that still requires him to wear a harness.

He's progressed markedly since arriving in Charlottesville. Early on, Groh said, Hamilton didn't "have a lot of genuine confidence in his ability to perform and would quickly lose confidence in himself. We worked as much on that as on physical skills."

Hamilton's confidence grew, and his work ethic improved.

Now, said Groh, who spent more than a decade on NFL coaching staffs, Hamilton "prepares like a pro. He keeps a spiral notebook on every player that he plays, makes his notes all week long from his film study. Those are all the things that, probably, the start-up corners on the team right now, they don't even sense that that's something that's out there to be done."

His son's rise to prominence has "been exciting to watch," Greg Hamilton said. "It's something I've always know he's had the potential to do."
 

Cavaliers look for second straight win away from home
Virginia travels to East Carolina to wrap up three-game road trip; will have to find a way to slow down versatile offense led by senior quarterback Pinkney
Barney Breen-Portnoy, Cavalier Daily Senior Associate Editor

The Cavaliers notched their first road win of the season last week with a 37-0 romp over Duke in Durham. Virginia coach Al Groh hopes that his squad can once again travel to the Tar Heel State and emerge with a victory. The Cavaliers are 3-5 under Groh on the road against non-conference opponents.

"We don't think much in terms of the environment whatsoever," Groh said. "If you do that, you are building in built-in reasons why you can't win. I don't hear business men going to a different city and saying, 'Just because I'm conducting a meeting in Pittsburgh instead of in Boston, I probably can't close the sale.'"

The Pirates are coached by Skip Holtz, the son of Lou Holtz, a legend who coached Notre Dame to its last national title in 1988. Skip Holtz was hired before the 2005 season to come to Greenville and turn around a program that had won a combined three games over the previous two years. East Carolina finished 5-6 in Holtz's first campaign.

The Pirates opened this season by losing two games on the road at Navy and UAB before coming home to beat Memphis. In their most recent performance two weeks ago, East Carolina hung tough at home against No. 4 West Virginia for a half before falling 27-10.

The Pirates use a spread offense that commonly features three and four wide receiver sets. East Carolina's passing offense is ranked third in Conference USA as the Pirates have averaged 268.8 yards through the air per game. Senior Aundre Allison leads East Carolina's receiving corps with 19 receptions for 264 yards and two touchdowns.

Running the offensive show for the Pirates will be senior James Pinkney. He has passed for more than 2,000 yards in each of the past two seasons and has also rushed for seven career touchdowns.

Virginia's defense, led by ACC defensive player of the week Marcus Hamilton, will have its hands full containing East Carolina's multi-faceted attack.

"It's going to be a tough task," Hamilton, who made two interceptions against Duke, said. "They do a lot of different things that we're going to have to defend. They have a lot of receivers who they can interchange that are very good, and their quarterback is very mobile, athletic, and he has a strong arm."

Defensively, East Carolina is strongest against the pass. The Pirates have the fourth-best pass defense in Conference USA (179.2 yards per game) while their rush defense is ranked 11th (second from last) as they have allowed 193.8 rushing yards per game.

East Carolina's defense picked off five passes during its 35-20 win over Memphis Sept. 16. For the season, the Pirates have eight interceptions.

Virginia quarterback Jameel Sewell, who will be making his third career start, will need to stay focused on making smart passes to negate East Carolina's proclivity to make interceptions.

"Their secondary is very much a veteran secondary," Groh said. "It's certainly something for us to be very alert to. We do have a young quarterback, and he needs to understand that there are people on the other side that want to catch his passes as much as his guys do."

 

ECU reaps benefits of Butler's choice
By Nathan Summers
Friday, October 06, 2006

Things could have gone either way for Matt Butler. He wasn't any different than hundreds of other kids around him in Rowan County.

Butler could have worked more on his swing, his raw speed for running the bases and the side-to-side agility it takes a corner infielder to explode on hard line drives. He could have polished his post moves, free throws and jump shot.

ECU offensive lineman Matt Butler has appeared in 254 plays thus far this season. Butler and the Pirates will play Virginia on Saturday at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

But ultimately he preferred the unified explosion of an offensive line trying to subdue swarms of defenders in sets of dozens of melees at a time.

The former baseball, basketball and football standout from Salisbury chose the latter of the three when it came to college pursuits, and his body was ready to follow along.

Now a junior starter on East Carolina's offensive line, the 6-foot-4, 309-pound Butler can more than fill the lane and could crowd the plate from the on-deck circle.

His primary goal these days is trying to flatten as many defensive linemen as he can reach on Saturdays. So far, Butler has slugged it out in 254 plays at guard this season for the Pirates, who will need his stability to generate progress in the running game.

"We're not doing a great job based on stats, but I think we're working together real well," said Butler, who cut his teeth at guard by subbing in for former Pirate mainstays such as Charlie Dempsey and Hagen Mason as a redshirt freshman in 2004. "I know last week didn't look too good against West Virginia (41 total rush yards for ECU), but they're a great team. Things are going to come together for us."

Things have improved. Although the line — which features first-year starters Josh Coffman, Tom Wingenbach and Terence Campbell — has not yet protected quarterback James Pinkney the way coach Skip Holtz wants it to, the Pirates have only allowed three sacks this season.

Virginia will throw a young but difficult front seven at the Pirates.

The Cavs will bookend freshman Jeffrey Fitzgerald and junior co-captain Chris Long around junior nose tackle Allen Billyk up front. Behind them, sophomores Clint Sintim, John Copper and Antonio Appleby join junior Jermaine Dias in a linebacker group that's rendered five previous rushing attacks to an average of 99.6 yards per game.

Copper leads the whole group with 39 tackles and three sacks, and Butler thinks this bunch will be even more physical than that of the Mountaineers in the box.

"This defensive line is a lot bigger than West Virginia's, a lot stronger, they're giving up like 2.2 yards per carry — what they're doing is incredible," Butler said.

Butler became an immediate starter after Holtz's arrival in December of 2004. Since then, the junior hasn't missed a start and now, along with senior tackle Eric Graham, is one of the team's most experienced players.

The elimination of mistakes is the goal now. Just like the guy manning baseball's hot corner, if things are going well in Butler's chosen athletic discipline, he won't be fielding too many balls either.

And even though offensive line success is a little less noticeable than offensive line failure, Butler thinks his unit's success will become more and more evident in the other facets of the Pirates' offense, especially as the young players come on.

"I've got a lot of respect for them because they've been put in a situation where they have to play, and they've done a good job," Butler said of the three newcomers.

Butler said he's constantly in the hunt for the only stat linemen collect during games — knockdown blocks. They are exactly what they sound like, blocks that either by cutting from below or pushing down from above land a defender flat on the turf.

The man with the most knockdowns each week gets a steak courtesy of line coach and offensive coordinator Steve Shankweiler. The hunt for that steak each week is something a first baseman or a power forward simply couldn't enjoy as much as a left guard.

"In high school, I weighed 220 pounds, didn't have a gut like I do now," said Butler. "I gained 80 pounds when I got to college. I wasn't fast enough to play defensive line in college. The only place to go was the O-line and get fat."