ECU favored vs. Cavs
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
October 7, 2006

Virginia has waited 31 years to get payback for the worst Homecoming loss in university history.

On Nov. 8, 1975, East Carolina ran for 642 yards, a total that still stands as a program-best mark, en route to a 61-10 thumping over a Cavalier team that finished 1-10.

Since every player in today’s game and even a few assistant coaches, such as UVa’s Anthony Poindexter, were not even born yet when ECU and Virginia clashed in ’75, tonight’s contest is far from a rivalry game.

The 6 p.m. showdown, however, is one of the most important of the season for both programs. ECU (1-3), is hoping to make a statement, both regionally and nationally, that the Pirates are returning to their old form. Virginia (2-3) must win four of its last seven to finish at .500 and have a shot at the postseason, but enters with added motivation from being a 6 ˝-point underdog.

“It is going to be that way,” said UVa wide receiver Deyon Williams. “All it is to us is adversity in our eyes.”

Fresh off his season debut in a 37-0 win at Duke, Williams is drawing confidence from past experiences. Virginia, he said, has played some of its best football during difficult times.

“We went through adversity last year in the bowl game,” said Williams, referring to the Cavaliers’ win over Minnesota in the Music City Bowl. “All the talk was about our coaches that had left and the players being suspended and all that stuff. You have to know how to overcome it and block all that stuff out.

“People can say we are losing by this amount of points all they want. All we can do is go out and prove them wrong.”

East Carolina looked as if it was going to prove the doubters wrong two weeks ago against No. 4 West Virginia. The Pirates and Mountaineers were tied after the opening quarter and the game remained up-for-grabs until WVU scored 10 unanswered points in the final quarter to register a 27-10 win.

Little has gone right for East Carolina since. A flu bug swept through the team ruining what should have been a prime time for a bye week. ECU coach Skip Holtz said scores of players were bothered by the illness and missed practice time.

“Guys are having a hard time keeping their weight up - that’s a nice way of saying it,” Holtz said. “They’re having a hard time keeping their food down.

“You’d like to be able to go into a game like this healthy ... but that’s part of football.”

Holtz said East Carolina’s toughest challenge will be the attacking Virginia defense, which leads the ACC in sacks and tackles for loss.

“We have our hands full this week,” Holtz said. “Virginia has done a nice job, especially as a defensive football team. I think they are extremely competitive and very strong.

“I think defensively they are extremely feisty up front with their front seven. Their linebackers are very active and their secondary is extremely complicated.”

Attacking that secondary could be harder if leading wide receiver Aundrae Allison is limited. The senior, who was named to the Biletnikoff Award Watch List, has a sprained left ankle.

ECU quarterback James Pinkney does have other options. The Pirates, in fact, boast six players averaging at least two receptions per game.

Virginia’s passing attack, as is its ground game, is a work in progress. Redshirt freshman Jameel Sewell, who will make his third start under center, was accurate against Duke despite the Cavaliers going to a conservative gameplan once they gained a 24-point halftime cushion.

Sewell said he progressed with the offense and has a better understanding of the playbook, but he is still longing for the day when opponents are forced to sit back in coverage against the Cavaliers.

“You don’t blitz a quarterback too much if you know that he can pick your defense apart,” Sewell said. “You try to put as much coverage as you can back there to help your DBs. With the linebackers, you leave your linebackers sitting in certain holes. I think that’s the way it will be if I can know my offense like the back of my hand.”

The self-acclaimed jokester said he would be all smiles when blitzes disappear.

“I’m gonna love it,” Sewell said. “It is going to be exciting because I am going to be back there with a whole lot of confidence, ready to just let the ball go, pick them apart like I know I can if I get my things down.”

For now, Sewell is just worried about bringing home another victory from a road game.

While officials from ECU’s athletic department expect one of the largest crowds in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium history today, UVa coach Al Groh is approaching it like any other game.

“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 think every time the coach stands up and says ‘Well, it’s a very hostile environment, it’s a tough place to play,’ he’s telling everybody that their expectations of winning are less than it would be under other circumstances.

“I don’t hear businessmen 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.’ It didn’t make any difference last week.”

 

Fitzgerald playing like a wily vet
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
October 7, 2006

When a team is chock-full of young talent, it’s only natural that, from time-to-time, some of them are going to catch your eye in the course of a season.

Such is the case at Virginia where we have spotted flashes of brilliance from a number of players that appear to have the potential for stardom somewhere down the road.

But the guy who is already there was perhaps one of the most unlikely suspects in the view of Wahoo fans, a guy we knew little about this time a year ago.

At 6-foot-3, 279 pounds, redshirt freshman Jeffrey Fitzgerald has only just begun to show what he can do at defensive end in UVa’s 3-4 scheme.

It’s only five games into his rookie campaign and Fitzgerald is already pillaging opposing offenses, creating havoc with enemy blocking assignments and protections.

You can easily spot him just overwhelming opponents and driving them into their backfields.

Already a leader

Just check out Fitzgerald’s statistical data after five games. Going into tonight’s game at East Carolina, the Cavalier freshman leads all ACC rookies in tackles per game. His average of 5.0 tackles a contest is third among all ACC defensive linemen regardless of class.

Fitzgerald’s eight tackles for loss are the fifth-highest ever for a UVa freshman (linebacker Darryl Blackstock holds the record with 14).

If that’s not enough, how about the fact that the big defensive end picked up a fumble and rumbled in for the touchdown last weekend at Duke?

Later, he took a tipped pass and pulled it in for his first career interception, which led to another Cavalier score.

Early roadblocks

Not too shabby for a guy who hadn’t played a football game in two years.

A pair of knee injuries had kept the Hermitage High School player off the field for most of his varsity career.

After playing his freshman season on the Panthers’ junior varsity squad, he suffered the first knee injury only three games into his sophomore year on varsity. After rehabbing, he played a healthy full-season his junior year and was so productive that recruiters came a knockin’.

He committed to Virginia in the summer heading into his senior season and all looked well.

A week prior to Hermitage’s season-opener, Fitzgerald went down with another knee injury during a scrimmage and his senior season was flushed.

“The first time my knee was injured, I was in a pile during a tackle and got hit on the side of my knee,” said the burly end. “The second time, I had planted and cut and turned the wrong way or something and it just popped. That second time, I didn’t even know it was an ACL.”

In fact, Fitzgerald felt that a simple surgery would quickly fix the problem the second go-round and he’d be back to playing a significant role sometime during his senior year. Never happened.

“Missing my senior year was very hard,” he remembered.

So was the inability to work off all the weight he gained from a somewhat, ahem, healthy diet he had been accustomed to during his high school days. Mama’s cooking would put it on and Jeffrey’s athletic play in football, basketball, baseball and track would keep it under control. That is until the second injury.

He finally made it back to participate in track and field his senior year, mostly to get his conditioning back.

What impressed him about UVa coach Al Groh and the Cavaliers was that they didn’t turn their back on him after the second knee injury. It’s not unusual for a school to drop a commitment like a hot potato once they suffer such an injury. Not the Wahoos.

“Virginia stuck with me strong throughout the process, so I knew I had made a good decision,” said Fitzgerald.

He admits the notion that Virginia might give up on him crossed his mind, but that never happened. Once he got to Charlottesville, he worked as hard as he could to prove to the coaches that they didn’t make a mistake.

Wisely, he was red-shirted and only practiced with the team last season. He dressed out for games but was clearly going to be held out until this season.

“That was important for me,” Fitzgerald said. “Coming in, I wanted to play because I had sat out a whole year previous to that, so I wanted to get out there and play. But getting my knees fully recuperated and learning this [3-4 system], and getting my wind and strength back was more important.”

Still, he was giving early indications that he was going to be a player. While the rest of us had to wait until this fall to find out just what kind of a player, Groh and his staff could see it coming. That’s why they aren’t as floored by the rookie’s success as we are.

“We always hope that’s going to happen with a young player, but it’s usually unrealistic to pin that kind of expectation on them,” Groh said of Fitzgerald’s early success. “He gave such an indication of [strong play] in the spring that it probably isn’t surprising [to the staff] that it has continued. What he showed last fall [in practice] on a weekly basis gave everybody the feeling that we could expect more than the normal first-year play from him.”

Groh said Virginia has several other young players currently being red-shirted that are exhibiting the same kind of talent that Fitzgerald did a year ago as they wait in the wings for their chance to contribute next season.

The big rookie’s knee finally recuperated toward the end of last year and was 100 percent healthy entering this season. Still, subconsciously, there were a lot of things going on when he began training camp and headed toward the opener at Pitt.

Just how would the knee hold up? What would it be like trying to get accustomed to the speed of the game and the physicality of play after all that time away from actual games?

He answered that quickly with six tackles (one for a loss) against Pitt as a starter. Against Wyoming the next week, he got his first sack and three tackles, had four QB pressures and caused a fumble.

He made a career-high eight tackles against Western Michigan and was named Groh’s defensive player of the week. At Georgia Tech he made four tackles in the backfield and sacked Reggie Ball.

Then came the Duke game, where he not only showed power but athletic ability, as he didn’t resemble your traditional defensive lineman when he got his mitts on the ball. Part of that was because he also played tight end in high school and caught plenty of passes. He also was part of a state championship basketball and baseball team at Hermitage.

Eventually, all this should benefit the entire defense and particularly bookend Chris Long, who anchors the other side of the line. Long often gets double-teamed and schemed against. He’s also often held by opponents who can’t handle his bull rush.

No wonder that Long is Fitz’s biggest fan.

“He’s something,” said Long. “He absorbs everything he learns out there in practice. He really listens to coaches and then puts that knowledge to use.”

In a way, Fitzgerald was a Wahoo long before the school began to recruit him. His older brother, Justin (a wide receiver at Ohio University), was best friends with current UVa senior Fontel Mines. So, the brothers would come to Charlottesville to visit Mines and got to know all the other Cavaliers. When recruiting time rolled around, UVa was an easy sell.

Now that he’s here and making a significant impact as a freshman, what does the big man make of his overnight success?

“It’s all been good, but I’d trade it all for wins,” Fitzgerald said. “I feel like I can do a lot better.”

Note to UVa’s future opponents: You’ve been warned.
 

Snelling hitting his stride
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
October 7, 2006

At the time, they looked like two simple running plays.

Jason Snelling took the football on back-to-back handoffs from quarterback Jameel Sewell and burst through open holes on the left side of the offensive line.

The first went for 23 yards, while the latter covered 27 yards (the two longest rushing plays of the season). Not bad for a team that rushed for only 51 yards against Georgia Tech in the conference opener.

Amazingly, Snelling said he believes it was the same play.

“We have always had success against Duke with the force,” Snelling said referring to the play. “That’s been kind of a bread-and-butter play for UVa in the running game. We wanted to get back to it. We knew if we executed like we had in the past we would have success. It was working, so Coach stuck with it.”

Positive comments about Snelling and the running game have been few and far between. The senior has gained 220 yards on the ground, but 92 of those came last week against Duke. Entering today’s contest at East Carolina, Virginia ranks ahead of only three other teams - Temple, Duke and Baylor - in rushing offense nationally.

Snelling said he and his teammates have tried to remain positive.

“It was frustrating, not personally, just as a team because it was a part of why our offense was struggling,” Snelling said. “It wasn’t embarrassing because I know everybody on our team was trying and working hard. We just weren’t as productive as we’ve been in the past.

“We never really got down on ourselves and we just keep on working to get better, and we proved it last week [against Duke].”

Snelling, a converted fullback, said he benefited from getting a full workload - he had season-high 18 carries.

“I have never been a slasher and a back that is going to break long runs,” Snelling said. “I am more of a play-by-play [running back] and so getting the ball, I am able to get in rhythm and wear the defense down.”

 

6 Burning Questions
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
October 7, 2006

Will East Carolina have enough bodies to field a team?

Of course they will, but with 29 names in the injury report at the beginning of the week, the question had to be asked. What ECU coach Skip Holtz called a “flu bug” was the biggest culprit, leaving a number of players sluggish during preparations for Virginia.
“Hopefully it’s a 24-hour bug and it will get in and out of their system,” Holtz said. “They lose their weight and lose their strength. I think they will be fine by gametime, but I worry about the interrupted preparation for the game.”
Injuries have also slowed wideout Aundrae Allison (ankle) and tailback Chris Johnson (turf toe), and while both are slated to come off the bench, they are expected to play.

Can either defense stop the ground game?

Better yet, can either offensive unit run the football. ECU has only 22 first downs this year by virtue of a running play.
Does that number sound familiar? It should. UVa has an identical number of first downs on the ground and the Cavaliers have played an extra game.
Virginia senior Jason Snelling did get on track last week against Duke and received praise from Groh. Snelling’s ability to put up gaudy numbers rushing the ball will only come to fruition if he has holes to run through.
It sounds like a broken record, but the pressure is on sophomore Branden Albert and the other members of the Cavs’ offensive line to show further improvement.

Can Virginia build off its 37-0 shellacking of Duke?

Duke is Duke. East Carolina is not Duke, but the Pirates were picked last in Conference USA’s East Division by the league’s coaches.
Virginia did lots of things right against Duke - the Cavaliers played great defense, forcing four turnovers, and they even mixed in a trick play on offense. And the spirits were definitely lifted around the program.
“The players have something to build on now,” UVa coach Al Groh said after snapping a two-game losing streak. “This wasn’t for the national championship. We have a lot of work to do. But for right now, they certainly have something they can feel positive about.”
A winning streak might go even further.

Can Virginia find a way to keep its defense off the field?

The Cavaliers have struggled with time of possession for most of the season.
Many think the stat is overrated. Regardless, UVa must find a way to give its defense a break.
That comes from avoiding three-and-outs on offense, something redshirt freshman Jameel Sewell knows he and his offensive counterparts need to improve upon.

Is Virginia’s secondary up to the challenge presented by ECU’s spread offense?

They had better be. East Carolina quarterback James Pinkney will pick them apart if not. Pinkney, a senior, has completed passes to 11 different targets and it is not uncommon for the Pirates to put the signal-caller in shotgun formation and line up five wide receivers.
For the season, East Carolina has four receivers averaging at least 13.9 yards per reception.
“Offensively they are primarily a spread-out team, primarily three- and four-wide receiver formations,” Groh said of his opponent. “[ECU has] a high percentage of intermediate and vertical passing, much more so than you probably see on a week-to-week basis.
“They throw a lot of vertical routes and they have good speed to do it.”
Aundrae Allison is the best of the bunch, when healthy. Just ask Wake Forest and Duke. Last year, Allison torched the ACC teams for 18 receptions, 321 yards and three touchdowns.

What would an early lead do for Virginia?

Besides sending shockwaves through Wahoo Nation, it would allow the Cavaliers to relax. Playing with a lead has not been a luxury for most of the season.
With a lead at Duke last week, Virginia offensive coordinator Mike Groh was able to play things closer to the vest, forcing the opposition to play catch-up.
Also, East Carolina has not proven it has the ability to come back from deficits. Since 2002, the Pirates have lost 33 of the 37 games in which they trailed at halftime.

 

Wahoo Memories
By Drew Hansen / Daily Progress staff writer
October 7, 2006

TOM BURNS

AGE: 34

HOMETOWN: Clinton, Md.

PLAYING WEIGHT: 231 pounds in 1993.

CURRENT WEIGHT: 255 pounds “and a different build,” Burns said.

HEIGHT: 6-foot-2

PERSONAL: Married to wife Robin for seven years with two daughters - Grace Elizabeth, 2, and Mary Catherine, 7 months.

CURRENT OCCUPATION: Burns is a nuclear engineer with Parsons Corporation. He helps oversee the clean-up and treatment of nuclear waste at the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Reservation at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C.
Burns had previously held a position in the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, an independent federal agency that provides safety oversight of the nuclear weapons complex operated by the DOE.

WHILE AT UVA: A third-team All-ACC selection at linebacker as a senior, Burns finished third on the Cavaliers in 1993 with 90 tackles.
He lettered three times and totaled 200 tackles in 33 games during four seasons with the team.
Burns earned greater recognition through his performance as a scholar-athlete, becoming a GTE first-team Academic All-American and an ACC All-Academic football team selection in 1992 and ‘93. Burns was named to the ACC Honor Roll in each of his four years as a football player.
Burns received numerous student-athlete awards and was named the nation’s outstanding scholar-athlete by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame in ‘93. Burns became one of the select students to live on UVa’s prestigious Lawn during the 1993-94 academic year, staying in room number 43 - the same as his jersey number with the Cavaliers.

SINCE LEAVING VIRGINIA: Burns thought he had another year of eligibility to play for the Cavs in 1994, but, in his words “an esoteric clause in the NCAA rulebook about medical redshirts prevented me from coming back. I decided the best course was just to finish my coursework.”
Burns earned a postgraduate scholarship from the NCAA following his playing career and received his joint bachelor’s-master’s degree in 1995. He finished his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering at UVa in 1998.

ON BALANCING A DEMANDING MAJOR WITH FOOTBALL: “The main thing was efficient time management. There was very little time to be screwing around. I gave myself Saturdays after games to fool around and then it was back [to work] on Sunday.”

FAVORITE CAVALIER MEMORY: “Probably beating Clemson for the first time in school history when I was a freshman.”
WORST CAVALIER MEMORY: “The [52-14] loss to Virginia Tech [in 2005]. … I absolutely loathe Virginia Tech and it was certainly one of the worst beatings in my memory.”

 

U.Va. seeks road success
ECU's spread offense worries Groh; so does pressure from blitzers
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Oct 7, 2006

A three-game homestand looms for the University of Virginia football team, which generally is tough to beat at Scott Stadium. First, however, U.Va. must tackle its third consecutive road game.

The Cavaliers, who last played in Charlottesville on Sept. 16, have traveled since then to Atlanta, to Durham, N.C., and, now, to Greenville, N.C., Virginia (2-3) meets Conference USA member East Carolina (1-3) today at 6 p.m. at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

The Pirates' record notwithstanding, they're favored by 6˝ points, in part because U.Va. is 10-20 on the road in six seasons under coach Al Groh. Virginia has won back-to-back road games only once during his tenure, in 2002.

"I don't know why we haven't been [better]," said senior cornerback Marcus Hamilton. "We just haven't gotten the job done on the road."

ECU hasn't played since losing 27-10 to unbeaten West Virginia two weeks ago in Greenville. Virginia, which lost 24-7 at Georgia Tech on Sept. 21, demolished winless Duke 37-0 last weekend.

"We know the competition [at ECU] is going to be much more challenging," Groh said, "so we're really interested to see if we're moving along or if that was just a one-week wonder."

Today's game will mark the third start for U.Va. quarterback Jameel Sewell, a redshirt fresh- man from Hermitage High. Sewell has looked increasingly comfortable since taking over the offense, but his coach says it's too early to accurately assess the 6-4, 219-pound left-hander's improvement.

"And if it goes the same as it does for most quarterbacks on every level," Groh said, "there very well could be a 24-for-30 day coming up here, followed by an 11-for-30 day."

Against Virginia's senior-less offensive line, Duke blitzed repeatedly and sacked Sewell five times. For the season, the Cavaliers have allowed 13 sacks, and Groh expects to see more pressure tonight.

"With a lot of what teams do, there's an element of copycat to everything," he said, "and until you can prove that you can not just block it, but exploit it on an ongoing basis," the blitzing will continue.

That strategy may not work as well for ECU, even against U.Va.'s inexperienced line. The Pirates have recorded only three sacks this season.

"Well, we hope that that's the case after this game, too," Groh said. "I'm sure they're probably feeling that this is the week to upgrade their total. Under our circumstances, we see every pass-rusher as a tremendous threat to us."

ECU's spread offense concerns the Wahoos, too. Unlike U.Va., East Carolina has a veteran at quarterback: James Pinkney, a 6-3, 220-pound senior who's in his third year as a full-time starter.

Pinkney averages 261.5 yards passing and also is a dangerous runner. His top receiver, senior Aundre Allison, has 19 catches for 264 yards and two touchdowns. Pinkney's blockers include fullback Patrick Dosh, a Benedictine High graduate who began his college career, at Florida, as a quarterback.

The Pirates average 366.2 yards of total offense, compared to 218.8 for U.Va.

"Their quarterback is very strong and mobile [and] can scramble and move out of the pocket," Hamilton said, "which can cause us problems if he gets outside the pocket. So we've got to contain him and not let him run free."

To win tonight, U.Va. probably will need another stout performance from its defense. The Cavaliers rank fourth among ACC teams in total defense, despite having allowed four touchdown passes of 58 yards or longer. They've been credited with 17 sacks by the ACC, a total only Wake Forest (17) can match in the conference.

"We've given up a couple big plays on the back end this year, which is disappointing, but if you take those away, it's hard for teams to drive on us," said Hamilton, who's tied for the ACC lead with three interceptions. "We've just got to stop the big play, and if we can do that, we'll be all right."

 

Randle's memories of '75 ECU game vivid
The former Cavs coach says there were too many moments like that during his UVa tenure.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

In the 31 years that have elapsed since the first East Carolina-Virginia game, the postgame scene from the 1975 meeting between the teams has become no less surreal.

As then-UVa coach Sonny Randle was meeting with reporters after a 61-10 loss at Scott Stadium, he was alternately heckled by Virginia and East Carolina fans.

Then, there was a third group, made up of former East Carolina players, who were heckling the hecklers.

"I love East Carolina more than anything in the world," said former ECU running back Carlester Crumpler, the father of current Atlanta Falcons tight end Alge Crumpler, "but when our fans started yelling ['beat on Sonny'], I wanted to take every one of them.

"Don't think I was cheering against him. I love him."

Randle had been the head coach at East Carolina for three years, compiling a 20-12 record, before returning to his alma mater and taking over Virginia's program in 1974.

He lasted only two years in Charlottesville, losing his last nine games before he was fired in November 1975.

The East Carolina game marked only the second time in UVa football history that a Cavaliers opponent had scored more than 60 points at Scott Stadium. The first had come two weeks earlier in a 66-21 loss to Wake Forest.

"I remember it like it was yesterday," said Randle of the 1975 East Carolina game and its aftermath. "It was pretty obvious that our people were going to stick it in my ear and show me how important I was.

"We didn't play even a little bit and East Carolina just absolutely annihilated us. But, I'm convinced that our players -- or, some of them -- were trying to send a statement of 'we don't care for you and we're going to show you out here this afternoon and let your old team just kill us.'

"I don't think there's any question about it. I just felt like, 'Hey, you just told me all I needed to know.' "

Randle has returned to Scott Stadium since that season. In fact, he did commentary on the ESPN360 broadcast of the recent UVa-Western Michigan game, but he keeps his distance.

"If I wasn't in the broadcast business, I wouldn't go back there," Randle said. "I'm just not comfortable there. I'm just embarrassed by the job I did at Virginia. I let myself down, my coaching staff, the fans, the players. Everybody. I'm very, very uncomfortable going back there."

And, that's unfortunate, according to current Virginia coach Al Groh.

Randle recently provided commentary for two UVa games, including the Westwood One broadcast of the Thursday night game between Virginia and Georgia Tech in Atlanta. To brush up on the Cavaliers, Randle asked Groh if he could stop by a Virginia practice.

"He and Tom Scott were there," Groh said. "I called the players together at one point and said, "I'd like you to meet two of the best players ever to play here.' I might have even gone overboard a little to make them feel welcome, but they can be proud of their legacy."

Scott, a two-way end on Virginia teams that went 24-5 from 1950-52, played 12 years in the NFL and is a member of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. So is Randle, who spent 11 years in the NFL and played in four Pro Bowls.

"It's probably nothing that anybody said or did," said Groh of Randle's discomfort. "It's just the way it is. When we lose a game, I don't want to be seen, as silly as that sounds. When I go to mass on Sundays and we've lost, I don't wear bright collars. I stand in the back.

"Nobody ever says, 'You screwed it up,' but that's the way I feel. I'm letting on more about myself than I probably should, but I don't even go by 7-Eleven for coffee the day after we lose. I brew it in here myself."

Randle, who turned 70 in January, was a college head coach for 10 years. The last five were at Marshall, where he was 12-42-1.

"I was the assistant coach at East Carolina for one year [1970] and then I was the head man," Randle said. "I didn't know what you had to do or what you had to have. I thought it was me. I was just dead wrong. You had to have players."

Randle, who makes his home in the Harrisonburg area, did commentary on Marshall's regional TV network after his departure as head coach and has furnished the "Sonny Randle Sports Minute" to Virginia radio stations for more than two decades.

He will be doing radio commentary for next Thursday's Virginia Tech-Boston College game, but today he will be headed to Winston-Salem, N.C., where he has a sideline pass for the Wake Forest-Clemson game. Jim Grobe, the Deacons' coach, played for Randle at UVa,

He'll also have an ear out for updates from the Virginia-ECU game.

"I'm totally shocked that East Carolina is a [six]-point favorite," Randle said. "There's no question in my mind that Virginia wins that game. Virginia has better talent than East Carolina."

Randle never wanted anything as much as he wanted to succeed at UVa. He had the same mind-set as Groh, who voluntarily left his position as head coach of the New York Jets in order to return to UVa, where he played from 1962-65.

There is no shortage of people ready to welcome Randle back into the UVa family, "but it won't change the way I feel about myself and I mean that sincerely," Randle said.

Let it go? He can't.

"I don't blame another soul for what happened at Virginia," he said. "I did myself in. I screwed up on the field, off the field, everywhere you can screw up. I'll take that to my grave."
 

Powell could play for Tech or UVa
Syracuse gets Centreville sleeper
Doug Doughty

Given their respective problems along the offensive line, Virginia Tech and Virginia should be kicking themselves for their failure to recruit Robbie Powell.

Powell, a 6-foot-5, 297-pound junior from Roanoke’s Cave Spring High School, has started every game at center this year for Purdue (4-1) after starting every game at left guard last year.

Neither Tech nor Virginia recruited Powell out of Cave Spring, nor did they recruit him one year later after a postgraduate season at Fork Union Military Academy.

“I felt so bad for Robbie after our combine [in December 2002] and remember how distraught he was,” Fork Union coach John Shuman said Friday. “Tech wouldn’t talk to him, Virginia wouldn’t talk to him, North Carolina wouldn’t talk to him.”

It’s easy to see why Powell wouldn’t have gotten much attention at Cave Spring. He moved to Roanoke before his senior year in high school and, by then, most Division I-A schools have offers on the table.

Football offers are extended earlier and earlier every year and it’s a rare player who gets scouted as a senior if he has not previously appeared on a school’s recruiting list.

SHUMAN, WHO WAS off Friday after playing at Virginia Tech earlier in the week, says that 2005 Timesland offensive player of the year Dwayne Priest from William Fleming “has been our only offensive weapon … he’s been great.”

Recruiting-wise, Priest “has a lot of great things happening right now,” Shuman added. Shuman sees Priest, who could play running back or safety, going to a school in the Mid-American Conference and says that Division I-A Buffalo would take him now.

Shuman also says that 6-4, 225-pound former Cave Spring quarterback Danny Aiken is “coming on” as a tight end and defensive end and Shuman could see him at a Vanderbilt or Tulane.

A third Roanoke Valley product, ex-Fleming linebacker Aaron Webb, “has been making some plays” Shuman said.

Shuman recently called Virginia to say he had three offensive linemen in the 6-6, 280 range and, to the Cavaliers’ credit, assistant Anthony Poindexter was dispatched to Fluvanna County.

Poindexter was particularly intrigued by Antonio Costanza, a 6-6 ˝, 258-pound offensive tackle from Lake Forest, Ill., who was a 4.4 student in high school. Costanza is not related to the former assistant to the traveling secretary of the New York Yankees.

THE WORD I got from Virginia Tech’s junior varsity game Monday with Fork Union Military Academy is that sophomore quarterback-turned-wide receiver Cory Holt declined an opportunity to play in the game.

A player may participate in a total of 12 regular-season games, which is why running back Kenny Lewis Jr. played in two junior-varsity games this week despite earlier playing in a varsity game.

Lewis, once a candidate for a redshirt year, had played in only one of Tech’s first five varsity games. He actually could have played in four JV games, but Tech only plays two JV games, against Fork Union and Hargrave in a five-day span this week while the varsity was open.

Lewis’ 1-yard run with 1:07 left lifted Tech past a Hargrave team that includes 2006 Hokies signee and would-be future Hokie Ladi Ajiboye.

As for Holt, nobody would be surprised if he re-evaluated his status after the 2006 season. If he wants to play quarterback, it’s probably not going to happen at Tech, where the arrival of Tyrod Taylor will add to an already competitive situation with current starter Sean Glennon and Ike Whitaker.

If he doesn’t want to sit out a year, Division I-AA would be the obvious best option.

AN INTERESTING NOTE from the Hargrave-Tech JV game was the line for Hargrave quarterback Jamie Childers, who was 0-for-3 and was intercepted twice. Coach Robert Prunty said in the preseason that he had not seen a quarterback with as much promise as Childers, a 6-5, 220-pounder.

On its website, Hargrave has a list of the top 50 prep-school players in the country, as rated by rivals.com. Twenty-three of those players are from Hargrave, headed by No. 2 Brent Vinson, a wide receiver headed from Phoebus High School who is headed to Tennessee.

Ajiboye is the No. 7 player on that list, while three players who have made commitments to Virginia – safety Ras-I Dowling, linebacker Almondo Sewell and offensive lineman Billy Cuffee – are Nos. 8, 30 and 35.

Childers is 37th.

A CHECK OF THE virginiapreps website Friday revealed (to me) that Syracuse has taken a commitment from Van Chew, a 6-foot, 150-pound wide receiver from Centreville High School in Fairfax County.

I must admit, I had never heard of Van Chew.

A virginiapreps blurb also reminded me that Virginia has made an offer to Westfield junior quarterback Mike Glennon, the 6-6 younger brother of Virginia Tech quarterback Sean Glennon.

Could the offer to the younger Glennon be a sign of any regret at UVa’s decision to offer a scholarship to current No. 4 signalcaller Scott Deke and not Sean Glennon in 2003? The older Glennon already has two 300-yard passing days this season for the Hokies.

If Tech wants the younger Glennon, it would have to be the frontrunner, but, with the arrival of Taylor, there might be other I-A schools where the younger Glennon could play sooner. He also has a sister at Tech.

ACCORDING TO A RECENT report by Mike Farrell on rivals.com, Gar-Field has suited up an African exchange student, 5-11, 175-pound senior Leons Kabongo, who had 26 tackles in a recent game. Kabongo is in his second year of football.

Tennessee is seen as the team to beat for Gar-Field’s top prospect, quarterback Savion Frazier, who is rated the No. 22 prospect in Virginia by The Roanoke Times. Frazier is being recruited as an all-purpose player.

SERVICEMAN MATT WARING thinks he may have uncovered a destination for 2006 Edison High School wide receiver Justin Smith, the last of the state’s 2005 top 100 football prospects to be unaccounted for.

Waring pointed out that there is a Justin Smith, a freshman wide receiver from Alexandria, on the football roster at Division II St. Augustine’s in Raleigh, N.C. Our crack Notebook Plus research team will continue to investigate that.

A TRIP TO EAST CAROLINA, the first in my 32 years at The Roanoke Times, has prompted me to start another round of list-taking.

Of the 119 colleges that play Division I-A football, East Carolina is the 58th that I’ve “visited,” 35 for football games, 20 or so for basketball only and another 2-3 for miscellaneous reasons.

At 263 miles from Roanoke, East Carolina is the closest of the 52 Division I-A schools I had never seen, with Middle Tennessee State, in Murfreesboro, next at 370.
 

U.Va. getting defensive boost from young guns
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© October 7, 2006

Nate Collins played a little nose tackle in high school.

He recalls his coach's instructions going something like this: "Nate, run him over and grab the quarterback."

In the small Connecticut private school league in which Collins played, it was sometimes that simple. Collins' school, King & Low-Heywood Thomas, in Stamford, often suited up just 30 players. The team rarely had enough bodies to conduct a full practice, and Collins filled in wherever he was needed.

"I think the only position I didn't play in high school was defensive back," he said.

Meanwhile, down at Richmond's Hermitage High, Jeffrey Fitzgerald was barely playing at all. It's not that Fitzgerald wasn't capable. He missed most of his sophomore and all of his senior year with torn knee ligaments.

As Virginia travels to face East Carolina today, Fitzgerald and Collins have emerged as two of the most promising players on an improved defense, a couple of non-traditional recruiting stories who have surprised many with their strong starts.

Fitzgerald, a redshirt freshman defensive end, leads all ACC rookies in tackles with 25. He's made eight tackles for loss, been in on three sacks, has returned a fumble for a score and intercepted a pass.

Collins is the only true freshman on the team to have played. Backing up nose tackle Andrew Billyk, he's made seven tackles in 59 plays, three for losses, and has one sack. He's also on the kickoff coverage team, at 280 pounds.

"I'm glad to be playing next to him," Collins said of Fitzgerald. "It's great to think we'll have four years together."

Fitzgerald had not played in a game in two years when he made his college debut against Pittsburgh. He tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in a scrimmage before his senior year at Hermitage and missed the season. He spent 2005 as a redshirt, working back into football shape and learning the system.

Fitzgerald had torn the ACL in his left knee his sophomore year. He caught Virginia's attention after making second-team All-State his junior year. He committed to the Cavaliers in September 2004. A few days later, he tore his ACL.

Committing early proved to be a smart move. Fitzgerald's not sure where he'd be if he'd entered his senior year without a scholarship offer. Knowing he had one waiting motivated him during a long rehabilitation process.

"I never thought I'd never play again," he said. "The second time, I didn't even know it was an ACL until I got out of surgery."

After a stellar spring practice in 2006, Fitzgerald was named the team's most improved player. Still, after two years away from live action, he had his doubts when he finally got back on the field.

"I expected the worst," he said. "Like, 'This is going to be so fast and very physical.' It is fast and physical, but as not as bad as I expected. I believe I've adapted well."

To put it mildly. Fitzgerald made six tackles against Pittsburgh, then followed up by forcing a fumble against Wyoming a week later. He had eight tackles and a sack against Western Michigan, three tackles for loss and a sack against Georgia Tech and a huge performance against Duke, with the fumble return for a TD and the interception.

At 6-foot-3 and 279 pounds, Fitzgerald is lean and strong and runs well for his size. But it's not just his physical ability that has set him apart.

"He's very aware, he's very alert and he makes progress every day," U.Va. coach Al Groh said. "Things really register with him."

Fitzgerald said he's benefited from playing opposite fellow end Chris Long, who gets a lot of attention from blockers. Fitzgerald is hoping he can return the favor.

"I'm hoping toward the end of the season, teams will scheme against me, and that's going to free him up," he said.

As a nose tackle, Collins' job is to free up others to make tackles. After taking turns at defensive end, Collins settled in at the position early in preseason practice.

"I really didn't know where I was going to play," he said.

He played everything from quarterback to linebacker at King & Low-Heywood Thomas, which had 125 boys in grades 9-12. It made for hectic practices.

"I was constantly doing something," he said. "I had never had time to stop, sit back, and learn."

Former U.Va. assistant Mark D'Onofrio met Collins on a recruiting swing through greater New York and invited Collins to Virginia's camp. Two days after camp ended, he was offered a scholarship.

Collins impressed coaches by running 40 yards in 4.76 seconds at the camp, exceptionally quick for a player his size. Though Boston College and Connecticut began recruiting him, he stuck to his commitment.

Collins arrived at Virginia as one of the least-touted members of the class of 2006. But he quickly stood out.

"He never stopped running. He was always moving," Fitzgerald said. "That's really how he got his look. I believe the coaches really wanted to redshirt the entire class, but he really stood out with his motor and his playmaking ability."

Collins told himself that if he made mistakes, he'd make aggressive ones.

"I was just going to fly around," he said. "I wanted coaches to say, 'He doesn't know what he's doing, but he's making plays.' "

Collins eventually figured out what he was doing. Thrown in at nose tackle, arguably the most physically demanding position in Virginia's 3-4, Collins has shown signs of becoming a playmaker.

"I feel like I'm a quick guy for someone my size," he said.

And, like his line mate Fitzgerald, a quick learner as well.

 

U.Va. redshirt makes solid recovery
After two knee injuries, redshirt defensive end Jeffrey Fitzgerald has shined for the Cavaliers.
BY DARRYL SLATER
247-4641
October 7, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- The world smiled on Jeffrey Fitzgerald that first week of September 2004.

He revealed his college-football destination: Virginia.

He pondered the promise of his upcoming senior year, a season in which he'd build off an impressive junior year at Hermitage High in Richmond and finally bury the nightmares of blowing out his right knee as a sophomore.

A few days after he told everyone he'd attend Virginia, Fitzgerald took the field for a preseason scrimmage. On one play, he planted, turned his body and tore the meniscus in his left knee. Or so he thought.

Surgery showed something more serious: a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Senior year over. College career in doubt. He worried for a moment that Virginia would pull its scholarship offer.

That didn't happen. And two years after promise turned to devastation, Fitzgerald's career has reversed course.

A redshirt freshman, he'll start at defensive end at 6 p.m. today, when Virginia plays East Carolina at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. He leads the Cavaliers with eight tackles for a loss. Last week at Duke, he intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble for a touchdown.

All the more impressive, considering Fitzgerald played a little more than a year of varsity high school football. He played three games as a sophomore before tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, then played all of his junior season. Plus, the 6-foot-3 Fitzgerald weighs about 275 pounds - a tad light for Virginia's 3-4 defense, which has featured 290-pound ends.

Fitzgerald arrived in Charlottesville a year ago. He weighed 265 and knew he played less during high school than Virginia's other true freshmen. Knew Virginia could've yanked its scholarship offer.

"I just knew I couldn't feel as if I'm at a disadvantage," he said. "I just had to prove to them that it wasn't a mistake."

He redshirted last season and focused on learning Virginia's defense, in which linemen have more responsibilities than they do in high school. He watched ends Chris Long and Brennan Schmidt and took notes. "I'm more of a visual learner," Fitzgerald said.

Learn he did. During spring practices, he surpassed sophomore Alex Field in the competition to replace Schmidt. Virginia coach Al Groh said Fitzgerald's ability to translate practice lessons into game production is as much of a skill as muscling past offensive linemen.

"He's a low-maintenance guy," Long said. "The only conversations me and him had about football (technique) are probably in (preseason) camp: 'This is your position if you want it. It's yours. Don't screw it up.' "

So far, he hasn't. He has capitalized on opponents paying more attention to Long and utilized first-year defensive coordinator Mike London's more aggressive blitzing schemes. Fitzgerald has three sacks. (Take away the three interceptions that opponents have run back for touchdowns, and Virginia is allowing 14 points per game.)

"There's no time to be a so-called freshman out there," Fitzgerald said.

He feels no lingering affects from his knee injuries but is sometimes wary with players diving at his legs. "I try to be cautious with it," he said. "I try to just protect myself."

Virginia seeks second straight road victory
By Andy Bitter
Lynchburg News & Advance
October 7, 2006

There are few things Virginia coach Al Groh dismisses quicker in the game of football than the notion of momentum.
Big plays don't lead to more big plays. A surge before halftime doesn't carry over to the next half. And winning one game in no way affects how you'll play in the next game.

Still, the Cavaliers (2-3), who travel to East Carolina this evening, couldn't help but have some extra spring in their step at practice this week after snapping a two-game losing streak with a win over Duke.

"It's hard to deny that it's easier to come in after a victory than it is after a loss," tight end Tom Santi said.

"You always notice it," Groh said. "I'm sure people can notice it in me. That's our payback for everything that we do."

Now for the hard part: the encore. Groh hasn't had much success with it on the road in his time at Virginia. The last time the Cavaliers won back-to-back road games was 2002, when they beat Wake Forest and Duke in consecutive weeks.

The time before that? 1994.

At the very least, the Cavaliers enter today's game confident. A 37-0 win will do that for most teams, even if the opponent was Duke.

"I don't know if it's a complete turnaround because one game doesn't determine a season," Santi said. "But we did a lot of things that can help us win in this league."

Virginia turned in a dominating defensive performance, showed a solid effort on all of its special teams and, most importantly, ran the ball better than it has all season.

The Cavaliers ran for 106 yards, the first time they've topped the century mark all season, and it came against a Duke rushing defense that ranks 26th nationally.

But Virginia's rushing totals were slightly skewed by the negative-29 rushing yards attributed to quarterback Jameel Sewell, who was sacked five times. The tailbacks - Jason Snelling, Mikell Simpson and Cedric Peerman - averaged 4.3 yards a carry.

UVa did it by getting back to its roots, pulling linemen and getting to the perimeter like it did during Elton Brown's time a few years back.

"Beginning last week, Coach Groh really said we're going back to the old school Virginia perimeter game," right tackle Will Barker said.

Barker said the Cavaliers spent Monday's practice prior to the Duke game running strictly perimeter plays. It showed once the game started.

On consecutive plays in the third quarter, Snelling ran to the outside on the left, behind left tackle Eugene Monroe and left guard Branden Albert, and reeled off runs of 23 and 27 yards.

"They were extremely aggressive," Sewell said of the offensive line.

"There was a big difference from the last game to (the Duke) game."

Monroe's play was encouraging. The sophomore, who lost his starting job to Zak Stair before the Georgia Tech game, had looked a step slow for most of the season, possibly still bothered by offseason surgery for a dislocated kneecap.

In fact, Groh was concerned about how Monroe was running during the middle of last week, even telling offensive line coach Dave Borbely to pay particular attention to it.

"I thought just the opposite (Monday) when we were doing the conditioning after practice," Groh said, "that this is the most ease with which we've seen him run in quite some time."


 

ECU ready for UVa.'s mixed bag
By Joe Johnson
SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL

Coach Skip Holtz says that East Carolina will have to be ready for anything today when it plays Virginia.

ECU got a steady dose of base defenses from West Virginia in its last game two weeks ago and expects a smorgasbord of alignments and secondary coverages from Virginia (2-3).

"We have our hands full," Holtz said. "Virginia has done a nice job, especially as a defensive football team. The strength of their team would be up front, on the front four."

Virginia's strength on defense could play havoc with ECU's offense. The Pirates (1-3) have struggled to run effectively and average just 97.5 rushing yards a game (No. 89 in Division I-A). Virginia's defense allows about 2 yards a carry and barely 100 yards a game.

East Carolina's running game has been slowed by injuries. Junior Chris Johnson (turf toe) had to sit out the second half against West Virginia, and Dominique Lindsay (knee) is still sidelined by an injury from the second game.

Holtz said he will call on Brandon Simmons, a transfer from Elizabeth City State. Simmons worked his way up from the scout team before the season-opener, first played on special teams, then had two carries against West Virginia in his first action at running back.

Virginia is coming off a 37-0 win at Duke and will be playing its third straight road game. Coach Al Groh shrugged off any suggestion that that would be a disadvantage.

"It didn't make any difference last week," Groh said. "Teams do what they have to do wherever they play every week."

One thing ECU will have to do is try to shake the confidence of freshman quarterback Jameel Sewell. In its first four games, ECU has effectively forced quarterbacks into poor decisions. The Pirates have eight interceptions so far, including five against Memphis.

"The secondary is very much a veteran secondary," Groh said. "They returned two for touchdowns against Memphis. It's very attention-getting. We do have a young quarterback, and we need to make sure that he understands that people on the other side of the ball want to catch the ball as much as his guys do."

Sewell, who replaced senior Christian Olsen as the starter, has completed 58.1 percent of his passes (36 of 62) for 271 yards, with two interceptions.

"Virginia is a team that is searching for its identity," Holtz said. "I think they are starting to come into their own as they have made some changes at quarterback. When you see him in the game (against Georgia Tech) when he first started, he wasn't as comfortable as he was against Duke."

One key change Holtz has made is moving Bobby Good to punt returner. Holtz has not been satisfied with the punt-return efforts with Aundrae Allison slowed by an ankle injury.

"We haven't been catching the ball," Holtz said. "I think you want your most explosive guy back there, but at some point it doesn't do you any good if we don't catch the ball."

And that's what Holtz hopes Good will be able to do until Allison is back at full strength.

ECU and Virginia have met only once before, and ECU won 61-10 in 1975. The match-up is the first of a home-and-home series between the teams and marks the first time Holtz and Groh have squared off against each other as head coaches.
 

Tight-knit group leads ECU defense
Smith's disciplined approach pays dividends for Pirates' secondary
By Nathan Summers
The Daily Reflector
Saturday, October 07, 2006

A group of guys who once rolled their eyes when their third coach in three years started spitting out his expectations at them has become the tightest-knit brotherhood on the East Carolina football team.

Led by a coach whose wife was once asked whether or not her husband would ever get promoted from coaching the secondary team to coaching the real team, the Pirates are fueled by their defensive backfield, who today will shoulder the task of keeping Virginia's offense in limbo.

Rick Smith had made 12 total college coaching stops before the Tallahassee, Fla., native found himself stuck coaching defensive backs in Berlin for the NFL Europe's Thunder.

All that experience couldn't wipe away the doubt or skepticism he faced at East Carolina when he joined Skip Holtz's staff in 2005 and sat down for the first time with a set of safeties and corners that had been touched up and beaten down as previous coaching staffs tried unsuccessfully to mold them in their own systems.

After three ECU wins in the last two seasons, Smith came at his new players talking discipline and potential punishment as the precursors to football under his watch.

"They weren't sure. They didn't trust me, they weren't sure what was going to happen," Smith said of his early days with the defensive backs who now have helped the Pirates to become the nation's 11th-ranked interception defenders and fourth-best turnover thieves. "I told them what I've told all of my secondaries, 'Most of you guys are going to hate me early.'"

He doesn't deny it or apologize for his approach.

Smith said his punishments were designed in part as a weeding out process. He said he had his battles with players, and some of them left because of it.

Departed former starter Erode Jean was foremost among those who didn't fit the scheme, while players like Pierre Parker and Kasey Ross became the banner players in the new system.

"Each other was all we had. We went through coaches but the players rallied around each other," said Parker, a senior from Wilson who is tied for third on the team with 27 tackles. "We're pretty tight now. We've become great friends. We care about each other and play hard for one another."

Smith's plan is still heavy on responsibility, including driving a hard bargain toward his players earning their degrees in addition to never missing assignments in coverage.

The reaction of senior players has been a reciprocal respect and dedication.

"The expectations are just so high right now, and that makes us push hard during the week," said senior safety Kyle Chase, who has 16 tackles. "Changing coaching staffs was hard. But guys stayed up here during the summer. I think just us being around each other, staying with each other, made it a whole lot easier for us."

In his first meeting with the defensive backs, Smith told everyone who wanted to be treated like a man to stand up. They all stood up, and when they did, Smith laid out his expectations.

Since then, there has been steady progress. The senior-heavy group has been one of Holtz's few sure things so far in the Pirates' 1-3 start.

The ECU secondary also has likely added to the Pirates being 6 1/2 point favorites against UVa. as of Thursday night.

Ross, Parker, Jamar Flournoy and Travis Williams have all swiped interceptions as starters in the Pirates' backfield.

"It's critical to have senior leadership in the back end of your defense," said Holtz. "It's huge, because if you start blowing coverages and missing assignments back there, that's when people start running free."

Under Smith's guidance, many former safeties — like Ross — became corners. Smith's work with some of the younger defensive backs has helped to lay some framework for the future.

Joining Williams next year will likely be Leon Best, a former walk-on who recently had a promising trial at corner and who has already been a regular on the field.

Virginia sophomore Kevin Ogletree leads the Cavaliers in receiving with 25 grabs for 326 yards and two touchdowns. Behind him is tight end Tom Santi with 17 catches for 136 yards.