Coaching gaffes hurt Cavaliers
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
October 15, 2006

Virginia fans will awaken this morning thanking goodness for Duke and North Carolina because those are the only things keeping the Cavaliers from being branded the worst football team in the ACC.

The Cavaliers squandered their 20-0 halftime lead like a sheik in Las Vegas on Saturday and paid dearly in a 28-26 loss to Maryland, which hadn’t tasted victory in Charlottesville in 16 years.

Virginia frittered away a chance to go 2-1 in the ACC, and instead slipped to 1-2 and 2-5 overall mostly because of special teams bungles that provided the opportunistic Terrapins all the momentum swing required to find a way to win.

An upside

For those looking for the silver lining, there was some hope in a gut-wrenching loss.

We saw a young, inexperienced team grow up right before our very eyes.

Weeks now, we have been looking for the offensive line to show us something. Everyone’s been pining for the moment that rookie quarterback Jameel Sewell’s light would click on.

Up until Saturday, the Cavaliers’ longest play from scrimmage had been a mere 34 yards. Against the Terps (4-2, 1-1), there were big plays everywhere.

Sewell came alive, passing for 243 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 92 more and a score, giving us a glimpse of what’s to come. Sewell appeared more comfortable in the pocket and boldly tested Maryland deep, hitting sophomore wide receiver Kevin Ogletree on scoring strikes of 38 and 44 yards. The duo also connected on a 51-yard play.

Prior to Saturday, his longest completion had covered a meager 20 yards.

Those two are starting to build a chemistry that could result in a lethal combination.

Dangerous option

In previous weeks, the redshirt freshman from Richmond was shackled by hesitation, indecision. When pass plays broke down or protection broke down, he didn’t display that sixth sense that every quarterback needs.

Usually, by the time he decided to tuck and run, it was too late.

Not on Saturday.

Sewell punished Maryland’s defense several times, rushing 10 times for 92 yards, including one by choice. His quarterback draw early in the game covered 36 yards and stunned the Terps with a quick touchdown.

It should be noted here, too, that Virginia showed a little option offense, which added to Sewell’s repertoire, and should make him a more dangerous quarterback to defend and make the Cavaliers a more potent offense.

This time out, UVa’s receivers, plagued by crucial drops in recent weeks, looked more like the Good Hands People.

The running game showed some promise, churning out a season-high 181 yards to go along with a season-high 424 yards of total offense.

For most of the game, the defense played hard, sparked by a ferocious pass rush led by Chris Long, who showed about as much heart as possible.

“I thought we had a competitive toughness about us that was much more reminiscent of their predecessors, that makes us feel that we’re growing up a little bit,” said Virginia coach Al Groh. “We made a lot of positive progress in a week’s time. We did a lot of things today that we haven’t done previously in the course of the season.”

Groh said he was disappointed for his players and for the fans, who he acknowledged brought a big-time atmosphere to Scott Stadium even though the 59,367 was well short of a sellout.

For all the advances the Cavaliers made, it was one of those one step forward, two steps back deals. Knuckleheaded special teams performances negated all the strides and essentially delivered the Terps the win on a silver platter.

Coach Ralph Friedgen’s team was good enough and smart enough to take advantage of the opportunity.

“I will say that was the spark [the Terps] were looking for,” said the Fridge. “We just haven’t gotten anything like that.”

That’s because most coaching staffs would be organized enough to not send the wrong guy in to handle a punt near his own goal line. It was the only punt return that Emmanuel Byers handled all day and it was Groh’s understanding that Mike Brown, who had been the return guy in the game, was supposed to have been back there when, instead, Byars broke the Cardinal sin of punt returners.

He tried to field a punt inside his own 10-yard line and muffed it, giving the Terps the ball at the UVa 1 and essentially opened the door for Maryland’s comeback. Chris Gould’s 16-yard punt, giving the Terps the ball on Virginia’s 31, leading to another score, didn’t exactly help things either.

Nor did Sewell’s interception, which came back 88 yards in the wrong direction and a monumental meltdown that was Virginia’s biggest implosion of the Groh era and the largest comeback by an opponent since BYU rained on George Welsh’s parade, celebrating the grand renovation of Scott Stadium in 2000.

“It’s frustrating, but we fought a lot harder than we had this entire season,” said cornerback Marcus Hamilton, who picked off his 14th career interception. “We didn’t have it at 20-0. It was only halftime. You don’t have it until the game’s over.”

Sewell said that even though the team lost, he became more confident during the contest and that he believes he will continue to get better as the season wears on. Look for his running to add some pizzazz to the offense along the way.

“When things broke down and I saw just any kind of daylight, I was going to go and get it and help move the ball forward,” Sewell said.

Still, this one hurt.

“It’s your worst nightmare to give back a game,” said Long, who put together the best two back-to-back performances of his career. “I hate losing because I hate the feeling of it and I hate looking at my teammates and feeling like I could have done more to win this game.”

There’s not much more Long could have done. He terrorized the Terps offense all game long. But he could have used a little more help from his friends, who still surrendered too many yards, too many big plays, particularly in the middle of the defense.

With the quick turnaround of hosting North Carolina on Thursday Night Football (you think those ESPN executives are trying to find a way out of this one?), there’s no time to moan and groan.

“I’d play tomorrow if I could,” said Long. “That’s the only therapy for this.”

Thursday will come soon enough.

Question is, will Virginia’s kiddie corps continue its development and actually finish off an opponent, or will it be another case of one step forward and two more back?

 

1st half for naught
Cavs blow 20-point halftime lead, fall to Terps
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
October 15, 2006

En route to a disappointing start this season, Virginia had used ample creativity to find ways to lose.

None of that included giving up a 20-point halftime lead … until now.

Left for dead, Maryland scored four second-half touchdowns in a span of less than 14 minutes to rally past the Cavaliers, 28-26, in front of a shocked Scott Stadium crowd of 59,367.

For Maryland (4-2, 1-1 ACC), it was the first road win in the series since 1990. Virginia, meanwhile, is off to its first 2-5 start since 1986.

“That was certainly very disappointing, not only in the outcome; well, most certainly in the outcome,” said Virginia coach Al Groh, whose team is 1-2 in league play. “I feel bad for the players, who put so much into it for this week. I feel bad for the fans, who put so much into the game, [who] did a lot to lift the energy level of the team.”

Despite squandering the 20-point cushion, Virginia had a chance late.

Trailing 28-20, quarterback Jameel Sewell connected on a 44-yard scoring strike over the middle of the field to wideout Kevin Ogletree with 2:37 left.

On the two-point conversion, however, Sewell once again tried to find Ogletree, but Maryland cornerback Josh Wilson, the same player that Ogletree had beaten for two previous scores, knocked the pass down.

Perhaps divine intervention played a part.

“You see the hand in my pocket? It’s my rosary,” Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen said of the play. “That’s what I was thinking. I was praying.”

With 1:43 left, Maryland was blessed again as tailback Keon Lattimore broke out to the left of his offensive line for a 12-yard gain on second-and-9 from the Terps’ 25.

It sealed the Cavaliers’ fate.

“The entire game our motto was ‘Stop the run. Stop the run.’ If we had just stuck by that,” Virginia defensive end Chris Long said. “I feel bad for our offense because our offense was clicking after that [previous] drive. I think they would’ve pulled us out so that’s on [our defense].”

The loss was painful for Virginia, even more so since the Cavaliers appeared to be on cruise control throughout the first half. UVa had outgained Maryland 255-148 in the opening half and kept the Terps off the scoreboard.

The scoring spree started on the Cavaliers’ first possession. Sewell capped a 9-play, 80-yard scoring drive with a 36-yard touchdown run on a designed keeper in a spread formation.

“It was an empty backfield, so you have to cover the receivers,” Sewell said. “If you don’t cover them I am just going to throw the ball to them. I had all that space in the open field.”

Sewell, who followed a block by right guard Ian-Yates Cunningham, even broke one tackle on what at the time was the longest play of the season for UVa.

“I felt somebody coming to grab my feet,” Sewell added, “so I just kicked my feet up.”

Later in the first half, Virginia added pair of field goals that were sandwiched around a 38-yard touchdown pass from Sewell to Ogletree.

Virginia appeared poised to make the contest a laugher on its first drive of the second half, but tailback Jason Snelling lost two yards on a third-and-1 at the Maryland 30.

Despite the pleas of the Virginia faithful to go for it, Groh elected to attempt a 50-yard field goal.

Sewell agreed with the call.

“We weren’t getting [first downs] on third-and-2 so it’s kind of hard for Coach Groh and [offensive coordinator] Mike Groh to even think about doing it,” said the signal-caller, who completed 13 of 21 passes for 243 yards and rushed for 92 more.

Place-kicker Chris Gould left the 50-yarder short, but it seemed of little consequence six plays later when Maryland was forced into one of its six punts.

That’s when the momentum swung towards Maryland like a tidal wave.

Virginia junior Emmanuel Byers muffed Adam Podlesh’s booming punt at the UVa 5 only to have it recovered by Maryland’s Isaiah Gardner just inches from the end zone.

“I didn’t get my feet set, the ball was really high, and I took some steps back and I shouldn’t have,” Byers said. “It was just a lack of concentration.”

Apparently there was a lack of it on all fronts.

Groh admitted after the game that he expected Mike Brown to be back returning the punt, not Byers.

Maryland scored one play later on a 1-yard by tailback Lance Ball, who finished with 12 carries for 76 yards.

The Terps struck again after Gould turned in a personal-worst 16-yard punt.

The punt, which Gould said was not blocked, proved costly.

Maryland quarterback Sam Hollenbach, who finished 17 of 28 for 271 yards, scored on a 3-yard run just 49 seconds into the fourth quarter.

“Clearly, the game hinged on two plays that made it very easy for them to get back in the game,” Groh said. “The fumble recovery and the very short punt.”

Maryland took the lead for good at 21-20 exactly five minutes and one possession later. Lattimore, who rushed for a game-high 114 yards, busted out to the right and rumbled for a 56-yard touchdown.

“I’m going to take almost full responsibility for that play,” UVa linebacker Clint Sintim said. “It was a basic lead play or something of that nature and the tight end blocked out on me and I didn’t do a good enough job of squeezing it down and he just rolled right through that seam and took it all the way to the house.

“That’s just an aspect of my game that I was supposed to be good at, but didn’t really perform well enough. I take that upon myself.”

Maryland wasn’t done scoring. The Terps cashed in on a 45-yard interception return by linebacker Erin Henderson with 8:00 left.

Sewell, who hadn’t thrown an interception in 11 quarters, said it was a “stupid throw.”

Lattimore said he was in the right place at the right time.

“It’s always good to have the ball bounce your way every now and again,” Lattimore said. “Every now and then, it’s going to take some luck to win games. Sometimes, we’ve got to have the ball bounce our way.”

Virginia fans would certainly agree.

 

Ogletree's big day comes up short
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
October 15, 2006

There weren’t a lot of positives after Virginia’s demoralizing 28-26 loss to Maryland on Saturday - a game in which UVa blew a 20-0 halftime lead - but the play of wide receiver Kevin Ogletree would have to go down as at least one.

The sophomore wide receiver had three catches for a career-high 133 yards and two touchdowns.

“I’m all about helping my team out and today I was able to make a couple of big plays,” Ogletree said. “It’s unfortunate we came up short, but I felt like the offense made some strides.”

Ogletree’s first score came in the second quarter and put Virginia up 17-0.

“It was a play we had been working on for a while,” said the 6-foot-2, 189-pounder from St. Albans, N.Y. “I was supposed to run a post or a go. Jameel [Sewell] threw a good ball and I was able to come back and adjust to it a little.”

Ogletree’s second touchdown came with 2:37 left in the game. It cut Maryland’s lead to 28-26.

“It was a cover-two man [defense],” Ogletree said. “The guy in the slot that was on me, I just got out and ran by him and Jameel threw a perfect ball.”

On the ensuing two-point conversion attempt, Ogletree nearly tied the game, but Sewell’s pass was broken up by Maryland cornerback Josh Wilson.

“He didn’t really give me a chance to catch it,” Ogletree said. “Once I got one hand on it, he made a great play.”

Sewell, who threw a costly interception in the fourth quarter, also had his moments. Statistically speaking - he achieved career highs in passing (243 yards) and rushing (92) - it was the best day of his career.

“There’s no happiness about this loss, but a lot of positives did come out of the game,” Virginia offensive lineman Branden Albert said. “We were able to run the ball effectively and pass the ball. We just made mistakes at the wrong time.”

Virginia senior Tony Franklin echoed Albert.

“It was great to see Jameel come into his own a little bit,” he said. “He looked a lot more comfortable out there, so that’s going to help the team a lot [and] K.O. had a lot of yards today and two big touchdowns. He looked good. He was going against a big corner in [Wilson] and I think he proved himself.”

 

Big plays can't lift Virginia
By Todd Merchant / Daily Progress assistant sports editor
October 15, 2006

Among several problems that faced Virginia during the first half of the season was its lack of big-play production. Prior to Saturday’s game with Maryland, the Cavs’ longest play was a 34-yard pass from Kevin McCabe to Tom Santi.

UVa put that mark well behind against the Terps as it had five plays go for 36 yards or longer.

In the first quarter, redshirt freshman quarterback Jameel Sewell ran 36 yards for a TD. Later in the opening frame, cornerback Marcus Hamilton returned an interception 58 yards.

In the second quarter, Sewell hooked up with Kevin Ogletree for a 38-yard TD pass and then connected with the sophomore again before halftime on a 51-yard strike down to the Maryland 4.

“We felt good that they were out there moving the ball pretty much at will during the first half,” Hamilton said of the offense. “… It’s a good confidence [booster] for our team to be able to move the ball against a team like Maryland.”

Sewell and Ogletree had one more big play left as they connected for a 44-yard score late in the fourth quarter that cut Virginia’s deficit to 28-26. But the Cavs failed on the two-point conversion, and that’s how the score stayed.

“[Those plays] were huge,” Hamilton said. “We played real well the first half and made some big plays, and even toward the end of the game when Jameel threw that pass to Kevin it was big and turned the game around and we just didn’t get that two-point conversion we needed.”

Pick-6 problems

When Erin Henderson intercepted Jameel Sewell and ran it back 45 yards into the end zone with 8 minutes left in the game, it was the fourth interception return for a touchdown against Virginia this season, which is a record.

Joining Henderson in the Pick-6 Club are Pittsburgh’s Clint Session and Darrelle Revis and Western Michigan’s Desman Stephen.

Blue man group

For the first time in recent memory, and possibly ever, Virginia donned an all-blue uniform. Of course, after the Cavs’ tough loss, the blue pants-blue shirt ensemble may not make a return for quite some time.

“I thought it looked OK,” said head coach Al Groh. “The players had fun with it.”

A solid color scheme is nothing new to the UVa-Maryland series. The Cavs broke out an all-orange uni against the Terrapins during a televised game just after Thanksgiving in 1986, and in last year’s matchup in College Park, the Terps wore black on black.

Climbin’ the charts

Hamilton’s first-quarter interception brought his career total to 14 and moved him into sole possession of second place on the active list nationally.

Utah’s Eric Weddle has 17 interceptions under his belt and is just three behind former North Carolina standout Dre’ Bly for first place all-time.

The 58-yard return by Hamilton was the longest of his career and was longer than all his other returns combined. The senior brought back his previous 13 interceptions for a total of 55 yards.

Gould watch

Do-it-all foot soldier Chris Gould connected on a pair of field goals from 26 and 25 yards out during the first half and later missed a 50-yarder early in the third quarter. The junior is now 8 for 13 on 3-point attempts.

Gould also punted four times for an average of 34.8 yards, connected on both extra-point attempts and had one of his five kickoffs go for a touchback.

Extra points …

… By grabbing a 20-0 lead at halftime, Virginia held an opponent scoreless in the first half for the third time this year. The Cavs did the same to Wyoming and Duke and went on to win both games. … It was the biggest comeback against UVa since 2000, when Brigham Young rallied from a 21-0 halftime deficit to beat the Cavs 38-35 in overtime. … UVa nose tackle Keenan Carter started for the second time in his career. The junior, who started against Georgia Tech last year, replaced Allen Billyk, who was out with an undisclosed injury. Fontel Mines caught a pass for the 18th consecutive game, the longest streak of any current UVa player. … Byron Glaspy earned his first career sack when he brought down Hollenbach for an 11-yard loss. … Following a fumbled punt return by Emmanuel Byers, Maryland recovered on Virginia’s 1-yard line. Lance Ball took it in on the next play as the Terps tied numerous teams for the shortest scoring drive in history. UVa pulled off the feat earlier this season against Duke.

 

Loss echoes last year's collapse
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
October 15, 2006

Many college football players like to raise four fingers into the air before the start of fourth quarters. It’s their symbolic way of saying, “We’re going to own this quarter.”

On Saturday afternoon at Scott Stadium, Maryland did just that, dominating Virginia in the final stanza of a game for the second straight season.

The Terrapins’ 21-6 fourth-quarter rampage was eerily similar to the 21-7 hurting they put on UVa at College Park last year.

“The game came down to who wanted it more - just like last year’s,” said Virginia offensive lineman Branden Albert following Maryland’s 28-26 victory. “They made more plays at the end of the game. We didn’t make plays when we needed to and they won the game.

“It seems similar [to last year’s 45-33 loss] because we were at a point late in the game and then they started their run. Once they got on their run, they kept the lead.”

In last year’s loss, Virginia surrendered 93 yards rushing and three touchdown runs in the fourth quarter.

In Saturday’s defeat, UVa allowed 91 yards on the ground and two touchdowns in the fourth.

Turnovers were a major difference between the games. A muffed punt and interception by Virginia gave Maryland two easy scores.

The muff - by UVa’s Emmanuel Byers midway through the third quarter - set the Terrapins up at the Cavalier 1-yard line. Maryland, which was trailing 20-0 at the time, scored on the next play.

“I will say that was the spark [we] were looking for,” said Terrapins coach Ralph Friedgen.

Virginia safety Tony Franklin sounded shell-shocked.

“It makes it real hard to swallow because we had the game in our hands and just let it go,” he said.

“We gave them some plays in the second half and the ball just bounced their way a little more than ours. I don’t think it was like last year’s [loss]. Last year we got physically beat. This year just a couple of plays went the other way.”

Maryland wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey admitted his team had all but given up by halftime.

“Coach came in the locker room and was like, ‘Keep your head up.’ I was like, ‘In this situation, you really can’t,’” said Heyward-Bey, with a laugh. “We were down 20-0. But you have to keep telling yourself, ‘I can make plays. The guy next to me can make plays.’ I’ve seen teams comeback from 35 down and win. It was fate for us to win.”

Virginia running back Jason Snelling said the loss “stings”.

“No matter who you’re playing, you can’t get that team back. Being a senior, that hurts,” Snelling said. “Losing like today leaves a [bad taste] because of the way we lost and knowing the things we could have done to make the game a little different, but we need to move on.”

Snelling was able to find at least one silver lining.

“The most positive thing I see is our resilience,” he said. “At the end of the game, they came up with two big scores. We came down and got some yards. The fight that we had tonight was real great. I think as team we need to keep that as we get ready for Thursday night.”

 

Cain displays improved all-around game
Senior forward exhibiting leadership skills in guiding Cavalier freshmen
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
October 15, 2006

It was only the second practice of the season. And, media members were only allowed to observe for about an hour.

That said, Virginia senior Jason Cain was the most impressive player on Barry Parkhill Court on Saturday.

Cain looked stronger, quicker and more confident than he did during the same early season sessions a year ago.

During Coach Dave Leitao’s favorite boxing-out drill - the one he feels separates the men from the boys - Cain abused several teammates, outscrapping them to the ball on a number of occasions and finishing with dunks.

When Cain wasn’t participating in the drill, he was barking out advice to freshmen Jamil Tucker and Jerome Meyinsse.

“Out of the gate, he’s been very good,” said Leitao, following the practice. “I think it comes from knowing his place a lot more. I think he looked around last year and didn’t really know where his place was or how to develop that.

“I think he feels more secure [this year]. He knows he’s going to play and is able to play well. We’ve got young guys and he understands the responsibility to help them along, too.”

Leitao said all the work Cain did in the offseason with strength and conditioning coach Shaun Brown is paying dividends.

“What it’s done is it’s given him better position,” Leitao said. “He doesn’t collapse nearly as much. He’s got 10 times more stamina, which I think has given him a whole lot more confidence.”

That was particularly obvious during a fastbreak drill when Cain threw down two ferocious dunks. On the second one, he took off from about the middle of the lane before finishing with a one-handed flush.

The most remarkable thing about the 62 minutes of action? Cain wasn’t yelled at once.

Last season, the 6-foot-10 Philadelphia native frequently drew the wrath of Leitao.

“I worked on everything [over the summer] - inside and outside, so I can cause matchup problems for other teams,” Cain said during Media Day on Tuesday. “I worked on my jumpshot, handling the ball, rebounding - just pretty much trying to become a complete player and help my team in many ways.”

Having a year in the Leitao system under his belt is also making a difference, Cain said.

“We went in last year not knowing what to expect from him and him not knowing what to expect from us,” Cain said. “With a year under our belts we’re pretty much able to tell the new guys what to expect and what to look for. Hopefully they can catch on a lot faster than we did.”

DUNKS: Sophomore Lauris Mikalauskas has missed both of the team’s practices with a badly sprained ankle that he suffered during a pick-up game on Wednesday. “It was unfortunate because it was the last 15 minutes of the last workout of preseason,” Leitao said. “It ballooned up pretty good. We’re just taking it day-by-day. He probably won’t practice through the weekend. Hopefully we’ll get him back once the swelling subsides.” … Virginia’s exhibition game against Augusta State on Nov. 4 will be open to the public at no charge. The starting time will be determined once the kickoff time for Virginia’s football game at Florida State is announced.

 

Hard fall for Cavs
Virginia takes 20-0 lead at halftime, but its mistakes fuel comeback by Maryland
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Oct 15, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- No words were necessary. The frustration and disappointment on the faces of Virginia's football players told the story. In a season marked by losses and poor performances, the Cavaliers suffered their most excruciating de- feat yesterday.
Before a crowd of 59,367 at Scott Stadium, U.Va. went into halftime leading ACC rival Maryland 20-0. At game's end, the scoreboard read:

Terrapins 28, Cavaliers 26.

"That one's going to hurt the most," said Long, a junior defensive end who's one of Virginia's captains. "We kind of gave it away."

The collapse -- U.Va.'s biggest since 2000, its final season under George Welsh -- overshadowed the strides that sixth-year Al Groh's team made on offense. The Cavs outgained the Terps 424-345. Senior tailback Jason Snelling rushed for 81 yards, sophomore wideout Kevin Ogletree had 133 yards and two touchdowns receiving, and redshirt freshman quarterback Jameel Sewell had a breakout game.

With his oft-maligned line providing good protection, the former Hermitage High star completed 13 of 21 passes for a career-high 243 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for a TD -- on a 36-yard quarterback draw -- and finished with a career-best 92 yards on a 10 carries.

"We came out with the mindset that we were going to beat them, and we had them beat," Sewell said. "We just let ourselves down by not coming out to play with the same aggression we had in the first half."

After falling so far behind, Maryland (1-1, 4-2) needed help to win at Scott Stadium for the first time since 1990, and the Wahoos (1-2, 2-5) obliged in the second half. With the score still 20-0, junior Emmanuel Byers, retreating toward U.Va.'s goal line, muffed a punt. The Terps recovered at the 1, and tailback Lance Ball dived in for the touchdown on the next play.

Suddenly it was 20-7 with 8:43 left in the third quarter, and Maryland had new life.

"That was the play we were looking for," Terrapins coach Ralph Friedgen said. "We just hadn't gotten anything like that."

U.Va.'s punt returners, like those on most teams, are instructed to not to field any punt inside the 10-yard line.

"It was an unfortunate decision," Groh of Byers' attempt to catch Adam Podlesh's punt. "We really had emphasized on a number of occasions during halftime to avoid all those situations that would let the other team easily get back in the game."

The score was 20-7 heading into the fourth quarter, but momentum had shifted in Maryland's favor. And in a span of 6 minutes, 11 seconds, the Terrapins scored three touchdowns.

Byers wasn't the only member of U.Va.'s special teams to give the Terps a boost. A 16-yard punt by junior Chris Gould gave Maryland the ball at Virginia's 31. "I just took my eye off the ball . . . and ended up shanking the ball," Gould said.

Six plays later, quarterback Sam Hollenbach ran 3 yards for a TD, and Dan Ennis' PAT made 20-14 with 14:11 to play. A 56-yard run by tailback Keon Lattimore (and Ennis' extra point) put the Terps ahead 21-20 at the 9:11 mark, and U.Va.'s deficit grew when Sewell, who'd been nearly flawless to that point, committed a critical error.

"A bad mistake," he said.

Sewell underthrew a pass toward the U.Va. sideline, and linebacker Erin Henderson stepped in front of tight end Jonathan Stupar to make the interception. Henderson broke Stupar's tackle attempt and raced 45 yards to the end zone, and Ennis made it 28-20 with 8 minutes left.

That marked the fourth interception returned for a TD by a U.Va. opponent this season. Junior Kevin McCabe has thrown two, and senior Christian Olsen and Sewell have thrown one each.

On the ensuing series, Sewell moved the Cavaliers into the red zone. But on fourth and 4 from Maryland's 15, Groh opted not to send Gould out to attempt a field goal, and Sewell's pass for senior wideout Deyon Williams fell incomplete out of the end zone.

A three-and-out series by Maryland followed, however, and U.Va. got the ball back with 2:53 left. One play later, the score was 28-26. Sewell had teamed with Ogletree on a 38-yard TD pass play in the second quarter, and they hooked up on a 44-yarder this time, Ogletree running the final 20 yards after catching a perfectly thrown ball.

A successful two-point conversion attempt would tied the game with 2:37 left, but Maryland cornerback Josh Wilson broke up Sewell's pass for Ogletree in the end zone.

The Cavaliers still had three timeouts left and, had they kept Maryland from getting another first down, almost certainly would have gotten the ball back with time to drive into Gould's field goal range. But Ball twice rushed for first downs, allowing the Terps to run off the game's final 2:26.

In an opening half in which the Wahoos did little wrong, they failed to capitalize on a 51-yard pass from Sewell to Ogletree to Maryland's 4. A TD would have been a devastating blow to Maryland's comeback hopes, but Virginia had to settle for Gould's 25-yard field goal on the half's last play.

"To have a [24-point halftime lead] probably would have done it at that stage," Groh said.

 

Collapse leaves U.Va. out of tune
JOHN MARKON
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST Oct 15, 2006
Contact John Markon at (804) 649-6892 or jmarkon @timesdispatch.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE Players, fans and sportswriters talk a lot about "halftime adjustments," but postgame adjustments can be much more difficult.

Yesterday, for example, the Virginia Cavaliers, playing at home in front of 59,000 people, led Maryland 20-0 at halftime and still managed to lose, 28-26.

Try adjusting to that.

"I'm way past the point where I can believe in something like a productive loss," said U.Va. defensive end Chris Long. "We had no business losing."

While the Cavs (2-5) must be regarded as a threat to lose to any opponent at any time, Long was entirely correct. By the end of the first half, Virginia was in such total control that Maryland seemed at the point of mentally checking out of the game. Back in his locker room, Terrapins coach Ralph Friedgen was limbering his vocal cords for the oldest pep talk in football.

If "Animal House" is your idea of great cinema, call it the Full Belushi: "Over? Over? It's not over until WE say it's over!"

"It was true," Friedgen said later, "but I had no idea whether or not it registered with anybody. After a while, it sounds like the same talk every time."

By game's end, Virginia's assumption of a 20-0 lead seemed more mysterious than what the Cavaliers did to blow it. U.Va. gifted Maryland with a pair of touchdowns, muffing a punt to set up a one-yard scoring "drive" and allowing the Terps to score on defense when Erin Henderson intercepted a telegraphed pass by Jameel Sewell and expressed it 45 yards for a score.

Marcus Hamilton, Virginia's senior cornerback, attempted to take a philosophic approach.

"We just learned again what killers mistakes can be," Hamilton said. "On the whole, I'm proud of how we played, though. We had fight in us that we hadn't showed all year."

Confidence that hasn't been reinforced by victories, however, is customarily fragile. All it really took was one third-quarter play - Emmanuel Byers' misplay of the punt - to peel off Virginia's veneer of stability.

"It shouldn't have hurt us that much, because we still had a 20-7 lead," said defensive back Mike Brown, "but it probably did more for them than it did to us. They really hadn't done anything and we'd let them back in the game."

In an oddity from an odd game, Brown and not Byers should have fielded the punt. Brown is U.Va.'s returner when the kick occurs beyond the 50-yard line and Maryland had managed to push the ball a few inches across midfield on the previous snap.

"I don't think anyone realized it," said Brown, "until after the punt."

U.Va. players all seemed to handle the collapse differently. Sewell seemed to want to take full blame. Some talked about "maturation" and "growing pains," as did coach Al Groh. Others, such as Long, didn't mind admitting they were angry and embarrassed.

Their ears were literally ringing. Maryland's players sing after victories and the cinderblocks separating the two dressing rooms couldn't insulate the Cavaliers from Friedgen's foghorn of a baritone leading the way through the Terps' fight song.

Which ends with "M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D - Maryland, will win!"

The Terps hadn't won here since 1990. At 4-2, they can still make it to a bowl game and have what would be recognized as a good season. Had Virginia won, the Cavs could have said the same thing about themselves.

"For a while, Virginia played great," said Terps running back Keon Lattimore. "We lost a close game at Georgia Tech last week and had to watch them celebrate. It's not easy, I'll tell you that."

A few U.Va. players, in the process of escaping to the parking lot, stopped to listen to the singing. They made it through a few choruses, sighed, and kept on walking.

The adjustment process had only begun.

 

NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch Oct 15, 2006

QUANTUM LEAP: In his first start at Scott Stadium, redshirt freshman quarterback Jameel Sewell showed why Virginia's coaching staff is so excited about his potential. The 6-4, 219-pound left-hander wasn't perfect -a fourth-quarter pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown in U.Va.'s 28-26 loss to Maryland - but he contributed numerous big plays.

"He certainly showed those things of which he's capable," Cavaliers coach Al Groh said.

Sewell rushed for 92 yards and one touchdown. He passed for 243 yards and two TDs, completing 13 of 21 passes. Both his rushing and passing totals were career highs for the Hermitage High graduate.

"He took a lot of steps forward today," senior tailback Jason Snelling said. "Today he showed the Jameel that we all know he is."

Sewell said: "I felt a lot of more comfortable than the past few games."

RETURN ENGAGEMENT: That U.Va. cornerback Marcus Hamilton intercepted a pass yesterday wasn't surprising. The pick was his fourth of the season and 14th of his career. His first 13 interception returns, however, totaled a modest 55 yards. Hamilton, a senior from Centreville, ran this one back 58 yards.

Hamilton entered yesterday's game tied for second - along with Duke's John Talley and Oregon State's Sabby Piscitelli - among Division I-A players in career interceptions. The leader was Utah's Eric Weddle (17).

GRACIOUS TONE: Groh, whose relationship with U.Va.'s fan base has been strained at times this season, went out of his way to be complimentary last night. A crowd of 59,367 attended the game at 61,500-seat Scott Stadium.

"I feel bad for the players who put so much into it for this week," Groh said. "I feel bad for the fans who put so much into the game and did a lot to lift the energy level of the team.

"We appreciate that. It's tough circumstances for them as well as it is for the players. We got a great response from them. We hope we get the same response here Thursday night [when North Carolina visits Scott Stadium] and make it like Thursday night football is supposed to be."

The Cavaliers (1-2, 2-5) are off to their worst start since 1986, when they finished 3-8.

NEW LOOK: For what was believed to be the first time, U.Va.'s players wore blue jerseys with blue pants.

"I thought it looked OK," Groh said. "The players had fun with it."

Typically during Groh's six seasons as coach at his alma mater, his players have worn white pants and blue jerseys at home.

NO RUST: Tony Franklin, who replaced Michael Johnson on U.Va.'s kickoff-return team this month, sparkled yesterday. Franklin, a senior who hadn't worked extensively in that role since 2003, gained 131 yards on five returns against Maryland.

HISTORIC COLLAPSE: Until yesterday, when they lost after leading 20-0 at halftime, the Cavaliers never had blown such a big lead in six seasons under Groh. It was the biggest comeback Virginia had allowed since Sept. 2, 2000.

In the opening game of its final season under George Welsh, U.Va. led BYU 21-0 at intermission but ended up losing 38-35 in overtime at Scott Stadium.

"Football teams play whole games," U.Va. defensive end Chris Long said last night. "It just shows we're not quite there."

MAKING PROGRESS: The Cavaliers' rushing (181 yards) and passing (243) totals yesterday were season highs. U.Va. came in ranked 11th among ACC teams in most offensive categories.

"The offense did a lot of great things today, and that's what we're trying to take away from this game - the positive things that we saw from the offense," said sophomore wide receiver Kevin Ogletree, who finished with a career-best 133 yards and two touchdowns on three receptions.

Through five games, Virginia's longest gain from scrimmage was a 34-yard completion from quarterback Kevin McCabe to tight end Tom Santi. Yesterday, the Cavaliers had four plays that surpassed that: a 36-yard run by Sewell and Sewell-to-Ogletree passes that gained 38, 51 and 44 yards, respectively.

MIDDLEMAN: Junior nose tackle Keenan Carter made his first start of the season and was credited with six tackles. Junior Allen Billyk, who started the Cavaliers' first six games, suffered an undisclosed injury late against East Carolina last weekend.

"It didn't seem to be any big deal," Groh said, "but he didn't really respond very positively here during the course of the week. We watched him in the pregame, and we could see it just wasn't going to be possible."

UP NEXT: In an ACC game that ESPN undoubtedly wishes it hadn't added to its schedule, U.Va. (1-2, 2-5) hosts North Carolina (0-3, 1-5) on Thursday night. The Tar Heels lost 37-20 to South Florida at Kenan Stadium yesterday.

UNC leads its series with U.Va. 56-50-4. But the Heels haven't won in Charlottesville since 1981.

- Jeff White
 

Cavs crash to a halt
Maryland rallies from way back to top UVa.
Doug Doughty

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- One near-perfect half does not a football game make.

Especially when you're talking about a highly imperfect team like Virginia.

After dominating Maryland for 30 minutes Saturday afternoon, the Cavaliers coughed up a 20-point halftime lead and lost 28-26 at Scott Stadium.

It was UVa's biggest collapse since it squandered a 21-0 halftime lead to BYU in 2000, one season before Al Groh's arrival as head coach. The Cougars rallied to win that game 38-35 in overtime.

The difference between that game and Saturday's was the suddenness of the turnaround. Maryland scored its first touchdown with 8:43 remaining in the third quarter but was ahead 28-20 with 8 minutes left in the game.

The Terps' final touchdown came on a play that has come to symbolize Virginia's season, a 45-yard interception return by Maryland linebacker Erin Henderson.

It was the fourth interception return for a touchdown by a UVa opponent this season and gave membership to redshirt freshman Jameel Sewell in a club that includes Christian Olsen and Kevin McCabe, the first two UVa quarterbacks to yield touchdown returns this season.

In its previous 116 seasons of football, UVa had never yielded more than three interception returns for touchdowns in the same year.

And, the Cavaliers (2-5, 1-2 ACC) still have five games to play.

Maryland's comeback spoiled an otherwise commendable afternoon by Sewell, who finished with 335 yards in total offense, completing 13 of 21 passes for 243 yards and two touchdowns.

Both touchdown passes went to sophomore Kevin Ogletree, the last coming on a 44-yard strike that set up the Cavaliers for a game-tying, two-point attempt with 2:37 left.

Sewell looked for Ogletree one last time, but Maryland cornerback Josh Wilson arrived at the same time as the football, which fell incomplete.

"I never had possession," Ogletree said.

"Bad pass," Sewell called it.

Since UVa had three timeouts remaining, there was ample time for the Cavaliers to make one last thrust, but Maryland (4-2, 1-1) got the one first down it needed on a 12-yard run by Keon Lattimore.

"That one's on us," defensive end Chris Long said of the Cavaliers' defense.

The statistics would indicate that it wasn't the defense or the offense on a day when the Cavs registered a season high in total offense and outgained the Terrapins 424-345.

Rather, Virginia was victimized by its special teams, starting with a punt that was fumbled by Virginia's Emmanuel Byers and recovered by the Terps' Isaiah Gardner at the UVa 1-yard line.

Maryland had done next to nothing up to that point, having been stopped inside its territory on its first possession of the second half, but just like that it was 20-7.

"We really had emphasized on a number of occasions during halftime to be alert to avoid all those occasions that would let the other team easily get back into the game -- a long pass, special-teams plays," UVa coach Al Groh said. "It was an unfortunate decision. I'm sure he feels the same way."

Byers declined to meet with the media but offered a statement through the UVa sports information office:

"I didn't get my feet set, the ball was really high, and I took some steps back and I shouldn't have," he said. "It was just a lack of concentration. Now, I just have to forget about it and show up at practice ready to play and get better."

Groh said he felt the game hinged on two plays: Byers' muffed punt and a 16-yard punt by Chris Gould that gave possession to Maryland at the UVa 31-yard line. That led to a 3-yard Sam Hollenbach TD run with 14:11 to play in the game, making the score 20-14.

"They just brought a guy off the edge late," Gould said. "The play clock was running down, he rushed hard and I let my eyes go to him rather than keep them on the ball. Me shanking it, that didn't help the team at all."

It also didn't help that Maryland faced second-and-17 at its 9-yard line on its next possession and the Cavaliers allowed the Terps to escape -- and not just escape but take a 21-20 lead on a 56-yard Lattimore touchdown run with 9:11 left.

Maryland had 91 of its 174 rushing yards in the fourth quarter, including 61 by Lattimore, the half-brother of Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis. Lattimore had 114 rushing yards overall.

Virginia had beaten Maryland seven straight times at Scott Stadium since 1990, when the Terps rallied for a 35-30 victory against a UVa team that was ranked No. 8 in the country.

With an abbreviated time period to prepare for a game Thursday against North Carolina, Groh seemed eager to move on, but took time to praise the Terps for their uphill battle.

"When I was talking to them at halftime, I don't know if it was registering, but I just told them, 'We can play better, this game is not over, we can play for 30 minutes,'" said Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen, who added that he didn't throw any chairs.

"After a while, as a coach, you start saying, 'They're not listening. They don't hear me.' When they respond like this, you feel the message finally got through."
 

Terps emotional after rally
Maryland overcomes a 20-0 deficit at halftime for its biggest come-from-behind win since '93.
Jim Reedy

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- After all the craziness -- the fumbled punt and the interception return and the 2-point conversion attempt that had him fingering the string of rosary beads in his pocket -- Ralph Friedgen's eyes were watery and red as his Under Armour polo shirt.

"When you coach 36 years, you've got a lot of these," Maryland's coach said after his team stunned Virginia 28-26, pulling off its biggest comeback in nearly 13 years. "But you know, this one is pretty special to me, just because of what these kids have been going through."

Friedgen's sixth season has not been much fun for the Terps, despite the apparent comfort of their 4-2 record (1-1 ACC). Between wins against a trio of nonconference cupcakes, they've been mostly beating their heads against the wall, the coach said, trying every week to get better and often unsure whether those efforts were working.

Saturday's first half at Scott Stadium was more negative reinforcement, with five Maryland drives producing three punts, an interception and a missed field goal. At halftime, Virginia had a 255-148 advantage in yards and a 20-0 lead.

The Terps tried to keep their heads up in the locker room, where Friedgen said he bypassed the histrionics, the screaming and yelling and the throwing of chairs.

He just told them they could play better, that they had plenty of time to recover and win the game. He wondered if his words had any effect.

It sure looked like it.

"The team we saw in the second half," Virginia captain Marcus Hamilton said, "was a different team."

The Cavaliers unspooled, starting when UVa receiver Emmanuel Byers, a fourth-year junior, fumbled a punt inside his own 5-yard line at the end of Maryland's first drive of the third quarter.

While Byers and several Terrapins clawed on the ground, Maryland cornerback Isaiah Gardner pulled loose from the pile, raised the ball aloft and skipped away.

"That's what we were looking for," Gardner said. "We needed a big play."

Lance Ball punched it in from a yard out on the next play, and the Terps were officially back in the game.

They had charged all the way back, taking a 21-20 lead on Keon Lattimore's 56-yard touchdown run, when Virginia's Jameel Sewell made the biggest mistake of his young career.

Sewell tried hitting tight end Jon Stupar with a pass in the flat, but Maryland linebacker Erin Henderson was there as well. He caught the ball, shook Stupar's tackle attempt and raced 45 yards down the sideline -- duplicating almost exactly the feat his older brother, former Terps All-American E.J. Henderson, pulled off for the Minnesota Vikings last week.

"I had to match him back," Erin Henderson said of his brother, who had come to see him play for Maryland for the first time.

In 15:43 -- barely more than a quarter -- everything had come unglued for the Cavaliers (2-5, 1-2).

At the end, when Josh Wilson quelled Virginia's late rally by jarring loose a tying 2-point conversion pass, the Terps had their biggest comeback win since a November 1993 win at Wake Forest in which they trailed 23-0 before winning 33-32.

They celebrated in the visitors' locker room, pogoing in unison, chanting the chants of the improbable victors. Their head coach was right there with them.

"I was dancing and jumping up and down and butting them and kissing them and hugging them," Friedgen said. "I got pretty emotional.

"Maybe I needed it as much as they did."
 

Decision to go for it costs Cavs
Doug Doughty

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Just over five minutes remained Saturday when Virginia coach Al Groh passed up a possible field goal from Maryland's 15-yard line and went for a first down on fourth-and-four.

It was a field goal that Virginia later could have used in a 28-26 loss to Maryland at Scott Stadium.

Instead, the drive stalled as Jameel Sewell's fourth-down pass fell incomplete in the end zone.

Virginia trailed 28-20 at the time of Groh's fateful decision and added a touchdown with 2:37 left, but the Cavaliers could not convert the two-point attempt that would have tied the game.

Groh at first seemed unclear when asked about his decision not to go for the field goal, which, if successful, would have trimmed the decision to 28-23.

UVa had driven from its 32 to the Maryland 21, thanks largely to back-to-back runs of 13 and 22 yards by Sewell. After two incompletions, Sewell had gotten the Cavaliers to the 15 on a 6-yard, third-down scramble.

"To set the scene, earlier we had let the offensive coaches know, 'You've got four downs here,' " Groh said. "That allows them to make their calls in advance, rather than springing it on them on the fourth play.

"We were just going straight ahead on that particular play."

Groh didn't say if he had lost any confidence in place-kicker Chris Gould, whose shanked 16-yard punt had led to a fourth-quarter Terrapins touchdown. Gould earlier had missed a 50-yard attempt, but he is 6-for-6 inside the 40 this season, including 2-for-2 Saturday.

Missed signal?

Virginia had four punt returns Saturday, only one of them by Emmanuel Byers, whose third-quarter fumble at the UVa 1-yard line led to Maryland's first touchdown and served as the turning point in the game.

Mike Brown had three returns for 32 yards, but he did have a fumble on a return in Virginia's 37-0 victory at Duke. Byers had a pass slip through his fingers at a crucial moment in UVa's 31-21 loss at East Carolina but does not have a history of dropping punts.

As to the Byers-Brown rotation and why Byers was the choice at that point, Groh said, "It was my understanding that it was going to be Mike Brown."

Virtual strangers

There have been times when Maryland had a host of Virginians, and vice versa, but Virginia has only three players from Maryland on its roster, while the Terps have three Virginians on their roster.

One of those, defensive back Jeff Allen from Woodbridge, actually commuted to DeMatha Catholic High School, minutes from Maryland's campus. Another, Isaiah Gardner, began his college career at Notre Dame.

Gardner got credit for the recovery on Byers' fumble. The Terps also got a big game from running back Keion Lattimore, who prepped for a year at Hargrave Military Academy, also the alma mater of offensive linemen Jared Gaither for Maryland and Branden Albert for UVa.

Albert's hometown is listed as Rochester, N.Y., but he completed high school in Glen Burnie, Md., where he went to live with his brother, a former Maryland player.

For starters

An injury to Allen Billyk late in the East Carolina game created an opening for 6-foot-2, 308-pound junior nose tackle Keenan Carter to get his first start of the season for UVa. Carter had missed one game with a foot injury and had been on the field for a total of 44 plays in the first five games. True freshman Nate Collins also saw time at nose in Billyk's absence.

Virginia this week

The Cavaliers (2-5, 1-2 ACC) will play in ESPN's featured Thursday night game for the second time in a month when they meet North Carolina (1-5, 0-3). The Tar Heels haven't won at Scott Stadium since 1981.
 

Cavs' offense looked good - at least statistically
BY DARRYL SLATER
247-4641
October 15, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Buoyed by a promising first half, Virginia's offense on Saturday looked as sharp as it has all season - at least in statistics. The Cavaliers entered the Maryland game ranked 115th in the nation, with 232 yards per game.

The Cavaliers gained a season-high 424 yards. The previous high was 298 the previous Saturday at East Carolina.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Jameel Sewell threw for a college-high 243 yards, on 13-of-21 passing. His previous best, in three starts, was 123 at East Carolina.

Before Saturday, Virginia's longest play this season gained 34 yards. In the first half, Virginia had three plays that went longer: a 36-yard touchdown run by Sewell; a 38-yard touchdown pass from Sewell to wide receiver Kevin Ogletree; and a 51-yard pass to Ogletree.

Sewell's 36-yard run was Virginia's longest rush this season.

BIG DAY FOR OGLETREE

By playing Saturday, senior Deyon Williams - Virginia's best receiver coming into this season - officially lost his chance to take a medical redshirt.

Williams underwent surgery Aug. 11 for a right-foot stress fracture and could've taken a redshirt if he sat out Saturday. Ever since he returned Sept. 30 at Duke, Williams said he'd likely play out the season.

He had three catches Saturday for 20 yards. Ogletree, a sophomore who took his place in the starting lineup, had three for 133 - including 38- and 44-yard touchdowns.

SHORT TURNAROUND

For the second time this season, Virginia must play an ESPN Thursday night game after playing Saturday. The Cavaliers host North Carolina (1-5, 0-3 ACC) at 7:45 p.m. Thursday. They previously had a short turnaround when they played Western Michigan on Sept. 16 and at Georgia Tech on Sept. 21. They lost both games. Like Georgia Tech, North Carolina will have a four-day break before playing Virginia. The Tar Heels lost 37-20 to South Florida on Saturday.

THIS AND THAT

Keenan Carter started at nose tackle after starter Allen Billyk was injured late in the game at East Carolina. ... Virginia's opponents have returned four interceptions for touchdowns this season. The Cavaliers never have had that many interceptions returned for touchdowns in a season. Virginia quarterbacks this season have thrown for six touchdowns. ... Virginia cornerback Marcus Hamilton had his 14th college interception. The school record is 17, by Keith McMeans (1987-90). ... Virginia wore all-blue uniforms for what is believed to be the first time in school history. While Groh liked the uniforms, some of the heftier Cavaliers looked like Violet Beauregarde in "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" after she magically morphed into a blueberry. Virginia usually wears blue jerseys and white pants at home, and the opposite on the road.
 

Down 20, then euphoria
Terps score 28 straight points to shock Cavaliers
By Heather A. Dinich
Sun reporter
October 15, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Not even a concrete wall could quell the bedlam resonating from the visiting team's locker room yesterday at Scott Stadium. Although his words were muffled, the emotion in coach Ralph Friedgen's voice was clear, and his post-game victory speech was soon replaced by booming baritones singing the Maryland "Victory Song."

The players and coaches barked out "M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D" in unison, the finale to a celebration of their 28-26 come-from-behind win at Virginia - the program's first victory here since 1990. After trailing by 20 points at halftime, it was a monumental accomplishment for a program that struggled the past two seasons to catch any breaks, and to create its own.

Now, midway through the season, the Terps are 4-2, just two wins shy of eligibility for their first bowl appearance since 2003.

"I've been saying all along we had to win a big game," Friedgen said. "This game got even bigger when you're 20 points down. It's tough - you're banging your head day in and day out up against the wall and not seeing anything for it.

"I'm going to tell you, in the locker room it was euphoric," he said. "I was going nuts, the coaches were going nuts, the kids were going nuts. ... It was such a release."

With yet another game on the line, and much of it out of his hands when Virginia had the ball and a chance to tie the score at 28 with 2:37 left in the fourth quarter, Friedgen reached into his pants pocket and grasped for his rosary.

"That's what I was thinking," he said. "I was praying."

And because senior cornerback Josh Wilson was covering receiver Kevin Ogletree, Virginia's two-point conversion attempt failed.

"Now we know we can go out there and compete every day," linebacker Erin Henderson said. "We were down 20-0. A lot of people would've went into the tank, but we kept fighting, coaches kept believing, we kept believing. ... We went out there and took care of business like we knew we were capable of."

It was the opposite performance from a week ago, when the Terps actually played better football in the first three quarters but lost their lead to Georgia Tech in the fourth quarter.

For the first three quarters yesterday, the Terps seemed doomed.

In the first home start for Virginia quarterback Jameel Sewell, the Cavaliers gained more yards of total offense in the first half (255) than they were averaging this season (232). Sewell had 243 yards and two touchdowns on 13-for-21 passing, and ran for 92 yards and one touchdown. Ogletree finished with a game-high 133 receiving yards and two touchdowns on just three catches.

Before today's game, Virginia's longest play of the season was a 34-yard pass. In the first half, the Cavaliers made four longer plays, including a 58-yard interception return by Marcus Hamilton that led to a field goal.

"When we came into the locker room, Coach was like, 'Keep your head up,'" receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey said. "And I was like, in this situation you really can't. We were down 20-0. I was like, how can I get pumped about coming back out there? But you have to keep telling yourself, I can make plays. The guy next to me can make plays. It was fate for us to win."

Only when Virginia fumbled a punt and Isaiah Gardner recovered it on the Cavaliers' 1-yard line did the offense get anywhere near the end zone. Lance Ball ran it in and scored, but Maryland still trailed 20-7.

Virginia's special teams helped out again in the third quarter when a 16-yard punt landed the Terps on the Cavaliers' 31-yard line. Six plays and 2:09 later, the score was 20-14.

"Clearly, the game hinged on two plays that made it very easy for them to get back in the game," Virginia coach Al Groh said, "the fumble recovery and the very short punt."

Maryland took its first lead of the game with 9:11 left in the fourth when Keon Lattimore used a block from true freshman Cory Jackson to break free and run 56 yards to the end zone. The momentum swing was immediate: Two plays later, Henderson intercepted a pass intended for tight end Jonathan Stupar and returned it 45 yards for a 28-20 lead.

After coaching for 34 years, Friedgen said he has experienced "a lot of these" come-from-behind wins.

"This one is pretty special to me because of what these kids have been going through," he said. "The fact they were able to continue to hang in there. After a while as a coach you start saying, 'Hey, they're not listening. They don't hear me.' And when they respond like this, it's like the message finally got through."

Maryland quarterback Sam Hollenbach, who has been sacked 10 times in the past three games, said yesterday's win should be one the team can extract experience from as it heads into the final six games of the season.

"That's something we're going to be able to draw off of when we get in that situation again," said Hollenbach, who completed 17 of 28 passes for 171 yards and one interception. "First of all, being down 20-0 and coming back and getting a win, that says to us whatever the score is in a game we can always come back and we can always win."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A summary of Maryland's 28-26 victory over Virginia:

What went right / / Maryland capitalized on Virginia's errors, namely a fumble that put the Terps on the 1-yard line, and a 16-yard punt that set up a scoring drive.

What went wrong / / Maryland's defense again struggled to contain a mobile quarterback, as Jameel Sewell gained a total of 335 yards and was part of three touchdowns.

Defining moment / / Maryland corner Josh Wilson's defense on receiver Kevin Ogletree prevented a tying two-point conversion with 2:37 left in the game.

What it means / / The Terps finally proved they can win when faced with a game-defining moment.
 

Against Cavs, Lattimore shows he's quick study
By Heather A. Dinich
Sun reporter
Originally published October 15, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. // Apparently, Maryland running back Keon Lattimore has been paying attention during film sessions.
He said yesterday that he knew from studying tape of Virginia that once he got "across the line, there would be a gap in the defense."

Turned out it was a 56-yard gap.

Not only did Lattimore cross that line yesterday, he also went a career-long 56 yards for a touchdown that put Maryland ahead 21-20 with 9:11 left in the game. Lattimore finished with a career-high 114 yards and one touchdown and averaged 7.6 yards per carry.

"I feel like I can do that every game, but coaches see things different, so when the opportunity comes I take advantage of it," he said. "I'm definitely happy about this."

Sibling rivalry for Hendersons
Maryland linebacker Erin Henderson wanted to match his older brother's big play in the NFL last weekend, but what were the odds he'd match it exactly yesterday?
Former Terp E.J. Henderson was in the stands watching last night as his little brother intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter and ran it back 45 yards for a touchdown with eight minutes remaining. The score put Maryland ahead 28-20 and turned out to be the game-winner.

Last week, E.J. returned an interception 45 yards for a touchdown to clinch the Minnesota Vikings' 26-17 win over the Detroit Lions.

"I had to match him back," the younger Henderson said. "We talk to each other all the time about going play for play, see who can make the most big plays."

Groh, Friedgen commiserate
One of the first signs fans saw when waking to the stadium yesterday was a handmade banner hanging from an apartment balcony that read "Groh's gotta go," yet another Virginia fan voicing frustration with coach Al Groh's 2-5 overall record.
Groh and Friedgen spent time bonding yesterday over the struggles they've had with their respective programs.

"I've worked harder this year than I have in any year of my life," Friedgen said. "Al and I were talking before the game, he's telling me he's doing the same thing. We busted our butts early in our careers so we wouldn't have to work this hard when we were 60. Somehow, it's not working out that way."

 

Mistakes Turn Cavaliers' Swagger to Remorse
By Adam Kilgore
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 15, 2006; Page E16

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Oct. 14 -- The Virginia Cavaliers sprinted into their locker room at halftime on Saturday, helmets and index fingers raised, their band playing the happiest tune it has played this season, the home crowd cheering loudly.

Inside, Coach Al Groh tempered the good feelings with a warning. Because the Cavaliers were beating Maryland by 20 points, Groh told them not to allow any plays that would quickly allow the Terrapins back into the game. Then special teams coach Bob Diaco reemphasized the dangers of allowing big plays when protecting a lead.

The lectures could not halt a meltdown that shifted momentum and helped turn the game in Maryland's favor, including a 16-yard punt, a 56-yard touchdown run by Maryland's Keon Lattimore and a 45-yard interception return for a touchdown. But the most damaging play came on a muffed punt inside the 5-yard line, exactly the kind of mistake Groh had pleaded with his team to avoid.

So Virginia suffered its most maddening defeat in a season full of them, falling 28-26 after leading 20-0 at halftime.

"Well," Groh said, "that was certainly very disappointing."

For the first six minutes of the third quarter, Virginia continued to stymie Maryland and move the ball. It forced a punt from the 50-yard line on the Terps' first drive of the second half, and then came the first -- and most damaging -- momentum-shifting play.

Emmanuel Byers trotted out to field the punt. Byers, a junior, and sophomore Mike Brown platoon punt returns, and they have a system: Byers, the more experienced, sure-handed returner, fields punts when the opponent is on the Cavaliers' side of the field, and Brown, the more explosive returner, handles the punts from the other side.

But the ball was at the 50. Groh wanted Brown, who had returned all the punts in the first half with competence, to field this one, too.

"It wasn't communicated to me or Emmanuel," Brown said. "So I had no idea, either."

So Brown stood on the sideline as Adam Podlesh's punt spiraled toward Byers, who drifted back to his own 3-yard line as Maryland gunner Isaiah Gardner bore down on him.

The ball fell through his hands, Gardner pounced on it, and after the pile of players untangled, he raised the ball high over his head and screamed toward the Maryland sideline.

"I didn't get my feet set, the ball was really high, and I took some steps back I shouldn't have," Byers said through a team statement. "It was just a lack of concentration. Now I just have to forget about it and show up at practice ready to play and get better."

"The keys to punt returning is always, first and foremost, catching the ball," Brown said.

So would he have tried to catch that punt, or let it drop and hope for a touchback?

"No, because I don't think anybody should have gone for that catch," Brown said. "No one should have even gone for it. It's a cardinal rule throughout football. Coach emphasizes that a lot."

Byers limped off the field holding his right shoulder, and on the next play Lance Ball dived in from the 1-yard line, making the score 20-7 as Scott Stadium fell silent. When asked how Byers could be on the field when Groh had wanted Brown in the game, the coach declined to elaborate.

"One of the things that we try not to do around here is we try not to point fingers," he said.

"Sometimes, teams talk about one of the most important properties they can have is loyalty and allegiance. And sometimes, it's difficult for me to answer your questions without giving somebody up. We know what we have to do better, but I try not to give people up in public."

 

Desperate Times Call For a Desperate Comeback
By Mike Wise
Sunday, October 15, 2006; E01
CHARLOTTESVILLE

Bobby Ross's offensive coordinator in 1984 was a cherubic-faced young man who called the plays that Frank Reich executed in Maryland's greatest comeback, from 31 points down to a wild 42-40 win over Miami.

His cheeks flush almost 22 years later, Ralph Friedgen remembered being on the sideline in 1984. But that's where the parallels stopped Saturday night at Scott Stadium. There was no reason to get overly nostalgic, because Friedgen knew the Ross era was not this Maryland era, featuring the crestfallen kids who could not put away Georgia Tech on the road last week and who were looking at a 20-0 halftime hole against Virginia in one of those program-defining games.

These Terrapins and their coach were taking on water, as desperate as a 3-2 club can be. Doubted when they held off lesser competition, unable to show up in the first half of two of three games that mattered, Maryland needed something miraculous to make its detractors see Friedgen's kids how they want to be seen:

Persevering. Opportunistic. And, most of all, able to do an ACC job right on the road. Friedgen wanted them to capture "their moment." He kept telling them to "stop feeling sorry about themselves and start thinking about winning a football game."

He related this while holding back tears after the greatest comeback in his tenure as Maryland's head coach, a pulsating 28-26 victory over Virginia that called off the dogs in College Park and may have just put the Terps in prime contention to return to a bowl game for the first time in three seasons.

If it sounds schmaltzy and sappy and way too scripted, well, welcome to The Fridge's drama. The big man was holding rosary beads in his pocket as Josh Wilson broke up the attempted two-point conversion that would have allowed the Cavaliers to tie the score. Afterward, he danced and whooped and hollered with his players in the locker room.

Needing two more victories to become bowl eligible, Maryland plays four of its last six games at home. Here's a bet the Terps beat N.C. State in their homecoming on Saturday and find a way to beat Miami or Wake Forest at home before it's over.

The bowels of Scott Stadium were actually shaking with chants of the Maryland fight song, Friedgen's booming voice circulating through the vents. "We had this chant, 'Woo, woo, woo.' I was doing it, bumping, kissing them, hugging them. I got pretty emotional. Maybe I needed it as much as them."

"Amen," his wife, Gloria, said from the back.

Maryland indeed may have salvaged its season yesterday, which was so unexpected because midway through the third quarter, Friedgen's program looked as bleak as Al Groh's future Sunday morning.

This was essentially the Web Traffic Bowl, a border rivalry not so much for regional supremacy. No, Terps-Cavs was to determine whose program and coach would be more excoriated on the Internet afterward. Going in, it was that bad in both places.

It's one thing for Maryland to go down 28-0 to West Virginia, a national title contender. It was just inexplicable to be down to a Virginia team that will finish no better than 5-7, a program so under siege that the tenants of an on-campus apartment had no problem dangling a banner that read "Groh's Gotta Go" in front of thousands of orange-clad season ticket holders on the way to the game.

The beginning of the end for Groh came when one of his kids muffed a punt near his own goal line, a punt recovered by Maryland with about nine minutes left in the third quarter. The Terps somehow scored 28 points in 15 stunning minutes, and Groh did not exactly help himself with the lead.

On the next possession after the touchdown, Groh faced fourth and inches from the Maryland 44, and he elected to punt. That's right, the man did not trust his line to move the ball the length of a pan-size trout when he desperately needed to show his team confidence.

Outside Scott Stadium before the game, campaign buttons being distributed read "Wahoos for Allen." Next to Groh's neoconservative play-calling, George Allen comes across as left of most ecoterrorists.

On a third and eight from the Terrapins 12-yard line, with a chance to put Maryland in a 14-0 first-quarter hole, Virginia ran an up-the-gut handoff, after which a guy could be heard in the stands yelling, "Come on, Groh!"

Now, Groh will say, "Did you see how we scored on that first touchdown run?" We cannot possibly know what it's like to buckle a chin strap alongside Groh. This week he likened hard, honest questioning from fans on his call-in show to, essentially, Cessna pilots questioning the captain of a jumbo jet. The inference was, "These small people have no idea how to coach my football team." It's that condescension, that utter arrogance in the face of failure, that will be his undoing .

People here are friendly, folksy; they don't like uppity people who used to work for Bill Parcells telling them they don't know what they're talking about, even if Groh is a Virginia alum.

Look, Lord Groh of 'Hooville is about to face a revolt from the peasants that may include pitchforks. It's not going to be pretty.

Friedgen can escape such scrutiny partly because he doesn't have that air about him and mostly because his kids got off the mat Saturday and won a game they absolutely had to win for the sake of the program.

The end may not have been as dramatic as 1984 and it certainly won't vault Maryland to national prominence next week. But in the long run, it could be more important for the 2006 offensive coordinator, the man with the flushed cheeks and the cherubic smile, whose kids just pulled off one incredible comeback victory.