Cavs' aim to salvage season
Success may be in the offing, but U.Va. isn't calling it quits this year
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Oct 27, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE - To University of Virginia football coach Al Groh, it wasn't a question of if, but when.

Groh came into this season confident that his pro- gram had enough talent to one day contend for an ACC title. He realized, however, that such success was more likely to come in 2007 than this year.

Of the six teams Groh has overseen since returning to his alma mater, this is probably the least experienced. U.Va. lost 10 starters from the team that finished 7-5 in 2005, including quarterback Marques Hagans, offensive tackles D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Brad Butler, tailback Wali Lundy and linebackers Ahmad Brooks and Kai Parham.

Only five seniors play regularly for U.Va. (2-2, 3-5), which hosts N.C. State (2-2, 3-4) tomorrow afternoon. As expected, the Wahoos' inexperience has hurt them, and, barring a miraculous turnaround, the team won't be heading to Jacksonville, Fla., for the ACC championship game this year.

Even so, Virginia's players say they're determined to salvage this season.

"You don't want to wait till next year," said sophomore Branden Albert, who starts at left offensive guard. "Wait until next year? You're like, 'Why are we playing now. Why not just give up?'"

Redshirt freshman Will Barker, who starts at right offensive tackle, agreed.

"We don't want to just give up and call it a building year," Barker said. "This is the seniors' last year, and we're really going to try to play for them now. For some of them, it's going to be the last time they ever play football."

That's not the case for the overwhelming majority of the team. The only seniors who play regularly for Groh are wide receivers Fontel Mines and Deyon Williams, tailback Jason Snelling, cornerback Marcus Hamilton and safety Tony Franklin. U.Va.'s No.1 quarterback, Jameel Sewell, is a redshirt freshman. The leading receiver, Kevin Ogletree, is a sophomore.

"It certainly has put the challenge on a lot of guys at once," Groh said. "This isn't a ripen-on-the-vine deal. The more we can hasten the process," the sooner U.Va. can start winning regularly again.

In 2001, Groh used six true freshmen. He played 14 in 2002, seven in 2003, 10 in 2004 and 11 last season. This season, he's tried a new approach, despite returning so few experienced players.

Of the Cavs' 16 scholarship true freshmen, only nose tackle Nate Collins has played. But Groh raves about many of Collins' classmates, including tailback Keith Payne, inside linebackers John Bivens and Darnell Carter and defensive back Mike Parker.

"We just took an approach here, certainly not to undersell what we could do this year," Groh said, "but to really make an investment in the long term and to have the discipline to avoid a season where some of these players might end up playing 65, 70 plays, as opposed to a year in the future where they might play 400 or 500 plays."

Several of his true freshmen already are ready to contribute, Groh said, and they might be playing had U.Va. been capable from day one of competing at an elite level this season.

If "those 65 or 70 plays might have put us over the edge, made us a dominant team or given us a chance to have an even stronger run at the title, then we might have done that," Groh said.

The Cavaliers need to win three of their final four regular-season games to become eligible for a bowl. Their focus is on 2006, not '07.

"It wouldn't be a bad thing to look towards the future, but we can't worry about that right now," said Ogletree, who has 36 catches for 425 yards and four touchdowns. "We've got some games ahead of us that we're looking forward to winning, and that's our main focus right now."

 

Cavs, Pack still have title hopes
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
October 27, 2006

Just minutes after Virginia blanked Duke on the final day of September, cornerback Marcus Hamilton said he was not giving up on the season.

Despite a demoralizing loss to Georgia Tech nine days prior in the league opener, the senior said the Cavaliers, who were then 1-1, still had a chance to win the Coastal Division.

At the moment, Hamilton sounded a little batty. Now almost a month and a loss to Maryland later, Hamilton’s words still carry some weight.

That could all change in a couple days.

When Virginia (3-5, 2-2 ACC) entertains North Carolina State (3-4, 2-2 ACC) at noon on Saturday, it can easily be looked at as an elimination game. Earning a third loss in league play with only three games to play would crush any hopes, as dim as they may be.

Even if Virginia wins out and finishes at 6-2 in the league, the Cavaliers would still need some help from teams playing Georgia Tech (5-2, 3-1 ACC), the Coastal Division leader. The Yellow Jackets, who play home games with Miami and Duke and travel to N.C. State and North Carolina, own the head-to-head tiebreaker with UVa.

N.C. State trails four Atlantic Division teams by a game in the loss column, but it holds the tie-breaker over first-place Boston College (3-1 ACC) and a contest with No. 10 Clemson looms.

Tough roads indeed, yet the hope of playing in Jacksonville, Fla., in the ACC Championship game is motivating both squads.

“It’s a great benefit of how the conference is lined up right now,” said Virginia coach Al Groh. “If you can work your way through the first part of the season and continue to improve, and if other things around the conference help position you as such, you have a chance to be in the race at the end of the season.”

N.C. State coach Chuck Amato agrees with his longtime friend.

“Everybody still has to play a lot of games,” said the Wolfpack coach, who is 11-14 in ACC road games. “Just remember a year ago - and that doesn’t mean it will happen this year - a team won our division with three conference losses. There’s an awful lot of football to be played.”

That team was Florida State, now the cellar dweller in the Atlantic Division at 2-3 in the league. The Seminoles advanced to the title game with a 7-4 record, a mark that Groh has not forgotten.

“The whole emphasis is on ‘Win your division,’” Groh said. “Regardless of what precedes it, if you can win your division, you’re in the final game, and if you’re in the final game, whether you’re 5-6 or 6-5 or 7-4 or whatever it is, if you’re in the championship game, then you win one more game and you’re in the playoffs.”

At this point Virginia would likely settle for a postseason game of any sort. That, of course, would mean the Cavaliers won at least three of their final four games to finish at 6-6.

For now, the players are trying to remain focused on the Wolfpack.

“We’ve been talking about [the conference standings], not just this week, but for the last couple weeks,” said Kevin Ogletree, UVa’s leading receiver. “We’ve never got down about one loss. We just try to emphasize how important each week is, and this week everyone knows how important it is and we are looking forward to it.

“We know the implications, and we are just going to come out ready.”

 

Business as usual for State commentator
By Mark Berman

Johnny Evans, the color commentator for the radio broadcasts of North Carolina State football games, said he's not reluctant to critique the Wolfpack's starting quarterback.

Even though the signal-caller is his son.

Third-year sophomore Daniel Evans will start his fifth game when the Wolfpack (3-4, 2-2 ACC) visits Virginia on Saturday.

The elder Evans, a State quarterback himself in the 1970s, said he still tries to "tell it like it is" in the broadcast booth.

"This past week when he threw a critical interception at a critical time, you have to say exactly what it is -- 'That was a terrible mistake,' " Johnny said in a phone interview. "I don't really pull any punches. If anything, I'm probably more critical of him than I am complimentary, although certainly when he makes a great pass and it's obvious, it's my responsibility to say, 'That was a great throw.' "

Daniel threw a 34-yard "Hail Mary" touchdown pass with 8.5 seconds left to beat Boston College in his starting debut and threw three TD passes in an Oct. 5 win over Florida State. But State is coming off back-to-back losses to Wake Forest and Maryland. Daniel threw two interceptions at Maryland.

"I improved steadily through the first three [starts] and then last week I felt like I took a step backwards," Daniel said. "I made some bad decisions last week."

The Raleigh, N.C., native has completed 72 of 127 passes (56.7 percent) for 811 yards and five TDs with five interceptions this season.

Father and son talk with each other quite often.

"I'll share with him the way I'm feeling and the way things are going in my life," Daniel said. "He's not so much an X's-and-O's adviser as much as he is on the emotional and mental aspect of it and how I should go about preparing emotionally."

The radio broadcasts benefit from their bond.

"I'm able to give a little better insight into maybe what he's thinking and how he's performing," Johnny said. "I don't think it's so much [from] what was shared in the last week than the last 21 years. I know how he thinks. I've watched him from the time he was born."

Johnny started at fullback for one year and at QB for two years for the Wolfpack. He was also an All-American punter at State.

Daniel moonlighted as a punter in high school.

"You're going to see him punt one of these days," Johnny said. "He'll get his opportunity to do a quick kick or something."

Daniel is a quadruplet. His siblings are Andrew, a backup receiver at State, and sisters Katherine and Quinn. Daniel liked always having playmates around when he was a kid.

"We were all together most of the time," Daniel said. "We didn't really think about it to be, 'Wow, quadruplets.' We thought that's just how normal families were."

Daniel is still surrounded by his family as he plays for his hometown school, but he doesn't mind a bit.

"It's absolutely a blessing," Daniel said. "I couldn't have dreamt it would work out any better than it has."

Irish, not Cavs, on WDBJ

The State-UVa skirmish is the ACC's syndicated TV game of the week. Ordinarily, that means the game would air on WDBJ. But the CBS affiliate is passing on the noon telecast because it doesn't want to pre-empt CBS' broadcast of Notre Dame vs. Navy. So syndicator Raycom/Lincoln Financial has moved the UVa game to WFXR.

WDBJ program director Mike Bell said there is only a certain amount of CBS weekend programming -- sports and otherwise -- it can pre-empt each year, and his station is "right at that limit."

"This really isn't a decision for us; it's more a contractual obligation," Bell said. "If they [CBS] have doubleheaders, we're really forced to carry them. If I had my druthers, I'd always pick a local team if I could."

Coastal showdown

The front-runner for the Coastal Division title will emerge when No. 21 Georgia Tech (5-2, 3-1) hosts Miami (5-2, 2-1) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday on WSET.

The Yellow Jackets are coming off a 31-7 loss in which Clemson held star receiver Calvin Johnson without a catch.

"It was not like he wasn't in the game plan," Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey said. "It was just batted ball, missed protection, ball off his fingertips, those kind of things."

Still, the game did offer Miami a lesson on how to contain Johnson.

"The big thing you do is get a lot of pressure on the quarterback so he's not comfortable," Miami coach Larry Coker said. "They played a lot of two-deep and put a lot of pressure on the quarterback."

Say what?

At his news conference Monday to discuss his firing, North Carolina coach John Bunting said, "We were that close. That close."

Bunting, whose Tar Heels haven't beaten a Division I-A team all year, was asked to explain the comment Wednesday.

"We have redshirted, for the first time ever in this program, the absolute bulk of a really, really good recruiting class," said Bunting, who will coach the rest of this season. "And we're on top of a great recruiting class -- a top 10, possibly, recruiting class. ... Those basically are the things that I said about ... a lot of great things very, very close to happening."
 

2005 recruiting class offers reason for hope
Groh no foreigner to 1970s music
Doug Doughty

Only rarely do I tape the televised University of Virginia sporting events that I cover, mostly because I have not made the effort to keep my taping skills current.

I will concede that there’s much to be learned from watching a sporting event for a second time, even for a layman, and sometimes it’s not all about X’s and O’s.

In the ESPN broadcast of last Thursday’s Virginia-North Carolina game, announcers Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit noted that UVa football coach Al Groh had “Foreigner” on his CD player when they stopped by his office.

Prior to the digital age, I had the cassette of “Foreigner 4,” a revelation that sent Newport News sportswriter David “Ol’” Teel into a lengthy rant.

Teel felt I should have been ashamed to have anything by Foreigner in my possession, but I don’t think I was alone in my appreciation of Foreigner and its lead singer, Lou Gramm.

At first Thursday, I confused Lou Gramm with Lou Reed, described as “one of the most influential artists of the rock era” on one website I visited. Henry County deputy administrator Tim Hall corrected me.

“Lou Reed was an iconoclastic solo artist in the ‘70s and ‘80s for whom I never cared,” Hall said Thursday.

Teel notwithstanding, I have fond memories of driving through Atlanta one night in the mid-1980s, with “Jukebox Hero” blasting on the radio and former Charlottesville sportswriter and one-time Teel protégé Kevin Record singing along in gleeful accompaniment.

Now, Record, there was a guy who knew his music!

“I remember standing outside Godwin Hall at JMU in the late ‘70s listening to a Foreigner concert because I was too cheap to buy a ticket and go inside,” said Hall, whose father was a radio icon in Martinsville.

. “ ‘Jukebox Hero’ was a great song, along with ‘Blue Mornin' ‘ and ‘Cold As Ice.’

“Teel is a musical snob.”

On a teleconference, Groh said Thursday that he had been listening to “Best of Foreigner,” but I can’t find any compilation that meets that description. Perhaps it was the 1992 work, “The Very Best and Beyond,” or the 2002 release, “Complete Greatest Hits.”

It must have been the latter. You wouldn’t want to miss all the monumental stuff that Foreigner turned out between 1992 and 2002.

BUT, BACK TO football. What does it say about Groh that he was playing Foreigner or, more than that, that he was listening to Foreigner with an ESPN crew in his office? That he’s comfortable in his own skin?

Of course, we knew already that.

Actually, I think Groh has gotten progressively comfortable with his football team, which doesn’t mean I’m sure that they will beat visiting North Carolina State this Saturday, although I did pick the Cavaliers.

I can’t see Virginia (3-5 overall, 2-2 ACC) finishing this season with a winning record, but if the Cavaliers can get back on an eight- or nine-win track, I think you can trace it to the 2005 signing class that was ranked 14th in the country by SuperPrep.

Roanoke talk-show host Greg Roberts, who frequently has an anti-Virginia agenda and thinks that most UVa recruiting classes are overhyped, likes to espouse a third-third-third theory. One third of any class is good, one third is serviceable and the other third bombs.

Consider the following members of Virginia’s 23-member 2005 class: Brandon Albert, Antonio Appleby, Will Barker, Chris Cook, Jeffrey Fitzgerald, Kevin Ogletree and Jameel Sewell. Those seven are starting as either sophomores or redshirt freshman..

Then, there’s Eugene Monroe, rated the No. 1 prospect in the country by SuperPrep. Monroe began the season as a starter and, had he not dislocated his kneecap in the spring, he probably would be starting now. He’s been playing a lot in recent games and still has the potential to be an impact player.

Three other members of the 2005 class – cornerback Mike Brown, defensive lineman Kevin Crawford and tight end John Phillips – all have started at least one game. So, before the end of two seasons, nearly half of the players in the recruiting class have been a starter at some point.

That doesn’t include players like Vic Hall and Rashawn Jackson and Mikell Simpson, former SuperPrep All-Americans who could become major contributors at some point. There are two other points worth making about the players who made up the 2005 class – none failed to qualify and none have dropped out of school.

Olu Hall, also a 2004 signee before spending the 2004-2005 season at Hargrave Military Academy, is not practicing with the team this season but remains enrolled in school while taking advantage of a redshirt opportunity. When he signed with Virginia the first time, Hall was rated the No. 1 prospect in the state.

AS I CONTINUE to see Virginia mentioned with uncommitted prospects this year, particularly wide receivers, it makes me wonder how the Cavaliers are going to have enough scholarships.

I’ve got the Cavaliers with 20 commitments, not counting 2005 signee and Fork Union Military Academy defensive lineman Asa Chapman. Looking at scholarship players with remaining eligibility, I can’t see UVa coming up with 20 scholarships, much less the 25 or so they need to fill the offers they’ve got outstanding.

Of course, they could do what they did last year, signing 24 but knowing that 7-8 weren’t going to qualify. However, I can’t imagine the Cavaliers employing that strategy again, particularly because most of the players already committed are known to have good academics.

What you might see is a few defections. Virginia lost four players last year who had made oral commitments (Brent Carter, Cedric Jeffries, Mark Herzlich and Kordell Young) and three the year before (Darryl Greshman, Matt Lowry and Lamont Robinson).

Groh lost at least one committed player in each of his first five recruiting campaigns, although 2004 defector Andrew Pearman later transferred to Virginia after spending one season at Hawaii.

 

Snelling overcomes injury, boosts rushing attack
By Andy Bitter
Lynchburg News & Advance
October 27, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE - It seems at every point of Jason Snelling's career, something has been a detriment to the Virginia running back's success.
So it figured that just when he started getting rolling this season, his participation in the North Carolina game last Thursday came into question when he had a shoulder injury flare up.

"I was thinking, darn, here he's had three of the better games he's had since he's been here," Virginia head coach Al Groh said. "And now we're talking about the same issue: is he going to be able to play in the game or not?"

Snelling did and responded with a career-high 131 rushing yards and a touchdown. In his last four games, the senior has 407 rushing yards and three touchdowns, rejuvenating a Cavaliers rushing attack that has set season highs in rushing in each of the last four games.

It's long-awaited production from Snelling, who had 31 receptions and four touchdowns as a true freshman in 2002 but was hindered by a medical condition that caused dizziness and headaches, forcing him to redshirt in 2003.

Since then he's been slowed by nagging leg and ankle injuries and a crowded backfield. He never had more than 58 carries in a season until this year.

It's no coincidence that Virginia's offense has taken off since the running game got going. UVa averaged just 51 yards per game on the ground (close to last in the nation) in the first four games and failed to score more than 13 points in any contest.

In the last four games, the Cavaliers have rushed for 106, 153, 181 and 194 yards. Part of that is a young offensive line that is finally coming together. Part of it is Snelling finally putting his injury problems behind him.

"He's making us on the line feel that our achievements are that much greater," right tackle Will Barker said.

Nobody's perfect

Virginia went into halftime against North Carolina with a 9-0 lead, but wide receiver Kevin Ogletree knew it should have been bigger.

On the Cavaliers' third series, the sophomore wideout dropped a third-down pass on a slant pattern. He had his man beat to the inside. Worse yet, there was nobody between him and the goal line.

"I didn't want to see it on film," he said, "but it looked as though I would have scored on the play."

It seemed contagious. Despite winning 23-0, the Cavaliers had a handful of drops that derailed the offense, a problem that has plagued them in more than one game this season.

It's a sticky subject to approach. Sometimes, talking about it too much can get in a receiver's head. But, Groh said, "I don't think you can look the other way."

For Ogletree, the coaches don't have to say anything.

"No one can say anything to me that I didn't know down inside if I should have caught it," he said.

Eye on the future

Only one of Virginia's 16 freshmen has played this season. Barring any massive injuries, Groh plans to keep it that way.

Though they start just three seniors, the Cavaliers have not been forced to use freshmen to plug holes like they have in the past.

Last year 11 of 23 freshmen played. In 2004, 10 did. This year, it's just been defensive tackle Nate Collins.

"Some of them could be playing this year," Groh said. "We just took an approach certainly not to undersell what we're trying to do this year, but to really make an investment in the long term and to have the discipline to avoid a season where some of these players might end up playing 65 to 70 plays as opposed to in the future when they might play 400 or 500 plays."

Groh cited the cases of Raynard Horne and Keith Payne, two promising backs who would have no real role if they were to play this season because of Snelling's success.

"When I look at those players going against our defense, I'm thinking this is pretty exciting what they look like. I'd like to see them in the game," Groh said. "But what am I going to do, take 15 carries away from Jason to make it worthwhile? Probably not."


 

'In a Routine': QB Evans more comfortable in his role as a starter for the Wolfpack
By John Delong
JOURNAL REPORTER

In the past six weeks, Daniel Evans has gone from obscure backup quarterback to N.C. State's starter and symbol of hope.

It has been a whirlwind experience. There were last-minute heroics in his first two starts, upset wins over Boston College and Florida State that brought him national acclaim. Then there was last-minute disappointment in a loss to Wake Forest, when he suffered a concussion near the end, to boot. Last week, there was more disappointment in the form of a loss at Maryland, in his first road game as a starter.

As the Wolfpack prepares to hit the road again for a game at Virginia on Saturday, Evans considers himself better for it all.

He has experienced the highs and lows and hard knocks that go with the territory and seems to be handling it all well.

"I'm absolutely settled in and comfortable in this role now," Evans said earlier this week. "It's just a matter of getting better now that I know what to expect. I'm kind of in a routine now, so it's just a matter of practicing and preparing and getting better."

State, 3-4 overall and 2-2 in the ACC, is at a pivotal point, needing a win to stay alive in the ACC Atlantic Division race and to help its bowl chances. Virginia, 3-5 and 2-2, will play with a similar urgency on Saturday.

Evans, a redshirt sophomore, was under heavy pressure much of the time in State's 26-20 loss at Maryland. He wound up with respectable passing numbers - 15 of 26 for 145 yards - but was sacked four times and intercepted twice. Maryland parlayed the interceptions into a touchdown and a field goal.

The encouraging part to Coach Chuck Amato was that Evans played well down the stretch, leading two second-half touchdown drives, after State made some adjustments.

"There was a point in the fourth quarter where he got ungrooved (on track)," Amato said. "He got ungrooved with about seven or eight straight passes. Daniel's only been a starting quarterback for four games, and that was his first away game, and the first time we had the ball we're in their end in front of their student body, and I thought he handled that pretty good. And it was his first game after he had a headache. And I don't think any of that affected him.

"The pass rush affected him more than anything."

Evans will likely see another fierce pass rush from the Virginia defense this week and a variety of schemes as opponents continue to throw new looks at him. Maryland blitzed from many angles last week, and the Cavaliers are known to show an even bigger array of defensive schemes. Next week, State will play a Georgia Tech team that has a reputation for throwing complex blitz packages at opponents.

"Obviously, every week I'm going to see something a little different, and every week I'm going to learn something more," Evans said. "It's just going to be a matter of learning and being able to adjust when it happens. Our coaches do a great job of preparing us, but in this conference, there are great defenses and great defensive coordinators, and you're always going to see a little wrinkle that you can't prepare for, because they're going to come up with something new.

"I don't know what Virginia's going to do, but they're the No. 2 ranked defense in the ACC right now so no matter what they do, I'm sure they're going to be good at it."

He has adjusted to the hoopla and the events of the past several weeks well. A lot has been thrown on him, on and off the field.

"I'm a pretty even-keeled person, not just in football but in my life in general," Evans said. "I have a strong faith in the Lord that has kept me leveled out. I don't get too high or too low about anything. When the attention comes and goes, whether I play well or don't play well, it's not an overriding factor in my life and how my attitude is.

"Personally, I don't think it's a whole lot different for me right now than it was (as a backup). Everybody has a dream of starting and being able to come in and turn things around and win a national championship or whatever. We were blessed to be able to win those first two games the way we did. I would have liked to have won these past couple of games. But that's the way the ACC is. On any given day, anybody can beat anybody, and we just didn't play well enough the past couple of weeks to win. So this is not unlike any other week. We need to go out and work hard and put ourselves in position to win the game."