Week off has Cavs feeling fresh heading into Penn State game
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© November 5, 2002

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Matt Schaub spent the day watching football. Angelo Crowell caught up on his sleep. Jerton Evans, an English major, curled up with some 17th-century Renaissance literature.
The Virginia Cavaliers had Saturday off, the culmination of a week in which they had few football obligations. Coach Al Groh gave the team the week off from practice. Other than a mandatory meeting Friday and weight- lifting sessions, the Cavaliers were free all week.

The players say the break couldn’t have come at a better time, what with nine games played and four grueling contests remaining, beginning with Saturday’s trip to No.19 Penn State (3:30 p.m., WVEC).

“It was perfect, going into the homestretch,” linebacker Merrill Robertson said. “I feel refreshed.”

Crowell, who has been playing with ligament damage in both knees, said he feels like he has his legs back. So does receiver Billy McMullen.

Evans said he feels better from head to toe.

“My neck, my lower back, my ankles, my legs all feel better,” he said. “Even my fingers, which stay swollen all season, aren’t swollen.”

Groh said he wouldn’t have given the team the week off had it been the second or third week of the season. He pointed out that Virginia, which played in the first game of the college season, has been practicing as long as any team in the nation.

“I still didn’t believe it when he told us,” Evans said. “I was in shock. We’ll have to see what effect it has.”

Parent spectator days come to an end for Groh

Groh spent Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y., watching Princeton beat Cornell in overtime. His son, Matt, is a backup quarterback for the Tigers.

After many years of watching his three children play sports, Groh said Saturday’s game was the last he’ll attend as a parent. His son is a senior.

“This was my grand finale,” he said.

And a memorable one.

“It snowed the whole game,” Groh said. “It’s nice to be back in Charlottesville.”

Brown hopes to play despite ankle injury

Guard Elton Brown moved through the locker room on crutches Monday, his right foot in a walking cast. Brown injured his ankle against North Carolina Oct.\u200926 and aggravated it against Georgia Tech the following week. He played just 13 plays against the Yellow Jackets.

Brown said that the week off did him good and that he hopes to play Saturday.

“I probably won’t be 100 percent,” he said. “But if I feel I can suit up and help my team in any way, I will.”

Quick kicks ...

The Cavaliers received a commitment Monday from Chris Long, son of former NFL player Howie Long. Chris Long, a 6-foot-3, 245-pound junior, plays for St. Anne’s-Belfield in Charlottesville.... several players said they are looking forward to playing in Penn State’s 108,000-seat Beaver Stadium. “It’s going to be loud,” Crowell said. “We’ve got to take the crowd out of it.” ... Like Virginia, Penn State has been a second-half team. The Nittany Lions have outscored opponents 144-92 in the second half. Virginia’s second-half tally is 192-76.
 

Cavs fresh for Penn State after week off


By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- On a weekend when all four of his upcoming opponents were in action, three on television, Virginia coach Al Groh kept his distance from the hubbub of big-time football.
Groh was in snowy Ithaca, N.Y., where his younger son, Matthew, served as the backup quarterback for Princeton, a 32-25 overtime winner Saturday at Cornell.

"I'd been looking forward to it for quite some time," said Groh, who flew back into Charlottesville on Sunday. "After years and years of watching my children play, this was my grand finale. That was my last game."

An open date for Groh the parent also came at a good time for Groh the coach, who saw his players in pads Monday for the first time in nine days. Their only obligation since Oct. 26, when they lost 23-15 at Georgia Tech, was a meeting and weight-lifting session Friday.

"He'd been telling us all along that we were going to have a week off, but I'm not sure anybody really believed it," freshman defensive end Darryl Blackstock, the team's sack leader, said.

The respite came at an ideal time for Blackstock, who suffered a back injury in the first quarter at Georgia Tech and was limited to four tackles, two solo and two assists. Neither Blackstock nor the team had a sack against the Yellow Jackets.

"I couldn't have played if we had had a game last week," said Blackstock as the Cavaliers (6-3) began preparations for their 3:30 p.m. meeting Saturday with 19th-ranked Penn State (6-3) in State College, Pa.

"I'm the last person to whine about injuries, but I couldn't walk for a couple of days after the [Georgia Tech] game. I couldn't even put my shoes on. I feel all right now. I think I can run. We'll see if I can hit."

One player who will spend considerable time in rehabilitation this week is sophomore offensive guard Elton Brown, who suffered a sprained ankle Oct. 19 against North Carolina and was limited to 13 plays at Georgia Tech. Brown was using crutches Monday and his right foot was in an orthopedic boot.

Nobody saw more football last weekend than UVa deep snapper Ryan Childress, a graduate of Shawsville High School, renamed Eastern Montgomery after moving into a new building. Childress was at the Eastern Montgomery-Auburn game on Friday night, then saw Western Carolina play at VMI on Saturday.

After watching cousin and ex-teammate Linden Ryan, the starting center for Western Carolina, Childress planned to attend the Virginia Tech-Pittsburgh game in Blacksburg. But he watched on television when he was unable to persuade his girlfriend to join him at Lane Stadium.

Groh said he did watch parts of the televised Saturday evening games, at least partly to prepare himself to vote in the ESPN/USA Today poll.

"When I fill out my coach's ballot each week, after about five teams that deserve a particular spot, it seems increasingly that there are more teams in the same pool," he said.

YOUNGER LONG COMMITS: Chris Long, a 6-foot-4, 245-pound junior from St. Anne's-Belfield in Charlottesville, became the first member of Virginia's 2003-2004 recruiting class when he committed to the Cavaliers at the end of last week.

Long, the oldest of three sons of NFL Hall of Famer Howie Long, has 25 tackles for loss and 10 sacks for a St. Anne's-Belfield team that takes a 7-3 record into its Virginia Independent Schools playoff opener against Atlantic Shores.

"It all happened pretty quickly," St. Anne's-Belfield coach John Blake said. "Virginia offered him a scholarship and he accepted it right away. When we talked, he just looked at me and said, 'Coach, this is where I've always wanted to go.' He knew what he wanted."

Long, 17, was young for his original grade and repeated the 10th grade. He is in his fourth year on the varsity and becomes the third STAB athlete to accept a UVa scholarship offer this fall, joining lacrosse defenseman James King and baseball pitcher Casey Lambert.

Howie Long, an NFL analyst for Fox's pregame show, helps out twice a week with the STAB team. A standout at Villanova and for the Oakland Raiders, he moved to Charlottesville after his playing days. His son is an offensive guard and defensive tackle who runs 40 yards in 4.8 seconds.

ODDS 'N' ENDS: Groh said that center Kevin Bailey, injured in the fourth quarter of the Cavaliers' opening game, has undergone reconstructive knee surgery and has hopes of participating in spring practice. ... The original two-game contract called for UVa and Penn State to play Sept. 7, when the Cavaliers also had a game scheduled with South Carolina. Groh said the only option was to play this weekend or wrap up the series in 2003. ... Linebacker Dennis Haley said there has been no resolution to the administrative matter that has kept him out of the lineup since the opening game.

 

Early departures take luster off ACC hoops

BOB LIPPER
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST Nov 05, 2002

Contact Bob Lipper at (804) 649-6555 or e-mail blipper@timesdispatch.com

GREENSBORO, N.C. You looked around the room, and you drank in the power and the glory that is ACC basketball. You had the whiz-bang point guard from North Carolina. The wide-body center from Duke. The deadeye shooter from Georgia Tech. The springy swingman from Vir ginia, the defensive stopper from Maryland, the human rejector from Clemson, the towering presence from N.C. State, the dominating forward from Wake Forest.

I am talking here about Phil Ford, Mike Gminski, Mark Price, Jeff Lamp, Len Elmore, Tree Rollins, Tommy Burleson and Len Chappell.

'Course, the youngest of them turned in his college jersey more than 15 years ago, but you takes your power and your glory where you finds'em these days.

Those eight players provided historical touchstones Sunday when the ACC staged its annual Operation Basketball as a beat-the-drums prelim to its 50th-anniversary season. The place cards at the tables changed after lunch, and an army of media types seeking insider-trading tips from current squad members could then take their pick from the likes of Ray Henderson, Nate Johnson, Robert Brooks, Clifford Crawford and Steve Lepore.

UNC was represented by walk-on forward Will Johnson and anonymous guard Jonathan Holmes.

El Deano, we have a problem.

Among the rituals at Op Basketball is filling out a ballot that includes a preseason all-league team. Once upon a pre-agent time, this would've been a snap. You could've jotted down Jason Williams, Mike Dunleavy, Carlos Boozer, Chris Wilcox and Roger Mason, and let it go at that. You could've, except none of those guys is on an ACC roster. Each of them checked out for NBA greenbacks with unexpired time on their eligibility meters.

"They had the opportunity to leave," said U.Va.'s Travis Watson. "If I had the opportunity, I probably would've done it, too."

Welcome to the strip-mined ACC. Of the 10 players who made first- or second-team all-conference, Watson is the only holdover. The top 11 scorers are gone. Ditto 10 of the top 15 rebounders, 11 of the 14 leading assist men and 11 of the 13 most accurate shooters.

Duke's Chris Duhon, who averaged 8.9 points last season on 41-percent marksmanship, was voted most likely to succeed Juan Dixon as the league's player of the year.

Not to slight Duhon or anything, but it's not your father's ACC anymore.

Or as Maryland coach Gary Williams put it, "There's more teams that have questions this year than any year I've been here."

Start with Williams' crew. It snared the NCAA championship last April. Now it's missing four starters and lacks the mid-size players that lend flexibility to its press-and-run scheme. What the Terps won't be missing is the imprint of Williams' shoe on the rear of their shorts.

"I wasn't really nice the first day of practice," Williams said. "I wanted to make sure we were working hard the first day - that we didn't think we were good'cause of last year."

Other considerations for inquiring minds? Will Duke's freshmen ("One of the greatest recruiting classes since Moby Dick was a minnow," said U.Va. coach Pete Gillen) be outasight? Can UNC shake off the hangover from 8-20 degradation ("There were certainly times I felt I was going to get physically ill," said Matt Doherty) and launch a turnaround? Is Georgia Tech on the cusp of a breakthrough? ("We're close," said Paul Hewitt) Does State have a reliable playmaker? (Herb Sendek said he was confident he had someone who can "transport" the basketball, which maybe means he trusts the team bus driver more than Clifford Crawford.)

Oh, and can Virginia play some defense? To that end, Gillen added defensive-specialist assistant Rod Jensen to his staff. "I needed help," Gillen confessed. "I put my ego in my pocket."

The ACC is about to put uncertainty on display. My projections? I picked Duke to finish atop the standings (daring, no?). I picked U.Va. third. I took a little bit of a flyer on player of the year and went with State's Julius Hodge.

But what do I know? What does anybody know?

 

Long says he'll play for Cavaliers

BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Nov 05, 2002

CHARLOTTESVILLE - The first member of Virginia's 2004 recruiting class in football has impeccable bloodlines.

Chris Long, whose father is Pro Football Hall of Famer Howie Long, committed to the Cavaliers last week. Long, a 6-4, 245-pound lineman, is only a junior at St. Anne's-Belfield in Charlottesville, so he can't sign a binding letter of intent until February 2004. No matter.

"I think Chris has all along wanted to go to Virginia," STAB coach John Blake said yesterday.

Long and Blake met Thursday with U.Va. coach Al Groh and his staff. On the way over to the McCue Center, Blake recalled, "I said, 'Chris what are you going to do if he offers you?' He said, 'I'm going to commit.'"

Which is exactly what happened. Long had discussed the possibility with his parents, and they'd approved.

"The University of Virginia has a great balance of academics and athletics," Long said yesterday. "I think sooner or later I was going to commit. Why not sooner rather than later?"

The Longs moved from Los Angeles to Ivy about eight years ago. Chris Long, 17, starts at defensive end and offensive tackle for STAB, which plays Atlantic Shores in the Virginia Independent Schools, Division II semifinals Saturday in Chesapeake.

Long, who also starts for STAB's lacrosse team, chose to repeat his sophomore year in 2001-02.

"He was a playful 10th-grader who needed to mature," Blake said. "That was Chris' deal. We would have gladly taken him as an 11th-grader then . . . It's tremendous how much it helped him. I think it really put things in perspective for Chris."

Howie Long, who played at Villanova, has supported Groh's rebuilding job at U.Va. The former Raiders great appeared in the video shown at Scott Stadium before U.Va.'s Aug. 22 opener with Colorado State.

Offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave led U.Va.'s recruitment of Chris Long. "Coach Musgrave is a great, great guy," Long said. "We just really hit it off."


 

U.VA. NOTES

TIME TO HEAL: The Cavaliers, who last played Oct. 26, didn't practice last week. Virginia has four games left in the longest regular season in school history, starting Saturday in State College, Pa. U.Va. (6-3) meets 19th-ranked Penn State (6-3) at 3:30 p.m.

Virginia and Colorado State opened the college season Aug. 22 in the Jim Thorpe Classic at Scott Stadium.

"What everything is aimed for, whether it's practice, rest, game plan, whatever, is to get your team to the game on Saturday most prepared to play," said Al Groh, the Cavaliers' second-year coach. "Sometimes getting the team rested is part of that equation."

Elton Brown, a starting offensive guard, was on crutches in the locker room yesterday, the right foot he re-injured Oct. 26 against Georgia Tech in a protective boot. But several other Cavaliers who left Atlanta banged-up are significantly healthier, including special teams ace Marquis Weeks and linebackers Angelo Crowell and Darryl Blackstock.

"I'm straight," said Blackstock, who leads U.Va. in sacks. The true freshman from Newport News sprained his lower back against the Yellow Jackets.

"That killed me, man," Blackstock said. "You should have seen me the day after. I couldn't do anything. I just lay in the bed all day."

SUPER-SIZE IT: Penn State's Beaver Stadium seats more than 108,000. None of the U.Va. players has played before a crowd that big. Groh has never coached in front of that many people.

"It should be fun," he said. "I look forward to it. I think it should be pretty invigorating."

PROUD FATHER: Saturday produced numerous memorable college games, including the upsets of previously unbeaten Virginia Tech, N.C. State, Georgia and Notre Dame.

Virginia's coaching staff had the day off, but Groh didn't spend it in front of the TV.

"I spent my day watching the Cornell-Princeton game," he said. "After years and years of having the pleasure of watching my children play, this was my grand finale. That was my last game."

Groh's older son, Mike, played quarterback for U.Va. and now coaches the team's receivers.

His younger son, Matt, is a senior at Princeton, which rallied to beat Cornell 32-25 in overtime in Ithaca, N.Y.

"Matt's just the backup quarterback, but very proud to be that, and I was very proud of him, so I enjoyed it very much," Groh said. "It snowed the whole game, so it was nice to be back in Charlottesville [Sunday]."

FAMILIAR TERRITORY: Virginia's assistant head coach, Danny Rocco, lettered for Penn State in 1979 and '80 before transferring to Wake Forest to play for Groh. Rocco's father, Frank, is a former PSU assistant coach.

The Cavaliers' defensive coordinator, Al Golden, is a 1991 Penn State graduate. A former starter at tight end for Joe Paterno, Golden coached PSU's linebackers in 2000. He joined Groh's staff at U.Va. last year.

Asked if this is more than just another game for Golden, Groh smiled slyly and said, "Well, I can't speak for Al, but when I did pass his office coming over here, he was curled up in the corner."

Sleeping?

"No, he was shaking violently," Groh said.

ON A RAMPAGE: Penn State tailback Larry Johnson broke his own school record for single-game rushing Saturday, gaining 279 yards in an 18-7 win over Illinois. Johnson, a senior, had set the record Oct. 19 by rushing for 257 yards in a victory over Northwestern.

A season ago in Charlottesville, Johnson wasn't a factor. He carried five times for 39 yards in a 20-14 loss to U.Va.

"I think the fact that he was one of three backs carrying it last year had something to do with that," Groh said.

Johnson (135.7 yards per game) is the nation's fifth-leading rusher.

"He'll be a tremendous challenge," Groh said, "and that one particular facet of their team alone has the potential to set the whole tone for the game."

Of the 117 teams in Division I-A, Virginia ranks 106th in rushing defense, allowing an average of 209.4 yards per game. Northwestern is 117th with a 330.9 average.

ON HOLD: The starting time for Virginia's Nov. 16 game with ACC rival N.C. State at Scott Stadium won't be announced until Sunday. ABC has exercised a six-day option on the game.