Ga. Tech descends on UVa
Respectability, bowl eligibility at stake for Cavaliers
By John Galinsky / Daily Progress staff writer
November 22, 2003

This is far from how the Virginia Cavaliers anticipated going into their final ACC game of the season - losers of four straight conference games, needing a victory to finish .500 in league play.

Back in August, they talked about winning the ACC championship, with today’s game against Georgia Tech at Scott Stadium potentially serving as their crowning moment. That seemed possible after a 3-0 start against conference competition.

Instead, UVa (5-5, 3-4 ACC) now needs to beat the Yellow Jackets (6-4, 4-3) to avoid falling into seventh place in the league standings. It also must win today or next week against No. 12 Virginia Tech to become eligible for a bowl game. Regardless, an invitation won’t be forthcoming from an upper-tier bowl like the Gator or Peach.

With a victory, the Tangerine, Continental Tire and Humanitarian Bowls are possible destinations. The Tangerine, played Dec. 22 in Orlando, Fla., will have a representative at today’s game.

“This is very important for us,” said junior tailback Alvin Pearman. “No one really expected to be in the situation we’re in right now, hoping to be invited to any bowl. But we really just have to take it one game at a time. … We have to take care of business or we won’t be going anywhere.”

Said senior safety Jamaine Winborne: “It means a lot. Everyone wants to go to a bowl. No one wants to be home for Christmas.”

The Yellow Jackets, meanwhile, became eligible for a seventh straight bowl trip by beating North Carolina last week. They probably could secure a Tangerine or Continental Tire Bowl invitation with a victory as well as clinch a seventh straight winning season. That would be quite an accomplishment, considering many predicted Tech’s decline after a turbulent offseason.

“I know it’s a big, big game for them since they’re going for a bowl and everything,” said Yellow Jackets safety James Butler. “But it’s just as big for us. There’s a lot we still want to accomplish.”

Plenty is at stake in the ACC standings. Depending on the results of other games today and next week, Georgia Tech could finish as high as tied for second, while Virginia has a chance to end up tied for fourth.

Will that be enough to motivate the Cavaliers? Having aimed much higher, will they be able to summon the intensity necessary to compete with one of the ACC’s most physically rugged teams?

The Yellow Jackets don’t have an explosive offense - they are last in the conference in yards and eighth in points - but they have big linemen and the league’s leading rusher in sophomore tailback P.J. Daniels. They also have a game-breaking receiver in senior Jonathan Smith.

Defensively, Tech has been stingy, limiting Auburn, Wake Forest and Maryland to a total of 13 points. Even the ACC’s best offenses, Florida State and N.C. State, combined for just 35 points against the Jackets, who have standouts in Butler, defensive end Eric Henderson, and linebackers Keyaron Fox and Daryl Smith.

While Virginia must contend with Tech’s power running game, the Jackets have prepared for UVa’s short-passing attack.

“Virginia does a great job with their running backs and their tight ends, getting the ball to those people and letting them make plays,” said Tech coach Chan Gailey. “You have to get somebody on them. If you let them dump the ball to those guys, it’s going to be a long day.”

For both teams, the day will begin quickly. UVa coach Al Groh has made a point this week of asking fans to show up on time - or early - for the noon kickoff.

“It’s a littler earlier start, but then there’s that much longer time to do all those fun things afterward,” Groh said with a smile.
 

Everything's on the line for Virginia
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
November 22, 2003

Virginia’s entire season is on the line today when several Cavalier seniors play in their final ACC football game.

The Wahoos have to beat Georgia Tech to become bowl eligible and this high-noon showdown should be what has become the norm in the ACC: a down to the wire, thriller-diller. Parity has left little separation between the league’s teams.

So, what today’s battle comes down to is execution and guts.

Maybe UVa coach Al Groh needs to ask each of his players before they take the field at Scott Stadium if they’re willing to put their face in the fan today.

Maybe some of the team leaders need to give a gut check to every player who suits up today because its time to fish or cut bait for the Wahoos. Win and a lot of their problems could be put behind them. Lose and the problems mount.

“Everyone in this lockerroom has to take it upon themselves to make this team better,” said Virginia right guard Elton Brown early in the week. “The rest of this season could turn either way. The season hasn’t gone how we wanted it to go and we have two games to make it better.”

Jackets’ jolting defense

Virginia’s offense will be facing one of the stingiest defenses in the league this afternoon. The Yellow Jackets ranked third in the ACC in scoring defense, having given up only 19 points per game. In most contests, you win if you give up 19 or less.

In fact, the Cavs would be 8-3 right now if that point limit had been enforced.

Tech linebacker Daryl Smith believes the entire key to stopping Virginia is stopping its short passing game to tailback Alvin Pearman and tight end Heath Miller, who together account for 97 catches this season.

“We just have to drop back our linebackers into coverage,” Smith said. “When [UVa] swings the ball in the flats to its running backs or out to its tight ends, we just have to step up and make good tackles. We just have to make sure they don’t get that many yards after the catch.”

Air or ground attack?

Obviously, like most teams, the Jackets figure the Cavs will abandon the run early and go airborne in hopes of pulling out of an ACC tailspin that has seen Virginia lose four of its last five games.

During most of that span, the Hoos haven’t exactly been a force on the ground. With an under-achieving offensive line, there hasn’t been much room to run.

As Groh has reminded us, all backs run the same when there’s no hole.

Wali Lundy, who has suffered through hamstring problems and a foot injury this season, said his hammy gave him some difficulty at frosty College Park last week. He said that the nagging injury has prevented him from really opening up, which explains why he was caught from behind by a Terp defender.

Defensively, the Cavs have been less than impressive of late. They’ve given up too many big plays and had difficulty stopping the run.

Instead of putting their faces in the fan, they’ve played like the fan has devoured their entire carcasses. Against Tech today, the Hoos will be running up against the biggest offensive line in the ACC and Georgia Tech has the conference’s top producer in the running game, P.J. Daniels.

There’s also the elusive rookie, Reggie Ball, who can pick defenses apart if he’s given time. Against a pass rush that hasn’t put a lot of fear into many quarterbacks this season, most opposing quarterbacks have had arm-chair protection while choosing their targets against Virginia’s much maligned defense.

“I keep the word fight in my head,” said UVa linebacker Daryl Blackstock. “Fight, fight, fight.”

This is clearly a game where Virginia needs to pull out all the stops to win.

Anything less could be a disaster.
 

Home is where the victories are
UVa's Al Groh says he believes playing at home is a greater factor in college than in the NFL.
By Doug Doughty
doug.doughty@roanoke.com
981-3129

Georgia Tech has won five of its past six games and Virginia has lost four of its past five games, so how could the Cavaliers be favored by seven points in their game today?

That's easy. Virginia is at home.

The Cavaliers (5-5, 3-4 ACC) aren't the only Division I-A team that has enjoyed much of its success at home. Georgia Tech (6-4, 4-3) has had the same experience.

Georgia Tech is the only ACC team that has beaten North Carolina State and Maryland, with both of those victories in Atlanta, but the Yellow Jackets also furnished the opposition at Duke when the Blue Devils ended a record, 30-game conference losing streak.

"If I knew there was an exact secret to winning and playing well on the road, I'd can it, market it, sell it, and make a lot of money," said second-year Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey, who brings the Yellow Jackets to Scott Stadium for a noon kickoff today. "Nobody's got the answer."

Like Gailey, Virginia coach Al Groh has an NFL background. His impression is that the home field is a greater factor in college than in the pros.

"It seems to be that way," Groh said. "I've queried a lot of people because I don't quite understand it. Just looking around, it seems very rare that anybody but a few select teams wins on the road.

"Iowa is a real good team. They went on the road to Purdue and got beat handily [26-14]. They went home the next week and played a Minnesota team that finished 9-3 and won [40-22]. That's one of the examples that struck me."

Groh needs only look 150 miles to the southwest, where Virginia Tech lambasted then-No.2 Miami 31-7 in Blacksburg but lost two road games and slipped by host Temple 24-23 in overtime.

"Whatever it is, I'm trying to figure it out," Groh said. "I'm guessing a lot of other people are, too."

The home vs. road disparity doesn't make Groh feel any more comfortable as he prepares for a Georgia Tech team that has not won at Scott Stadium since 1990.

"It doesn't," Groh said. "And, it didn't make me feel any more un comfortable going on the road. I just try to look at the game and the things that need to be done in the game and how to get our team ready, but apparently there's other issues at hand."

For Georgia Tech, it almost seems as if somebody has cast a spell over Scott Stadium, where the Yellow Jackets were ranked seventh when they lost 45-38 in 1999 and 20th when they fell 39-38 in 2001. In both cases, UVa was unranked and overcame deficits of 17 and 13 points.

Now, both teams are unranked, with a possible Tangerine Bowl bid awaiting today's winner. Virginia needs at least one more victory to have the break-even record required for an invitation to one of the six bowls with which the ACC is affiliated.

Theoretically, Virginia could go to a bowl if it lost to Georgia Tech and beat visiting Virginia Tech in the season's final week, but that would probably be the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho.

In expressing his preference for a Division I-A playoff, Groh has spoken of a desire to play for championships and not be satisfied with mid-range bowl bids. However, one of the benefits of the current bowl system is the extra 12-13 days of practice that it affords participants.

"This is the environment in which I live and bowls are part of that environment," Groh said. "I would prefer that we have a genuine playoff, but we don't. This is what we have and this is what I'm enthusiastic about."

 

GEORGIA TECH AT VIRGINIA
Jackets' bowl travel plans hinge on game
By JOHN HOLLIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Charlottesville, Va. -- It's come down to a choice between Florida and Idaho for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

The Jackets are likely playing for a berth in the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando or the Humanitarian Bowl in Boise, Idaho in today's game against Virginia. Tech is one of three ACC teams, along with the Cavaliers and Maryland, that the Tangerine Bowl is considering for its Dec. 22 game in Orlando against a Big 12 team, perhaps Kansas or Colorado.

Freshman quarterback Reggie Ball sounded like most players who already know which postseason fate they'd prefer.

"I sure wouldn't want to go to Boise," Ball said, referring to the Jan. 3 Humanitarian Bowl that might await the Jackets should they lose today, "but if we have to settle for Boise, well, just go win up there."

Tech's ultimate destination will depend on the Jackets' winning at Virginia today, a feat they haven't managed since shocking the then-No. 1 Cavaliers in 1990. But the prospect of a week of some fun in the sun and being home in time for Christmas might be all the motivation they need this time.

Tangerine Bowl officials, who have the third pick of ACC teams after the BCS behind the Gator and Chick-fil-A Peach Bowls, said this week that they will likely wait until Sunday to make official bowl bids because they want to see what happens in tonight's later Clemson-South Carolina game as well. The Tigers, who played in the Tangerine Bowl last year, are an outside shot to return at best, no matter the game's outcome, Tangerine Bowl Executive Director Tom Mickle said.

The Jackets, on the other hand, are looking good, but need a win today.

"They're right in the thick of it," he said. "They're right in our picture."

Another less likely possibility for the Jackets could be the Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte, which pits its fourth pick of ACC teams against one from the Big East on Dec. 27. That scenario could happen should the Gator Bowl choose Clemson and the Tangerine select Maryland.

The Humanitarian Bowl will match its fifth pick of ACC teams against the champion or second choice team from the Western Athletic Conference. Host and 20th-ranked Boise State will likely be the opponent.

Jackets linebacker Daryl Smith said everything will take care of itself, as long as his team does what its supposed to do.

"We just have to go out and get wins to get to a good bowl game," he said.

 

Running back's season befits a Prince
E-mail Steve Hummer

Georgia Tech's P.J. Daniels has a smile more infectious than pink eye. And the attitude to match, flexing an optimism that makes Mary Tyler Moore look like a grim nihilist.

''I've always been energetic,'' he said, underlining a trait that obviously comes in handy for a running back, ''and I've always had a smile on my face since I was little.''

Daniels also has a healthy sense of self. Leading the ACC in rushing and gaining nearly as many yards last Saturday against North Carolina (240) as he did all last season (255) is not likely to confuse his compass.

Not so long as he can steal away a few quiet moments in the evening, close his eyes, fix on a single image, and stay tuned into that one mental snapshot for 15 or so minutes. It is a form of meditation taught to him by one of his uncles -- the one in California, naturally -- that has helped to keep him tethered to reality.

''Maybe it's one move or cut I made and I'll repeat that over and over,'' he said. ''Your brain is always moving a 1,000 miles per hour. This slows everything down and helps you focus on one thing at a time.

''All the fame just comes with the game. I believe in my family. My uncles got me prepared for it, with the meditating and just by talking to them. They talk to me like I'm one of them, I'm one of their brothers. I really appreciate that. It helped me mature.''

Running through all of that is one of the feel-good stories of the college football season. Daniels could have had a scholarship to run the football at a couple of smaller venues near his home in Houston. But he isn't exactly wired the conventional way. ''I didn't want to stay home. I knew there was something for me out in the world. I like to learn stuff on my own. I like to go out and see what the world has to offer,'' he said.

So, he dared to show up on the Flats 2001 a walk-on who first was redshirted and then buried in that part of the depth chart that could be used for a bomb shelter. Steadily, he dug himself out using the tools to persistence and sweat and attitude. When Tony Hollings sustained a career-ending injury to his transcript before this season, a final opening presented itself. And Daniels pushed on up through it to daylight.

''I never looked at it as being a walk on. I was just doing something I liked to do. I set my focus on the one thing I liked to do and I did it,'' he said.

Not the fastest back afield. Nor the slickest -- that whirling touchdown run against FSU notwithstanding. Just a runner who from experience knows that any little crack can be turned into a six-lane opportunity if it is attacked head-on and without hesitation. Running hard can be just as gratifying as running artfully.

''I rooted for him all along,'' said Tech coach Chan Gailey, ''because of the kind of person he is, what he stands for, what he went through to get here. Now, I'm rooting for him for an entirely different set of reasons.''

Gaily found himself quite a load-bearing sophomore whose 36 carries against North Carolina seem like a awful lot until you consider how far he came just to get his first. The workload is not likely to get much lighter today at Virginia, who ranks above only the Tar Heels in ACC rush defense.

And, yet, none of that is what makes Daniels a true Prince among men.

Only his father, the first Prince Daniels, could bestow that distinction upon him. If not royal by blood, Daniels is by birth certificate. Christened Prince Jr., Daniels didn't seem to mind when his family informally shortened his handle to P.J.

''I think I'll go back to being Prince when I hit my 30s. I like P.J. because it sounds useful. It makes it sound like I'm still young,'' Daniels said.

There are a couple of ways to go when you grow up Prince -- tilt toward the defensive or the disarming. Daniels chose his strategy early:

''The first few days [of school], people would hear my name Prince, they'd look around and I'd be in the back, raising my hand tentatively. I got picked on some. But as the year went on, everybody became my friend. I was always a people person.''

And what of the day he has a son of his own? ''He'll be Prince III,'' declared Daniels. What a happy little legacy will be passed down with the regal name.
 

Cavs seek to save season
Bowl bid is on the line for Virginia in its final 2 games of the season
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Nov 22, 2003
GA. TECH AT U.VA.
TODAY: Noon ON THE AIR: TV - WTVR-6; Radio - WRVA (1140), 11:30 a.m.

CHARLOTTESVILLE - The football players at the University of Virginia are not in denial. They realize their team has lost games it could have won, struggled on the road and generally failed to meet preseason expectations.

The Cavaliers won't finish higher than fourth in the ACC. But the players know they can salvage a disappointing season with a strong finish.

"We got two one-game seasons," junior offensive guard Elton Brown said. "It hasn't been going the way we wanted it to, but we can still end it on a high note with two victories."

Two regular-season games remain for Al Groh's club. Virginia (3-4, 5-5) plays host to ACC foe Georgia Tech (4-3, 6-4) this afternoon, then entertains 12th-ranked Virginia Tech next Saturday in a game whose starting time will be announced tomorrow.

"We've had some tough losses," junior tight end Patrick Estes said Monday. "No one wants to be 5-5. Everybody knows we need to suck it up and get a win this week and then worry about the following week."

In 2002, the Cavaliers capped a remarkable season - they'd been picked to finish eighth in the ACC - by whipping West Virginia in the Continental Tire Bowl to finish 9-5. Eighteen starters returned, but the trademarks of Groh's second team at U.Va. - the ability to pull out close games, a knack for forcing turnovers, calmness under pressure - haven't been as evident this fall.

Injuries to all-ACC quarterback Matt Schaub, tailback Wali Lundy and safety Willie Davis have contributed to the Cavaliers' struggles, but they haven't been solely responsible for the team's decline.

"Last year we made ourselves a team that was hard to beat," Groh said. "This year we're a team that makes it hard on ourselves. We're right there, but we make it too hard on ourselves."

In games decided by 10 or fewer points last season, U.Va. was 5-2. Its record in those games this season is 1-3. Among ACC teams, Virginia ranks sixth in turnover margin (plus-1). The Cavaliers finished second in that category last season, at plus-15.

Groh said he rarely has been associated with a team that "got it" the way last year's Cavaliers did.

"They just knew exactly what they had to do going into a game and during the course of a game to win," he said. "They just got it. This team shows up, and by 'shows up,' I mean, they work hard in the weight room, they work hard in practice, they give effort in the games, they fight back - that's been proven - but we just make it hard on ourselves."

The Cavaliers are running out of time, and they understand what's at stake. Unless Virginia wins one of its next two games, it won't be eligible for a second straight bowl appearance.

"It definitely crosses your mind," said Schaub, one of the team's six senior starters, "because every guy that plays college football wants to go to a bowl, especially in his final season."

Today's loser figures to drop from consideration for the Tangerine Bowl. The winner will put itself in prime position for an invitation from the Dec. 22 game in Orlando, Fla.

Groh and Georgia Tech's second-year coach, Chan Gailey, worked together at Air Force in 1979. Groh was defensive coordinator, and Gailey was one of the Falcons' defensive assistants.

Gailey was the Denver Broncos' offensive coordinator in 1990. That's the last time the Yellow Jackets won in Charlottesville. U.Va. hasn't fared much better in Atlanta, losing four straight to the Jackets there.

Like most ACC teams, Georgia Tech has struggled on the road this season. The low point came Nov. 8 in Durham, N.C., when Duke snapped a 30-game ACC losing streak by humbling the Yellow Jackets 41-17.

"If I knew there was an exact secret to winning and playing well on the road, I'd can it, market it, sell it and make a lot of money," Gailey said. "Nobody's got the answer . . . You just prepare and play the best you can."