U.VA. NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch Nov 29, 2005

WAITING GAME: The executive directors of the two bowls recently added to the ACC's postseason roster - the Music City and the Emerald - would love to start selling tickets this week. Those bowls can't extend invitations, however, until the ACC's other games release teams, one of which will be Virginia, from consideration.

That apparently won't happen until this weekend's ACC championship game in Jacksonville, Fla. That was the word last night from Mike Finn, one of the ACC's assistant commissioners.

The winner of the Jacksonville game - Coastal Division champion Virginia Tech (10-1) or Atlantic Division winner Florida State (7-4) - will head to the Bowl Championship Series. The ACC's other bowl-eligible teams are Miami (9-2), Boston College (8-3), Clemson (7-4), Georgia Tech (7-5), Virginia (6-5) and N.C. State (6-5).

Neither the Music City (Dec. 30 in Nashville, Tenn.) nor the Emerald (Dec. 29 in San Francisco) can make its choice until the Gator, Peach, Champs Sports, Meineke Car Care and MPC Computers bowls make their selections.

SAFETY FIRST: Sophomore Nate Lyles, who injured his neck Nov. 12 against Georgia Tech, returned to classes a few days later and "is back living the same kind of normal, active life that most non-football-playing students live," coach Al Groh said last week.

Lyles, a safety whom Groh nominated for the all-ACC team, was on the sideline during U.Va.'s game against Miami at the Orange Bowl on Saturday, without a neck brace. Whether he'll play football again, however, remains uncertain.

"The plan was there wasn't going to be any more testing for a few weeks," Groh said.

In 2006, the Cavaliers will have a surplus of returning players at several positions. Safety isn't one of them. If Lyles isn't available, the veterans at that position would consist of Tony Franklin, Jamaal Jackson and walk-ons Byron Glaspy and Ryan Best. Don't be surprised if the U.Va. coaches shift at least one player to safety this winter.

"That's probably going to be the case," Groh said Sunday night. "Somebody's going to get a tap on the shoulder, 'Surprise, surprise.'"

Groh declined to identify who might move to the secondary. "I better tap 'em on the shoulder first," he said.

The receiving corps might have some candidates. If spring practice began today, U.Va. would have eight scholarship players working at wideout: Deyon Williams, Fontel Mines, Emmanuel Byers, Theirrien Davis, Kevin Ogletree, Andrew Pearman, Maurice Covington and Brandon Woods. Pearman, a transfer from Hawaii, is sitting out this season. Woods, a freshman, is redshirting.

EYE TO THE FUTURE: About 65 players made the trip to Miami, including true freshmen Jameel Sewell and Jeffrey Fitzgerald, Hermitage High graduates who are redshirting this season. Sewell is a 6-2, 213-pound quarterback; Fitzgerald, a 6-3, 261-pound defensive end.

Groh said he occasionally likes to take to road games freshmen who haven't played but are likely to be "in a significant role next year. It gets them acclimated to the process and [they see] how a team travels, just so it'll be one less thing that they're experiencing for the first time."

Asked last week about Sewell, Groh said the left-hander has been "very promising." Sewell is a dropback passer who moves well in the pocket.

"He's not going to be Marques Hagans," Groh said, "but he's an athletic player at quarterback."

SOLID STUFF: Redshirt freshman Clint Sintim started every game at outside linebacker and finished the regular season as U.Va.'s fifth-leading tackler, with 43 stops. Sintim had nine tackles for loss, including three sacks.

"He's done a nice job," Groh said last week. "It hasn't been a spectacular job. I'd say for a guy who's going to play four years it's been a good start."

MINIMAL IMPACT: Because of depth and experience concerns, Groh believed he couldn't afford to redshirt outside linebacker Olu Hall, so the 6-3, 228-pound true freshman began the season as a pass-rusher in Virginia's nickel defense. His playing time decreased throughout the fall, however, and Hall finished the regular season with one tackle in 94 plays from scrimmage.

That's not much production from a player who, as a Robinson High senior, was widely considered the state's top college prospect. Still, Groh hopes the experience will accelerate Hall's development in 2006.

"He's been exposed to the games and what it's like, and he's got more of a sense of what you have to do to really be ready to perform well on that level, and because he was involved in the preparation for the games, he probably got more intense coaching at his position," Groh said. - Jeff White

 

UVa still waiting for bowl bid
The Cavs must wait for the upper-tier games to make their choices before their fate is determined.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129
The Roanoke Times

Everybody agrees that Virginia is a likely choice for one of the two bowl games that have moved up the starting date of their ACC tie-ins, but which one will it be, the Music City or the Emerald?

"Good question," ACC assistant commissioner Mike Finn said Monday night.

While there is a priority order for the five bowl teams that have a choice of ACC teams after the BCS makes its selections, nothing has been said about a pecking order for the two new bowls.

"We haven't determined one yet," Finn said. "I don't know what we'll do. We might just ask each one of them for their preferences. It may not be an issue."

Could that be wishful thinking?

"You'd be surprised," Finn said.

Virginia AD Craig Little-page said Monday that he had assumed the Music City Bowl, to be held Dec. 30, in Nashville, Tenn., would pick before the Emerald Bowl because it was the first to announce that it would take an ACC team.

The Music City Bowl announcement came last Tuesday and it wasn't until Sunday that the Emerald Bowl, slated for Dec. 29 in San Francisco, said it would take an ACC team.

"Chronologically, the Emerald would not have been able to negotiate anything with the ACC until they were sure they would not have enough teams from the Pac-10," Littlepage said.

It was almost midnight Saturday before Notre Dame scored the last-minute touchdown that dropped Stanford to 5-6 and eliminated the last Pac-10 team that could have played in the Emerald Bowl. It had been known for a week that the Southeastern Conference would not have enough teams to fill its Music City slot.

"It caused me to go back and look at all the correspondence I had received and there was no definitive statement on this particular subject," Littlepage said.

Once the BCS takes the ACC champion and presuming there isn't a second at-large ACC representative, the Gator Bowl will pick next, followed by the Peach Bowl, Champs Sports Bowl, Meineke Car Care Bowl and MPC Computers Bowl.

It was thought that those bowl committees might release a team or teams to negotiate with the Music City and Emerald Bowls, but that did not happen and may not occur until Florida State and Virginia Tech play for the championship Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla., Finn said.

 

UVa bowl hopes turn green
By Andy Bitter
Lynchburg News & Advance
November 28, 2005

Will it be the Golden Gate or the Grand Ole Opry? Those appear to be Virginia’s two postseason possibilities.

A day after the Cavaliers (6-5, 3-5 ACC) finished their regular season with a 25-17 loss at Miami, the ACC announced it reached an agreement with the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco to send a team in place of the Pac-10. Utah has already accepted a bid to play in the bowl on Dec. 29 (4:30 p.m.)

That gives the ACC eight bowl tie-ins. The move comes a week after the ACC made a similar deal with the Music City Bowl in Nashville (Dec. 30, noon) to play a Big Ten team in place of the SEC.

Virginia is likely to play in one of the two new bowls. The Cavaliers are on the lower end of the totem poll when it comes to postseason attractiveness. They are tied for the worst record of the ACC’s eight bowl-eligible teams (N.C. State is also 6-5).

Six ACC teams have at least seven wins (Virginia Tech, Florida State, Miami, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Boston College) and are likely to snatch up the top bowl berths. The bottom three ACC tie-ins are with the MPC Computers Bowl in Boise and the two new ones. Since UVa went to Boise last year, it would probably not be a candidate to go again this season.

Virginia head coach Al Groh said Sunday that he expects the decision to come soon. Through out recruiting, he has been in communication with athletic director Craig Littlepage, who was in Arizona with the men’s basketball team Sunday night.

This will be UVa’s fourth straight season with a bowl appearance. Only once in school history have the Cavaliers gone to bowls in four consecutive years, from 1993-96 under head coach George Welsh.

Groh didn’t seem picky about the destination.

“We don’t care where, we don’t care who,” he said. “I told them after (Saturday night) … who’s out there that you shouldn’t look forward to playing? If you just have the same sense of purpose, no matter what their name is, no matter what the color of their jersey is, no matter where the game is, to go out with this passion to win, we’ll be all right.”

Though they lost their last two games, the Cavaliers have something to build on from the Miami game. They gained more yards (407) than any team has this season against the Hurricanes, which entered Saturday with the nation’s top-ranked defense. Miami, ranked 10th in the latest AP poll, didn’t put Virginia away until it recovered an onside kick attempt in the final minute.

Though UVa players danced around the phrase afterward, it was somewhat of a moral victory after a demoralizing 52-14 loss to Virginia Tech at home last week.

“I think it’s a confidence booster going into the next game we play,” quarterback Marques Hagans said. “And I definitely think it will be a confidence booster for the guys coming back next year.

“They ought to feel confident that they can play with (Miami). That’s a great team, but we were in it to the end.”
 

Leitao's foot stomps kick-start new attitude
Chad Gallagher, Columnist

We are only a couple of games into the Dave Leitao era, but already there is an entirely different attitude around the Virginia basketball program.

It is not the fact that the Cavaliers won their first two games or that Leitao wears his passion for basketball on his sleeve. Remember, Pete Gillen got his team off to strong starts in four of his seven seasons as head coach, and that he and Gary Williams were in contention for the Sweatiest Coach in the ACC Award every year. Leitao has an entirely different intangible quality that is generating some excitement around this Virginia team: his no-nonsense attitude.

"I want [my players] to know that they can come into my office and talk about issues relative to their life; we can laugh, we can put our arms around each other, and we can joke, but that they understand where the line is," Leitao said during his preseason press conference. "When it comes to basketball, there are very few things I joke around with. It's a serious venture, and it should be for them [as well]."

Leitao's seriousness was evident during Virginia's season-opening 79-44 domination of Liberty Nov. 18. Despite the Cavalier's opening 18-2 run, Leitao refused to sit back and take the game easy. Instead, he was constantly on his feet, making sure his players stayed in the game mentally despite being ahead by at least 20 points for most of the game.

Staying focused in the game "helps because you never know; when we go up against a real good team, it will help," point guard Sean Singletary said after the Liberty win. "It's practicing a good habit."

Leitao himself definitely stayed in that game, picking up a technical foul with about five minutes left in the game for arguing a call. It was the ultimate sign to his team that despite what the scoreboard said, there was still a game to be played. Leitao, who claims not to be a coach that picks up technical fouls, probably already has drawn the attention of many referees who will work Virginia games this season with his soon to be notorious foot stomp protest. In both of his first two games as Virginia's head coach, Leitao drew technical fouls for stomping his foot against the hardwood in protest.

"I have got to wear rubber soled shoes, I guess," Leitao said following the Nov. 22 59-43 win over Richmond. "I was just trying to get [the referee's] attention more than anything else. But two 'T's' in two games is not what I am trying to do for this team."

Personally, I love the foot stomp. The 6-foot-7-inches Leitao and his stomp just may be the most intimidating, scary thing on the court for Virginia basketball. That's no knock on Tunji Soroye or Laurynas Mikalauskas, just praise for Leitao. But if Leitao does want to cut back on technical fouls, then there really should be some money somewhere in the athletic department's budget for some soft-soled shoes. And if Craig Littlepage can't foot the bill, then perhaps some donations can be made to get Leitao some new shoes.

Joking aside, Leitao's intensity and desire for perfection from his players are just what this team needed and some of the major differences from last year's disappointing squad. As long as Leitao's players respond to his no-nonsense attitude, and there is little indication to think that they won't, then this Virginia team could be in much better shape than many people think.