Drown the Hokies

First of all we want to thank you for the support you have given us this year. You may not realize, but your presence and voices at the game make a huge difference for us. That's why we're asking that as many of you as possible be in attendance for the Virginia Tech game. As you may know, the winner of this game will earn the opportunity to play for the ACC Championship; this is the biggest game of the year for our team and University to this point in the season.

We know that many of you will enjoy a break at home for Thanksgiving, but we ask, if you are able, that you come back and pack the stands for this game. Please help us make Scott Stadium a great environment for the Wahoos to play in. Let's drown the Hokies in the Sea of Orange. Be loud, because we are proud to represent you.

Al Groh

Head coach

Tom Santi

Chris Long

Branden Albert

Team captains

Redeemed with wins
After flop in Wyoming, Sewell validated Groh's faith in him
Tuesday, Nov 20, 2007 - 12:10 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE The worst day of his life? Maybe not. But Sept. 1, in Laramie, Wyo., Jameel Sewell suffered through what he calls the worst football game of his life.

Before true freshman Peter Lalich replaced him with 2:48 left, Sewell looked astonishingly inept for a quarterback who'd started the final nine games of the 2006 season. He completed only 11 of 23 passes -- for a mere 87 yards -- and was intercepted twice in Virginia's 23-3 loss to Wyoming.

"I knew I could play better than that," Sewell said last week, "and to come out and play the way I did at Wyoming, it was heartbreaking to me, and I just felt like I lot of people down."

Sewell, a redshirt sophomore, wasn't the only Cavalier who struggled in Laramie. Not even close. But the former Hermitage High star always has been his harshest critic, and he refuses to share the blame for U.Va.'s season-opening debacle.

"I'm thinking it all came down to me," he said. "I kept the defense out there a lot, and then I made a lot of bad plays. That why I always think it starts with me. Just do the right things and make the right decisions, and the team will improve."

That's what happened. And now, as unbelievable as it would seemed Sept. 1, U.Va. has an opportunity to advance to the ACC championship game.

Sewell hasn't been flawless -- though he's approached perfection on several fourth-quarter drives -- but he's justified the faith shown in him by Virginia coach Al Groh. And the Cavaliers' corresponding improvement has turned them into one of the season's most compelling stories.

Since returning from Laramie, U.Va. has lost only once: 29-24 to N.C. State on Oct. 27. In that game, Sewell sat out the final seven minutes with severe cramps, and the offense stalled without him.

The Wahoos have won an NCAA-record five games by two points or fewer this season, and "I felt like if I could have been out there with the rest of the team, we could have had a good chance of pulling that one out," said Sewell, who sparkled Nov. 10 in a 48-0 rout of Miami at the Orange Bowl.

As a redshirt freshman, Sewell was notable for his inconsistency. The 6-3, 226-pound left-hander dazzled against North Carolina, Maryland and Miami, fizzled against Georgia Tech, Florida State and Virginia Tech.

FSU wasn't on the schedule this season, but Sewell redeemed himself against Georgia Tech, throwing a game-winning touchdown pass in a comeback victory Sept. 22. Now comes a second crack at the Hokies.

No. 16 Virginia (6-1, 9-2) hosts No. 8 Tech (6-1, 9-2) at noon Saturday at Scott Stadium, and the winner will represent the Coastal Division in the ACC title game.

A season ago in Blacksburg, Sewell passed for only 66 yards -- by far his fewest as a starter -- and was intercepted once. Virginia lost 17-0 and finished 5-7, its worst record since 2001.

"All those games have been in my head," said Sewell, a dual threat who has completed 185 of 317 passes for 1,977 yards and 11 TDs this season, with eight interceptions.

"I really want to make sure my performance is a lot better [against Virginia Tech] than it was last year, because it should be. If it isn't, I have no reason to be back there at the quarterback for this team."

Groh has stressed the importance of not dwelling on mistakes. Still, Sewell said, the Wyoming game was "hard for me to get through. I still think about it now, like I don't want to go back to playing like I did in Wyoming."

His family helped him pull through. So did his teammates.

"I could feel their vibes, even if they weren't saying anything," Sewell recalled. "They were just looking at me like, 'You got it, man. We're right behind you, 100 percent.' And they would always tell me, 'We haven't lost any faith in you.' That just made me feel so good and boosted up my confidence."

 

Littlepage praises Cavs' resiliency, poise
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
November 20, 2007

In a way, Craig Littlepage has just been along for the emotional, three-month long roller-coaster ride known as Virginia football.

Littlepage, the school’s athletics director, has been in attendance at all 11 football games.

The close wins tugged at his heart. The lopsided victories over Pittsburgh and Miami surely brought him mental relief.

Littlepage, however, might have learned more about the current crop of Cavaliers and their coaching staff in the days that followed the season’s first game.

After watching Virginia stumble, 23-3, at Wyoming, the 56-year-old heard and witnessed the team’s “supporters” second guess almost every aspect of the program.

“One of the more difficult things from a coaching standpoint, with everything that was going on at that standpoint surrounding the team, the questions that our fans were asking about the team, was the ability of the coaches to prepare the team,” Littlepage said. “Was [Jameel] Sewell the right guy at quarterback? Had the offensive line developed? Was the defense going to be good enough and tough enough?

“It is likely that players read a lot of that stuff and if they don’t read it they hear about it from their friends and so forth.”

A certain portion of the fanbase even called for Virginia coach Al Groh to be forced out. A collection of students even went as far as to paint, “Groh Must Go,” on Beta Bridge.

Yet, magically the program persevered, winning seven straight games to race into the national rankings.

“The ability of the coaching staff to keep the players focused and to prepare themselves and to prepare the players, I think, is really tested in that sort of environment,” Littlepage admitted. “Certainly the results would indicate that our staff did a fantastic job in that regard.

“The coaches made the players believe at a time when they really had not, as a team, had success, and they were able to keep the outside pressures of scrutiny kind of at arms length.”

It was Littlepage, after negotiating for 14-15 months, who inked Groh to an extension that that equaled a six-season deal in August 2005.

It was also Littlepage that announced that UVa would not exercise an option to extend Groh’s deal an extra year after the 2006 season, one that saw the Cavaliers go 5-7 overall.

Any decisions about Groh’s contract, which runs through Dec. 31, 2010, and a potential one-year extension will not be announced publicly soon.

That would likely take some of the deserved attention away from Virginia’s success and its pivotal season finale - the Cavaliers (9-2, 6-1 ACC) host Virginia Tech (9-2, 6-1 ACC) on Saturday in the de facto Coastal Division title game at noon (ESPN2). The winner secures a date in the ACC Championship game against Boston College on Dec. 1 in Jacksonville, Fla.

For now, Littlepage prefers to praise the program for its ability to thrive in adverse situations - Virginia has won a Division I-A record five games by two points or fewer.

“I can’t remember any previous team at the University of Virginia and no basketball team in my run as an assistant basketball coach that had the same level of success in such tight situations over and over and over again,” he said. “I can remember the ‘81-‘82 men’s basketball team that had two dramatic come-from-behind victories against [North] Carolina, and in both games we had 20-point deficits early in the second half and we ended up winning both of those games.

“I thought that it was fantastic, but to see in a 12-game season at least half of the games won by slim margins and many times coming down to the last possession of the game, last minute of the game, I think, is a truly extraordinary accomplishment on the part of the team - the coaches and the players. [The comeback against UNC is] the only thing that even comes close and the football team of ‘07 has topped that by any stretch.”

And Littlepage knows time remains for yet another magic trick.

“They have the potential for more of these close finishes with one more regular season game to go and the possibility of postseason action,” he said.

 

This is the one to circle
David Teel
9:31 PM EST, November 19, 2007

Savor this. Mat it, frame it and hang it. And no matter what, don't forget to TiVo it.

You realize what a treasure Saturday will be, right? The state's sole Division I-A college football programs, Virginia and Virginia Tech, colliding in the regular-season finale with the winner advancing to the ACC championship game.

Unprecedented for our fair commonwealth. Darn rare no matter the locale.

Gaze yonder down south. Auburn and Alabama aren't playing for a division title, and the region's other traditional year-enders -- Georgia Tech-Georgia, Florida State-Florida, Clemson-South Carolina, and Mississippi-Mississippi State -- carry little national weight.

Now look west, where none of the myriad state rivalry games matches Virginia Tech-Virginia. Not Texas-Texas A&M, Arizona-Arizona State or Stanford-Cal. Not even USC-UCLA.

Granted, the Cavaliers and Hokies don't approach the tradition of those intrastate feuds. Nor do they rate long-term with cross-border battles such as Ohio State-Michigan, Army-Navy and Harvard-Yale.

But a division championship game, complete with identical records of 9-2 overall and 6-1 in the ACC, is special, indeed. Getting here was not easy. As graybeards are quick to preach, Virginia Tech and Virginia called the Southern Conference home during the 1930s. The Cavaliers withdrew in 1937 and joined the fledgling ACC in 1953, while the Southern splintered, and the Hokies began 26 years of football homelessness.

The Big East offered Virginia Tech shelter in 1991, and the Hokies subsequently burst onto the national stage. But not until the ACC included Virginia Tech in its bungled 2004 expansion were our state's flagship programs reunited.

Assigned to the conference's Coastal Division by league big hats, the Hokies and Cavaliers cannot meet in the ACC championship game. So this must do, an all-in, don't-bother-bluffin' hand for the right to face the Atlantic Division's Boston College in the title contest.

Ain't it cool? Fretting over the game-day forecast; talking smack, online and in-person, to fans of the opposite stripe; plotting your entire Saturday around the noon kick -- you'll need two hours in the morning to get your buzz on, artificially or naturally, and at least three hours to decompress after the final whistle.

Holiday shopping? Disposing of Thursday's turkey carcass? Please.

Time was when year-end state rivals routinely settled conference championships amongst themselves. In the Southeastern, Alabama and Auburn did so four times from 1965-74. In what's now the Pacific 10, Southern California and UCLA brawled for it all a remarkable 10 times between 1965 and '88.

An epic from each:

Top-ranked UCLA led fourth-ranked USC 20-14 early in the fourth quarter of their 1967 meeting. But on third-and-7 from his own 36, O.J. Simpson weaved 64 yards for a touchdown.

The Trojans won the game, 21-20, and the national championship. Bruins quarterback Gary Beban won the Heisman Trophy.

Four years later, Alabama and Auburn entered their annual Iron Bowl undefeated and ranked among the top five. With tailback Johnny Musso rushing for 167 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns, the Tide routed the Tigers and their Heisman-winning quarterback, Pat Sullivan, 31-7.

Might Virginia and Virginia Tech be embarking on a similar flurry of high-stakes encounters? Well, their depth charts are replete with young talent -- the Cavaliers nominated eight sophomores and juniors for all-ACC, while the Hokies have an electric freshman quarterback in Tyrod Taylor, a junior-laden secondary and a blossoming offensive line.

Moreover, the rest of the division has considerable issues. Duke is hopeless; Miami and North Carolina appear at least a couple of years away; and Georgia Tech may need to beat Georgia to secure coach Chan Gailey's job, six consecutive bowl seasons notwithstanding.

Now we just need the schedule-maker to cooperate and keep Virginia Tech-Virginia at season's end. The rivalry, which dates to 1895, closed the regular season each year from 1990-98, but since the game has landed at various dates.

Michael Kelly, the ACC associate commissioner in charge of football, said the conference is inclined to schedule the Cavaliers and Hokies at season's end, particularly if the schools concur. Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage said "it doesn't much matter" to him, but Virginia Tech AD Jim Weaver is adamant.

"We prefer it at the end of the year," he said Monday, "and we have made that known to (conference officials). If they need that reinforced, I'll be happy to do so. … Rivalries belong at the end of the year, and this is the picture-perfect reason why."

Amen. Sure, winner-take-all games are hard on the ticker. But like seconds of Mom's cornbread stuffing and Granny's sweet potato pie, they're worth it.

 

HANDY MAN
Despite suffering an injury, Maurice Covington leads the Virginia receivers.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

In a Virginia receiving corps that periodically has been plagued by dropped passes, Maurice Covington is the one guy who has an excuse.

That's what makes his recent play all the more noteworthy.

Covington, who suffered a broken hand Sept. 15 at North Carolina, has had touchdown receptions in each of the Cavaliers' past two games.

The rest of Virginia's wide receivers have caught a total of two touchdown passes all season.

Covington, a 6-foot-4, 218-pounder from Durham, N.C., required surgery after breaking the third metacarpal in his left hand. An ugly scar still covers the area in which doctors inserted a plate and seven screws.

Barely five minutes remained in the UVa-UNC game when Covington gathered in his fourth reception and plowed upfield for a 15-yard gain and a first down.

A collision with Tar Heels' linebacker Mark Paschal left Covington with an aching hand, "but I didn't know right away that it was broken," he said.

"I went back in the huddle and actually ran two more plays. On the second play, I was blocking and something just didn't feel right."

Doctors needed one look at Covington's hand to see that it was broken. He underwent surgery the following Monday.

"The doctors were telling me I could get back as early as four weeks," he said. "Basically, I got surgery as soon as I could and did everything I could. I did all the rehab, I went in and got treatment, I drank a lot of milk. Milk strengthens the bones, you know."

Covington returned to the Cavaliers' lineup Oct. 20 at Maryland, where he did not catch a pass but was involved in one of the major plays in the game and maybe the season, a third-and-15 pass on which the Terrapins' Kevin Barnes was called for interference.

The penalty resulted in a UVa first down at the Maryland 20 and kept alive the Cavaliers' final touchdown drive in an 18-17 victory.

"It was a big play and it helped us move the ball down the field," Covington said, "but I don't know how much satisfaction you can take in an interference penalty."

The touchdowns were a different matter. After catching a medium-range pass against Miami, Covington faked out Miami defensive back Willie Cooper and completed a 29-yard play for the Cavaliers' first touchdown.

In Miami's final game at the Orange Bowl, UVa handed the Hurricanes their worst home loss in 63 years, 48-0.

"That's something I'm going to remember for a long time," he said. "I've got something to tell my grandkids about."

He can also tell them about his 39-yard touchdown reception against Wake Forest, where three Deacons' players appeared to have him surrounded at their 15, only to have Covington slip away untouched.

The Cavaliers, who had been maneuvering for a tying field goal, were able to go into halftime ahead 10-6.

"I was probably prouder of that [catch] because it was my first touchdown," Covington said. "It helped get the monkey off my back."

It was by default that Covington entered the season as Virginia's most experienced wide receiver. Kevin Ogletree, who had 52 receptions in 2006, suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the spring and is sitting out the 2007 season as a redshirt.

Covington, who played as a true freshman in 2005, could have made an appeal for a hardship year following his surgery, but he was determined to come back.

He first was fitted with a protective pad that made him concentrate on looking the ball into his hand, a habit that has cut down on drops.

By the time Covington returned to action, Virginia was in the midst of a five-game winning streak, which only added to his eagerness.

He already has a career-high 19 receptions, which leads all of UVa's wide receivers, but nobody has complained about the efforts of freshman Dontrelle Inman (15 receptions), redshirt freshman Staton Jobe (13 receptions) and veterans Carey Koch and Chris Gorham (a combined 17 receptions).

The wide receivers were supposed to be Virginia's weak link.

"There have been some drops but guys are making plays," Covington said. "I definitely think we've taken a leap forward. From the summer on, we had it in our minds that we were going to prove people wrong."
 

Win or lose this week, Groh deserves praise and a few apologies
The Virginian-Pilot
© November 20, 2007
Last updated: 10:12 PM

Here's one thing we've learned from this improbable season of Virginia football: Graffiti is not good analysis.

At U.Va., it turns out, graffiti is just vandalism, not insight. Who would have thought?

Virginia football has come a long way from the first-week debacle in Wyoming, the one that spawned the painted "Groh Must Go!" message on Charlottesville's Beta Bridge, as well as volumes of Internet fury.

This week you have to wonder what all the hysteria was about. U.Va. is 9-2, 16th in both the AP and BCS rankings. Saturday, the Cavaliers play Virginia Tech to decide who represents the Coastal Division in the ACC championship game.

Regardless of how the game turns out, it's been an interesting, exciting season for a Virginia program that was written off and buried, along with Al Groh, over the Labor Day weekend.

Only somebody lacking a sense of humor wouldn't see the folly in arriving at such a harsh judgment after a single game. But, then, the most voluble fans of college sports make Dick Cheney look like Jimmy Kimmel.

Groh's critics went off the Richter scale in September. On the basis of one very bad defeat after a 5-7 season they leaped to the conclusion that he had lost control of the program and should resign. Bob Beamon didn't make a leap that far in Mexico City.

Groh must go? After the season the Cavaliers are having, that should be changed to "Groh must crow."

He hasn't yet, though. The more U.Va. won this season, the more improbable one- and two-point games the Cavaliers pulled out of the fire, the more unassuming Groh became.

It doesn't matter if his transformation is genuine or temporary; image is in the eye of the fickle public and media. Either way, over the last 2-1/2 months, Groh's reputation has changed from bumbling and bumptious to inspiring and humble.

It might have been different but for a play or two in games that turned as much on opponents' mistakes as U.Va. inspiration. It's easier to forget now - especially after the 48-0 fireworks in Miami - but the Cavaliers' offense has been a joke most of the season. Yet, U.Va. has found a way to win.

Maybe there's a talent to winning three games by a single point. Luck must be a factor, too. But as Bill Parcells, one of Groh's mentors, famously said, you are what your record says you are.

What U.Va. is not is the most talented 9-2 team in the country. Far from it. The quarterback is a big work in progress. The wide receivers are ordinary. U.Va. has one great talent, defensive end Chris Long, and a group of athletes who have earned the right to believe they are better than outsiders say they are.

Even long-time bashers of U.Va.'s coach should be able to acknowledge Groh's contribution to the season. He wouldn't allow the Cavaliers to quit when not a lot was going right. He wouldn't let them give in when they were stumbling around at Middle Tennessee.

Nobody quit, either, when the Cavaliers won from off the pace at Maryland behind unknown, third-string tailback Mikell Simpson, a revelation in a season full of them for U.Va.

Now the man who was under siege on Labor Day is the leading choice for ACC Coach of the Year. That should make Groh's detractors, the people who spew so much rage, squirm just a little.

The Wyoming loss was an eyesore, but it was simply the start of a long campaign. That week, Groh's attackers were so consumed with anger and frustration that they lost sight of the bigger picture.

You wonder if Groh's critics, the people who have accused him of arrogance over the years, will give him the credit he deserves this season.

To do anything less would be sort of arrogant on their part.

Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373

Several Cavs replacing Reynolds
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
November 20, 2007

The big question heading into this season was how Virginia was going to replace the scoring, defensive prowess and intangibles that J.R. Reynolds brought to the table.

Through three games, the answer has been very clear: No single player will likely be picking up the slack for Reynolds.

In Virginia’s 75-72 upset of Arizona in Tucson on Saturday night, Jeff Jones and Jamil Tucker combined for 27 points; Mamadi Diane held Arizona star Chase Budinger to 10 points below his season average; and Adrian Joseph, Ryan Pettinella and Lars Mikalauskas did many of the little things that didn’t wind up in the box score.

“In practice, that’s what we focus on - everybody doing it on both the offensive and defensive end,” said Joseph, who nailed two clutch free throws in the win over the Wildcats. “That’s showing on the court right now.”

Tonight, Virginia (3-0) - which moved into the No. 23 spot in this week’s Associated Press poll -hopes to keep the momentum going. Fresh off one of the biggest wins of the Dave Leitao era, UVa hosts Drexel.

The Dragons (3-0) are coming off an easy win at Florida Gulf Coast. Their other two victories came over Penn in overtime and a 16-point triumph over Navy.

Last season, Drexel lost in the Colonial Athletic Association semifinals to Virginia Commonwealth, then lost by seven to N.C. State in the first round of the NIT.

UVa will easily be the best competition the Dragons have faced this season.

Virginia has only played three games, but - mainly because of better depth - has had a completely different look than at any point in the previous two seasons.

Leitao has been very pleased with his team’s newfound balance.

“If we share the basketball and change sides of the floor and do all the things technically sound that we’re supposed to do,” Leitao said, “then it doesn’t matter who the beneficiary is because everyone has a skill package.”

Perhaps nobody has one greater than Tucker’s. After a foul-plagued, three-minute performance against Howard, the versatile 6-foot-8 sophomore played a very effective 21 minutes against the Wildcats.

“[Against Howard] he guarded a 6-foot-2 guy who got him into foul trouble,” Leitao explained. “I believe in what we’re doing, and I believe in what he’s doing. I didn’t hold it against him or put him in the doghouse or anything like that.

“He can make shots. It doesn’t matter if it’s at home or on the road, he plays through that stuff pretty good.”

UVa plays Penn in the Philly Classic on Friday before taking on the Navy-Seton Hall winner on Saturday.

One of the best things about Virginia’s win in Tucson is the confidence that it has likely instilled.

“It was a huge road win and a huge statement for the program,” said Pettinella. “I think we’re really starting to pick up the intensity on the road.”

Now, one of the challenges is to avoid letdowns at home - a place Virginia lost only once last season.

 

A good deed with bragging rights
Tuesday, Nov 20, 2007 - 12:10 AM
By MICHAEL PHILLIPS
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Saturday afternoon we'll find out which team is better at football, but Wayne Nystrom measures school pride more charitably.

He runs the annual Hokies vs. Hoos Food Fight, an event where supporters of each school donate canned food to the Central Virginia Food Bank to compete for bragging rights.

"It's really turned this competition into something that's going to benefit everyone," Nystrom said. "It's one more thing to feel proud about."

The event has become larger every year since its inception in 2004, and this year will take place the week before the Tech-U.Va. basketball game Feb. 2.

Hokies fans proved to be more charitable the first two years, winning by a large margin. But last year, monetary donations were counted as well as cans, and it was the Cavaliers who came out on top.

Nystrom got the inspiration for the food drive from his own divided house. Younger son Jon followed his father to Tech, but older son Chris went to school in Charlottesville.

Jon now works with his father in the Richmond area and helps to run the annual charity event. Last year, donation baskets were set up at Ukrop's stores in the area, and netted more than 6,000 cans of food as well as almost $8,000 in monetary donations through the event's Web site, hokiesvshoos.com.

"It just started as a small family deal," Nystrom said. "And now the schools have seen the potential and use the Web site to promote other charitable activities."

The family will gather for the holidays this year, only to divide again at kickoff. Nystrom said that while he's been pleased that his Hokies are on a winning streak, he's glad to see the Hoos taking more pride in their program.

"I have a number of friends who are trying to get tickets, but the U.Va. people won't sell to them," he said. "They're telling each other, 'Don't you dare sell your ticket to a Hokie.'"

He'll be able to relax during this year's game, but in a couple of months he'll be running around town helping to coordinate another food drive. It'll be another opportunity for Richmonders to show their school pride.

"Hopefully this rivalry will continue to be used for good things," Nystrom said.