Profile: The Long dynasty at U.Va.
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© November 22, 2007
CHARLOTTESVILLE

Chris Long needs a tuxedo, so there’s a Virginia athletic department employee thumbing through the phone book looking for the formal-wear shop that has his measurements on file.

Long also needs to move his car. Apparently, not even the “Mayor of Charlottesville,” as teammates call him, is immune from parking enforcement at U.Va.

It’s Wednesday afternoon, during the football team’s open week, and Long has just emerged from a few days of hibernation, ready to resume practice for the final, and easily the most important, regular-season football game of his career. The Cavaliers play host to Virginia Tech on Saturday, with a berth in the ACC championship game on the line.

He’s standing in a hallway at the John Paul Jones Arena in shorts and a polo shirt, on an unseasonably warm day. He’s so broad at the shoulder that it makes you wonder if he’s really as tall as his listed 6-foot-4.

He has just finished an interview with the school’s video promotions people. He’s got two more reporters waiting and that car to move before he sits down for another 40-minute Q&A, with a phone interview to follow.

And this is a slow week for the square-jawed face of the Virginia football program, the son of a Pro Football Hall of Famer who has more than made his own name, and will be a top 10 pick in next spring’s NFL draft; the dominating

defensive end who needs that tux because he’ll be attending virtually every postseason awards banquet a college lineman possibly could.

Long is a finalist for the Lombardi Award, given to the nation’s top lineman, offensive or defensive. He’s a finalist for the Nagurski Award and a semifinalist for the Bednarik, both of which go to the nation’s best defensive player. He’s also in the running for the Lott Trophy, which honors a combination of on-field prowess and off-field character; and the Hendricks Award, given to the best defensive end.

Speaking of banquets, after Long’s nationally televised, one-man-wrecking-crew performance Oct. 20 against Maryland – he made 10 tackles, had two sacks, one for a safety, and broke up two passes – talk surfaced briefly that he should be invited to New York as a Heisman candidate.

Long, though, batted down that talk like one of the seven passes he’s knocked down this year. Flattering, but not realistic, he said.

Still, it’s a testament to how far he’s come since the days he was known mostly as Howie Long’s son.

For Chris Long, it all starts with that, and always comes back to it.

Stories and headlines invariably say that Chris has emerged from his father’s shadow. But if Howie has cast a shadow, it’s not because he’s been standing in Chris’ light. For four years, Howie has strived to go unnoticed, to blend in as well as a Hall of Famer and instantly recognizable TV personality can.

If he’s gone to practices, they’ve been the ones open to all parents. If he’s been spotted outside the Virginia interview room after games, it’s only because Chris is always the last one out.

“He would never want to be in a position where he could steal somebody’s shine,” Chris said. “I think that it’s been easy for him to stay out of it.”

Still, comparisons to his dad have been unavoidable, and Chris has handled the inevitable questions with patience and good humor for four years now.

Obviously, if he’d played, say, guard, the parallels wouldn’t have been as easily drawn. But not only is he a defensive end, just like Howie was, he’s a 3-4 end – the same scheme that his father played. And he’s a 3-4 end with a nonstop football motor, same as “Pops,” as Chris calls his dad.

It was easy to understand why Howie played like a maniac, with a barely controlled rage that bordered on obsession.

Raised in a tough part of Boston, bounced between relatives, Howie was a street kid, a man-child who was pushing a broom in a bar at age 13, a truant who missed 45 straight days of school at 14 before an uncle in the suburbs took him and helped turn him around.

Even with the Raiders, Howie played like a man chasing his last meal, motivated by the fear that he wasn’t good enough.

Chris has heard those stories, though it’s hard to square them with the father he knows.

“The places my dad’s been in life, a lot of people wouldn’t be bouncing back from his upbringing,” Chris said. “A lot of people forget about that.

“I always thought he was the toughest guy on earth. It’s close. One little detail in his life goes wrong and maybe he doesn’t make it.”

Chris Long didn’t have it so tough. Every detail seemed set up for him to make it. Chris grew up wanting for nothing, with Bo Jackson stopping by the family home for visits, and annual trips to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii, where he met players like Barry Sanders.

Chris wasn’t impressed. His dad had always presented himself as no one special, just a regular guy, so he figured these men he was meeting were just regular guys, too. He remembers when the Raiders were in an AFC championship game and he and a friend had to decide whether to turn on the TV or continue playing video games.

They chose video games.

That was fine with Howie and his wife, Diane, who didn’t push Chris or his two younger brothers into football. Once Chris got a taste of it, though, he wanted more. Despite his privileged upbringing, he played with the same wild streak his father had.

Chris was afraid he wasn’t good enough, too. It wasn’t his advantages that he had to overcome, exactly, but the pressure of them.

“One thing I was always petrified of growing up was just being that kid who had everything handed to him and didn’t do anything with it,” he said.

So he learned to go all out, all the time, and still does.

“His motor never stops,” said tackle Eugene Monroe, who often lines up against Chris in practice. “He’s very athletic, very powerful, all of those things, but his motor is incredible. The last play of practice feels like the first, going against Chris.”

Coach Al Groh said that Chris’ enthusiasm is contagious, and that it extends even to the mundane parts of practice.

“When we line up to stretch, he’s the most enthusiastic player on the team about stretching,” Groh said. “That’s how much he loves every phase of it.”

Chris’ enthusiasm propels a Virginia defense that ranks No.18 in the nation overall, No. 10 in points allowed. His own numbers – 69 tackles (17 for loss), 12 sacks, 21 quarterback hurries, seven passes broken up and one interception – are eye-popping in a defense designed for linebackers, not defensive lineman, to put up gaudy stats.

It took Chris a while to adjust to the defense, which requires ends to plug two gaps on every play. As a freshman, Chris was like a “dog chasing a car,” Groh said – all enthusiasm, without any real idea of what he was doing.

Chris has made gradual improvement each year, earning second-team All-ACC honors last season. This year, he has been so disruptive that Groh said he’s coached only one other player who dominated games as much: Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor.

Chris Long won’t want to hear that. Since coming to Virginia from a small private school, St. Anne’s Belfield, he’s admitted to a need to be uncomfortable. For years, he’d scour the Internet, newspapers and magazines, looking for slights, real or perceived, to use as motivation.

He’d find them in people who said he was a top recruit only because of his last name; in those who questioned the caliber of his private-school competition.

“It motivates you,” he said. “Not to the point where it gets you angry, but it makes you wonder, so you’ve got to work hard.”

Now, with everyone telling him how good he is, the last battle Chris would seemingly have to fight would be against contentment. After all, it’s good to be Chris Long.

He’s come to terms with the legacy of his father, using him as a resource and an inspiration, rather than as a name to be lived up to. They break down film together weekly, critiquing Chris’ game, looking for ways to improve.

Even when Howie isn’t there, Chris said he hears his voice in his head, telling him never to be satisfied.

He never has been, so it’s not likely he’ll start now.

“I’m not always the quickest learner,” Chris said. “I knew it was going to take me some time. But never let up. Never stop running hard, never stop working hard and you’ll get your breaks and you’ll learn. Or maybe you won’t. I didn’t know which way it was going to go. Just give it all you’ve got.”

 

Virginia seniors want to go out on top
Cunningham lone Cavs starter who has a win over Virginia Tech
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
November 22, 2007

Ian-Yates Cunningham has the opportunity to finish his career with a different distinction than the other senior starters - he can actually go .500 against Virginia Tech.

Back in 2003, what now feels like a decade ago to the grizzled offensive lineman, Cunningham started as a true freshman against the Hokies. That afternoon remains a priceless memory, serving as the Cavs’ last win in the Commonwealth’s most intense rivalry.

“It was a long time ago, but what I do remember was that everybody seemed to be playing together,” said Cunningham, who along with Gordie Sammis appeared in that ’03 showdown. “We just had a roll going on offense. There were a lot of players stepping up making big plays.”

Cunningham was helping block for quarterback Matt Schaub, who was handing off to Wali Lundy and throwing passes to Marques Hagans, Heath Miller and Alvin Pearman.

All five are now pursuing careers in the NFL.

They are family

What Virginia (9-2, 6-1 ACC) had in regards of a “group effort” during an eight-win season in ’03 has resurfaced this season.

That tight bond was something Cunningham and other veterans longed for, but division inside Virginia’s locker room kept that from becoming a reality.

For obvious reasons, Cunningham will not break the code of silence in regards to the previous fractures. But differing agendas from assistant coaches and players, starters and reserves, took their toll.

The groundwork was painfully placed last year during a postseason-less, five-win campaign, but a light remained at the end of the tunnel.

“Everything is a lot different,” the senior said.

Winning eight of their last nine games helped the Cavaliers, most notably for an offense that ranked last in the ACC and 113th in the nation last season.

“We truly are a family now,” Cunningham said. “That’s how we look at it. We don’t have anything that’s going to separate us.

“We are not divided and we knew that we weren’t before the Wyoming game. We wanted to prove to ourselves what we could do this year.”

From Cunningham’s accounts, that newfound sense of togetherness has been prevalent in the trenches.

“I have been here for five years and I feel like this is the closest that we have been as a unit since I have been here,” he revealed. “Even the freshmen are cool guys and fun to hang out with. We don’t even look at it like they are freshmen.

“It is just so different.”

A test of patience

The same, ironically, could be said for Cunningham’s health, which contributed in a roundabout away to his availability on Saturday.

After starting the final five games as a rookie, Cunningham went under the knife - the former four-star recruit from Plano, Texas, had back surgery, leading to a medical redshirt.

“That year was one that I have tried to forget about it, kinda put it past me, kinda put it behind me,” he said. “It’s in the past so I don’t think about it that much.

“It was a blessing in disguise. As a high school student you always want to come in and play right away, because if you have the opportunity to play collegiate football you are usually not one of those people that are used to sitting out and not playing. So I wanted to come in and have a chance to play and fortunately enough I had that chance.”

Cunningham rehabbed and returned to the field in 2005, but it was merely as a reserve in all but one game. It was a two-year period that tested Cunningham’s desire.

“It’s tough when you are hurt and you are not playing, especially when you know you can’t go out there and help them,” he said, “because you want to be in there sweating and bleeding with them.”

As his career progressed, Cunningham learned to live - and play - without fear of re-injuring his back.

“Personally, I know what I can and shouldn’t do,” he said. “There are things with any kind of injury that bothers it, but you know what to do and how to treat it.

“I know I can’t go up there and try to dunk over Tunji [Soroye] or anything, but I just try to stay away from a couple of things and do the things that I do well.”

He admits that he is now “10 times stronger” mentally and a far better player.

“Being in my fifth year, I understand the offense better. I’m able to go out there and not think about the plays,” Cunningham said.

“I am able to look at different things and decide beforehand, before the snap, what to do.”

A career in the NFL, while not a given, is a dream scenario. Cunningham also has a degree in psychology from UVa and some job experiences - he has broadcasted local basketball games for WINA - to fill his portfolio.

All of that must wait.

“I am not even thinking about that right now,” he admitted. “I will think about that at the end of the season, but right now we have Virginia Tech.”

SENIOR STARTERS ON OFFENSE
Jordy Lipsey
It took time, but Lipsey has evolved into one of the most consistent centers in program history. A fifth-year senior, Lipsey will be making his 26th career start and 24th straight.

Ian-Yates Cunningham
Cunningham ranks fourth among active players with 29 career starts. Truly versatile, the fifth-year senior has logged time at left and right guard and at center.

Tom Santi
With 91 career receptions, Santi ranks third in program history among tight ends. Santi, missed two games with a sprained ankle, but has 30 catches on the season and six career touchdowns.

Jonathan Stupar
A consistent performer, Stupar leads Virginia with 34 receptions for 304 yards. The fifth-year senior has two career touchdowns and needs four catches to move into fifth place all-time among tight ends in team history.

Chris Gould
If not for a decision to insert Gould at punter in 2004, he would have a year of eligibility remaining. It was a no-brainer for Gould, a true team player. While still handling pooch punts, Gould has made 15 of 19 field-goal attempts this season, including game-winners at Middle Tennessee and against Connecticut.
 

Dias a quiet but focused leader for Cavs defense
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
November 22, 2007

For the past five years, Jermaine Dias has flown under the radar, preferring to let his actions speak.
His dad, Emerson, knows exactly where the soft-spoken linebacker acquired that personality trait.
“He gets that from me,” Emerson joked. “I don’t talk too much. I am a very reserved person.”
Luckily for Dias and Virginia’s potent defense, outspoken leaders such as defensive end Chris Long and linebackers Jon Copper and Clint Sintim handle the countless media opportunities and pep talks with grace.
“I’ve never been much of a speaker,” Dias said, “and I’m glad we got speakers on the team, because it just lets me be who I am.”
Dias pointed out, however, that he is not always as quiet as a church mouse.
“If I need to talk then I will, and there were times when I had to or felt the need to,” he said. “For the most part, though, I just like going out there and playing.”
Playing without worry has not always been a luxury for Dias during his career. Recurring problems with injuries to both ankles often slowed the New Jersey native - he missed a contest as rookie, four more as a sophomore in ’05 and missed the Duke game earlier this year after being knocked out of the season opener at Wyoming.
Yet never once, his dad proclaimed, did the injuries impact Dias’ confidence.
“Jermaine is a very positive person,” Emerson said. “He is very laid back, very calm and he takes things one step at a time.
“He doesn’t try to do more than he is supposed to.”
For the season, Dias does not have a sack, uncommon for a starting linebacker in Al Groh’s program, but the stability he provides has been key on the outside.
“That’s the kind of guy that you have a good team with,” Groh said of Dias. “There is no ‘me’ in there. There is no ego in there.
“He has been very determined all the way through, and he has had a couple of setbacks, but when you have a team that is tough-minded and resilient and determined and all of that, it is the individuals that collectively make that mindset.”
Dias would love nothing more than to end his career at Scott Stadium with a win over Virginia Tech.
In fact, Dias still frets over a decision he made in 2003, his redshirt season, that kept him from witnessing the Cavaliers’ 35-21 win over the Hokies.
“I wasn’t even here for the game,” Dias said. “I went home for break … I was a first-year and I was kinda homesick.”
Dias knows the past cannot be altered - and with a degree in hand and friendships that will last a lifetime, he wouldn’t change it if he could.
“It is funny how you just end up at a school with a bunch of people and you just come up with that bond, and I definitely wouldn’t trade it for anything,” he said. “I love my teammates, and I love going out on the field with them every week and trying to win.”

SENIOR STARTERS ON DEFENSE
Chris Long
Few players have enjoyed a season comparable to the one Long is having in his farewell tour. Truly a local icon, Long has an ACC-best 12 sacks and is in line to become an All-American. The team captain is expected to be an early NFL Draft selection.

Allen Billyk
Playing nose tackle in a 3-4 defense is a thankless job, yet Billyk has provided stability at the spot. He has also remained healthy this season, something that plagued the fifth-year senior last season. Billyk will make his 21st career start Saturday.

Jermaine Dias
An All-American out of high school, Dias shocked analysts by picking Virginia. While many would argue that he has not fully lived up to his potential, his stability, when healthy, has lifted UVa’s linebacking corps.

Nate Lyles
Few Cavaliers fans will forget the empty feeling watching Lyles lie motionless on the turf at Scott Stadium in 2005. Lyles gradually bounced back from that hit and has been a staple in the starting lineup this season, amassing 53 tackles.

Ryan Weigand
After watching patiently, Weigand appeared in six games last year and has maintained the starting spot during the current campaign. Weigand, a juco transfer, ranks fourth in the nation with an average of 45.86 yards per punt this season.

 

Cavs look to protect their house
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com
November 22, 2007

Scattershooting around the ACC, while welcoming former Miami Hurricane, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to the Charlottesville neighborhood (our spies have spotted him around town all week and noted that the pro wrestler, turned actor has bought a nearby farm) ...

Hey, Rock, if you want to play some golf or go a few rounds in the ring, just drop me an e-mail.

Great Scott

If Virginia has one thing going for it in Saturday’s unofficial Coastal Division title game against visiting Virginia Tech, it’s the venue: Scott Stadium.

Scott has never been given its due as a tough place to play. Look up some of the toughest football houses in major college football and you’re not likely to find Virginia on the lists.

In fact, EA Sports’ list of the nation’s 25 toughest stadiums doesn’t mention Scott (Virginia Tech, Florida State, Clemson and Miami made that cut). ESPN.com’s list of the 10 toughest stadiums features Tech’s Lane Stadium and Clemson’s Memorial Stadium, along with Miami’s Orange Bowl. And Rivals.com ranks Virginia as the ninth-toughest place to play in the ACC, ahead of only North Carolina, Wake Forest and Duke.

Consider that during the past seven seasons under coach Al Groh, the Cavaliers are 34-9 at Scott Stadium against all comers, and three of those losses came in his first season. Since then, the Wahoos are 30-6 at home.

Wahoo-Hokie webcast

Area sports fans are invited to check out “Charlottesville Sports Reporters,” an in-depth discussion between area TV, newspaper and radio sports reporters (including yours truly) about Saturday’s showdown between Virginia and Virginia Tech.

To view the webcast, go online to DailyProgress.com and scroll down on the main page.

Full speed ahead

If you think Boston College has nothing to play for this weekend after locking up the Atlantic Division crown and a spot in next week’s ACC Championship game in Jacksonville, Fla., then think again.

The Eagles host Miami, and win or lose, they’ll still be playing for the conference title. While some critics have suggested BC will only go through the motions, that’s not how coach Jeff Jagodzinski sees things.

“I’m not going to put guys at risk, but we do want to win this ball game, because of Miami and 10 wins and what bowl implications it could have,” Jags said.

BC hasn’t beaten Miami since 1984. No BC team has compiled a 10-win regular season since Frank Leahy’s 1940 squad. In addition, a BC loss could have a negative impact on the Eagles’ bowl position should they not win the ACC Championship game.

The winner of the Virginia-Virginia Tech game will face a BC squad that has been beaten up a bit in recent weeks and won’t be at full strength in Jacksonville.

Jagodzinksi’s team lost cornerback DeJuan Tribble, who is out four to six weeks with a knee injury, and also long snapper Jack Geiser, also with a knee injury. If that’s not enough, BC has lost kick returner Jeff Smith (concussion) for the rest of the season, while defensive end Alex Albright broke both bones in his left forearm.

Smith missed the first five games of the season with a concussion, but the symptoms recurred last week and he was scratched from the Clemson game.

“It’s one of those tricky things,” Jagodzinksi said. “I’m just not going to put a kid in danger for the rest of his life on a head injury. I just won’t put him in that position.”

Stat of the Week

With Virginia Tech ranked No. 8 and Virginia ranked No. 16, this Saturday’s meeting will boast the highest combined rankings in the rivalry’s history. The previous best was in 2004 when the Hokies were ranked 11th and the Wahoos 16th.

Quote of the Week

From Georgia Tech tailback, Tashard Choice, the ACC’s leading rusher on this week’s game against rival Georgia:

“Nothing else matters. School don’t matter. Family don’t matter. The only thing that matters is UGa right now. Nothing else matters. I don’t even want to go to class right now. All I want to do is watch film and get ready for the Bulldogs.”

Coaching go ’round

Notice how quickly North Carolina extended the contract of new Tar Heels’ football coach Butch Davis on Wednesday?

With Michigan’s Lloyd Carr resigning and other jobs sure to open up in the coming weeks, UNC wanted to make sure that Davis was happy and staying put with a one-year rollover and a raise of $291,000.

Rumors are flying that Michigan will come after alum Les Miles, the head coach at LSU. If the timing isn’t right, then would the Wolverines pursue Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe?

Our spies say that Nebraska might come after Grobe and so could LSU if Miles departs for his alma mater.

Tiger tea leaves

Two years ago, Clemson lost an overtime game at home to Boston College, which knocked the Tigers out of the race for the division title. Last year, a one-point loss to Maryland kept them out of the championship game.

Last weekend, Clemson watched as Boston College denied the Tigers again, also in Death Valley, which must be getting old for the program’s fans.

“What can you say?” said Clemson coach Tommy Bowden. “Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.”

Tigers running back James Davis was so bummed out over the home loss to BC that he didn’t leave his house until Monday morning. He didn’t talk to teammates, didn’t watch SportsCenter. He wanted to mourn the loss.

How that might affect Davis and the rest of the Tigers as they prepare to face in-state rival South Carolina in Columbia this weekend remains to be seen.

“I think it’s definitely a big transition for guys,” Davis said. “Because there’s a lot of guys on the team I know who still have got their heads down. There’s just a lot of stuff you’ve got to learn to get over and just move on.”

Bowden said he’s not worried about his job, although some Tiger fans will be growling if Clemson loses to the hated Gamecocks, ending a three-year, end-of-season slide. He believes Clemson is about to break out of its shell.

“I just think it’ll happen,” Bowden said. “A couple of years ago, I made pretty significant changes. We weren’t on the verge. If I’m on the verge of doing it, why change it? We’re getting close. I don’t think we’re going backwards statistically. Talent-wise, we’re not going backwards. Even the non-relevant stuff like graduation and discipline, we’re not going backwards.”

Turtle soup

Maryland needs a win at N.C. State on Saturday or the Terps will stay home for the holidays for the third time in the last four years. The Wolfpack also need a win to become bowl eligible, so something’s gotta give.

“Normally, right now everybody’s lobbying, but it’s hard to lobby if you’re not eligible yet,” said Terps coach Ralph Friedgen. “To be honest, I haven’t even looked to see what our situation is. There’s one slot left? Then I would think this game is pretty important for that, then.”

The winner would still need help. If Miami loses to Boston College, that would leave eight bowl eligible teams for the ACC’s eight bowl tie-ins: Boston College, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Wake Forest, Florida State, Georgia Tech and the winner of Maryland-N.C. State.

Short yardage ...

Georgia Tech kicker Travis Bell is engaged to Holly Hudson, niece of Atlanta Braves’ pitcher Tim Hudson. Bell booted a 27-yard, game-winning field goal to beat Carolina last weekend with 15 seconds to go, tying Scott Sisson (an unspeakable name in Charlottesville ... see 1990), for the most field goals in Yellow Jackets history (60). ... Maryland suffered more injuries last week, but only one that ended a player’s season: wide receiver LaQuan Williams, who suffered MCL damage in practice. ... This week could be the ACC/SEC Challenge in football with four games pitting the two conferences: Clemson at South Carolina; Florida State at Florida; Georgia at Georgia Tech; and Wake Forest at Vanderbilt.

The picks

Last week: 5-1. To date: 62-26. This week: Boston College 27, Miami 13; South Carolina 28, Clemson 24; North Carolina 30, Duke 21; Florida 36, Florida State 27; Georgia 42, Georgia Tech 21; N.C. State 27, Maryland 20; Wake Forest 30, Vanderbilt 24; Virginia 19, Virginia Tech 17.

 

Cavs choose togetherness
Virginia's players will eat their drumsticks on campus this year
Thursday, Nov 22, 2007 - 12:07 AM

CHARLOTTESVILLE - In years past, University of Virginia football players whose families lived a reasonable drive from the school often went home to eat Thanksgiving dinner.

The Cavaliers will break with tradition today. They're all staying in town for a team dinner this afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena.

"This is our family," said senior tight end Tom Santi, one of U.Va.'s captains. "Obviously our biological families deserve a lot of love from us, and we'll be thankful for them, too. But this is our family here in Charlottesville, and we love each other, and it'll be great to be able to share a meal together."

No. 16 Virginia hosts No. 8 Virginia Tech at Scott Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Cavaliers coach Al Groh said his team has been notable for its unity. After discussing the possibility of eating Thanksgiving dinner with relatives, Groh said, the "leadership of the team was like, 'We've been together, it's just been us all the way through, and we are our own family, and let's just stay together very internally as the football team family.' And those who have family coming into town or close by will see them during other times of the day." - Jeff White

 

Glimpse into UVa's future
Despite being listed No. 3 at tight end, John Phillips has made the most of the opportunities he's given.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- In an effort to support both of their football-playing sons, Susan and Gene "Bugs" Phillips elected to bypass Virginia's recent trip to Miami, based on the calculated guess that the Cavaliers would be returning to Florida for a bowl game. They won't see their younger son, John, have a more spectacular night than he did against the Hurricanes.

At least this year, he probably won't.

Big things are expected from the younger Phillips in 2008, when Virginia loses two tight ends that have been nominated for All-ACC, Tom Santi and Jon Stupar, but his 2007 season hasn't been half-bad.

Although Stupar and Santi rank first and third the team in receptions, Phillips has gotten enough looks to catch 16 balls for 293 yards.

Only one Cavalier wide receiver has more receptions than Phillips, a 6-foot-6, 255-pound junior from Bath County.

Coach Al Groh says he wouldn't be surprised to see Phillips catch 40 or more passes as a senior.

"With these two leaving, somebody's got to pick up the slack," Groh said. "This year, it was more evident than ever how big a role that position plays for us.

"Not only does John's production have to go up but, clearly, some other guys are going to step in and do a good job right away. We can't afford for the well to run dry over there."

It might surprise some people to learn that Phillips has started six games for the Cavaliers (9-2, 6-1 ACC). Stupar has started 10 games and Santi, who was injured for part of the year, has started four.

Phillips' blocking ability gets him more playing time than his receptions might suggest.

"There's certainly an overlap in what the players can do," Groh said. "Because we do have all three, it's advantageous for us to segment the jobs. He's very good at [blocking]."

What stood out about Phillips' performance against Miami was his ability to gobble up yardage in the open field.

He turned two of his receptions into gains of 28 and 30 yards, finishing with a career-high four catches for a team-high 77 yards.

Virginia had a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs that were set up by Phillips receptions.

"Some of the guys were ragging on me about being tripped up at the 1," Phillips said. "That's kind of rough right there, but I'm more than happy to be the guy to get the ball down there if somebody else does the scoring."

Phillips had played in all 24 of Virginia's games in his first two seasons, starting four times, but he came into the 2007 season with only four receptions.

"This year, they've been featuring me a little bit more in the passing game and I love to do that," said Phillips, who had 40 receptions for 714 yards and five touchdowns as a senior at Bath County. "I feel I can help this team out in a number of ways, not just blocking.

"That was the role I filled when I got here. That was what Coach Groh wanted me to do. The offensive line has done a great job in protection this year, which has allowed me to leak out in pass routes."

Phillips is no stranger to the passing game, having served as a primary receiver when his brother Jacob was an All-Group A quarterback at Bath County.

The older Phillips son is a junior at William and Mary, where he passed for 2,801 yards and 19 touchdowns this season, compared to only seven interceptions. William and Mary's season ended Saturday with a 30-21 loss to Richmond.

"I wish I could have been there," John said, "but we were practicing. I haven't seen him play all year, unfortunately."

The whole Phillips family will be in attendance for a change when Virginia entertains Virginia Tech (9-2, 6-1) at noon Saturday at Scott Stadium. Even before he played against the Hokies for the first time in 2005, John had been a spectator for two Tech-UVa games, one in Charlottesville and one in Blacksburg.

"You go to a big rivalry game like that and you always visualize yourself making plays," said Phillips, one of a handful of major-college football players from Virginia's Group A ranks. "From a young age, I knew that sports was what I was going to do. My dad and my family always pushed it that I was going to make it somewhere."

All of the Virginia players get four tickets to home games, three of which Phillips is reserving for immediate family.

"A lot of people want to come," he said. "Two of them are cousins. I'm not sure who's going to get that fourth ticket, but I think they'll find their way into the stadium."
 

Va. Tech and U.Va. are headed for bowls, but where?
By MARK BERMAN, The Roanoke Times
© November 22, 2007

It looks like the destinations for Virginia Tech and Virginia will be Miami, Atlanta, Jacksonville or Orlando for a bowl game this season.

No. 8 Tech (9-2, 6-1 ACC) and No. 16 U.Va. (9-2, 6-1) are among seven bowl-eligible ACC teams. An eighth will be produced by the winner of Saturday's Maryland-N.C. State game. Both teams are 5-6.

The ACC has tie-ins with eight bowls. So if Miami (5-6, 2-5) upsets No. 15 Boston College on Saturday to become eligible for bowl consideration as well, the ACC will have to hope another bowl has a slot to fill.

Here's a look at the ACC's bowl picture heading into the final regular-season week of play:

Orange Bowl

The winner of next week's ACC title game between BC and the Tech-Virginia winner goes to the Orange Bowl at Dolphins Stadium on Jan. 3.

The opponent will be an at-large team. Last year, ACC champ Wake Forest met Big East champ Louisville.

But the Orange Bowl is also willing to take a non-champ from another major conference - or the Boise State-Hawaii winner if it becomes eligible for the Bowl Championship Series - and might not necessarily take whoever wins the Big East this year, said Orange Bowl CEO Eric Poms.

Of course, West Virginia has a chance to not only win the Big East but also land in the BCS title game.

Chick-fil-A Bowl

This is the second straight year the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta is No. 2 in the ACC pecking order. It does not have to take the ACC title game loser. Last year, the Chick-fil-A bypassed title-game loser Georgia Tech and took the Hokies.

Chick-fil-A president Gary Stokan said his game is considering Virginia Tech, Virginia, BC (9-2, 5-2) and No. 21 Clemson (8-3, 5-3).

If Clemson beats South Carolina on Saturday, would the Chick-fil-A rather take a Clemson team coming off a win than the ACC title game loser or the Hokies-Cavs loser?

"You would prefer teams that are winning their way into your game," Stokan said. "But someone that loses a... close game... that lessens your inclination to feel not as positive about that team."

The Dec. 31 game would be willing to take the Hokies for a second straight year, said Stokan.

If BC loses the ACC title game, the Chick-fil-A might prefer Clemson or the Hokies-Cavs loser to the Eagles.

"Everybody has a concern regarding BC with respect to its (fan) travel," Stokan said.

The Chick-fil-A is eyeing Tennessee, Auburn, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Alabama for its SEC slot. Only the winner of the Clemson-South Carolina game will be considered for the bowl, however, Stokan said.

Gator Bowl

The Gator, played in Jacksonville, Fla., is next in the order. The Gator will not pick the title-game loser, said president Rick Catlett, and is only interested in Clemson and the Hokies-Cavs loser.

Catlett said even if Clemson beats South Carolina, his bowl would not be more inclined to take the Tigers than the Hokies-Cavs loser.

The Gator has the option of picking a foe from the Big East or Big 12 but is "leaning heavily" toward the Big 12, said Catlett. Specifically, the bowl is eyeing Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech.

Champs Sports Bowl

The fourth team in the order is the Champs Sports Bowl, Dec. 28 in Orlando, Fla.

Executive director Steven Hogan said his bowl would love to take whichever team is still available out of Virginia Tech, U.Va., Clemson and BC. The bowl is eyeing Penn State, Michigan and Wisconsin for its Big Ten slot.

Music City Bowl

The Music City, Meineke Car Care and Emerald bowls will confer and try to make the next three picks jointly. But if they can't agree, the Music City gets the next pick, followed by the Meineke Car Care and the Emerald.

The Dec. 31 Music City Bowl in Nashville would feature an ACC team against one from the SEC.

Meineke Car Care Bowl

The Meineke Car Care is Dec. 29 in Charlotte. That bowl is considering Wake Forest (7-4, 5-3), Florida State (7-4, 4-4), Georgia Tech (7-4, 4-4) and the Maryland-N.C. State winner, said executive director Will Webb, but would prefer Wake or the Maryland-State winner.

The bowl is eyeing Rutgers, UConn, Cincinnati and South Florida for its Big East slot.

Emerald

The Emerald will be Dec. 28 in San Francisco. That game is also eyeing Wake, FSU, Georgia Tech and the Maryland-State winner, and would also consider a 6-6 Miami team.

The bowl likes Cal and Oregon State for its Pac-10 slot, said director Gary Cavalli.

Humanitarian

The final bowl in the order for the ACC is the Humanitarian, which will take place Dec. 31 in Boise, Idaho. It is eyeing Boise State and Fresno State for its WAC slot, said executive director Kevin McDonald.

 

Persistence of Jobe pays off
November 21, 2007

By Harlan Goode - The Virginia Cavaliers are 3½-point underdogs heading into Saturday's showdown with Virginia Tech. Staton Jobe isn't worried about the spread. The redshirt freshman receiver is used to being doubted — as an undersized walk-on, it has become a part of everyday life.

He first heard the doubters when he spurned offers from the service academies and Ivy League programs and took a gamble at a big-time football school. They got louder when he spent 2006 running the scout team, buried on the depth chart by a pair of three-star receiver recruits. They droned on when Jobe trotted out to the line as the Cavaliers' starting wideout in the season opening loss to Wyoming and threatened to deafen him when he dropped two passes early against Georgia Tech on Sept. 22. Then the 6-foot, 181-pound wideout wiggled his way through the Yellow Jackets' secondary and plucked a pass out of the air to win the game on a 26-yard reception. As Jobe jogged off the field following his first touchdown reception, he heard something beautiful in the rowdy Scott Stadium din — silence.

"That play showed that I wasn't just a 'little walk-on' and really gave me confidence," said Jobe, who this season has 13 catches for 134 yards and that touchdown. "My teammates knew because they had seen what I did in practice, but no one else knew that I could be a force too."

Jobe is used to performing on the big stage. Through four years at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas — a school that counts NFLers Drew Brees and Seth McKinney amongst its alumni — Jobe never melted under the heat of the bright lights or failed a test against top-flight talent. During his sophomore season, "Friday Night Lights" director Peter Berg followed the Chaparrals to get an accurate feel for big-time high school football before making his movie. That year, Westlake fell in the Texas 5A state title game to a juggernaut team that included Miami Hurricanes tight end Dajleon Farr and Oklahoma State quarterback Bobby Reid.

At the end of his senior season — in which he started at receiver and defensive back — Jobe met fate at the confluence of three divergent paths. He could follow the paper trail of recruiting letters from small colleges and sacrifice that magical feeling of playing before thousands of football-crazed fanatics. He could follow in his family's footsteps to Texas Tech — where his father and older brother had played wide receiver — and spend four years listening to the howl of the West Texas wind. Or he could follow his heart.

"I love UVa," said Jobe, who became enamored with the campus when he attended a summer football camp before his senior year of high school. "The weather here is beautiful. The football atmosphere is perfect, and I see UVa as the perfect balance between academics and social life. I have never had second thoughts about coming here."

Although Jobe has yet to return to the end zone this season, he has been a rock for Virginia coach Al Groh's offense all season. His fellow receivers talk about the diamond-cutter precision with which he runs routes. Sewell praises his abilities as a downfield blocker.

But Jobe's greatest asset may be his speed. He was a three-time district champion in the 100 meter dash at Westlake and was recruited to run track at Texas. Even the fleetest of ACC secondaries have had trouble keeping pace with him.

"He always had that thing you couldn't coach — speed," said Westlake coach Derek Long, who remembers begging Division I recruiters to give Jobe a look. "When you combine that with the way he runs his routes, you have a real playmaker."

The classic overachiever, Jobe serves as a microcosm for a team that has defied expectations all year long. Picked in the preseason to finish fourth in the ACC Coastal Division, the Cavaliers — who with a win in Charlottesville on Saturday will capture the division crown and face Boston College for the conference title in Jacksonville on Dec. 1 — have clawed and scratched their way to the top through sheer will. Sewell has resurrected his season after a moribund performance in the Wyoming loss. Tailback Mikell Simpson — who began the year opposite Jobe at wide receiver — enters the season finale as the ACC's second-leading rusher. Groh may have one big name in defensive end Chris Long — the son of Oakland Raiders legend Howie — but he also counts three walk-ons amongst his starting lineup (Jobe, linebacker Jon Copper and safety Byron Glaspy).

"These players have a lot of heart," Groh said of his team, which has won a NCAA record five games by two points or less. "There are new challenges every week. ... We have the confidence that whatever we're presented with we'll be able to cope."

Jobe won't take credit for setting the tone for UVa's first nine-win season since 1999 — he deflects praise onto coaches, teammates and offseason strength and conditioning program — but he does acknowledge his rise from practice player to game-day starter has inspired those around him.

"As you can see [by my stats], I'm not exactly blowing people out of the water right now, but I hope that when I come in with my work ethic, it rubs off on people," Jobe said. "I hope they see me and work harder. I am just real appreciative to be a part of this team and be able to be winning."

This weekend, Jobe faces a stiff challenge in Hokies corner Victor "Macho" Harris. Up against the former Parade All-American, the odds seemed stacked high against the "little walk-on" — but don't count on it fazing Jobe — after all, he has heard the doubters before.

"Once it comes to game time, I try to just get it in my head that I am better than the guy across from me," Jobe said. "No matter what, that's the mind-set you have to have — to have confidence."
 

High stakes
Hokies ready for Cavaliers
By BRIAN WOODSON
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Virginia and Virginia Tech have played football 88 times since 1895.

No. 89 might be the most important meeting of all.

“There is a lot riding on this game,” Virginia Tech freshman quarterback Tyrod Taylor said. “The ACC championship.”

Not quite, but close. In order to have any chance of winning the ACC title, both the No. 8 Hokies (9-2, 6-1) and No. 16 Cavaliers (9-2, 6-1) must win Saturday at Charlottesville’s Scott Stadium.

The winner will be deemed the ACC’s Coastal Division champions, and would play the following week for the ACC championship.

“It feels huge, we’ve got everything riding on this right now,” Virginia Tech sophomore offensive tackle Ed Wang said. “We’ve done our part so far and we’ve got to keep playing through this. It’s a big game.”

Waiting for the winner at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium in Florida will be Boston College. There’s no one the Hokies would rather face with an ACC championship on the line.

“It’s a little different just because of what is on the line. Obviously, it’s Virginia, it’s a rivalry game, and we’re playing for the Commonwealth Cup,” Virginia Tech junior center Ryan Shuman said. “Obviously we’re playing for a berth in the ACC championship as well.

“I know they want to play Boston College and I know we really want a rematch with Boston College. It’s going to be something added to the rivalry and a little bit more meaning so it’s going to be fun.”

Try as they might, the Hokies simply can’t forget Oct. 25. That was the fateful Thursday night at Lane Stadium when Boston College scored 14 points in the final two minutes to stun Virginia Tech 14-10.

“You want to win the ACC championship, and it’s a bonus that it’s Boston College waiting for us,” Shuman said. “Obviously this game coming up is going to have a little bit more meaning to it.

“If we do pull off a win, the rematch with Boston College will mean a lot more.”

It’s not a given. After an ugly early-season loss at Wyoming, Virginia has won nine of 10 games, including seven in a row during one stretch. Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer certainly isn’t using a possible rematch with Boston College as a motivational tool.

“I’m impressed with them, I think they’ve got a really good football team and they’re playing their best football right now,” Beamer said. “All you have to do is look at their big win at Miami, and I think we’re playing well too so it has got the makings of a good football game.

“I think Virginia kind of gives you all the motivation you need. It’s an in-state rival, they’re playing their best football, and to me that is all the inspiration I need.”

Even thought Virginia Tech leads the series 46-37-5, and have won 10 of the last 14, the Hokies aren’t looking at past history as they prepare for this game.

“Both teams have been playing well all year, and anything can happen in this game,” Taylor said.

“We’re not looking at what has happened in the past, that has nothing to do with this game.

“We just want to go out and play hard in this game and try to win it.”

Virginia last played two weeks ago, closing the Orange Bowl with a 48-0 thumping of Miami, while Virginia Tech dropped the Hurricanes 44-14 a week ago.

Beamer figures the Cavaliers have a slight advantage, having last week off to prepare for the Hokies. Beamer was surprised to learn that Virginia head coach Al Groh is 7-0 after bye weeks.

“I think there is something about recharging the batteries,” Beamer said.

“I think it is probably a benefit to them having last week off while we were playing a tough football game.”

Virginia has earned the moniker ‘Cardiac Cavaliers’ this season, setting an NCAA record with five wins by two points or less. Three of those wins came by identical 17-16 final scores.

“I think it’s good coaching and good playing,” Beamer said.

“I think there is always a little bit of luck in that, but when you get on streaks, things start going your way and they’ve been on a good streak.”

While Virginia has regrouped from a 29-24 loss to North Carolina State by winning two straight, the Hokies have rolled to three wins in a row after their stunning loss to Boston College.

Take that loss away and there’s a chance the Hokies could be in the mix for the national title. However, Beamer refused to play the ‘what if’ game during the Hokies’ football media day on Tuesday at Lane Stadium.

“You can’t look back, you’ve got to keep moving forward,” Beamer said. “I’m proud of the way this football team has come back in the last three games.

“I think it shows some real toughness, and I’m proud of our football team and how we have come back after a tough, tough loss...I think this team has responded well and I’m proud of where we are right now, but we’ve got to finish the deal.”

Not only is the shot at an ACC title at stake, but it’s an in-state rivalry between a pair of clubs whose rosters are full of players from Virginia.

“Virginia has great talent, they’ve got guys from the Commonwealth just like we do,” Virginia senior offensive guard Nick Marshman said. “I wouldn’t say they have better players than us, we’re all Division I athletes and we all have to go out there and compete.

“On Saturday you’re going to see 22 guys on the offense and 22 on the defensive side giving 110 percent and the special teams give 110 percent. It’s always a rivalry when it is Virginia and Virginia Tech.”

The Hokies know the significance of this game. And, the next game, if they can get past the Cavaliers.

“I think the prize is the ACC championship and the Orange Bowl or whatever BCS bowl we’re affiliated with,” Shuman said.

“Winning the game is the thing.

“We’re going to try to go up there and impose our will and win the game and get a rematch with Boston College.”

Still, Boston College won’t be on Beamer’s mind when the ball is kicked off at noon on Saturday. The game will be televised by ESPN2.

“In my mind, it’s a big rivalry, we’re in the same state, and the state is benefiting from it right now,” Beamer said. “It’s two good programs that do it the right way and I think both of us are playing our best football right now.

“It’s got the makings of a great game.”

—Contact Brian Woodson


 

Colin Cowherd can go to hell or, How I stopped hating and learned to love the Virginia Football Cavalier
Ranked No. 14, the "Cardiac Cavs" are looking for an unexpected ACC title chance—and so much more—against Virginia Tech on Saturday
BY WILL GOLDSMITH

"I didn't really think Virginia was capable of blowing a team out."—Bob Davie, ESPN2 color commentator and former Notre Dame coach, November 10, 2007

The Hoos are two wins away from playing in a BCS bowl, the most prestigious (and lucrative) of them all.

They blocked a punt. They sacked the quarterback four times. They wreaked havoc on the offensive line, allowing only 189 yards of offense and forcing five turnovers. And that was just UVA's defense, which has played well all year. The effing Cavalier offense racked up 418 yards against Miami's legendary defense. When running back Mikell Simpson needed a block, a lineman was there to do it, and when quarterback Jameel Sewell needed an outlet, one of his superb tight ends was there to catch it. A Miami receiver catches a pass, but linebacker Clint Sintim smashes him before he can tuck it away. Incomplete. Sintim stands trash-talking over the crumpled player. Roles—at least for this season—have been completely reversed. UVA is playing its second string defense in the fourth quarter. In the final game of the season, it's Miami scrambling to be bowl eligible and UVA that's marking time before a potential conference championship and BCS bowl. Final score: 48-0 Virginia.

If you want to know where running back Mikell Simpson, No. 5, is headed, watch right guard Ian-Yates Cunningham, No. 77. Cunningham explodes from his position as soon as the ball is snapped to clear the trail, and is a major part of this year's Cavalier renaissance.

While his overall numbers aren't spectacular, Jameel Sewell has been arguably the best quarterback in the country this year during high pressure fourth quarter drives, completing 17 of 20 passes on the way to game-winning scores against Middle Tennessee, Connecticut, Maryland and Wake Forest.

That November 10 game against Miami came as a revelation to most in the country, given that UVA set an NCAA record this season for winning five games by 2 points or less. Blowing out a team that has won five national championships wasn't exactly anticipated (the Las Vegas bookies, for instance, pegged Miami to win by 3 to 4 points).

But I had started to see the beauty of this UVA team the week before in their November 3 game against Wake Forest. For the first time, I started to fully appreciate the Virginia Cavaliers. I became an even firmer believer in the defense for stifling the slippery, well-executed offense based on running misdirection of Wake Forest. Scoff all you want, but Wake Forest these days is a well-run ball club (not like in the '80s when they had a coach named Al Groh), and it wasn't all providence that made them ACC champions last year. I took notice that UVA could so effectively nullify all those fake hand-offs and reverses. And it's hard not to be impressed when All-America defensive end Chris Long evades a blocker and manages to chase down Wake's competent quarterback Riley Skinner for a sack.

And a UVA offense that I had generally loathed was starting to grow on me, in large part (oh so large part) because I started watching the play of the experienced offensive line—those giants who may as well be invisible for the attention they get. While the credit goes to Jameel Sewell and Mikell Simpson, what the Wake Forest and Miami games made apparent is how much the Cavalier offense depends on these 300-pound titans. An experienced unit, they're all pretty much in sync by now, making blocks on run plays, protecting the quarterback on passing plays. What makes them special is that a lot of times they're making the second blocks, the ones downfield that really give the runners a chance to make a play.

For instance, closely watch right guard Ian-Yates Cunningham. If you want to know where the running back is headed, see which direction Cunningham goes. He explodes from his position as soon as the ball is snapped and clears the way for Simpson or Andrew Pearman or Keith Payne or whomever is playing tailback at the moment. Left tackle Eugene Monroe and left guard Branden Albert both weigh more than 300 pounds and sure as hell can give Simpson some running room. And right tackle Will Barker is only a sophomore, but a damn good one. If you want to know why Simpson has done so well, and why Sewell is able to make the plays that he does, don't look any further than those bruisers.

Ferocious Chris Long is a huge reason (metaphorically and literally) why UVA is 9-2. With 12 sacks on the year, fifth most in the nation, Long is a semifinalist for the Bednarik Award, given to NCAA football's best defender, and is likely to go in the first round of the NFL draft.

During the Wake Forest game, I was, I must confess, cheering against the Cavaliers (not least because of a bet on Wake Forest, expected to win by 1 point). But by the end of the game, with Wake Forest lined up to try a 48-yard field goal from the right hash mark, I knew enough of the Hoos' improbable season to know not to bet against UVA any more. By the time Sam Swank (a preseason All-America kicker) missed wide right, I had finally learned my lesson: UVA might be a good football team, after all.

"UVA football is the softest bunch of cream-puff, bow-tie wearing, brie-cheese-eating, ascot-wearing wussies. …There's not a softer bunch of cookie-dough-eating weenies than the UVA football program. Those guys wear makeup to games."—ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd, July 2006

Cowherd incensed some UVA football fans last year with his scouring invective—particularly for including the players in his diatribe—but enough Cavalier faithfuls could see themselves in the description to not raise too much of a ruckus.

With any team, there are some followers who care more about the game as background to a great social affair. For whom the real event is the tailgate and the after-party, for whom what happens in the game is nothing more than the weather—altering the mood, perhaps—but quite secondary to the goals of talking to the right people and saying the right things and partaking of whatever intrigue or joke or drink is to be had.

That all has nothing to do with my love of football. What I love is all about what happens on the field, and to me, the parties and the pageantry are just quaint distractions from the real action. I love football as 19th century warfare pared down to 22 men acting simultaneously to either move the line forwards or backwards. I love the permutations allowed by a game that breaks down each play into a discrete unit, each of which can result in no gain or a touchdown for either team and just about anything in between. It's a live chess game where the master can influence but doesn't control the moves of his pawns.

And, I confess, I enjoy the fact that people hit each other, the collision of two objects, each object a human being moving up to 20 miles per hour. Human beings who only care about what happens to an oblong object 16" long weighing 14 ounces.

On Saturdays in the fall, with football on three TVs in my house, it's hard not to think: Goddamn, it's good to be an American.

All that said, some part of me had generally agreed with Cowherd's underlying point about the softness of UVA football. I'm drawn to the brutally fast and strong defenses of the Southeastern Conference, and the lithe and precise offenses of the Pac-10. At the beginning of the year, I was hoping to see LSU play USC for the national championship. Now, I'm just as excited that it could be LSU playing a high octane Big 12 team like Oklahoma or Missouri.

If you had told me at the beginning of the year that I would be writing an appreciation of Cavalier football, a program that went 5-7 last year and had the nation's 113th ranked offense out of 119 teams, I would most definitely not have believed you. Sure, I talked to a UVA coach who assured me that the team would be solid this year, and I read the preview magazines that offered generous predictions based on the number of returning starters on this year's team (10 of 11 on defense, nine of 11 on offense). Heck, I even started to believe that they would be a mid-tier ACC team and might even beat out Georgia Tech for the third place spot in the Coastal Division.

But then came September 1, UVA's first game, against Wyoming. It wasn't exactly the JFK assassination, but for some odd reason I remember where I was when I got my first glimpse of UVA Football 2007: standing in the apartment of a law student who had just dipped into next year's six-figure salary by purchasing a 50" flat screen plasma, ignominiously tuned to the high-def-less Versus Network, where Long & Co. were looking shell-shocked. 13-3, UVA losing to Wyoming. To Wyoming. Sewell was throwing passes to the ball boys on the sidelines. The law-dog quickly flipped back to NBC, where Notre Dame was getting drubbed by Georgia Tech (the first of many teams to have the honor of drubbing the Irish). Checking in periodically to the UVA game, the score only got worse, ending 23-3.

Historically under Head Coach Al Groh, UVA has played awful on the road—2-9 the previous two seasons—and when the road is really a 1,700-mile plane ride to Laramie to face the only college football team in the state of Wyoming, you have to wonder what the hell Groh and the University athletic department were thinking in scheduling the game to begin with. Recent history suggests that UVA tries like hell to schedule patsies for its nonconference games (though next year, the Cavaliers will play Southern Cal, a very notable exception to the patsie rule). The patsie rule, by the way, didn't turn out so well for UVA last year. They went 1-3 against their nonconference opponents in 2006, losing to Western Michigan, East Carolina and Pittsburgh, and only winning a home game against Wyoming thanks to a botched extra point. The whole reason you play patsies is to get wins, and UVA hadn't even been doing that.

Fortunately for UVA, 0-1 coming off its game out in Wyoming, it's guaranteed a game every year with one of the worst teams in college football: Duke. When UVA played Duke this season, Duke was on a 21-game losing streak that dated back to 2005. The Cavs were playing at home, where they normally fare much better, and the general expectation was that Duke should get crushed.

That didn't happen, even if the first quarter of the game made it look like it was going to happen, with UVA up 14-0. But instead of going for the jugular, UVA piddled around on offense, made some serious blunders on special teams, and botched it enough to only have a 17-13 lead in the fourth quarter. It took UVA's true freshman quarterback, Peter Lalich, to save the day.

Now, a coach usually "redshirts" freshmen, which means he doesn't play them in games and so preserves an extra year of eligibility. The freshmen get to practice with and learn from upperclassmen who have the starting jobs locked up anyway. Some coaches are more relaxed about this than others, but in general, they don't take a redshirt off a true freshman quarterback unless the freshman is Tim Tebow-good—or unless the coach is desperate. Word on Lalich is that he's a solid passer, possibly better than Sewell, but not as agile and without the experience Sewell got last year.

Last year, Groh only played one true freshman. Yet it didn't take Groh long to take the redshirt off Lalich, as well as four other true freshmen. It can certainly be argued that the move showed how desperate Groh was to win this season.

Sports Illustrated and Sporting News this year both pegged Groh as one of the five worst coaches in DI-A football (or, as it's officially known now, the "NCAA football bowl subdivision"), mostly for underperforming with decent recruits. He's also come under fire for employing his son, Mike, as the offensive coordinator, and the results on the field last year left, uh, a lot to be desired.

The most tangible sign that Groh was in trouble this year was that his boss, Athletic Director Craig Littlepage, didn't extend his contract at the end of the 2006 season. Most of us working stiffs don't have jobs guaranteed through 2012—and most of us don't get $1.9 million a year minimum to do it—but in the wacky world of college football, the common practice is to renew a contract if you're at all confident that the coach is your guy. Since you can't pay your players—the men who are actually sacrificing their bodies every week to bolster school spirit and (hopefully) make beaucoup bucks for the university by winning—you give as much to the dude you can.

You do that to keep him from leaving the job for greener pastures, and to compensate him for the sheer hell of being under the microscope of big money athletic booster, but you also do it to shore up recruits, so that a coach and his staff can whisper sweet words of stability into the ears of those impressionable but oh so important high school football players. Even with contract extensions, those words of stability are often pretty meaningless: Most schools have no problem with firing a coach who's not winning (see Gillen, Pete, former UVA basketball coach), regardless of how many years are on a contract. And most coaches have little compunction about leaving a school if along comes a better offer, either in the pros or at another college. Most high school kids can probably see through the charade, but every little bit helps land those four and five star studs.

All of which is all to say: Groh was desperate in part because he probably didn't want to lose his job. What's a year of Lalich's eligibility if Groh isn't around to enjoy it?

So there Lalich was, scoring the final touchdown of the game to put Duke away and improve to 1-1 on the season. And suddenly one of the only ACC schools that wasn't supposed to have a quarterback controversy had one, no matter how hard Groh tried to deny it.

"Till the game unfolds, I don't know what the game situation is going to be. It's a rotational situation. It's not about who starts and who finishes."—Al Groh on who will start at quarterback, September 11, 2007

Groh doesn't make it any easier for Sewell or Lalich against UNC on September 15, when he says that he'll alternate quarterbacks. Now, with the hindsight that the season has miraculously worked out, his decision can be cast as a sage application of pressure to make Sewell play better. But at the time, I wrote it off as the flailings of a coach in his last season—like the drama of my own dear Tar Heels, who last year fired their coach, John Bunting. Bunting, like Groh, was switching quarterbacks every week (if you find it hypocritical to be a UNC fan who dislikes UVA for being cream-puffs, you're absolutely right. But I can't help the circumstances of birth).

I had written UVA off so much, in fact, that I believed that my "rebuilding" Heels could pull off the win against the Cavaliers. I drove down to Chapel Hill, intending to go to the game, but instead get too drunk playing cornhole and watch the game in a bar, holding my sobriety together just enough to tell who's ahead.

My high hopes for a powder blue victory come down to a Virginia kick that just ekes over the crossbar, a kick that somehow the refs rule no good even though it's obvious to the TV audience that it went through. It was just obvious enough to Groh's players, who counseled him to challenge the call. He does, it's overturned, and UVA ends up winning 22-20. I leave the bar to play a round of cornhole and curse the luck of goddamn Virginia.

When it comes down to it, I like UVA's defense. It took me a while to come around to the 3-4 scheme, but with defensive ends like Chris Long and Jeffrey Fitzgerald applying pressure, it seemed to work reasonably well at collapsing the offensive line, allowing for linebackers to swarm to a running back, drop back in coverage, or blitz the quarterback. Often, the Cavalier D gives up a little more on each play than I would prefer, my blood lust wanting a tooth-shattering tackle behind the line of scrimmage every single time. But the bend-but-don't-break unit tends to get better as the other team gets closer to scoring, and there's nothing soft in the play of Long and Fitzgerald and Jon Copper and Byron Glaspy.

But that offense? I didn't want to watch a bunch of short runs, short passes, conservative as hell, just-don't-fuck-up-guys offense. Flip the channel to West Virginia, and watch all those mercurial runners work out of the shotgun formation and shoot the nerves of all the linebackers to hell as they try and get it right this time—"All right, No. 10 has the ball, he's going left. Shit, No. 35 has the ball, he's coming up the middle. Ah hell, the quarterback still has the ball and he just ran right past me."

UVA averages just 337 yards of total offense, and is ranked 95th in the country. West Virginia averages 289 yards rushing alone, and 463 yards total. The quarterback, Pat White, is probably faster than Sewell, but isn't that much better throwing the ball.

Let's flip the channel again. LSU, the team I think is certainly the most talented and probably the best in the country, offers a quintessential version of the balanced offense that UVA aspires to. LSU's quarterback, Matt Flynn, is reasonably fast, but he's not as quick as Jameel Sewell and he's rarely used the way Sewell is. The Tigers rely on Flynn to make accurate throws to fast receivers, in between handing off the ball to a wide array of running backs, some of whom are really strong and some of whom are really fast. LSU averages 455 yards per game.

One of the biggest differences between LSU and UVA is that LSU has good wide receivers. UVA has had bad luck in recent years with wideouts—both last year and this year, the Cavs' top receiver suffered a season-ending injury before the season even began—which severely limits Sewell's options. UVA tries to make up for it with talented tight ends, and UVA's tight ends Tom Santi and Jonathan Stupar are talented—they both have great hands and are good at getting open. But tight ends are by necessity bulkier, in order to serve as blockers on certain plays, and therefore tend to be slower. That makes for an offense that doesn't make too many big plays. Even when UVA's offense was working, I had a hard time getting excited about it. Every inch required a lot of work, and there was a lot of punting. It seemed to me that UVA had a particularly bad habit of playing ultraconservative while ahead, which explained why a lot of their games had come down to the wire.

Unenthused with UVA's offense, I didn't pay much attention to the next games, and they caught me off guard. Not only did UVA squeak it out against Georgia Tech 28-23, but the Cavs walloped Pittsburgh 44-14.

The Pitt game I listened to a bit on the radio while watching games I thought mattered, like Auburn against Florida. The idea of sitting out on a cool autumn night to watch that insipid UVA offense hardly compelled me. But what I heard on the radio was shocking. Not only were the Hoos beating Pitt, but they also went so far as to rub it in, faking a field goal for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to extend a lead to 30 points. It was so un-Groh, I wondered if he had suffered some accident and someone else was in charge.

"The last sport to be affected by parity is college football, where anybody can beat anybody. In my opinion, that has more to do with the spirit that a player or a team has than the actual physical advantages or disadvantages. One of the first things [Groh] told me in July is that he loves this team because they have each others' back."—Dave Leitao, UVA men's basketball coach, November 11, 2007

It took a last-second field goal once again to beat Middle Tennessee of the Sun Belt conference, the worst conference in all of D-IA football, and I got to watch it in all of its meager glory on some odd TV feed. That was the UVA I recognized, the one that plays like shit on the road and only plays with any fire during times of absolute necessity—the playing-not-to-lose type team rather than the playing-to-win kind.

Or was it the same old UVA team? Wouldn't it be just like the Cavs to lose that game, playing in a small stadium in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, down a point with 1:16 left? I couldn't dismiss the poise the offense showed in the situation. Sewell wasn't looking over his shoulder at Lalich, worried about whether he would lose his job if he didn't get UVA in field goal range. He was playing with confidence, shepherding the offense, efficiently getting the ball down the field. Pass complete for 20 yards. Pass complete for 17 yards. Sack, but quickly up and back to the line. Pass complete for 5 yards. Pass complete for 11 yards. Pass complete for 12 yards. Within a minute, UVA is at the 17 yard line ready for Chris Gould's competent foot to boot that necessary field goal.

On the year, Sewell's numbers are by no means standout. He has 11 touchdowns and eight interceptions, and completes only about 58 percent of his passes, most of which are pretty short tosses to running backs and tight ends. He's pretty elusive, but he still only averages about 21 rushing yards a game.

Yet the Connecticut and Maryland games made it even clearer that Sewell plays well in the so-called clutch, so well that even a hater like me can't help but be impressed. He completed 17 of 20 passes for 199 yards in final drives of the close wins against Middle Tennessee, U. Conn, Maryland and Wake Forest. (Had Sewell not been injured in the NC State game, he might have led UVA on a dramatic comeback then too. But instead it was a hapless Lalich who had to play that part—and who got to learn what it's like to come up short.)

The Maryland game also introduced the world to another key element of this team's offensive renaissance: Mikell Simpson, who was so far down the depth chart that ESPN2 announcers butchered his first name, pronouncing it "Michael," instead of the proper "My-Kell." In training camp, with Cedric Peerman, Andrew Pearman and Keith Payne ahead of Simpson, Groh moved him to wide receiver. Though Groh dubbed him "secret agent," supposedly because of Simpson's unknown potential at wideout, it sounds to me like a moniker drawn up to help a player cope with a big change rather than a prognostication of what he would do when Groh moved him back to running back.

In that Maryland game, Sewell and Simpson put together a seven-minute, 21-play drive in the fourth quarter that included a questionable fourth down conversion and culminated in a leaping touchdown from Simpson with 25 seconds left in the game that put UVA up 18-17. Simpson has been the featured back ever since, averaging 125 yards rushing and receiving in the three games since.

Finally in the Miami game, it all came together on offense—quarterback, running backs, tight ends, offensive line—for 418 yards of total offense, the second highest output of the year and by far the most efficient. Sewell was 20 of 25 on passing. Simpson ran for 93 yards. And Al Groh got his first victory in the state of Florida.

"I am delighted to have you play football. I believe in rough, manly sports. But I do not believe in them if they degenerate into the sole end of any one's existence. … Athletic proficiency is a mighty good servant, and like so many other good servants, a mighty bad master."—Theodore Roosevelt, Letters to his children, October 1903

This season may well be the most successful in UVA history, and even more so than most team's successful seasons, it has been dependent on the divine providence of field goals. Had five in particular not gone UVA's way, their record would be 4-7 rather than 9-2, and Al Groh would in all likelihood have been planning for a new job rather than the Virginia Tech game, while UVA would be courting a new coach rather than bowl game committees. It sends the message that we probably shouldn't put too much stock in the win-loss column, but that's a message most of us—including me—don't read often enough.

Early in the season, one post on the Cavalier fan website, TheSabre.com, had this scenario pegged as the worst case possible: A good record this season only prolongs the suffering with Groh as head coach and keeps UVA away from its ultimate glory with some yet-to-be-hired football Messiah. (The logic rather resembles that of the pro-Israel Christians who think they're expediting the Second Coming.)

The Cavs' top-notch defense will have its hands full containing Tech's nimble freshman quarterback Tyrod Taylor.

Virginia has a lousy recent record against Virginia Tech—Groh only has one win, in 2003. But if there were a year to do it, 2007 is looking like the time. One of the only teams in the country with a worse offense than UVA is Virginia Tech, which hasn't been able to coordinate an injury plagued offensive line and has alternated quarterbacks throughout the season. Tech is ranked only slightly higher (as of press time—Miami played Tech over the weekend, and a Hokie loss could have dropped them lower). And UVA is playing at home.

Even if Sewell and Long and the rest can't get a win this weekend against Tech, and even if UVA loses its bowl game, the team still would finish the season 9-4, one of the better finishes in school history. Groh would at least keep his job, and Littlepage would probably extend his contract for a year at the very least, possibly more. Groh would get to keep his son as offensive coordinator.

But let's say UVA beats Virginia Tech. That means the team would play in the ACC championship game. And let's say the Cavs beat Boston College or Clemson. Holy shit. UVA would play in a BCS Bowl game and in all likelihood rank in the Top 10. Groh would probably win a national coaching award, and incentives in his contract would pay out at least $450,000—though the University would be the big winner, with more than $10 million in bowl revenue. You'd better bet Groh would get a bunch of years on his contract. In football, as in most sports, winning—even lucky winning, even at an academically elite school such as UVA—matters a whole lot more than anything else.

Yet no matter how fascinating all this stuff is, I'm getting sidetracked. The reason I care about all this goes back to a feeling in your stomach that you get when you look at the names of two teams next to each other on a schedule. Ever since I can remember, that feeling came with basketball games between North Carolina vs. Duke. Now, if you're a Hoo or Hokie, that game is November 24. Virginia Tech at Virginia. You see those names on the schedule and you lay down in bed and suddenly in your mind, the battle unfolds, and you see your guy—Mikell Simpson or Tyrod Taylor or Chris Long or Xavier Adibi or whoever your guy is—making a great cut or a big hit. But then he slips, or the other guy slips away, and your guy is lying on his belly on a grassy field while one of the other elephants come to gloat over him or trample around him. And that initial hope that your guy is going to score or force a fumble is chewed all to hell by doubt that the other guys are better. And you open your eyes and you can't sleep for that goddamn hamster of doubt in your stomach and all you want is for the game to be here so you can see it for your own goddamn self and not have to wonder any more. There is a fever at the thought of the glory that your team is going to bring when it does triumph, when that last whistle sounds and the scoreboard is in your favor, and even though you don't like to admit it to yourself because it all sounds too corny, it's Good vanquishing Evil and your wife can leave you right now and you wouldn't feel it until tomorrow or even the next day.

This year, Virginia has created that pit in more stomachs. This year, it has created some true fans. Go to hell, Colin Cowherd.

 

Cavalier attitude? Not with these teams on tap
Ilario Huober
 

The Quakers can now take that sigh of relief after getting their first win last night. But they'd better not take too long exhaling, because No. 23 Virginia comes to town Friday to take on Penn in the first round of the Philly Classic.

The date kicks off a markedly difficult stretch in Penn's nonconference schedule, in which it plays the Cavaliers, either Seton Hall or Navy the next day, then Villanova and North Carolina a week later.

And for a team that had struggled through its first three games, that win couldn't have come at a better time. Virginia comes in with its own share of momentum, having beaten No. 17 Arizona on the road last weekend before handing Drexel its first loss last night.

"Virginia is a great team, but there have been a lot of upsets in the NCAA this year," senior guard Mike Kach said. "We have talent, we showed it [last night]. We came together as a team, and I think that when we start playing like that, we can beat some teams."

But although the positive result may have bolstered Penn's confidence, coach Glen Miller admits it may have been nicer to get the ball rolling a little bit more before facing the likes of Virginia.

"Would it be better to be playing Virginia, or someone of that caliber, down the road when these guys have had a chance to grow? Sure," he said last night. "But that's our schedule and we're excited to play Virginia on Friday."

It is safe to say that the Cavaliers will not be star-struck by the atmosphere in Penn's historic gym. Virginia has plenty of Philadelphia connections of its own.

For one, the Cavaliers' ties to the City of Brotherly Love trace back to third-year assistant Steve Seymour.

Seymour served as an assistant coach at Drexel for eight years before becoming head coach for the next two, then later spent a year as an assistant at La Salle.

"He's very familiar with Philadelphia hoops," Virginia assistant coach Bill Courtney said of his colleague. "He's been an integral part of why we have a lot of the Philadelphia players down here at Virginia."

Among those three Philly transplants, who Courtney says "fully understand what Philadelphia basketball is all about," is three-year captain Sean Singletary, who attended Penn Charter. The senior will likely be a handful for the Quakers come Friday.

"He's probably a lottery pick, maybe the best guard in the country," Miller said. "And he's coming home to Philly, so you know he wants to have his best game here, back home. It will have to be a team effort, there's no one player on our team that's going to slow him down or stop him."

But the Penn-Virginia connections don't stop there. Ryan Pettinella, now a senior with the Cavaliers, will face the Quakers for the first time since leaving the University after his sophomore year.

And Miller will be staring down an old friend on the opposing bench. He and Virginia coach Dave Leitao served as an assistants under Jim Calhoun at UConn for seven years. The two maintain a strong relationship to this day.

"We try to help each other be successful, we root for each other," Miller said. "There's a lot of people you can play besides your close friends, but it's a tournament so we'll compete for those 40 minutes and then when it's over, it's over."

In the second game of that tournament Saturday, the winner of the Penn-Virginia matchup will play the winner of the Seton Hall-Navy contest after the losers square off earlier that day.