Sewell keeps his cool to Cavaliers' benefit
November 23, 2007 12:35 am
BY TAFT COGHILL JR.

CHARLOTTESVILLE--Prideful and emotional are words Virginia head coach Al Groh uses to describe sophomore quarterback Jameel Sewell.

Both of those characteristics were on display last year after the Cavaliers lost 17-0 in their season finale at arch-rival Virginia Tech.

Sewell threw for just 66 yards and an interception while leading his team to a meager 112 total yards and five first downs.

Sewell, a redshirt freshman at the time, vented in his postgame interview about not wanting youth to be an excuse for his poor performance.

"That was an excuse everybody used to make for me," he said on Tuesday. "And I didn't like having excuses."

This season, Sewell has brushed all the excuses aside. He's still relatively young in his development, but he's demonstrated the poise of a veteran in the clutch.

He's been the primary reason for Virginia's Division I-A record five victories by one or two points by completing 17 of 20 passes on four late game-winning drives.

Tomorrow at noon, he'll face the team that ended last season on such a sour note when the Cavaliers (9-2, 6-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) host Virginia Tech (9-2, 6-1) in a showdown for the Coastal Division title and a trip to next Saturday's conference championship game in Jacksonville.

Sewell is determined to erase the memories of last year's setback in Blacksburg.

"I just don't want to have that same feeling," he said. "Nobody likes the feeling of losing and we all know what that feels like. We just have to make sure we remember that."

That shouldn't be a problem for Sewell, who had trouble maintaining a short memory in the past.

He would dwell on every mistake, something that's been reversed ever since the Cavaliers' season-opening 23-3 loss to Wyoming.

Sewell completed just 11-of-23 passes for 87 yards and two interceptions in that game, but his miserable play went far beyond numbers. It appeared he had regressed both physically and mentally from last season.

Now that he's proven that wasn't the case, Sewell said the loss was the turning point in his season.

"I just knew I wasn't that type of quarterback," he said. "I played just like a pure rookie, somebody who didn't know what he was doing out there. I just had to focus a lot more on film, just little things like mechanics and everything like that."

Sewell's performance against Wyoming prompted Groh to burn the redshirt of true freshman quarterback Peter Lalich, who then appeared in three consecutive games as part of a rotation under center.

However, Groh eventually came to the conclusion that Sewell was the best option for his team to be successful--primarily because of his running ability and elusiveness in the pocket.

Groh said those skills offset Sewell's often erratic passing.

"Those things have to be included in the total evaluation of what he brings to the team," Groh said. "That's all part of the total package, and we accept it all."

Sewell has started every game this season, but when Lalich took away some of his snaps, it lit a fire under the Richmond native.

Groh insists he was just trying to win when he inserted Lalich into the mix, but it also motivated Sewell. He's been able to limit his mistakes, and when he does commit a turnover, he quickly forgets about it.

"Obviously, it helped me realize that I definitely wasn't doing my job the way it needed to be done," Sewell said of the quarterback rotation. "Something just clicked in my head that I can help this team do some things. I just wanted to play to my potential. I'm still trying to work on that right now."

Sewell has completed 58 percent of his passes for 1,977 yards, 11 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He's rushed for another 228 yards and two scores. He's passed for at least 200 yards in four straight games, including a career-high 288 in a 48-0 victory over Miami two weeks ago. He's fifth in the ACC in total offense (200.5 yards per game).

But statistics don't quite measure Sewell's turn-around.

Groh said more importantly he's found a way to turn his pride and heavy emotional investment into positives on the field.

"One of the things that was challenging for him to deal with in the past was some circumstances when things didn't go well," Groh said. "It would hurt his pride and his emotions would get in the way. [But] just like I think everyone has toughened up here mentally, he's done the same thing."

 

Father's footsteps
Long had pedigree, but it was up to him to make most of it
Friday, Nov 23, 2007 - 12:10 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE From his father came the size and the athleticism and, of course, the last name. But those attributes alone did not make Chris Long an exceptional football player. What separates the eldest of Howie Long's three sons from other big, fast, talented players is his unrelenting drive to take advantage of the gifts he inherited.

"We're talking about two elevators: the desire elevator and the ability elevator," Howie Long said. "His ability was on the second floor, and his desire was on the 10th floor. I saw that early."

Picture this scene from five or six years ago: It's winter, 10:30 on a Friday night at St. Anne's-Belfield, a private school in Charlottesville. The basketball game has ended, and the place is almost deserted. In the weight room, though, the lights burn.

"There'd be one truck in the parking lot, and he's in there doing cleans and squats," Howie Long said. "That's who Chris is."

And that's a large reason why University of Virginia senior Christopher Howard Long, 22, today is widely considered the top defensive end in college football and a probable first-round pick in the next NFL draft. Strep throat kept the 6-4 280-pounder out of practice early in the week, but he's expected to play tomorrow when No. 16 U.Va. (6-1 ACC, 9-2) meets No. 8 Virginia Tech (6-1, 9-2) in the regular-season finale at Scott Stadium.

Unlike his father, who had a rough upbringing in Charlestown, Mass., a blue-collar Boston neighborhood, Chris Long was a child of privilege.

"One thing that 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," Chris said last week at John Paul Jones Arena. "My duty as an athlete, and as a son, as a brother, is to take every opportunity that I've been blessed to have and maximize it and be appreciative of it."

Howie said: "I can't imagine somebody wanting something more, and economics have never played a role in that, and they still don't. He plays for respect, and that's what you should play for. And he plays for his team."

Chris' teammates may know his flat-topped father best for his TV work on Fox's NFL broadcasts, but older generations remember Howie Long as a rampaging defensive end for the Raiders. In July 2000, the former Villanova star was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Six years earlier, Howie and Diane Long and their three sons -- Chris, Kyle and Howie Jr. -- had moved from Palos Verdes, Calif., to Ivy, just outside Charlottesville. Not long after they settled in Virginia, Chris decided he wanted to play football.

Back then, Howie said, Chris "looked a lot like that horse that just popped out of his momma: kind of all legs and arms." And father wasn't convinced son would stick with football.

"I said, 'We'll see,'" Howie recalled with a laugh. "I didn't say that to him, but I said that to his momma. 'Maybe he'll get a bloody nose and not want to play any more.'"

Chris said: "I think the last thing he wanted me to do was play football. It's a violent game, and it's a tough game, and a taxing game. If I had a son, I don't know if the first thing I'd do would be to push him toward football."

Mark Sanford, who played fullback at U.Va. and for the Dallas Cowboys, was an assistant on the Pop Warner team that gave Chris his first taste of organized football.

"He was a big, old clumsy colt," said Sanford, who nows coaches the varsity team at the Covenant School in Charlottesville. "I don't think there was anything other than his physical size that stood out then, but the one thing we did see was his motor. The kid was always going."

Early in his 11th-grade year at St. Anne's-Belfield, where he was a dominant two-way lineman for coach John Blake, Chris committed to his hometown university. Questions followed Chris to U.Va. Was he the second coming of his famous father? Or was he simply a big, strong athlete who'd pushed around smaller, slower, weaker opponents in a private-school league not known for producing Division I talent?

"Believe me, I was very aware of the fact that people didn't think I could play a lick of football because I went to a private school," Chris said.

Those skeptics, obviously, did not include U.Va. coach Al Groh or his assistants.

"Certainly well beyond the fact that his last name is Long, the athletic ability was clearly apparent in looking at this tape, and that athletic ability supersedes the quality of the competition," Groh said. "You didn't have to be any great personnel guru to see it. His energy and his passion for football and his ambition to succeed just came through so transparently."

As a true freshman in 2004, Long contracted mono and missed five games. He became a starter in'05 but wasn't an instant sensation in U.Va.'s 3-4 defense. Early in his career, No. 91 was like a dog chasing a car, Groh has said, and Long pressured quarterbacks a lot more than he actually sacked them.

"Like I said, I'm not always the quickest learner, and so I knew it was going to take me some time," Long said, "but you never let up. You never stop running hard, and you never stop working hard, and you'll get your breaks and you'll learn. Or maybe you won't. I didn't know where my football career was going to go. I just figured I'd give it all I got."

The breakthrough came late in this sophomore season, and a year later Long was named to the all-ACC second team. This season, he leads the conference with 12 sacks and is a finalist for several national awards, the Nagurski and the Lombardi among them.

Groh, who as an assistant coach worked with linebacker Lawrence Taylor at the University of North Carolina and again with the New York Giants, has compared Long's impact in college to that of L.T. in the NFL.

"For anybody who doesn't have a definition in their mind about what an All-American is, just watch him play," Groh said of Long.

U.Va. fans have one final chance to watch Long play at Scott Stadium. He'll be introduced, along with the Cavaliers' other seniors, before tomorrow's game.

"The objective is to win a ballgame," said Long, a sociology major who's on track to graduate in May. "You can't get caught up in your emotions to the point where you can't do your job. But to walk out there with the rest of my senior class and my parents, it's going to be an emotionally charged day."

Howie said: "I'm so proud of not only what he's accomplished and the team has accomplished, and all of those seniors have accomplished, but he's a good son, he's a good brother, he's a good teammate, and he's a good member of the community.

"He has a great sense of right and wrong. He has a great sense of loyalty. He's just a good guy. I'm most proud of that."

 

Cavs don't want the Royal treatment
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
November 23, 2007

Virginia Tech calls it BeamerBall.

Essentially that nickname was derived from the Hokies’ ability to get into the end zone while their offense watches from the sidelines.

Regardless of its name, its impact is not up for debate.

And Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer’s love for special teams remains unquestioned - he is the unit’s coach.

This season alone Beamer has watched the eighth-ranked Hokies (9-2, 6-1 ACC) reach the end zone three times on special teams. That gives Virginia Tech 12 special-teams touchdowns since 2003.

“The special teams, as usual and backed up historically, is a unit unto itself,” said Virginia coach Al Groh. “They not only play special teams, but they score and win the game themselves.”

The biggest and best weapon - at least on paper - for the unit is senior Eddie Royal.

While Josh Morgan can be just as deadly returning kickoffs on Saturday in Scott Stadium, Royal has the distinction of being Virginia Tech’s and the ACC’s all-time leader in punt return yards.

The speedster, who doubles as a wideout, has 1,284 return yards, which is topped by just one active player in Division I-A, Troy’s Leodis McKelvin (1,425).

Royal actually set the league record last weekend with a 13-yard punt return in the first quarter against Miami. He passed former Maryland return specialist Steve Suter (2001-04), who finished his career with 1,271 yards.

“I tried not to pay attention to it, but a lot of people have been telling me about it,” Royal said. “The punt-return team actually used it as motivation, they wanted to get me the record.

“For me, it’s not an individual record, it’s a team record and it shows you the type of effort I had from those guys in front of me blocking.”

Earlier this season, Royal, who is from Herndon, returned punts for scores against William & Mary and Clemson.

Stopping him remains a challenge, but Virginia will know exactly where Royal is located on returns, Groh said.

“With Eddie Royal, the all-time leading punt returner in the history of the ACC, it clearly points out the necessity of our [need to] have a spectacular day in terms of punting the ball and coverage if we’re to avoid a mishap in that area,” Groh said.

With at least two games remaining, Royal would like to distance himself from would-be challengers.

“I’m going to try to keep adding on so nobody will be able to scratch it off,” he said. “It’s just a great record, and I’m just happy to be that reliable guy for Coach Beamer.”

Royal can rest easy - for now.

North Carolina junior Brandon Tate is the closest underclassmen in the ACC to Royal. Tate, a junior, trails by 628 yards.
 

An outsider sizes'em up
Landry's prediction: Virginia Tech will squeak out road win
Friday, Nov 23, 2007 - 12:06 AM
By JOHN O'CONNOR
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Chris Landry runs his own football scouting and consulting business out of Baton Rouge, La., and also offers commentary on college and pro football for Fox Sports Radio. He is a former NFL assistant coach (Titans, Browns), and an ex-NFL scout. He is a former LSU assistant coach.

Landry is renowned for his deep and wide knowledge of college football. He is, in many ways, the perfect guy to break down tomorrow's Virginia Tech-at-Virginia game.

Landry has no axe to grind. He has no motivation to favor either program with his commentary. And he is an informed source. Landry says he has seen every game the Hokies and Cavaliers have played this season on video.

Two good defenses meet. A low-scoring game seems likely. Landry's analysis follows.

Virginia
"Virginia has done a really good job this year getting that team to be very, very functional offensively, protecting the ball well. I think they've done a good job developing the running game and creating enough balance. They protect the ball very well. They don't do a lot that is very risky. They don't beat themselves.

"You look at the games they've played this year, and a lot of times they really wait for other people to make mistakes, and they usually take advantage of it.

"If you look at a team like Wake Forest last year, [the Deacons] did a very similar thing."

Virginia Tech
"Probably the one difference in the teams now as opposed to say a few weeks ago is Virginia Tech is starting to play a little better offensively. [Quarterback Sean] Glennon has been more consistent. He's more comfortable. And so their abilities to move the football and capitalize in the red zone are a little bit better than they were several weeks ago, when they were really trying to find some rhythm."

Hokies creativity
"Virginia Tech is a very good defensive team. They do a good job with their pressure package. And they do a good job of creating a) field position with their special teams, and then b) a good job with their pressure package creating turnovers."

The winner is . . .
"I think Tech, but it's a pretty close game. It wouldn't surprise me either way. I do think that Tech's a little more talented, and that would probably be the difference in the game. Both teams will play well, and both teams are very well-coached. But I do like Tech a little bit."

 

U.VA. NOTES
Friday, Nov 23, 2007 - 12:06 AM

Virginia hopes trend continues
The 16th-ranked Virginia Cavaliers (6-1 ACC, 9-2) haven't played since Nov. 17, which might bode well for their chances tomorrow afternoon against No. 8 Virginia Tech (6-1, 9-2) at Scott Stadium.

Under coach Al Groh, U.Va. is 9-2 when coming off a bye week. It's 7-0 at home in those situations. Groh is 3-1 in bowl games, for which he's also had extra time to prepare.

"I don't think it's anything too mystical," Groh said. "I think if you checked a lot of teams, they'd probably have a pretty good success rate after bye weeks. The team's rested, the team's had extra preparation, that's all I can think of.

"We certainly haven't done anything differently. We don't have anything we could go to clinics and talk about and have a good topic."

In Groh's seven seasons as coach, Virginia is 34-9 at Scott Stadium. Two of those losses were to Virginia Tech, which won 31-17 in 2001 and 52-14 in 2005 in Charlottesville.

An uncommon team
This is the fourth U.Va. team of which Jon Copper has been a part, and the redshirt junior linebacker believes it has some qualities the others didn't.

"I think everybody has bought in," said Copper, who leads the Cavaliers in tackles for the second straight year. "Not to speak negatively about past teams, but I think with any team there's always a danger of, you have a few guys that are maybe looked up to or need to be dependable and aren't.

"That's the case with 95 percent of the teams out there. I just think with this team, everybody that lines up on kickoff or on third down, on defense or is in the offensive huddle, we really believe in each other, and I think guys have earned that. They're just a lot of dependable guys."

Virginia finished 8-4 in 2004, 7-5 in'05 and 5-7 last year.

Groh salutes Carr
Early in his weekly press conference Tuesday, Groh brought up Lloyd Carr, who'd announced his retirement as Michigan's coach.

"Before we have the opportunity to do it personally, maybe the message will get to Ann Arbor," Groh said. "I'd like to say congratulations to coach Lloyd Carr and the wonderful ambassador that he's been to college football."

Groh also praised Michigan administrators for their support of Carr, saying they "decided that loyalty and high standards and integrity and caring about your players was an admirable thing to be associated with. That's what Lloyd has done for his players and his university."

Students fired up
Two shirtless members of the Hoo Crew, a student group that cheers at many U.Va. athletic events, interrupted Groh's press conference Tuesday to announce the launch of "Operation Orange." Their bodies were painted orange, and they encouraged their fellow students to show up in orange from head to toe tomorrow at Scott Stadium.

"I'd say that you guys have outdone the Blue Man Group," Groh said with a smile as the two young men left.

Groh opened his remarks by singling out the FIJI Run Across Virginia, an annual fundraiser conducted by Phi Gamma Delta fraternity brothers at U.Va. and Virginia Tech. It's expected to raise about $30,000 for the V Foundation for Cancer Research this year. For more information, visit www.fijirunacrossvirginia.com.

-- Jeff White

 

Dad likes view from shadows
Howie Long happy to let son have his moment in the sun
Friday, Nov 23, 2007 - 12:06 AM

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Tomorrow will be different. When defensive end Chris Long is introduced as part of the Senior Day ceremony, his parents, Howie and Diane, will be with him on the field at Scott Stadium, in full view of the fans.

But good luck spotting Howie Long at most Virginia home games. At 6-5, with his trademark flat-top, the Pro Football Hall of Famer is difficult to miss, but he tries to stay out of sight.

"I'm very conscious of the fact that this is Chris, it's not me," Howie Long told The Times-Dispatch. "This is Chris' time. I've had my time."

His father "is the most selfless person I know," Chris Long said, "so that's not hard for him at all. What's hard for him is to be presented with the predicament where he could steal somebody's shine."

Now an NFL analyst for Fox TV, Howie Long says he knows that "storylines present themselves, and this is an obvious one, and I get that." Until recently, though, he declined most opportunities to talk to the media about his son.

"I'm just in the shadows, and it's great," he said.

Howie and Chris regularly break down game tapes together, and they've worked on Chris' technique. But Howie Long believes credit for his son's success primarily lies with Chris, U.Va. coach Al Groh, defensive coordinator Mike London and assistant Levern Belin.

"I didn't teach him how to two-gap [in a 3-4 defense]," Howie Long said. "I handed them a hard-working kid who wanted to be good, and four years later he's a smarter football player, and he's a better football player." -- Jeff White

 

Protecting the Cavs' home turf
Aaron McFarling

Jim Campbell is not a detective.

He is a health and safety manager who lives in Durham, N.C.

But this week, he's had to tap his inner sleuth.

He's had to sniff out the Hokies.

"Most of them were smart enough to try to at least disguise it some," Campbell said. "There was nothing that was a clear indicator."

A suspicious photo here, a lack of general knowledge about Scott Stadium's seating policies there -- they've all been subtle tipoffs. And all e-mails that contain such signals have been ignored.

It's for the good of the program, Campbell says.

"I'll give the Hokies credit; they're a dedicated fan base," Campbell said. "And they'll try anything they can to get tickets to make it into the game.

"That just means we have to up our screening process a little bit."

Campbell, 31, was among the rarest of the rare this week: A fan with an extra ticket to Saturday's Virginia Tech-Virginia game. Even rarer? He didn't want a ridiculous amount of money for it.

He only wanted to be sure about one thing.

No Hokies.

He made that stipulation clear when he posted the ticket's availability on thesabre.com Saturday. He asked that two pieces of information be included in any e-mails:

1. An offer for the ticket; and

2. Proof that the buyer was a Wahoo, adding "it better be good."

Within two days, he'd gotten 25 e-mails. People sent him pictures of themselves tailgating in Virginia clothing ("You can Google that stuff," a suspicious Campbell noted). People sent him detailed history reports on the UVa program, including some of the biggest wins and most heartbreaking losses ("It wouldn't take a lot of homework," he said). One guy offered to scan his UVa diploma and e-mail a copy to Campbell.

"I feel kind of silly about it in some ways," Campbell said. "Every time somebody would send a message in, I would go and try to find their login name on the Sabre and kind of go back and make sure they've been a member for a while."

He laughed.

"I even went back and looked at some of their posts," he said. "For me, it was just about trying to get it in the hands of a non-Hokie."

He shouldn't feel silly about that. He should feel proud. And his fellow Wahoos should thank him.

In a stadium that seats 61,500 people, only 4,300 tickets have been allotted to Tech -- and that includes seats set aside for the band. There is no stopping scalpers from selling to Hokies, but season-ticket holders such as Campbell are trying to maintain the home-field edge for one of the biggest games in this rivalry's history.

As a result, some online buyers have been subjected to a sort of ticket McCarthyism.

"Hokie!!" one poster shouted in response to a message-board ticket request.

"Spelling snafus reveal true Hokie," another said under the same post.

Well, maybe not. Ryan Nash, the 22-year-old mortgage counselor who made the request (and apologized for the spelling errors), said he's been going to UVa games since he was 5 years old. His father is a longtime season-ticket holder, he said.

He admitted he was a little taken aback by the accusations.

"But I kind of understood where they were coming from," Nash said by phone from Knoxville, Tenn. "I've had a Sabre account for a while, but I don't really typically post a lot. It's not really the first thing I think about every day like some people on the board. I just figured I'd give it a shot."

As of early this week, he was still looking.

Campbell was not. He found his buyer, a young man who writes a blog about UVa basketball. Campbell looked up his posts on the Sabre, and they all checked out.

A real, honest-to-goodness UVa fan.

Unless ...
 

Terry Kirby's classroom touchdowns
Tabb High graduate uses his 'gift' to start a charter school in Florida
By DAVID TEEL
Daily Press
6:21 PM EST, November 21, 2007

MIAMI

An outdoor cantina bustling with customers. Palm trees swaying in a breeze. Temperature near 80 just before sundown.

Fresh off the golf course, Terry Kirby marvels at his good fortune on this early November evening in his adopted home.

"This is why you live here," he says, sipping a Grey Goose and club soda. "How could you leave?"

The community hopes he doesn't.

Whether raising money for the charter school he founded or training athletes for an upcoming season, Kirby, in his own quiet way, has become a pillar of the greater-Miami region.

"He's kind of under the radar," says Wayne Neunie, the principal at Kirby's Touchdowns4Life Middle School. "He's not out there, in your face, talking about himself."

It's always been that way. Even as the national football player of the year at Tabb High, even as an all-ACC tailback at the University of Virginia, Kirby resisted celebrity's call.

Credit his upbringing. Raised in a modest home by attentive parents, Thelma and the late Wayne Kirby, he competed against two accomplished older brothers -- Kenny and Wayne were star athletes, and Wayne played Major League Baseball.

Now 37 and five seasons removed from a 10-year NFL career, Terry is doing what he does best.

"I guess it's a gift I have," he says. "Relating to people. If I can put a smile on somebody's face, it's been a great day." Kirby majored in psychology at Virginia and has always enjoyed interacting with children. But after retiring from football -- he played for the Miami Dolphins, San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns and Oakland Raiders -- and settling in Florida, Kirby was unsure how to combine those skills.

The answer came from Melvin Dillard, a former teammate at Tabb. Dillard works with troubled youth in Hampton, and during a brainstorming session with Kirby mentioned charter schools.

"What's a charter school?" Kirby asked.

He quickly learned.

Charter schools are part of the public education system but free from many traditional regulations. They often offer specialized curriculum and more individual instruction.

Kirby partnered with a veteran teacher, wrote a charter and earned approval from officials in Broward County near Fort Lauderdale. Touchdowns4Life opened its doors in the fall of 2004.

The school is located in a well-worn strip mall, the Tamarac Market Place, where it shares store fronts with Krispy Kreme donuts, a karate studio and a discount movie theater -- $3 admission, 99 cents every Tuesday. Its interior is equally humble -- a converted library divided into makeshift classrooms for social studies, language arts, math, science, reading and technology.

They have no gymnasium or playground, and their boys and girls basketball teams practice at the Tamarac Community Center.

But don't be fooled.

Touchdowns4Life was among the five percent of Broward schools that improved by at least one letter grade -- to a B -- on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test last year. A letter from then-Gov. Jeb Bush lauding the school for its upgraded writing scores is displayed in a glass case just inside the front door, not far from Kirby's framed Dolphins jersey.

Sitting in the foyer, you can hear math teacher Linda Augustin ask her class, "What is the value of Y if X equals five?"

A student quickly answers 11, which is correct but not quite good enough.

"Explain how you figured that out mathematically," Augustin implores.

Approximately 110 students in grades 6-8 attend Kirby's school. They reflect south Florida's ethnic diversity, and most live nearby.

"It's not that they're bad kids," Kirby says. "They just need that touch. ... Everybody in my school knows everybody. In a school setting like that, you're a community. ... We try to get parents completely involved, and to me that's the most important thing."

Melanie Frey's two children are outstanding students, but when the family moved to urban Florida from rural Pennsylvania, Melanie wanted a smaller school than their new neighborhood offered. She saw Touchdowns4Life advertised in a newspaper and enrolled Jonathan and Alexa during their first visit.

"It was very small, and (the kids) got major one-on-one instruction," Frey says. "We were very satisfied."

So satisfied that Frey and her husband became habitual volunteers at the school before Melanie graduated to a paid, full-time position as administrative assistant. Jonathan attended Touchdowns for two years, Alexa for three, and both are enrolled in high school magnet programs.

"We've become very close friends with Terry," Frey says. "I can't say anything but good things about Terry. To start a school is such an undertaking. I just wish he was around more often because it's great for the kids."

Kirby chairs the school's board of directors and attends events such as last spring's Field Day at the local park. But he prefers to let the educators educate.

"I can see (Terry's) passion for education," Neunie says. "He's very much involved."

Neunie pauses, grins and adds: "He'll be by later today. He's got to sign the checks."

Kirby has other business ventures in real estate and fitness. He's managing director of End Zone Title Services, and as a co-founder of the Ultimate Sports Institute, he offers training services to individual athletes, young and old, as well as high school and recreation teams -- one of Kirby's football teams, American Heritage, won its district championship this season.

The training keeps Kirby active and fit -- at 236 pounds he's only 8 pounds above his playing weight. Moreover, the training gives Kirby a teacher's satisfaction, that pride in the moment when a student says, "Oh, I get it now."

Touchdowns4Life is a non-profit, and Kirby organizes his own fund-raising. He stages an annual golf tournament and occasional wine-tastings featuring friends from the sports and entertainment world such as Alonzo Mourning, Lawrence Taylor, Jim Brown and Luther Campbell, his co-host on a Saturday radio gab-fest.

Kirby's present aim is to purchase 30-40 laptops to ease congestion in the school's computer lab. His ultimate goal is to fund construction of a new building for the school, complete with the land for those missing fields and playgrounds.

"I don't make a dime from the school," Kirby says. "I just give my time and money. To be involved with something you can see, that's what's most gratifying."

The Kirby file

Age: 37.

Residence: Weston, Fla.

Employment: Founder and president of Touchdowns4Life Charter School; managing director End Zone Title Services; co-founder Ultimate Sports Institute.

Education: Tabb High School ('89); University of Virginia ('93, psychology).

College football: Rushed for 3,348 yards in career, then a school record; led ACC in rushing as a sophomore and senior; helped lead the Cavaliers to a No. 1 national ranking in 1990.

Pro football: Third-round draft choice of the Miami Dolphins in 1993; played 10 NFL seasons, three with Miami, three with San Francisco, one with Cleveland and three with Oakland; scored 43 touchdowns and rushed for 2,875 yards; played on Raiders' 2002 Super Bowl squad.

Family: Single.

Versus Virginia Tech: Virginia was 3-1 against Tech during Kirby's career; in his final college game, Kirby rushed for 185 yards and two touchdowns in a 41-38 Cavaliers victory at Lane Stadium.

Rivalry remembered: "To come back for that last game (after suffering a broken shoulder blade at midseason) and finish like I'd started was very important to me. (The Tech game) is a brawl. That's what you miss when you leave the game."

 

Turnaround has some U.Va. fans feeling giddy
Virginia Tech and its supporters are used to being in the ACC championship chase. Virginias arent, and theyre enjoying it
By Norm Wood | 247-4642
 

Before the second week of the season, Virginia graduate Branch Lawson already was hearing it from several of his less compassionate Virginia Tech grad buddies. They told him what so many pundits and observers already had surmised.

U.Va. was preparing for its home opener against Duke, one week after losing 23-3 at Wyoming. Enjoy another fall of mediocrity, said Lawson's Tech friends, who reveled in the notion that the Hokies were headed for another top-15-caliber season.

In July, media predicted Tech to win the Atlantic Coast Conference's Coastal Division, while U.Va. was expected to finish fourth. After the loss to Wyoming, some of Lawson's tailgating friends at U.Va. were beginning to think even fourth place in the division was a stretch ... but not Lawson.

"I am definitely the glass is half-full kind of guy," said Lawson, a 54-year-old Smithfield resident who graduated from U.Va. in 1975 and has been a Cavaliers football season ticket-holder "for at least 20 years." "So many of my alumni friends had just jumped off the wagon and were looking to make a change at the top and were saying, 'This is awful. We've had all this time to prepare. How could we have laid such an egg at Wyoming?' "

Oh, how the script has changed.

Now, Lawson and U.Va. are seeking to get the last laugh. On Saturday, U.Va. (9-2 overall, 6-1 ACC) hosts No. 8 Tech in a game that will determine the Coastal  Division's winner and representative in the Dec. 1 ACC championship game in Jacksonville, Fla. Tech or U.Va. will play No. 15 Boston College.

U.Va. has turned its season around in dramatic style, winning an NCAA-record five games by two points or fewer. After the Wyoming game, disgruntled fans painted "$1.7 million: Groh Must Go!" on the Beta Bridge on U.Va.'s campus. Now, Groh is one of the favorites to be ACC Coach of the Year. The No. 16 Cavaliers are on the brink of getting a shot to earn a bid to their first BCS bowl since they lost 23-22 to Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 1991.

Being in this position is nothing new for Tech (9-2, 6-1). The Hokies won the ACC title in 2004, their first season in the conference, and lost in '05 to Florida State in the first official ACC championship game in Jacksonville. Tech is trying to become the first ACC team to win the conference title twice since the league added BC, Miami and Tech.

Despite winning 10 of the last 14 meetings against U.Va., and being considered the division favorite all season, Tech doesn't take anything for granted against its in-state rival. Tech quarterback Sean Glennon thinks U.Va.'s lengthy absence from this kind of championship scenario could work in the Cavaliers' favor.

"It seems every year I've been here, we've either been winning the ACC championship or right there short of it," Glennon said. "U.Va. hasn't been in that hunt for a few years, so there's probably a little more excitement around there, but I'm not taking any of the excitement or motivation away from this team. Just because we've been (to the ACC championship game) before doesn't mean we won't want to go back."

Though U.Va. still will play the underdog role coming into Saturday's game, Virginia players have taken an attitude similar to Lawson's. U.Va. coach Al Groh repeatedly mentioned last fall he was playing the '06 season with '07 players. In other words, going 5-7 in '06 with young players would prepare them for this season, and one awful loss to start the season wouldn't ruin their goals.

"We do feel like we're an underdog, but we don't let any of that affect us," U.Va. quarterback Jameel Sewell said. "We don't feel pumped up about it because, 'Oh yeah, we could be an underdog and knock off a big team,' or whatnot. We're just looking to go out there and try to get a win no matter what the circumstances are."

Keeping the faith has served more patient U.Va. fans well. After all, there have been worse days in Charlottesville than the ones that followed last season and the start to this season. This season has been sweet for U.Va., but Lawson hopes the best day is still to come.

"I was there from '71 through '75 and we won (16 games total), so it's all a matter of perspective," said Lawson, a Hampton High graduate and president of the Hampton Roads division of the East West Partners realty group. "Back then, we would've been doing backflips over a 5-7 season.

"I think your basic longtime U.Va. fan is approaching the game with hope and guarded optimism. We're certainly not going to fly off the handle if we lose, but if we win, we might."
 

Rivalry as fierce as others
By Nathan Warters
Lynchburg News & Advance
November 22, 2007

BLACKSBURG - It didn't take Virginia Tech junior quarterback Sean Glennon long to realize just how intense the Virginia Tech-Virginia rivalry is.
It compares to what he witnessed between Texas and Texas A&M as a boy growing up outside of Houston.

"Even though I didn't grow up here, I know what it's all about because I know how the rivalry compares to the other ones I've been associated with," said Glennon, who moved to Centreville, Va., before his freshman year at Westfield High School.

"I know a lot's on the line when we're both 0-10, let alone 9-2 and fighting for an ACC championship."

Glennon pulled for Texas. He never made it to a game, but he remembers rooting for Longhorns players Ricky Williams and Major Applewhite in the late 90s.

"When I was in Texas, it was all Texas-Texas A&M," Glennon said. "Either you liked the Aggies or you liked the Longhorns, nothing in between. There were all the jokes about the different schools, and when I got here I was hearing the same jokes, they just substituted Hokie for Longhorn or something like that."

UVa ties

Many players from both Virginia and Virginia Tech have connections to the other school, be it through a former teammate, a high school coach or a relative.

"I know a lot of people on the team, a lot of guys I played in high school with," Hokies center Ryan Shuman said.

Shuman's connection runs deeper than the current group of Virginia players. His grandfather, Bill Miller, played basketball at Virginia from 1955-57.

"Of course, he's going to be at the game with my grandmother. They all come in for Thanksgiving. They're all going to want to come. I have a little ticket pressure," Shuman said.

Tech right tackle Ed Wang's Stone Bridge High School coach, Mickey Thompson, was an offensive lineman for the Cavaliers in the early 80s.

Wang is also friends with UVa backup defensive end Alex Field.

UVa (neck) ties

Hokies left guard Nick Marshman frequented Virginia football games as a child. He used to go with his uncle, Eugene Wanger, a devoted Cavaliers' fan.

Marshman never could figure out one Virginia football tradition.

"Their fans used to dress with shirts and ties. I mean, that was totally different," he said.

It seems Cavaliers fans have ditched the shirt and tie fad in recent years.

"You kind of wonder why everybody is wearing a shirt and tie to a football game and whatnot, but that's part of the college atmosphere," Marshman said. "Every school has their own different little thing. That was theirs, and I guess (Cavaliers coach Al) Groh changed it."

NFL Draft rankings

Virginia Tech has four players ranked among the Rivals.com top 100 NFL Draft prospects.

Senior linebacker Xavier Adibi is the Hokies' top NFL prospect, according to the list. He is ranked 35th overall and fourth among all linebackers.

Junior cornerback Brandon Flowers (41st), senior defensive end Chris Ellis (63rd) and senior linebacker Vince Hall (77th) are also ranked in the top 100.

Virginia has one player in the top 100, defensive end Chris Long. He is ranked the No. 4 overall prospect and No. 1 at defensive end.

Extra points

Tech coach Frank Beamer said Tuesday that he has not been contacted about the head-coaching opening at Michigan. ? Flowers and cornerback Victor "Macho" Harris both have nine career interceptions, tying them for 15th on the school's all-time list with current secondary coach Torrian Gray and Beamer, among others. ? Kicker Jud Dunlevy has made seven kicks from 40 yards or longer this season, the most for a Hokies kicker since Shayne Graham had eight during in 1999.




 

Bye week gave Cavs chance to rest
By Andy Bitter
Lynchburg News & Advance
November 22, 2007

CHARLOTTESVILLE - There are two schools of thought on bye weeks. One is that any kind of rest before a big game is an advantage, from a physical and preparation standpoint. The other is that when you're on a roll, you don't want to lose that momentum.
"We really needed a break," said Virginia quarterback Jameel Sewell, settling the debate. "Our bodies were really beat up and tired."

The Cavaliers were the last of the ACC's 12 teams to have a bye, getting last weekend off after 11 consecutive Saturdays of action.

UVa is 9-2 following a bye in the Al Groh era, with a 7-0 record at home.

"I don't think it's anything too mystical," Groh said. "I think if you checked a lot of teams, they have a pretty good success rate after bye weeks. (The) team's rested. (The) team's had extra preparation."

Many UVa players watched Virginia Tech play Miami on their weekend off. Linebacker Jon Copper watched with his wife, trying not to be too vocal with his game analysis.

"I have a real hard time watching football and not naming the plays in my head," Copper said. "I don't tell my wife that, but in my own head it's going on."

A game film junkie, Copper said he often goes to bed on the Friday before a game feeling he hasn't watched enough tape.

Even with the extra week of preparation, "I'm sure he'll probably think that way this Friday night, too," Groh said.

Silent but steady

For being a three-year starter, nobody on Virginia's roster has had as anonymous of a career as outside linebacker Jermaine Dias, a graduate student who will play his last game at Scott Stadium on Saturday.

"One of the reasons he's pretty low-profile to you all is because if you chose to ask him a lot of questions, you probably wouldn't have gotten very lengthy answers," Groh said.

Dias needs three tackles to match his career high of 48, set last year. While he doesn't put up the eye-popping stats that Chris Long and Clint Sintim do, Dias has been a constant for the defense, fighting through two injury-plagued seasons to start 28 games in his career.

"That's the kind of guy you have a good team with," Groh said. "With him, there's no 'me' in there. There's no ego in there. He's been very determined all the way through."

Next in line

Saturday will be the last home game for a pair of senior tight ends, Tom Santi and Jonathan Stupar. Combined they have 62 receptions for 710 yards and four touchdowns this season. John Phillips, a 6-foot-6, 255-pound junior, figures to be the beneficiary next season, when he takes over the featured tight end role in the offense.

"With those two leaving, somebody had better pick up the slack," Groh said.

Considered the best blocker of the trio, Phillips has increased his pass-catching role this year, with 16 receptions for 193 yards and two touchdowns.

He had four catches at Miami two weeks ago and showed off some skills after the catch, finishing with 77 yards.

"We see a little bit of that every day," Groh said. "It probably gave other people more of an opportunity to see him and his skills."



 

Virginia allegiances riven by rivalry on football field

THE RIVALRY'S BEGINNING

Hunter Carpenter is the patron saint -- or sinner, depending on point of view -- of the Virginia Tech-Virginia rivalry.

"He burned to beat Virginia," says Roland Lazenby, co-author of Hoos 'n' Hokies: The Rivalry, a 1995 book that tells the tale. "It became his obsession."

Hunter Carpenter

When Carpenter graduated in 1903, after five seasons of football, the story goes, it infuriated him he had never beaten UVA. He went to North Carolina for graduate school and played for the Tar Heels, but Virginia beat UNC 12-11 in the final moments of the 1904 game.

Carpenter returned to Tech for a seventh season -- eligibility rules were looser then -- and one last chance at the hated Hoos. Going into the 1905 game, Tech was 0-8 against UVA by a cumulative 170-5 score.

"The UVA student paper ran a story that said Carpenter was on scholarship," Lazenby says. "Victorian sensibilities reigned and that was the worst thing you could say about someone. UVA refused to play."

Carpenter signed an affidavit to the contrary and, against a backdrop of recrimination, the game was finally played. Carpenter scored. Tech took an 11-0 lead.

Then, late, "Carpenter got tackled hard, a clothesline, and he threw the ball at the tackler," Lazenby says. "They both got thrown out" and the game soon ended.

But not the controversy: Carpenter threatened to sue the Virginia student paper for libel and UVA said it would no longer play Virginia Tech. They did not meet again until 1923.

"It was only a few years after the blowup that both sides had no idea why they weren't playing anymore," Lazenby says. "They just knew they were supposed to dislike each other."

Carpenter's place in history is secure in two respects: He was named to the College Football Hall of Fame as a halfback in 1957. And the rivalry he stoked still simmers.

By Erik Brady

A DIVIDED HOUSE, FLAG

Kevin Coale plays lacrosse for Virginia. His brother Danny plays football for Virginia Tech.

"We have some interesting conversations around the dinner table," says their father, Jimmy.

Kevin, 22, is an often-injured senior midfielder who played eight games during Virginia's 2006 national championship season. Danny, 19, is a freshman wide receiver sitting out this season as a redshirt.

"There are many split allegiances in families throughout the commonwealth," Tech President Charles W. Steger writes in an e-mail. "Those split flags -- half Tech, half UVA -- seem to sell better each year."

One flies at the Coale home in Lexington, about midway between the campuses, little more than an hour to each.

"It's nice because we can wear Tech colors in the fall and UVA colors in the spring," says the players' father, who is head strength coach at Virginia Military Institute.

"I can root for Tech in football,'' Kevin says, "and (Danny) can root for me in lacrosse."

That keeps trash talk to a minimum, though Danny sneaks a jab: "I think he'd have to agree we have a better atmosphere for football."

Jimmy and Kathy Coale find only good news in all this. "As a parent," Jimmy says, "I'm happy they are at two great schools."

Ryan, 12, their youngest, is in seventh grade. He hopes to play baseball in college. As for where, Ryan says it's too early to know.

By Erik Brady

BARBERS' BLOOD RUNS DEEP

Tiki and Ronde Barber played football in the mid-1990s for the University of Virginia. Their father James played football in the early 1970s for Virginia Tech, where he met their mother.

"They divorced when we were 4 so we didn't have a close relationship with our father,'' Tiki says. "But our ties with the Virginia Tech community lasted throughout our childhood. We were always up and back to games because our mother still knew a lot of people there.

"It's funny: All her Virginia Tech friends, when Ronde and I went to UVA, would give her a hard time because she was turning into a UVA fan. But she has both (schools) running through her blood.''

Tiki will be UVA's honorary captain and Bruce Smith will be Tech's in pre-game ceremonies Saturday. Tiki retired as a New York Giants running back after last season. Smith, who played defensive end for the Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins, retired after the 2003 season. Ronde continues at cornerback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

"I haven't seen Bruce in about six years or so, when he was tackling me for the Redskins,'' Tiki says. Might they place a side bet on the game? "I'm sure we can work something out at the coin toss.''

Barber is an analyst for NBC's Football Night in America and a correspondent for NBC News' Today, where colleague Hoda Kotb is a Virginia Tech grad. "We do have some trash-talking on set,'' he says.

He and Ronde did not consider playing at Tech, Tiki says, "mainly because we didn't want to follow in the footsteps of my father. Everyone in my family went to Tech: My mom and dad, obviously, my mom's two sisters, a bunch of my friends from high school. So we kind of wanted to do our own thing.''

Tiki says he is pleased to be an honorary captain in this circumstance because "the gist of the event is we're celebrating Virginia pride in memory of what happened at Virginia Tech in April. I'm honored to come down and be a part of it. ... Even though we are on-field rivals, we're still brothers of the state.''

By Erik Brady, USA TODAY
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Virginia Tech got an outpouring of love and support from every campus in the country after the shootings April 16, none more than from the University of Virginia.
Virginia students sent 30,000 candles for a vigil on Tech's Drillfield. They painted Beta Bridge near their campus in Tech colors with a simple elegy: Hoos for Hokies. Nearly 3,500 joined a Facebook group of the same name.

"UVA reached out. Everyone here appreciates that," Virginia Tech senior and ardent fan Scott Newman says. "But what we want now is normalcy. And what could be more normal at Virginia Tech than hating Virginia?"

Healthy hate — the clean kind based on tradition — is back in time for Saturday's football game at UVA's sold-out Scott Stadium (noon ET, ESPN2). Rarely in the rivalry's 88 games has so much beyond bragging rights been at stake: The winner takes the Coastal Division title and moves on to the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game Dec. 1 against Atlantic Division leader Boston College in Jacksonville.

The rivalry "used to be just for the pride of the thing," Tech coach Frank Beamer says. "This time it's also for the right to play in a championship game. That adds extra meaning. This might be the most meaningful game Virginia and Virginia Tech have ever played."

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Virginia | Atlantic Coast Conference | Virginia Tech | Hokies | Facebook | Virginia Tech University | UVA | Roland Lazenby | Casteen | Hoos
The teams enter with identical records: 9-2 overall, 6-1 in the ACC, which Tech joined three years ago. No. 8 Virginia Tech has better losses (to LSU and Boston College when each was ranked No. 2). No. 15 Virginia's are to unranked Wyoming and North Carolina State.

"It's split down the middle pretty good in Virginia on whose side you're on," UVA senior defensive end Chris Long says. "I grew up in Charlottesville a big UVA fan. But I have a lot of friends at Tech."

That's not unusual. Sometimes students at one campus have romantic interests at the other. Newman, the ardent Tech fan, dates Adrienne Miller, who goes you know where.

"It's a classic love-hate relationship," Newman says. "I love Adrienne — and I hate UVA."

Such splits are common across the state among siblings, best friends, even faculty with joint appointments. These affinities and connections explain not only the rivalry but why UVA emerged as Tech's greatest supporter in its moment of greatest grief.

"Our families overlap," Virginia President John T. Casteen III writes in an e-mail. "The differences are small stuff. Bonds of mutual purposes, overlapping populations and mutual respect for the work that people do in both places are the more important bonds."

Tech President Charles W. Steger (also responding by e-mail) refers to mutual respect as well. "The University of Virginia, by most measures, and I would concur, is the finest public university in the nation," he writes.

What — no trash talk? Isn't this rivalry week?

"The chief theoreticians behind the modern athletics rivalry are sports writers and people who sell T-shirts," Casteen writes. "Among persons with less obvious motives, and with more important things on their minds, this athletics rivalry is more jocular than serious."

"Oh, it's serious," says Long, 0-3 against Tech in his career. "You try not to make it too big. You just want to get the W." That's why he is expected to play, even with a nasty case of strep throat.

'Culture vs. agriculture'

Rivalries between flagship universities and land-grant schools typically have tinges of class war at their center. That effect is multiplied here. Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819, shares a creation myth with the nation. Virginia Tech, founded as Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1872, rose from more modest roots.

"UVA was the university — Mr. Jefferson's university," Tech communications instructor Roland Lazenby says. "So when football began, it was very much the sons of farmers vs. the sons of bankers, stone-faced cadets vs. haughty fraternity boys."

As Virginia Tech has risen in stature and selectivity, its academic profile grows more like Virginia's. But stereotypes linger, never more than at kickoff.

"On some level it's still agriculture and engineers vs. doctors and lawyers and bankers," says Lazenby, co-author of Hoos 'n' Hokies: The Rivalry. "It's not a perfect comparison anymore but, boy, the strains are still there."

Not between the teams, Virginia coach Al Groh says, "but you probably still get a sense of that between the fans."

Newman attended the Tech-Virginia basketball game at UVA last season in farmer's overalls with a mullet wig. "I figured rather than fight the class-war thing, I'd embrace it," he says. "Like, 'Yeah, we have cows on our campus. That's who we are, and we love it.' It's not really class war anymore, but somehow we can never shake the whole culture vs. agriculture thing.

"That's why this rivalry means more to Tech. When we beat UVA, we can say we're better."

Tech fans typically typecast Cavalier fans as, well, cavalier — stuck-up preppies in pastel polo shirts, collars up. A sign in the Tech stands last year: "Save a collar! Pop a Wahoo!"

(UVA's nicknames — Cavaliers and Wahoos or Hoos — are interchangeable.)

The schools' presidents underplay this class war. "At one time that might have been true," Steger writes, "but I doubt that it's true today."

Beamer also declines to be drawn into an argument about agrarians and aristocrats. "The personalities of the two schools are certainly different," he says. Asked to describe those differences, he laughs. "Well," he says, "I don't think I will."

'Put some pepper on it'

For many years, Virginia and Virginia Tech had bitter football rivalries, just not with each other.

Virginia's rival was North Carolina (even if Carolina's was Duke). They have met 112 times in what's often billed as "the oldest rivalry in the South."

Tech's rival was Virginia Military Institute. They shared military brio and similar acronyms (VMI vs. VPI, when Tech was popularly known as Virginia Polytechnic Institute) but haven't met since 1984.

Virginia and Virginia Tech emerged as rivals on many levels over the last few decades, "a fairly natural part of VT's maturation/growth as a comprehensive university," Casteen writes.

The rivalry in sports intensified when Tech joined the ACC in 2004. "That really put some pepper on it," Lazenby says.

UVA leads the all-time series in most sports, but Tech holds the upper hand in football (46-37-5) where the Hokies have a higher national profile: 12 finishes in the top 25, including four in the top 10 since USA TODAY took over the coaches' poll in 1991. Over the same span UVA has four finishes in the top 25, none in the top 10.

Consequential rivalry

The athletes at UVA signed a banner of support for the athletes at Tech after the April massacre. It hangs over the door to Tech's athletics complex. Football players see it as they leave each day.

"That meant a great deal to us," Tech senior wide receiver Eddie Royal says. "When a tragedy hits, it's good to know those people you've been fighting against support you in times of need."

Groh phoned Beamer in the days after the shootings. "It was a very welcome gesture, a great gesture," Beamer says.

"I was calling as the voice of our team," Groh says. "There was nothing we could really do other than to let them know our support."

"On game day, you battle like heck," Beamer says. "During the recruiting season, you battle like heck. But yet you're both from the state of Virginia and one of them has a problem, you're there for them. To me, that's the way it ought to be."

Keller Hardy is a junior — or third-year in UVA parlance — who transferred from Tech after his freshman year there. He knows the rivalry from both sides.

"A lot of my friends at Tech didn't get into UVA. That makes the rivalry a bigger deal to them," he says. "A lot of my friends at UVA say the rivalry is not a big deal. That's because we lose."

On the day of the massacre, Hardy started a Facebook group, "UVA Supports VT," in which he asked students to "put aside our inconsequential rivalry."

Hardy no longer thinks the rivalry inconsequential. Maybe, he says, it means more than ever — and not only because a division title is at stake.

Virginia and Virginia Tech united in sorrow in April. That deepened rather than dampened their rivalry. Royal knows why. "It's always good," he says, "to beat your friends."


 

Virginia overcoming a bad first impression
November 22, 2007
Matt Hayes

It was the very first game. You know the season isn't over, that all of your goals are still possible ... . Don't kid yourself. This was crushing.

"It was," says Virginia defensive end Chris Long, "like the end of the world."

That's what a loss to an inferior team, at the beginning of a crossroads season, feels like. This is what happens when you plan and practice, when you scheme and strategize for nine months, and the anticipation of what could be evaporates with a loss at Wyoming.

You return home on a long, lonely flight to the other side of the country, drive through campus and see a sign hanging from a bridge: Groh Must Go.

"You either get after it," says Virginia coach Al Groh, " or you sack up your bats and go home."

So here we are now: The Cavs are one game away from winning the ACC Coastal Division and playing in the league championship game.

And wouldn't you know it, the team in the way just happens to be bitter rival Virginia Tech -- the team that has owned Virginia since Groh arrived in Charlottesville in 2001. The Cavs are 1-5 against Tech; in those five losses, they scored 50 total points and lost by an average of 19.

Why in the world would anyone assume it will be different on Saturday for the Cavs?

"They have that intangible," says North Carolina coach Butch Davis. "Teams that win close games are teams that don't go away."

There are reasons Virginia has won nine of 10 since the loss at Wyoming, including an NCAA record five games by two points or fewer. The roster is loaded with experience, quarterback Jameel Sewell continues to develop, and a nails defense keeps every game within reach.

And maybe, just maybe, the Cavs finally got sick of underachieving. "You can only be called loser for so long before you start doing something about it," Long says.

Now Virginia is one victory away from tying the school record for wins in a season. Now the Cavs have saved Groh's job and put themselves in position to win their first outright ACC title.

Groh won't address it, but his job security was shaky -- especially after the humbling loss at Wyoming. The losses over the years to Virginia Tech were one thing; galling, unthinkable losses to East Carolina, Western Michigan, Fresno State and yes, Wyoming, left questions about the direction of the program.

Groh has proved he can recruit head to head with the ACC's big boys, but reaching the league's elite on the field hasn't happened. Under Groh, the Cavs were 6-13 against Florida State, Miami, Virginia Tech and Clemson going into this season.

Then came a 48-0 thumping of Miami two weeks ago, when Virginia, a team known for winning ugly, put it all together and left little doubt. Or so it thought.

The reality is, three months into the season, the Cavs have avoided the ACC's top four teams -- Virginia Tech, Boston College, Clemson and Florida State. This is the same team that was struggling with Duke in the fourth quarter, beat Middle Tennessee by two points and lost to N.C. State. This is the same team that has an offense ranked in the 100s.

In the next two weeks, though, the Cavs could play the two best teams in the ACC, Virginia Tech and then Boston College in the league title game. Beat them and Virginia would be the best team in the ACC.

That's not the end of the world. That's the end of underachieving.

 

The battle for Virginia
November 23, 2007

By Lacy Lusk - Virginia and Virginia Tech already have evolved from in-state to top-25 to conference rivals, and their clash takes on added importance in Charlottesville tomorrow.

For the first time in 89 meetings, both schools will play for a shot at a championship. The winner meets Boston College on Dec. 1 in Jacksonville, Fla., in the ACC final. It is for that reason Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer considers this the biggest matchup ever between the Hokies and Cavaliers.

"I know we've played Virginia when a Sugar Bowl or Orange Bowl spot has been on the line, and we needed a win to go," Beamer said. "It's always been a big ball game, but this year it'll decide who plays for the ACC championship and certainly will affect bowl games. That's why it's the most significant."

With Virginia Tech (9-2, 6-1 ACC) ranked eighth and Virginia (9-2, 6-1) at No. 16, the teams have the best combined ranking in the history of the series. Until 1993 both teams had never been ranked when they played each other, but tomorrow will mark the eighth top-25 meeting since then.

Virginia's two Division I-A programs played for bragging rights and perhaps a few recruits until the Commonwealth Cup was first awarded in 1996. The Hokies have claimed the cup three straight years, seven of the past eight and eight of 11 overall, but former coach Bill Dooley considered the rivalry plenty important even without hardware.

"I don't know how to express it other than to say it's like a full glass of water — you can't get any more of it," said Dooley, who also coached at North Carolina and Wake Forest. "Virginia-Virginia Tech, Carolina-N.C. State, that's what those games are like. Any big rivalry game can't get any more intense."

Though Dooley went 6-3 vs. Virginia from 1978 to 1986, he believed the lack of conference affiliation limited the Hokies' program. He tried to help the independent join the ACC in 1978, when Georgia Tech was added instead.

"I can understand from a geographical standpoint why they picked Georgia Tech, but I knew Virginia Tech would take off if they could get in a league," Dooley said. "I worked very hard at doing that, and eventually they got into the Big East and finally the ACC, and now look at them."

Beamer and Al Groh, who both signed long-term contracts in 2005, both played at the schools they now coach. The two programs became conference rivals in 2004 and for the second straight year will end their regular seasons against each other on Thanksgiving weekend, a time reserved for some of college football's most contentious clashes. The sides are considering making that time slot permanent.

"When we weren't in the same conference, I didn't want to play them at the end of the season and it wasn't like it was already a tradition," said former Virginia coach George Welsh, who maintains an office at UVa's University Hall and leads organized pregame discussions for fans on game days. "I wanted to finish with Maryland, but now that [Virginia Tech] is in the conference I think it's good that they do it this way."

To Welsh, the rivalry grew once Virginia became more competitive. A 26-23 win in 1984 helped send the long-struggling Cavaliers to their first-ever bowl game.

"It wasn't a rivalry because Virginia Tech was winning all the time," Welsh said. "I think it picked up a lot in the late '80s and all the way through the '90s. And this is our best chance to win in a few years because we don't have to go to Blacksburg."

Virginia and Virginia Tech have met continuously just since 1970, while the Cavaliers have played North Carolina in the "South's Oldest Rivalry" in each of the past 89 seasons and since 1892. Still, more rancor exists in the in-state rivalry.

The series has featured NFL career sacks leader Bruce Smith from Virginia Tech and Pro Football Hall of Famers Bill Dudley and Henry Jordan from Virginia.

In the most controversial finish, Hokies quarterback Bruce Arians — now the Pittsburgh Steelers' offensive coordinator — was ruled short of the goal line on a two-point conversion try with no time left in Virginia's 28-27 victory in 1974.

"I was in. There was no doubt I was in," Arians said. "Now Ricky [Scales] may have been out of bounds on the touchdown, but that's another question. [Wake Forest coach and Virginia alum] Jim Grobe and I still have a good laugh at that last play. He was at the bottom of the pile. The rivalry was just getting started when I played because we were an independent, and we had just started playing each other. That game kind of started a lot. It's grown a lot since then, and that's good for the state."

Arians has a wager with Steelers James Farrior and Heath Miller on tomorrow's game. If the Hokies win, the two former Virginia players have to wear Virginia Tech's maroon and orange colors all week. Otherwise, Arians has to don blue and a different shade of orange.

Winning any rivalry game will sway a few recruits from one uniform to the other, but Beamer suggested the "personalities of the two schools are different enough where most kids have made up their mind [where they would rather go]."

Nevertheless, the two coaching staffs recruit the commonwealth's top talent with equal fervor.

As an example, Virginia junior linebacker Clint Sintim broke his leg while playing basketball in his senior year at Gar-Field High School in Dale City, Va. Within a couple of days, Groh and Beamer had each visited his house to tell him his scholarship offers still stood.

"It came down to the wire, but I just felt like [Virginia] was the best place for me," Sintim said. "But when we play Tech, it's always the same intensity. This time it just happens to have more implications."

Though the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech have brought the two schools closer together, the on-field rivalry shouldn't lack any energy.

"It was definitely a horrific event, and everyone's hearts were saddened for that," Sintim said. "But [tomorrow] they'll come out hitting, and so will we. There's no other way to play football. We're going to play the same physical style we always play, and I don't think they would want anything less from us."
 

Leitao advises against premature judgments
Rotations could vary on game-by-game basis
By Doug Doughty

It’s getting to be a regular occurrence. Virginia plays a men’s basketball game and somebody of note doesn’t get on the floor.

At Arizona, it was freshman Mike Scott, who was coming off a seven-point, six-rebound performance against Howard.

Against Drexel, it was sophomore Will Harris, who entered the season as the No. 4 scorers among Virginia’s returning players.

What’s going to happen when Tunji Soroye and Solomon Tat return from preseason operations?

Harris had back and ankle injuries that limited his participation in preseason workouts, “but, you know what?” Dave Leitao, the Cavaliers’ third-year head coach, said after the Drexel game. “We could talk about one or two or three guys every game.”

“[With] Will, yeah, he’s still a little banged up. He’s recovering. He probably could have played tonight. I like to think that Jamil’s time on the court and Adrian’s time was good and so it didn’t make any difference.

“I told the team after the game: Next game could be Will’s turn. Who knew it was going to be Mike’s turn today? Having depth doesn’t mean you’re going to play 12 guys [or] 14 guys every game.

“It may mean that it will be somebody else’s turn game by game.”

At 6-6 and 245 pounds, Harris is a little short for a power forward but that’s probably his natural position. Senior Adrian Joseph (6 foot 7, 201 pounds) has been starting at power forward, with sophomore Jamil Tucker (6-8, 241) coming off the bench.

Although Joseph and junior Mamadi Diane are UVa’s two most experienced players next to senior point guard Sean Singletary, Leitao wasn’t sure if he could start them because they basically had played the same position – small forward – until this point. Joseph never rebounded well enough to play power forward and Diane didn’t handle the ball well enough to play big guard.

Diane still struggles with his ball-handling at times, but Joseph has been a pleasant surprise with his rebounding during UVa’s 4-0 start. He had his first career double-double – 11 points and 11 rebounds – in the Cavaliers’ 72-58 victory over Drexel and is averaging a team-high 6.3 rebounds for the season.

Tucker had seven points and four rebounds in 19 minutes Tuesday night and gives the Cavaliers a bigger body when he comes in for Joseph. When he came off the bench in the first half, he gave Virginia some much needed scoring when hardly anybody else was contributing at the offensive end.

Scott had five points and five rebounds against Drexel after not playing at all Arizona, and Scott did not embarrass himself defensively against the Dragons’ Frank Elegar, who was too quick for Ryan Pettinella and Lauris Mikalaukas.

Another freshman, Sammy Zeglinski, also did not play at Arizona, where he may have had an ankle injury. I was told he was in a boot in Tucson, Ariz., but he looked plenty quick in a nine-minute stint against Drexel.

That was the same amount of playing time that another freshman, Jeff Jones, received. Jones was coming off a 15-point game at Arizona, where his five 3-point field goals were critical in a 75-72 UVa win. Jones had two points against Drexel.

“It was a combination,” Leitao said. “I didn’t think he had great rhythm today, but then Calvin [Baker] came in and had a heck of a game. Mike Scott took some minutes away from some guys in the post today, just like Calvin took some minutes away from Jeff. That may be simply what happens during points in time.”

Baker, a transfer from William and Mary, played 26 minutes and scored in double figures (11 points) for the third time in four games. He is fourth on the team in minutes played (19.3 per game) and fourth in scoring (9.5).

Zeglinski had three assists, without a turnover, and media gadfly Jeff White was furious that he wasn’t credited with 1-2 steals.

“He has quick hands and it’s showed in a couple of the games,” Leitao said. “He forced a turnover on the sideline and plucked the ball loose a couple of times out of the post.

“Like any young guy, he’s got to get better defensively and keep the ball ahead of him. On the ball or just attacking the ball, he’s been pretty good so far."
 

UVa heads 'home' for Philly Classic
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
November 23, 2007

There is no doubt that the Virginia men’s basketball team was comatose in the early moments of its win against Drexel on Tuesday night. After all, UVa didn’t score for the first six minutes of the game.

But when the Cavaliers (4-0) take the court tonight (9:30) against Penn (2-0) in the Philly Hoop Group Classic, they’ll likely have much more pep to their step.

Five players, two coaches and an administrator have ties to the City of Brotherly Love. The group is headlined by senior co-captain Sean Singletary.

“I’m pretty excited,” said Singletary, a Philadelphia native. “I haven’t been home in a while to play basketball. It will be good to play in front of our families and at the Palestra.”

Singletary said he has about 300 requests for tickets, and that doesn’t include any members of his family.

“It’s gonna be a hot ticket,” said Virginia senior Ryan Pettinella. “I think it’s a big-time game for all of us.”

Pettinella hails from Rochester, N.Y., but played his first two years for Penn. He originally transferred to Cincinnati to play for former Bearcats coach Bob Huggins. When Huggins was fired, Pettinella wound up at Virginia.

“I left on good terms with [former Penn coach] Fran Dunphy and the program,” Pettinella said. “All the guys were very supportive of the decision. They were a big family and understood that I had to move on for various reasons.”

Pettinella says the “slow-down system” that Penn was employing wasn’t a good fit for him.

“I wanted to go more up-tempo,” he said, “and get to a program that runs up and down the court.”

Pettinella says most of his former teammates have graduated, but he is still good friends with Brian Grandieri, the Quakers’ leading scorer this season.

Virginia freshmen Sammy Zeglinski and Jeff Jones played their high school ball in Philadelphia. Zeglinski attended William Penn Charter, the same school that produced Singletary. Jones, who attended Monsignor Bonner High, is the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Philadelphia Catholic League.

Meanwhile, Virginia freshman Mike Scott originally committed to play at Temple before electing to take a postgraduate year at Hargrave Military Academy.

UVa’s Philly connections also extend to the coaching staff. Assistant Steve Seymour coached for 12 seasons at Drexel (10 as an assistant and two as head coach), while Director of Basketball Operations Rick Brunson was a standout guard at Temple.

Finally, there is Virginia Athletic Director Craig Littlepage, a former player and coach at Penn.

Yeah, you could say UVa has reason to look sharp this evening.

“It’s going to be exciting,” Zeglinski said. “We all want to play well.”

Dunks

Virginia leads the all-time series with Penn, 7-5. The Cavs have won the last five meetings, most recently a 74-68 victory in 1993. … UVa plays the Seton Hall-Navy winner on Saturday night. … It sounds as if Zeglinski’s sprained ankles, which have bothered him ever since the season started, will be something he has to deal with the whole season. “I’m not 100 percent,” he said, “but I’m trying to get back in the mix. I’m just battling it right now.” … Virginia coach Dave Leitao and Penn coach Glen Miller were assistants on Jim Calhoun’s staff at Connecticut.

Philly Hoop Group Classic

* Howard (2-2) vs. Loyola, Md. (3-2), noon

* Robert Morris (2-1) vs. Drexel (3-1), 2:30 p.m.

* Navy (2-3) vs. Seton Hall (3-0), 7 p.m., CN8

* No. 23 Virginia (4-0) vs. Penn (1-3), 9:30 p.m., CN8