Are Cavs slipping away?
Cavs need to win one of their last two to become bowl-eligible
Sunday, Nov 09, 2008 - 12:07 AM
Next game:Clemson at Virginia
When:Nov 22, time TBA
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- In eight days, the University of Virginia football team went from first to fifth in the ACC's Coastal Division.

U.Va.'s descent began Nov. 1 with an overtime loss to the Miami Hurricanes, who trailed for all but 55 seconds of the second half.

It continued yesterday with a 28-17 loss to Wake Forest before a homecoming crowd of 34,014 at BB&T Field.

Don't be deceived by the final score. On a perfect fall afternoon, this one was effectively decided in the first half. The Demon Deacons led 28-3 at the break. Virginia's defense stiffened and its offense awoke in the second half, but Wake's lead was too much to overcome.

U.Va. (3-3, 5-5) turned the ball over three times in the first half, and Wake (4-2, 6-3) turned one of those mistakes into a touchdown on a 53-yard interception return. The Cavaliers also surrendered a 58-yard touchdown pass in the first half, on a play on which senior safety Byron Glaspy misjudged the flight of the ball and the compounded his error by slipping.

A week earlier at Scott Stadium, Glaspy had slipped and fallen in the end zone, allowing Miami to pull even on a TD pass in the final minute of regulation.

If the turnovers and defensive breakdowns had been Virginia's only problems, the half would have been bad enough for Al Groh's team. But the Cavaliers also were penalized seven times before intermission.

"We created a script for ourselves tonight that, as it played out, was going to make it very difficult for us to win the game," Groh said.

And so U.Va. lost in this city for the first time since 1983, when Groh was Wake's coach. With a victory yesterday, the Cavaliers would have regained the Coastal lead. Now they must win one of their two remaining regular-season games to become bowl-eligible.

The Deacons, meanwhile, moved into a tie for first in the Atlantic Division. That's heady stuff for a team that totaled 34 points in its first four ACC games. The Cavaliers came out flat, and the Deacons pounced.

"We might have got ahead of ourselves a little bit," said senior tight end John Phillips, who scored Virginia's first touchdown, on a 21-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Marc Verica early in the fourth quarter.

"Coming into this game, we knew we kind of controlled our own destiny as far as the ACC went. I wouldn't say we overlooked [the Deacons], but we should have screwed down more on them and stopped thinking about the future."

The score was 28-3 when, on Virginia's second possession of the second half, Verica's 43-yard completion to junior wide receiver Kevin Ogletree moved the ball to the Wake 1.

The sequence that followed made an awful day worse for the Wahoos. On first down, the Deacons stopped tailback Cedric Peerman for a 1-yard loss. On second down, Peerman barely made it back to the line of scrimmage. On third down, instead of handing off to Peerman, Verica pulled the ball in and tried to run around right end. Wake pulled him down for a 4-yard loss.

That brought up fourth and goal from the 6. Groh said he didn't consider sending Robert Randolph out to attempt a field goal.

"Maybe it looks a little better in the newspaper, but that's not what we're playing for," Groh said. "We're trying to win the game, and clearly we needed touchdowns to win the game. You know, we got the ball on the 1-yard line, and I'd like to think we could something with that."

U.Va. couldn't. Verica's fourth-down pass to Peerman was well-defended and lost 2 yards, and the Deacons celebrated a goal-line stand that would prove crucial once Virginia's comeback began.

"You want to score when you get down there," Ogletree said, "and that's unacceptable."

After one quarter, Verica was 2 of 9 passing for minus-2 yards. By the end of his eighth start, he'd completed 23 of 45 throws for a career-high 279 yards and two touchdowns. But Verica, who had four turnovers in U.Va.'s 31-3 loss at Duke in late September, threw three interceptions yesterday. His final pick came with 2:10 left and dashed Virginia's hopes of a miraculous finish.

"There's a lot of good plays there," Groh said. "He's doing a lot of good things. But clearly what to stop is the interceptions. We've come down to North Carolina twice and probably turned the ball over 10 times in two games, and that's why we're going home unhappy.

"For all the other things, basically if we don't fall down on a long play, and we don't turn the ball over, who knows where it goes?"

Verica said: "There were some bad throws and bad decisions in there. In these upcoming games, they just have to be eliminated if we want to win."

 

Quick Kicks: Virginia vs. Wake Forest
Sunday, Nov 09, 2008 - 12:07 AM

Final score: Wake Forest 28, Virginia 17 For starters: After Virginia went three and out to begin the game, Cavaliers sophomore Keith Payne, in punt coverage, was penalized 15 yards for a personal foul. Wake capitalized on its excellent field position, putting together a 51-yard drive that ended with quarterback Riley Skinner's touchdown pass to tight end Ben Wooster. That makes five games in a row that the Cavaliers' opponent has scored on its opening possession.

Turning point: Down 14-0 early in the second quarter, U.Va. had a first down at the Wake 16 after a 17-yard completion from sophomore quarterback Marc Verica to redshirt freshman Kris Burd (Matoaca High). The drive stalled there, however, and Virginia came away with only a field goal. Wake added another touchdown on its next possession, and suddenly it was an 18-point game.

Star of the game: Demon Deacons tailback Brandon Pendergrass, a redshirt freshman, carried 27 times for 110 yards -- both career highs -- and a touchdown. It was his first 100-yard game.

Runner-up: Wake wideout Devon Brown, a redshirt freshman from Stone Bridge High in Northern Virginia, scored his first touchdown, on a 58-yard pass from Skinner.

The big picture: Virginia entered November the Coastal Division leader. Now, after back-to-back losses, U.Va. is in fifth place, ahead of only Duke (1-4, 4-5). The Cavaliers are trying to avoid their second losing record in three seasons.

Quotable: "They're not Super Bowl champions. They are a good team . . . We were expecting to come out here and compete and win the game, but they had a better surge. They played better football than we did today." -- Virginia linebacker Clint Sintim on the Deacons

Go figure: 10. That's how many consecutive games U.Va. had won at Wake before yesterday. The Deacons hadn't prevailed at home in this series since 1983, when Al Groh was their coach. Groh is in his eighth season as coach at Virginia, his alma mater.

Next: After playing on seven consecutive Saturdays, Virginia gets a weekend off. The Cavaliers (3-3, 5-5) return to action Nov. 22, when they'll host ACC rival Clemson (2-4, 4-5) in their home finale. The Tigers lost 41-27 at at Florida State yesterday. U.Va. has won three of the past four games in a series Clemson leads 35-8-1. Their most recent meeting was in 2004, when Virginia romped 30-10 at Scott Stadium.

 

U.VA. Notes: Randolph replaces Reyering as kicker
Sunday, Nov 09, 2008 - 12:07 AM

Randolph replaces Reyering as kicker
Yannick Reyering, a former all-ACC soccer player, is out as Virginia's kicker, at least for the moment.

Yesterday against Wake Forest, true freshman Robert Randolph took over for Reyering, who missed two field goals Nov. 1 in U.Va.'s overtime loss to Miami at Scott Stadium.

Randolph, a walk-on from Naples, Fla., provided the Cavaliers' only first-half points against Wake, on a 33-yard field goal. He made both of his extra points in the second half, the second of which, because of a penalty, was the equivalent of a 30-yard field goal.

"It wasn't a taxing tryout, but at least we got a positive result out of it," Virginia coach Al Groh said. "Obviously, we needed a better result than what we'd been getting. I think we've gone down that direction [with Randolph], and we're going to see what it brings."

More struggles for Peerman
The Miami game ended when U.Va. senior tailback Cedric Peerman, on the 339th carry of his college career, lost a fumble for the first time.

Peerman won't feel great about his performance yesterday, either. On the Cavaliers' first possession, he dropped a pass from sophomore quarterback Marc Verica. On the second, Peerman took a handoff and the ball was stripped loose by Wake linebacker Aaron Curry, who recovered the fumble.

U.Va.'s ties to Prince, and K-State
The announcement Wednesday that Ron Prince would not return as Kansas State's coach in 2009 shocked Groh.

"But this is one of the best coaches I've ever coached with and one of the best people I've ever worked with," Groh said Thursday, "so clearly he's got a very bright future in front of him."

Prince was U.Va.'s offensive coordinator and offensive line coach before leaving for K-State after the 2005 regular season.

Groh called the recent trend of midseason announcements of coaching changes "disturbing" and noted that Prince "has not even completed three seasons. It takes a little while, especially when you're not the premier team in the conference, as they're not. . . . There's a lot of examples of coaches whose administrations stuck by them who turned out to do a real good job."

Kansas State's roster includes two players who began their careers at U.Va. -- outside linebacker Olu Hall and defensive end Jeffrey Fitzgerald. Hall is playing this season. Fitzgerald, a former Hermitage High star, is sitting out as a transfer.

In short supply
Three promising linebackers -- John Bivens, Darnell Carter and J'Courtney Williams -- left the U.Va. team, for various reasons, in the offseason.

That position continues to take hits. On the injury report Virginia released Thursday night, seven linebackers were listed.

Aaron Clark (knee), Jared Detrick (wrist) and Cameron Johnson (ankle) were ruled out, Mark Ambrose (shoulder) was declared questionable and Antonio Appleby (ankle), Darren Childs (hip) and Jon Copper (hip) were deemed probable for the Wake game.

Ambrose, a 6-5 245-pound redshirt freshman, came to U.Va. as a tight end. But he had a shoulder operation last fall and a knee operation in the spring, after which he found himself buried on the depth chart. A move to inside linebacker seemed to make sense.

"It's a promising project," Groh said. "He's the type of height that we like at that position. He's bright. He gets it easily."

Appleby, Childs and Copper all played yesterday.

Extra points
Junior wide receiver Kevin Ogletree had six catches for 95 yards and one touchdown. Ogletree has caught at least two passes in 22 consecutive games. That's the second-longest streak in school history. Former Henrico High star Billy McMullen caught at least two passes in 25 consecutive games from 2000-02. . . . Senior wideout Cary Koch also sparkled for U.Va. yesterday. Koch, who began his college career at Tulane, caught six passes for 73 yards, both career highs for him as a Cavalier. At Tulane, Koch twice caught six passes in a game, and he had 102 yards receiving against Tulsa. . . . Verica, in his eighth start, passed for a career-best 279 yards -- the sixth consecutive game he's thrown for at least 200. Only one other quarterback in school history has done that: Matt Schaub, who had six consecutive as a senior in 2003. . . . Junior defensive end Jason Fuller made his 2008 debut for Virginia yesterday. He was credited with one tackle.

Next up
After playing on seven consecutive Saturdays, Virginia gets a weekend off. The Cavaliers (3-3, 5-5) return to action Nov. 22, when they'll host ACC rival Clemson (2-4, 4-5) in their home finale. The Tigers lost 41-27 at Florida State yesterday.

U.Va. has won three of the past four games in a series Clemson leads 35-8-1. Their most recent meeting was in 2004, when Virginia romped 30-10 at Scott Stadium. -- Jeff White

 

Miscues doom Cavs
Troubled by both penalties and turnovers, UVa falls way behind and loses for the second straight time.
Doug Doughty

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Virginia liked BB&T Field a lot better when it was called Groves Stadium.

Not that the name change had anything to do with it, but the Cavaliers certainly played as if they were confused in a 28-17 loss to Wake Forest.

Virginia hadn't lost in Winston-Salem since 1983, when Al Groh was the Deacons' coach. He was on the opposite sideline Saturday, when Virginia fell behind 28-3 at the half.

UVa (5-5, 3-3 ACC) held Wake scoreless in the second half and outgained the Deacons 303-273, but the Cavaliers couldn't overcome four turnovers.

Virginia, which had a chance to move into first place in the Coastal Division, dropped into fifth.

Wake Forest (6-3, 4-2) moved into a tie for first with Florida State in the Atlantic Division.

The Deacons ranked fourth in Division I-A in turnover margin before Saturday's game and came up with four takeaways, intercepting three Marc Verica passes and recovering a Cedric Peerman fumble.

The interceptions led to 14 Wake Forest points, including a 53-yard Kevin Patterson return for the Deacons' fourth touchdown of the first half.

After getting 10 touchdowns from their defense and special teams in 2007, Wake did not have a non-offensive touchdown this season until Saturday.

"We created a script for ourselves that, as it played out, was going to make it very difficult to win the game," Groh said. "Between the penalties and the turnovers, we fed the supply line of Wake Forest points."

The Cavaliers, coming off an overtime loss to Miami in which they had one penalty, had five penalties in the first quarter alone Saturday. Three were false starts against their two most experienced offensive lineman, tackles Eugene Monroe (two) and Will Barker.

If the Cavaliers were ready to play, "we obviously didn't show it," outside linebacker and co-captain Clint Sintim said.

Wake Forest converted six of nine third downs in the first half, none more damaging than a 58-yard touchdown pass from Riley Skinner to Deron Brown on third-and-15 with 2:36 remaining in the first quarter.

UVa safety Byron Glaspy appeared to have the ball in his sights but misjudged it. He then stumbled as Brown covered the final 20 yards to the end zone.

"We lost a game last week when we fell down in double coverage," Groh said. "Today, we fell down. A few things stand out. That play for a touchdown, the interception for a touchdown and [a] series at the goal line when we don't get the ball in there."

Virginia, which outgained the Deacs 225-75 in the second half, had a chance to gain some momentum when Kevin Ogletree caught a 43-yard pass from Verica on the Cavaliers' second possession of the second half.

After failing to pick up any yardage on two handoffs to Peerman, Verica pulled the ball away from a potential third handoff and took off to his right. He was sacked by cornerback Alphonso Smith for a 4-yard loss. On fourth down, a pass to Peerman was stopped for a 3-yard loss.

"We probably didn't make the best decision on the third-down play," Groh said. "It looked like we probably had a score there if the ball is handed off, but that's easy to say from the sideline. I didn't have to be out there, making the decision under pressure."

Verica overcame a 3-for-14 start to pass for a career-high 279 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns. He joined Matt Schaub as the only UVa quarterbacks to throw for 200 yards or more in six straight games.

"There's a lot of good plays there," Groh said. "He's doing a lot of good things. But clearly, what has to stop is the interceptions. We've come down to North Carolina twice and probably turned the ball over 10 times in two games.

"That's why we're going home unhappy. For all the other things, basically if we don't fall down on a long play and we don't turn the ball over, who knows where it goes?"

Duke beat Virginia 31-3 on a September afternoon when the Cavaliers outgained the Blue Devils 304-258 but had six turnovers, five of them charged to Verica, who was intercepted four times in that game.

Verica essentially has played in eight games, not counting the final series of UVa's season-opening loss to Southern California and has 15 turnovers -- 12 interceptions and three lost fumbles.

Skinner, who was 14-of-20 for 130 yards, was not intercepted Saturday or in a total of 130 attempts over the Deacons' last five games. That follows a string of 131 attempts without an interception earlier in his career.

Wake Forest's first interception, by nose guard Boo Robinson, occurred after Deacons' linebacker Aaron Curry hit Verica from the blind side. On the interception returned for a touchdown by Patterson, it appeared as if Ogletree had a shot at the ball.

Ogletree, who had six receptions for 95 yards and a touchdown, said he tried to catch the ball against his body because two defenders were getting ready to hit him and may have had a better shot if he'd had his arms outstretched.

"Sometimes balls or going to be batted or tipped or bounce off people's bodies," Verica said. "I'm still going to take responsibility for them. I'm not going to blame anyone else.

"No one person was the reason why we lost today, but there were some bad throws and some bad decisions and they've just got to be eliminated."
 

Randolph converts on chance

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- If Virginia football coach Al Groh had a wish list going into the Cavaliers' game with Wake Forest, it would have included an uneventful afternoon in the kicking game.

Two missed field goals had undermined Virginia in an overtime loss to Miami one week earlier, but nobody could blame a 28-17 loss to Wake Forest on new place-kicker Robert Randolph.

Randolph, a true freshman from Naples, Fla., had a 33-yard second-quarter field goal that was Virginia's lone score before a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown passes.

Randolph took over for Yannick Reyering, a former All-ACC soccer player who was 6-of-10 on field goals before Saturday. Reyering was 3-of-7 from beyond 30 yards.

"I was actually informed earlier in the week," Randolph said. "I had been taking all the reps with the first [field-goal] team."

Redshirt freshman Chris Hinkebein handled kickoffs for the fourth straight game.

Randolph said he had a scholarship offer from Division I-A New Mexico State last year and took a recruiting visit to the campus in Las Cruces, N.M., but was headed to Division I-AA Georgetown before Virginia invited him to walk on.

"When I was recruited, I was told I would have a chance to play," said Randolph, who earlier had kicked a field goal against North Carolina after an injury to Reyering.

Another true freshman, scholarship punter Jimmy Howell, averaged 42.8 yards on six punts.
Deja vu

Fifth-year safety Byron Glaspy, who fell down on the touchdown pass that forced overtime in the UVa-Miami game, was the victim again Saturday on a 53-yard touchdown pass from Wake quarterback Riley Skinner to Devon Brown.

Glaspy fell down again Saturday but Brown already had gotten past him.

"I felt like I timed it right," Glaspy said.

Virginia connection

Brown, a redshirt freshman, played running back at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn, Va., and was the 2006 Northern Region Offensive Player of the Year after scoring 29 touchdowns.

Three current Stone Bridge players are committed to Wake Forest, including twins Patrick and Zach Thompson, son of Stone Bridge coach and former UVa defensive lineman Mickey Thompson.

Odds 'n' ends

For the fifth game in a row, Virginia's opponent scored on its first offensive series as Wake Forest benefitted from a short field after UVa's Keith Payne was penalized for a late hit on a punt return.

Virginia next week

After playing seven games in seven weeks, the Cavaliers (5-5 overall, 3-3 ACC) will have their second open date of the season. They will return to action Nov. 22, when Clemson visits Scott Stadium. The Tigers (4-5, 2-4) were 41-27 losers Saturday at Florida State and will entertain Duke next Saturday.
 

Loss to Miami the culprit
Aaron McFarling

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Miami beat this team twice.

The standings won't show it. The players will never admit it. The coaches will tell you that every game is different, that once one game ends the next begins and all that good stuff, but anybody who saw Saturday's debacle knows better.

The Hurricanes cut Virginia badly last week. The way that thing ended -- the fumbles, the blown coverages, the missed opportunities, the dissolving confidence -- that wasn't going to disappear in six days. Guys could pledge. Guys could hope. Guys could practice hard. But the Cavaliers were clearly still bleeding when they stepped onto BB&T Field.

UVa played like a JV team for three quarters against Wake Forest on Saturday. The result was a deficit too large to overcome and a 28-17 loss. In two weeks -- actually, in five quarters -- the Cavaliers have plummeted from the top of the ACC's Coastal Division to one spot north of the basement.

And while the Demon Deacons deserve credit for whacking the Cavs, they can thank Miami for softening up what used to be a steely underdog.

Scores don't carry over from one week to the next, but negative feelings can. Doubts can. And in this case, they did.

What was once a confident group riding a four-game winning streak came out looking inept and unsure. The Cavaliers played about as lousy as a team can play in the first half. They dropped passes. They jumped offsides. They turned the ball over, squandered short fields, bickered amongst themselves.

Wake led 28-3 before the Cavaliers even threw a punch.

You could say this Virginia team was never that good to begin with, that it was playing above its talent level all along, and maybe that's true.

But the Cavs were great against Maryland, solid against East Carolina, resourceful against North Carolina and resilient against Georgia Tech. Add those characteristics up and you're a player in this league.

Or at least they were.

Until Miami.

"We might have got ahead of ourselves a little bit," UVa tight end John Phillips said. "Coming into this game, we knew we could kind of control our own destiny as far as the ACC went. I think we might have -- I wouldn't say we overlooked them, but we should have screwed down more on them and stopped thinking about the future."

If they'd won that Miami game, that big-picture pressure never would have been a problem.

They could have played this one more loosely knowing that still they had a margin for error. But once the Hurricanes robbed them of that luxury, they became a different team.

"I guess you could say that we understood the direness of this game," UVa safety Byron Glaspy said.

"We knew we couldn't lose this game if we wanted to go to the ACC championship. We had a little bit more leeway last week. We had a game to lose and we could still be in the race."

Gone now. For all practical purposes, the race is now to become bowl-eligible. UVa needs a home win over Clemson or a victory at Virginia Tech to make that happen.

If you're a Cavaliers fan, the guy you have to worry about the most is Cedric Peerman.

He is a positive guy, a spiritual guy who says all the right things, but he's now suffered through two brutal weeks in a row. And without his presence, the Cavs are less than average.

By most accounts, nobody took last week's loss harder than he did. Peerman fumbled on the final play of the game, sealing a 24-17 overtime win for Miami, and he lay on the turf for several moments.

"I have to say it was tough," Peerman said of the Miami loss.

On Saturday, he still looked bothered. He dropped a pass on the second snap of the game. Then, on UVa's second possession, he fumbled the ball away.

Peerman does not fumble. In fact, going into that Miami game, he had lost no fumbles in more than 400 touches.

"I guess it's the Lord's way of humbling me," he said.

They're all humbled now.

Mostly thanks to Miami.
 

No heartbreaker, Cavs just beaten
November 9, 2008 12:36 am
BY TAFT COGHILL JR.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.

--All last week Virginia football coach Al Groh mentioned that his Cavaliers and Wake Forest have played more close games than any other teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference the past three seasons.

So one might've thought that when Virginia visited the Demon Deacons yesterday, a nail-biting affair would ensue.

Not quite.

Wake Forest whipped Virginia from beginning to end in a 28-17 homecoming victory in front of a crowd of 34,014 at BB&T Field.

The loss wasn't as close as it appeared for the Cavaliers (5-5, 3-3 ACC), who scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns to turn a 28-3 halftime deficit into a respectable final score.

"We anticipated this was going to be a close game decided at the end like all the others have been," said Groh whose team beat Wake 17-16 last season. "It probably would've been that if we didn't let it get out of reach early."

It was just Virginia's second loss to Wake in 23 meetings.

The defeat sent Virginia to fifth-place in the Coastal Division of the ACC just two weeks after it was alone in first.

It was Virginia's second straight loss, but unlike the 24-17 overtime defeat to Miami on Nov. 1, the Cavaliers closely resembled the feeble bunch that was out-scored 128-20 by Football Bowl Subdivision opponents in a 1-3 start.

Virginia was hardly competitive to start the game.

"They really put it on us in the first half," Virginia senior linebacker Clint Sintim said. "It was a big deficit. It was hard to come back from that."

Sophomore quarterback Marc Verica completed just 7-of-20 passes and was intercepted twice in the first 30 minutes.

Wake junior signal-caller Riley Skinner (14-of-20, 130 yards, two touchdowns) had no such struggles.

He threw two touchdowns passes in the first 13 minutes to give the Demon Deacons (6-3, 4-2) a 14-0 lead.

On his 58-yard bomb to Devon Brown--the second of his two scoring passes--Virginia senior safety Byron Glaspy lost track of the ball.

"It seemed like the ball carried more than I anticipated," Glaspy said. "It seemed like it was being pushed more than I thought and I misjudged it."

Groh wasn't too forgiving of the play.

He cited it along with seven penalties and three turnovers (four for the game) in the first half as reasons for the Cavaliers' downfall.

In addition to Verica's miscues, senior running back Cedric Peerman lost a fumble for the second straight game after going 443 touches in his career without such a play.

Groh said the Cavaliers "fed the supply line of Wake Forest points."

"We let bad things happen to the ball today," Groh said. "We didn't defend it deep. We didn't take care of it on offense. That's the way most of these games in the conference have gone now."

Virginia kicker Robert Randolph made it 14-3 with a 33-yard field goal with 13:18 left in the second quarter, but the Cavaliers fell behind 21-3 on Wake running back Brandon Pendergrass' 1-yard run.

The lead grew to an insurmountable 28-3 after Verica's pass was bobbled by junior wide receiver Kevin Ogletree and Wake safety Kevin Patterson picked it off. Patterson raced 53 yards for the touchdown with 3:16 left before halftime.

The Cavaliers could've begun a comeback much earlier, but they were stopped after they had the ball first-and-goal from the Wake 1-yard line in the third quarter.

Peerman lost 1 yard on the first two plays, while Verica lost 4 on third down.

His pass to Peerman on fourth down lost 2 yards.

Verica's third-down run was perhaps the most troubling play of the sequence because it appeared Peerman could've scored a touchdown if the ball was handed to him. Instead Verica decided to fake the handoff to Peerman and keep the ball himself.

"We probably didn't make the best decision on the third-down play," Groh said.

The Cavaliers put together a late comeback on touchdown passes from Verica to tight end John Phillips (21 yards) and Ogletree (five yards).

They had the ball with a little more than two minutes remaining down 28-17, but Verica threw his third interception of the game, this one to Wake linebacker Stanley Arnoux.

"Wake deserves a lot of credit for defending us the way they did and capitalizing on our mistakes," said Verica, who was 23-of-45 for 279 yards. "Those mistakes we made in the first half proved to be extremely costly. We fought hard. We just couldn't dig ourselves out of it."

 

Cavs’ comeback falls short
By Jay Jenkins
Published: November 8, 2008

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Representatives from the Chick-fil-A Bowl and Gator Bowl, were among those in attendance at Wake Forest’s newly-named BB&T Field on Saturday.
After a putrid start, the visit itself now appears to be as close as Virginia will come to either of the premiere postseason venues.
Instead, UVa suddenly finds its postseason hopes in need of life support.
In fact, in a matter of 27 minutes, the Cavaliers missed a chance to jump into sole possession of first place in the ACC’s Coastal Division and helped shatter any hope of playing in the league’s title game by falling to Wake Forest, 28-17, in front of 34,014 on a wind-chilled afternoon.
Virginia (5-5, 3-3 ACC) fell behind 28-3 before halftime, never recovered and must now beat Clemson on Nov. 22 or Virginia Tech on Nov. 29 just to become eligible for the postseason.
Whether a bowl would want the Cavaliers likely depends on which version of the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde operation that they expect to corral.
The model on display in the opening half against the Demon Deacons (6-3, 4-2 ACC) was anything but marketable.
With 8:51 left in the opening quarter, Wake Forest capped an easy scoring drive with a 2-yard touchdown pass from Riley Skinner to tight end Ben Wooster.
Although it appeared that Wooster stepped out of the back of the end zone, the play was not reviewed, giving the Demon Deacons a lead they would not relinquish.
“I didn’t have enough information to tell me that [a challenge] was going to be upheld, and the one thing that we know in college football is that … they are all supposed to be reviewed,” Virginia coach Al Groh said. “We saw how that went last week. Maybe that should have told me to call for it anyway.”
After four possessions and three turnovers, two of which were committed by Virginia, Wake Forest struck again.
Facing 3rd-and-15 at the Wake 42, Skinner fired a deep pass down the left sidelines at Virginia’s Cover 2 defense that appeared destined for the hands of Cavalier safety Byron Glaspy.
“I was definitely thinking interception,” Glaspy said. “I just saw the ball coming out and I knew where he was going to go with it.”
The ball landed, however, in stride with Wake Forest receiver Devon Brown as Glaspy fell to the ground, giving Wake an easy 58-yard touchdown with 2:36 remaining in the first quarter.
“I thought I had got myself on the mark where it was going to come down and it just sailed farther than I had expected. I misjudged it a little,” Glaspy added. “I was just trying to get back into a good position, but at that point the damage had already been done.”
Trailing 14-0, Virginia answered the score with 13:18 left in the opening half as rookie placekicker Robert Randolph, who has stolen the job from Yannick Reyering, nailed a 33-yard field goal.
The Demon Deacons then managed to methodically terrorize Virginia’s defense as they ran on 13 of 15 plays in a 71-yard drive that finished with a 1-yard touchdown run by redshirt freshman Brandon Pendergrass, who rushed for a career-best 110 yards on 27 carries.
While it appeared to be a low point for Virginia, it suddenly got worse.
On 3rd-and-16 at the Virginia 36, quarterback Marc Verica attempted to squeeze a 17-yard pass to Kevin Ogletree between three defenders. Seconds later, Ogletree unsuccessfully tried to keep strong safety from reaching the end zone on a 53-yard interception return that ultimately gave the Demon Deacons their 28-3 halftime cushion.
Virginia, which finished with 307 yards of total offense, attempted to mount a rally, something that could not be said for road losses at Connecticut or Duke previously this season.
The Cavaliers’ defense blanked the Demon Deacons in the second half and held them to just 75 yards.
Virginia’s offense chipped in as well, as Verica connected with John Phillips on a 21-yard touchdown pass and with Ogletree on a 5-yard strike.
But the team had squandered its most promising chance in the third quarter after Verica connected with Ogletree for a 48-yard pass that moved the ball to the Wake Forest 1.
After two running plays lost a yard, Verica elected to bootleg to his right on 3rd-and-goal at the Wake 2. The decision proved costly as the redshirt sophomore lost four yards and missed on a play that could have been audibled at the line into a draw to Peerman.
“We probably didn’t make the best decision on the third-down play,” Groh said. “It looked like we probably had a score there if the ball was handed off, but that’s easy to say from the sideline.
“I didn’t have to be out there making the decision under pressure.”
Groh bypassed on a field goal, electing to go for the touchdown on 4th-and-goal and a swing pass to Peerman lost another three yards.
“You are down 25 points so [if you kick the field goal] now you are down
28-6. Maybe it looks better in the newspaper, but that is not what we are playing for,” Groh explained. “We are trying to win the game and clearly we needed touchdowns to win the game.
“We got the ball on the 1-yard line and you like to think that we could do something with that.”
Winning the second half did little, as expected, to excite Virginia’s players who are now in the midst of a two-game losing streak and lost for the first time at Wake Forest since 1983 when Groh coached the Demon Deacons.
“The guys did a good job of fighting back, but there are no medals for trying,” Virginia linebacker Clint Sintim said. “There are no medals for hard effort and great work.
“The medals are for winning and we didn’t do that today.”


 

Cavs in need of a checkup
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: November 8, 2008

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. —
Where’s Dr. Lou when you need him?
Maybe Virginia’s football team should make the long distance call this week to ESPN’s college football show to see if the doctor makes house calls. Legendary coach Lou Holtz sometimes portrays a character on the show, all in fun, as the doctor with all the answers to what’s ailing teams and offers up advice on how to win games.
After Virginia’s 28-17 loss at Wake Forest on Saturday evening, the Cavaliers could use all the help they can get.
With ACC Coastal Division leader Georgia Tech going down at North Carolina earlier in the day, a win by Virginia would have put the Cavaliers alone in first place. When they showed up at Wake’s BB&T Field, the Cavaliers seemed disinterested ... at least for a half.
By then, it was almost too late as the Demon Deacons held a commanding 28-3 lead. In fact, Wake scored more points in the first half against the Cavaliers than it scored the entire month of October.
Perhaps the only thing that allowed UVa to keep the faith was its last trip to Winston-Salem back in 2002, when the Cavs trailed 27-10 at the half and stormed back to win 38-34.
Of course, Virginia had a quarterback named Matt Schaub that passed the Cavaliers back from the dead in that game when Coach Al Groh threw the game plan out the window and threw caution and the football to the wind.
That wasn’t the case on a chilly night in this tobacco town thanks to a Deacons goal-line stand late in the third quarter. With Virginia knocking at the door with a first and goal at the Wake 1, the Cavaliers never hit pay dirt. Instead, they finished the drive at the 8-yard line, empty handed and still trailed 28-7 going into the fourth quarter.
As mind-boggling as it seemed, Virginia finally found a rhythm in the final quarter.
The Cavs made it look easy as they covered 69 yards in four plays and scored in a mere 56 seconds on a 21-yard TD pass to tight end John Phillips, cutting Wake’s lead to 28-10.
After holding Wake to a three-and-out, Virginia did it again. Quarterback Marc Verica engineered a 10-play, 65-yard drive ending in a 5-yard scoring strike to wide receiver Kevin Ogletree to draw within 28-17 with nearly nine minutes left to play.
Were we going to see Virginia’s second Winston-Salem miracle?
Wake went three-and-out yet again but the Cavaliers’ offense, which looked remarkable during a four-game winning streak in October, regressed to its former self and never threatened again.
What must have been most disturbing to Groh was yet another lousy start. It’s like Daylight Savings Time ended and the Cavaliers never got the message. Their body clocks looked like they were at least an hour late, falling behind 14-0 before one could blink.
This marked the fifth straight game that Virginia’s opponent scored the first time it had the ball.
Dr. Lou, what can one do?
“We created a script for ourselves here tonight that, as it played out, was going to make it very difficult for us to win the game,” Groh said of his team that dropped to 5-5 overall and 3-3 in the ACC. “Between the penalties and the turnovers, we fed the supply line of Wake Forest points, which is what they’ve done a great job of over the years, turning those circumstances into points, and nullified our opportunities.”
The Cavaliers, atypically suffered four turnovers (three interceptions and a fumble) and drew nine penalties for 58 yards.
Planning for this game, Groh believed it would be another thriller-diller like most UVa and Wake games. Perhaps it would have been if the Cavs had taken better care of the ball.
In a conference dominated by nail biters, protecting the pigskin becomes premium.
“For all the talking about blocking schemes and defensive adjustments, games are determined by what happens to the ball,” Groh said. “We let some bad things happen to the ball. We didn’t take care of it on offense.”
Oddly, veteran tailback Cedric Peerman, one of the most sure-handed Wahoos in program history, experienced another agonizing turnover. Peerman was stripped in overtime in last week’s home loss to Miami, a rare fumble by the fifth-year senior. In the first quarter Saturday, Peerman was stripped by Wake’s star linebacker Aaron Curry.
Dr. Lou, do you have a cure for fumbleitis?
Still, Virginia’s defense stiffened after that drop and forced a Wake punt.
It was the interceptions that proved to be daggers into the Cavaliers’ midsection.
Verica was picked three times, two resulting in Deacon touchdowns, another thwarting the Cavs’ last gasps.
The first pick came when Verica was blindsided by a charging Curry with teammate Boo Robinson intercepting at the Wake 47. On third-and-15, the Deacs’ Devon Brown was celebrating in the end zone after a 58-yard pass from Riley Skinner, as UVa safety Byron Glaspy fell down on the coverage.
Later in the half, Wake safety Kevin Patterson picked off a Verica pass aimed at Ogletree and raced 53 yards for the score and a 28-3 lead.
It appeared doubtful that Virginia would extend its 10-game winning streak on Wake’s home turf.
“Basically, if we don’t fall down and we don’t turn the ball over, who knows where [the game] goes,” Groh said. “It would have been a close game if it hadn’t gotten out of reach early.”
Dr. Lou, got a cure for throwing interceptions?
Strange as it seems, Verica actually threw for more yardage than Skinner, the ACC’s top-rated quarterback. Skinner threw for 130 and two scores. Verica passed for 279 and two TDs, becoming only the second quarterback in Wahoo history to throw for 200-yards or more for six straight games (Schaub was the other).
The BIG difference was that Skinner didn’t turn it over.
“[Verica’s] doing a lot of good things, but clearly what has to stop is the interceptions,” Groh said. “We’ve come down to North Carolina twice and probably turned it over 10 times (actually nine). That’s why we’re going home unhappy.”
Virginia also outgained the Deacs’ 307 yards of total offense to 273.
For the second straight week, Glaspy fell down while trying to cover a deep pattern, both resulting in key touchdowns that helped deflate UVa’s drive for the Coastal title. Heading into the Miami game, the Cavs were in first place and controlled their destiny.
Saturday, they played like a team that had nothing left to fight for even though first place was still on the line.
Wake was also playing for first and stayed there with a 4-2 record that ties Florida State for the Atlantic Division lead.
Dr. Lou, got anything for falling down, or an allergic reaction to first place?
The Cavaliers have displayed all the symptoms the past two weeks of a team on its last leg. However it’s not too late.
With a bye week coming up, perhaps Groh can reach into his vast laboratory of football and create a new monster that can help get Virginia to the finish line. The Cavaliers have two big games remaining, a home game against Clemson on Nov. 22 and the rivalry with Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on Thanksgiving weekend.
Perhaps Dr. Lou could come up with some piece of advice to save the Cavaliers’ season.
More than likely he would just say it’s gut-check time in Charlottesville. Men, where is your brass?

 

Deacons get long-awaited win over Cavs 28-17
WFU beats Virginia in Winston-Salem for first time in 25 years, improves to 6-3
By Dan Collins | Journal Reporter
Published: November 9, 2008

Coach Jim Grobe of Wake Forest chose not to tell his players before yesterday's 28-17 victory over Virginia at BB&T Field how much a win would mean to him personally.

Apparently he didn't have to.

"He was like extra motivational," senior linebacker Aaron Curry said. "He usually doesn't say too much before the game. But you could tell it meant something special the way he walked around the locker room and made sure everybody's head was on straight.

"At halftime he was talking more. You could just sense it from him that he really wanted this win."

It was only after the Deacons had staved off the Cavaliers' comeback to improve to 6-3 overall and 4-2 in conference play, become bowl-eligible and barge into a first-place tie in the ACC's Atlantic Division, did Grobe come clean.

The sentiment might have had a little to do with the fact that Grobe graduated from Virginia -- which fell to 5-5 and 3-3 with its second straight loss.

But it definitely had a lot to do with Virginia's dominance of Wake Forest. The Cavaliers had beaten the Deacons 20 times in the previous 21 games, and had won 10 straight in Winston-Salem.

The Deacons, before yesterday, celebrated their last home victory over Virginia in 1983.

"We've been owned by them for so many years," Grobe said. "So for me, personally, it just was one that I really, really wanted.

"And I never said anything to the kids about it because I didn't want to put too much pressure on those guys. But I don't know if I've had one that I enjoyed more, just because we've had so many tough losses to those guys.

"I've gone home with my tail tucked so many times, it just feels good to win one."

The Deacons, wearing gold jerseys for the first time since 1956, the year Wake Forest moved from Wake County to Winston-Salem, delivered a solid-gold performance in the first half while rolling to a 28-3 halftime lead.

Redshirt freshman Brandon Pendergrass gained 84 of his season-high 110 yards, junior Riley Skinner threw a 58-yard touchdown pass to redshirt freshman Devon Brown and the offensive line gashed the Cavaliers' defense for a 15-play touchdown drive that burned eight minutes and 49 seconds. Senior safety Kevin Patterson returned a pass deflected by fellow senior safety Chip Vaughn 53 yards for Wake Forest's first defensive touchdown of the season.

That's how the Deacons scored more points in a half than they managed the whole month of October. In three games, against Clemson, Maryland and Miami, the Deacons scored only 22.

"That's more of a depressing statistic than a good one," Skinner said. "But starting off strong is big for any team to get the momentum going. We were pretty happy to start off like that.

"We definitely wished we could have capitalized more in the second half."

Virginia, with quarterback Marc Verica rebounding from a shaky first half, made a bid for a comeback victory in the second by outgaining the Deacons 225 yards to 75 after halftime. The Cavaliers might have succeeded if not for a goal-line stand by the Deacons in the third quarter and a sack by Kyle Wilber in the fourth.

The Deacons still led 28-3 when Virginia's Kevin Ogletree beat Alphonso Smith deep and pulled in Verica's 43-yard strike at the Wake Forest 1. Cedric Peerman carried the first two downs, for no gain and a loss of 1, and Smith and Curry dropped Verica for a 4-yard loss on third down.

Verica dumped a pass off to Peerman on fourth down, but redshirt freshman Josh Bush tackled Peerman for a 2-yard loss.

The Cavaliers scored touchdowns on their next two possessions -- one on three straight pass completions of 18, 30 and 21 yards -- rendering the Deacons' stand all that more significant.

"Our defense had the mind-set that we were going to make them take as many snaps as possible to get it into the end zone," Patterson said. "When they went for it on fourth down, I think everybody was pretty much jacked. We just wanted to stop them."

Coach Al Groh of Virginia was asked what the Cavaliers could have done to execute better at the shadow of the goal line.

"Block the other guys," Groh said. "Plus we probably didn't make the best decision on the third-down play. It looked like we probably had a score there if we had handed off, but that's easy to say from the sidelines.

"I didn't have to be out there making the decision under pressure."

The Cavaliers still had time after cutting the lead to 11 on Verica's 5-yard touchdown pass to Ogletree with nine minutes remaining. Verica completed a pass to Cary Koch for an apparent two-point conversion, but guard C.J. Cabbell was called for holding.

Backed up 10 yards, Groh settled for Robert Randolph's extra point.

Although the Deacons failed to pick up a first down, redshirt freshman Shane Popham capped an impressive day of punting a 50-yarder to the Virginia 17. On third-and-10, Wilber, a redshirt freshman who started his third straight game, powered off the right corner to sack Verica for a 12-yard loss.

With 5:14 remaining, the Cavaliers were forced to punt. Their final shot misfired when Stanley Arnoux picked off Verica's pass in Wake Forest territory with two minutes to play.

A year ago, Sam Swank missed a last-second field goal and the Deacons lost at Virginia 17-16, costing them a shot at their second-straight ACC crown. In 2004, the Deacons lost at Virginia 27-24. In 2002, the Cavaliers rallied for a 38-34 victory over Wake Forest in Winston-Salem.

Wake Forest's 34-30 victory at Virginia in 2001, Grobe's first season as head coach, was the only win over the Cavaliers since 1983, when Groh was in his third seasons as the Deacons' coach.

No college coach would ever turn down a victory. But for at least one man, yesterday's win was special.

"We didn't say too much about it," Grobe said. "But I told the kids in the locker room that, ‘You couldn't have won one that would make me as a coach feel any better than that one.' "