ACC makes history/David Teel

ACC football observers know intuitively that this season's parity is unusual if not unrivaled, even for a conference that's been muddled since Florida State's decline in 2001.

Now the data verify intuition.

With Maryland's demise Saturday against visiting Florida State, the ACC becomes the first Division I conference ever in which every team has at least three league losses.

The Terps were the lone two-loss team, and given the stakes (possible division title) and their unbeaten home record, you had to like their chances. Turns out they had no chance, falling 37-3.

Watching Maryland's collapse, I began wondering if any other league had experienced a season such as ACC '08. A Sunday perusal of the NCAA record book's lists of past conference champions confirmed the ACC's uniqueness.

Don't expect conference HQ to trumpet this, for the parity equates to not only unpredictability but also mediocrity. No ACC team approaches top-10, let alone national-title, caliber.

In fact, were its champion not guaranteed a Bowl Championship Series game, the ACC would not deserve a bid to one of the five elite bowls. Nor, for that matter, would the Big East. Better to put Utah, Boise State and half the Big 12 South into the BCS.

At least those teams can move the ball!

Most of the ACC's quarterbacks are pedestrian at best, and few play for offensive innovators. Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson is an exception, and North Carolina State offensive coordinator Dana Bible and Boston College offensive coordinator Steve Logan are proven commodities.

This week's statistics for Division I-A's 119 programs illuminate the issue. Ten of the ACC's 12 teams rank 80th or lower in total offense, with Florida State (48th) and Georgia Tech (53rd) the exceptions.

The numbers for scoring are better but hardly encouraging. Six of 12 rank 80th or lower.

Despite the damning evidence, Jeff Sagarin's computer rates the ACC college football's toughest conference. For this the computer should be drug tested.


 

U.Va. has a growing reputation for offensive linemen
By Ed Miller
The Virginian-Pilot
© November 25, 2008

Ron Prince carried a lot more than a tape measure and a stop watch when he was recruiting offensive linemen for the University of Virginia. He and other assistants had instructions from head coach Al Groh to think creatively and look beyond the recruiting ratings when searching for the next great prospect.

"Coach gave us a lot of latitude to really investigate the make-up of the kid, along with some intangibles," said Prince, who was fired recently after three years as the head coach at Kansas State.

Groh wanted players who were self-starters and had success in other sports. Following that formula, Virginia targeted an under-sized tackle with a black belt in Shotokan Karate and a background throwing the shot put and discus. His name: D'Brickashaw Ferguson.

Later, the Cavaliers signed Branden Albert, a player who had received more early recruiting interest as a basketball player. Already at U.Va. at the time were Brad Butler, who barely registered on the recruiting rankings but was versatile enough to play four sports in high school; and Elton Brown, an overweight recruit from Hampton who didn't play much high school football but showed surprising agility on the basketball court.

All are currently in the NFL - Ferguson and Albert as first-round draft picks. Ferguson was selected No. 4 overall in 2006, and Albert No. 15 this past spring. Brown was a fourth-rounder in 2005 and Butler went in the fifth round in 2006.

Certain to join them in the league next year is senior Eugene Monroe, rated by draft guru Mel Kiper as one of the top 10 players on the 2009 draft board.

Virginia is the only school in the last three years to have had more than one offensive linemen selected in the first round. Monroe could make it three in four years. The Cavaliers, who have sometimes been labeled as "Tight End U" under Groh, might need a new nickname.

Actually, though, there's nothing new about Virginia's success producing quality blockers. When he was hired seven years ago, Groh said he and his staff reviewed rosters of Virginia teams from the previous two decades to see which positions had produced the most All-ACC players and NFL draftees.

"Two of them were tight ends and offensive linemen," Groh said. "We didn't try to look at the sociology of why; we just looked at the 'what.' It just seemed like there was a good pattern of the kind of players that came here."

The staff sat down to develop its own philosophy of what traits to look for in linemen. At the top of the list were players who had success in more than one sport, kids who demonstrated competitive drive all year long.

Ferguson arrived as a 6-foot-6, 255-pound freshman, and was thrust into the staring lineup at left tackle. He played as light as 245 as a freshman but eventually filled out to 290. Brown was at the other end of the spectrum, coming in at 350-plus and trimming down to 325 or so. Albert was a relative unknown who won a starting job as a true freshman. Butler was also forced into action as a backup as a true freshman and went on to become a three-year starter.

"Once we established we could coach those guys and have some success with guys who weren't household names, that's when we were able to sign a player like Eugene Monroe," Prince said.

Monroe was no sleeper, but rather was the clear No. 1 offensive line recruit in the class of 2005. He also played a mean game of team handball, something Groh didn't learn until after Monroe signed. "That's an on-your-feet, running, wide-open game," Groh said.

Monroe apprenticed next to Ferguson at left guard for a year before taking over his left tackle spot. At 6-5 and 318 pounds and, with quick feet, he's a prototype NFL left tackle.

Monroe said Virginia's track record of producing NFL linemen was one of the reasons he chose the Cavaliers.

"It was obvious from seeing guys like that that this university or the football program offered a level of coaching and play that would allow offensive linemen to prosper and do well.

"The level of detail needed to prepare for the games is the biggest thing. They teach us here to prepare like professionals, extensively going over schemes and techniques."

Throw in Patrick Estes, a blocking tight end who was drafted as a tackle in 2005, and Monroe will be the sixth Cavalier lineman to be drafted since 2005. And there appear to be more in the pipeline. Junior right tackle Will Barker, a former high school lacrosse player, already has 37 career starts and has intriguing size at 6-7 and 315 pounds. True freshman Austin Pasztor won't turn 18 until Wednesday, but he has already shown great promise in seven games as the starter at left guard.

Pasztor, from Ontario, was rated just a two-star prospect by rivals.com and scout.com. If the scouting services had followed the Virginia system, though, he would have ranked higher. Early in high school, it turns out, Pasztor was one heck of an ice hockey goalie.

 

Some offense in Blacksburg, please?
Ernie Washington, Cavalier Daily Gameday Editor
Published: Tuesday, November 25 2008

What is about to go down Saturday in Blacksburg is the 90th edition of the Virginia-Virginia Tech football game. It’s a rivalry in which, from the Cavalier perspective, I’ve seen the good and bad sides.

I was born in Harrisonburg, Va. and lived there for 12 years. I had the privilege of going to two Virginia-Virginia Tech football games, one in 1997 and the other in 1998. Virginia won both of them, and the 1998 victory was an all-time classic because the Cavaliers came back from a 29-7 halftime deficit to win 36-32, assuring them a Peach Bowl bid. Sitting around Virginia Tech fans, after Virginia scored the go-ahead touchdown, I stood up, cheered loudly and, as a result, had a cup of beer thrown on me. Being at those two games exposed me to a rivalry that not only meant something to the entire commonwealth but was a demographical rivalry that really separated personalities across Virginia.

When I moved to Chicago in 1999, I thought I had escaped the rivalry. Sure enough, though, one of my classmates in middle school was a diehard Virginia Tech fan, who is a senior there now. Also, the parents of a good friend from church not only went to Virginia Tech, but when I had the audacity to wear a Virginia hat to their house, the father took it off my head and stomped on it repeatedly. That told me how much this rivalry means even to Virginia Tech fans who live out of state.

Unfortunately, since I moved from Harrisonburg, Virginia Tech has owned an 8-1 series advantage, and the average score in those nine games is 30-15. If you would have told me that would be the case when I moved, I would have thought you were onto something. The Class of 2008 spent four years on Grounds without witnessing one Virginia victory against Virginia Tech in football, and the Class of 2009 might experience that same fate. If that happens, and the offense plays like it has been playing throughout the rest of November, some offensive staff questions need to be answered.

One reporter asked coach Al Groh after the Clemson game if he was going to bring his son back as offensive coordinator. At the time, it seemed like a harsh question that I thought was out of line, but in reality, it’s a fair one. In his three years as offensive coordinator, his units have been absolutely anemic. This season, his offense is 102nd in total offense and 115th in scoring offense. In his first year as offensive coordinator in 2006, the Cavaliers were 113th in total offense and 110th in scoring offense. Even in 2007 when Virginia won nine games, it was not because of an offense that was 101st in total offense and 81st in scoring offense.

For you non-math majors, that’s an average of 105th in total offense and 102nd in scoring offense. You tell me what other school would put up with an offensive coordinator who, in three consecutive years, produced an offense that would make a pee-wee defense look like the Florida Gators. Call it loyalty — or even nepotism — but if Virginia puts up an offensive stinkbomb like it did in 2006 at Virginia Tech when it failed to score a point, a staff shake-up needs to occur on that side of the ball, if not at the top.

Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage stated in an e-mail following the Wake Forest loss that “Al Groh will be our head coach” next season, even if Virginia lost its last two games. If Virginia loses in an embarrassing fashion to the Hokies, Littlepage might want to rethink that statement.

To those who think an athletic director giving a head coach a vote of confidence is an end-all to a coach being on the hot seat, they must not have paid attention to what happened at San Diego State this past Sunday, when Aztec coach Chuck Long was fired even though athletic director Jeff Schemmel gave the coach a vote of confidence back in October. Long had a 9-27 record as head coach, so it was not as if his team was on the verge of breaking through, but the AD realized that a change had to be made for the good of the program, and it was wisely made. Oh, and by the way, his offenses at least averaged out to be 94th in total offense and 98th in scoring offense.

So am I saying that Al Groh’s job is on the line if the team plays badly and loses to Virginia Tech? It probably will not be, but it should be. The ACC has a lot of upside as a conference right now. Virginia Tech will always be up there, but North Carolina, Miami, Georgia Tech and even Duke are resurgent as programs. On the Atlantic Division side you can pencil Boston College in for at least eight wins a season, Florida State has regained relevance, Maryland has shown signs of promise, N.C. State is a solid team again, Wake Forest isn’t a joke anymore and, with the right head coach, Clemson will be a power again. Where does Virginia fit within the conference? It can’t afford to tread water as a mediocre program right now, and that’s exactly what Virginia is in danger of doing.

The Virginia-Virginia Tech rivalry means a lot to me. It means a whole lot to the commonwealth, and now it means a whole lot to the ACC in terms of the conference championship. Including this year, four of the last five games will have had a direct impact on the ACC Championship race. This game should also have a direct impact in terms of the Virginia coaching staff. If Virginia wins or puts up a valiant effort — especially on the offensive side of the ball — all is well. If the game is anything like the one in 2006 when the offense was shut out and produced 112 yards of total offense, a question must be asked about whether the offensive staff or the head coach should be back.

 

Va. Tech coach limits media access so players keep focus
Posted to: College Football Sports
By Kyle Tucker
The Virginian-Pilot
© November 25, 2008
BLACKSBURG

With one win between him and a third ACC title game in four years, Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer is circling the wagons.

He has restricted access to players this week in light of media criticism over the Hokies' anemic offense, which ranks 109th nationally in total yards, and internal griping by linebacker Purnell Sturdivant about production problems last week.

Heading into the regular-season finale against rival Virginia, Beamer is only making two players available to reporters today, and that will be it for the week.

Typically, a half-dozen or so are available during a Tuesday news conference and other players are available after practice Monday through Wednesday of a game week.

"We need to concentrate on Virginia," Beamer said. "We need to put all our efforts toward Virginia and getting ready for them, and I hope you people understand. This is just a big, big week, and that's the way it needs to be."

Beamer said he isn't worried Sturdivant's comments criticizing the offense for not pulling its weight - and his assertion other defensive players felt the same way - has divided the team.

"I think we have a team that's very much together," Beamer said. "I think our senior leadership has worked very hard to do that. The reason we've got two players this week is we want to concentrate on Virginia."

Settling down and in

Quarterbacks coach Mike O'Cain said pulling sophomore Tyrod Taylor in favor of senior Sean Glennon against Duke Saturday was mostly about calming the young QB.

Taylor had thrown two interceptions and fumbled twice before he was benched in the second quarter.

"At that point in time, you may see a little bit of frustration setting in," O'Cain said. "When we made the change, it wasn't necessarily a change we thought would go the whole time.... Just kind of get Tyrod over there, settle him down, maybe get his frustrations over, then get him ready to go.

"But... then some things in the passing game clicked, and we just never got back to him."

In Taylor's place, Glennon led Tech on an 86-yard drive, completing 7 of 10 passes, ending a touchdown toss just before halftime - the Hokies' only offensive score of the night. O'Cain called it the best drive by either quarterback all season.

Neither Beamer nor O'Cain, though, would discuss whether Glennon or Taylor will start against Virginia or if both will play. Beamer said both are healthy and will practice this week and "that's the last I'll say about it until after the game."

Critical effort

After causing a stir earlier in the week with his criticism of Tech's offense and coordinator Bryan Stinespring, Sturdivant responded with an impressive effort against Duke.

He racked up eight tackles, 2.5 for loss, and broke up a pass as part of a smothering attack by Tech's defense. Starting for the first time as a fifth-year senior, the Lake Taylor High graduate leads the Hokies and is 12th in the ACC with 79 tackles.

"When it's crunch time is when the playmakers have to show up and perform," Sturdivant said after the game. "This was my year to shine. We've had previous ACC wins here, but I wasn't a starter. This year, I am. I'm giving my all each and every game, each and every week."

Sturdivant said he and Stinespring, who recruited him, cleared things up after Sturdivant's critical comments.

No pain, no gain

Tailback Darren Evans frequently looks like he spent hours in a lion's den after a game, his jersey often in tatters, his arms bruised, gashed and bloody.

He's a powerful back with a punishing style, always fighting forward for an extra yard. But that comes with a price. After his 111-yard performance against Duke, Evans was aching.

"It feels good to get the win, but it doesn't feel good to feel like I'm feeling now," he said. "My shoulder's hurting and my head's pounding."

That was true of several Hokies, though, after an unexpected scratch-and-claw win over the super-scrappy Blue Devils.

"We got a little beat up," Beamer said.

"I think we had more in the training room Sunday morning than we've had all season long. "

For Evans, though, the reward of his hammering style is worth the pain.

Now with 926 yards, he's the ACC's third-leading rusher and has a chance to become the first freshman back in Tech history to eclipse 1,000 yards.

- Kyle Tucker


 

From deep, Cavs are struggling
By Jeff White
Published: November 25, 2008

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- A season ago, only one ACC men's basketball team made more 3-pointers than the Virginia Cavaliers. Duke hit 308 treys, followed by U.Va. with 274.

The Cavaliers also hit a decent percentage of their 3-point attempts -- 36.6, which ranked sixth among Atlantic Coast Conference teams.

Two weeks into the new season, however, Virginia is The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight, at least from beyond the arc. The Cavaliers (3-0) have made only 9 of 44 attempts (20.5 percent).

That's not, according to U.Va. coach Dave Leitao, because the line has been moved back a foot or because his players aren't capable of hitting 3-pointers.

"I can tell you specifically why we're not making shots, and it's not because we don't have good shooters," Leitao said Friday night after U.Va. went 1 for 9 from long range in a 68-66 win over visiting Radford.

"We're not creating, through our offense or execution, comfortable threes. So we take them as a last resort, and we take them because we need to take them or just because a guy's open. And you don't make shots like that. You make them off of offense and ball movement and body movement and inside-out passing, and things like that."

Sean Singletary, who made 58 treys last season, and Adrian Joseph, who made 56, have moved on. But Mamadi Diane, who led the team with 60 treys, is back, along with Calvin Baker (41), Jamil Tucker (31), Jeff Jones (16), Mike Scott (four) and Mustapha Farrakhan (two). Plus, point guard Sammy Zeglinski, who missed most of last season with an ankle injury, was a consistent threat from beyond the arc in high school, as was freshman swingman Sylven Landesberg.

For whatever reason, though, the Cavaliers' marksmen have been misfiring. Diane is 0 for 10 on 3-pointers; Jones, 3 for 11; Baker, 0 for 4; Zeglinski, 2 for 6; Landesberg; 2 for 6; Scott, 0 for 2; and Farrakhan, 0 for 1. Only Tucker, who's 2 for 4, has made more than 35 percent of his 3-point attempts.

"I can name you a bunch of occasions in practice where we get really good execution of ball movement, and a guy will catch the ball in the corner and I'll raise both hands because I guarantee you that ball is going in, and lo and behold it goes in," Leitao said. "We really haven't had that at all in any of the three games."

The next chance come tonight at 7 at John Paul Jones Arena, where U.Va. hosts Liberty (1-1). The Flames, meanwhile, will try to do what no opponent has accomplished yet this season: contain Landesberg.

The former McDonald's All-American from Queens, N.Y., yesterday was named the ACC's rookie of the week for the second straight time. Landesberg has had at least 21 points in each of his three college games.

Even when his 3-pointers haven't been dropping, Landesberg has found ways to score.

Radford coach Brad Greenberg, who remembers watching Landesberg play at Holy Cross High, called him "a crafty city player. He's not extremely athletic, but he's skilled, and he's got what I would call a floor game. He can put the ball on the floor and move his defender."

 

Cavaliers look to put out Flames
Squad battles Big South conference opponent for third time this year; Virginia defeated VMI Nov. 16, Radford this past Friday
Paul Montana, Cavalier Daily Senior Associate Editor
Published: Tuesday, November 25 2008

On paper, it would seem that any ACC men’s basketball team should put a pounding on Virginia’s Big South foe Liberty tonight at John Paul Jones Arena.

Virginia, however, has yet to dominate anybody this season, including two other foes from the Big South. While pleased with his team’s undefeated record, coach Dave Leitao is far from satisfied with his team after only scraping by Big South opponents VMI and Radford and Big East opponent South Florida, the preseason’s worst-ranked team in that conference, in the first week of the season.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do and we’ve got a short period of time to start getting serious about our work if we have any visions of being a good team,” Leitao said.

Most recently, against Radford, Virginia (3-0, 0-0 ACC) trailed for the majority of the game before escaping with a 2-point win after the Cavaliers took back the lead for good with only 29 seconds remaining.

“By chance [Friday], we made a play or two at the end, or they didn’t execute a play or two at the end, and we were fortunate enough to win,” Leitao said.

Though the Cavaliers have focused on defense since the start of preseason, the offense’s struggles have been particularly noticeable. The Cavaliers have shot a dismal nine for 44 from 3-point range on the season and 38.6 percent from the floor in their last two games. The team’s 54.4 percent shooting in the back-and-forth, full-court shootout in the 107-97 win against VMI inflated Virginia’s accuracy to a respectable 44.5 percent. Even Virginia’s free throw shooting has been off: The team has made 55 from the charity stripe on 80 tries (68.8 percent).

The abysmal shooting from the perimeter is of particular concern. Leitao has said this is not the best penetrating team he has ever had, nor does he have the inside threats to put up big numbers on the block. If Virginia does not shoot well from the perimeter, it likely will not win.

“I can tell you specifically why we’re not making shots, and it’s not because we’re not good shooters,” Leitao said. “We’re not creating — through our offense or our execution — comfortable [3-point shots]. We take them as a last resort, or we take them because we need to take them, or just because a guy’s open, and you don’t make shots like that.”

In fact, it is arguably because of Virginia’s McDonald’s All-American freshman guard Sylven Landesberg that the team is in the win column at all. Landesberg has scored 28, 21 and 22 points in the first three games, respectively, to lead all Virginia scorers. The New York City product has shown off his inner-city flair and touch around the basket in the process.

Landesberg “right now, for good, for bad, for indifferent, he’s oblivious — he just plays basketball,” Leitao said. “I think because he is naturally an attacker, he challenges the defense, he finds openings.”

But as Virginia looks ahead to its schedule before getting a break for final exams, tonight’s game against Liberty (1-1, 0-1 Big South) would be a timely occasion to start playing team basketball. Following tonight’s matchup, Virginia makes its most taxing road trip of the season, traveling to Syracuse, N.Y. Friday and following that up with a contest at Minnesota Tuesday.

The rest of the troops will have to get more involved if Virginia wants to keep winning.

“It’s hard, because you’ve got to change a lot of people’s personalities,” junior guard Calvin Baker said. “Naturally, we’ve got a lot of players who are introverted­ — they really stick to themselves. In order for us to be a good team, everybody’s got to give more than they have been doing.”

Liberty, however, will likely not be any less resistant than fellow Big South opponents VMI and Radford. Liberty was picked to finish fourth in the conference in the preseason, sitting between VMI (seventh) and Radford (second). The Flames took down Montreat by 20 to open their season but were rocked 84-56 Tuesday by UNC Asheville, which was picked to finish ninth in the Big South. Like Virginia, Liberty’s leading scorer, Seth Curry, is also a freshman guard and was a McDonald’s All-American nominee, though he did not play in the All-American game as Landesberg did. Curry has put up 20.5 points per game in his first two games, while returning leading scorer and senior guard Anthony Smith has added 19 points per game.

With the big Thanksgiving weekend road trip to the Northeast looming, it would certainly make Leitao breathe easier if his team could win by 15 or 20 points instead of by 1 or 2.

“We’ve got to be in a better position from the start of games and throughout the games to not be toward the end of a game trying to eek out victories night in and night out,” Leitao said. “You don’t win that way; not each night.”

 

Virginia battles UConn at home in Round of 16
Huskies defeated Fairfield to earn trip to Charlottesville; Cavs play in NCAA Tourney game after losing in ACC title game
Anders Sleight, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
Published: Tuesday, November 25 2008

For 27 consecutive seasons, the Virginia men’s soccer team has hosted an NCAA Tournament game. Tonight, Virginia will bump that number up to 28 when it hosts Connecticut in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Virginia (11-8-1, 4-4 ACC), the 10-seed, earned a first-round bye and was awarded a second-round home game against the winner of the first-round game between Connecticut and Fairfield. The Huskies (10-4-6, 6-3-2 Big East) punched their ticket to Charlottesville Friday night after defeating Fairfield 1-0. Game time is set for 7 p.m. at Klöckner Stadium.

“We worked really hard, especially in the ACC Tournament, and we put ourselves in a good position,” Virginia junior midfielder Ross LaBauex said. “We worked hard to get this home game, and to be able to play at home is great for our fans.”

Virginia will enter tonight’s game with no shortage of confidence as it attempts to advance to the Round of 16. The Cavaliers are coming off an impressive run in the ACC Tournament where they pulled out two important victories before falling short in the ACC Championship game to Maryland.

Virginia knocked off Duke, which defeated the Cavaliers earlier this season, as well as No. 1 Wake Forest, which was previously undefeated and also defeated the Cavaliers in the regular season. With two huge wins in three days Virginia advanced to the conference championship game, where it faced Maryland.

Virginia’s great run, however, ended when Maryland took down the Cavaliers 1-0 to earn the conference championship. Virginia’s play at the ACC Tournament did not go unnoticed by the NCAA Tournament selection committee, and the team was awarded the tournament’s 10th seed in recognition of its difficult schedule and strong play during the conference tournament. In fact, Virginia has the most losses of 16 teams that earned a first-round bye. The team was rewarded for its tough late-season play and difficult schedule, which featured seven NCAA Tournament teams.

“It’s definitely a good seed,” senior defender Matt Poole said. “Maybe our record isn’t as good as others, but I think we deserve it. The ACC is a really tough conference.”

Connecticut travels to Charlottesville with a bit of lingering doubt. The Huskies had an up-and-down season that featured big wins against programs such as Notre Dame, Louisville and Cincinnati but showcased surprising losses and ties to programs such as Providence, Georgetown, Yale and Pittsburgh. The Huskies also suffered a 1-0 first-round loss to DePaul — a team that did not receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament — during the Big East Tournament a few weeks ago.

Nevertheless, Connecticut has a strong program with a history of success. The Huskies won the Big East Championship in 2007 and also featured arguably the best player in college soccer. Then-junior forward O’Brian White won the Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy in 2007, which is considered to be the most prestigious individual award in college soccer. White had hoped to earn that honor a second time this year while leading Connecticut onto a national championship. That dream, however, appears to be fading as the Huskies have not lived up to the standard they set last season. White, who started in all of Connecticut’s first 14 games, has not played in the team’s last six games. Connecticut has not released an official statement regarding White’s status, but injury is suspected. Despite White’s absence, he still managed to earn Big East Offensive Player of the Year honors for the second consecutive season.

Whether White is ready to go or not, Connecticut seems likely to present a tough challenge for Virginia. Despite their inconsistent season, the Huskies have proven themselves capable of beating anyone on any day.

Virginia coach George Gelnovatch “has scouted them a little bit, and we know their weaknesses,” Poole said. “But we will just stick to our game plan and do what we do best.”