White: Much Work Remains for Bennett as Opener Nears
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com Release: 11/10/2009
By Jeff White

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- After seeing his team's uneven performances in its two scrimmages, UVa's new men's basketball coach has a long list of problems to address as the season-opener approaches.
"It's part of the growing pains," Tony Bennett said Monday in his office at John Paul Jones Arena.
Virginia scrimmaged Marquette on Nov. 1 at University Hall and St. John's a week later at the JPJ. Under NCAA rules, specific information about scrimmages may not be disclosed publicly, but Bennett was able to talk in general terms about the Cavaliers' progress -- or lack thereof.
"The value of those scrimmages, against the teams we played, is that it really reveals and exposes the areas that you're not sound in," Bennett said. "And I thought both teams we played in stretches really exposed areas that have to improve for us to be in games. If those areas don't step up, it'll be very difficult."
The Wahoos went 10-18 in 2008-09, their fourth and final season under Dave Leitao. One of those 10 victories came at the expense of Longwood, which fell 90-61 at the JPJ last December. The Lancers went on to finish 17-14, and they'll be the first opponent Bennett faces in an official game as the Cavaliers' coach.
The teams meet at 7 p.m. Friday.
Virginia could have played two exhibitions before the opener, or one exhibition and one scrimmage, but Bennett opted for two scrimmages. Exhibitions are usually against inferior competition, and he thought his players would benefit more -- and the coaching staff would learn more about the team -- from facing Division I opponents.
"I think those scrimmages are terrific for getting a better read on your team," Bennett said. "Competition brings those things out, the goods and the bads.
"You can't hide. Sometimes if you play games where you win by 50, you don't really know what holds up against better competition and what doesn't. And I think that when you see some of the good things happen, you say, 'OK, we gotta build on these things. We gotta build on the positives.' You see certain players had some success."
Asked what he liked in the scrimmages, Bennett paused for several seconds before answering.
"After this last scrimmage, it's hard. I didn't see as many positives," he said. "Against Marquette, there were a few positives."
Against Marquette, Virginia's frontcourt players included Mike Scott, the team's top rebounder last season. Scott, a 6-8 junior, missed the St. John's scrimmage with a foot injury, so "we had to play with different guys in there and figure out ways to do it, and I saw them not lay down and die," Bennett said. "I saw them fight through adversity and make a comeback.
"I thought there were stretches of good basketball. Not near enough, but I saw some stretches of what we could become, and I thought that was positive, defensively and offensively. But I thought the defense took a step back in this last scrimmage."
The 'Hoos also were without 7-0 sophomore Assane Sene against St. John's. Sene, who started 16 games last season, was recently suspended for what Bennett, who didn't elaborate, called conduct detrimental to the team.
Sene sat out the second scrimmage and will meet the first three games of the season. After opening with Longwood, UVa plays at South Florida on Nov. 16 and then hosts Rider three nights later.
"Our staff is about establishing this program to be about the right things for the long haul. Period," Bennett said. "Those who want to be part of it and join in and move forward, let's do this together."
Virginia didn't have a lot of frontcourt depth to begin with. Sene's suspension, coupled with Scott's injury, left Bennett with only three post players: 6-9 seniors Jamil Tucker and Jerome Meyinsse and 6-9 junior Will Sherrill, a walk-on.
"Not good timing," Bennett said of Sene's lapse. "Sometimes decisions affect your team in more ways than you know."
With Sene and Scott out, Bennett experimented at times with a lineup that included four guards. One of those perimeter players, 6-4 junior Jeff Jones, has impressed throughout the preseason. His teammates haven't been as consistent, but "all of them at times have had real good moments," Bennett said.
"We just have to establish some things that are going to be foundational."
And that, Bennett has emphasized since leaving Washington State for UVa last spring, will take time. The Virginia team that closes the coming season, he hopes, will be better than the one that debuts Friday night.
"If you have the right kind of young men in the program, they will improve," Bennett said. "They'll get better, if they've bought in.
"But it can also go the other way, too, if it's not about the program and helping the team win. If it's about individuals, if it's about stats, if it's about the wrong things, it won't go that way. But if guys, even if they're not on the same talent level as some of their opponents, if they've really sold out on trying to make the team better and bought in to the things that matter, then you'll see improvement as the season wears on."

Cavs will play with muted New York accents
By Michael Phillips
Published: November 11, 2009
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CHARLOTTESVILLE New York may be the center of the hoops world, but it's opening up a satellite campus in Charlottesville.

The Virginia men's and women's programs both feature star players that will bring the NYC to JPJ this year -- in a toned-down form, of course.

Sylven Landesberg and China Crosby grew up playing a style of streetball that favors big plays and flashy moves. Their college coaches aren't as eager to see that duplicated.

"It's a big adjustment," Landesberg said. "Back home you get the ball, and it's like -- everybody clear out. You don't score, you don't get the ball the next time down."

He's the veteran of the two, entering his sophomore year. Crosby is arriving as a freshman. The two said they knew of each other in New York through the AAU circuit and all-star games. Both players were McDonald's All-Americans.

Women's basketball coach Debbie Ryan got the first glimpse of what she'd be up against when she went to visit Crosby in New York. There were 9,000 people at the game, jumping up and down and dancing when big plays were made.

"Coach told me at one practice that 'this is not the And1,'" said Crosby, who grew up in the shadow of Yankee Stadium. "It's going to be hard. I know it is. It's adjusting to a new lifestyle."

She said she's looking forward to playing with U.Va. senior Monica Wright, a preseason All-American who is the Cavs' leader on and off the court.

Wright has been happy to have someone tag along for her demanding offseason workouts, including plenty of running.

"I'll get tired, but she's like a bull. She just keeps running and running," Crosby said. "On the 40th lap she's still trying to pick up the pace a little more."

For Landesberg, offseason training took him to a gym back in New York, where he took 1,000 shots a day in the summer heat.

He started with some shots in the morning, moved to conditioning in the afternoon, and finished it off with some footwork, even doing some boxing to mix things up.

After a strong freshman season, coach Tony Bennett has urged Landesberg not only to lift his game, but also his teammates.

"Every good player I've been around, the real good ones, they just find a way to make their teammates better," Bennett said. "He'll be a marked man this year, without a doubt."

Landesberg says consistent involvement wasn't always his strong suit during an otherwise dazzling first year.

"Sometimes I would take plays off," he said. "If I didn't have the ball, I would just watch the action."

That's part of the game in New York, where playmakers make plays and everybody else enjoys the show. But he's learning that in Charlottesville, it's all about the team.

It's the same for Crosby, who the team will count on to stretch the floor with her shooting touch, then distribute the ball to open players.

But don't get the wrong idea about these two -- they're no longer playing the flashy style, but their personalities remain unchanged. Crosby has already started teaching her teammates elaborate high-five routines for pregame introductions, and when Landesberg gets the ball and sees a play, he's not going to resist.

"Oh, I've still got that swag," he said with a smile. "I still know what to do."

That's good news for fans at John Paul Jones Arena, which looks like it will play host to this season's hottest off-Broadway show.

Avoiding the second-year jinx
By Whitey Reid
Published: November 11, 2009
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Last November, Sylven Landesberg’s stat line was borderline ridiculous.

Playing in his very first college game, the New York City native had 28 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and three steals in Virginia’s season-opening victory over VMI.

Not a bad coming-out party.

Many people were surprised at Landesberg’s early success. Even more were taken aback when the 6-foot-6 guard’s stellar play continued into the ACC season.

Who was this guy?

Unfortunately for Landesberg, he’s not going to have the element of surprise on his side this season. Not after leading all ACC freshmen in scoring en route to being named the league’s rookie of the year.

“You don’t get too much respect coming into the ACC as a freshman — unless you were like top-five in your class or something,” said Virginia Tech guard Malcolm Delaney, who struggled last season as a sophomore after a strong freshman campaign. “Now that everybody knows what he can do, they’re going to make other players on his team beat them.”

Therein lies the challenge for Landesberg as Virginia, predicted to finish 11th in the conference by the media, begins the Tony Bennett era on Friday night against Longwood.

There’s a reason why second-year players, no matter what the sport, sometimes stumble into the dreaded “sophomore slump.”

“Every night you have to be ready to play because teams are ready to guard you,” said Duke senior Jon Scheyer, who, like Delaney, found himself under increased focus following his strong freshman year. “They say, ‘Don’t give him this’ or ‘We can’t give him that.’

“Certain shots that you like to shoot might be taken away from you, and you need to be ready for that. That’s something I’m sure he’ll face this year because he’s a really good scorer and he’s their main option.”

Landesberg, for one, isn’t too worried about any kind of dropoff in his play this year. That’s the last thing he’s expecting. In fact, if Landesberg doesn’t have an even better year this year, it sounds like he’ll be shocked.
 

Bennett ready for the big boys in ACC in first year at Virginia
By Jack Carey, USA TODAY

Tony Bennett is under no illusions as he begins coaching a Virginia basketball program that, on paper at least, is nowhere near where it needs to be to contend in the Atlantic Coast Conference, let alone nationally.
After a three-year stint at Washington State, which produced a 69-33 record, two NCAA tournament bids and a trip to the NIT, Bennett was tapped to replace Dave Leitao at Virginia after last season.

The Cavaliers had a 10-18 record (4-12 ACC) that included only one road win. Bennett, a boyish-looking 40, who starred for his father Dick at Wisconsin-Green Bay and is the NCAA career leader in three-point percentage (49.7), will find himself tested as he begins working in a league where four coaches have reached the NCAA title game in the past eight years and three have won national crowns.

He understands that's part of the deal. It's also part of the attraction.

"Right now, I'm looking forward to it. I don't know if I'll be able to say that in January and February," he says. "But that is one of the reasons that drew me to Viginia. An opportunity to coach in a league like this, among coaches in this (conference), where nothing but your best will give you a chance. I am realistic where our program is at, but also hopeful and optimistic about the opportunity that's in front of us if we can get things going."

Bennett, whose team opens Friday against Longwood, says his long-term goal is to bring consistency to a program that has made the NCAAs only twice since 1997.

"There have been some blips on the screen that have been great, but it hasn't been sustained," he says.

Bennett, whose teams have been known for being fundamentally sound and defensively stingy, especially on the perimeter, has some pieces to work with.

A relatively young team last year, Virginia will return its top six scorers, including sophomore guard Sylven Landesberg, the ACC rookie of the year last season after averaging 16.6 points and six rebounds.

"We're more under control (this season)," Landesberg says. "Coach is crazy about turnovers, and we've matured. We've got to secure the ball. I think we have an identity now.

"There were times last year when everybody got a little out of control, got a little wild and didn't know when to calm down. This year, we know the right decision to make."

Bennett already has a victory of sorts. There were no defections from last season's roster after the coaching change.

"All I did when I got the job was sit down and say, 'This is who I am, and this how I want this program to look. I really want you guys to be a part of it. But if you don't think this fits you, I'm not going to beg you to stay because you need to be in this program because you want to be here.'

"Hopefully, they're excited about the new start; they all chose to stay."

Bennett says he's noticed there is not much disparity in talent and ability among many of his players, which will make it a challenge to decide how much court time each player sees.

"Is it going to be (always perfect) and hunky-dory? No," he says. "But overall, it's got to be solid. You can't have a divided house. It won't stand. You've got to know we're in this together."


 

UVa Preview: Bennett’s Long-Term Plans, Short-Term Hopes
Jerry Ratcliffe November 11, 2009 Sylven Landesberg worked hard on improving his outside shot in the offseason.

CHARLOTTESVILLE — For the past decade and a half, it was as if Charlottesville had become The Land College Basketball Forgot.

Fourteen seasons with one NCAA Tournament victory, over a span of three coaches, resulted in a fourth. Virginia lured Tony Bennett from the West Coast, where he was the 2007 national coach of the year at Washington State.

The Cavaliers, who return 11 players from a team that finished 11th in the ACC last season and endured 34 losses over the past two years, are counting on Bennett to breathe life back into the program. His immediate challenge is to get the most out of a squad that was predicted to finish 11th in the conference in the league’s preseason media poll.

A quick survey of Wahoo Nation indicates that few are expecting any miracles in the early going. The new coach’s honeymoon should last a few years, until he can bring in players suited to run his system.

At that point, Virginia’s expectations will include regular returns to the Big Dance.

Bennett would be the first to point out that he has no excuses to stop him from reaching that goal. He has embraced UVa’s rigid academic requirements, and he boasts of the school’s facilities as selling points to talented recruits. In less than eight months with the Cavaliers, the charismatic, All-American-looking Bennett (nicknamed Coach Dreamboat by Washington State coeds) has gained five solid recruits who should enhance the team’s image in the not-too-distant future. For now, though, he has his work cut out for him.

“I’m realistic,” Bennett said. “There’s some ground to cover, but I’m always hopeful.”

Bennett is well aware that Virginia’s eyes are on the long haul, but he isn’t waving a white flag until then.

“Does that mean we’re going to just roll over for the next few years? No,” the coach said. “We’re going to fight every game.”

It’s no surprise that Bennett has a poster from the movie “Rocky” hanging prominently on his office wall in John Paul Jones Arena.

“I said, ‘I want you guys to embrace this mentality of being a fighter, of being an underdog-mentality program, because we have to earn and gain some respectability back,” Bennett said. “That’s going to take some time, but that’s the mentality I want in the program.”

Hey, it worked at Washington State in his first season, when the Cougars were projected to place last in the Pac-10 but finished 26-8 and in second place. Over a three-year stint, Bennett compiled a 69-33 record at WSU, including two trips to the NCAA Tournament.

At UVa, the coach inherited a team that struggled to score last season and struggled worse to prevent opponents from scoring.

While 11 players return, including eight who averaged at least 10 minutes per game under coach Dave Leitao, most critics would point out that there’s a lack of talent in the program. One veteran coach noted that of the experienced players on the roster, only two are considered ACC-caliber: last season’s ACC rookie of the year Sylven Landesberg and junior forward Mike Scott.

Such criticism seems harsh to some, but observers outside the program are down on a squad that seemed fundamentally unsound during last season’s 10-win disaster, the fewest victories by a Virginia team since 1969.

Landesberg, who split time at both guard spots last season, brings the hope Bennett mentioned to this year’s table. The 6-6 sophomore from the playgrounds of New York City averaged 16.6 points last season and rarely came out of a game by necessity. He averaged 34.2 minutes per contest.

The youngster brings fire to a team that desperately needs inspiration.

When Landesberg attended the ACC’s media day and learned that he didn’t make the preseason All-ACC squad, he was upset. He took the sheet of paper that excluded his name, and said he would use it as a source of motivation.

“It’s hanging on my mirror at home,” he said later.

One of Virginia’s rare McDonald’s All-American recruits over the years, Landesberg led all ACC freshmen last season in scoring and minutes played, plus he was third in rebounds and assists. His 12 games of 20 points or more was a UVa freshman record.

As Bennett pointed out, the goal is for Landesberg to help elevate the play of the players around him, which could be one of the new coach’s biggest hurdles.

Landesberg took the challenge seriously and worked harder than ever on his game during the summer back in New York, where he competed daily against college and pro players at the New York Athletic Club. A kid with a knack for getting into the lane and scoring, Landesberg averaged about 1,000 shots per day in the offseason in order to become less one-dimensional for the season ahead.

While he had a sensational freshman season, opponents eventually developed a defensive game plan that focused on cutting off the rookie’s driving lanes to the basket, and forcing the other Cavaliers to try to win the game.

That’s where Bennett’s work lies. He has spoken several times this season on the importance of the other players on the roster stepping up their games.

“There is some parity on this team,” Bennett said. “That makes it challenging.”

So much parity, in fact, that Leitao constantly shuffled players in and out of games in an attempt to find a combination that could win, or at least be competitive. Of the other returnees, five averaged between 6.5 and 10.3 points per game. Plus, there’s athletic newcomer Tristan Spurlock, a forward who appears to have potential.

While there’s no low-post scorer and no proven scoring threat on the perimeter other than Landesberg, the key for this team will be how it plays defense. Bennett’s reputation in the Pac-10 stemmed from a smothering, halfcourt, man-to-man system that made it difficult for opponents to score.

“Tony’s Washington State teams just didn’t beat themselves,” former Arizona interim coach Russ Pennell said. “I used the analogy that playing against Tony’s teams was like hitting a tennis ball against the wall. It comes right back at you. And, you know, the wall usually wins those battles.”

Bennett also runs a disciplined offensive system that is somewhat more liberal than its typical description.

Still, he must develop some scorers from a pool of experienced guards and small forwards: Calvin Baker (a preseason knee scope could slow his start), Jeff Jones, Mustapha Farrakhan, Solomon Tat and Sammy Zeglinski, likely the starter at point guard.

Scott, a 6-8 forward, has shown flashes of brilliance over the past two seasons, one of which he played out of position in the post, but he has lacked consistency. The same goes for 6-9 senior Jamil Tucker, who has more game than he has exhibited thus far. Then there’s seven-footer Assane Sene, who should be a bonus to Bennett’s defensive scheme, but Sene has not shown much offensive prowess to this point.

Bennett rarely has a conversation about the team without stressing that some of his players need to evolve.

Some who have observed Virginia’s squad closely think that if the players can grasp the new coach’s systems, the Cavaliers could finish several spots higher than their 11th-place projection.

If so, the Promised Land may not be as far away as most Wahoo fans think.

Collins Happy to Support Herzlich
Nov. 10, 2009
8:12 p.m.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Nate Collins and Mark Herzlich were going to be teammates at UVa. Collins, in fact, has a photo of himself, Herzlich, Joe Torchia and Sean Gottschalk together at Scott Stadium when they were in high school.

Herzlich, of course, ended up at Boston College, not UVa. But Collins, a senior defensive end, hasn't lost track of his friend.

"We still chat here and there on Facebook and keep in contact," Collins said Tuesday night. "I definitely shot him a few texts when he was going through what he was going through with the cancer."

Herzlich, a linebacker who in 2008 was named ACC defensive player of the year, was diagnosed last spring with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of cancer, in his left leg.

"Everyone's been praying for him," Collins said.

Herzlich won't play this season, but after undergoing radio and chemotherapy, he's now cancer-free. He'll be in Charlottesville this weekend for BC's game against UVa, and before kickoff he'll be presented with a ceremonial check from the 'Hoos for Herzlich fund-raiser.

UVa hopes to raise $9,494 in honor of BC's No. 94, and Collins and his teammates are contributing about $1,500 toward that goal.

Of Herzlich's illness, Collins said, "It's one of those things where you see it on TV and hear about it, and you're like, 'What? Are you kidding me?'"

Herzlich's number is still in Collins' cell phone, and they've had some odd encounters.

"It's funny, because I used to text him and call him by accident, trying to call [UVa quarterback] Marc Verica sometimes," Collins said. "I have both of them in my phone as Marc PA, because they're both from Pennsylvania.

"So I would text him and call him like, 'Yo, dude, do you have this book for this class?' And he'd be like, 'Yo, Nate, this is Herzlich. I think you meant Verica.'"

To avoid further confusion, Collins said, he changed Verica's entry to Marc VA.

­-- Jeff White

 

Greer's Education Continues at Linebacker
Nov. 10, 2009
2:38 p.m.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- At his position in UVa's 3-4 defense -- inside linebacker -- Steve Greer is expected to make a lot of tackles, and he hasn't shied away from contact.

Greer leads the Cavaliers in tackles with 70, and the 6-2, 225-pound redshirt freshman made a career-high 14 stops Saturday in a 52-10 loss to ACC rival Miami at Land Shark Stadium.

In his college debut, Sept. 5 against William and Mary, Greer had 10 tackles, a "pretty positive first outing for a rookie linebacker," Al Groh said Monday. "Certainly in that context it has continued to be a positive year for him."

Groh noted, though, that some of Greer's individual matchups have become more challenging, and his performance has reflected that.

"Clearly, as might be expected -- this is not a particularly profound statement -- some of the [Hurricanes] that he had to take on ... were probably a little more difficult to deal with than some of the players he took on in the first game," Groh said.

"There were some schemes the other day that created some real conflicts in linebacker reads and were more challenging for a first-year starter than for, say, a player like [former UVa linebacker Jon Copper], who had sifted through 3 ˝ years of that. So I think, if I could use another analogy, we're at the time of the year when the fastballs are faster and a little more difficult to hit some out of the park for [Greer] right now."

Second on the team in tackles, with 68, is the other starting inside linebacker, senior Darren Childs.

­-- Jeff White

Al Groh: When Fairy Tales Go Wrong by Ben Gibson
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On Nov. 28, 2009, Al Groh's coaching career will end.

The 65-year-old head coach of the Virginia Cavaliers has been in his last rodeo. After nine years of under-achieving and over-blowing its excuses, Groh will be shown the door from his alma mater after a second-straight losing season, three in the past four.

However, this exit will be far from graceful. As much as we love for our sports figures to go out on top like John Elway in the Super Bowl, Groh will have quite the opposite exit from the sports stage.

Instead of leaving with a legion of adoring fans chanting his name, Groh will be crossing the 50-yard line to shake hands with Hokie coach Frank Beamer after yet another loss to the Cavaliers' arch rival Virginia Tech.

The sound Groh hears as he jogs off the field one last time will not be cheers nor will it be boos. Instead, Groh will hear something far more damning as a head coach: silence.

Silence because this loss will follow an all-too-familiar script.

Virginia football is in a far worse situation than angry fans whining on talk radio and under-performing players not living up to the hype. The program is in a state of complete and utter apathy.

Forget the economic excuses, the fact remains that Virginia's attendance has dropped to its lowest totals since 2000, before Scott Stadium expanded to the approximate capacity of 64,000 it has today.

This year, with its bowl aspirations on the line against Duke, Virginia mustered a meager 41,713 people. More than a few of them were Duke fans who had made the trip to relish the fact that their Blue Devils are no longer in the ACC cellar.

Virginia has taken over the role as the ACC cellar-dweller and that only adds to the misery of Cavalier fans. Not to mention it will make Groh's final act that much sadder.

Virginia tried to stick it out with Groh. After a 17-14 loss to Virginia Tech last season, athletic director Craig Littlepage forced some changes and allowed the buyout price to go down about $2 million in a deal that gave Groh one more season to turn things around.

That restructuring has not exactly garnered faith from the fan base. That is why ticket sales, even for the Virginia Tech game, were down. With Virginia in an 0-3 hole, tickets were made available to the public for the Hokie game.

Anyone who has been to Scott Stadium when the Cavaliers take on the Hokies knows that more than a few Tech fans work their way into the crowd. That number will surely be an all-time high this year with all the extra seats available. Things could get ugly.

Groh's final game will not only likely be another loss to Virginia Tech, moving his overall record to 1-8 against the Hokies, but it was also be in humiliating fashion. Groh's team will be practically playing a road game at home.

Was that embarrassment really worth $2 million?

Say what you want about Al Groh, I know I have. Without question, this man has flaws as a head coach of a college football team. However, no one deserves to go out like this.

Coaching changes happen all the time in sports, but this is different. Groh has become something of a leper. His very name seems to stir strong feelings across Charlottesville.

Groh deserves better than a 3-9 season, the worse season since 1983. He deserves more than a loss to William & Mary at home. He does not deserve this nightmarish ending we are slowly plodding towards.

One thing is for sure, this was not the result we all anticipated in 2001.

Granted, revisionist history has changed how we perceive the sweat-shirted commander-in-chief today, but nine years ago, Virginia Cavalier fans were ecstatic when they hired Groh.

Why?

Coach Groh had everything a fan could want. He brought NFL experience as coach of the New York Jets. Those connections made Virginia an attractive place for recruits to come. Virginia's original recruiting classes were consistently ranked in or near the top 25 by most recruiting services.

Groh brought a strong discipline to the defensive side of the ball. He was able to produce NFL talent throughout his nine years and his teams have always ranked well defensively throughout his career at Virginia.

Groh is a guy that really likes the Xs and Os. He has come up with brilliant game plans that helped shut down future NFL stars like Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Crabtree, Laurence Maroney and Calvin Johnson, among others.

Groh was meant to take Virginia to the next level. He was going to build upon the roots of his predecessor George Welsh and make the Cavaliers an ACC Championship contender.

It's certainly not as if the ACC has been loaded with great teams. The title has been up for grabs and Groh could not grasp that coveted Orange Bowl ticket.

Indeed, what made the selection of Groh so exciting is the same thing has brought his eventual demise: exposure.

Groh was meant to make Virginia a household name. He was going to bring in College Game Day, he was going to build big match-ups with Penn State and Southern Cal.

Well Virginia has reached a different level, unfortunately it's a step lower. Groh has more losing seasons in his nine years than Welsh did in his 18.

The Cavaliers are a footnote in the great tome that is college football.

Coach Groh knows that his days are numbered at the University of Virginia. Littlepage has openly announced that Groh's job status will be reviewed at the end of the season. Something tells me a 3-9 campaign, barring an upset, is not going to sit well with the administration.

Time will tell just what the legacy of Al Groh will be at Virginia.

Here is a man that worked so hard for a school he truly loved. For Groh, there probably was no better job for him than to coach at Virginia.

Without question, Groh tried everything he could to be successful here. He brought Virginia some big victories against Virginia Tech, Florida State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Minnesota and West Virginia.

He got Virginia to a No. 5 ranking nationally and was a two-time ACC Coach of the Year.

Groh developed some legendary Virginia players like Matt Schaub and Chris Long.

However, he also oversaw the mediocrity that took Virginia to the bottom of the ACC and brought Virginia Tech to the top.

He watched in-state recruits don the orange and maroon, even in places where the Cavaliers had typically been successful.

He suffered losses that simply could not be tolerated by one of the more forgiving fan bases in the country.

No, it is not a fairytale ending for Al Groh and his coaching career.

I guess that's why truth is stranger than fiction.
 

Groh discourages ‘block tackles’
By Michael Phillips
Published: November 10, 2009
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CHARLOTTESVILLE Virginia linebacker Aaron Clark refers to them as "woo hits." It's what happens when a defensive player makes a stop so big that the crowd makes a loud noise for it on each successive replay, and it makes SportsCenter that night.

"You always want to be the guy that did that, so you can brag about it," he said.

However, it can occasionally turn ugly, in the form of a head or neck injury.

The risk is greatest when a defensive player lowers his head as he speeds in on the player with the ball to make a hit, resulting in a violent collision.

Cavs coach Al Groh refers to that as a "block tackle," saying that when a player comes flying in to create impact at a high speed, what he's doing is more like blocking than tackling.

"Flying like a rocket is not good fundamental tackling," he said. "We see lots of players in football do that these days, but it's -- I'm sure there are no defensive coaches in the country that are running a drill that does that."

He acknowledges that it's becoming more prevalent in the college game. On Sunday, he reviewed tackling with his team after Saturday's 52-17 loss to Miami. It was a game in which U.Va. players were occasionally guilty of making block tackles.

Groh emphasized that aside from bad technique, it's also bad football. Without getting hands around a ballcarrier to wrap him up, it's easier for him to bounce off the hit and continue running.

"When you jump in there and block tackle, as coach calls it, it's almost like you're trying to block the dude instead of tackling him," Clark said. "There's a higher chance you're going to hurt yourself and miss the tackle."

Groh attributed its prevalence to players copying other players.

Any data regarding injury trends are anecdotal, but the nature of head injuries and football has been a hot topic in recent weeks, with Congress holding hearings after a University of Michigan study showed a higher prevalence of Alzheimer's in football players than the general population.

At Virginia, the results have been less extreme. The last big head injury to occur by a tackler was in 2005, when Nate Lyles was paralyzed after taking a knee in the head by a Georgia Tech running back. He made a remarkable recovery and briefly was on the New York Jets roster.

Groh always has been a defensive-minded coach and has emphasized strong fundamentals. He's hoping that Sunday's refresher course will pay dividends going forward.

The coach also cited cornerback Ras-I Dowling as a player who has made some strong fundamental tackles in the open field.
Notes:

* Groh said Jimmy Howell will be the starting punter this week, after Nathan Rathjen was benched early in Saturday's game.

* Regarding a face mask penalty against Cam Johnson, the coach said that he had a request for clarification out to the ACC.

He indicated he was not satisfied with the explanation in a report printed Sunday on VirginiaSports.com, which quoted ACC coordinator of officials Doug Rhoads as saying that the face mask call was made by the referee, not the replay judge, but that the official forgot to announce it before going to the replay.

Glimpse into the past: BC coach returns to UVa
BC coach Frank Spaziani returns to UVa, where he was a longtime aide.
By Doug Doughty

It has been nearly 20 years since Frank Spaziani last stepped inside Scott Stadium, and this time he'll be viewing Virginia's football home from a completely different perspective.

Spaziani, the first-year head coach at Boston College, will be on the visitors' sideline when Virginia entertains the Eagles on Saturday. For nine seasons, he had another outlook as a UVa assistant from 1982-1990.

This is the Eagles' fifth season in the ACC, but it will be their first trip to Charlottesville. They play in the ACC's Atlantic Division, while Virginia belongs to the Coastal Division, and their only meeting as ACC foes came in 2005. Spaziani, who was BC's defensive coordinator at the time, watched then-No. 18 Boston College defeat UVa 28-17 in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

A few things have changed at Scott Stadium since Spaziani last observed it. Stately columns -- or pergolas -- now ring the walk above the north end zone and a 2000 expansion raised capacity to 61,500.

In 1995, Virginia made the move to natural grass after ripping up the Astroturf that Spaziani knew.

He served as defensive backs coach on George's Welsh initial UVa staff in 1982 and was promoted to defensive coordinator in 1987, which was the first year that Welsh even designated a defensive coordinator. With Spaziani overseeing the defense, UVa was ranked No. 1 in the country for three weeks in 1990, the only time the Cavaliers ever have been ranked No. 1.

Virginia won its first seven games before losing to eventual national co-champion Georgia Tech 41-38 in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers won at North Carolina the next week, then lost their last three games.

Following the season, Welsh made the decision to replace Spaziani as defensive coordinator. Spaziani was given the option of coaching defensive backs under new coordinator Rick Lantz but declined.

"After playing Louisville in 1988 and '89 and knowing about Rick Lantz, I wanted to change our defense from a 3-4 to a four-man line, which we eventually adopted in 1991," Welsh said in a January interview following Spaziani's appointment as BC's head coach.

History would suggest that Spaziani was made a scapegoat for the 1990 collapse, much of which occurred after an injury to star quarterback Shawn Moore.

"That's your opinion," Spaziani said with no malice apparent. "Let me just say this: That was then and this is now. When you take the whole body of stuff, I have nothing but tremendous memories of Virginia and my experience there, and I can't tell you how valuable it's been to me."

Tyrone Lewis, a UVa defensive back at the time, said he thinks Spaziani might have been at Virginia for a long time if the Cavaliers hadn't squandered a 16-0 lead in a 23-22 loss to Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl.

"I can tell you, as players, we never blamed 'Spaz' for that," Lewis said Tuesday. "And the funny thing is, he's coaching an attacking 4-3 defense at BC."

Spaziani said he and Welsh have not made plans to get together this weekend but they speak periodically. Boston College offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill had three tenures as a Welsh assistant at Navy and Virginia.

Spaziani was out of coaching in 1991, a year he spent "in reflection," as he called it. His wife was a teacher in Charlottesville, but he re-entered the coaching field in 1992 as a Canadian Football League assistant.

"I was in the Witness Protection Program in Winnipeg," he said jokingly in a Tuesday morning interview.

He actually spent five years in Canada, two with the Blue Bombers and three with the Calgary Stampeders.

"It was a case of getting the right results even if you made the wrong decision," said Spaziani of a fairly unusual career move. "How did I know that it would be so rewarding, that it would expose me to so many things and be so enlightening? Man, that was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me."

In Canada, where the field is wider, longer and has just three downs, offenses are more wide-open, and Spaziani crafted a philosophy that suited an ever-evolving college game.

When ex-UVa offensive coordinator Tom O'Brien was named Boston College head coach in 1995, Spaziani was among his first hires. The Eagles subsequently posted eight consecutive winning seasons, after which North Carolina State came calling in 2006.

O'Brien took the job at the end of the regular season and Spaziani was named to coach the Eagles in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

"That was the most difficult coaching assignment and experience that I've ever had -- that 30-some days," Spaziani said. "That also was very enlightening. Doing something for the first time is never easy."

Spaziani wasn't named to succeed O'Brien but elected to stay at Boston College as defensive coordinator under Jeff Jagodzinski. Then, when Jagodzinski and BC parted company after the 2008 season, the Eagles promoted Spaziani.

At 61, he was a head coach for the first time.

However, he says he never felt an emptiness in his three-plus decades as an assistant.

"Whether it's myopic or not, I've just always done the job in front of me to the best of my ability," he said. "That's what I'm supposed to do. Take it seriously but don't take myself too seriously."

 

Two Cavs make case for All-ACC
By Norm Wood 247-4642
November 11, 2009

Though Virginia seems destined to spend the postseason at home, and quite possibly searching for a new coaching staff, a few Cavaliers still may have a decent shot at earning All-Atlantic Coast Conference first-team accolades.

Only once (2006) during the first eight seasons of the Al Groh era, and once in the last 23 years, has U.Va. gone without a player making the All-ACC first team.

There's a chance U.Va. (3-6 overall, 2-3 ACC) could be shutout this season, but defensive end Nate Collins and kicker Robert Randolph might garner enough votes to crack the first team.

Collins has made the move from nose tackle to defensive end this season look like a stroke of genius.

He leads all defensive linemen in the conference with 60 tackles, including eight for losses (eighth in the ACC) and five sacks (tied for fifth in the ACC).

Randolph certainly qualifies as one of U.Va.'s most pleasant surprises.

After going 3-of-4 on field goals last season (all from inside 38 yards), he has held the job all season and made 14 of 15 field goals this fall (93 percent; first in ACC), including a career-long 49-yarder in a torrential downpour against Georgia Tech.

Given U.Va.'s issues with scoring touchdowns in the red zone, his kicking (11-of-12 kicking from inside the red zone) has been the main reason U.Va. is tied for fourth in the country in red-zone scoring.

U.Va. has scored on 23 of its 24 trips inside the opponents' 20-yard line, but only 12 of those scores have come via touchdowns (50 percent; worst touchdown-scoring percentage of any team in the top 35 in red-zone scoring).

Now, if there was a true "utility" spot on the first team, Vic Hall might be an absolute shoo-in for the role given his versatility.

Alas, no such honor is given.

Storylines
HONORING HERZLICH

With Boston College (6-3, 3-2) coming this Saturday to Charlottesville, U.Va.'s players, student body and boosters are gathering funds to honor BC linebacker Mark Herzlich, who is sitting out the season after being diagnosed in May with Ewing's Sarcoma — a rare form of bone cancer.

U.Va.'s players all have decided to donate their per diems for the day of the game, which totals about $1,500. U.Va.'s student council and the 'Hoo Crew spirit group are trying to bring the total to $9,494.94 — a number chosen to honor Herzlich's jersey number 94. All donations will go to Uplifting Athletes, a national non-profit organization designed to raise money through the college football community to fund rare-disease research.

"We have had a particular interest in Mark's circumstances because at one time we were hopeful that he would be here," Groh said.

MORE CARRIES FOR JACKSON?

Despite averaging just eight carries per game, running back Rashawn Jackson is leading U.Va. with 359 rushing yards. That's more than seven more carries per game than he averaged in his first two seasons (0.9 per game) at running back, but Groh would like to see him carry the ball more down the stretch if game flow permits.

BIG NUMBER

300U.Va. is 0-6 this season when giving up more than 300 yards to an opponent.

Cavaliers donate to fallen foe
By Jay Jenkins
Published: November 11, 2009
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For lifelong Virginia football fan Robbie Lawrence, it is a winnable game.

In his eyes, what happens inside Scott Stadium on Saturday as Virginia hosts Boston College will take a back seat to a more pressing issue.

Knowing that money was being raised for Boston College linebacker Mark Herzlich, out for the 2009 season after being diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, Lawrence and those that attend the Wilk Hall tailgate each week during football season seized the opportunity to make a difference — even a minimal one, by national standards.

Those that frequent the pregame spot elected to raise money for Herzlich prior to Saturday’s game.

“We are trying,” said Lawrence, noting that Wilk Hall has made donations to such efforts since 2003. “We just hope that we can make a difference.”

Virginia’s football players have followed on the same path.

Despite losing Herzlich, who once verbally committed to Virginia before electing to play for BC, the Cavaliers have elected to donate their individual $15 per diem from Saturday’s game to help with his medical bills that piled up while chemo was administered.

“It’s tragic to see anybody who is considered to be in their prime for athletes, in college, whatever it may be, to go through a situation where, what you’ve worked so hard for in your life is taken away from you,” Virginia linebacker Aaron Clark said on Monday. “I think anytime that the rest of the athletic community can step up and help out, and offer whatever they can, is really big, and I know we’re excited to be a part of that.”

The UVa student council and the Hoo Crew joined the effort, collecting over $3,000. The goal, however, for the school is $9,494.94, and donations are being collected at numerous local establishments, including Ragged Mountain Running Shop and Boylan Heights.

Prior to Virginia’s contest with the Eagles, a check will be presented to Herzlich inside Scott Stadium.

Every school in the ACC — as well as the Orange Bowl and Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis — has made an initiative to support Herzlich, the 2008 ACC defensive player of the year.

Few of those schools have the connection that Virginia has with the linebacker — he attended lacrosse camp at UVa and played youth sports with offensive lineman Will Barker.

“He’s very familiar with the University of Virginia,” Virginia coach Al Groh said. “And we’re very familiar with Mark.”
 

Al Groh Weekly Football Press Conference Transcript
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com Release: 11/09/2009

COACH GROH: We have had a particular interest in Mark's (Herzlich) circumstances because at one time we were hopeful that he would be here. So we've had a lot of personal discourse with him during that time frame. I think you hear even more about the story and it extends to the fact that the least once he attended lacrosse camp here so he's very familiar with the University of Virginia, we're very familiar with Mark. As a result of that experience while we have not played Boston College while he's been there, we have been tuned into the success he's had as a player. So when we heard about the circumstance in the spring, we were very sensitive to it.
So it's nice to see him apparently well on top of this situation and doing very well with it. Anything more on Mark and his situation? Aaron can give with you more on that.
QUESTION: What is the per diem?
COACH GROH: Trust me, I don't know, Aaron can tell you that. It's different home and away. Frankly I give mine away every week so I don't even open the envelope.
THE MODERATOR: I think it totals out to $1500 total for the team.
QUESTION: As a high school player, what was he?
COACH GROH: Very rugged, high energy, very rugged, physical player. Tall, lanky, you could see what he was going to become and he certainly has lived up to that.
QUESTION: He committed somewhere else before Boston College, anything on that?
COACH GROH: No, I would say that we would have been very happy to have him on our team.
This game here, this will be the second of four games in November in which we play a team that has their designs on winning nine or 10 games. In fact, if that came true for all the teams in November it could quite possibly bring to six the total of teams we play this year that have their designs on winning 9 or 10 games or more. Obviously for example, TCU has their designs on winning more than that, based on where they are, you would say that Georgia Tech has their designs on that.
Another good challenge for our team. Another good style that we're playing against. Just thinking about it coming over here, not important enough for me to do any research on it, but since expansion occurred and Boston College came in the league we have only played 'em one time and probably not too many teams that have gone through this whole expansion thing and at this time had only one occurrence with somebody else in the conference.
So, we don't have a lot of personal competitive familiarity with them, but they have through all the changes that they have had up there, they maintain a lot of continuity in their style of play. Obviously Frank Spaziani has been there through the Tom O'Brien and Jagodzinski time and now his time, so the defensive system is similar to what we faced when we went up there.
Then Gary Tranquill having the overlap with Tom O'Brien, who was the previous head coach and was here, and Spaziani's system is reflective of what was in place at that time. They have a clear-cut ideas of what system they want to play, what kind of players fit into that system, they develop a lot of familiarity with the players themselves, and I think everybody on our staff would say that -- this sounds like a funny thing to say but a visually pleasing team to watch play. In other words they got a system, they're very fundamentally sound in their scheme.
They're very fundamentally sound in their execution, they have certain things that they want to accomplish and they're going to play the game on those terms. So they're going to try to force the other team every week to out-execute them and not give anything away and they've been quite successful in doing that.
Big thing that really changes the circumstance is they found a player who decided he would rather face blitzes than curveballs and having Dave Shinskie as the quarterback clearly has made a big difference. While he may be an older player he is doing a remarkable job for a player in his first year of college football and has made some plays and made some throws in games that have elevated his team as all really good quarterbacks have to do.
QUESTION: Are there things that he does that on tape that show he is 25 or 26 years old?
COACH GROH: Well, he makes some -- I don't know what position he played, Zach, but I know there are not as many moving parts in baseball than there are in football so he's seen things from a coverage standpoint in front of his eyes and whatnot that sometimes his decisions with the ball are things that he's had to learn from.
But even in those cases he seems to make -- and I can only tell from the video, their coaches may concur or have a different opinion but he seems to make those decisions with a poise and calmness that maybe he didn't sort it outright but it didn't happen because he panicked. So he does seem to have the maturity that certainly would be not unexpected from a guy who is 25 years old compared to a guy who is 18 years old.
He's done that whole minor league circuit and I think it makes you self-sufficient.
QUESTION: To follow up on a question last night about Rashawn if the game you were unfolding and you would like him to would he be getting 18, 20 carries? Would you like to see that?
COACH GROH: We would, very much, we would. It's been very effective when he's had the ball. We would like to see that be the case.
QUESTION: I don't know how far back you go on film with BC but how much can you see of progress in Shinskie from earlier when he was getting the cobwebs off to now and how much more understanding does he seem to show for what's coming?
COACH GROH: We can do it a lot of ways, we watch every game plus we can break every pattern down and watch it every time it's occurred.
So we can see with each particular pattern how just as that play has evolved from the first occurrences through the most recent game and how he's reacted during the course of the game, during the course of the season.
One of the marks he most certainly would get is that of a pretty fast learner. I'm sure there is a lot more out there that his coaches feel he needs to be exposed to and learn about and needs to respond to but what he has been exposed to he has done so in a progressive way.
QUESTION: What has been your background with Frank Spaziani?
COACH GROH: Oh, I wouldn't say in any great depth. Frank was -- obviously he was here and a significant part of Coach Welsh's staff so when I would come to town to see my parents or whatnot, sometimes I would stop over and visit with those guys just for no particular reason just I'm a football guy and they were football coaches and on that basis. Then what Michael came to school here that was the first year that Frank wasn't here. So I'm familiar with him and his accomplishments but I wouldn't say --
QUESTION: When you have a guy trying to make an open-field tackle, how do you teach your players to do so?
COACH GROH: Yeah, don't head down and rocket guys, that is called block tackling and we don't teach block tackling.
QUESTION: Are they going off instinct?
COACH GROH: There are four fundamental elements of tackling, keep your head up, have a good base underneath you, club with your arms and fight to stay on your feet. That's good fundamental tackling, flying like a rocket is not good fundamental tackling. We see lots of players in football do that these days but that's -- I'm sure there are no defensive coaches in the country that are running a drill that does that.
QUESTION: Is that a matter of overcoming instinct? Is that why a player would do that?
COACH GROH: I was never fast enough to make a "rocket tackle" more like a "spitball tackle!"
So I'm the wrong person to ask. But you see it all over the place.
You know, we used to have a coach with some people who used to have a hard time dealing with it with the players that they had on a high level doing it and I think players see other players do it, they get that idea, coaches coach other techniques.
QUESTION: Who is your best open-field tackler?
COACH GROH: Probably Ras-I. He's had some real good open -- I'm just trying to think of actual plays, he's had some good open-field tackles this year.
QUESTION: Did the schedule-makers do BC a favor in that their quarterback had more opportunity to get his feet wet before the big tests?
COACH GROH: Right. I think anytime you have a break-in quarterback it's better off to -- we had a break-in quarterback a year ago against USC, so I would say that anything other than that would be a better progression.
QUESTION: When the offensive line has struggled, do you modify the game plan going into the game? Are there certain things you cannot do?
COACH GROH: Well, yeah, each -- every week is an analysis, evaluation of the performance of the players, but then every week is also an evaluation of the match-ups that occur in a game. Match-ups are -- individual match-ups, Zach are as critical to the conduct in the scheme of games at least as critical, oftentimes more critical depending on those match-ups.
So you might have a player that things having well for him for a couple of weeks and then he's matched up against a player that it just looks like this guy is going to be too much and hopefully you have some going the other direction, here is a match-up that plays to our advantage so we want to work to that advantage, so the individual match-ups, knowing their strengths has as much to do with it.
So sometimes obviously it's difficult for those who haven't done all the analysis to know those circumstances but a lot of times the answer to the question of "why do you call that?" Or "why didn't you do this or that?" It's about match-ups.
Like an example, you might say -- if somebody says "you can run out-cuts on this team" sometimes that general statement is good but a lot of times what it is -- you can run out-cuts against No. 9 so wherever No. 9 is you can run -- or you can trap this team. No, what you can do is trap No. 62. Because he's proven he has difficulty against it. Why didn't you run the trap to the right? Because No. 62 is not on the right.
So match-up with has as much to do with it -- personal match-ups as matching schemes.
QUESTION: Coach, you look at your schedule you faced all kinds of teams that have different strengths and primary elements in their offense. Does Boston College remind you of any team you've faced already or are they pretty much their own element?
COACH GROH: Well they're certainly not like any of the previous three. Or some of the early ones. I would say their system of play, Mark, as I said earlier, pretty well established and pretty well defined as the personality of their program.
It's clearly what they want it to be and it's -- they own it, they made it be the way they want it to be.
QUESTION: Tackle total could be a little skewed because the defense --
Has spent so much time on the field. Steve Greer leads the team in tackles. What kind of year has he had?
COACH GROH: Going back even way back till the first game of the year, as I recall, we had a conversation about pretty impressive, pretty positive first outing for a rookie linebacker. Certainly in that context it has continued to be a positive year for him. Now, as some of those match-ups individually have become a little more challenging. You know, clearly, as might be expected, this is not a particularly profound statement, some of the guys that he had to take on playing for the Hurricanes were probably a little more difficult to deal with than some of the players he took on in the first game.
There were some schemes the other day that created some real conflicts in linebacker reads and more challenging for a first-year starter than for, say, a player like John was last year who had sifted through three and a half years of that.
So I think -- I guess if you could -- if I could use another analogy we're at the time of the year when the fastballs are faster and a little more difficult to hit some out of the park for him right now.
QUESTION: I believe it was at BC in '05 when Chris Cook broke his leg.
COACH GROH: I think you might be right. I don't remember the incident I think we finished the game with two able corners so in all likelihood that's correct.
QUESTION: How did he return from that injury?
COACH GROH: Fine.
QUESTION: Have you seen when they come back from something --
It kind of hit me last night watching Asante Samuel, after he kind of got nicked up a bit he avoided all contact, When a guy gets hurt like that do you kind of hold your breath and hope they return to form?
COACH GROH: Asante has had an outstanding career, he's one of the top intercepters in the league. Rocket tackles have not exactly been his trademark. You would have to watch a lot more games besides yesterday to get a feel for how much that -- whatever it was, I didn't see the game, might have been affective.
But, yeah, clearly it's human nature, something banged up and nature says -- I mean, that's what pain is for, to tell you to protect the injured area. Athletes have an ability to disregard that but in some cases it becomes inhibiting and even if the player is able to continue to play.
QUESTION: Chris has never lost that physicality?
COACH GROH: No, I mean it's -- probably -- that's -- a broken bone is a painful injury but has the lowest residual affect of many injuries that players can have.
QUESTION: How much does the time of possession stats jump out to you?
COACH GROH: You mean "couple" meaning nine? (Chuckles.) It's a dramatic story line on the season, clearly.
QUESTION: Coach, were you able to get any clarification on the rule in terms of instant replay and penalties, based on that?
COACH GROH: Well, there are two sides to every story. We've asked -- there's a clarification that's been floated out there, we've also asked for our own clarification. I'm sure it will be the same. Frankly in this case we would probably be somewhat reluctant to agree or accept the clarification.
QUESTION: Saw Chris Long was on the sidelines. What does that mean to you and to the program to have guys come back and find weekends where they can come back and cheer on the team?
COACH GROH: Actually we had four guys and it was great. It's one of the things that we had observed when we first got here, was it seemed to be the absence of players doing that. So we always talked about one of the things we wanted to do was make sure players of all generations, they didn't have to be players that played for us, like a few weeks ago Ray Roberts was back and we were really glad to see Ray and he's been to practice a couple of times and addressed the players. But to have those players feel a part of what's going on is part of the legacy of a program. We had - Alan Billyk was there, Nate Lyles along with Chris, and then a player who has had a great career in his own right, Earl Sims, who played for us early on and say a very successful coach in South Florida and had a terrific win on Friday night was with us on Saturday and it is very nice to have those players with us.
QUESTION: What do you see as the main issue with your receiving corp.? Inexperience, skills? Are they fast enough?
COACH GROH: You know we've had guys -- I don't know -- I mean, if we're not -- obviously -- I think we are but if I said yes then I would say, well, how come we're not open more? The point I want to get to is that there is a lot more things involved in getting open than speed. Speed is a significant factor, but the ability to get separation is the key factor in being an open receiver and different players get separation in different ways. Some get it through the precision of their routes, some get it from very good initial or lateral quickness, some get it through vertical speed, some get it through body size, for example, the receiver at Georgia Tech -- 6-3, 230, who has good size but he gets open because of his size. He's too big for most of the guys who are guarding him to cover him.
Steve Smith with the Panthers is open a lot and he's quick, he may also be vertically fast but he's away from guys that way. So everybody has to find -- really there is no method as a receiver coach to say this is how you get separation, every guy has to put together his package of what he's got, but ultimately a guy's got to get separation from the defender, and speed is a factor that helps guys get free, I would expect it. We've had guys that aren't as fast as some of the guys that we have here who got free a lot. I would say as a group overall I would think they have enough capability to get free, sooner or later.
QUESTION: Is there a guy in the program that you were kinda hoping could be the big receiver or do you need that?
COACH GROH: Bobby Smith is a young receiver, raw, that's down the road. Does he have that type of height? He does. What will come of it is something we will see. To say we had nobody -- if I didn't say Bobby Smith I would be lying by the same token don't take it to mean like, wow, you know, this is a comet coming across the skies.
QUESTION: I know he has a knee injury and --
COACH GROH: Right, he's had a knee surgery that set him back, he had a hernia surgery that he came with that he missed a good deal of training camp with and then he got rolling with that and then he had another knee circumstance probably some of which he came with and because he wasn't going to be ready to play this year it seemed prudent to get that fixed. So he's lost some of the time going through a lot of the things that freshmen have to go through to learn how to do it all on this level.
QUESTION: How is the team responding to these past few weeks in coming back on Sundays? And second as competitors, how hard is it really for to forget and move on -- is that a challenge for them to do?
COACH GROH: Well, we talk all the time and you heard me talk about getting focused on the next game and not to get too happy about the previous one, not to get too down about the previous one, the hangover results either way can have an impact on your focus and what we see on all levels of football now that there is a pretty high degree of parity and if a team doesn't feel it has something to prove every week that might have 'em pretty close to where they need to be but not there, you know, it's like -- the picture in my mind is, look, you know, you could fill it up to there but that means you don't have it all the way up there.
So I think when -- a term that sometimes has application but I think it's very loosely used and inaccurately used is about when a team doesn't play well it's always well the team was "flat" okay? That's an easy thing to say.
Well, when the performance isn't -- when the other team is playing better, maybe they just played better. Certainly no team goes out there not wanting to play well, and not being excited about the fact that they are playing a game, but the little difference is maybe it's that last 2 or 3% that this individual player or that team feels like they have something to prove.
Chris Long was one of the best players who played here, one of the best in the country when he played here as a senior, but his temperament was such that he felt he had something to prove every week, no matter how many tackles he had the week before, no matter what his team did, he felt he had something to you prove every week and he's pretty much on the high end in terms of that, that's why he has had the success he's had. The more players you can have of that mentality on your team, obviously that creates a type of personalities that ads greatly to the advantage of the team.
So that's what you just -- you got to try to create that circumstance and that mentality. Obviously it works a lot better if you have people who bring that naturally with them then if the coach is trying to create it every week. There are only so many of those "talks" available every year.
QUESTION: We haven't seen Riko in a game yet at quarterback, but what can we expect from him?
COACH GROH: Just development in all phases, second year here, developing player. Not quite ready to perform on the same level as Dave Shinskie, what do I expect? I don't know, I've never seen him in a game.
QUESTION: Does he practice with the quarterbacks?
QUESTION: How do their special teams look?
COACH GROH: Yeah, we had a situation where Chris Gould was attempting to keep the ball from being recovered, kicked it out the back of the end zone which unfortunately he thought he was going to keep the ball away from the other team and save us 5 points, unfortunately, they got the ball at the point where he kicked it so it turned into a 7-point play instead of a 2-point play, something now that we practice in training camp, number of circumstances so if that every happens to a punter hopefully he'll recall that he can pick it up and carry it out, throw it out, but you can't kick it out.
Special teams have been solid, sound, the punter has done an excellent job of putting the ball down if the 5-10 yard line, punted Notre Dame down there two or three times. That was a big advantage to them in that game and their style on defense is to begrudgingly give up yards and not give up anything big. Stop the run, don't give up deep balls, make the other team put together long drives and execute on a continuous fashion and when the other team is getting the ball on with 94, 95, 96 yards to go, that really plays into it so it's a good example of two components working together to create the framing of the game to the advantage of the team.
Got a lot more to look at and a lot more hours to do it. I could answer that question better later in the day but that's kind of got our attention here early on, the role he plays in helping their defense play the way that they want to play.
QUESTION: You guys will have a bearing on the ACC Atlantic race - can you use that as motivation?
COACH GROH: It's kind of following up with what I was talking about with Zach. Knowing that the same thing doesn't appeal to 100 different guys, sometimes we dangle a few different hooks out there each week and see what it might take for each individual player. So if we can see ourselves in that division for the next two weeks, then maybe that will bring us to the top of the bottle here.
I'm sure probably now that you bring it up, I just put it on my checklist.
QUESTION: I would suspect you don't know what to expect from Jameel this week. Do you go into the week preparing as if he was not going to play?
COACH GROH: No, we are going into it to see what tomorrow brings. We purposely held him out last night, told him that wasn't that much to be accomplished last night, and another 48 hours of healing from last night till Tuesday would be advantageous, so we took that path, consulted with medical people on it. They saw it as being a prudent, hopefully productive path.
QUESTION: What does Boston College do well on the defensive side of the ball?
COACH GROH: As I just mentioned, Mark, they're geared -- the whole thing is geared to be strong against the run and don't give up the deep ball. A lot of commentary from Coach Weiss and Jimmy Clausen after that game which we read, as teams always wisely do, they had to play the game that was dictated, which was a lot of high percentage, short passes but it made allusion to the fact that maybe they had learned their lesson about trying to be too bold with the ball and obviously that's how they want you to play, Notre Dame has a great quarterback, some people say the best in college football so they are productive doing it.
QUESTION: With Jameel being a senior, a lot of people wonder about the quarterback situation going forward. Do you see enough from a guy like Ross Metheny on the scout team to draw any conclusions or is it just too early?
COACH GROH: No, both. Too early for any real conclusions, because that would be foolish to do. You know, but we're happy that he's here. We're happy that he's here.
QUESTION: A lot of teams when you look at them, the predominant thing that jumps out is -- is it safe to say with BC it's physicality?
COACH GROH: That's their style, that's what they're built to be. They're built that way for -- back in the 90s I was living in the same town and I was very familiar with how they've were playing and that's how they've been for quite sometime. They have got a petty fast tailback, they're not trying to be slow. They're not trying to be slow it's just that they're -- they have historically had good success getting the big, physical players out of the northeast and they supplemented that with quite a few players out of Florida and Texas, obviously they have a nice connection with a lot of the Catholic schools in those two areas that are compatible academically, that's where the tailback that's done so well for them that had the career day, 246 yards and five touchdowns against N.C. State, he's out of Florida.
QUESTION: How bizarre is it that they found an effective kicker out of the stands one day?
COACH GROH: Yeah.
QUESTION: And does that below your mind if you could find a guy like that?
COACH GROH: Talk about you find -- your kicker -- you got your kicker is a guy who is sitting in the student body one week and your quarterback was playing minor league baseball last summer and I don't know how it happened obviously but I can just imagine -- Coach, can I talk to you for a second, I would like to introduce myself, I want to kick for you, or, hey, I'm here I want to be your quarterback, oh, no, kidin', really? Come on in. I don't know if it went down that way but it's a good story.
QUESTION: How familiar are you with them through your recruiting circles?
COACH GROH: Actually, Zach, I did -- when I was looking at the play-by-play on the Notre Dame game and the players we're familiar with, there are obviously some players at Boston College that we were familiar with that we hoped to have on our team. Actually the young linebacker who's having a spectacular year for them, Luke Kuechly, we were very involved with him and one of his teammates from Saint X in Cincinnati, and we've been involved with players there before, the Jesuits teach at Saint X, a lot of guys from there, it's a comfortable thing to do, mood is going to be the same, former classmates and teammates are going to be the same, Boston College starts two players including Luke from Saint X, so we know that's going to be a hurdle going in there, but he and his family were genuinely interested in here and there was another player that was interested in coming here.
And it's a program that we will continue to look at, and it's a great deal for Boston College, and Coach O'Brien also went to Saint X. If a good player wasn't going to Notre Dame or Ohio State, he was going to Boston College and Saint X is a great program.
QUESTION: What is the state of your punting game right now?
COACH GROH: Influx
QUESTION: What phases are you looking to improve in this week?
COACH GROH: You know the ability to move the ball through kicking it hasn't changed since the old time days when General Nalin and those guys advocated punting on third down and punting on second down an bad field position before the forward pass could move you out of there. Those guys would get the ball on the six yard line with one of those punts I was talking about, second or third down, they'd punt it back the other way.
A lot of people talk, coaches I hear talk, I've heard it over the years, about how that's kind of become in some ways a lost art, that a lot of things have taken over from the days when two kids would take three or four footballs down, out to the schoolyard, and they'd punt all day. You didn't have all the organized sports. Just like I hear basketball coaches lament the art of shooting. It's become such an athletic game, guys can fly around, pass behind their backs, they can 360. They have a difficult time hitting open shots. I think that's one of the things that coaches find. With all the guys involved, why is it so hard to find kickers and punters. Because there's not that many guys kicking and punting any more. They're playing youth football, doing this, off in other sports. It's such a significant factor, something that has really been very challenging, to put it in the most positive word possible, very challenging for our team this year, whether it's distance, direction or whatnot.
QUESTION: You talked about Rashawn's versatility kind of hurting him.
COACH GROH: Rashawn.
QUESTION: He's probably not going to leave with big numbers. How much is he on the radar of NFL teams because of all he can do?
COACH GROH: Well, there are not that many big backs available. When there is one, all those people want to look at him. The NFL, there are a lot of teams that still use a fullback, okay? Maybe not as their primary way of playing, but they still run some two-back stuff. So they're all looking for a player of that size who they can slide into that. There's so many guys, almost all the guys in college football who carry the ball, aren't even candidates, okay? That would make him a candidate for whatever they want to make him, a tailback, a fullback, whatever the case may be. They don't have any trouble being on the radar here because at least from the feedback that we get from the personnel people that come in here, we're right up on the top of the list of the schools that allow personnel people in the most. They're here on a daily basis to watch our video, watch our practice and whatnot.
All the teams are through asking about all the players. They're very well aware of him.
MODERATOR: Mel Kiper has him rated as the No. 1 fullback in the draft.
COACH GROH: Take that to the bank.
QUESTION: You alluded to the kicking game. Could you have realistically expected Robert Randolph to come out and be that consistent?
COACH GROH: Well, since you mentioned Robert, Connor was an extraordinary college kicker. We're going to have some good defensive linemen here for a while. For example, to mention him in the same sentence with Chris Long might be unfair to both parties. Until somebody has the type of career that Connor did, both from accuracy and distance and game-winning kicks, he was quite a kicker for us. That was great duo we had between Connor doing all the placement work and Curt Smith I think that year led the country in touchbacks. There was scoring as a result of it and there was field position that was gained as a result of our kickers.
Now, to get on to answering your question, the style of the players is not dissimilar. They're both smaller players. They're not power kickers. With them it's about rhythm and about ball striking, hitting the ball cleanly, getting a nice direct line on the kick. One of the things that was very noticeable about how Connor kicked the ball, it was always straight as a string. Now, if he missed, he missed right where he aimed it. He might have miss-aimed it, but he didn't have a ball that had a lot of curvature to it.
What we try to observe in evaluating kickers, if you have a field goal kicker who is making field goals, but they're all going in like this, then that's good on that kick, but then you're never quite sure what it's going to look like all the time.
Robert hits those. You've noticed the balls hits, Robert hits the ball the same way. It tumbles cleanly, it's on a straight line. So we did draw the similarities to them last year with the hopes that maybe it might turn out to be somewhat similar. And it's going down that path. Doesn't have quite the same range at this stage of his career that Connor had.
We're pleased with what Drew Jarrett is doing. He's done a nice job with that. He gets very quick elevation on the ball. It's going to be probably -- hopefully we're not going to see any low kicks blocked when Drew is kicking them. That element of the three has been real good. It's just one out of three where we've been consistent. The other two, quite frankly, leave much to be desired.
QUESTION: Why is Robert (Randolph) able to get the ball up on field goals, but not as much on extra points?
COACH GROH: Well, actually, just through the course of practice all the time, you know, I'm kind of probably like the parrot that sits on the perch behind his shoulder all the time. I'm always saying, Get it up, get it up. We need elevation.
Just to be an all-purpose aggravator, I say it to Drew also. But he probably doesn't really need it because he does get naturally good elevation on the ball.
QUESTION: I think Hinkebein's second kickoff was kicked along the ground, what do you call them?
COACH GROH: Shank (laughter).
QUESTION: It was returned from the 37 to the 49. Guys up the field got it. You were trying to kick it low?
COACH GROH: I don't remember which one was in this category. There was one for sure in there. There were two or three that got rolled down there. There were at least a couple of them that that was not the intent.
QUESTION: It seems that's a really hard kick to pull off. The other team has blockers capable of catching it.
COACH GROH: Right. I know you're pretty proficient, the stories are.
QUESTION: I'm pretty good at dribbling the ball down the fairway.
COACH GROH: Picture this, okay? Let's say that you have the ball off on the side. What it requires is a low shot to get out from underneath the branches, in between two trees, okay, that you want to hit the ball low and hard, but you want to hit it in between the trees, not at the tree, 'cause no matter how hard you hit it, if you hit it at the tree, you're not going to get the desired result.
When you want your kicker to drive the ball down the field, and whether it's because you want to disrupt -- what that does sometimes, it really disrupting the timing of the return. For example, if you watch kickoff return teams in practice, that ball is there, it's up in the air, and there's a determined distance between which you want the return man and the frontline. They're all looking back. The return man is instructed to yell, Go, go, go, so they stay the prescribed distance in front of them. It's all about timing and rhythm. When that ball hits and bounces, if you can get it down there pretty deep, it disrupts the rhythm of that, sometimes lets your coverage guys get more infiltration than if it was kicked beautifully high.
Before that, the ball needs to be hot and it needs to get back there and bouncing and difficult to handle. The intent isn't to kick it at a fairly comfortable speed directly at the up back on the 35-yard line. That's not what you're looking for what you do that, okay? That's like hitting it soft and at one of those trees. That's what happened.
QUESTION: It's not easy to do.
COACH GROH: Well, picture this. We're out there for two and a half hours every day. If you're not blocking and catching and tackling, you have a lot of time to practice a lot of things, right, a lot of time to practice those things.
Another one that followed up on that, that wasn't our plan either, so...
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.
COACH GROH: You're welcome.

 

Four Cavaliers Earn All-ACC Honors
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com Release: 11/10/2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Seniors Neil Barlow and Ross LaBauex, sophomore Tony Tchani and freshman Will Bates earned second team All-ACC honors, the conference announced Tuesday (Nov. 10). In addition to being a second team selection, Bates was named to the All-Freshmen Team.

Barlow (Herndon, Va.) has scored four goals and tallied a team-high five assists this season as a midfielder for the Cavaliers. With three-game winning goals and three game-winning assists, Barlow ranks first on the team in those two categories. It is the first All-ACC postseason honor of Barlow's career after being named the league's player of the week on Sept. 22.

LaBauex (Chicago, Ill.) has started 16 games this year for UVa and has one goal and one assist, each game-winning. A captain and midfielder, LaBauex is earning All-ACC honors for the first time in his career.

The 2008 ACC Rookie of the Year, Tchani (Norfolk, Va.) has scored five goals this season en route to second team honors. He leads active Cavaliers with 13 career goals.

Bates (Chester, Va.) paces Virginia's offense with seven goals, one assist and 15 points this year. He has scored three game-winning goals in 2009 and was named TopDrawerSoccer's National Player of the Week on Oct. 26.

Wake Forest's Corben Bone was named the ACC Offensive Player of the Year, while Demon Deacon defender Ike Opara was named the Defensive Player of the Year. Duke's Andrew Wenger was the ACC Rookie of the Year, while Wake Forest head coach Jay Vidovich was named the ACC Coach of the Year.

The Cavaliers, seeded fifth at this year's ACC Tournament, face fourth-seeded Maryland on Wednesday (Nov. 11) at noon in Cary, N.C.

All-Conference First Team
Andrew Wenger Duke Fr. Defender
Jason Herrick Maryland Jr. Forward
Zac MacMath Maryland So. Goalkeeper
Michael Farfan North Carolina Jr. Midfielder
Zach Loyd North Carolina Sr. Defender
Billy Schuler North Carolina So. Forward
Alan Sanchez NC State Sr. Midfielder
Corben Bone Wake Forest Jr. Midfielder
Austin da Luz Wake Forest Sr. Midfielder
Ike Opara Wake Forest Jr. Defender
Zack Schilawski Wake Forest Sr. Forward

All-Conference Second Team
Justin Luthy Boston College Fr. Goalkeeper
Karl Reddick Boston College Jr. Defender
Cole Grossman Duke Jr. Midfielder
Kevin Tangney Maryland Sr. Defender
Drew Yates Maryland Sr. Midfielder
Cameron Brown North Carolina Jr. Midfielder
Ronnie Boemboue NC State Sr. Forward
Neil Barlow Virginia Sr. Midfielder
Will Bates Virginia Fr. Forward
Ross LaBauex Virginia Sr. Midfielder
Tony Tchani Virginia So. Midfielder

All-Freshmen Team
Kyle Bekker Boston College Midfielder
Justin Luthy Boston College Goalkeeper
Charlie Rugg Boston College Forward
Ryan Finley Duke Forward
Andrew Wenger Duke Defender
Taylor Kemp Maryland Defender
Ethan White Maryland Defender
Enzo Martinez North Carolina Forward
Will Bates Virginia Forward
Anthony Arena Wake Forest Defender
Andy Lubahn Wake Forest Forward

Offensive Player of the Year Defensive Player of the Year
Corben Bone, Wake Forest Ike Opara, Wake Forest

Freshman of the Year Coach of the Year
Andrew Wenger, Duke Jay Vidovich, Wake Forest
 

Terps looking for boost at ACC Tourney
Men's soccer hopes to repeat conference title
By Jonas Shaffer
Updated: Wednesday, November 11, 2009

The last time the Terrapin men’s soccer team left Cary, N.C., in 2008, it had a trophy in tow. A little less than a month later, it won a bigger one in Frisco, Texas.

Today, the Terps will return to the pristine fields of Cary’s WakeMed Soccer Park, the site of this year’s ACC Tournament as well as the NCAA’s College Cup. It’s there where the No. 5 Terps will look to recapture the magic from last year’s title run, a championship march bolstered by a conference tournament championship and finalized with the College Cup conquest in Texas.

Last year, the Terps topped Virginia in the ACC Tournament’s final to take their third conference championship and, ultimately, the NCAA Tournament’s No. 2 overall seed opposite consensus favorite Wake Forest. Today, they will again face the No. 6 Cavaliers in an ACC quarterfinal match that could have ramifications beyond this week.

“It’s important for all of us to realize that we really have what it takes to take this to the National Championship,” midfielder Matt Kassel said. “But it all starts with the ACC Tournament.”

The memories and scrapes from the two teams’ last encounter, a 0-0 tie, haven’t completely faded. The Terps and Cavaliers met 11 days ago for a Halloween night rumble, which was heavy on spectacle, but not on scoring.

Just minutes before halftime, Virginia midfielder Neil Barlow allegedly went in cleats-up on Terp goalkeeper Zac MacMath, setting off a lengthy shoving and shouting match between the two rivals. As MacMath keeled over in pain, even Cavalier goalkeeper Diego Restrepo made the full-field journey from his goal to join the fracas. When referee Jorge Gonzalez finished separating the two sides, he ejected Barlow and Terp midfielder Billy Cortes from the match.

With more than just regional bragging rights on the line today, it’s anyone’s guess as to what the familiarity between the two programs will breed this time.

“As a program, we’re used to it,” coach Sasho Cirovski said. “We had to play Carolina three times last year. Both teams will know each other well.”

If the Terps can make it to Friday’s semifinal, it means they’ll likely have found something the last five Virginia opponents couldn’t: a goal. The Cavaliers haven’t allowed a goal since Oct. 17, a span of more than three weeks that includes about 8 hours of game action.

Virginia has allowed a total of only seven goals to seven different teams this season, and Restrepo is ranked third in the nation with a 0.397 goals against average.

“Both teams are probably going to get some chances,” defender Kevin Tangney said. “We just have to be the team that scores.”

“This is the postseason, and one goal’s going to dictate the game,” Kassel added. “There’s not going to be too many blowouts out there, so it’s important for us, when we have our chances, to really capitalize on each and every one of them.”

Two or three wins this week would go a long way toward steering the Terps down a path similar to last year’s title run. Monday, the team was ranked No. 16 in the most recent Rating Percentage Index for men’s soccer, a precarious position that could leave the Terps at risk of facing a top-five team as soon as the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

“I think all of the players know that this is the postseason now,” Cirovski said. “You’ve got to keep winning to keep playing. We expect to play in the postseason and our players know what’s at stake.”