Wooldridge flags Boise officiating crew
By Doug Doughty
981-3340
The Roanoke Times

After 50 years as a football and basketball official, Dan Wooldridge wishes he could just watch a sporting event and not constantly evaluate the officiating.

Sometimes, it’s his job to watch the officials. Retired as supervisor of football officials for the Big East, Wooldridge now serves as an observer for the ACC and is on hand for all of Virginia Tech’s home games.

He also grades film from other ACC games but had no responsibilities Monday when he sat down to watch Virginia and Fresno State play in the MPC Computers Bowl.

“I thought the referee was pretty good,” Wooldridge said. “He explained things, he was in good shape, but I thought his crew was less than adequate.”

A Pacific-10 officiating crew made calls that helped and hurt both teams, but it was a non-call that prompted the most postgame debate.

Replays seemed to indicate that Fresno State’s Jaron Fairman stepped on the back line moments before the fourth-and-goal touchdown reception that sent the game into overtime. The Bulldogs won 37-34 in overtime.

If Fairman was not pushed out of bounds or did not leave the field to avoid contact, Wooldridge said, he would be an ineligible receiver.

“If I have to back the film up or slow it down frame-by-frame, I normally don’t say much to the official because he doesn’t have that opportunity,” Wooldridge said. “In my judgment, [Fairman] going out of bounds was pretty obvious. Even if he touches the line, he's out, but he took one or two or more steps. I don’t think he realized where he was.

“I didn’t see any contact.”

As an observer, Wooldridge pays as much attention to an official’s mechanics as he does the call.

“I just don’t think the back judge was in position to make the call,” Wooldridge said. “The official should have thrown a cap or beanbag; even if [the offensive player] is pushed, we teach the officials to mark that. Secondly, I could not find the back judge on the end line and the end line is his sole responsibility.”

There was no beef from the Virginia bench, which did not have a good vantage point. Nor did the Cavaliers have any recourse.

“I heard from someone who saw the TV copy that I stepped out of bounds,” Fairman told the Fresno (Calif.) Bee. “I’m not sure. [The officials] missed it if I did.”

Close call

UVa walk-on offensive tackle Davon Robb was in streetclothes after a snowmobile incident that left him hanging onto a tree as his snowmobile went careening over an embankment. It’s a good thing that Robb bailed out because the snowmobile won’t be retrieved until the spring thaw.

•Speaking of non-scholarship recruits, Fresno State walk-ons included first-team All-Western Athletic Conference Logan Mankins, first-team All-WAC defensive tackle Garrett McIntyre and tight end Stephen Spach, who caught the winning touchdown pass against the Cavaliers.

Elton Brown a stand-up guy, and he’s not alone
Who speaks to the media, and why
By Doug Doughty
THE ROANOKE TIMES

Of the readers who felt I did a little too much whining in last week’s UVa Insider, two chose to comment via e-mail, including Jason Detwiler, who told me he has “long thought that your column is garbage week in and week out.”

Hey, garbage collectors get paid, too.

For those who may have missed it, last week’s column dealt with UVa football coach Al Groh’s policy not to let his assistants do media interviews.

“Did you know we have a game in three days?” Detwiler wrote. “Do you think you might be able to cover the team. How is Ahmad [Brooks] preparing for a team that likes to run it right at the defense?”

Stop right there.

I would have loved to talk to Brooks on Dec. 18, when I was on vacation but elected to drive from Pittsburgh to Charlottesville to attend a pre-bowl media session. I particularly wanted to talk to running back Alvin Pearman, whose rise to first-team All-ACC status was the most compelling story on that team.

“What does Alvin have to say?” Detwiler wrote. “I’d rather hear anything, ANYTHING from Alvin than listen to you whine about coach Groh’s media policy.”

I also requested interviews with quarterback Marques Hagans and another tailback, Wali Lundy.

Of those four players, guess how many players showed up? Zero. Maybe I’m a jerk, but they weren’t talking to anybody.

Player interviews were supposed to start at 5:15 p.m., and, after practice ran long, players started to trickle into the interview room around 6. Dennis Haley was first, then Heath Miller, then Marquis Weeks and Marcus Hamilton. Darryl Blackstock was there, as were Elton Brown, Andrew Hoffman, Philip Brown and D’Brickashaw Ferguson.

The point of this column is not to rip Groh or his assistants or the players who blew off the interviews. As I was sitting in the press box at the MPC Computers Bowl in Boise, Idaho, I mentioned to gadfly Jeff White that I thought that we ought to have an award for a player who is unfailingly cooperative to the media and suggested our Roanoke Valley homebody, Haley.

White volunteered Elton Brown, and I can’t say I disagree. Here’s a guy who many teams did not recruit because of some disciplinary issues that went back to his junior year in high school, and he could not have been a better representative of the school. He was available after the game and I can’t remember him ever declining an interview or failing to give thoughtful answers. He was an All-American player in every sense.

I didn’t personally speak to Heath Miller after the bowl game but I understand that he talked, too. Miller may not be as quotable as Brown, but, like Brown, he is one of the captains. I understand that the players may not have been in the mood to speak to the media, but I think Brown and Miller felt it was part of their responsibility as team leaders.

Then, there are the players who don’t think twice about talking. While I’ve known Haley since he was in high school, he wasn’t just playing up to the hometown reporter. I’ve watched Haley interact with Jeff White and others for years, and I think Haley would say that he has not suffered from the experience.

Hamilton was beaten on two touchdown passes against Fresno State, but he was the same stand-up guy that he was in Week 10 of the regular season, when he intercepted two passes against Georgia Tech. I think that sort of accountability will serve him well in any post-college endeavor.

Who else talked after the game? Weeks. That didn’t surprise anyone, and isn’t it a shame that he will be remembered for his “like running from the cops line” after a 100-yard kickoff return against North Carolina. Weeks might be the last guy I’d expect to see running from the cops.

Mike McGrew talked, too. I don’t think I saw Blackstock, but he was there for the pre-bowl press conference and he was at the Monday news conference that preceded the regular-season finale against Virginia Tech. Personally, I think it’s demanding a lot to expect a player to do interviews every Monday and after every game, but if they can make it once in a while, I can live that.

Over the course of the season, I don’t think anybody did any more interviews than Hagans, but he didn’t talk before the bowl and he was a no-show afterward. Somebody said he was so distraught that he removed his uniform, got dressed and went directly to the bus, without showering.

The longer the season went, the more stress Hagans seemed to be under, on and off the field. I felt his decision-making wavered at times, but, when you’ve got to make 50 decisions per game, they aren’t all going to be good ones. Over the last four games, three of them losses, whenever the Cavaliers made big plays, invariably it was Hagans making them.

Pearman, too, was a guy who did a lot of interviews over his career and maybe he got tired of the same question, “Does it bother you that you’re not starting?” Unfortunately, just when his story got good, he didn’t want to tell it. Lundy also has done a lot of interviews over the years.

If they don’t want to talk or are tired of talking, that’s their prerogative. Just don’t assume we’re too lazy to talk to them.

U.VA. NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Dec 31, 2004

M*A*S*H UNIT: The crowd at University Hall for the Virginia-James Madison women's basketball game Wednesday night included Devin Smith and Jason Clark. U.Va. men's basketball fans hope the starting forwards will be playing - and not watching - Sunday night at U-Hall.

That's when 25th-ranked Virginia (8-1) entertains No.5 Wake Forest (11-1) in the ACC opener for both teams. U.Va. hasn't played since Dec. 23, when Smith severely sprained his right ankle in the second half against Loyola Marymount. Clark sat out the Loyola game, which the Cavaliers won in overtime, with an Achilles' tendon injury.

Clark, a 6-8 senior, is expected to play Sunday. The status of Smith, a 6-5 senior who's the team's best player, is less certain. Smith was walking without a noticeable limp Wednesday night but is questionable for the game.

Also less than 100 percent is Virginia's starting point guard. Freshman Sean Singletary has been bothered by an injury to his left shoulder.

BEST-CASE SCENARIO: If Ahmad Brooks returns, U.Va.'s football team could enter the 2005 season with as many as nine defenders who started at least three games this year: inside linebackers Brooks and Kai Parham, outside linebacker Darryl Blackstock, ends Brennan Schmidt, Chris Johnson and Kwakou Robinson and cornerbacks Marcus Hamilton, Tony Franklin and Philip Brown.

Blackstock has indicated that he'll return for his senior season. Brooks, who's eligible to declare for the coming NFL draft, is weighing his options.

At least seven players who started five or more games are due back on offense: quarterback Marques Hagans, tailback Wali Lundy, fullback Jason Snelling, wideout Deyon Williams, guard Brian Barthelmes and tackles D'Brickashaw Ferguson and Brad Butler. Another starter, All-America tight end Heath Miller, has a season of eligibility left but may opt for the NFL in 2005.

Also returning will be kicker Connor Hughes, who made 17 of 24 field-goal attempts this season, and punter Chris Gould, who started the final three games.

Virginia finished 8-4 after losing 37-34 to Fresno State in overtime Monday at the MPC Computers Bowl in Boise, Idaho.

POSITIVE OUTLOOK: Among the standouts who bowed out for U.Va. on Monday was All-America offensive guard Elton Brown. Though disappointed at the way things ended for the Cavaliers, who lost three of their final four games, Brown said he didn't consider it "a lost" season.

"A lot of young players got better and played in some key roles," he said Monday at Bronco Stadium. The Cavs "still got a great core coming back, and even with the loss, I feel like they've made a step forward. They can take us to the next level next year."

OH, SO CLOSE: Alvin Pearman left the bowl game for good after suffering an apparent knee injury midway through the third quarter. Had Pearman not gotten hurt, the all-ACC tailback from Charlotte, N.C., almost certainly would be leaving U.Va. as the school's career leader in all-purpose yards.

Pearman, a senior, finished with 4,969 yards, second only to Frank Quayle, who totaled 4,981 from 1966 to'68.

BLOWN NO-CALL? Watching video of Fresno State's final play in regulation won't improve the Cavaliers' mood. The Bulldogs forced overtime by scoring a touchdown with 11 seconds left, and they may have gotten away with an infraction.

ESPN's replays showed that wideout Jaron Fairman appeared to step on the back line in the end zone before catching a 3-yard TD pass from Paul Pinegar. If he was not pushed out of bounds and didn't go out to avoid contact - and neither seemed to be the case - Fairman should have been ruled an ineligible receiver. No call was made, though.

"I heard from someone who saw the TV copy that I stepped out of bounds," Fairman told the Fresno Bee newspapers. The officials "missed it, if I did. I'm not sure."

HIGHS AND LOWS: After getting hurt in a snow-mobiling mishap a few days earlier, reserve offensive tackle Davon Robb didn't suit up for the game against Fresno State.

That wasn't all that made this a trip to remember for the Hopewell High graduate and former walk-on. On the night before the game, Robb was named U.Va.'s recipient of the bowl's Humanitarian Award.

Robb, a third-year student who earned a football scholarship this season, coordinates semimonthly visits by players to the U.Va. Medical Center. He also speaks to local schoolchildren and participates in Charlottesville's annual Toy Lift. - Jeff White

ACC vs. SEC debate isn't so silly anymore
 Jeff Schultz

They don't like it when you refer to the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl as a second-tier bowl. Non-BCS bowl is considered acceptable because, well, it doesn't seem like a slap. Fact is, non-BCS bowl could be considered downright complimentary these days. Call the Peach Bowl a second-tier bowl, you get pelted with chicken nuggets.

Besides, when you stage a bowl game that annually matches the leftover choices from the SEC and ACC, exactly how do you do better than Miami vs. Florida? How far behind the first choice would that rank? The Sugar Bowl gets Auburn vs. Virginia Tech. Auburn's undefeated season notwithstanding, you tell me what game sounds better as you run your thumb down the TV listings?

"Whether you decide to put BCS in front of this game or not," Miami coach Larry Coker said Thursday, "we have one of the best matchups of all the bowl games."

And within that matchup tonight in the Georgia Dome lies another debate: Has the ACC caught up with the SEC? (I hear phones being thrown in Tuscaloosa already.)

It was long the ACC's desire to grow its football presence. Conference officials considered it so important that they committed what was thought to be a felony -- they ignored Mike Krzyzewski. By expanding to include Miami and Virginia Tech this season, then adding Boston College, split divisions and a conference title game coming next year, the ACC hopes to steal both attention and TV dollars away from other conferences in general and the SEC in particular.

But the power grab didn't quite materialize this season, largely because the two expected behemoths, Miami and Florida State, each lost three games. So much for a sense of timing. Neither the Hurricanes nor Seminoles are in the top 10, and both rank south of the SEC's highest ranked teams -- Auburn, Georgia and LSU.

But with the SEC generally considered down this season and the ACC now possessing four schools (Miami, FSU, Virginia Tech and Virginia) that figure to be in the national picture for a while, at least there's an argument. (On a less scientific note, if Miami beats Florida, that will make it four straight wins for the ACC over the SEC in the Peach.)

"There is no more catching up -- we're there," Miami defensive lineman Thomas Carroll said. "You can put Florida State, us or Virginia Tech against any SEC team. I know they talk about how Auburn went undefeated in the SEC and it's too bad they didn't go to the national championship game. But I feel if you go undefeated in the ACC, which we definitely plan on doing next year, you definitely have an argument that you should be playing for the national championship."

Well, there is an argument. It usually comes from an SEC player.

Channing Crowder, the Florida linebacker by way of North Springs High School, laughed when asked if the ACC and SEC were on equal ground.

"No way," he said. "The ACC's a great conference, and they're putting a lot of good teams in there. But the SEC is a powerhouse. The SEC almost always has something to do with the national championship almost every year. That's why I wanted to play in the SEC. I wanted to play in the powerhouse conference. Nothing against the ACC, but the SEC is by far the most prestigious."

Miami opened the season with a win over Florida State. The assumption by the masses was that the Hurricanes clinched their first ACC title in September. Instead, they lost to North Carolina, then Clemson, then Virginia Tech. Carroll termed it "a couple of bumps." That's a nice book of euphemisms they have in Coral Gables.

Granted, no other program lost six starters in the first round of the NFL draft. No other program had the Brock Berlin factor.

Coker bristles when it's suggested the Miami program is slipping: "We all talk about parity but nobody wants to truly understand it." And who's to say losing three ACC games isn't suddenly as excusable as losing three in the SEC?

"Whether the two conferences are on the same level will vary from year to year," Coker said. "Everybody has ups and downs. I think we're right there. The conferences are comparable. This year, next year, for the next 10 years, they'll be comparable."