Cavaliers' high-octane test
In Gator, U.Va. gets Texas Tech team scoring 42 points a game
Tuesday, Dec 04, 2007 - 12:06 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- If these numbers spanned a college career, they'd be remarkable. For 12 games, they're almost unfathomable.

Quarterback Graham Harrell: 468 completions in 644 attempts for 5,298 yards and 45 touchdowns.

Wide receiver Michael Crabtree: 125 receptions for 1,861 yards and 21 touchdowns.

"We will have not faced anything the likes of those two, certainly, during our tenure here," said Al Groh, the University of Virginia's seventh-year coach, and he's glad his team has nearly a month to prepare for Texas Tech's pass-happy offense.

Gator Bowl officials came to town yesterday to personally invite U.Va. (9-3) to the Jan. 1 game in Jacksonville, Fla. The 21st-ranked Cavaliers will face Harrell, Crabtree and the other Red Raiders at 1 p.m. in a game that CBS will televise nationally.

"I think probably our defensive players are maybe not quite as jacked up about this as the offensive players are, given what this offense is like and historically has been," Groh said with a smile, "but we're looking forward to that challenge."

Texas Tech (8-4), of the Big 12, averages 41.8 points and 537 yards per game. Groh sounded especially impressed with Crabtree, a 6-3, 205-pound redshirt freshman from Dallas.

When Crabtree "has the ball in his hands," Groh said, "if you'd just turned the screen on at that particular moment and didn't know how he'd got the ball, you'd think he was a running back."

Groh is only beginning to study the Red Raiders in earnest, but he caught part of their win over Oklahoma on TV last month, and he remembers watching them post the greatest comeback in Division I-A bowl history last year. In the Insight Bowl, Texas Tech trailed Minnesota by 31 points in the third quarter before storming back to win 44-41 in overtime.

Virginia has scored more than 28 points only twice this season and probably would prefer not to get in a shootout with Texas Tech. The Cavaliers may not have a choice.

"I don't think this one is going to be 13-9," Groh said.

"If we give up 25 points in this game, that'll be a heck of a job. That still means we gotta get 26."

The wind blew hard in Charlottesville yesterday, which Groh found appropriate. In 1980, he coached linebackers at Texas Tech, and the younger of his and wife Anne's two sons, Matthew, was born there.

"Having spent a year in Lubbock, we know that all the Red Raiders would be very much at home in Charlottesville today, the way the wind blows out there," Groh said.

Scott Keith, chairman of the Gator Bowl's selection committee, said each school received an initial allotment of 13,500 tickets. Virginia's are on the west side of Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.

"How it works out calendar-wise is perfect for fans," Groh said. "Fans can be home on Christmas Day, and they've got a week to get [to Jacksonville].

"This team has responded to every challenge that's been in front of it this year. It certainly is the type of team that every football fan should be able to embrace, and if it's your team, you should be able to embrace it with both arms."

Groh said he'd be disappointed if U.Va. has "less than 30,000 fans in Jacksonville. The team has stepped up, and I would say it's an opportunity here for the fans to step up."

Virginia and Texas Tech never have met in football. At least one of the Cavaliers, however, is familiar with the Red Raiders' tradition. Staton Jobe's father and brother played for Texas Tech. Jobe, a redshirt freshman from Austin, Texas, starts at wideout for U.Va.

 

Red Raiders' passing attack potent
Al Groh says Virginia is ready to take on high-scoring Texas Tech.
BY MELINDA WALDROP | 247-4634
 

As Virginia coach Al Groh discussed the Cavaliers' potential bowl opponents with his team, Texas Tech's name -- and reputation -- figured prominently in the conversation.

The response Groh said he got from his players: " 'We'd be juiced up about playing them.' "

The Cavaliers (9-3) will get their chance when they face the Red Raiders (8-4) and the nation's best passing offense Jan. 1 in the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.

Groh, along with Virginia defensive end Chris Long and tight end Tom Santi, were in Jacksonville last weekend for the ACC awards banquet. The coach and his two seniors talked about the 476 passing yards Texas Tech puts up per game as part of its 537-yard total.

"They were very familiar with the success of Texas Tech and the notoriety of its offense," Groh said.

That offense includes junior quarterback Graham Harrell, whose 436 yards per game and 45 touchdowns lead the nation, and freshman wide receiver Michael Crabtree, leading the country with 1,861 receiving yards on 125 catches and 21 touchdowns -- all NCAA freshman records. Crabtree also leads the nation in yards (155) and catches (10.42) per game.

"We've never taken on a challenge of this nature before against this type of offense," Groh said. "(But) those teams that feel challenged and those teams that are excited about the game are usually the teams that play very well. ... We'll be in the best possible frame of mind for this game."

Scott Keith, chairman of the Gator Bowl selection committee, said he thinks the matchup has big-time potential. Texas Tech is making its eighth straight bowl appearance, while Virginia went to bowls from 2002-05 under Groh.

"(Virginia has) tremendous players on both offense and defense," Keith said. "(The Red Raiders) throw up 42 points per game, the ball's in the air a lot, and they score a lot of touchdowns." Keith said Virginia drew committee members' attention with a seven-game winning streak that helped it finish second to Virginia Tech in the ACC Coastal Division. He said Texas Tech, which tied for third in the Big 12, will broaden the game's television audience.

"I think it's gonna be a very big national game," Keith said.

Groh, who coached linebackers at Texas Tech in 1980 and watched the Red Raiders close the regular season with a 34-27 upset of No. 3 Oklahoma, said his team is excited to play on New Year's Day in a bowl that dates to 1946. The Cavaliers lost in the 1991 Gator Bowl to Oklahoma, 48-14.

"From a personal standpoint, I can remember when there weren't very many bowl games, (and) for some reason, as a young sports fan, the game that always grabbed my attention was the Gator Bowl," Groh said.

Tickets are available online at virginiasports.com and at Ticketmaster or by calling 800-542-UVA1. Keith said each school will be allotted 13,500 seats in 77,000-capacity Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. "It would be disappointing if we end up with less than 30,000 fans in Jacksonville," Groh said. "The team has stepped up, and this is an opportunity for the fans to step up."

 

Raiders depend on pass
UVa foe Texas Tech averages 57 pass attempts and 41.8 points a game this season.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

Virginia's pairing for the Gator Bowl will serve to reintroduce UVa football coach Al Groh to a former employer.

During a period of his career when he had four homes in five years, Groh served as linebackers coach at Texas Tech during the 1980 season.

The youngest of Groh's three children, Matthew, was born in Lubbock, Texas, during his father's tenure with the Red Raiders.

Groh did not follow then-Texas Tech boss Rex Dockery to Memphis State after the 1980 season, but a bowl match-up with Texas Tech brought back memories Monday.

"The way the wind is blowing today, it seems appropriate that we're talking about Texas Tech," Groh said. "As I was telling my wife, 'Having spent a year in Lubbock, we know that all of the Red Raiders would be very much at home in Charlottesville today.' "

Groh wouldn't be unhappy to see wind gusts Jan. 1 in Jacksonville, Fla., where the Cavaliers (9-3) will meet a Texas Tech team that ranks first in Division I-A in total offense.

The Red Raiders (8-4) average more than 57 pass attempts per game and scored a combined 77 points in their two most recent games, against then-No. 15 Texas and No. 3 Oklahoma.

"From an entertainment standpoint that's become a bad memory now, I watched Texas Tech come back against Minnesota last year in a bowl game," Groh said. "They were down 35-7 and came back to win in overtime.

"On a Saturday evening recently, I was flipping through the channels and saw the Texas Tech-Oklahoma game. It was pretty eye-catching, at one point, to see the score was 35-7."

Actually, the Red Raiders led that game 34-10 in the third quarter, but Groh made his point.

Virginia did not allow as many as 30 points in a game until its 12th game, when Virginia Tech defeated the Cavaliers 33-21.

Texas Tech averages 41.8 points.

"This will be a little different game; this won't be 13-9," said Groh, whose Cavaliers have won three games this season without scoring 20 points. "You start every game from a general sense of, 'How are we going to keep the score down?' The second thing is, 'How are we going to score?'

"If we would have given up 25 points in a game this year, we would not have been pleased. If we give up 25 points in this game, it could be a heck of a job, but that still means we need to get at least 26. It creates a whole different mentality."

The Cavaliers have not faced a team with Texas Tech's reliance on the pass but, several years ago, Groh asked his staff to do a summer project on one-back offense.

"It lasted about three [or] four days," Groh said. "We'll go back and see what our notes were and then try to apply that specifically to this offense."

Groh's 3-1 record in bowl games would suggest that the Cavaliers have used their preparation time efficiently in the past and they'll need the extra time against the Red Raiders.

"I would see it as very, very difficult to get ready for this opponent in the normal amount of time," Groh said. "It's going to take a couple of days just to give [the scout team] a sense of what Texas Tech does."

Kevin Ogletree, who is being redshirted while rehabilitating a reconstructed knee, impersonated dual-threat Virginia Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor prior to the regular-season finale. Now, Ogletree will be called upon to prepare the Cavaliers for All-American Michael Crabtree, one of two Texas Tech wideouts with more than 100 receptions.

"It's a tremendous challenge and it's a challenge for our fans, too," Groh said. "I'll be disappointed if we end up with anything less than 30,000 [UVa] fans in Jacksonville. Our team has stepped up and I'd say this is an opportunity for the fans to step up."
 

Groh hoping for sea of orange at bowl
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
December 4, 2007

There has been a longstanding notion that Virginia football fans will travel in bunches only to bowl games played in Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C.

Justifiable or not, Virginia coach Al Groh longs to shatter those claims with a sea of orange covering up the teal-colored seats at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.

The Cavaliers (9-3), ranked No. 21 in the nation, will face pass-happy and unranked Texas Tech (8-4) in the New Year’s Day bowl in Municipal Stadium, a venue that has a seating capacity of almost 77,000.

“This team has responded to every challenge that’s been in front of it this year,” Groh said Monday during a Gator Bowl press conference. “It’s certainly the type of team that every football fan should be able to embrace, and if it’s your team you should be able to embrace it with both arms.

“This game is a tremendous challenge to us to face an offense that is the seventh-highest scoring offense in the country, the No. 1 total offense in the country. It’s a challenge to our fans, too. It would be disappointing if we were to end up with less than 30,000 fans in Jacksonville. The team has stepped up and I would say this is an opportunity for the fans to step up.”

The national stage attached to game broadcast on CBS and the timing of the game, seven days after Christmas, should be ideal, the coach added.

“I think it’s a great thing, just the prestige of playing a New Year’s Day game,” Groh said. “It’s a tremendous thing for this team to achieve.

“How it works out calendar-wise, it’s perfect for fans. The fans can be home on Christmas Day and they’ve got a week to get there.”

If the flooded phone lines at Virginia’s athletic ticket office early Monday were any indication, Groh could approach his goal, or at least the figure he tossed out (the coach is of the belief that 40,000 tickets should be obtainable).

In order to accommodate Virginia’s fan base, the school’s ticket office remained open until 7 p.m. Monday and will do so again tonight.

For now, Virginia’s allotment for the game stands at 13,500 tickets, but attempts will be made to add to that total should additional tickets be needed.

“We would potentially try to obtain some more seats from them,” Virginia Associate Athletics Director for Ticket Sales and Operation Corbin Hunt said.

Even though measures by tracking zip codes are in place to give Virginia fans credit for tickets purchased through Ticketmaster, Rick Catlett, the president of the Gator Bowl Association, said his staff would prefer that Virginia supporters purchase the tickets through the school’s athletic ticket office.

“All of are tickets down here are available through Ticketmaster of Florida and we pull codes and we give both of the teams credit for the tickets that they buy there, but I would caution the fans at Virginia that the very best tickets are available through the school,” said Catlett, who said 58,000 seats have been accounted for with the two sets of allotments for each school and through local purchases.

“Virginia has club seats and they have lower-level sideline seats - they probably have got about 5,000 or 6,000 - so the booster contribution is high enough that going through the school is the best way to go.”

Hunt, after studying the placement of Virginia’s allotment, said Catlett‘s claim was accurate.

“I would agree and I have been to quite a few bowl games around the country,” Hunt said. “This is one of the better allotments from a bowl game … I would estimate that 95 percent of the seats are on the sidelines.”

Donors at the Coaches Club level, which requires an annual gift exceeding $1,250 to the Virginia Athletics Foundation, have the option of purchasing club seats at $75 or another set of premium seats at $60 per ticket.

Tickets available to the general public, which will be in the upper or lower level, are priced at $50.

UVa students desiring to obtain tickets have seating priority deadline on Wednesday at 5 p.m.

“Even though we are taking orders from all fans,” Hunt said, “the students have a specific priority area that is going to be a student section.”

Tickets may be purchased at Virginiasports.com, by calling the ticket office at (800) 542-UVA1 or in person in Bryant Hall at Scott Stadium.

 

Red Raiders a challenge for Cavs 'D'
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com
December 4, 2007

When Virginia takes on pass-happy Texas Tech in the Gator Bowl on New Year’s Day, it will be one of the most challenging assignments of ACC Coach of the Year Al Groh’s career.

Moments after the Red Raiders’ gun-slingin’ duo of quarterback Graham Harrell (5,298 yards, 45 TD passes) and wide receiver Michael Crabtree (125 catches) came up during Monday’s press conference, Groh, a veteran of 40 years in the coaching business, had no immediate answers about how to stop the Big 12 scoring machine.

“We will have not faced anything the likes of those two during our tenure here,” Groh said.

In fact, the Cavaliers’ coach said the closest thing to Texas Tech’s offensive style that he’s gone up against in his career would go back to the late 1980s when June Jones was quarterbacks coach of the Houston Oilers. Jones ran a version of the run-‘n-shoot offense featuring quarterback Warren Moon.

The Red Raiders (8-4) boast the nation’s No. 1 offense, averaging 537 yards per game (475.6 passing per game) and rank seventh in scoring at 41.8 points per game.

“The fact that they scored 88 points (the figure was actually 77) in a two-week stretch against Oklahoma and Texas is unbelievable, given the type of players that Oklahoma and Texas have,” Groh said.

Coach Mike Leach’s Raiders lost a 59-43 decision at then-No. 15 Texas, then bounced back the next week to upset then-No. 3 Oklahoma, winning 34-27. Texas Tech scored at least 40 points on seven occasions, crossed the 50 barrier once (59-24 over Rice), and scored a whopping 75-7 victory over Northwest Louisiana.

They were held to less than 30 in two of their four losses, a 31-26 setback at home against Colorado, and then a lopsided, 41-10 loss at Missouri, which went on to reside at No. 1 until losing last Saturday against Oklahoma.

“We’ve never taken on a challenge of this nature before against this type of offense,” said Groh, a coach known for his defensive prowess. “If you look at the track record, ever since Mike [Leach] has been associated with this [offense] it has never slowed down.

“When they were at Valdosta State, they set all kinds of records. Then at Oklahoma, they went from last to first in the conference in offense. As soon as he got to Texas Tech, they’ve been in the top five or 10 teams in total offense in the country every year,” Groh said.

Over the past 12 to 15 years, nobody has really figured out a way to slow down Leach’s offense, although Missouri must have a pretty good idea.

As usual, though, Groh, who is perhaps the most organized man on the planet, won’t be caught napping. During a week in June two years ago, Groh and his staff did a study of

numerous wide-open, one-back teams around the country, just in case they faced one on a future date.

“We’ll go back and look at that research and start from there,” Groh said.

Being a football fan, the coach was flipping channels a couple of Saturday nights ago and stopped it on the Texas Tech vs. Oklahoma game. He couldn’t help but notice that the Raiders were up 34-14.

Groh also caught a glimpse of Tech last bowl season when he watched the Raiders come back from a 35-7 deficit against Minnesota, only to win in overtime in a postseason tilt.

Without question, this may be the most ominous challenge for Virginia’s defense in years. The Cavs gave up an average of only 18.8 per game this past season, so the thought of a high-scoring game of this nature is a bit unsettling for Groh, who prefers low-scoring contests.

However, the reality is that Texas Tech wants no part of a defensive battle.

“I don’t think this one will be 13-9,” Groh deadpanned.

He said the first part of his staff’s challenge is to discover ways to keep the Raiders’ scoring down. The second part is to figure out how the Cavaliers are going to score enough to win.

Virginia averaged 24.1 points per game this season en route to a 9-3 record that was earmarked by the most close finishes in college football history.

“[The Red Raiders] are averaging 41 points a game,” Groh pointed out. “If we had given up 25 points a game this year, we wouldn’t have been pleased. If we give up 25 points in this game, it would be a heck of a game. But it still means we’ve got to score 26.”

Therein lies the rub.

The Gator Bowl representatives that flew into Charlottesville on Monday morning to present the onsite invitation to football’s sixth-oldest bowl game, must be giddy with the prospects of a game that could send the stadium’s scoreboard into astronomical gyrations.

Defense might win championships, but offense sells tickets and draws TV ratings.

And friends, that’s what bowl games are all about.

 

Groh has tough task of slowing Texas Tech down
By Andy Bitter
abitter@newsadvance.com
December 4, 2007

Al Groh has seen all sorts of offenses in his four decades as a football coach, but he's the first to admit he has never faced something quite like Texas Tech's air-it-out attack.
"Fortunately, I haven't had to go up against many that look like this," Groh said Monday of the Cavaliers' opponent in the Gator Bowl. "Probably my career wouldn't be like it is now if we had to do this on multiple occasions."

It will be back to the lab for Virginia's seventh-year coach, who made his reputation as a defensive coach at every level. The task at hand? Figuring out a way to stop - or at least slow down - a Texas Tech team that is all but assured of leading the nation in passing for the fifth straight year and averages 41.8 points per game.

It's easy to theorize. It's hard to do.

"Over a 12- to 15-year time period, nobody has figured out a way to slow this thing down," Groh said, noting that Red Raiders coach Mike Leach has had a prolific at every stop of his career.

Leach has a way with turning quarterbacks into stars. He did so with former No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Tim Couch as offensive coordinator at Kentucky and later with Heisman Trophy runner-up Josh Heupel in the same post at Oklahoma.

At Texas Tech (8-4), he's rolled off an assembly line of record-setters.

Kliff Kingsbury finished his time in Lubbock with the most completions in NCAA history. B.J. Symons threw for more passing yards in a season than anybody in college football history. And current signal caller, junior Graham Harrell, threw for 5,298 yards and 45 touchdowns this season, airing it out almost 54 times a game.

Groh said the most similar offense he can remember going up against - and even still, it's not that similar - was the Run-n-Shoot employed by the Houston Oilers in the late '80s with quarterback Warren Moon and offensive coordinator June Jones.

Groh is well aware of the Raiders' prowess. He recalled watching their comeback from 38-7 to beat Minnesota in the Insight Bowl last year. Alert to the fact that he might face the Raiders in a bowl game, he watched them put up 34 in an upset win of Oklahoma two weeks ago.

"Not too many teams score (34) points on Oklahoma," Groh said.

That Virginia (9-3) has more than a week to prepare is somewhat comforting. The players won't begin preparation until exams finish on Dec. 18. After that, there is the matter of training the scout team to effectively resemble Texas Tech's unique offense, a task Groh said could take two or three days.

The game presents a chance for the Cavaliers to reach 10 wins for the second time in school history, equaling the 1989 squad's feat. It's their first trip to a New Year's Day game since the 1994 Carquest Bowl.

Excitement seems to be high. Scott Keith, the chairman of the Gator Bowl selection committee, said bowl officials received over 2,000 e-mails from Virginia fans saying they would attend if the Cavaliers were selected.

UVa gets a 13,500 ticket allotment at Jacksonville's Municipal Stadium, which holds more than 77,000.

After a poor showing in Boise for the 2004 MPC Computers Bowl and a modest contingent in Nashville for the 2005 Music City Bowl, Groh challenged the fans to show up in full force.

"How it worked out is perfect. ? Fans can be home on Christmas Day and they've got a week to get there," he said. "It would be disappointing if we would end up with less than 30,000 fans at Jacksonville.

"The team has stepped up and I would say it's an opportunity here for the fans to step up."

 

Soroye, Tat may return soon
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
December 4, 2007

One of the positives for the Virginia men’s basketball team this season is the fact that it has been able to get off to a 6-1 start without the services of Tunji Soroye and Solomon Tat.

Just imagine the depth UVa will have when the Nigerian duo returns to the lineup.

That could be pretty soon, according to Virginia coach Dave Leitao. On Monday, Leitao sounded cautiously optimistic that both players would be back in action within the next few weeks.

“They’re coming along in terms of their rehab,” said Leitao, whose team hosts Syracuse on Wednesday night. “I don’t think we’re at the point yet from a time standpoint that they’re expected back or we’re testing it.

“It’s a process you have to give time to.”

Neither Soroye or Tat has appeared in a game this season. Soroye has been recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery, Tat from a sports hernia procedure.

“Tunji has still got a few more weeks to go…I’m going to guess about three weeks,” Leitao said. “I hope to get him back somewhere before the first of the year, hopefully around the holiday time.

“Solomon has begun to do more things full speed and integrate himself just a tad in non-contact stuff practice-wise. It could be another week, two [or] three depending on whether he takes a step back or not.”

Soroye and Tat aren’t the type of players who are going to light it up on offense, but the pair can contribute plenty on the defensive end.

At 6-foot-11, Soroye is the team’s best shot blocker. Tat is considered one of the team’s best on-the-ball defenders. In addition, Tat is Virginia’s version of Yoda. Last year, Leitao referred to the likable 6-foot-5 sophomore as the team’s “spiritual leader.”

His return could give Virginia an emotional boost.