Groh bashers only tell part of the story
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: December 7, 2008

Regardless of what transpires over the next 24 hours in terms of Virginia football, there are a few things that need to be said.

For those who tend to live on the negative side, then you should skip on to something else.

I’m not a Virginia alum. My allegiances as a fan have rested with a school in the Deep South since I was old enough to watch football. I’m paid to be an impartial observer of UVa athletics, something I’ve done since 1982.

I was at the press conference when George Welsh was introduced as coach and have missed only two games since. Over the years, I’ve gained a lot of insight and inside knowledge from Welsh, his assistants, and Al Groh and his staff, stuff that most people aren’t privy.

That’s why I find it necessary to defend Groh in this column today. Yes, I do like Groh. I think he’s a good coach and I believe he will get things going again at UVa.

I’m sure that many of you don’t agree and will be inclined to rip me on the message boards and send me nasty e-mails. Go ahead — I’m accustomed to such negativity. I learned a long time ago that no matter where you went to school, that class didn’t automatically come with a degree.

Poisonous atmosphere

To avoid any confusion, I’m not lumping all Virginia fans together. However, in the 26 seasons I have covered UVa athletics, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen so much negativity.

I’ve covered five other major colleges in my career and never witnessed so much of it.

I knew things had to be bad when one former UVa All-American came up and said that he preferred playing road games because the atmosphere at Scott Stadium was so negative.

After all that Welsh did for UVa and the football program — essentially performing a coaching miracle — I still can’t believe the way many fans treated him the last few seasons of his career. George is as tough as they come, and that bothered him.

Sure, Groh’s team just finished 5-7. However, let’s look at two key factors.

Scrambling for a QB

First of all, he had to play the season with essentially the team’s third-string quarterback. Now, I’m not throwing Marc Verica under the bus. I really like the kid. What he did accomplish was impressive. But as I wrote during that success, he was due for some bad days because he was a rookie and hadn’t gone through the process.

Ask any head coach in the country what their season would have been like this year if they had lost their top two quarterbacks and had to essentially go back to the drawing board.

I did.

The few I talked to said they were amazed that Groh could win a single game after that happened — let alone four, two of them against ranked teams (I still believe Georgia Tech is the best team in the ACC).

I firmly believe that had Jameel Sewell or Pete Lalich been around for the whole season, the Cavs would have been in the ACC Championship game Saturday.

The fact that UVa went 5-7 against what was ranked by Sagarin as the toughest schedule in the nation should not be ignored. If you watched football yesterday, you would have noted that Virginia gave ACC champ Virginia Tech a better game in Blacksburg than Boston College did in Tampa.

You might have also noticed that East Carolina won the Conference USA championship and that Richmond hammered defending FCS champion Appalachian State. Oh, and Southern California kept on rolling.

Speaking of USC, give Groh some credit. After the VAF and athletic department created tons of ill will among a segment of its fan base with its reseating of Scott Stadium, one of the lures or remedies was to schedule the Trojans in order to create some excitement and draw fans.

The Cavs had practically no chance of winning. Had Groh not been a team player and instead scheduled teams like Clemson and some other schools chose to play, sure wins, the Cavs would have been bowl eligible regardless of what happened down the stretch.

I also asked some head coaches about that. One of them said, “I didn’t see a whole lot of people lining up to schedule USC.”

Those are two huge factors that can turn any team’s season.

Meanwhile, fans are complaining about Groh’s record over eight seasons: 56-44 with a 3-2 bowl record that’s a lot closer to 5-0 than some may think. That’s an average of seven wins a year.

Welsh’s last eight seasons saw the Cavs win 61 games, or an average of 7.6 wins per year, and a 2-5 bowl record.

Now, if Welsh, who is considered one of the top coaches in college football history (he’s in the Hall of Fame) couldn’t average more than 7.6, tell me who could?

Virginia tried its best to get Mark Richt to come here after George retired, and Richt and his wife loved Charlottesville, the University, but he realized that under the conditions that weren’t likely to change, he could rarely win more than eight games a year here. Yes, that’s fact, not fiction.

Then we keep hearing all the comparisons and frustration about losing to Virginia Tech. Well, who doesn’t lose to Tech?

Give Frank Beamer credit. He’s got an incredible program going and he’s a surefire Hall of Famer himself. Plus, he has one of the nation’s top assistants in Bud Foster, who has made a difference.

UVa is 1-7 vs. Tech during the Groh era, although last week’s results indicate there’s not that much separating the two programs at the current moment.

Here’s how the rest of the ACC has done against the Hokies: Duke 0-5; N.C. State 1-1; Wake Forest 0-2 (Deacons coach Jim Grobe was last year’s national coach of the year); Georgia Tech 1-4; UNC 0-5; Maryland 0-3; Florida State 2-1; Clemson 0-2. BC and Miami are expansion teams but BC owns a 4-5 record against Tech since ‘01, while Miami is 4-4.

Virginia fans like to throw academics in the face of their opponents, so the fact that the Cavaliers can’t always get their choice of athletes or keep them for that matter due to academics can’t be ignored either.

I’m not poking fun of Virginia Tech here, but there are differences. The fact that any kid goes to college and betters themselves is terrific. However, if you’re a recruit and you can go to Tech and choose an easier major and play in front of a more enthusiastic crowd, which would you choose?

Of Tech’s starting 22 players, 10 of them list their course study as “apparel, housing and resource management.” Again, I’m not saying that’s bad. I’m saying it’s different.

Getting back to the quarterback thing. If you’ll look at the last 25 years or so of UVa football, then you might notice that in all of the seasons that the Cavaliers won eight or more games, there was a pretty good quarterback running the show: Don Majkowski (‘84); Scott Secules (‘87, he led the ACC in passing); Shawn Moore (‘89 and ‘90); Matt Blundin (‘91, he led the ACC in passing); Mike Groh (‘94 ... led the ACC, and ‘95); Aaron Brooks (‘98); Matt Schaub (‘02 and ‘03); Marques Hagans (‘04) and Sewell last season.

Lesson: when you have a quality quarterback, things usually go well. When you don’t ...

Groh has also been handicapped by the early entrance deal. Virginia is the only ACC school that discourages it (although one guy seems to be squeezing through this time around). Several of the other ACC schools sign well over the 25-recruit limit, and believe me, it makes a difference.

Groh runs a clean program and gets rid of troublemakers. Some schools keep them on the team.

UVa’s recruiting seems to be improving in the Commonwealth. If you have been paying attention, several coaches have said that Groh is doing a good job and are sending players his way.

Howie Long, Todd Lalich (Pete’s father) and Tiki Barber have all sang Groh’s praise over the past 12 months. Those aren’t bad endorsements.

And, please, give me a break on the sign ban thing at Scott Stadium. Groh had nothing to do with that, any more than he had anything to do with the reseating of the stadium. That blame falls elsewhere.

Then there’s the matter of expectations.

Why do you think Virginia is the only school in the ACC (pre-expansion) that has not won an outright league championship in football or men’s basketball since 1976?

It’s not coaching.

That’s a column for another day.

In the meantime, it makes me wonder what might happen if the Virginia fan base got behind Groh the way Tech fans have supported Beamer all these years. Something positive just might happen.

 

Cavs’ Sherrill works his way up
Walk-on Will Sherrill has provided a spark for Virginia in limited minutes.
By Whitey Reid
Published: December 7, 2008

A few months back, Virginia walk-on Will Sherrill wrote down his goal for the 2008-09 basketball season on a sheet of paper — to get into the first half of at least one game by the end of the season.

To get in during the first half would mean that Sherrill wasn’t just receiving token garbage time at the end of a blowout game like is often the case for walk-on players. The sophomore would actually be on the floor while the outcome was still hanging in the balance.

Somewhat surprisingly, Sherrill achieved his goal just three games into the season when Virginia coach Dave Leitao, “looking for a spark,” inserted him for the last five minutes of the first half against Radford.

Sherrill didn’t light up the stat sheet — he missed two shots and collected three rebounds — but it probably won’t be the last time he’s on the court when the game is still undecided.

On a squad that has sometimes looked as if it’s sleepwalking, Sherrill’s entrance into a game can provide a wake-up call.

“He’s very unique,” Leitao said. “He comes from a little bit of a privileged background and a little bit of money, private school. But he’s the most intense, hardest-working guy for the position that he’s in that I’ve been around. You can feel his desire and his want. If I was going to catch a guy in the gym this summer, he would be the guy at the top of the list in terms of guys I would catch.

“As a result, he’s gotten a whole lot better since the day he came. As he keeps that up, I expect him to continue to get better. He’s somebody who I use as an example.”

Sherrill grew up in New York City. As a kid, he played basketball, football, baseball and hockey prior to attending Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. While at Phillips, Sherrill starred in football, basketball and baseball.

On the gridiron, the 6-foot-9, 221-pounder played quarterback (where he never had too much trouble seeing over his offensive line). It was in the final game of his senior season when Sherrill, the captain of the team, broke his right wrist. That caused him to miss all but four games of the basketball season.

During that time, Sherrill thought about continuing his football career at Yale, the college that his father and brother had attended. However, in the end, he figured it was in basketball where he had the better chance to excel.

That led Sherrill to Virginia, where, after a good performance at the school’s Elite Camp the summer prior to his senior year, he had been offered a spot on the team as a recruited walk-on.

“Even though I obviously wasn’t a very big recruit for them, they always kept in contact with me and made me feel like I was really wanted down there,” said Sherrill, whose father, Stephen, starred at Yale in squash and lacrosse, “and Virginia is a good enough school where you can get an academic experience that is comparable to Yale.”

Last season, as a freshman, Sherrill appeared in just seven games. The cameos all came in garbage time, but Sherrill still managed to earn the respect of his teammates as a result of what he did behind closed doors.

“He works so hard every day,” said senior Tunji Soroye. “He’s one of the guys who helps the team because he comes in and works so hard.”

Sherrill is a classic tweener — probably not big and strong enough to play power forward in the ACC and not quick enough to defend small forwards. However, he has a pragmatic approach.

“I don’t expect to get 20 minutes a game,” he said. “That’s unrealistic. But I can come in and in a short period of time play hard defense and rebound the ball, and on offense knock down a couple of open shots if I get them or set picks for other guys to succeed.”

Sherrill, whose best friend on the team is point guard Sammy Zeglinski — the two are roommates — seems most comfortable picking and popping.

But Sherrill’s biggest focus is clearly on the other end of the court.

“I have to show coach that I can help the team defensively,” he said. “I’m not the quickest guy, so I always have to be in the right position, more so than guys who have quicker feet and can recover.”

During the fall, Sherrill bumped into former Virginia walk-on Billy Campbell at football games on a number of occasions. Campbell, one of Leitao’s favorite players, gave Sherrill some advice.

“He just said that opportunities come and you just have to be ready to make the most of them and don’t try and do too much,” Sherrill said. “Just go out and play.”

 

Virginia cruises to win
By Jay Jenkins
Published: December 7, 2008

There was ample reason to relax.

The Virginia women’s basketball team had a 19-point lead and just 4:58 remained. Yet coach Debbie Ryan screamed at the top of her lungs, demanding more defensively.

While far from happy with the eventual outcome as Virginia did not connect on another field goal, Ryan got enough in the waning minutes and the Cavaliers claimed an 80-67 victory over East Carolina at John Paul Jones Arena.

“I never felt secure at all,” Ryan said. “I never felt like we had the game or the game was over or anything like that.

“I felt like we worked hard … we just didn’t work very efficiently and that’s where our biggest problem was. We just didn’t string together enough possessions defensively to really make a difference in the game the way that I wanted to, but all coaches are cranky this time of the year. I am probably one of the crankiest ones.”

Virginia (7-2) used matching 20-11 runs late in each half to secure the win over the Pirates (4-3).

The No. 20 Cavaliers’ first scoring spree came after the two teams enjoyed six lead changes and 10 ties. In fact, East Carolina took a 27-26 lead with 7:23 left in the first half on a 3-pointer by senior guard LaCoya Terry, who scored a game-high 25 points.

After senior center Aisha Mohammed hit a pair of free throws for Virginia, point guard Ariana Moorer exploded offensively. The rookie scored 12 of the Cavaliers’ final 16 points in the opening half, giving UVa a 46-35 advantage.

“That was where we gained the separation,” Ryan said. “I thought we had seven or eight or nine possessions in a row where they didn’t score and we continued to score. That was really where the separation was.

“We were using a matchup zone at that time and that made all the difference. It was just a subtle change in what we were doing. It really did help.”

East Carolina, which shot 35.2 percent from the field, trimmed into the deficit early in the second half, at 49-41, on a lay up by Chareya Smith.

Moorer, who tied a career-high with 19 points, erupted again. She sparked the second 20-11 run with a 3-pointer and runner in the lane in a matter of 51 seconds.

“My confidence is getting there,” said Moorer, who scored 18 in the Cavs win on Thursday against Illinois. “My teammates are helping me, just keeping me up, encouraging to do better each game.”

For the game, Virginia shot 43.5 percent from the field, connecting on 30 of 69 shots and forced ECU into 22 turnovers.

As has been the case in the past four games, Monica Wright paced the team in scoring. The junior guard hit nine of 20 shots, scoring a 23 points. Wright also grabbed a career-best 13 rebounds, seven of which came on the offensive end.

“She is uncanny around the ball,” Ryan said. “She is so strong — that’s the thing. She has such a strong upper body that even though a taller, bigger player sometimes doesn’t hold onto the ball as well as she does.

“She just jumps up right in front of them and grabs it. She has great ups.”

Wright scored 16 of her points in the opening half, keeping Virginia from falling behind by more than four points. Ryan expected the Cavaliers’ early struggles after the team returned home early Friday morning from the trip to Illinois.

“I didn’t think we prepared well for this game, primarily because we were off the plane at 1:30 in the morning and I think most of the team went to the library and stayed up all night,” Ryan said. “That’s really no excuse because I think ECU is in the middle of exams.

“It just seems to me like we didn’t prepare well for this game mentally and it had nothing to do with East Carolina as much as it did with us just not really preparing very well.”

Winning at less than 100 percent, however, was rewarding for the players who will now have a 12-day layoff until playing Monmouth on Dec. 18 at 7 p.m.

“It wasn’t our best effort but we were just glad to get the win,” said rookie guard Whitny Edwards. “We could have played better. We have a lot of work to do over the break and we will come back strong in the second half of the season.”

Layups

... Virginia senior Kristen London, who had been sidelined after violating team rules, returned to the court for the first time this season at home. The guard played 3 minutes, scored one point and grabbed a rebound. “I thought Kristen played well tonight and she has really tried to stay sharp on everything and I thought she did well defensively,” Ryan said. “It is good to have another player that you play and get her into a good rotation.” London was also smiling after learning that her father, Mike, had won his playoff game as the coach of the University of Richmond football team. … As has been the case for years, Ryan took part in the local Toy Lift on Friday. The Hall of Fame coach donned an elf outfit as she was lifted in a bucket truck over Fashion Square Mall parking lot. Don’t expect to see the costume at one of Virginia’s upcoming games. “That was retired already,” Ryan joked. “The striped tights are in the books.”