12/19/08 - Filled

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Former Falcon flies in to UVa
By Jay Jenkins
Published: December 19, 2008

Needing to make a splash, Virginia coach Al Groh essentially delivered a cannonball from the high dive.
On Thursday, former Bowling Green coach Gregg Brandon accepted Groh’s offer to become the Cavaliers’ offensive coordinator, placing three coaches on staff with head coaching experience.
Highly regarded as an offensive guru, and one that was employed as an assistant by other notable coaches such as Gary Barnett, Urban Meyer and Mike Price, Brandon compiled a 44-30 record, the best overall record over the past six seasons for any coach in the Mid-American Conference.
Brandon, a 52-year-old born on Leap Day, led the Falcons to three bowls as the program’s head coach and became the fifth coach in Division I-A history to win at least 11 games in his first season as a head coach.
During Brandon’s eight years at Bowling Green, the first two of which were as the offensive coordinator for Meyer, now Florida’s head coach, the Falcons typically ranked among the top programs in the country in numerous offensive categories.
After the Falcons finished third nationally in scoring offense in 2002, they ranked third in total offense in 2003 and second the following season as quarterback Omar Jacobs drew widespread attention.
Virginia, coming off its second 5-7 season in three campaigns, has not been as fortunate on offense in recent years. The Cavaliers failed to crack the Top 100 in total offense the past three seasons under former offensive coordinator Mike Groh, who stepped down on Dec. 8.
The announcement, while not yet confirmed by Virginia officials, should be good news for Virginia’s wide receivers and returning quarterback Jameel Sewell.
After studying offenses at Northwestern, Purdue and Louisville upon his hiring as an offensive coordinator, Bowling Green employed a one-back, shotgun-heavy, no-huddle strategy that utilized the skills of numerous mobile quarterbacks under Brandon.
The multi-year deal given to Brandon still leaves Virginia with two vacancies on its staff. One of those positions could be filled with former Tennessee and Richmond wide receivers coach Latrell Scott, who is expected to interview with Al Groh in the coming days.

U.Va. fills one vacancy on Groh’s staff
By Jeff White
Published: December 19, 2008

One of the three vacancies on University of Virginia football coach Al Groh's staff has been filled, and another hire may be imminent.

The successor to Mike Groh as the Cavaliers' offensive coordinator will be former Bowling Green coach Gregg Brandon, who went 44-30 in six seasons at the Mid-American Conference school before being fired late last month.

Brandon, 52, is known for his spread offenses, and he'll be asked to revive a U.Va. attack that ranked among the nation's least productive in three seasons under Mike Groh, the head coach's older son.

The Toledo Blade reported Brandon's hiring yesterday, and a source at U.Va. confirmed the report with the Richmond Times-Dispatch. When an official announcement will come from U.Va. is unclear.

Another candidate to join Al Groh's staff is University of Tennessee wide receivers coach Latrell Scott, who is expected to be at U.Va. today.

Scott, 33, starred at Mechanicsville's Lee-Davis High School, on Fork Union Military Academy's postgraduate team and at Hampton University. He spent three years on Dave Clawson's staff at the University of Richmond before moving with Clawson to Tennessee after the 2007 season.

Clawson, who was the Volunteers' offensive coordinator, recently replaced Brandon at Bowling Green. Tennessee's new coach, Lane Kiffin, has retained Scott, but the Richmond native might be interested in returning to his home state.

Scott also has been an assistant coach at FUMA, Western Carolina and Virginia Military Institute.

Virginia finished 5-7 this season, after which Groh announced that three assistants -- Mike Groh, defensive line coach Levern Belin and secondary coach Steve Bernstein -- would not return in 2009.

Brandon has worked for such coaches as Gary Barnett, Mike Price and Urban Meyer.

A graduate of the University of Northern Colorado, Brandon has been an assistant at Weber State, Wyoming, Utah State, Northwestern, Colorado and Bowling Green. He was Meyer's top assistant and offensive coordinator for two seasons (2001 and'02) before succeeding Meyer as Bowling Green's head coach.

In 2004, the Falcons averaged 506.3 yards and 44.3 points per game. In 2005, they averaged 447.8 yards and 35.8 points.

Bowling Green finished 6-6 this season. Brandon, who made about $250,000 per year, was fired in part because of off-the-field incidents involving his players. Another factor, the Blade reported, were academic progress rate problems that caused the football program to lose seven scholarships this season and will cost it two more in 2009. The progress rate is used to calculate how successful Division I schools are at keeping eligible, retaining and graduating athletes.

Mike Groh, who is a candidate for the head job at Towson University, also coached the quarterbacks at U.Va., and it's not clear who will fill that role in 2009. One possibility is receivers coach Wayne Lineburg, who played quarterback at U.Va.

Source: UVa hires offensive coordinator
Ex-Bowling Green coach Gregg Brandon is known for his use of spread formations.
By Doug Doughty
981-3-129

Virginia football coach Al Groh has reached agreement with Gregg Brandon to become the Cavaliers' new offensive coordinator, although an official announcement could take days to release.

"There is a strong indication that it is a done deal," said a source who has been in contact with the UVa football office.

Brandon, 52, was the head coach at Bowling Green for six seasons until he was dismissed at the end of a 6-6 season in 2008. The Falcons were 44-30 during his tenure and played in three bowl games.

Brandon, a 52-year-old native of Tucson, Ariz., is a 1978 graduate of Northern Colorado who has coached at Weber State, Wyoming, Utah State, Northwestern and Colorado.

Brandon was the offensive coordinator at Bowling Green before succeeding Urban Meyer, who resigned following the 2002 season to become the head coach at Utah. Brandon favored a one-back, spread offense at Bowling Green, which won 20 games in his first two seasons as head coach.

"His indoctrination with the spread came at Northwestern under Gary Barnett," said Tom Dienhart, a national football writer for rivals.com who has had a good relationship with Brandon.

Dienhart said Brandon also was under consideration for coordinator openings at Illinois and Mississippi State.

"I think it was a very good hire for Virginia, and [the Cavaliers] were his first target as well," Dienhart said.

"They were the first ones to make him an offer, and he took it."

Brandon will replace Mike Groh, the Cavaliers' offensive coordinator for the past three seasons, who stepped down after a 5-7 season in which the Cavaliers failed to crack the top 100 in Division I-A in total offense.

UVa also is looking to replace two other assistants, Steve Bernstein and Levern Belin. Anthony Poindexter has moved from offense to Bernstein's old spot in the secondary, but UVa needs coaches for the running backs, quarterbacks and defensive line slots.

Brandon is likely to fill one of the offensive vacancies.

U.Va. chooses boss for offense
Former Bowling Green State coach Gregg Brandon will take over as Virginia's offensive coordinator.
By NORM WOOD | 247-4642
December 19, 2008

Virginia football coach Al Groh has tabbed former Bowling Green State coach Gregg Brandon to be the Cavaliers' next offensive coordinator, according to a source that told the Toledo Blade newspaper Thursday.

Brandon, 52, spent eight seasons at Bowling Green, including the last six as the head coach and his first two as the offensive coordinator. In seven of those seasons, Bowling Green finished among the nation's top 50 in total offense — four of those seasons featured top-20 finishes in total offense. His offenses averaged 400 yards or more per game in four seasons.

He was fired in November from Bowling Green, which was the favorite entering this season in the Mid-American Conference East division, after going 6-6 overall and 4-4 in the MAC this season. He compiled a 44-30 record in six seasons at Bowling Green, the best overall record for a MAC coach during that span. He didn't return messages left for him Thursday.

Brandon, who was also a candidate for offensive coordinator jobs at Illinois and Mississippi State, runs a spread offense he developed while working in 2001 and '02 as offensive coordinator at Bowling Green under former Falcons coach Urban Meyer. In '02, Bowling Green went 9-3 and finished third in the nation in scoring offense and ninth in total offense.

Brandon's best seasons as coach at Bowling Green came in '03 and '04. In '03, the Falcons went 11-3, beat Northwestern in the Motor City Bowl and finished the season ranked No. 23 by The Associated Press. Bowling Green was third in the nation in total offense and ninth in passing offense.

In '04, the Falcons went 9-3, capping their season with a GMAC Bowl victory against Memphis. Bowling Green was second in the nation in total offense, third in passing offense and fourth in scoring offense.

He has had assistant coaching stops at Weber State, Wyoming, Utah State, Northwestern and Colorado. At Weber State, he was tutored by Mike Price, an accomplished offensive coach. Brandon worked on Gary Barnett's staff at Northwestern and Colorado.

Brandon will replace former U.Va. offensive coordinator Mike Groh, who is Al's son. Mike was the offensive coordinator for three seasons, and U.Va. never finished better than 101st in total offense in any of those seasons. U.Va. is 104th in total offense this season, averaging 299.8 yards per game.

Brandon will be the most experienced offensive coordinator Groh has had at U.Va. In '01 and '02, Bill Musgrave served as U.Va.'s offensive coordinator. He held his only previous offensive coordinator job in 2000 with the NFL's Carolina Panthers.

Ron Prince took over for Musgrave in '03 and held the position for three seasons. Mike Groh was promoted to offensive coordinator in '06 after Prince left to become Kansas State's coach. Musgrave, Prince and Mike Groh were all in their mid-30s when they rose to U.Va.'s offensive coordinator position.

Sene starting to make strides
By Whitey Reid
Published: December 19, 2008

When Virginia 7-footer Assane Sene blocked consecutive shots during the second half of Wednesday night’s win over Longwood, you half expected him to start waving his finger, a la NBA player Dikembe Mutombo. The freshman’s intimidation in the lane was palpable.
“He has really long arms,” marveled Virginia guard Sammy Zeglinski. “I think he’s starting to get comfortable out there and is going to have a lot more blocks.”
Such a progression from Sene would be huge for UVa, which finished dead last in the ACC in blocks last season.
Sene, who had six points and five rebounds in addition to his two swats, seems to be building confidence on both ends of the floor.
“It felt good to get some minutes because everything is about what I show in practice,” said the Senegal native. “Coach trusts me and knows I can do what I do in practice in the games — that’s why I got minutes like that.
“Every time he puts me on the court, I’m just trying to do what I can do in practice.”
Leitao, whose team hosts Auburn on Saturday, seemed encouraged.
“He’s still got to get stronger and more seasoned and all that, but I think he gives us some more activity,” Leitao said. “He runs up and down the court better than any of our other big guys. …I keep giving him shots because I think his mind is right and he wants the same thing that I want from him.”
Jones motivated
Virginia guard Jeff Jones has tried to use getting benched to his advantage. The sophomore, who received the first DNP of his college career in the loss at Minnesota on Dec. 2, hit the gym hard during UVa’s recent 15-day winter exam hiatus.
“I just used [the benching] as motivation,” Jones said. “I didn’t take [any] days off. Even when we had days off, I was still here in the morning getting up shots. I just want to get my rhythm back and show people that I can score the ball.”
Against Longwood, Jones scored seven points on 3 of 4 shooting in 21 minutes off the bench — a positive sign after going 7 of 28 in his previous four appearances.
Jones is looking forward to playing more games.
“It felt like the longest break ever,” Jones said. “It felt like training camp, but it was good because it felt like we got our rhythm back from the three straight losses. Guys went out there and played hard.”
Bounding and astounding
Virginia’s 49-23 edge in rebounding was its largest margin since outrebounding Penn by 30 last season. UVa, led by Jamil Tucker’s 10 rebounds, had five players with at least five boards.
Switcheroo
Tucker started the game — and recorded his first career double-double — before injuring his ankle in the second half. It was the sixth different starting lineup Leitao has employed in seven games.
Mo blues
Mamadi “Mo” Diane continued his sub-par play. The senior was just 1 of 7 from the field, including 0 of 3 from 3-point range. Diane, who also missed a wide-open dunk, is now 0-17 from behind the arc this season.

Littles returns, Wright explodes as Cavs romp
By Jay Jenkins
Published: December 19, 2008

The stage directions would have read “Enter stage left” and then, immediately thereafter, “Exit stage right.”
As Virginia played its first game of the season without center Aisha Mohammed, the No. 17 Cavaliers welcomed back forward Lyndra Littles to the court for her long-awaited season debut.
Even without Mohammed available, Monmouth paid the ultimate price, succumbing to an early scoring run that propelled Virginia to a 73-45 victory in front of almost 2,500 fans inside John Paul Jones Arena.
Virginia (8-2) learned in the wee hours of the morning Thursday that Littles, who was not cleared academically to play during the first semester, was eligible to return.
Shortly after that, Virginia coach Debbie Ryan announced that Mohammed, who had surgery last week, would miss what is expected to be four games following minor arthroscopic surgery on her knee.
It did not seem to matter — Littles, a senior, scored 17 points off the bench and rookie Chelsea Shine added 14 after being thrust into the starting lineup in Mohammed’s absence 12 days after the team’s last game.
“Having Lyndra back was a plus for us and seeing her perform that well was really great,” Ryan said. “I was really excited to get back on the court with the team and hoping that we wouldn’t have too much rust from the layoff.”
The Cavaliers, sporting a three-game winning streak, erased any doubt early in the contest with a game-changing scoring spree.
Tied early at 4-4 with 16:57 left in the opening half, Virginia mounted a spirited 16-2 run over a five-minute period that included a 3-pointer from Ariana Moorer and six points from Littles.
Virginia never looked back, building a 32-point lead early in the second half.
It all started on the defensive end as Monmouth, mired in a five-game losing streak, connected on just 29.4 percent of its shots from the field (15 of 51). The Hawks (4-6) also turned the ball over 26 times, leading to 26 points for the Cavaliers.
“It looked like we did have some really good timing to start the game, and we were forcing steals and being very aggressive,” Ryan said. “I was pleased with that.”
The big cushion early allowed Littles to transition back into the playing rotation with ease. The second-leading scorer on the team last season, Littles scored 11 points in the first half and logged a total of 21 minutes.
“It was a relief,” said Littles, who learned she had been cleared at 6 a.m. “I don’t know … I don’t know how to describe it. Me actually coming back, I wasn’t really concerned about that.
“The biggest relief to me, I think, that tops playing is just being done with this whole situation, just having it over with. The questions, the comments … it is over now. Let’s move forward.”
Virginia junior Monica Wright scored a game-high 28 points on 13-of-16 shooting from the floor.
“Monica Wright did her normal thing,” Ryan said.
Wright, who entered as the ACC’s leading scorer, said she had an idea early that she had the shooter’s touch, but also added five steals and four assists.
“When it falls it falls,” she said. “When it doesn’t you just have to go do something else. You have to do the other things like rebounding and playing defense. I am not the type of person that is going to dwell on shooting if it is not falling that day.”
Virginia, in the midst of a well-timed seven-game homestand, returns to action on Sunday against Mount St. Mary’s at 1 p.m.

NFL teams eyed Chris Canty skeptically when he came out of the University of Virginia in 2005. Not because of his talent - he was a potential first-round draft pick - but because of his shredded left knee.

Now a 6-foot-7, 304-pound defensive end, Canty tore three ligaments in the knee four games into his senior season for coach Al Groh's Cavaliers. That injury, plus a detached retina he suffered after the season, shot holes in Canty's draft status, and he fell to the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth round.

The teams that passed on Canty eye him warily now.

Canty, 26, is in his third season as a starter in the Cowboys' 3-4 defensive front, and he has played in all 62 games since he joined the team. He has averaged 37 tackles and slightly more than two sacks a year in that time in a scheme that generates bigger tackling statistics for linebackers.

But when Canty looks back on the other starters the '05 draft also generated for Dallas - mainstays such as DeMarcus Ware, Marion Barber, Marcus Spears and Jay Ratliff - he doesn't mind that he fell into their company.

"I've been through some definitely adverse circumstances," Canty said. "It was tough going through them, but I think it made me a stronger individual and I think I'm all the better for it.

"And it gave me an opportunity to be part of a tremendous draft class.... (The Cowboys) did their homework that year."

Now come this year's final exams: the Cowboys need to beat the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday and then the Philadelphia Eagles next weekend to make the playoffs.

Canty, who is from Charlotte, N.C. checked in with The Pilot recently from the Cowboys' Valley Ranch practice facility.

OK, this time it's Romo, T.O. and Jason Witten. How do you deal with all the Cowboy drama?

"We try not to focus on things that the media tries to use, or whatever. We try to focus pretty much on how we can improve this football team and be successful on Sunday. I don't think this team can afford to let it be a distraction. I think collectively we understand that."

Being a Cowboy isn't the easiest thing in the world, is it?

"It's definitely a different stage, playing for the Dallas Cowboys. You just have to be the type of player who can deal with that. If not, you won't be here very long.... I enjoy it. You can't let certain things get to you. If you keep it in perspective you'll be fine. I've done a pretty good job of that over the last four years."

Does having owner Jerry Jones constantly on the sidelines freak you out?

"Well, you know, I look at it and I say, if I had this much invested in these guys I would probably want a lot to do with it, too. It was like that before I got here, it kind of seems to be the norm, so it's one of those things that's accepted."

It's been an odd year: Super Bowl favorites to losing 4 of 6 to scrambling for the playoffs...

"It has. But you always fall back on that foundation; a good core group of guys who just support each other and go out and play for one another. We have all the opportunities we had at the beginning of the season. We just have to take advantage of them here down the stretch."

What tells you, personally, whether you're having a good season?

"Being a defensive lineman in the 3-4 is kind of like being an offensive lineman; you kind of reflect your season in wins and losses pretty much. There's not a lot of stats in there for doing your job and doing it the right way. Probably the two things I like to hang my hat on are, did we stop the run, and did our team win the football game?"

Did it hurt to watch Virginia struggle this season?

"That was definitely heartbreaking. To see how hard they played in that last game at Virginia Tech and for those guys to come up short, it was tough watching that. But you know, Al's gonna try to retool and rebuild and get things rolling for next year. I don't have any doubt that this program won't stay down long."

What's that $1 billion-plus new stadium in Arlington look like?

"I've ridden by several times to take a look at it. That thing is massive. It kind of sits right next to Six Flags amusement park, and it makes Six Flags look like a little jungle gym. It's a very impressive sight."

But will you get to play there? This is your contract year, right?

"It is, it is. It's kind of one of those things I've tried to ignore - the fact that that is going on. There's nothing that can be done about that right now. I'm trying to focus on winning these football games."

I hear you and Tiger Woods get together often.

"(Laughter) Yeah, PGA Tour 2009, on the PlayStation 3. I'm addicted to it. I'm pretty good, too. I usually shoot in the low 50s. I'm not so fortunate on the real golf course. But on the video game I'm pretty good."