For about the past 10 days, Al Groh has had the bearing of a man whose days as Virginia’s head coach are dwindling to a precious few.
Normally, after a performance comparable to Virginia’s in a 52-17 loss at Miami, Groh would have been seething. Instead he took a look at his post-game surroundings in the Land Shark Stadium “Field Club” and cracked a one-liner.
“Field Club?” Groh said. “I thought that’s where you went to have fun.” Read more »
Penalties killed Virginia in the third quarter. First, offensive tackle Landon Bradley was called for a hold with the Cavaliers looking at a third-and-1 at the Miami 24 with the score 31-17.
On the next drive, UVa was called for a roughness penalty and a facemask when Miami was facing a second-and-25 following Cam Johnson's second sack. The 'Canes went on to score to make it 38-17 with 27 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Johnson had failed to wrap up Jacory Harris on a possible third sack that would have forced Miami to punt up 24-17 to start the third quarter.
It's hard to say that special teams are killing Virginia because blocked punts have kept the Cavaliers in the game.
The second, by Trey Womack, resulted in a 20-yard return for a touchdown by UVa redshirt freshman Billy Schautz with 3:42 remaining in the first half.
That offset a 60-yard punt return for a touchdown by Miami's Thearon Collier, who faced down six would-be UVa tacklers at the Hurricanes' 40.
Miami has outgained UVa 233-92 in the first half. That's against the same Miami defense that gave up 550 yards last week against Wake Forest.
Junior Marc Verica, making his first start of the season for Virginia at quarterback, is 5-of-13 for 32 yards.
For the season, Verica is now 22-of-47 for 113 yards. Jameel Sewell is in uniform but has a shoulder injury that makes it unlikely that he will play.
Good thing Virginia is teaching former punter Jimmy Howell a lesson, Replacement Nathan Rathjen had punts of 27, 29, 36 and 12 yards. The 36-yarder was returned 60 yards for a touchdown by Thearon Collier, who was surrounded by six UVa tacklers at his 40 but only one UVa player (Ausar Walcott) touched him.
Rathjen's 12-yarder has turned into a 5-yaqrd touchdown pass from Jacory Harris to Jimmy Graham on third-and-goal from the 5, putting the Hurricanes on top 24-10 with 13:10 remaining in the second quarter. Miami has scored 21 points in the last 4:19.
http://www.roanoke.com/sports/notebookplus/wb/225321
Topic is Tech and UVa recruiting in Florida.
Don’t think for a moment that Virginia coach Al Groh’s decision to “pull” redshirts off 14 true freshmen has escaped the notice of the players families and coaches.
One of those players, defensive back Corey Lillard, played on special teams in Virginia’s Oct. 3 game at North Carolina and hasn’t played again.
Lillard played at Liberty High School in Bealeton, located just over an hour’s drive from Charlottesville in Fauquier County. Liberty-Bealeton hasn’t been a pipeline for Virginia, so Lillard was a good “get” for the Cavaliers. Read more »
BLACKSBURG -- Nobody's perfect. Just ask Virginia Tech standout tailback Ryan Williams.
Williams, who was beating himself up severely after losing a late-game fumble that led to UNC's 20-17 upset of Virginia Tech last Thursday at Lane Stadium, said Sunday that he's moving forward in the wake of the miscue.
In advance of Al Groh's weekly Sunday teleconference, I'd been thinking all day about a way to ask Groh about his coaching future in a fashion that would elicit a response.
Here's what I came up with: "What would you say to the people who are calling for a coaching change?" Read more »
Presumably, Virginia will find somebody good who is willing to take over its football program.The money is good, the state produces plenty of prospects, the stadium is attractive, the facilities are what you’d want, the school is well-respected, yada, yada, yada.
But, I don’t see how the Cavaliers are going to be any good in 2010. The talent is just not there. Plus, the new coach is going to have to take this rag-tag bunch to Southern Cal. Talk about ugly! Read more »
