game preview: Georgia Tech

Date/Time: Saturday, September 15; 3:30

TV: ESPNUVA

Record against the Jackets: 17-16-1

Last meeting: UVA 24, GT 21; 10/15/11; Charlottesville

Last weekend: UVA 17, PSU 16; GT 59, Presb. 3

Line: Georgia Tech by 10

Opposing blog: From The Rumble Seat

Injury report:

Virginia -

OUT:
G Cody Wallace

DOUBTFUL:
WR Tim Smith

QUESTIONABLE:
DE Billy Schautz

PROBABLE:
TE Paul Freedman

Georgia Tech -

OUT:
LB Daniel Drummond
S Fred Holton
RB Charles Perkins

QUESTIONABLE:
RB David Sims

The first road game of the season is a tough one: a trip to Atlanta to play a difficult Yellow Jackets team.  As usual, the main storyline will be Al Groh and his defense against his old team, and it'll be tough sledding because Georgia Tech's D is coming together nicely.  In fact it's threatening to become GT's calling card this season. The offense is still looking for a working combination: Paul Johnson is talking about his quarterbacks in a way that suggests he's not fully onboard with the one he's got, and the running back position has been a veritable merry-go-round.  It's still that wackity triple-option, though, and as ever it presents a tremendous challenge.

-- UVA run offense vs. GT run defense

Top backs:
Kevin Parks: 23 carries, 75 yards, 3.3 avg., 2 TDs
Perry Jones: 22 carries, 66 yards, 3.0 avg., 1 TD

UVA offense:
108 yards/game, 3.22 yards/attempt
100th of 124 (national), 8th of 12 (ACC)

GT defense:
120.5 yards/game, 3.71 yards/attempt
66th of 124 (national), 9th of 12 (ACC)

Who's excited to see how the run game looks on Saturday?  Not this guy!  Let's be fair: Penn State has one of the better front sevens that we'll see this season.  But then, so does Georgia Tech.  The interior line got zero push against PSU's 300-pound defensive tackles last week, and this week they face the mother of all 300-pounders: GT's T.J. Barnes checks in at 6'7", 345.  This guy is a boulder and a half.

The plus side there is that Barnes has been doing exactly what Groh's defense calls for: occupy a lot of space and not much else.  Barnes only has four assisted tackles this year, which means he's probably getting the double-teams he ought to be.  In the end, though, I don't care if he's a 345-pound lump of mud; he'd still be a 345-pound lump of mud, and until our offensive line proves they can handle guys that size, it's safe to assume they can't.

GT has been missing starting linebacker Daniel Drummond all season, and they'll be without him again this game, opening the door for redshirt freshman Jabari Hunt-Days to start at ILB.  They don't seem to be missing Drummond; Hunt-Days is second on the team in tackles with thirteen.  This is basically a classic Groh linebacking corps.  Jeremiah Attaochu on the outside is more or less living up to the preseason hype, and fellow outside backer Brandon Watts has been all over the field too.  The four starting linebackers are four of the top six tacklers on the team, which means that Groh's defense is doing what it's supposed to.

GT's two previous games this season don't hold a lot of useful data.  Virginia Tech's running game is still a work in progress with two new running backs and a revamped offensive line.  It was OK, not great, against GT, but whether that's because GT's defense is good or because VT's running game is OK-not-great is kind of up in the air right now.  For what it's worth, GT fans aren't totally convinced in the efficacy of their run defense, and Presbyterian's Lance Byrd did reach 80 yards and a 4.4 YPC average for the game.

Regardless, I'm even less convinced about our offensive line.  Cody Wallace's absence won't be crippling but does rob us of some playable depth.  But these guys have to get better.  Conner Davis got by and large no push at all against Penn State, and Luke Bowanko is still getting used to blocking after snapping the ball.

Outside of LoVante' Battle's 22-yarder in garbage time against Richmond, we don't have a 20-yard run this year; the longest is a 17-yarder by Perry Jones.  Call it a weird premonition, but I expect that to change this weekend.  Maybe it's the 3-4 defense, which is prone at times to giving up plays when the linebackers make the wrong read.  I think someone, probably Jones, is good for a big play at some point, but outside of that, I have a problem seeing us over 3.5 yards a carry.  The GT defense is too talented and our O-line too unproven to get much more than that.

-- UVA pass offense vs. GT pass defense

Quarterback:
Michael Rocco: 46/70, 65.7%; 569 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT; 8.13 yards/attempt

Top receivers:
Darius Jennings: 10 rec., 152 yards, 1 TD
Tim Smith: 7 rec., 108 yards, 0 TDs

UVA offense:
312 yards/game, 7.9 yards/attempt
41st of 124 (national), 5th of 12 (ACC)

GT defense:
164 yards/game, 4.5 yards/attempt
9th of 124 (national), 4th of 12 (ACC)

Again the stats aren't all that useful here.  Presbyterian, you know.  GT smothered their passing game, but they should.  Logan Thomas only completed about 55% against GT, so that's a pretty good thing going for them, but then, 55% isn't especially far off his career rate.

The challenge will be for our interior line to pick up on whatever wackiness Groh has up his sleeve in re: blitzes.  The man's a solid defensive coordinator overall but if there's one single thing he does well, it's design blitz packages.  That's going to be on the interior line to recognize and block the right guys.  Pass protection will also improve if Morgan Moses fixes his footwork from the Penn State game.  It looked like he was shuffling around in cement at times, particularly on the play where Phillip Sims was stripped and fumbled.  Can't have any of that this week as Moses will more often than not be assigned to deal with a speed-rushing linebacker.

Being likely without Tim Smith, I think we'll see E.J. Scott and Dominique Terrell split his time.  But I don't think they'll get all his catches.  After two weeks of seeing Jake McGee do a bunch of really cool shit, I'm betting the coaches look at each other and think, "gee, maybe we should use this guy."  Darius Jennings is quickly becoming the go-to receiver, and will probably lead the Hoos in catches by a big margin, but McGee is becoming a weapon.  So far he's done little besides line up in the slot and run deepish routes, and I think he'll keep doing that, and I think Rocco will keep finding him.  He's got the largest per-catch yardage average on the team, and that continues on Saturday.

But Jennings is going to be key.  Scott has been a decent hey-don't-forget-about-me kind of receiver, good at keeping defenses honest.  Terrell has flashed some talent but also some jitters.  Jennings has already put his best foot forward as the go-to guy this season, and without Smith, even more so.  You know I'm pretty pessimistic about the running game, so if the Hoos are going to move the ball, it's on Rocco's shoulders.  He's capable of doing so, and the GT secondary is solid but not shutdown.  They're aggressive and can be burned.  If the UVA game plan is allowed to work to perfection, it'll probably call for establishing Jennings early, and trying a bunch of screen passes early as well to discourage blitzing and keep the linebackers reacting rather than reading.  Rocco will have blitz-read options on most of his plays that let him throw at the blitz, which could mean big yardage for a tight end or RB at one point.  Make no mistake, though: whatever the game plan, if we win, Rocco will have had a big, big day.

-- GT run offense against UVA run defense

Top backs:
Tevin Washington: 28 carries, 160 yards, 5.7 avg., 1 TD
Zach Laskey: 19 carries, 144 yards, 7.6 avg., 1 TD

GT offense:
330.5 yards/game, 5.85 yards/attempt
21st of 124 (national), 2nd of 12 (ACC)

UVA defense:
74.5 yards/game, 2.37 yards/attempt
18th of 124 (national), 4th of 12 (ACC)

Hooray so much for experienced linebackers.  This will be our biggest weapon against the ruthless ground assault that is the Paul Johnson playbook.  The job of the defensive line will basically be to try and hold the line and keep their knees healthy from all the cut-blocking.

(A slight digression.  There are a couple schools of thought on how to defeat a cut block.  One is to step back and try and keep the blocker at arm's length, so that when he goes down for the block, your feet are still free and he only succeeds in taking himself out of the play.  The downside is that it requires going backwards.  The other school of thought is to say "screw it" and try and fall elbow-first on a pressure point.)

At any rate.  Linebackers.  Hopefully one day, Kwontie Moore will be as good as Steve Greer is at reading plays, and his side-to-side speed will be a huge asset in filling the running lanes.  Right now we have Greer, and a couple other guys who've done a nice job at finding the ball and getting there.  Henry Coley had a very good game against Penn State, and Greer, of course, was everywhere.  They'll be absolutely crucial in stopping the option.  They've seen it before, and if they're in the zone and reading plays correctly, it'll keep the frustration to a minimum.

GT, for their part, has been extremely experimental.  Tevin Washington is doing a decent job running the show, but the running back situation is unsettled.  The playing time has been spread out among so many players, it's astouding.  And it's not just Presbyterian garbage time.  Running back David Sims has a stress fracture and missed the Presby game, and GT has been replacing him by committee so far.  Zach Laskey looks like at least part of the answer.  Robert Godhigh and veteran holdover Orwin Smith are the listed A-back starters, but Smith is a little banged-up, too.

We might also see a little quarterback rotation; Paul Johnson has talked about getting some of them on the field.  GT fans get all tingly about redshirt freshman Vad Lee the way a lot of UVA fans do about Phillip Sims, and Johnson might also be looking at two on the field at once; Synjyn Days is both the backup QB and a backup A-back, and will probably be worked in as well.

This is likely to be the usual frustrating nine-minute parade down the field, four yards at a time.  That always happens when you play Georgia Tech.  The question is letting that happen only once.  GT has a good offensive line, easily the best we've seen all year, and they'll challenge the defensive line.  (If we can get Billy Schautz back, it'll be a big help, as he's the most technically sound lineman we have, a real asset in defending this bunch.  (His injury is "lower extremity" though, probably meaning knee or ankle, and if I were the coaches I'd be really, really wary about risking his health against the multitude of cut blocks a DE must deal with.)  The linebackers will likely have some success containing this ground game, but having just the one week of practice makes me nervous.

-- GT pass offense vs. UVA pass defense

Quarterback:
Tevin Washington: 17/26, 65.4%; 257 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT; 9.89 yards/attempt

Top receivers:
Jeff Greene: 3 rec., 94 yards, 1 TD
Jeremy Moore: 3 rec., 64 yards, 0 TD

GT offense:
169.5 yards/game, 11.3 yards/attempt
3rd of 124 (national), 1st of 12 (ACC)

UVA defense:
223.5 yards/game, 5.2 yards/attempt
21st of 124 (national), 5th of 12 (ACC)

We were spoiled as hell last year.  Tevin Washington went 2-for-8, in part because our very veteran secondary did a near-perfect job in coverage, using only exactly the manpower needed to deny the pass and helping out with the run otherwise.  And one of those completions was to a running back, Orwin Smith; the other was a pitiful little three yard catch by Tyler Melton.

We're not going to get that kind of performance this year.  The experience is gone, replaced with a bunch of guys who've basically never played against this defense.  50/50 chance we see one of those horrifying plays where some guy in the wrong colors is the only one on the screen because one of the safeties got the run-support itch just a little too hard.

GT has been rather more successful passing the ball this year than in years past.  Washington's completion percentage of 65.4 is quite good for most QBs, but it's much higher than the GT offense usually generates.  Shorter throws are part of the deal there.  Jeff Greene and Jeremy Moore are in a knockdown, drag-out battle to be the featured receiver, and both have one loooong catch and two very short ones.

Defending the pass here involves informing one of our safeties that under no circumstances is he to venture closer than 20 yards from the line of scrimmage, putting the burden of making reads on one guy only.  Receivers who go out on a pattern must always be respected.  They'll have a cornerback on them, but still.  If the linebackers can't make the plays, they can't make the plays, but the free safety should not be helping out.  It's when the free safety goes, "ooo, Elmo help!" that all hell breaks loose.  It's a simple assignment and was executed to perfection last year by Corey Mosley, allowing Rodney McLeod to be aggressive in run support.

It's a good formula.  Can we make it happen this year?  I guess I'm cautiously semi-optimistic.  On the one hand, the secondary played well against Penn State and showed admirable discipline; I'm thinking here of the flea-flicker that Drequan Hoskey covered perfectly.  On the other hand, they're still freshmen and sophomores who've had one week to prepare for this thing they've never seen.  Georgia Tech purposely makes this realm of the game wildly unpredictable, and inexperienced safeties are by their nature equally hard to pin down.

-- Outlook

Georgia Tech is at home and carrying in their back pocket the knowledge that if they lose, the division championship is bye-bye, and only three weeks into the season.  A tough combination for the Hoos.  Also, we're in our all-blue getup, which is ugly.  (I haven't once liked the uniform combos this year.  The lesser of all evils has been the orange-blue-orange from the Penn State game, which is kind of cool-looking but also kind of Syracuse-looking, and includes the orange helmet which I can easily do without.)

At any rate, the environment will be tough.  Very tough.  We probably won't see a tougher one this season until the trip to Blacksburg, and yes, I'm aware the TCU trip is next week.  This is a better UVA team than it's being given credit for, but it has flaws, and this is a likely week to see them exposed.

-- Prediction summary

-- One of UVA's backs has a run of at least 20 yards.
-- Other than that, UVA averages less than 3.5 yards a carry.
-- Darius Jennings has at least three more catches than the next UVA receiver.
-- Jake McGee has the highest per-catch average, again.
-- Georgia Tech puts together at least one drive of eight minutes or more.

Final score: GT 24, UVA 17

-- Rest of the ACC

Wake Forest @ Florida State, 12:00 - Revenge game for the Noles, who'll probably get it in a big, big way.

Virginia Tech @ Pittsburgh, 12:00 - The Hokies get a head start on next year's new divisional matchup.

Miami vs. Bethune-Cookman, 12:00 - Whatever.

Maryland vs. Connecticut, 12:30 - The Terps try to top last season's win total.  Are they the team that almost lost to W&M, or the one that raced to a big lead over Temple?

Clemson vs. Furman, 3:00 - Taking this opportunity to point out that Furman's hypocycloid logo is one of the best in all of college sports, and easily the most underrated.

Boston College @ Northwestern, 3:30 - The Wildcats have put together an interesting nonconference slate consisting of the worst BCS teams they could find.

North Carolina @ Louisville, 3:30 - Dangerous game for the Heels; shredded by Tanner Price last week, they now must deal with the very impressive Teddy Bridgewater.

NC State vs. South Alabama, 6:00 - Whatever and ever again.

Duke vs. NC Central, 7:00 - The city of Durham championship.

game preview: Florida State

Date/Time: Saturday, November 19; 7:30

TV: ESPN2

History against the Noles: 2-14

Last matchup: FSU 34, UVA 14; 10/2/10; Charlottesville

Last weekend: UVA 31, Duke 21; FSU 23, Miami 19

Line: FSU by 17.5

Opposing blogs: Tomahawk Nation

Injury report:

Virginia**

OUT:
S Pablo Alvarez, WR E.J. Scott, WR Bobby Smith, WR Matt Snyder

PROBABLE:
SS Rodney McLeod, RB Kevin Parks, TE Colter Phillips

**I've limited the names that appear on the injury report to those that appear on this site's depth chart; the availability, or lack thereof, of the 3rd-string long-snapper is of questionable impact.

Florida State

OUT:
WR Willie Haulstead, OL Henry Orelus, DT Darious Cummings, OT Andrew Datko, DT Moses McCray, DT Jacobbi McDaniel, RB Chris Thompson

How do you know a big game is at hand?  When it's in prime time, and ESPN Classic runs historical replays of famous games past to get you good and built up for it.  UVA has never won in Tallahassee, and this doesn't look like a great chance to break that streak, but at least UVA is good enough this time to hold out hope for it.  You know the stakes as far as the postseason goes; the best way I've seen it described is that it's tournament time.  Win and you advance.  UVA got past the cupcakey first round and is now in the heat of it.

-- UVA run offense vs. FSU run defense

Top backs:
Perry Jones: 162 carries, 856 yards, 5.3 avg.
Kevin Parks: 125 carries, 616 yards, 4.9 avg.

UVA offense:
187.6 yards/game, 4.56 yards/attempt
42nd of 120 (national), 5th of 12 (ACC)

FSU defense:
85 yards/game, 2.35 yards/attempt
2nd of 120 (national), 1st of 12 (ACC)

FSU fans are extremely confident about their ability to shut down the UVA run game, and they have a right to be; those are scary numbers.  Certainly the best run defense we've faced all year. Outside linebackers Nigel Bradham and Christian Jones make plays.  The defensive line is big and athletic.  And as Dylan from Tomahawk Nation told us, the defensive line rotates a lot of players; at least 10, according to him, where UVA rotates 6 regularly and sometimes 7.

But this is a strength of the UVA attack, as I'm sure you know.  Against UNC, currently the 13th-best run defense in the country, Kevin Parks was able to average 7 yards a carry.  And FSU is tough, but not impenetrable; Oklahoma and Miami were able to grind out between 3.5-4.5 yards a carry for their running backs.  And Wake Forest's Josh Harris went crazy on them for 136 yards.

Any team that has been able to keep it close on FSU, or even beat them, has squeezed some production out of the running game.  This is the strength-on-strength aspect of the game right here, and UVA and Bill Lazor shouldn't fall into the trap of abandoning the run early.  UVA has a big offensive line - a little bigger than what the Noles are used to - and there's nothing wrong with three yards and a cloud of dust.  I don't think UVA will be able to fancify their way to yardage, and if they insist on going back to a huge pet peeve of mine (sweeps and tosses and the like to the short side of the field) they'll be murdered, because FSU's linebackers can get there in a hurry.  Keep it simple and see what happens, I think is the key.

Barring any big plays, you won't see us getting five, six yards a carry.  That's for the crappy defenses like GT.  So how will we do?  Here are some comparisons for you: Oklahoma and Miami are very, very close to UVA in terms of run game prowess.  UVA gets 4.56 YPC; Oklahoma gets 4.67 and Miami gets 4.59.  Miami's Lamar Miller averaged 4.2 last week, and Oklahoma's top two backs combined for 3.7.  Is there a good reason UVA can't get to about those numbers?  After all, we bottled up Miller better than that; he averaged 4.4 against us but was getting 1.5 until UVA backed off to prevent any lightning strikes.  If Lazor commits to the run, I think UVA can make it work.  Nowhere near as well as we're used to, but 4 yards a carry would be good work.  I think Parks and Jones will combine for about that, maybe a little less, and between them have about 130 yards.  That would be good enough to keep this game close.

-- UVA pass offense vs. FSU pass defense

Quarterback:
Mike Rocco: 158/267, 59.2%; 1,910 yds, 10 TD, 9 INT; 7.15 yds/attempt

Top receivers:
Kris Burd: 47 rec., 630 yards, 1 TD
Perry Jones: 32 rec., 354 yards, 2 TD

UVA offense:
232.9 yards/game, 6.8 yards/attempt
73rd of 120 (national), 8th of 12 (ACC)

FSU defense:
194.5 yards/game, 6.4 yards/attempt
20th of 120 (national), 1st of 12 (ACC)

We've been spoiled lately....it's been a while since we went against a good pass defense.  FSU's run defense is really good, but even as good as they are, I think the difference is greater between the pass defenses we've seen lately, and FSU's.  However, that's on the surface - in terms of YPA.  Lurking behind that number is a beatable pass defense.

As Dylan from TN pointed out in the Q&A session, FSU's linebackers are relatively deficient in pass coverage, so FSU goes to the nickel a little more frequently.  But I suspect that what the numbers show is that teams find some success dinking underneath: despite the solid YPA number, FSU allows about a 60% pass completion rate, which is only 69th in the country; not bad, not great.  And they don't pick off a lot of passes.  Safety Lamarcus Joyner has three (and Joyner is also a force in run defense so he's a lot like Duke's Matt Daniels in terms of type of player) but nobody else has more than one, and FSU only has nine INTs on the season.

To me, the biggest concern in this aspect of the game is defensive end Bjoern Werner.  Werner is a pass rush force with six sacks and six pass knockdowns.  He'll go against Morgan Moses, and Oday Aboushi will work on Brandon Jenkins, who has 4.5 sacks.  You're looking at another strength-on-strength matchup here; FSU's 32 sacks mean only two teams in the country have more, and UVA's 8 sacks allowed is 10th best nationally.  UVA has neutralized opposing pass rushes by not running slow-developing routes and having Rocco be quick about delivering the ball; it helps that the O-line is pretty good, too.

We have a true sophomore quarterback and the game atmosphere will be rowdy.  Rocco has done well on the road, but in front of sparse crowds.  Given that, I hesitate to say that UVA will find consistent success here.  The key is not converting third downs; the key will be to convert before it gets to third down.  Or at least set up a third and short that can be run for.  However, what we do have going for us is that the UVA passing game style tends to play into how you want to attack the Seminole defense.

Rocco's been playing well of late, and I think he'll continue to boost that TD/INT ratio.  He started the season, what, 1-to-6 or 7?  And now he's in the black.  But we need a big game from Kris Burd.  That means no drops; there have been too many of those this season from a guy whose reputation is of better hands than that.  And no balls bouncing off Darius Jennings' face mask, either.  On-target passes have to become receptions.  Because of the athleticism in FSU's linebackers, I don't think we'll see much success in the passes-that-are-runs game, meaning screens and the like, so the receivers need to step up.

-- FSU run offense vs. UVA run defense

Top backs:
Devonta Freeman: 86 carries, 443 yards, 5.2 avg.
E.J. Manuel: 77 carries, 145 yards, 2.1 avg.

FSU offense:
120.1 yards/game, 3.65 yards/attempt
93rd of 120 (national), 9th of 12 (ACC)

UVA defense:
117.1 yards/game, 3.46 yards/attempt
31st of 120 (national), 4th of 12 (ACC)

This is the one part of FSU's game that has sputtered some.  It took them a while to settle on a running back; they finally handed the keys to Devonta Freeman about halfway into the season.  Injuries have shuffled the Seminole offensive line more than would be good for them, though they'll be pretty healthy coming into this Saturday.  But most of the individual players haven't been able to settle in to a position and make it their own.

The option is a significant part of the Florida State run game, which could be pretty favorable for UVA; after all, we defended it pretty well against Georgia Tech.  The trick is that against GT, you always know it's coming, and E.J. Manuel is more athletic than Tevin Washington.  Manuel is a tough customer, but when it comes to defending him, it's not the designed runs that I worry about.

As for Freeman, he's built like Kevin Parks: low to the ground and stocky.  I wouldn't call him a home-run threat.  He had a 41-yard carry against Maryland (which is Maryland) but otherwise his longest run of the year is 23 yards.  Freeman is averaging 5.2 yards a carry, but I don't think he'll get there against UVA.  In fact, I think the result here will be that FSU and UVA have very similar rushing totals.

-- FSU pass offense vs. UVA pass defense

Quarterback:
E.J. Manuel: 159/236, 67.4%; 2,152 yards, 15 TD, 8 INT; 9.12 yds/attempt

Top receivers:
Rodney Smith: 29 rec., 507 yards, 4 TDs
Rashad Greene: 29 rec., 476 yards, 6 TDs

FSU offense:
282.7 yards/game, 9.2 yards/attempt
5th of 120 (national); 2nd of 12 (ACC)

UVA defense:
215.1 yards/game, 6.5 yards/attempt
29th of 120 (national), 2nd of 12 (ACC)

FSU's run defense is outstanding, and I'm sure it'll be productive, but it doesn't scare me.  Their pass defense is solid, but it doesn't scare me.  The 82,000-seat stadium will be sold-out and raucous and loud, but that doesn't scare me either.  This scares me.

All season, UVA has not had to deal with a mobile quarterback like E.J. Manuel.  Sure, there was Tevin Washington, but he was an option facilitator, not a mobile, scrambling, strong-armed quarterback.  Manuel is good.  Really good.  And FSU has managed to dig up receivers from everywhere; UVA should be able to neutralize one of them by planting Chase Minnifield on him, but FSU spreads the ball around a lot.

One guy you'll see a lot of is Dom Joseph; a nickel package will be critical here.  Because I'm not sure I trust our linebackers in pass coverage.  Steve Greer and Aaron Taliaferro just don't have the athleticism.  Laroy Reynolds will be called on a lot.

Defending this attack will start with the defensive line.  They'll have the dual responsibility of containing Manuel so he can't take off running, and giving him less time to throw than he'd like, because I suspect that if FSU comes out three and four wide, which they will at some point, those receivers will be able to do the scramble drill and get open after their routes have been exhausted.

Manuel can be both efficient and spectacular when needed.  I just know at some point FSU will be facing third down, and they'll pick it up in a spectacular way.  We need a ton of discipline from the safeties; Corey Mosley did a poor job of that against Duke, falling for play-action time and again.  If he doesn't stay good and deep, at some point he will find himself chasing a Seminole receiver into the end zone.  In order to keep UVA in the game, there can't be any big plays like there were against Duke.  That was the entire Duke offense; FSU is a little more capable and versatile.

Unfortunately, I don't see us keeping them off the big-play scoresheet.  At some point during this game, I think FSU will score from the wrong side of midfield.  If we can keep the FSU passing game in front of the defense, that's a win, but if Manuel gets loose and players lose track of assignments, it'll all go downhill in a big hurry.

-- Outlook

The outlook is that UNC ain't worth shit.  Because UNC is useless, and ACC refereeing crews like to do things like hand VT free bogus pass interference penalties and not penalize them for helmet-to-helmet hits, VT is now in position to clinch the Coastal Division on Saturday - if we lose.  So the division comes down to Saturday.  Unfortunately, I think the Heels were in a much better position than we are.  Tallahassee at night is a tough place to play, and UVA will have its hands full with E.J. Manuel.

Now, here's your silver lining of hope: Last week, Florida State played a tense, perhaps draining game against archrival #1, Miami.  Next week, they will play an even tenser game against archrival #1A, Florida, in Gainesville.  UVA is the dreaded sandwich game, and now they know for a fact that there's something tangible to play for besides just a win and "improved bowl prospects," which are always fluffy and hard to make out.  Florida State is not invincible; there are exploitable matchups.  However, they're also, on paper, much more talented overall.  Not bringing the A-game to Tallahassee isn't an option.  I think the Hoos will, and I like the possibility of being overlooked, but there's too much going against us here.

-- Prediction summary

- Perry Jones and Kevin Parks combine for about 3.8-4.0 yards per carry.
- The UVA rushing game totals about 140 yards.
- Mike Rocco throws more TDs than INTs.....if even any INTs at all.
- Devonta Freeman also gets about four yards a carry.
- Florida State has at least one scoring play of 50+ yards.
- FSU converts a long third down (10 yards or more) by picking up at least twice the necessary yardage.

- Final score: FSU 27, UVA 17

-- Rest of the ACC:

- Virginia Tech 24, North Carolina 21 (Thanks for nothing, Heels. You too, Ron Cherry. Penalty for giving UNC the business.)
- Georgia Tech at Duke, 12:30 (What will happen of course is that Duke will win, meaning we should've been pulling hard for GT all along last week.)
- Maryland at Wake Forest, 3:00 (I got nothing.  This game is pretty much meaningless.)
- Miami at South Florida, 3:30 (USF once put up a billboard telling the big 3 in Florida to move over and make room for a fourth.  I think Miami obliged.)
- Clemson at NC State, 3:30 (If NC State wants to go bowling, they've gotta beat a one-loss team to get there.  Any other team but Clemson, I'd count 'em out, but Clemson has a way sometimes.)
- Boston College at Notre Dame, 4:00 (This is a rivalry supposedly because BC is Jesuit and ND is not.  I think it's really just about helmet rights.)

the recruit: Kevin Green

Name: Kevin Green
Position: ???
Hometown: Petersburg
School: Petersburg
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 195

ESPN: none
Rivals: none
Scout: two stars, #76 QB

Other offers: none

Talk about your mystery recruits. Here we have a guy with no other offers, no evaluations, and no future position. Green didn't really even have a recruiting story, at least not a public one - he's a legacy since his father, Kevin Morgan, played at UVA, and Green wanted to follow in his footsteps. Offer, commitment - done.

Green plays quarterback and linebacker for Petersburg, and on offense he really racks up the yards as a dual-threat guy. Almost 5,000 of them last season, and 39 touchdowns, both passing (24) and running (15.) Six more touchdowns this season in just two games. Suffice it to say, Green is the kind of quarterback, operating in a quarterback's offense, that will be putting up gaudy stats basically every week.

The thing is that Green almost certainly won't be playing quarterback at UVA. With David Watford onboard for that job and plenty of freshmen on the roster, Green would be buried. He was offered "as a football player" and I doubt the coaches even know where he'll end up just yet, or even which side of the ball.

For reasons of both program depth and Green's size, the likeliest candidates are WR, LB, or safety. He'd be tall for a safety, which kind of rules out cornerback. He's light for a linebacker, and the coaches will have to decide whether he's going to bulk up to at least 225 or not. ESPN lists him at 205, so who knows? He's about the perfect size for a receiver, and clearly has the athleticism, but wide receiver is where the coaches are recruiting quite a few players at the moment so I don't think they see Green as one.

So defense is where he'll probably be, and LB or S depending on whether he bulks up or not. Me, I'd prefer safety. Assuming he redshirts, his redshirt freshman year will be a year after Rodney McLeod, Corey Mosley, and Dom Joseph all graduate, leaving zilch at their position except for Green's classmates, and we have absolutely no idea whether or not Kyrrel Latimer will even make it in or Javanti Sparrow will make it back. I have absolutely no way of projecting how well Green will do, given that literally the only data on him is at a position he'll never play. But if indeed he's a future safety, early playing time seems like a rock-solid guarantee.

requiem for an era: The Players That Made It Happen, part 2

Last of the series. At some point we'll actually have to stop reminiscing and act like there's present-day stuff going on. Today's lists continue the five-player format. First, we have five that, for whatever reason, never lived up to their potential or their hype. Again, these count down from five to one. There's a darker theme to this list. The last four involve some veiled criticism of some aspect of our program - there are things, some of which are the head coach himself and some of which have nothing to do with him, that hold this program back. For the most part, these players failed to live up because of it.

#33 - Wali Lundy

Here's the one that doesn't involve any sideswipes at anything. You might even be surprised to see him on the list. Lundy had by any account an excellent career. If I'd done a top ten list the other day instead of five, Lundy would be a shoo-in. In his four years here, he played a starring role.

And yet, it felt like it could have been so much more than just a "role." Lundy's star shone brightest early on. It dimmed as time passed, and Alvin Pearman gradually moved into the lead part. As a freshman in 2002, Lundy was the primary running back and kick returner and second-leading receiver, too, and made national headlines with his four-touchdown effort in the bowl game. At that point, the sky was the limit. 1900 all-purpose yards as a freshman is the sort of thing that launches Heisman campaigns two or three years later.

But the next season, though Lundy was still the primary running back and thisdamnclose to a 1,000-yard campaign, Pearman and not Lundy was the first receiving option out of the backfield; in Lundy's junior year, Pearman overshadowed him entirely and crossed the 1,000 yard mark that Lundy couldn't. By 2005, Pearman had graduated and Lundy returned to his role as primary running back, but couldn't even top 600 yards, even with a line populated by future NFLers. (By comparison, the O-line of 2008, infamous for its lack of runblocking skills especially early in the season, helped Cedric Peerman to 200 more rushing yards than Lundy had in '05.)

It's tough to include Wali Lundy on a list like this, but it's also a bit disappointing to think of the difference between the reality and what we had in our imaginations as the clock ticked away on a 24-point win over West Virginia in 2002.

#4 - Anthony Martinez

The blow is cushioned here, because Marques Hagans turned out to be a pretty damn good player, and a decent answer to the argument that Groh couldn't develop quarterbacks. But Martinez is why that argument exists. Martinez was the it guy when he committed. The future. Especially since, at the time he committed, Matt Schaub and Bryson Spinner were busy playing hot potato with the quarterback job, and a few days later, Florida State would paste the Hoos in Charlottesville.

Martinez sat on the bench for most of two years, coming in for a little backup duty in 2003. No biggie; Schaub was busy rewriting record books. But when 2004 rolled around and he found himself fourth on the depth chart, he vamoosed. Normally the transfer of your fourth-string quarterback doesn't make many waves, but the potential alone that he had when he came in would have landed him even higher on this list. That is, if not for the probability that had he played, he would have basically been Marques Hagans anyway.

#95 - Jeffrey Fitzgerald

ARGH. Fitzgerald was a freshman All-American in 2006. A beast. That year, he outshone junior Chris Long - Fitzgerald led the team in sacks, TFL, and fumbles recovered, and actually even managed to be second in interceptions too. He was similarly spectacular in 2007 as a sophomore. This season, he was a beast for Kansas State instead. Fitzgerald left the team for academic reasons - not because the NCAA said he was ineligible, but because UVA did.

We have a pretty good defensive line right now, but we're thin at DE and surely Fitzgerald would look pretty good there this year. He picked up at K-State right where he left off and led the team in sacks, TFL, fumbles forced - you know, all the stuff. Even returned an INT for a touchdown, just as he once did here. UVA fans will not soon forget what might have been here - though Fitzgerald did indeed pick up where he left off, missing a season couldn't have helped his development. What if he didn't have to leave off?

#32 - Keith Payne

"No Payne, no gain." That was the clever refrain occasionally heard when UVA fans would discuss Payne and what he'd bring to the program in the future. It seems like ages and ages ago, but once upon a time, Payne had UVA fans acting like schoolgirls who just made eye contact with a Jonas Brother. It reached a fever pitch after Payne's high school team won a state championship, in large part because of his four touchdowns, against Percy Harvin's high school team. Big things were expected, despite Payne's lack of offers outside the state and mediocre guru ratings. Big, big, big things. This was the guy who was going to put the team on his shoulders and carry it back to prominence.

Unfortunately, we tend to overrate our talent, sometimes egregiously. Payne turned out to be slow, and not particularly bruising. He fell further and further down the depth chart as time went on, and finally called it quits earlier this fall. It's not his fault, really, that he didn't live up to the hype; it just turned out that the hype didn't match the actuality.

#7 - Peter Lalich

The number says it all. Lalich was another big-time quarterback recruit. Highly rated by everyone, and UVA fans were positively thrilled when Lalich made an early commitment to Virginia. Though the offers kept rolling in all summer, he didn't budge. We had our quarterback of the future, and that is really one of the most comforting thoughts a fan can have.

But we didn't account for stupidity. Despite being on probation for underage drinking and having some pretty easy probation terms (DON'T DRINK), this proved too difficult. Lalich admitted to the judge he had continued to drink, while also expressing that he was under the impression he was only supposed to not get arrested. This was such a serious crime that the judge came down and.....extended his probation. Whoop-de-doo.

Grownups can be pretty stupid too, though. Sometimes more. Al Groh was perfectly happy to keep his starting quarterback on the team, given that Lalich's crime was nothing more than the same shit that happens in five hundred places every Friday and Saturday night in Charlottesville.....and then telling the judge the truth about it. Craig Littlepage saw things differently, and stepped in to remove Lalich from the team. And he wonders why the football team is 3-9.

OK, so enough reminiscing. Not all of Al Groh's players are no longer on the team. Many of them even have talent. Next year, some new coach will be trying to take Al Groh's players and do something better than 3-9 with them. The next list will look at next year's building blocks. This isn't necessarily a list of the best players. You won't find Matt Conrath or Ras-I Dowling. This is: who has the talent and needs to make use of it?

#18 - Kris Burd

The receiving corps was - let's see, how can I put this delicately? - horrendous this year. Damn it when Heather Dinich is right. Burd will be a junior next year, and given that he was the only receiver to show consistent competence for a full 12 games, he'll be looked at to continue his improvement and step up to catch a few more balls next season. Burd is not the fastest or the flashiest, but he is the best route-runner and the only receiver this year who showed the ability to get open both inside and outside.

#63 - Austin Pasztor

Last year, Pasztor stepped in as a true freshman and you could see the difference right away. The impact on the run-blocking was measurable, even to the layman's eye. He had his share of struggles this year along with the rest of the line, but when the pass rush reached Sewell, Pasztor generally wasn't the guy looking backward apologetically at his quarterback with his hands on his hips after the whistle. There will be more senior players than Pasztor on the line next year, but Big Canada should bring the combination of experience and talent that will desperately be needed to help anchor a faltering unit.

#56 - Cam Johnson

Johnson has been a little bit of a tweener so far. Too small to play DE in the 3-4 and not really quick enough to take on all the responsibilities of the OLB. But a new coach might mean a new defense. If we switch to a 4-3, Johnson would make a terrific defensive end. If not, Johnson still has some terrifying pass-rush skills that can be made use of. He may or may not become a three-down player - more power to us if he does - but at the very least his ability to rush off the edge is a big asset.

#28 - Rodney McLeod and #40 - Corey Mosley

I'm cheating here and stuffing two players into one category. Mosley lost his starting job midway through the season to Brandon Woods, who was a fine player other than his annoying tendency to bite on play-fakes. Woods won't be around next year, so the safety position belongs to these two, and if I never see either one ever again try to tackle someone with their shoulder it'll be a blessing. They're rightfully highly regarded and I expect them to have the middle of the field on lockdown next year. Just - please tackle with your arms.

#53 - Steve Greer

Greer is good. Very good. He even (for the most part) held his own and didn't get blasted into the secondary by fullbacks with thirty pounds on him. He has a chance to be special, and next year would be a great time to start.

That list was written with next year in mind; this one, with the two or three after that. Here are the players who will hopefully be the long-term difference-makers: Al Groh's final legacy. This is a lot more speculative and highly based on my own opinion rather than anything concrete.

#39 - Tucker Windle

Windle, as a true freshman, played his way from the bench all the way to the starting lineup this year. He wasn't by any stretch an every-down player, nor did he rack up the tackles, but there he was, leapfrogging older players and starting the Virginia Tech game in place of an injured Darren Childs. Having spent this season proving his talent as compared to the competition, Windle could be penciled in as a starter as soon as next year if the 3-4 sticks around, and though Greer has a head start, Windle might very well catch up when all's said and done.

#?? - Kevin Parks

Ladies and gentlemen, the best high school running back in North Carolina history. Parks puts up eye-popping stats on a powerhouse team. His running style has been described as similar to a bowling ball, and he's about that tall, too. While it's perfectly fair and legitimate to warn against falling into the Keith Payne trap, Parks nevertheless is a determined runner who appears to compare favorably in style to Mike Hart - only the leading rusher in Michigan's history.

#21 - Dominique Wallace

To be honest, I hardly even know why. Wallace's season was cut short due to injury, and he should be eligible for a medical redshirt. And he was only averaging three and a half yards per carry. But Wallace has always struck me as a guy with shoulders wide enough to carry a program and knock linebackers over in the process. Running back is my favorite position and Wallace is my favorite kind of running back. I think if he's healthy next year and ready to go and the offense is right, Wallace has a great shot at a feature role.

#99 - Brent Urban

To my mind, the defensive end of the future. Urban took a redshirt year this year but Groh thought highly enough of him to bring him on all the road trips. There are a couple pretty talented players ahead of him on the depth chart, but he should be able to work his way into the picture and be a major impact player when his turn comes.

#?? - Morgan Moses

Maybe? As likely as not, Moses is a candidate for the next coach's version of the first list. What might have been. But if he qualifies, and if he maintains his commitment despite all his favorite coaches getting fired, and if he stays eligible at UVA, the mammoth offensive tackle is just what the doctor ordered to fix the offensive line.

With that, we wrap up the series. There's soccer and basketball to get up into, not to mention a coaching search and all the nuttiness that surrounds it. And before you know it, it'll be lacrosse and baseball season. Time does fly.

weekend preview

OK, I intend to make it through an entire post without mentioning a "coaching search." Except for just now.

It's a big weekend for the spring sports with two highly-ranked teams taking on highly-ranked opponents. Lacrosse goes to Baltimore for a tilt against Johns Hopkins. It's on ESPNU in prime time, which means I'll be watching, which means we'll probably lose. Baseball has a big series against Miami at Davenport Field.

Hopkins has played two ranked teams this year and lost to them both - one in ugly fashion. Princeton gave them much more of a beating than the 14-8 final score shows - it was 10-1 at the half and Hopkins was badly outshot. Their other loss is Syracuse, just last week. Last year's game against Hopkins was a 13-12 UVA win in OT and could have been wider but for the Hopkins goaltender who made 17 saves. He was good like that last year. This year his goaltending has been just this side of average.

We haven't lost to Hopkins since 2005 when they dropped us twice en route to the national championship. If that plus me watching the game doesn't suffice to jinx us as thoroughly as possible, then a win should be in the cards this weekend.

That's not really a yardstick game though. The Miami series will be. And frankly, it ought to make Miami fans nervous. Chris Hernandez was Miami's ace last year with an unblemished 11-0 record. He'll face superfrosh Danny Hultzen tonight. Problem for Miami is that Hernandez, other than a very nice opening-day effort against Rutgers, hasn't turned in anything remotely resembling the kind of dominating performances he had last year. Their other two starters this weekend are converted relievers, one doing well and the other ehhhhhh maybe not so good. Danny Gutierrez doesn't let in, like, runs, and has one loss on his record thanks to getting bupkiss for run support against Duke. Iden Nazario has been underwhelmingly average except for his NC State outing, in which he served 'em up on a platter and inflated his ERA to C.J. Nitkowski levels.

This'll be the first real test for both teams. Statistically, we rule. It's not even close. Our pitching and hitting numbers are so far beyond theirs they need binoculars. That's a foolish way to predict a series given the level of competition we've faced thus far though. But, I really like our odds of taking at least one game. Two games would not surprise me, and would confirm our place in the top echelon of the ACC besides. A sweep? Well. Let's not get greedy. Yet.

Football note: Corey Mosley and Ausar Walcott were cleared of their misdemeanor charges from last month's little dustup. So the dream of getting through a whole offseason without Fulmer Cup points is alive.

metamorphosis

met⋅a⋅mor⋅pho⋅sis 
 /ˌmɛtəˈmɔrfəsɪs/ [met-uh-mawr-fuh-sis]
–noun, plural -ses/-ˌsiz/ [-seez]
...
3. any complete change in appearance, character, circumstances, etc.
...

Yesterday evening, sometime around 7:30 or 8, ESPN posted the updated standings; they are usually the first to do so as the games of the day progress. Since then, I can't stop looking. I'm blown away by this team's ability to come back from the dead. Al Groh's Cavaliers are the turnaround story of the year; there is no team in the land that has had such a complete and total reversal of fortune. One month ago, we were left for dead on the BCS landscape, on the trash heap next to Washington and Syracuse and occupying a spot in ESPN's Bottom 10.

Today, go take a look at those standings again. We are halfway through the ACC schedule at 3-1. The road to Tampa, as the ACC likes to promote it, goes through the state of Virginia. Before, I was asking "did that really just happen?" Now I have to know: "is this really happening?" I was hoping for a miracle to get us into an undercard bowl game in Boise or DC. Yesterday for the first time I allowed myself to think "Orange Bowl."

Of course, the race does not go to the driver who leads at the halfway pole. Everything has changed, but nothing has. Before the weekend, three teams controlled their destiny in the Coastal; three teams continue to do so. Virginia Tech may have lost, but they still lurk. Miami is also hanging about, and can get to Tampa by winning out themselves, which is why you can't rest on your laurels in the college football season; they roll into town next week with revenge on their minds.

So what happened yesterday?

- The game looked pretty bad to start. The first GT drive was brutal to watch. Then Mosley bit and bit hard on a play-fake on GT's second drive and forgot that he was a defensive back until Demaryius Thomas was running past him. That led to a wide open throw and a touchdown the next play. I don't know what Pruett did to fix the problem and hold Tech to three points the rest of the way, but that is why he's the highly respected coach and defensive coordinator and I am the blogger.

- Marc Verica is an absolute machine. Seriously. Normally, part of the review of the game involves adjusting the quarterback's stats for things like penalties nullifying a play or dropped passes. There is none of that today, because none of that happened. The extent of the adjustments involve a zero-yard screen pass that a holding penalty brought back, and it's not enough to make me bother with it. His stats are his stats.

But that's not the end of it. Skimming back through the game on the TiVo made me realize something: Verica doesn't miss. Yesterday he failed to complete 10 of his 39 passes. 2 of these were poor decisions that resulted in INTs. Most of the rest were throwaways. He was otherwise automatic. Deep balls, slants, outs, tosses to the flat, shovel passes, it didn't matter. Verica hit them all. That touchdown throw to Ogletree was possibly his most perfect throw of the season. He is deadly accurate, poised in the pocket, cool under pressure, able to make a play or two on the run.....and a sophomore.

- In fact the passing game is humming along as beautifully as you could expect. The protection is excellent, the receivers are getting open, and the quarterback is hitting all his targets. I have only one complaint, and by now you oughta know where I'm looking, and that's the coaches' box, where the playcalling happens. Even this is not that bad, but if I see another one of those fake-a-handoff-then-roll-out-and-throw-to-the-tight-end plays, I will be forced to write a very strongly worded reprimand for Mikey Groh. I counted five of these plays yesterday, 100% of which were thoroughly ineffective. In one case I thought Phillips was throwing some kind of backwards block until I realized he was actually running a route, and covered. That scramble for a first down that Verica had on the first drive? He was supposed to throw to Phillips and wisely didn't; this decision had much to do with the three defenders surrounding the receiver. I think the five times this play was called resulted in negative total yardage. STOP CALLING IT.

- I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Cedric Peerman. The man is on a mission. He won't be tackled. Get us inside the 10-yard line and call the number 37. Mikey has this figured out, and it's paying off.

- A couple things. Yes, Will Barker was holding on the Covington touchdown. Pretty blatantly, actually. Only for just half a second, but he was holding. No, Minnifield did not interfere with Demaryius Thomas on the final drive. Thomas got both his arms up to go for the catch. Yes, Peerman probably stepped out of bounds near the end zone. No, it doesn't matter, because we would have called his number again, he would have got it the next time out, and besides, can you look at those replays and tell conclusively just where the ball was when that happened?

- Last point on the game: We caught a couple breaks. Tech played a sloppy game. Lost a critical fumble on our five yard line, dropped a couple passes. Couple calls went our way. But. But. GT was the 18th ranked team and 6-1. We scored more points on them than anyone has this year. We racked up more yards on them than all but one team. We kept them out of the end zone for three quarters. And then, like the fortune cookie trick in which you add "in bed" to every fortune to make them hilarious, tack on the phrase, "on the road," to put the final touches on the impressiveness of it all.

So: can we win the division? Can we win a championship and go to the Orange Bowl? We have the best running back in the conference and maybe we have the best quarterback too. Perhaps the question shouldn't be "can we?" Maybe we should be asking "why shouldn't we?"

BEST DAY EVER

This is my blog - there are many like it, but this one is mine. My own humble little spot in the big wide InterBlogoWeb where I get to write what I like. That means, just every so often, you will find me wandering off track to write about other stuff I like besides Virginia sports. Not terribly often, mind you, not at all; but this is going to be one of those times, because if it isn't now, it never will be. If you don't care about the NFL or just want to skip ahead to the Virginia stuff, feel free. It's down a few paragraphs, you can't miss it.

Today, all is sunshine and daisies and butterflies and gumdrop rivers. Because, you see, I am a Detroit Lions fan. And today is the day that all of us have been waiting for, who cheer on the Honolulu Blue and Silver.

He's gone. Matt Millen. Fired.

The Lions I grew up with, you see, were maddeningly inconsistent throughout the '90s. They would do things like beat the defending Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football, only to get waxed at home the next week against the Cardinals. They would start a season 2-6, then rip off an 8-game win streak to roll into the playoffs, guarantee a win.....and give up 56 points in a blowout loss. Millen was hired to fix the inconsistency. Bill Ford "stake[d] his reputation on Matt's success."

Did he ever fix the inconsistency. It got to the point where us Lions fans no longer minded the losing, because we knew it was coming, we knew who to blame it on, and it just gave us one more reason (84 in total) to pile on the anger.

Millen inspired a movement. Fire Millen became a slogan. This was not just some loudmouth with his www.FireCoachX.com website. This was new, unique, a first of its kind. Fire Millen showed up at Michigan basketball games. At Tigers games. At Red Wings games IN ANAHEIM! The local radio station bought a billboard. Millen inspired the only other-team's-color-out as fans went with orange for the Cincinnati Bengals' visit. (Three years and 11 wins ago. And yes, the Lions lost that game.) FireMillen.com is so popular they're putting out press releases about this. A blog! Putting out a press release.

Needless to say, I'm thrilled. And a little worried. If the Lions continue to suck - I mean, past the time they're supposed to not suck any more - the only person we'll have left to kick around is the owner, William Clay Ford, and he can't be fired. But that's OK. The Lions could go 0-16 and the 2008 season would be a rousing success. Because Fire Millen just became Millen Fired.

WE NOW RETURN TO REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING.

Pretty typical midweek stuff. We'll start with Marc Verica again, because the Wednesday after his first ever start seems to be a pretty good time for fluff articles. Did you know he plays the piano? I didn't either, but Doug Doughty and Jeff White are dying to tell you this. The Washington Post gets in on that action too - that's three in one day, in case you lost count. Verica plays the piano, was put into a similar situation in high school, is unflappable, etc. etc.

Switch gears for a quick second over to the soccer team, which beat CCSU 4-0 last night. Tony Tchani, who is a frickin' hoss, scored twice.

Switch back! The UVA notes in the RTD update us on Sean Gottschalk:

Gottschalk, a graduate of Deep Run High, hopes to resume his football career, but it's not clear if he'll play this season. Even if Gottschalk were to return to practice today -- and that's not expected to happen -- he would need three or four weeks of training before he's ready to play again, Groh said.

"Hopes to resume his career." That is not promising.

Peter Lalich is going to Oregon State, which in Oregon-hippie fashion has a weird class schedule and has not started classes yet - a big reason for the selection.

Saved the best for last - the depth chart and the coach's press conference. Depth chart is mildly interesting. No changes on the O-line, at least not among the starters. Biggest shakeup is in the secondary (which needs it.) Ras-I Dowling returns to the depth chart, backing up Mike Parker in OR status with Chase Minnifield. Brandon Woods is demoted to backup and redshirt freshman Corey Mosley takes his place. Nick Jenkins and Nate Collins switch spots at nose tackle - Jenkins is now listed as the starter, though chances are the roughly 60-40 split of snaps will continue.

From the presser:

- Groh wants to keep the redshirt on Riko Smalls but realizes the circumstances may end up dictating otherwise.
- Hints that Verica had a little more notice to prepare for the UConn game than was generally known.
- Fluff fluff fluff, Duke's a tough team yada yada yada.