the recruit: Tyrell Chavis

There's a lot of newsish stuff to catch up on, mainly the highly-anticipated publishing of the depth chart, but I also don't want to get too far behind on the recruit profiles.  So today is a two for the price of one special.

Name: Tyrell Chavis
Position: DT
Hometown: Richmond
School: Varina
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 300

24/7: 83; three stars
ESPN: 78; three stars; #44 OG; VA #16; Atl. Reg. #104
Rivals: 5.5; three stars; VA #24
Scout: two stars; #99 OG

Other offers: Boston College, Vanderbilt

Tyrell Chavis is an important recruit for a couple of reasons.  Actually about 300 reasons.  Chavis is really the only true defensive tackle in the class right now, and unless Korren Kirven comes on board - highly unlikely - it'll stay that way.  There will be others that might grow into DTs, but Chavis is already one, and the only one like him in the class.  So of course, all the sites rate him for his play on the offensive line instead.

Yes, Chavis plays both sides of the line, and his 6'3" height screams guard all the way, but there are plenty of those guys in the class.  So despite any rumblings about the "possibility" he'll play on the offensive side, I expect defense.  Chavis looks like a true nose guard.  I say this from looking at the one highlight film available since all the evaluations are on offense.  He's got one move: go forward regardless of what is in the way.  Technique isn't his strong suit; being physical is.

So I expect Chavis to develop as a middle-clogging zero-tech or one-tech nose tackle.  (Meaning he plays right over top of the center or just a shade over in the gap.)  But not for a couple years.  It's a little bit of an open secret that Chavis will likely end up having to prep for a year, probably at FUMA, the usual designated place for UVA recruits who need a little help making the grade.  Chavis's academic challenges are said not to be the product of laziness or incorrect priorities, rather, a family situation.  The other schools to offer him actual scholarships were Boston College and Vanderbilt, which should give you an idea of the concern level. 

So even if a prep year is in the cards it's not the worst thing.  Chavis needs a year anyway to get rid of some baby fat and turn into a 300-pound person-crusher instead of merely a large obstacle, so he'd have simply spent the year redshirting.  Right now, Chris Brathwaite is the fifth defensive tackle as a redshirt freshman; after Chavis FUMA-shirts, it wouldn't surprise too greatly to see him filling that role in technically his true freshman season in 2013.  It depends on how many other guys move inside to DT.  I don't think Chavis will develop into a major pass-rush threat, as he doesn't really have the quicks for it; he'll probably rotate out during passing situations.  Rather, his potential is as a big run-stuffer who creates those passing situations in the first place.

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Let's talk depth chart.  Actually, no.  Let's save that til the end just to make you crazy.  Let's talk Senior Seasons instead.  High schools around the country got into the game for real this weekend, even here in Michigan as the GP South Blue Devils got off to a fine start with a shutout against U-D Jesuit and ended the week ranked #4 in the Eastern region of Metro Detroit.  A fine start to build on last year's surprise appearance in the state semifinals.  It's my blog, I get to write what I want.

But you're here to read about my other alma mater, so let's see what UVA's recruits did this weekend.  A little under half of them were in action this weekend.  Sort of.  The 757 guys got postponed thanks to Irene.  Norfolk Christian is playing as I type, so, update on that next week.  So really all there is, is the Georgia games again.

Wayne County 28, Windsor Forest 28: Yes, a tie.  Greyson Lambert threw two touchdowns for Wayne but also two picks, and was just 13/27 overall for 127 yards.  Wayne was up 28-6 to start the fourth, but turnovers cost them the win.  Wayne County is 0-0-1.

Also playing:

Buford 49, Gainesville 0 (C.J. Moore. Buford is 2-0.)

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OK, now we can have some sweet sweet depth chart action.  The official two-deep is here, and the FOV depth chart has been updated as well.  The items of interest:

-- Demetrious Nicholson has indeed won the starting position at cornerback opposite Chase Minnifield; the real news, though, is Rijo Walker's surprise move to safety.  That makes Dom Joseph basically the nickel corner and walk-on Drequan Hoskey the fourth cornerback.  (For now; Brandon Phelps may overtake Hoskey in the rotation.)  This is actually excellent news for Walker, whose path to a starting job at corner was going to be very difficult with Nicholson and Phelps around; Walker is now the backup free safety, which means plenty of playing time and a starting job to inherit as a junior.  We'll see how his talents translate to safety.

-- The other backup at safety is true freshman Anthony Harris.  Walker's move and Harris's promotion is bad news for Groh recruits LoVante' Battle and Pablo Alvarez.  Alvarez is still only a redshirt freshman so no big deal yet; Battle is a junior without a spot on the two-deep, which makes it pretty official that he's been passed up.  I think the Nicholson promotion is a good sign and Harris's promotion a bad one; Nicholson beat out someone who'd been establishing a quality rep.  Harris beat someone who's never distinguished himself and has bounced from safety to linebacker and back without hardly ever seeing the field.  Fortunately there's a very strong starter at strong safety in Rodney McLeod, but Harris is probably in for a baptism by fire.

-- Ausar Walcott is working his way back up the depth chart very nicely; now listed as Aaron Taliaferro's backup at Sam linebacker.  It wouldn't surprise me at all to see him overtake Taliaferro by season's end; Walcott is much more physically gifted and needs only to match Taliaferro's mental grasp of the position.  Good to see Walcott recovering from his misstep in January.

-- Conner Davis as the backup right guard gives me more confidence than when that was Billy Cuffee.

-- Good things have been said about Kelby Johnson this fall; even so, his position on the depth chart as backup left tackle is mainly due to Landon Bradley's ongoing injury saga.  (FWIW, I don't think Bradley will be able to make it back, unfortunately.)  There are some very good players at offensive tackle but not a world of depth.

-- It's interesting how Matt Snyder keeps hanging around.  He must be doing something right.  Looks like he, Kris Burd, and Tim Smith are the starting rotation at wide receiver with the wondertwins, Darius Jennings and Dominique Terrell, backing up and sharing kick/punt return duties.

-- Reading the tea leaves from the press conference and the depth chart, it sounds like Mike Rocco and Ross Metheny are interchangeable - that is, Metheny is Rocco's backup - and David Watford has his own specially carved out role.  I think this will be different than when Bryson Spinner and Matt Schaub were on the play-til-you-screw-up schedule in 2001.  I hope I'm right.

-- Lot of freshman types, both redshirt and true, on the two-deep here.  I count 12, not including long snapper Matt Fortin.  Unless injuries start running crazy on our starters, this actually looks like a very promising setup since of those 12, only one is a starter and he's got a very good reason to be there that doesn't involve the suckiness of the competition.  We have veteran starters in most positions with underclassmen being heavily worked into the rotation; I like how that works for both now and the future.

weekend review

Well, the big news of the weekend was the bad news of the weekend: James Robinson's decision to go to Pittsburgh instead of UVA.  Damn you Pittsburgh for stealing Cam Saddler and what was that other guy's name in football and now the one guy that would've fit like the last puzzle piece from our basketball team.  Right out of our backyard.  Tony Bennett is assembling a lot of talent for the coming years, and a point guard like Robinson would've fit like a glove.  Not least because Sammy Zeglinski leaves after this year and that means 2012 we have Jontel Evans and nobody else manning the point.  Malcolm Brogdon may get a look but that's not ideal.  What to do now?  The staff will go after L.J. Rose, probably with the fullest-court press imaginable, but that's not a likely proposition.  Chances are either they grit their teeth for 2012 and try to make the most of it with Evans and whoever else can handle a ball - or they take a fallback option and try to turn mid-major talent into an ACC player.  Either way, the 2013 PG crop (Nate Britt, Big Cat Barber, etc.) just became the most important recruiting challenge Tony Bennett's yet had in his UVA career.

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Fall camp chugs on, and so do position switches, and this means we need a depth chart update.  Last week we covered Ryan Cobb's departure and Zach Swanson's move to fullback (the latter may have happened before the former, and if so might well have precipitated it) and this week, the dominos keep falling into place:

- Demetrious Nicholson won himself the starting cornerback job opposite Chase Minnifield.  That puts Rijo Walker in a bit of a playing time bind, as the coaches think highly of Dom Joseph.  Joseph could play safety, if necessary, but that wouldn't be ideal because there's a crying need to develop playable depth at safety for 2012 and beyond.  Right now the backups are LoVante' Battle and Pablo Alvarez, neither of whom have anything resembling decent game experience at safety.

- Vincent Croce, to nobody's surprise, moves to DT from DE.  Redshirt year is a lock barring an epic DT disaster, because he needs to pack on the pounds.

- The same article is primarily about Ausar Walcott's move back to linebacker.  The stay at defensive end?  More a wake-up call to Walcott than anything else.  Get him out of his comfort zone, remind him that his position on the team is not to be taken for granted.  Though he's been running with the third-team defense, it wouldn't surprise to see him make a leapfrog move or two up the depth chart as the season goes on.

- A few other changes have been made, most notably listing Landon Bradley as injured, and shuffling the quarterbacks.  London hasn't come out and said it, but for all purposes now, Mike Rocco is your starter.  The backup hasn't been really decided yet, I don't think, but for now it's David Watford since that's where the reps are going.

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Another sign that football season approaches: for some, it's already started.  It's weird that seasons start earlier in the South and later as you go north, which I guess a Southerner would say that's because they give a shit down there.  Me, if I were being recruited for college football, not doing my conditioning drills in 500 percent humidity would be a real attraction, and I'd feel awful weird about being done with the regular season before Halloween.  But Georgia is Georgia (or Jawjuh depending on your perspective), and that's where we go for the first edition of Senior Seasons this year.

In case you're wondering, this is the part of the every-Monday weekend review where I check in on how our commitments did in their game that weekend.  Only one this week....

Buford 42, Blessed Trinity 0: This is C.J. Moore, who had a nice game with an interception and a 33-yard touchdown catch.  Buford has won four straight state championships at the AA level in Georgia, which goes from A to 5A.

Despite also living in Georgia, Greyson Lambert waits til next week to start his season, but in a scrimmage a week ago he threw for 192 yards and three touchdowns in one half, before the scrimmage was called for weather.

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I leave you til tomorrow with the most unintentionally ironic thing that has ever or will ever emerge from an ESPN the Magazine article, in this case primarily about Ohio State president Gordon Gee:

At Miami, president Donna Shalala personally hires each coach.  She studies the NCAA rulebook and weekly compliance reports.  During football games, she scours the sidelines for suspicious guests.  "I'm on alert all the time," she says.

You could not have timed this quote better with a stopwatch.  How's that 24/7 alert status working out?

game preview: Maryland

Date/Time: November 13, 3:30 PM

TV: ESPN3

History against the Terps: 31-41-2

Last matchup: UVA 20, Maryland 9; 10/17/09 - and there's video proof

Last week: Duke 55, UVA 48; Miami 26, Maryland 20

Line: Maryland by 1.5

Opposing blogs: Testudo Times

Maryland season preview

Uniform combo: I don't know anymore.

Injury report:

OUT
OT Landon Bradley
WR Tim Smith
TE Joe Torchia

DOUBTFUL - none

QUESTIONABLE - none

PROBABLE
LB Darnell Carter
RB Raynard Horne
CB Chase Minnifield
RB Keith Payne

Injury editorializing: No Ras-I?? I'll believe it when I see it. If it pans out and Ras-I plays, it's huge, Maryland's rather one-dimensional on offense and the presence of a pair of veteran starting cornerbacks could allow the run defense to get some desperately needed reinforcements from the rear. Horne was left off the depth chart early in the week in favor of Torrey Mack, but I'd guess this means he's still the third tailback. Landon Bradley's done for the year, meaning your O-line of Aboushi-Pasztor-Mihota-Cabbell-Moses stabilizes a bit. I never did have the injured body parts on here before (always removed them because it rarely matters) but the coaches got ideas after seeing Miami's injury reports (which called Jacory Harris's Dolce-induced concussion an "upper extremity" injury), and now everything says "upper extremity" or "lower extremity." Silly as hell.

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This is normally where I write some extemporanea on the meaning of the game, where it fits into the big picture of things, what have you. No point this week. Beat Maryland. That is all.

HOW WE CAN WIN

- Focus on Torrey Smith. It's hard to think of an ACC player who's done less with more hype than Torrey Smith. This is because he has no help. Adrian Cannon is strictly a possession receiver and he's been unproductive. Nobody else has more than ten catches. The quarterbacks are bleah. If Smith can be taken out of the equation - and most teams have generally been able to do this - Maryland's options on offense are significantly fewer.

- Keep the ball away from Alex Wujciak. Wujciak patrols the MLB position for Maryland, and he's got a way of making a mess of things. He's good in pass defense, good against the run, and can both stuff the middle and chase sideline-to-sideline. (Also, it'll be really annoying if Wujciak makes a lot of tackles or intercepts a pass or something because he'll get a lot of camera time and he has a tendency to wear his eye black all over his face like war paint, which is one of the douchiest trends ever.) The rest of Maryland's defense isn't half as talented. Keeping passes out of the middle of the field and finding ways to get Perry Jones around the corner before Wujciak gets there will help the offense tremendously; in any case, the game plan should find a way to minimize his impact.

- First-down stops. Maryland is second-worst only to Boston College in the ACC in long plays of 10+ yards. If they can get to 3rd and 3, they can probably find a way to get the conversion thanks to UVA's porous run defense. UVA needs to put Maryland in a position where they're forced to do something they don't do well: get a big gain.

HOW WE CAN LOSE

- Found a way to stop the wildcat yet? I don't want to run around looking for this kind of stat, but if it exists somewhere, UVA's probably at the bottom of the pile: QB rushing yards allowed. Whether it's Alex Gillett, Josh Nesbitt, or Brandon Connette, running quarterbacks have given UVA fits, whether or not there's an option pitch tagging along. Jamarr Robinson has effectively lost his job as Maryland's starting QB to Danny O'Brien, but Maryland's got a wildcat package for him and it's a stone-cold lock they'll deploy it frequently, until UVA proves they can stop it.

- FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TACKLE HIM. Tackling is the new turnovers. I try to avoid saying "don't turn the ball over" in these game keys because duh. But tackling is a worse problem, I think, than Verica's interceptions. Might as well keep saying this till they prove that I don't have to, because there's nothing more frustrating than a third-down stop that turns into a first down that becomes a touchdown.

HOW THE GAME WILL GO

I should feel a lot less confident about the defense after the the Duke debacle, but....maybe it won't be so bad if Minnifield and Dowling are back in the lineup? Maybe. I don't buy that the run defense would have been better with them in there - the players up front ought to be good enough to stop the putrid running game that Duke brings to the table whether or not they had to adjust the game plan for the absence of the corners. But Maryland's passing game is actually worse than Duke's.

Besides, Maryland is one of the worst 6-3 teams in the country. Sagarin even says so, with only Northwestern and Syracuse checking in worse among BCS teams with that record or better. So their bowl eligibility scares me not.

So I see no reason to expect anything less than a competitive game. There's no should-win or shouldn't-win here - despite the two-game lead Maryland has, I think the teams are pretty evenly matched. Unlike the Duke game, I don't see it as "whoever has the ball last wins," - more like "whoever makes the last play."

REST OF THE ACC

Miami @ Georgia Tech, 12:00
Boston College @ Duke, 12:00
Wake Forest @ NC State, 2:00
Virginia Tech @ North Carolina, 3:30
Clemson @ Florida State, 8:00

weekend review

Short update this week as far as the recruiting board goes. Just the addition of WR Timmy Keith and some readability fixes.

The depth chart is a lot more interesting. The bad news there is that I'm not gonna put in the actual changes til later in the week. The good news is that intrigue abounds. It's an intriguing web of intrigue.

- First off, Morgan Moses is now so huge, and awesome at football, that he's the starter at not one, but two positions. The whole right side of the line is his. Tackle and guard.

Lot of ORs running around, as in "Morgan Moses OR Oday Aboushi" at right tackle. Right guard is "Morgan Moses OR B.J. Cabbell," and left tackle is "Oday Aboushi OR Landon Bradley." The interpretation is clear: If Bradley can play and be effective with a huge cast on his hand (following his hand surgery) that turns it into a club, then Bradley will start at LT, Aboushi at RT, and Moses at RG. If not, Aboushi moves to LT, Moses mans the other tackle spot, and Cabbell hangs on to his starting gig for one more week.

Either way, the writing that was on the wall a couple weeks ago is thisclose to collecting on its promise: Cabbell will be a backup sooner rather than later, and Moses is getting his job. Bradley was a whipping boy of mine last year, but his play has improved to a level resembling acceptable. I like Moses better at guard, which is his obvious long-term home. I don't have much of a preference for this week, having not the faintest idea how comfortable Bradley can be without the ability to grip with one hand. It's his right hand, which speeds his return - a left tackle could never protect the edge without his left hand.

- Linebacker is another fun story. Aaron Taliaferro is on the outside now - the strong side backup behind Laroy Reynolds. Is Mr. Lazarus (so nicknamed in camp because of his rise from the dead) headed back to the figurative tomb? Darnell Carter moves over to replace Taliaferro as the half-starter in the middle with Steve Greer.

Editorial: I'd like to see more time for Greer. He wasn't the team's leading tackler as a freshman for nothing. Teams don't run around the edge on Virginia for nothing. The tackles aren't being missed in the middle.

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Newsy stuff this week is one item only: RIP Fran Crippen. Former UVA swimmer and older brother of current UVA swimmer Claire Crippen. His death during a 10K swim race in the UAE is all over the news.

Perhaps a former swimmer who's been to that part of the world (me, if you're unclear) can clarify a few things for curious readers?

First, I'm not going to place as much blame on FINA (the worldwide governing body for swimming) as the media is looking to. Water that's too warm is really hard to come by. Swim meets are typically held in cold-ass water, because cold water is faster. Warm water relaxes the muscles. The temperature of open-water events obviously isn't controlled, but having regulations for swimming in water that's too warm is like having regulations for ski hills that aren't steep enough. Bad for competition, bad for your times, why would you worry about it? It's likely the strongest amount of blame should be placed on the meet organizers for a lack of decent safety procedures.

After all, your average marathon has tons of precautions against health issues. A 10K swim race is eons more demanding than a marathon. It's like an Ironman Triathlon. Blame, if you must call it that, can fall squarely on Crippen's shoulders for continuing despite not feeling well, but besides the shortest of the shortest of sprints, full-body fatigue is par for the course for swimmers. It's not like basketball or football where you can be subbed out. Just you and your body, and if you don't drag yourself out of the pool after an event - especially a distance event - with every muscle burning like hellfire, then you didn't swim hard enough. You get out and never want to move again. Laying on the pool deck in just your swimsuit for the rest of your life sounds just fine. Crippen can't have been expected to know the difference between the extreme fatigue he'd normally feel at the end of a 10K and life-threatening exhaustion.

Which is why FINA and the Emiratis are being total dicks about this. Callously blaming it on "overexertion." Yes, it's probably true. But if they were real swimming officials they'd know overexertion is pretty much normal. The whole field was overexerting themselves.

As for the water temperature, again with the dickitude in insisting the water was "only" 84 degrees. As if there's this huge lifesaving difference in the three degrees between that and the 87 degrees that the swimmers are saying. I've been to the UAE. On a ship, which wouldn't you know, we made it our business to know what the water temperature was. (You have to in order to keep the machinery running properly.) In the Persian Gulf itself, the water temps were in the mid-90s; close to shore and in-port, they never dropped below 100. 102, 103, usually. Granted, I was there in July, not October. Granted, Fujairah, where the event was held (not Dubai, as the reports sometimes claim), is outside the Gulf - that makes a difference, the water is warmer, saltier, and way grodier and jellyfishier inside. All the same, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if an official inquest finds the water was above 90. It's the fucking desert.

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Alright, let's move on and check in on the senior seasons. Here in Michigan, it's already playoff time for the high schoolers. (Go GP South Blue Devils.) One more week of games and that'll be true for Pennsylvania, too. Maryland and North Carolina, two more weeks; Virginia, three. We'll keep you updated throughout, of course.

L.C. Bird 14, Clover Hill 13: Bird puts the ball in the hands of their running backs for the most part (Anthony Harris only threw five passes and completed three), but when they trailed 13-0 in the second half they turned to their best athlete. Harris scored both Bird touchdowns, the winner on fourth down, and Bird pulled out the win with a goal-line stand.

Dinwiddie 33, Petersburg 21: Kevin Green came out on the short end of a good old-fashioned quarterback duel. Green ran for 127 yards and two TDs and completed 17-of-36 for 160 more, plus another touchdown. He was also picked off twice in the loss; the winning QB, whose stats were equally gaudy, is VT commit Chris Hall.

Phoebus 37, Hampton 12: Caleb Taylor's defense held David Watford in check. Watford was just 5-of-18 passing. He ran for an early touchdown to cut the score to 10-6, and threw another one in garbage time.

H.D. Woodson 22, Ballou 20: Darius Redman helped to seal a big upset by intercepting a pass with 90 seconds left. Then he nearly blew it by getting greedy and trying to return it for six; the ball was stripped and Redman had to go back on defense. D'oh. Time for a little coaching moment. Redman also caught an 8-yard touchdown pass.


Hermitage 48, Douglas Freeman 0 (Diamonte Bailey)
I.C. Norcom 48, Granby 7 (Kameron Mack)
Cox 22, First Colonial 20 (Ross Burbank)
Green Run 34, First Colonial 28 (David Dean)
Bethel 42, Menchville 10 (Clifton Richardson)
Episcopal 19, St. Christopher's 15 (Thompson Brown)
Landon (Md.) 22, St. S/St. A 0 (Darius Lee)
Damascus 35, Northwood 16 (Brandon Phelps)
Stone Bridge 50, Langley 10 (Rob Burns)
Good Counsel 37, St. John's 14 (Vincent Croce)
DeMatha 39, Bishop O'Connell 17 (Jordan Lomax, Kelby Johnson)
Independence 62, Rocky River 17 (Adrian Gamble)
Mt. Lebanon 27, Peters Township 16 (Tim Cwalina)

That is it for now. Later in the week: basketball! That time of year. Weird, huh? Football season announces its presence in such a way that it's impossible to miss, even if you try. Basketball season goes "um, hi."

Wait, no. That's not it for now. Also there is the AP poll study, in which the appearance of bias grows steadily stronger. Teaser: only three of 25 teams did not get any regional help, and the West Coast voters are off the hook this week. See the archive page for the rest.

that can't happen

I know it's a rebuilding project, yes. I know the talent level on this team isn't where it should be to compete for the ACC. I still didn't like what I saw on Saturday. Rebuilding isn't the same thing as building from scratch. You have to have something to build from, otherwise you're Georgia State, starting fresh and with no expectations whatsoever. I'd like to think that for UVA, that's the defense. That's what's supposed to hold firm and give the team a chance to win while the offense finds its bearings.

Despite an offensive performance that I'd call "almost adequate," the roles were reversed on Saturday. Georgia Tech is a mistake-prone team this year; those mistakes were the only thing standing between them and 50 points. Only under circumstances involving the phrase "I-AA" should the grinding, clock-chewing GT offense be a 50-point machine. I have no idea whether to pin the performance on the players or the coaches, which probably means it's a combination of both. I do know that the decision to open up a fifteen-foot gap at the line of scrimmage was a coach thing, and why Jim Reid would choose to do that against a triple option offense where option #1 is "hand off to a big-ass fullback and let him go in a straight line" is more puzzling than a 10x10 Rubik's Cube.

I've said repeatedly I don't think the 4-3 is a great matchup for that offense, and obviously in order to beat GT in the future either the talent level is going to have to vastly improve relative to GT, or Reid is going to have to scheme his brains out. It's not just scheme: the newness of our OLBs to their position was painfully obvious, and the MLBs were slow to get outside the blockers, leaving them easy targets to get sealed off the pursuit early on.

As for the offense, it wasn't awful, actually. Against FSU and USC I brushed off the last touchdown of the game as a product of less effort on defense and going against the scrubs; this time I'm willing to put that caveat aside because Matt Snyder was covered as hell on the two fine catches he made on the final drive and showed off some white-guys-can-jump moves that I didn't think he had. Whereas the FSU game might as well have been 34-7, I think the 21 points are legitimate.

Still, the running game, as ever, stunk. Hard. Perry Jones was bottled up except for the one run. With Verica, it's like he wasn't even a factor - an improvement over the FSU game, to be sure, and probably about as good as anyone can expect given the four sacks and lack of ground support. Losses always give a megaphone to the BACKUP QB NOWZ crowd that exists in every losing team's fanbase, but Verica's performance was the result of the poor play around him, not the other way round.

As we knew before the season, it starts on the O-line, the least effective group we have. This week you're starting to see the changes you'd expect for a unit with that label: Morgan Moses moves inside to guard, to back up B.J. Cabbell, and Sean Cascarano replaced the injured Landon Bradley at left tackle. Though this is presented a certain way by Mike London, seasoned football observers should be able to read the writing on the wall here: Cabbell's days as the starter there are probably numbered, and Bradley is likely to be Wally Pipped out of his job as well. That's not even to mention the loss of Joe Torchia for the season, ending his UVA career. Torchia has never been a very effective blocker, and his wonky shoulder almost certainly has a big say in that. It's a rebuilding project. You can't expect things to stay much the same as the season rolls on, and these are welcome changes with the exception of the premature end to a career.

These two losses make the UNC game a pivotal one. Bowl hopes, if you harbor any, depend on it. That's a team not unlike GT: doing the best they can with heavy personnel losses, and being competitive with what's left. I hope the GT game was simply a result of a bad matchup, but do you see how the narrative is changing here? It's how seasons go downhill and it's an old, old story: you go from confidently believing that misfortune was the result of something easily fixed, to hoping it, to realizing it wasn't. A good showing against UNC - that is, a win, not a plucky loss - can reverse that. Otherwise, there's little left to fall back on but the baseline "oh well, it was a rebuilding year," and that's no fun.

the view from the driver's seat

Jameel Sewell dropped back to pass, and like so many times before, his pocket collapsed almost instantaneously and another split-second decision was unwillingly forced out of him. Like the unwanted, skull-masked guest at the masquerade, the blood-red-clad defenders were crashing the party again. Sewell made his choice. As his doom closed in, he let the ball fly; an ill-advised throw. On a graceful arc it soared toward failure; two more blood-red saboteurs locked their greedy eyes onto the ball and leaped expectantly for the prize.

When the ball finally came to rest, it was gripped tightly and safely in friendly hands. Call it Providence, call it luck, or call it the same slippery, ungrippable ball that both teams had struggled with all day. By any name, Kris Burd held in his hands the salvation of the season. There was more work to be done, but the fickle rain gods were done smiling on Maryland. A few short minutes later, the Maryland lead was cut in half; a few short minutes after that, it was gone for good.

A football game in the rain and muddy swamps is not won by proving your superiority time and again, nor with crisp, perfect execution. That's for sunny weather. You try to gut it out each and every play, you try to make something happen, and you take what you're given and do something with that. Kris Burd took what he was given. Nate Collins took what he was given. You try not to be the ones doing the giving - at this, Maryland did not succeed.

So here we are atop the conference. How weird is that. There's only one team in the ACC that has yet to lose to any other ACC team this season, and it's not Virginia Poly, not Georgia Tech, not Miami, and definitely not Florida State, as weird as all that sounds. And yet, to the outside world, we've proven nothing. We've won our first two ACC games and they were both on the road - that's huge. As far as the outside world goes, they care little for that. The ghost of William & Mary still haunts this team. As it should. Because this is a team that can't rest on its laurels. What have we to rest on? We've proven we're not totally crappy by beating three crappy teams. "Not crappy" isn't going to get it done next week. We're sitting in the driver's seat, but there's an intersection in the windshield. One of the signs says "2007" and the other says "2008." I know which road I want to go down, but we're not gonna find out til Saturday.

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Part of the reason it's so much fun to beat Maryland is because Maryland insists on being so fun to beat. Early in the game I thought "man, it's hard to stand out for douchery at such a douchey school, but Alex Wujciak is succeeding." This was because of his "we'd never wear stuff like that" quote from the previous week, and then the "look at me, I'm a fierce tribal warrior, RAHHR" eyeblack he had on during the game. Schmo.

I changed my mind, though. Wujciak, despite his proclamations of dominance (you'd think they won the game the way he speaks) is just one douche rocket in a sea of douche rockets. The attitude is pervasive throughout the locker room.

Torrey Smith: “I feel like we’re better than Rutgers, I feel like we’re better than Middle Tennessee, I definitely feel that we’re better than UVa.” (Yes, he said this after losing to all those teams. Some of them twice.)

Wujciak again: "We just shut them down. They got one lucky pass where the guy is half out of bounds, they called him inbounds. I don’t even know what to say about that." (You were halfway across the field, dude. How would you know?)

Chris Turner: "Any other day if it wasn’t a torrential downpour and the balls were dry it would have been another outcome. But shoulda-woulda-coulda, you can’t make excuses, that’s just the way it was." (I think that qualifies as an excuse. Guy sounds like Charlie Weis: "I'm not complaining but...." And I didn't realize the sun was shining whenever Sewell threw the ball.)

With all that crying about how much better they think they are, that sure sounds like a reflection on the coach. But he wouldn't be dumb enough to say stuff like that in public, would he?

Yes he would: "I don’t think these teams that are winning are better than us, but we just keep shooting ourselves in the foot."

Douche. Bags. This is why it's so much fun to beat these guys. They provide enough humor to let the glow of victory last all week. It's not about getting credit or respect for the win; I don't need it, it's etched in the scorebook for all time. It's the laughs. Schadenfreude is twice as freude-y when it's Maryland. Here's a prediction: Duke is going to beat this team next week. Book it. Come back to this page next Sunday and see if I'm right. Why? Maryland doesn't think they need to get any better. They think they're good enough. Five times now, it's been just the rotten breaks that keep going against them. They don't need to get any better, they just need the world to stop turning against them. Duke is a hungry team with a new attitude. They gave Virginia Poly hell and they crushed NC State. They know they need to keep getting better, and they are. Maryland thinks they're good enough already. Hell, they're better than we are, if you listen to their players. An ironic attitude coming from a school whose fans hate us because they think we think we're better than them.

That said....

- We didn't exactly win the battle in the trenches. Especially not on offense. And we didn't get much pressure on Turner, except for certain key moments. If we'd done what I said to do, which is make liberal use of the blitz, given what happened when we did get to Turner I think we'd have had a lot more success on defense and turned the game in our favor earlier.

- Nate Collins is a hoss. The ACC thinks so too.

- To clear it up: Yes, Groh absolutely should have gone for the score. Did you see what happened the last time we had first and goal on the 1? No cutesying around with kneeling the ball. Punch it in, take the points, put 'em down two scores. Maryland had a timeout left and would likely have gotten the ball back with a chance for a miracle. Never turn down the points when all they need to do is score once and they're on top again. Right play call, right time.

- Not only was Burd not out of bounds, but the officials could legitimately have called pass interference on Maryland. Check the tape; the defender that didn't leap into the air knocked Burd out of the way. If that was single and not double coverage, the refs would call that every time.

- Argh one shotgun draw too many.

- Speaking of what happened when we had first and goal at the 1, I'll tell you what happened: Landon Bradley singlehandedly murdered that opportunity. First with the false start and then repeatedly getting blown into the backfield. Next year's training camp is going to see a fierce competition between Bradley and Oday Aboushi for that job, and that's just if Morgan Moses doesn't show up and stick his nose into the fray.

- We didn't really miss Mikell Simpson. No way Simpson could have been effective on that field. What we missed was Cedric Peerman. Having graduated him, Rashawn Jackson would be the guy we needed; why he wasn't given the ball more often and allowed to just bull his way ahead all the time is a mystery. It was pretty damn effective in the fourth. Also, Peerman would not have whiffed that block that resulted in a Sewell fumble, but that only partly matters: Bradley should not have been doubling down on Pasztor's guy, not with two guys lined up outside him that clearly weren't in pass coverage. That might have been how the play was supposed to be blocked, and you have to tip your hat to Maryland's defensive coordinator for really mixing up his blitzes especially well. But Bradley was ineffective all day.

- This might just be the best defense we've ever had in the Groh era. Seriously. It's weird because we don't have Clint Sintim or Darryl Blackstock, those pass-rushing OLB's that do a lot of great things in this 3-4 defense. The linebacking corps is not getting much attention, outside of Steve Greer who's playing very well. But this defense is beastly when it counts. The 3-4 means not much attention goes to the D-line, but I think they deserve the lion's share of the credit. The secondary is playing exceptionally well, that is a fact. And the aforementioned Greer has been a nice addition. But the defensive line is making plays and winning battles, and the 3-4 defense cannot be successful without that. Matt Conrath has been having a terrific season. Let's hope he's not hurt too badly. But if he has to miss time, then the defense will simply adopt Groh's next-man-up mentality, and Zane Parr is that man. Parr has also played well and can fill the hole left by Conrath.

Aaaand I'm done babbling. This week: BIG GAME. Are we legit? We'll find out. Also, see the note below for some programming info.

Editor's note: This is the column I'd planned for Sunday. Unfortunately, in the middle of putting together the highlights from the Maryland game, my computer decided it didn't want to do this anymore. It is down so hard. It does not do things any more. It's not even that old a computer. In computer years, it's right in the middle of its angsty teenage phase, which now that I think of it, I suppose would explain things. Anyway, that means a severe disruption in posting. I'm doing this from work, in bits and pieces because actual work keeps getting in the way. Today I'm going in to get the data on the hard drive recovered and hopefully, get the hard drive fixed too so that it boots up again. If that doesn't work.....well, I don't know what to tell you; a new hard drive will be in order, I don't doubt. As long as my computer is out of commission, going forward the only thing I can guarantee you is a Q&A session with the FTRS boys and that beyond that, there won't be anything other than my thoughts barfed onto the page whenever I get the chance here at work. Actual research until the situation is fixed, like the weekend review post that normally happens today and won't: highly unlikely. Je suis désolé.

season preview: the offense

Oy. I don't know what makes me think I can go on a booze cruise all afternoon and come home in any shape to write a post. Yesterday I fully intended to come home and worst case scenario maybe stay up a little bit late putting this up, and then sat down and realized just how successful those efforts were likely to be. So that didn't happen.

That means both the offense and the defense are both getting crammed into a real short time frame. One big happy mess. Two separate posts, though, we gotta keep some kind of law and order around here or nothing'll ever get done. Like it does anyway.

Let's jump right in to the offense. For position-by-position stuff, just read my Examiner work. No sense duplicating that. It's all linked right there on the side for easy clicking. Instead, we'll go with question-and-answer. There's no shortage of the former and precious few of the latter.

1. Who's going to play quarterback?

OK, I lied. We will break down this one position. Might as well. Everyone always treats this as some earthshattering new piece of drama. Really, it's not. In this decade alone we've asked this question in, let's see, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. Birds fly, fish swim, dogs bark, and UVA fans wonder who's going to play quarterback. A lot of this is because Groh likes to play keep-away from the media about stuff like this, and further he's never bought into the notion that you have to have one and only one for stability's sake. Once upon a time I remember Groh musing about the position and opining that it shouldn't be that much different from any other position on the field where you rotate people in and out all the time.

That said, though, it's pretty rare that you rotate three players in and out at quarterback. This is almost never done. Groh seems determined to try, but I'm willing to put down a lot of money that when all's said and done, the snaps won't be split three ways evenly. Someone's eventually going to slide out of the rotation for consistency's sake, and my money's on that being Verica.

Why? Well, let's start off by being honest with ourselves about one thing. Vic Hall's the most athletic and electric of the three, there's no doubt about that. So if he was throwing even equally as well as the other two, there'd be no question at all. It's my opinion Hall is the worst passer of the three, and that's not borne out of observation, that's out of the fact that he hasn't put that separation between himself and the other two, despite having an obvious advantage in the athleticism department. It's logic.

So either Sewell or Verica will be passing the ball a lot this year. I think it'll be Sewell because while Verica has the strongest and often most accurate arm, Verica isn't well suited to run Hall's plays. Sewell is. You take Hall out and put Verica in, and teams already know you're going to pass the ball. Tech had that figured out last year. You take Hall out and put Sewell in, and you don't tip your hand as much. Hall, of course, will attempt more passes per game than the measly one that he threw against Tech. Also, Verica won't be completely shut out of the offense, but I think barring an injury, he'll only make appearances toward the beginning and end of the season, and not as much in the middle. Still, I think the baseline assumption should be that Hall is the nominal "starter", and Sewell will trot in for a few series each game and whenever the coaches want to do something fancy like put them both in the backfield. And don't be surprised to see Hall making cameos at weird places like slot receiver.

2. So what kind of a spread offense are we getting, anyway? Running spread? Passing spread?

Calling someone a spread coordinator is like calling someone European: there is a certain meaning to that, but nobody would suggest a Swede is terribly similar to an Italian. We got a spread guru for a coordinator now, so it's fair to wonder what that means. Are we going to turn into Texas Tech?

Gregg Brandon isn't really married to the idea of running more or passing more. He's proven adept at adjusting his playbook and playcalling to his personnel. In 2006, Bowling Green had a running quarterback and ran the ball a lot more than they passed. The next year, that guy got moved to running back and a big galoot of a pocket passer took over the show, and they passed more.

Brandon does like to pass, his philosophy being that you can't be a great offense unless you can throw the football. In the same link there, you can see why I like Sewell's chances of getting on the field more than Verica's: Brandon likes short and quick throws, which is exactly what Sewell was asked to do in 2007. An old article points out that Bowling Green at one time lined up with five wide receivers once every three plays. I don't think we'll see that quite as much, but we will see it, which is why running backs and quarterbacks have suddenly found themselves turned into receivers. Five receivers is a brand-new concept to an Al Groh-coached team. Another brand-new concept: the option. This just hasn't been in the playbook, but Brandon will be bringing it back, and it's why I like the odds of seeing Vic Hall out in the slot. One of Brandon's staples has been to add to the usual option concept the possibility of a shovel to the slot receiver inside. Sewell lines up in the shotgun with Mikell Simpson behind him to his right and Vic Hall in the slot to his left; all three run to the right and Sewell has three options: shovel, keep, or pitch.

The answer, if you care to pigeonhole it, is that we'll probably lean more towards passing than running. And when we do run, don't expect a steady dose of the traditional handoffs and power sweeps. For one thing, the quarterback will operate out of the shotgun, so plays that count as run plays will be a lot of quarterback keepers, options, draw plays, and the like. The days of a quarterback taking the snap from under center and handing the ball off to a running back who follows a fullback and a pulling guard are in the past. But at the same time, passes will operate much like running plays: option shovels, screens, quick slants to a slot who's got a linebacker trying to cover him.

3. Do we have the personnel to run this thing?

Absolutely. About the only issue as far as that's concerned is the offensive line. I frankly do worry about this: Al Groh has always wanted his offensive linemen to be absolutely huge. The bigger the better. And so they are: we have three 300-pounders on the line. Can they move around in space? Are they well-conditioned enough? Legitimate questions, but remember: we've always required our guards to pull around and block the other side. A lot. That requires some hustle and athleticism, and they're pretty good at it. Both B.J. Cabbell and Austin Pasztor are over 300 pounds, but I don't worry about their ability to get around and move. A bigger adjustment will be pass-blocking out of larger splits. The larger line splits spread out the defense and allow more room to run in, but they also make it more imperative that each lineman win his individual battle when pass-blocking.

As for the rest of the offense, it's not even a question. The running backs are just the guys we want. So are the quarterbacks. So are the receivers. We can put to rest any fears that we'll have to undergo a Michigan-like transformation in which we have to endure a season of mismatched pieces running a foreign system while we wait for the "right" players to be recruited. We have them now.

4. Biggest strengths? Biggest concerns?

The biggest strength is that we simply have a guy in charge who knows offense. Can you really spell out our offensive philosophy under Mike Groh without resorting to sarcasm? There was just no theme. It wasn't an offense, it was just a collection of plays. It was exactly the sort of offense you'd expect from a guy who'd become an offensive coordinator without much of an apprenticeship.

Now we have an actual system. The plays are designed to complement one another. There's a theme, a rhyme and reason behind things. That alone is worth a lot.

The offensive line improved mightily last year from beginning to end and that is a fantastic sign for this year. Never ever ever ever ever underestimate the value of a veteran line that's played together. This is the biggest and best thing we have going for us on the field. There's a lot to be excited about: there's incredible speed at wide receiver, there's a scary-good playmaker at quarterback, and there's plenty of new blood (Torrey Mack, Tim Smith) with sky's-the-limit talent. That's all well and good but none of it goes anywhere without an offensive line, and I really, really like what I see there.

It's easy to look at last year's stat sheet, realize most of the guys at the top are gone, and write off UVA. It's a favorite tactic of sportswriters to pick teams based on how many returning skill players they have, and of course it worked spectacularly last year when everyone was lining up to anoint Clemson as King of Everything. Sure - all the major passcatchers are gone. The top five, actually, which accounted for 80% of our receptions. Inexperience at receiver and lack of depth at running back are what I'd label the two major concerns, and both can be overcome. Get excited about the offense this year.

5. OK, I am excited. So what are the predictions?

- You'll see a huge uptick in yards-per-attempt in the passing game. 5.6 is just horrendous. If we could have added just one yard to that last year, we'd still be very mediocre in that category (ranked in the 70s instead of the 100s) and it would have been good for an extra 37 yards a game. The difference between the horrible offense we had and a mediocre offense is the difference between 5-7 and 7-5.

- Nobody will emerge as a McMullen-like go-to guy at receiver, but it won't matter because enough of those guys will be good to keep the ball spread around and the offense effective. There's too much youth in the receiver corps for any one of them to play consistently well enough to rack up huge numbers, but there's enough depth that, much more often than not, someone will emerge to have a big day.

- I hope Mikell Simpson stays healthy, but if he doesn't, Torrey Mack will make a huge push for ACC Freshman of the Year, and the number of "Mack Truck" references by oh-so-clever color announcers and message board inhabitants will reach triple digits and threaten quadruples.

- I hope Landon Bradley stays healthy, and I believe he'll play very well, but if he gets hurt, Oday Aboushi will Wally Pipp him out of a job.

- Vic Hall will end up taking the majority of snaps at quarterback, followed by Jameel Sewell, followed by Marc Verica. Verica will make some appearances early in the season but be slowly phased out of the picture by October, only to return in late November. This is all assuming good health.

- The offensive improvement will be enough to put us back in the postseason. I still think 7-5 and a bowl game is a more-than-realistic expectation.