NCAA YTD: 3-1 (+1.90*)
West Virginia(-9') over East Carolina (1.5*)
With an eye on this game since last Saturday night, I thought Cincinnati's Labor Day rout of East Carolina would surely price this contest at two touchdowns. In their opener, West Virginia under HC Rich Rodriquez looked focused, very well coached and on the rise, although at crunch time they came up short against a Wisconsin effort that was noteworthy for its signs of uncharacteristic resilience and maturity. The new regime in East Carolina has had a short week to address a performance with enough breakdowns that it qualified as a meltdown, and they will likely be challenged by West Virginia to defend and attack the whole field for 60 minutes with an outmanned and/or underachieving squad. In a matchup of two teams looking to get off the schneid, this for me stands out as the one game on the card in which there has been no waffling in my committment.
Auburn(-8) over Georgia Tech (1.5*)
Auburn HC Tuberville this week: "It looks like we have had a lot of leadership during practice this week . . . It has been a long week and the guys have worked hard. We have a good game plan in and now it is time to go out and see if we have improved from last week . . . We have to really pick up the tempo in this weeks game." While Auburn's season isn't yet hanging in the balance, I do think that no other deep and talented group of players in the nation (and no coaching staff for that matter) has as much on the line this week. And I think Auburn can control their destiny in this spot, as Georgia Tech has hardly been imposing its will on hungry opponents of late.
I'm still working hard and waffling while trying to isolate the strongest of my remaining plays.
GL
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(Squeezing in some VIRGINIA NOTES from my subsequent post that exceeded the maximum size post.)
RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH (8/28/03):
CHARLOTTESVILLE - A delegation of four University of Virginia officials, led by President John Casteen, flew into a Long Island, N.Y., airport Dec. 29, 2000.
Their mission: to talk to Al Groh, then the New York Jets' head coach, about the vacant position at his alma mater.
Their message: U.Va. wants a football program that can compete for the national championship.
"That kind of mentality," Groh recalled this month, "was a probably a prerequisite" if the job were to interest him.
The 1967 graduate of U.Va. accepted the position the next day. By doing so, Groh accepted the challenge of rebuilding a program that had ascended to unprecedented heights and then slowly declined under longtime coach George Welsh.
The Cavaliers open their third season under Groh this weekend, and his revitalization process is ahead of schedule. Groh's first team finished 5-7, and his second team was picked to place eighth in the nine-team ACC. Instead, the Wahoos tied for second with Maryland - which they hammered 48-13 - and finished 9-5 in 2002.
And now, eight months after walloping West Virginia 48-22 in the Continental Tire Bowl, Virginia is a consensus top-20 team in the preseason polls. Groh insists he never had a timetable for putting U.Va. back in the national spotlight but admits he's pleased with his team's progress.
"We're certainly not behind where we might have wished we were," he said.
Beginning in 1987, U.Va. won at least seven games for 13 straight seasons under Welsh. But the coaching staff's recruiting efforts and, consequently, the talent level in the program flagged in Welsh's final years. Virginia went 7-5 in 1999, a season that ended with a 63-21 loss to Illinois in the Micronpc.com Bowl, and followed that with a 6-6 campaign in 2000. That season, after which Welsh retired, ended with a 37-14 loss to Georgia in the Oahu Bowl.
Groh inherited a program that included few players of the caliber of Welsh's biggest stars, such luminaries as Shawn Moore, Herman Moore, Ray Roberts, Chris Slade, James Farrior, Jamie Sharper and the Barber twins, Tiki and Ronde. Six Cavaliers were chosen in the 1999 NFL draft, including first-rounder Patrick Kerney, and four were picked in 2000, led by first-round choice Thomas Jones.
In the next three drafts, however, only six Cavs were taken, and four went in the fourth round or later.
Enter a former Wake Forest head coach who lives to recruit. Coaches move from the college ranks to the NFL in part, conventional wisdom holds, because they no longer want to spend untold hours trying to win over 18-year-olds. But Groh seems to enjoy few things more than recruiting, and he's surrounded himself with assistants - most younger than 40 - who share his passion for the chase.
"Every guy on this staff, I think, understands that the way to win is to accumulate talent," tight ends coach Andy Heck said.
The freshman class that entered U.Va. in 2001 - many of whose members committed when Welsh was coach and were persuaded by Groh to stay on board - included such players as Alvin Pearman, Heath Miller, Elton Brown, Patrick Estes, Brian Barthelmes, Marques Hagans, Jermaine Hardy and Brennan Schmidt.
Groh's staff landed all of the players who entered U.Va. in 2002, a class recruiting analysts ranked among the nation's top 10. It includes Darryl Blackstock, Wali Lundy, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Jason Snelling, Kwakou Robinson and Willie Davis. A top-20 class followed last winter.
The Cavaliers are bigger and faster and stronger than in Groh's first two seasons, and his program is stocked with young talent. Still, the 59-year-old head coach is realistic. Groh knows Virginia has little depth on the offensive line and that its receiving corps is unproven. Senior quarterback Matt Schaub's backups are untested. U.Va. ranked near the bottom of the ACC in both rushing offense and rushing defense last season.
"We're not a dominant team," Groh said. "For one thing, we have too many young players on the team, too many players who have not yet arrived at competitive maturity."
The goal, Groh said, is to have a roster loaded with players at whom opposing coaches will "look and say, 'Whoa, how are we going to handle this guy?'
"If the day ever comes when you can sit there on a Saturday morning and say, 'I got 15, 16 guys that the other guys are going to have a hard time handling,' that's a pretty Utopian situation."
The Cavaliers aren't there yet, but their future looks as promising as it has in many years. Of the 50-some players on the depth chart, only nine are seniors: Schaub, fullback Kase Luzar, center Kevin Bailey, wideouts Art Thomas and Ryan Sawyer, linebacker Raymond Mann, long-snapper Ryan Childress and cornerbacks Almondo Curry and Jamaine Winborne. The first-team punter and kickers are sophomores.
If they can develop a capable replacement for Schaub, the Cavaliers could well field their strongest team in 2004. But they're determined to make this a memorable year, too.
"After the successful season we had last year, I think it's important to follow it up with another productive, successful season," said Schaub, whom U.Va. is touting as a Heisman Trophy candidate.
"Not just for the future, but to show that last year just wasn't a fluke, that we weren't just a Cinderella team. To show that we belong with the top teams in the country."
West Virginia(-9') over East Carolina (1.5*)
With an eye on this game since last Saturday night, I thought Cincinnati's Labor Day rout of East Carolina would surely price this contest at two touchdowns. In their opener, West Virginia under HC Rich Rodriquez looked focused, very well coached and on the rise, although at crunch time they came up short against a Wisconsin effort that was noteworthy for its signs of uncharacteristic resilience and maturity. The new regime in East Carolina has had a short week to address a performance with enough breakdowns that it qualified as a meltdown, and they will likely be challenged by West Virginia to defend and attack the whole field for 60 minutes with an outmanned and/or underachieving squad. In a matchup of two teams looking to get off the schneid, this for me stands out as the one game on the card in which there has been no waffling in my committment.
Auburn(-8) over Georgia Tech (1.5*)
Auburn HC Tuberville this week: "It looks like we have had a lot of leadership during practice this week . . . It has been a long week and the guys have worked hard. We have a good game plan in and now it is time to go out and see if we have improved from last week . . . We have to really pick up the tempo in this weeks game." While Auburn's season isn't yet hanging in the balance, I do think that no other deep and talented group of players in the nation (and no coaching staff for that matter) has as much on the line this week. And I think Auburn can control their destiny in this spot, as Georgia Tech has hardly been imposing its will on hungry opponents of late.
I'm still working hard and waffling while trying to isolate the strongest of my remaining plays.
GL
---------- ---------- --------
(Squeezing in some VIRGINIA NOTES from my subsequent post that exceeded the maximum size post.)
RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH (8/28/03):
CHARLOTTESVILLE - A delegation of four University of Virginia officials, led by President John Casteen, flew into a Long Island, N.Y., airport Dec. 29, 2000.
Their mission: to talk to Al Groh, then the New York Jets' head coach, about the vacant position at his alma mater.
Their message: U.Va. wants a football program that can compete for the national championship.
"That kind of mentality," Groh recalled this month, "was a probably a prerequisite" if the job were to interest him.
The 1967 graduate of U.Va. accepted the position the next day. By doing so, Groh accepted the challenge of rebuilding a program that had ascended to unprecedented heights and then slowly declined under longtime coach George Welsh.
The Cavaliers open their third season under Groh this weekend, and his revitalization process is ahead of schedule. Groh's first team finished 5-7, and his second team was picked to place eighth in the nine-team ACC. Instead, the Wahoos tied for second with Maryland - which they hammered 48-13 - and finished 9-5 in 2002.
And now, eight months after walloping West Virginia 48-22 in the Continental Tire Bowl, Virginia is a consensus top-20 team in the preseason polls. Groh insists he never had a timetable for putting U.Va. back in the national spotlight but admits he's pleased with his team's progress.
"We're certainly not behind where we might have wished we were," he said.
Beginning in 1987, U.Va. won at least seven games for 13 straight seasons under Welsh. But the coaching staff's recruiting efforts and, consequently, the talent level in the program flagged in Welsh's final years. Virginia went 7-5 in 1999, a season that ended with a 63-21 loss to Illinois in the Micronpc.com Bowl, and followed that with a 6-6 campaign in 2000. That season, after which Welsh retired, ended with a 37-14 loss to Georgia in the Oahu Bowl.
Groh inherited a program that included few players of the caliber of Welsh's biggest stars, such luminaries as Shawn Moore, Herman Moore, Ray Roberts, Chris Slade, James Farrior, Jamie Sharper and the Barber twins, Tiki and Ronde. Six Cavaliers were chosen in the 1999 NFL draft, including first-rounder Patrick Kerney, and four were picked in 2000, led by first-round choice Thomas Jones.
In the next three drafts, however, only six Cavs were taken, and four went in the fourth round or later.
Enter a former Wake Forest head coach who lives to recruit. Coaches move from the college ranks to the NFL in part, conventional wisdom holds, because they no longer want to spend untold hours trying to win over 18-year-olds. But Groh seems to enjoy few things more than recruiting, and he's surrounded himself with assistants - most younger than 40 - who share his passion for the chase.
"Every guy on this staff, I think, understands that the way to win is to accumulate talent," tight ends coach Andy Heck said.
The freshman class that entered U.Va. in 2001 - many of whose members committed when Welsh was coach and were persuaded by Groh to stay on board - included such players as Alvin Pearman, Heath Miller, Elton Brown, Patrick Estes, Brian Barthelmes, Marques Hagans, Jermaine Hardy and Brennan Schmidt.
Groh's staff landed all of the players who entered U.Va. in 2002, a class recruiting analysts ranked among the nation's top 10. It includes Darryl Blackstock, Wali Lundy, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Jason Snelling, Kwakou Robinson and Willie Davis. A top-20 class followed last winter.
The Cavaliers are bigger and faster and stronger than in Groh's first two seasons, and his program is stocked with young talent. Still, the 59-year-old head coach is realistic. Groh knows Virginia has little depth on the offensive line and that its receiving corps is unproven. Senior quarterback Matt Schaub's backups are untested. U.Va. ranked near the bottom of the ACC in both rushing offense and rushing defense last season.
"We're not a dominant team," Groh said. "For one thing, we have too many young players on the team, too many players who have not yet arrived at competitive maturity."
The goal, Groh said, is to have a roster loaded with players at whom opposing coaches will "look and say, 'Whoa, how are we going to handle this guy?'
"If the day ever comes when you can sit there on a Saturday morning and say, 'I got 15, 16 guys that the other guys are going to have a hard time handling,' that's a pretty Utopian situation."
The Cavaliers aren't there yet, but their future looks as promising as it has in many years. Of the 50-some players on the depth chart, only nine are seniors: Schaub, fullback Kase Luzar, center Kevin Bailey, wideouts Art Thomas and Ryan Sawyer, linebacker Raymond Mann, long-snapper Ryan Childress and cornerbacks Almondo Curry and Jamaine Winborne. The first-team punter and kickers are sophomores.
If they can develop a capable replacement for Schaub, the Cavaliers could well field their strongest team in 2004. But they're determined to make this a memorable year, too.
"After the successful season we had last year, I think it's important to follow it up with another productive, successful season," said Schaub, whom U.Va. is touting as a Heisman Trophy candidate.
"Not just for the future, but to show that last year just wasn't a fluke, that we weren't just a Cinderella team. To show that we belong with the top teams in the country."
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