Thursday, October 14, 2004
"High and tight" getting it done for Cavs
Lundy fumble a shocker for team
Doug Doughty
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Fumbling has become such a rare occurrence with Virginia’s football team that even the slightest bobble is dissected for days.
While Wali Lundy’s fumble at the Clemson 6-yard line last Thursday would not qualify as a “slight” bobble, it did represent the Cavaliers’ first lost fumble of the season and only the seventh in 18 games over the past two seasons.
“It was a shock,” Lundy said Tuesday. “It hurt me. I was so frustrated that I didn’t get over it until a day or two ago. Things like that happen. The best fumble. I’ve got to look at the things I did right and did well and try not to focus on that too much, but I know I’ve got to hold onto the ball.”
Fumbles do happen. Ahman Green, one of the NFL’s premier running backs, had an early fumble Monday night in the Packers’ 48-27 loss to Tennessee and carried only 10 times for 33 yards in the game. Lundy did not have a carry Thursday night after Clemson recovered his fumble on the first drive of the second half.
“That wasn’t just turning the ball,” coach Al Groh said. “It was turning points over. That was going to be a three- or seven-point possession. You can’t have that kind of mistake. That’s on the list of things that, if we’re going to stay in the hunt, we can’t afford.”
Former Virginia star Tiki Barber had an NFL-high nine fumbles last year for the New York Giants, losing five of them. That might have jeopardized his starting job with coach Tom Coughlin coming in new, but the Giants studied the way Barber was carrying the ball and changed his technique. He doesn’t have a fumble all year.
On the play where Lundy fumbled, he appeared to have the ball secured when it was punched out of his arm from behind.
“I look at the play a lot,” Lundy said. “I had the ball high and tight up on my chest. The game just came along as I was going down and hit it at the right time, and it popped out. He made a great play on the ball. Can’t say that he didn’t. But, I still should have put two hands on it to prevent it.”
The Cavaliers lost six fumbles as a team during a 13-game 2003 season — two by wide receiver Art Thomas and one apiece by Anthony Martinez, Kase Luzar and Heath Miller. The sixth was charged to the team.
If you thought Lundy’s reduced playing time Thursday was attributable to the fumble, check out what happened to Thomas after back-to-back lost fumbles against Wake Forest and North Carolina. He had one reception over the next six games before catching three balls against Virginia Tech, including a 49-yarder.
Counting fumbles recovered by the offensive team, the Cavaliers had 16 fumbles overall in 2003, including two by Lundy in 227 rushing attempts and one by Alvin Pearman in 134 rushing attempts. Throw in a combined 92 receptions and 11 Pearman punt or kickoff returns and that’s 464 “touches” with only three fumbles, none of them lost.
“It’s definitely something that the coaches have put an incredible emphasis on throughout this season, beginning in [preseason] camp,” Pearman said. “Literally every day, he’d [Groh] show pictures of the right ball security on the projector. He’d call it ‘high and tight,’ not waving the ball around, but high and tight on your chest, on the top of your number.
“That’s the most effective, safe way to carry a football. There are prime examples. Tiki Barber is doing an incredible job with exactly [the technique] that coach is talking about right now.”
Pearman had one lost fumble as a freshman in 2001 and two during the 2002 season before he suffered a season-ending injury in the 10th game (out of 14). He carried the ball differently at the time.
“I think everybody did,” Pearman said. “I think everybody had to make an adjust to the right way that the coaches are now teaching it. You’re seeing it more frequently, across the country, with the high and tight.”
