Photo courtesy of University of Virginia

Peter Lalich says he is much further along at quarterback this spring than last fall.

Visitors to Virginia's two open football practices this spring were struck by a quarterback rotation that did not necessarily favor the most experienced returnee, Peter Lalich.

Never mind that neither of his scholarship rivals, Scott Deke and Marc Verica, has attempted a pass in a college game.

"Put it this way," UVa head coach Groh said early in camp. "The [coaches are] probably the only people who haven't anointed the quarterback yet, that have decided what we'll do it on performance.

"So, therefore we're giving all three quarterbacks similar turns in terms of reps and similar turns with each particular unit."

Even if Lalich were the choice, it would make sense for Deke and Verica to spend time with the first unit. There were four times last year when Lalich was needed to replace an injured Jameel Sewell.

Sewell started 23 consecutive games over the past two seasons, but odds are that his successor will miss at least an occasional play due to injury.

Practice time is important, but there is little substitute for game action, Groh concedes. As a true freshman, Lalich played in eight of 13 games last season, completing 35 of 61 passes (57.4 percent) for 321 yards and two touchdowns, as opposed to one interception.

"We'd seen some of those throws in practice," Groh said, "but we also realized, it was happening so much faster in the game. That accounted for a lot of things.

"Clearly, Pete was in there well before his time, but there were a lot of circumstances that created that. One was the uncertainty over Jameel's [surgically repaired] wrist. Then, we had this other eligibility circumstance that has always been looming out there."

Sewell eventually was placed on academic suspension by the UVa dean's office and will miss the 2008 season.

"The prudent thing to do was to have somebody prepared to play in a game whenever that became necessary," Groh said. "In fact, we ended up winning a couple of games that we would have had difficulty winning without him. But it was still a little bit fast and a little bit much at that time."

How much will the 61 throws help?

"I can answer that question best by [repeating] the way Peter has answered it," Groh said. "He's said that he feels so much further ahead in his first spring practice than he would have felt had he not been involved in game preparation, as well as game participation.

"The most important thing to us last year was the season at hand. At the same time, that's a position that requires quite a bit of developmental time. It best served his developmental circumstances to be in the mix from the start."

Recruit in trouble

Harrisonburg High School athletic director Joe Carico said he has not been contacted by Virginia regarding its recruitment of Alex Owah, a junior running back who has been named in an affidavit concerning a robbery on or close to this past Halloween.

Owah told Sgt. Chris Rush of the Harrisonburg Police Department that he had taken part in the planning of the "robbery," but that it initially was intended as a prank. Owah also revealed to Rush that one of his Harrisonburg High teammates, Ronnell Brandon, had been distributing pain pills for more than two years and that Owah had been a user.

Owah, rated the No. 11 junior in Virginia by The Roanoke Times, made an oral commitment to the Cavaliers on Dec. 30. Carico said he hopes Virginia withholds judgment on Owah until additional information comes to light.

UVa has received five commitments for the class of 2009, but another of the committed players, all-purpose threat Caleb Porzel from Good Counsel in Olney, Md., has elected to re-open his recruiting.

Local update

Cave Spring graduate Danny Aiken has been working at center this spring after handling long-snapping duties this past fall as a true freshman. Sophomore Jack Shields and redshirt freshman Anthony Mihota are 1-2 at center, but the Cavaliers view Aiken as another option because of his size (6-4, 250) and athletic ability. He played quarterback, tight end and defensive end at Cave Spring.

Knights coach Tim Fulton confirmed Thursday that senior linebacker and 4.0 student Brady Stovall (6-2, 230) has made an oral commitment to Virginia, where he will be an invited walk-on. "He'll be an asset," said Fulton, who notes that Stovall has the kind of versatility that merits a look at various spots.

Spring game

Kickoff for the Cavaliers' spring game will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, with gates to open at noon for a variety of fan activities. At 6 p.m., the Cavaliers' third-ranked men's lacrosse team will entertain No. 2 Duke at Klockner Stadium. Attendance at Klockner has been capped at 8,000.