If there's one consolation for Al Groh as he looks ahead to an Aug. 30 visit from Southern Cal, it's that the opener has rarely set the tone for his Virginia football teams.

The Cavaliers have won nine games in a season twice during Groh's seven-year tenure, and they lost their opening game on both occasions.

When Virginia lost its 2007 opener at Wyoming, 23-3, the team hadn't returned to town before a noted school landmark, Beta Bridge, had been painted over with the message, "Groh Must Go."

All the Cavaliers did was win their next seven games en route to a 9-4 season, but offseason losses -- anticipated and otherwise -- have relegated UVa to a fifth-place preseason choice out of six teams in the ACC's Coastal Division.

Perhaps there could have been a better time to entertain the Trojans, who were ranked third in last season's final Associated Press poll.

"This is the most talented college football team I've seen since I had to do pre-draft work on the Florida State teams of the mid- to late-1990s," said Groh, who was a National Football League assistant at the time.

"They had the most guys in the country drafted last year and a couple of NFL general managers have told me: 'They might have more drafted next year.' They definitely have been in a league of their own in the decade from 2000 on."

And, the Cavaliers have fewer than six weeks to get ready for them.

"It's as good a time as any in that we only wanted to play it in the first game, and they only wanted to play it in the first game," Groh said earlier this week at the ACC's Football Kickoff in Greensboro, Ga.

"Given who the opponent is and the important we place on conference play, what would it be like if we had seven conference opponents and then Southern California? It would be distracting, certainly, and perhaps harmful to our intentions within the conference."

Virginia seniors Clint Sintim and John Phillips addressed the media one day before Groh's sitdown. They didn't shy away from the challenge of facing Southern Cal.

"'Excited's' not the word for it," Sintim said. "'Ecstatic' is the word. It's a team full of Army All-Americans and even their back-ups were All-Americans [in high school]. I've never played a team of that caliber.

"I heard rumors about the game last year, that we were going to play USC or Penn State. I was hoping for USC. In my spare time, I've been looking at a DVD of their last four games, putting numbers together with the names and bios on the Internet. Nothing too serious, but it just adds to the excitement."

Virginia is 3-4 in opening games under Groh, with the losses to intersectional foes Wisconsin, Colorado State, Pittsburgh and Wyoming.

"We analyze everything all the time," Groh said. "Just because we give something a lot of forethought doesn't mean that there wasn't a better way to do it.

"We do want to play better than we have in the past couple openers and there's an absolute need to play better in this one."

Odds 'n Ends

Cornerback Mike Brown is not listed on the Cavaliers' roster but Groh said he is still waiting for information before making a determination on Brown's status. In February, Brown was charged with larceny and possession of marijuana and he did not participate in spring practice. ... Groh said that his team's collective grade-point average was higher in the second semester than at any time in the previous nine years. ... Groh and his wife, Anne, spent a long weekend in El Salvador at the invitation of U.S. Ambassador Charles Glazer, a fellow UVa student in the 1960s whose son was a faceoff specialist for the Cavaliers' undefeated 2006 lacrosse team.