Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Virginia wide receiver Jared Green (left) makes a catch against Southern Cal's T.J. Bryant. Green caught three passes for 40 yards.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- On an afternoon that seemed overwhelming for many of Virginia's younger football players, redshirt freshman Jared Green stood tall Saturday following a 52-7 loss to visiting Southern Cal.

Green, a 6-foot-2, 178-pound wide receiver from Vienna, Va., was not listed on the Cavaliers' two-deep roster but had three receptions for 40 yards. The first came on his first collegiate play.

"Probably in the last seven or eight days, [he's] started to show some of the things that showed up today," coach Al Groh said after the game. "He made some nice plays, which is an encouraging thing at that position.

"What he's starting to do is to use his speed more. He is one of the fastest players that we've had here, but if he doesn't have the pedal to the floor all the time, he doesn't play faster than the other guys.

"He's starting to understand the value of his speed."

If there was one Virginia player who might not have been awed by the opponent and a Scott Stadium-record crowd of 64,947, it would have been Green.

One month earlier, he had been rubbing elbows with NFL Hall of Famers in Canton, Ohio, where he was the presenter for his father, ex-Washington Redskins cornerback Darrell Green.

On Saturday, Darrell Green was among the spectators at Scott Stadium and father and son spoke before Jared met with the media.

"He said he was speechless," Jared said. "If you guys watched his speech at the Hall of Fame, you know he's very emotional. That's him.

"Coming from a guy who played in the NAIA league [at Texas A&I] and was thought to be too small, he didn't have a lot of opportunities compared to mine.

"He's one of those fathers, he's so proud, all he talks about is me. He doesn't talk about himself. I probably have read more about him than he's told me."

Chasing Koch

Talk that Charlottesville could catch the remnants of Hurricane Hanna this weekend have brought back memories for wide receiver Cary Koch, who probably wouldn't be in Charlottesville if not for Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged the gulf coast in 2005.

Koch was a freshman wide receiver at Tulane that fall, when his team was unable to play any home games after Katrina forced closing of the campus. He transferred to Virginia after Tulane dropped his proposed major.

"I talked to a friend last Wednesday who is still on Tulane's team," Koch said. "He said they've been evacuated again. If I'd stayed at Tulane, I would have been evacuated my freshman year as well as my senior year.

"The last time Tulane was evacuated, they told us to bring a bag for two or three days, and this time, they said they packed a suitcase."

By last week, Tropical Storm Fay had done most of its damage and the Bayou was bracing for Hurricane Gustav. Koch said his family traveled north for the Cavaliers' game with Southern California and elected not to return home before this Saturday's 3:45 p.m. kickoff with Richmond.

"In Baton Rouge, once a day, it'll just rain," Koch said. "I counted up eight of 15 games my senior year that were played either in the rain or a torrential downpour. So, I'm used to playing in wet games."

Personnel

Junior Denzel Burrell, who battled Aaron Clark for playing time in the preseason, will take over as a starter at outside linebacker after Clark suffered a season-ending knee injury Saturday.

Highly rated recruit Cameron Johnson (6-foot-4, 220 pounds) is listed as Burrell's back-up and the Cavaliers are prepared to play him, Groh said.

• Steve Greer joins Johnson and offensive guard Austin Pasztor as true freshmen listed on the two-deep. Greer is listed behind Jon Copper at inside linebacker. Only Pasztor saw action against USC. ... Sophomore Mike Parker is listed No. 1 at the cornerback spot where redshirt freshman Chase Minniefield started against Southern Cal.

• Junior wide receiver Kevin Ogletree, returning to action after knee surgery caused him to miss the 2007 season, returned kickoffs for the first time in his UVa career. Ogletree's 18.5-yard average was deceiving because an apparent 25-yard return was shorted to 14 yards by penalty.

Quote of the week

When asked about players of the week, Groh said, "Nobody's player of the week. There's no coach of the week. There's no player of the week. There's the bum of the week and I'm leading the club."