Associated Press

Virginia quarterback Marc Verica has been picked off 12 times this season, although he has completed 64.5 percent of his passes.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Anybody taking a look at Virginia's depleted 2008 football roster would have agreed that the Cavaliers had little margin for error.

In that respect, it's a wonder the Cavaliers are even .500.

With two games remaining in the regular season, Virginia has yielded more interceptions (16) and committed more turnovers (25) than any other team during Al Groh's eight-year tenure.

Remarkably, sophomore Marc Verica has been victimized for 12 of the interceptions despite completing 64.5 percent of his passes.

"Obviously, they have to be cut down," said Verica, who also has been responsible for three lost fumbles. "Any time you turn the ball over, especially on the road, it's going to be difficult to win.

"I think that's just something, over time, I'll get better at, be it in the pocket or carrying the ball. It's tremendously important, especially the style of games that we play in the ACC, where every game is so close and you can really win or lose a game on three to five plays."

Verica prides himself on his accuracy, sometimes completing a practice with no more than one or two incompletions.

"I threw an interception the other night in practice," Verica said, "and that was my first interception in a long time. It was [freshman] Rodney McLeod. He made a good play. He's a good young player."

Virginia hasn't yielded as many as 16 interceptions since 1996, when opponents picked off 18 UVa passes. That UVa team committed 33 turnovers -- the last time the Cavaliers have had as many as 25.

"In most healthy relationships, communication is the key," said Groh, whose Cavaliers (5-5, 3-3) entertain Clemson (5-5, 3-4) at noon Saturday.

"I think it's important that the players understand what the head coach feels. As you can imagine, those aren't things that make me feel warm and fuzzy.

"We've had a couple of circumstances this year where the team played a pretty good game, but the numbers on the board would say otherwise. Certain things happened to the ball that skewed the results of everybody. Do that too many times, and that's who you are as a team."

The Cavaliers lost road games at Duke (31-3) and Wake Forest (28-17) despite holding both teams to less than 300 yards.

McCabe flourishes

Kevin McCabe, unceremoniously dropped to third string after starting the third game of Virginia's 2006 football season, has been nominated for the Harlon Hill Trophy as the Division II national player of the year.

McCabe, who enrolled at California University of Pennsylvania after graduating from UVa in 2007, has passed for 2,606 yards and 25 touchdowns after leading the Vulcans to a 10-1 record and a first-round bye in the Division II playoffs.

McCabe sat out the 2007 season at UVa and is in his sixth season of college football, an option that isn't available at the Division I level.

"It's nice to see his plan work," Groh said Tuesday.

By the numbers

Senior linebacker Jon Copper, a walk-on from Northside High School, enters play Saturday with 285 tackles for his UVa career.

With eight more tackles, he will move into 15th place on UVa's all-time list, a spot currently shared by former defensive end Sean Scott and ex-safety Jerton Evans.

Copper has 85 tackles this season, and no other Virginia player has more than 60. Copper, who is tied for third on this year's ACC tackle list, is bidding to become the first player to lead the Cavaliers in tackles for three consecutive seasons since Charles McDaniel from 1982-84.

n Tailback Cedric Peerman, who will join Copper among the 24 fourth- and fifth-year players who will be recognized before Saturday's game, has moved into 11th place on UVa's list for career all-purpose yardage. Peerman, with 3,206 yards, needs 68 yards to move into the top 10.

Odds 'n' ends

The aforementioned Evans, a graduate of Jefferson Forest High School, is an assistant football coach at Crest High School in Shelby, N.C., and is married to Gardner-Webb women's basketball assistant Krystal Reeves-Evans. She is the daughter of Gardner-Webb head women's basketball coach and former Liberty University coach Rick Reeves. ... A pregame handshake Saturday will mark the first meeting between UVa's Groh and Clemson interim coach Dabo Swinney.