Thursday, March 29, 2007
Schaub’s actions speak louder than Groh
Did Groh lose faith in Byers?
Doug Doughty
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TRIVIA QUESTION: Of the Virginia wide receivers with remaining eligibility, who has the most receptions at the Division I-A level?
We’ll get back to that one later.
As I was rummaging through four or five sets of notes from Al Groh teleconferences, I was reminded of an exchange Groh had this week with a Houston Chronicle columnist, Jerome Solomon..
The subject was former UVa quarterback Matt Schaub, who was traded from Atlanta to Houston last week and has signed a six-year, $48-million contract.
Solomon prefaced a question by saying that one of Schaub’s first moves as a Texan was to ask the organization for the phone numbers of all of the players.
“It’s not something, I would guess, that he just thought up or that someone told him would be a good idea,” Groh said.
“In answer to [Solomon’s] first question, for me to tell you a little bit about him, that’s Matt telling you everything you need to know about Matt, much moreso than anything I could say.
“With Matt, it’s always been about a lot more than just about him. It’s always been about the team and what it takes to win.”
TRIVIA ANSWER: Cary Koch.
This is a trick question in more than one way because, even if Koch had not caught 23 passes at Tulane in 2005, the answer still would not have been Maurice Covington, who had seven receptions for the Cavaliers in 2006.
If you’re talking about Virginia wide receivers with remaining eligibility, you’d also have to consider Emmanuel Byers, who had 10 catches for the Cavaliers last year.
I already had wondered privately if an injury to Kevin Ogletree might cause Groh to rethink his decision not to bring Byers back for a fifth year. When I consulted media gadfly Jeff White, he confirmed that the Byers situation had been serving as Internet fodder.
Here’s what Groh had to say March 20 about Byers and his policy on fifth-year seniors:
“It’s about roster management,” Groh said at a news conference on the day before spring drills started. “Obviously, a big part of it is team chemistry and team morale. That is, it is only fair to the player and the long-term benefits of the team, if you look at what the circumstances are going to be in the upcoming year.
“We always want to put a player in a position, if he’s going to be back for a fifth year, that it’s with the expectation that it will be a very positive year. I don’t think it’s fair for a player who could graduate and move on to something else, to go through everything they have to through – the offseason, the training camp – and not have a substantial role.”
It’s easy to see how Byers would not have had a substantial role with the emergence of Ogletree and Covington and the arrival of 3 to 4 promising freshmen, but now Ogletree is likely to miss the 2007 season. That opens up about 500 to 600 plays for another receiver and, theoretically, Byers could have a substantial role.
On the other hand, Groh has always seemed to run hot and cold on Byers, who had a productive final month of the 2005 season but was limited by an Achilles problem last year. After he dropped a pass at East Carolina and fumbled a punt against Maryland, Groh never seemed comfortable with him again.
Did I say “hot and cold?” Make that luke warm and cold.
IN THINKING BACK to some of the best Virginia receiving corps over the last 25 years, many of them included walk-ons, players like Patrick Jeffers, Tim Finkelston, Keith Mattioli, Derek Dooley and Bryan Owen.
You have to wonder if Staton Jobe might one day join that list.
“When there were only three players left on the field the other day, long after everybody else had gone in, Staton was one of the three,” Groh said. “He’s got a good commitment to this. He’s got a real good work ethic. You can see his passion for football. I would certainly put him in the mix of those guys who have a real good chance to compete.”
The other two players with Jobe: fellow redshirt freshmen Marc Verica, a quarterback, and Chris Dalton, another wide receiver.
GROH SAID THAT offensive lineman Gordie Sammis, a senior this past season, has been going through spring drills in hopes that the NCAA might give him an extra year of eligibility based on his brief appearance in a 51-0 victory over Temple in 2005.
It was his only appearance of the season but it was in the second half of the year, usually a no-no in hardship appeals..
“Frankly, we lost track of him,” Groh said. “Before we knew it, he was in the game. We have petitioned in his behalf. We weren’t on top of the situation. You’d have to ask the NCAA [about a precedent]. I don’t have any great confidence on how they rule on anything.”
