Thursday, October 04, 2007
Sewell the ‘X’ factor for Saturday and beyond
Dowling, Mosley catch Groh’s eye
Doug Doughty
Doug Doughty's UVa Insider is exclusive to roanoke.com and is posted by 5 p.m. Thursdays in season.
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Every time I’m tempted to pick Virginia to lose to an undistinguished opponent, media gadfly Jeff White is quick to remind me of some of the horrendous picks I’ve made in the past.
The most memorable was my pick of Western Michigan to beat Virginia in their 2003 meeting in Kalamazoo, Mich. Virginia had looked awful one week earlier in a 31-7 loss at South Carolina, so awful that I picked the Cavaliers to lose in Kalamazoo, Mich..
What I really meant to say was that Virginia would lose to Western Michigan at home in 2006.
In 2003, Virginia smashed Western Michigan in Kalamazoo, 59-16.
(The Cavaliers did everything but steal the Broncos’ band director. Oh, wait, they did that, too).
If I had known that Marques Hagans would start at quarterback that fateful afternoon in Kalamazoo, maybe I would have picked the Cavaliers, but I couldn’t see them going anywhere with Anthony Martinez subbing for an injured Matt Schaub. And they didn’t.
If Marques Hagans were still the Virginia quarterback, I wouldn’t have picked the Cavaliers to lose to Middle Tennessee this week. With Jameel Sewell as the Cavaliers’ quarterback, MT is probably still a bad pick, but I can’t get UVa’s season-opening Wyoming debacle out of my mind.
Like a bad Western re-run, I thought I saw some of the Wyoming Sewell in the third quarter against Pittsburgh. That's when he missed all four of his pass attempts, at least one of them badly underthrown, and the Cavaliers had three consecutive three-and-outs.
Even Coach Al Groh acknowledged this week that Sewell is prone to streakiness. How else do you account for a 13-for-17 start Saturday, followed by a 3-for-14 finish?
“Neither Jameel nor the staff want to say, ‘That’s great, we’ll just take a stretch in there where we miss five or six in a row,’ “ Groh said Tuesday. “We’d like to hit 12 or 15 in a row, but, staffwise, we understand, it is what it is. This is who the player is.
“On the plus side, he is one of those players who can get very hot and give you seven or eight in a row like he does.”
Sewell says his problems are mechanical, which is better than if they were mental or psychological. Footwork can be fixed. Posture can be fixed.
“A couple of the throws that were off the mark the other day, he had himself in a body position or a mechanical position where it was going to be difficult to complete the ball,” Groh said.
Many of the UVa beat reporters received an e-mail critical of Groh for not using true freshman Peter Lalich against Pittsburgh, but there wasn’t a good time to remove Sewell, especially after the Panthers cut the deficit to 30-14 with 14:54 left.
Greater deficits have been overcome in less time.
“Things had gone so positively for him,” Groh said. “In the early going, he made some real big-time plays. Unless a guy’s having one of those hall-of-fame games, hardly any of them hit every pass. He hit his first eight or nine in a row, then it kind of went the other way a little bit.
“He had a good eye for the game [Saturday] and it wasn’t really causing us any undue concern. Obviously, we would have liked to have completed some of those balls. He would have, too. But, we didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, geez, this is going south.’ We felt he’d get back in his rhythm and he did. That’s kind of the way we wanted him to be able to finish.”
It would be helpful if Sewell’s wide receivers were more experienced, but that is what it is, too.
I’m still not convinced that wide receiver Kevin Ogletree won’t return this season, despite Groh’s statement that “anybody who thinks he’s going to play any time soon probably has about seven fantasy football teams. … I don’t see any signs of it right now.”
That made for a clever sound byte, but Groh left himself an out:
“He’s at a stage right now where sometimes players can get enough work and develop enough strength to where their circumstance can change dramatically over the course of a few weeks,” Groh said, “but right now, it’s not something that is imminent.”
Virginia had a better receiving corps last year but the offensive line is much improved, and that makes up for a lot of deficiencies. The most improved offensive lineman over this time a year ago is sophomore right tackle Will Barker, who was abused in a 38-13 loss in the 2006 season opener at Pittsburgh.
When the Cavaliers faced the Panthers again Saturday, Barker had responsibility for one of Pittsburgh’s most accomplished defensive linemen, Joe Clermond. Clermond, who led the Big East Conference in tackles for loss last season, had zero total tackles and two assists against Virginia.
“Will did a really good job,” Groh said. “Clearly, you can see the progress.”
The ability of Gordie Sammis to start at left offensive guard demonstrates that the Cavaliers’ O-line has some depth that was not previously obvious. Look for Branden Albert to return to left guard as soon as left tackle Eugene Monroe is cleared to play, but the only back-up with any experience before Saturday was tackle Zak Stair.
Sammis can also play right guard, which would cover the Cavaliers in the event of an injury to right guard Ian-Yates Cunningham or to center Jordy Lipsey, whose replacement would be Cunningham.
IN LAST WEEK’S Insider, which dealt with the UVa safeties, it was noted that recruit Chase Minniefield was getting practice time at wide receiver. That doesn’t preclude the possibility that Minnfield could fill a vacant safety spot next year, but an equally strong possibility would be another 2007 signee, Corey Mosley.
“We think he’s going to have a good future there,” Groh said. “He’s fast, he’s tough, he’s got a punch to him.”
Another true freshman who has been quick to get the attention of the coaches is Ras-I Dowling, a cornerback from Deep Creek in Chesapeake who spent the 2006 season at Hargrave Military Academy.
Unlike Mosley, who is being redshirted, Dowling made his debut on special teams in UVa’s second game. Since then, he has been responsible for 12 tackles (seven solo, five assisted) in 72 plays.
“Those guys who have shown the knack of being able to step up when the opportunity is presented them, we’re always anxious to see if they can expand that,” Groh said. “He got a few more plays on defense last week.
“We like very much what he is doing and we look forward to him being able to give us some production in the second half. He’s one of those players who seems to be outgrowing his freshman year at a good pace.”
