Thursday, September 11, 2008
Lalich situation remains volatile
Who's the No.3 quarterback?
Doug Doughty
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More than a few readers voiced their displeasure with an item that appeared in Saturday’s print edition of The Roanoke Times under the heading “Keys to the Game.”
The first “key” for Virginia in its home game against Richmond was whether Virginia quarterback Peter Lalich would play in the game.
As at least one reader pointed out, Lalich was going to play. A story acknowledging that fact was printed elsewhere in the section.
Most readers understood the sarcasm but several thought it was a cheap shot when the item continued and said, “There [are] still 24 hours in which he could get in more trouble.”
OK, maybe it was a cheap shot, but we’ve seen this week how much things can change in a 24-hour span.
On Tuesday, Lalich was sitting in front of the media and thoughtfully talking about staring down receivers (he denied it) and impatience (he admitted it) and getting praise from teammates for his growing maturity.
“A step forward,” I told Lalich’s father, Todd, later that evening.
Less than 36 hours later, UVa was putting out a statement to the effect that Lalich would not play this week at Connecticut.
My first impression was twofold: Either Lalich had screwed up -- flunked a drug test or been caught misbehaving in public -- or UVa president John Casteen was grandstanding again.
Turns out, it was neither.
From what we know, Lalich had done something stupid, but he hadn’t violated terms of his probation stemming from a July citation for underage possession of alcohol. He had just acted in a matter that caused head coach Al Groh to sit him down.
“It's not about any one particular thing,” Groh said Thursday on a regularly scheduled teleconference. “It just seemed like the appropriate thing to do at this time.
“There's no hidden statement about what we feel about any alleged or reported incidents or any date coming up or what not. It's just the whole thing has taken on legs; we decided to cut the legs off it."
Basically, Lalich wasn’t as repentant as he should have been.
That was pretty much all that Groh would say about the situation Thursday on a bizarre conference call that was complete with hecklers.
I jumped in with the first question, asking Groh if Lalich would continue to practice.
“I’m not elaborating on my statement from yesterday,” Groh said.
Before anybody could ask another question, there was some shouting in the background before somebody yelled out, “How’s it hanging?”
Sports information director Jim Daves interrupted at that point, asking the saboteurs to “stay off the line.”
“Make me,” was the reply.
There were several other brief interruptions before Groh was asked the following question:
“Have you ever picked your nose and rubbed it on the ball?”
Assistant sports information Michael Colley challenged the unnamed callers again before somebody asked Groh if he had ever lived in Connecticut.
(Groh had said earlier in the week that none of his teams had ever played in Connecticut.)
Before Groh could say whether he had lived in Connecticut, one of the unwanted guests chimed in, “He worked in New York, dude.”
It was comical but it was obnoxious. To his credit, Groh didn’t lose his composure and did provide a little bit of information:
He said that true freshman quarterback Riko Smalls will not be making the trip, leaving Marc Verica and Scott Deke as the only scholarship quarterbacks and maybe the only quarterbacks, period.
If Smalls isn’t on the trip, who’s the emergency quarterback?
“Can we get onto something a little more upbeat?” Groh asked.
Media gadfly Jeff White said he was tempted to ask if Vic Hall was a possibility, but felt Groh had experienced enough aggravation by that point.
As for the “injury” that hobbled tailback Cedric Peerman in a 17-0 victory over Richmond, Groh repeated what he had said Monday in his conference call, that Peerman had not injured a hip, as reported in The Roanoke Times.
“He was hit literally at my feet,” Groh said. “It was very aggressive, very legal, helmet to helmet. He wobbled off and, though his instincts told him to get back out there, we were obviously concerned. The first thing was to get him re-oriented.
“A guy can go 6-7 weeks into a season and not take the kind of hit he’s taken two games in a row.”
Groh had a good answer when asked if Lalich would automatically retain the starting job if and when he is reinstated.
“If you had a nine-game winning streak and changed quarterbacks before the 10th game, that would just add to the impression that the coach is a dope,” he said.
Don’t think he had forgotten that UVa has an open date Sept. 20, which will give him some extra time to re-visit the Lalich situation before the Cavaliers visit Duke.
“It certainly will be helpful, yes,” Groh said.
LAST WEEK’S POLL had the anticipated outcome. Of the more than 650 people who responded to the question, “Which was the worse loss,” more than 87 percent said a 23-3 loss at Wyoming in the 2007 opener was worse than a 52-7 loss to Southern Cal in this year’s opener.
