Thursday, September 18, 2008
Duke game critical for Groh
Fork Union coach talks up Pasztor
Doug Doughty
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Part of me says that Virginia's upcoming football game is the biggest of Al Groh's coaching career.
The other part of me says, "Remember Wyoming."
I can still remember the visually stunning drive from Laramie, Wyo., to Denver, with an equally pleasing dinner stop in microbrew-happy Fort Collins, Colo., and how a certain media gadfly and I discussed possible Virginia coaching candidates for hours.
We didn't have that conversation for the remainder of the season.
The 2007 Cavaliers had a klunker for an opener, losing at Wyoming 23-3, but never embarrassed themselves again. I can't remember anybody predicting a 9-4 season at the time, and I know nobody's predicting one now.
You could say that Virginia has had two klunkers already, although the 52-7 season-opening loss to Southern California doesn't look as bad in the context of USC's subsequent 35-3 romp over Ohio State.
Statistics would suggest that there was a 30-minute segment during the middle of the Virginia-USC game when the Cavaliers played respectably. There was no redeeming value to UVa's performance Saturday at Connecticut, where it seemed the Huskies could have won 63-0 if they had wanted.
Especially after an 11-for-11 first half, quarterback Tyler Lorenzen attempted only four second-half passes. Virginia knew that the Huskies were going to give the ball to tailbacks Donald Brown and Jordan Todman and still couldn't stop them.
Brown, a one-time Cavalier recruit out of Red Bank, N.J., has rushed for 566 yards in three games (206 against UVa). In a feature story in Friday's Hartford Courant, Brown said Connecticut had showed him the most love from the start but indicated he "probably" would have gone to Virginia if the Cavaliers had committed to him as a running back.
"Every game means the world to me," said Brown after the UConn-UVa game, "but there are two red letter games on the schedule and this was one of them."
These kind of recruiting stories are not uncommon. Brown is a redshirt junior, which would have put him in the 2005 recruiting class. Virginia took two running backs in that class, Mikell Simpson and Rayshawn Jackson, and also had Cedric Peerman in the program.
Would you take Brown over Simpson and/or Peerman? Not in 2007, when Simpson and Peerman rushed for close to 1,200 yards and Simpson led the team in receptions. The UVa running backs haven't done anything this year but the Cavaliers had only 14 rushing attempts against UConn. How would anybody know?
We have to assume that Virginia has gone to a spread offense because it was thought that a rebuilt offensive line initially would find it easier to pass-block than run-block. UVa quarterbacks have been sacked only four times in three games, but the tradeoff is a bunch of 1- and 2-yard completions that don't move the chains.
In my eyes, it would help if head coach Al Groh took one or two coaches out of the press box and moved them to the sidelines, but it's mostly about players and there are several problem areas, most notably the offensive line and safety. At the latter spot, Brandon Woods is getting his first opportunity to start this year as a fourth-year junior and maybe now we know why he didn't play earlier.
Remember, Woods was a promising wide receiver out of Durham, N.C., higher rated than his former high-school teammate, Maurice Covington. But it was Covington who played as a true freshman wide receiver while Woods was moved to defense. The Cavaliers had a trio of veteran safeties in front of Woods - Nate Lyles, Jamaal Jackson and Byron Glaspy - but Lyles was injured for a time and Jackson was a journeyman. If Woods had distinguished himself, presumably he would have played.
It's not an easy position to master, obviously. One of UVa's back-up safeties, Rico Bell, attracted considerable interest out of Charlotte, N.C.'s Vance High School and was a state sprint champion, but Bell can't get on the field as a third-year sophomore. Redshirt freshman Corey Mosley is a hitter and Lord knows the Cavaliers need somebody who can make a tackle, but he needs to become better acclimated to the scheme.
If you're looking for a true freshman whose redshirt might come off at Duke, the scene of similar 2004 decisions involving Chris Gorham and Bud Davis, you might want to consider 6-4, 200-pound true freshman Ausar Walcott. When asked about Walcott and other true freshmen who had made the trip to Connecticut, Groh said that Walcott was being rewarded as the scout-team player of the week.
One true freshman who has played, but only sparingly, is 17-year-old offensive guard Austin Pasztor (6-6, 310). Pasztor played at Fork Union Military Academy last year and FUMA coach John Shuman says that he is comparable to Anthony Castonzo, a 2006 FUMA offensive lineman who started as a true freshman last year at Boston College.
It might be noted that Castonzo was at least year older than Pasztor, who played on the Fork Union postgraduate team as a senior in high school, and had the benefit of enrolling at Boston College at mid-year and participating in 2007 spring practice.
Pasztor "doesn't have the same foot speed, which is why they bumped [Pasztor] inside," said Shuman, who played Pasztor at tackle, "He's got the same smarts and he'll get after you. He's as good a lineman as I've had. He'll be an All-American in two years."
Shuman is a master of hyperbole. He won't mind me saying that. But, if Pasztor has the potential to be, let's say, an all-conference player, then maybe Groh could increase his playing time. At the very least, an open date will give O-line coach Dave Borbely a chance to rediscover the 2007 Will Barker because the 2008 Barker has not been the same guy.
Better safety play and an improved offensive line would help, but UVa will need for its playmakers to come through against Duke, which has scored 31, 20 and 41 points in its first three games. Granted, the Blue Devils have played James Madison, Northwestern and Navy, but chances are, Duke will be favored against UVa.
Considering that Duke has lost 25 consecutive conference games, it would be an insult for Virginia to be chosen as underdog next week, much less lose the game. After the trip to Duke, UVa has consecutive home games with Maryland, East Carolina and North Carolina.
Maryland looked vulnerable early, but now the Terps have a victory over ranked California. East Carolina beat Virginia two years ago in Greenville, N.C., and the Pirates have a better team now. North Carolina hasn't won in Charlottesville since the early 1980's but would be a heavy favorite if the game were played today.
LAST WEEK'S POLL attracted almost 750 respondents, with 40.4 percent saying they thought quarterbacks Jameel Sewell and Peter Lalich both would be members of the 2009 UVa team.
The smallest segment, 13 percent, said that Sewell but not Lalich would be on the team. But, if you had to say which one is taking better care of his business right now, it might be Sewell.
(That's not absolving Sewell for getting in his current academic pickle).
This week's question:
