Thursday, October 19, 2006
Post-game news conferences different this year
Is there a Sonny Randle curse?
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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I’m continually struck by the number of people who hear Al Groh’s postgame football news conferences, especially Virginia Tech fans who want to know, “Did you ask [such and such] question?”
Used to be, the first five questions went to Jed Williams, sideline reporter for the Cavalier network, but Williams has been replaced in that position this year by former UVa quarterback Tim Sherman.
My understanding is that Williams might have been a little too opinionated on his WINA call-in show (“Best Seat in the House”) to suit UVa’s athletic brass, and that Williams, himself, might have wanted to be more of a journalist/reporter than that position normally calls for.
In any case, Williams still hosts the pre-game show and calls UVa women’s basketball games, so the parting was amicable. However, the sideline reporter no longer gets the first five questions, partly because Sherman’s father works for the football program and his son would feel uncomfortable in a second-guesser’s role.
That’s a long way of saying, if there is an obvious question to be asked, it’s more likely to come from one of the beat reporters this year. That was the case Saturday, when Groh said the Cavaliers’ game with Maryland, won by the Terps 28-26, had hinged on two plays.
“Those two plays … ” I recall having asked Groh. “You mean the fumbled punt and the interception?”
No, Groh said. He was referring to a fumbled punt by Emmanuel Byers at the UVa 1-yard line and a 16-yard punt by Chris Gould.
My first reaction when I heard that was, “He’s giving [Jameel] Sewell a free pass again.”
Don’t get me wrong. Sewell has gotten progressively better since being handed the job at halftime of a Sept. 16 game at Western Michigan, but, when Western Michigan returned an interception for a touchdown, Kevn McCabe lost his job and was relegated to the third string, not to be seen in four subsequent UVa games.
Even when Sewell was intercepted twice at the end of UVa’s 24-7 loss at Georgia Tech, after a 2-for-9 first half when most of his balls were thrown into the dirt, he remained the starter. At the time, it smacked of a double standard.
Although the win-loss record might not reflect it, there is reason to believe that the decision to go to Sewell – if not the timing -- was the correct one. I still think that McCabe would have given UVa the best chance to beat Western Michigan, but I can see where Sewell has the potential to do more than McCabe or two-game starter Christian Olsen.
And, by the time Groh met with the media Tuesday, he was saying that four plays had cost Virginia the game, including Erin Henderson’s interception return that put the Terps on top 28-20 with 8:00 left.
The fourth play, in my opinion, hasn’t gotten nearly enough attention. That was the 56-yard Keon Lattimore touchdown run that made it 21-20 with 9:11 remaining. It had taken Maryland only 14:32 to come back from a 20-0 halftime deficit and take the lead.
If you remember, that was the same drive where Virginia had Maryland in a second-and-17 situation following a Chris Long sack at the Terps’ 9 and allowed them to wriggle out of it.
Until I looked it up minutes ago, I did not realize that Virginia had given up a 56-yard run earlier in the season. UVa cornerback Chris Cook was able to drag down Western Michigan’s Mark Bonds and make the Broncos settle for a field goal but, as I recall, the plays were eerily similar. Same end of the field, same side, too.
Lattimore’s run was arguably the biggest play of the game, particularly since it was the eventual winning touchdown. In the first three quarters, Maryland had failed to gain as many as 10 yards on 23 of 24 running plays.
So, what happened?
“It’s a famous answer,” Groh said Tuesday. “I hate to use it: Miscommunication.”
“The linebacker often in that defense makes a call to the defensive end to change his alignment or technique,” Groh said. “In this particular case, he was making a call in the same direction to the outside linebacker.
“The defensive end heard the call come in that direction [and] thought he was making a technique change. In fact, he was talking to another player, so we ended up with two players in the same gap and nobody in the gap through which [Lattimore ran].”
If any one of four plays had turned out differently, Groh said, the outcome would have been different. But, I can’t remember a game with as many plays – far more than four – that were worthy of discussion.
Take the series that ended the first half, with Virginia kicking a field goal after Kevin Ogletree’s 51-yard reception had given the Cavaliers a first down at the Maryland 4. On third down, Sewell was sacked for a 5-yard loss on a play that brought howls from offensive coordinator Mike Groh in the press box.
Turns out, Sewell’s third-down pass was supposed to go to Rashawn Jackson, a redshirt freshman linebacker who has been playing fullback in short-yardage situations. One version of the story is that Jackson was held up in the middle of the defense; another version is that he ran the wrong route. In either case, he wasn’t where he was supposed to be.
Maybe it was that “famous” answer again: Miscommunication.
It’s been a fascinating game to write about.
ALL I’M THINKING about the Virginia-North Carolina game tonight is that, if the Tar Heels win, I’m going to believe there’s a Sonny Randle curse.
Randle said in a recent interview that he continues to be haunted by his two-year tenure as Virginia coach in the mid-1970s and that he won’t go back to Scott Stadium unless on assignment as a broadcast analyst.
Well, he’s had three UVa games this season – home games with Western Michigan and Maryland that he did for ESPN360 – and a Thursday night game at Georgia Tech that he did for ISP on the ACC radio network that is available on XM Radio. The Cavaliers lost all three games.
He’ll be back on radio tonight. If the Cavaliers lose tonight, which would be their third as the favorite with Randle attendance, you could put that Curse in upper case.
“That’s exactly right,” said Randle via cellphone heading across Afton Mountain. “Just put that on me.”
OUR TRAVELING PARTY will include Salem Times-Register sports editor Brian “Hoop” Hoffman, who will be making his first trip to Scott Stadium this weekend, although he recently was at the John Paul Jones Arena to see Eric Clapton in concert.
Having seen James Taylor, I had told Hoffman that the acoustics were great but that the upper-level seating was cramped. He didn’t disagree with me on either count. I thought the seats were too narrow. He said there wasn’t enough leg room.
If you’ve been to a concert or one of the shows so far at the JPJA, I’d welcome your feedback.
