It’s not so bad being the underdog. People don’t expect you to win.
Motivation is easy to come by. The opponent may not give you enough respect.
If you lose, you won’t be labelled a choker or underacheiver.
The Cavaliers have thrived in that role all season, and they get one more
chance to overcome the odds — or at least the oddsmakers — Saturday in the Continental Tire Bowl. No. 15 West Virginia enters Ericsson Stadium as a five-point favorite, but that’s nothing unusual for Virginia, which has gone 5-5 as an underdog this season (and 3-0 as the betting-line favorite).
But hey, this isn’t the Las Vegas Bowl, so who cares about odds? The point
is the Cavaliers once again find themselves in a position that they seem to enjoy — facing a formidable opponent, seemingly overmatched, with skeptics all around.
“Every game this year, we’ve felt like we had something to prove,” said
quarterback Matt Schaub. “I think some people might still doubt us. We want to come out and win this game and end the season on the right note.”
That won’t be easy. The Mountaineers (9-3) rank second in the nation in two important stats — rushing offense and turnover margin — and have won six of their past seven games. Their only loss down the stretch came against No. 1 Miami, and they finished second to the Hurricanes in the Big East, ahead of Pitt and Virginia Tech.
“I don’t think we could face a more severe challenge to judge just how far
we’ve come,” said UVa coach Al Groh during the team’s final media session
Friday. “This is a compelling matchup.”
On paper, anyway, West Virginia presents plenty of matchup problems for the Cavaliers. The most obvious is its rushing attack, which has produced 287 yards per game, against UVa’s 105th-rated rushing defense. Senior tailback Avon Cobourne is the Big East’s career rushing leader and has dashed for 1,593 yards and 15 touchdowns this season.
“Any time a player is the leading rusher in the history of a conference,”
Groh said, “you don’t have to be Knute Rockne to know where the focus needs to be.”
Virginia also must deal with Cobourne’s backup, Quincy Wilson, who has
rushed for 863 yards and six TDs. “I think if Cobourne goes out of the game for Gatorade, I’m not sure we’ll be able to tell the difference,” Groh said. And then there is WVU quarterback Rasheed Marshall, who has 618 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns — 12 rushing, nine passing.
“You look at a guy with more touchdown runs than touchdown passes, that’s
got to be a concern,” Groh said.
Still, the Cavaliers say they aren’t exactly in awe of Cobourne and company. After all, they have faced a number of top tailbacks this season, including Penn State’s Larry Johnson (the nation’s leading rusher), Colorado State’s Cecil Sapp, Florida State’s Greg Jones and Virginia Tech’s Lee Suggs and Kevin Jones.
Senior linebacker Merrill Robertson evidently is sick of people asking him
about Cobourne. “He’s a good running back and all, but he hasn’t done
anything Larry Johnson hasn’t done,” he said.
Robertson had to bite his tongue in order to avoid sounding dismissive of
Cobourne’s abilities. But he evidently was irked about comments Cobourne
supposedly made to reporters.
“They’ve kind of made me mad now,” he said. “I heard [Cobourne] said that
they think they’re a better team than us. He said we can’t stop him and
they’re going to win. We’ll see. We’ll see.”
Of course, Cobourne may be right. Virginia’s three lopsided losses came
against Florida State, Penn State and Virginia Tech — probably the three
best rushing teams on its schedule. But it also contained other good running attacks, including those of South Carolina, N.C. State, Maryland and Wake Forest, and prevailed in those games.
“We know we can win,” Robertson said. “We won eight games against the
10th-toughest schedule in the nation. [Cobourne] is a great back, but we’ll slow him down enough to win the game.”
Without its best defensive lineman, Chris Canty, Virginia doesn’t match up
well against West Virginia’s impressive offensive line, led by All-Big East left tackle Lance Nimmo. Nimmo is one of three seniors on the line, a sharp contrast to the Cavaliers, who will start two freshmen and a sophomore on their defensive front.
The same experience gap exists on the other line. All three of WVU’s
starters on the defensive line are seniors, as are two of the three starting linebackers. (The exception is junior Grant Wiley, who was an All-Big East first-team pick.) UVa will try to move the ball with three freshmen and two sophomores starting on the offensive line. The unit’s only senior, right tackle Mike Mullins, will miss the game after undergoing back surgery Monday, so true freshman Brad Butler will start in his place.
That means Schaub, the ACC’s player of the year, likely will go airborne and test the Mountaineer secondary, which has three quality safeties and a pair of decent cornerbacks. Overall, the West Virginia defense has forced 34 turnovers and allowed 20 or fewer points in each of its past four games.
“They’re fast and aggressive,” said Billy McMullen, who could be a key to
today’s game. The senior needs eight catches to become the ACC’s all-time
receiver. Though he said the record is less important than the victory, he
sounded determined to finish his Cavalier career with a big performance.
“It’s my last game, so I’m sure it’s going to be emotional,” he said. “I’m
going to be ready. It’s going to be crazy.”
West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said he was worried about Schaub,
McMullen and freshman tailback Wali Lundy.
“I think the key for us is we need to control the ball and keep their
offense off the field,” Rodriguez said. “Schaub’s too good, McMullen’s too
good, Lundy’s too good. They’re going to make plays. But if we can move the ball on offense, we’ll keep the defense off the field and hopefully put points on the board.”
The Mountaineers have 21 seniors and are likely to play 20, while the
Cavaliers may use as few as five seniors.
Still, Rodriguez said, “They’re a young team and they’ve gotten better over the course of the season. Now those freshmen are really sophomores. We expect a very tough, physical ballgame.”
Groh said he expects the same. Overall, the Cavaliers seem more excited
about this game than their two previous bowl trips to Miami and Honolulu,
both blowout losses. The warm weather and small crowds may have hurt their
focus in those games. That won’t be a problem this time. The temperature is near freezing and more than 70,000 fans are expected to pile into Ericsson Stadium on Saturday morning.
“It feels like a bigger game,” McMullen said. “There’s a lot more excitement and anxiety.”
“It’s a huge game,” Robertson said. “That makes it more fun. There are going to be 73,000 people watching, not 5,000. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
