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Al Groh |
On his Cavalier Call-In radio show tonight, Al Groh talked with host Mac McDonald about the Syracuse game, including the fourth-down decision on the final drive. He also took questions from fans about stopping play-action passes, when to blitz, whether it was realistic to win championships with UVa’s academic standards, the personal foul call on Tony Franklin and when the Cavs will start using the shotgun.
Callers and Questions
1) Ginger in Roanoke asked how Groh handles all of the questions about Ahmad Brooks without “blowing your top. If I was you, I’d be hitting the media right now.”
“For one thing, it doesn’t do any good. I’d probably lose a lot of friends by doing it,” Groh said. “Everyone has the right to answer any question they think is appropriate, and of course I have the right to give any answer I think is appropriate. So it’s a pretty good tradeoff.”
2) Cathy in Charlottesville noted that Syracuse had success with play-action passes and asked how the coaches prepare the defense to stop that.
“That’s a well-informed question,” said Groh, who pointed out that Syracuse used play-action passes that were counter bootlegs, meaning they ran counter to the original direction of the play. “They did a good job of that. I have to be magnanimous in saying that.”
But Groh said his players should have done a better job of stopping those plays. The UVa defense sees those counter bootlegs a lot during practice and they run drills to stop them. “The key thing is the linebackers have to learn as they get their particular reads not just to follow the ball,” he said. They have to figure out whether it’s a real run block or a fake run block, and find the crossing receiver who often is the intended target.
3) Burt in Vinton asked how Virginia can get more pressure on the quarterback and wondered how the coaches decide when to blitz.
Groh said those decisions are based first on individual matchups, starting with the outside matchups at WR and CB. Then the coaches look at the matchups on the line and decide whether they will need more than four rushers on most occasions. Secondly, he said they look at the offensive scheme and try to figure out ways to defeat it. The mobility of the quarterback also affects those decisions. Against Syracuse, he said, the Cavs sent more than four rushers about half the time on passing downs.
4) Ed in Lynchburg said the media focused too much on “squeaking out the victory” and not enough attention was paid to the final drive that won the game.
“I’ll have you know your play-by-play guy did,” Mac said. “I thought it was a thing of beauty.”
Said Groh: “Yeah, I thought the players understood what needed to be done. There wasn’t any conversation about it. We’ve had those circumstances before. We were able to pick up and slow down the tempo at appropriate times over the course of the drive. Their poise and their knowledge of it was a big factor in the success that we had.”
5) Wendell in Fishersville asked whether it was realistic for Virginia to win ACC and national championships given the academic standards of the university.
“In terms of our ambitions, what we’re aiming to do is somewhat unprecedented with schools of this academic reputation and academic standing,” Groh said. “But we’re pretty resolute and determined to see that through. Of course, Coach Welsh had some excellent teams long before we came here, so there’s a pretty good precedent for being able to do that. But it’s certainly very challenging and we’re appreciate of our players here who are willing to take that challenge. They’re football players at heart, but they also have a lot of foresight to appreciate the quality of their education.”
6) Lynn in Richmond asked about the “BS call” on Tony Franklin in the first quarter when Franklin hit Damien Rhodes at the end of a long run. Replays showed Rhodes was still in bounds when Franklin hit him, but he was called for a personal foul.
“It’s a good thing you’re not an ACC coach because if you were they probably would have fined you for saying that,” said Groh, who said he would ask the ACC office what Franklin should have done. “A) Should Tony have asked him politely to step out of bounds? B) Should he have done what he did? C) Maybe he should have blown on him and seen if that would work.”
7) Diana in Roanoke asked about the noise at the Carrier Dome.
It was a good environment and should get us prepared for more noisy environments,” Groh said. “It was not the only noisy environment we’ll face, but it was the first time for many notable players on our team, so I think it was worthwhile.”
8) Nathan in Richmond asked whether the Cavaliers will start using the shotgun this season.
“The use of the shotgun is a lot more dependent on Bart as a center and him being comfortable with it than any other circumstance,” Groh said.
Notes and Quotes
“I’ll bet you, Mac, that if we were to hold a party for all the people who before the play thought it was a good idea, we probably could have held that party in a phone booth,” Groh said. “Which probably includes all those people who most games are yelling on fourth down, ‘Go for it. Go for it.’ Well, we did go for it. Sometimes you have to step up and show a little bit of confidence in your players, not just for that game but for the long term, too.
“It probably wasn’t the conventional thing to do. But one, I had the confidence in the players and I wanted them to have the confidence in themselves that they could come back and say that they performed under those circumstances. Two, it wasn’t as if we were behind. The game was tied. It didn’t mean that if we didn’t make it they would automatically win the game. They still had a ways to go and we had been very good against them with our nickel. And the other thought was if we kicked a field goal at that time, that doesn’t mean we’re automatically going to win. There’s a minute and 58 seconds left in the game. They had still had one timeout left. That’s a long time, and that meant we would have to make four plays in a row to get them off the field. If we make the first down, they’re not going to get the ball back. The only way we could lose the game was to not score ourselves, and we have one of the best kickers in the country. So it seemed like the odds favored us making one inch one time than stopping them four straight times on downs. So that’s what we did there, and fortunately the players made it look good.”
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