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Scott Deke ‘s touchdown pass helped UVa put away ECU. |
For the second straight week, the Cavalier Call-in show had a chance to focus on a win as the Virginia football team climbed to 3-3 on the season by defeating East Carolina on Saturday 35-20. Coach Al Groh joined Dave Koehn for the eighth season installment of the show and talked about Cedric Peerman , Scott Deke and the fake field goal, Marc Verica , North Carolina, and more.
The show opened by talking about Peerman’s big day. He gained a season-high 173 yards rushing on 16 carries and scored two touchdowns on runs of 79 and 60 yards; the 173 rushing yards are the second-most by an ACC player this season. He also caught a career-high eight passes for another 26 yards. Koehn asked Coach Groh about Peerman’s first touchdown and its impact on the team since it gave UVa a 7-6 lead it never relinquished. Groh compared the play to the touchdown pass-and-catch with Marc Verica and Kevin Ogletree the week before against Maryland. He said it “gives everybody a real shot in the arm.” As for the increased production of the running game, Groh said the “overall operation is becoming more efficient” the last few weeks.
After a commercial, the show returned with audio from the fake field goal play against East Carolina. On the play, Scott Deke connected with John Phillips for a touchdown pass that gave UVa the eventual 35-20 winning margin. It was Deke’s first career touchdown pass. Koehn asked Groh what the thinking was behind making the call at that particular time.
“Simply that a touchdown would be pretty nice there. There’s a big difference between a 15-point lead at that particular time and an 11-point lead,” Groh said. “We have a way to abort the call if need be and kick the field goal so it just made sense to give it a try. The players did a great job with it. It’s all about player execution. Scott recognized it, got the operation moving efficiently, and John was there for the ball so it turned out great for us.”
Blair opened the call-in portion of the show by asking what the coaches did to get the team to “respond” and “change” since the loss to Duke.
Groh credited the players for being “very committed to being a good team” all the way back to spring practice even if they weren’t ready or didn’t have the experience to “execute as a good team.” He also created the team because they “stuck together and kept listening to direction they were getting” thanks in no small part to the senior leaders who maintained the intensity and kept working hard.
Zach, a 13-year-old from Salem, called in to ask about Marc Verica ‘s strengths and weaknesses as a quarterback.
“Probably the No.1 thing in the list of weaknesses would just be playing experience,” Groh continued “There’s a whole different set of coverages and blitzes and looks out there from teams that he hasn’t seen yet but that he’s going to see in the next six weeks.” Groh noted that the standard procedure for opposing defenses when facing young quarterbacks is to pick up the pressure and they anticipate the blitz percentages will increase above a team’s normal level when UVa faces that same team.
The next caller followed a commercial as Dave from Richmond chimed in. He congratulated the team on the big win and Koehn for calling a great game. Dave complimented the coaches and players for fostering a team atmosphere a sense of unity that is noticeable among the players and on the sidelines. Dave’s question was about the third quarter struggles the team has because he doesn’t want the other team to think they can come out and win the third quarter and take control of games. He said he knows the coaches are aware of it so he was curious as to what can be done “to try to turn that around?”
“We’re very aware of it,” Groh said. He went on to talk about the need for special teams improvement because East Carolina created good field position on the first kickoff and eventually scored to get back in the game. He said the team has to “step it up” in that phase of the game.
After another advertising break, John from Roanoke joined the show. He said it is fun watching the team play and that they’re improving. He also said the fans that have been waiting back to see what happens need to get to the stadium, be loud, and cheer. John’s question was about Patrick Pickney’s touchdown pass where he appeared to be past the line of scrimmage.
Groh said the team can hear the fans and they’re appreciative of the support. He said that Pickney was right on the edge and that it was a “legal play and a good play” before complimenting Pickney’s ability to scramble and create something. He also talked about maintaining rushing lanes while in the red zone.
Later in the show, Koehn turned the attention to the upcoming North Carolina game. UNC is 5-1 on the season and Koehn asked Groh for his thoughts about the Tar Heels.
“North Carolina is very impressive. They’ve had some very good wins,” Groh said. “Everybody could see this coming. Last year, they had a talented but a young team; they had a lot of really, really good young players but they were playing for the first time and while they didn’t get the results probably that would have been pleasing … the development of their play was very evident and you could see this was going to be a team on the rise.”
Groh went on to praise the play of Hakeem Nicks and to express the hard feelings that Brandon Tate must be feeling as a senior.
Those were the highlights from this edition of the show. The Cavaliers face the Tar Heels this Saturday at Scott Stadium at 3:30 p.m.
