Tuesday Press Conference Notes ’08 – Clemson

By: Kris Wright |

Now, both teams are trying to finish on the upswing with an eye on bowl eligibility. UVa needs one win to qualify for a bowl while Clemson needs two since it has two victories over Football Championship Subdivision teams.

Virginia coach Al Groh said Tuesday that the Tigers present a lot of challenges for a defense because they still have all of the talent that had them ranked highly in the preseason. Quarterback Cullen Harper has moved into second place on Clemson’s career completions list and fourth on the career passing yardage list. Harper has 5,236 career passing yards and 471 completions. In his last three games, he has thrown for 784 yards and 4 touchdowns.

The weapons around Harper are impressive. C.J. Spiller has 4,470 all-purpose yards in his career, which ranks second in program history; he needs 369 to break the previous mark. Receiver Aaron Kelly is 129 receiving yards away from becoming the program’s all-time leader in that category and has already set a Clemson record for receiving touchdowns with 19. Then there’s running back James Davis , who has 3,699 career rushing yards; he needs just 268 to become the school’s all-time leader.

Groh said the team obviously looks to involve those players in the offensive action.

“There’s clearly a well thought out plan to get the ball frequently to those players that can cause the defense a lot of trouble on a one-play basis and that’s what they do,” Groh said.

Spiller may be the most difficult to prepare for simply because he has so many roles for the Tigers. He lines up at running back and receiver on offense in addition to returning kickoffs and punts on special teams. Spiller has 589 all-purpose yards over the last three weeks, averaging 11.1 yards every time he has touched the ball. He averaged 6.2 yards per carry and 16.8 yards per reception in those three games.

Groh said he may be the most dangerous player the Hoos have faced to date.

“Very definitely,” Groh said. “There has been no more dangerous kick returner that we’ve played. There certainly is no more dangerous runner that we’ve played. As he has indicated here of late – he’s had an 83-yard touchdown catch against Duke, a 50-something catch against Boston College – he’s doing all the things that the most dangerous wide receivers do and the things hardly any backs can do.”

Al Groh’s defense has allowed a touchdown on the first drive of the game 6 times this season.

Slow Starts

There has been much message board chatter since the Wake Forest loss about the Cavaliers’ slow defensive starts. The Hoos have allowed seven opponents this season to start with a score on their first offensive possession of the game. USC, Connecticut, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Miami, and Wake Forest all scored touchdowns on their first drive of the game; East Carolina opened with a field goal.

“All the circumstances have been different. The opening series of the game can often be one of the more challenging for a defense because there’s a lot coming at the defense in a hurry in a way that sometimes does not occur for the rest of the game,” Groh said. “With so many teams now scripting the opening parts of the games, they can put together personnel combinations, motions, plays a lot more easily than when you have to start thinking about them in between plays. If you can picture what I’m saying, an offensive coordinator play-calling has 15 plays right in front of him and he’s just reading them off the sheet and they’re put together in order to cause the defense the most difficulty. Now when they get off the script, you’ve got to start thinking of those things between plays and a lot of times things calm down.”

Groh also said that teams often will use new wrinkles and specific tendency changes in that first series before the defense’s players can work out adjustments with the coaches on the sidelines.

John Phillips has posted 46 catches this season.

The Tradition Continues

Al Groh became fond of calling Virginia ‘Tight End U’ after the Cavaliers produced a string of talented players at that position with Heath Miller, Tom Santi , and Jonathan Stupar all getting cracks at the NFL.

All three of those players had strong careers at UVa, leaving quite the tradition for the next man up to live up to. Fortunately for the Hoos, the next man up in this case – John Phillips – had been preparing for his role as a key member of the rotation for three years. Phillips ranks first among ACC tight ends and seventh nationally this season with 4.6 receptions per game. He has 46 catches for 379 yards with two games remaining. That is the 10th most receptions by a tight end in a single season in ACC history and it is the second most by a Virginia tight end in school history (Miller had 70 in 2004). Phillips has at least two catches in every game this season.

Did Phillips think he could be a top receiving threat with the potential to make 50 receptions after making only 21 in the first three years of his career?

“I’ve been playing with Stupar and Tom my whole career. Coming into this year, I knew we were going to throw the ball more. … I felt like I could be a 50-catch guy, but this offense allows a lot of playmakers to step up,” Phillips said.

Clint Sintim wants to play in one more bowl game in his career.

Bowl Hunting

At 5-5 on the season, the Cavaliers are still in search of win No. 6 that would make them bowl eligible. UVa hosts Clemson at noon this weekend before traveling to Virginia Tech on Nov. 29 for either a noon or 3:30 p.m. contest. The Hoos, of course, qualified last season for bowl eligibility and fell to Texas Tech in the Gator Bowl.

Seniors said on Tuesday that playing in a bowl game would mean a lot to them.

“There’s nothing like college atmospheres, nothing like college competition and to be fortunate enough to play a bowl game and be with your teammates and have fun with them is something that you’ll cherish forever,” linebacker Clint Sintim said. “Last year in Jacksonville, that’s something I’ll remember forever even though we lost the game. That was a great experience for us. I bonded with a lot of guys I normally don’t even talk to. I just want to experience that again and I want other people to experience it.”

“I think it’s big. I think it’s big for our seniors. I think it’s big for our whole team,” Phillips said. “That’s what you play college football for, to get to play in the postseason and play in a bowl. … It’s really a great thing. I don’t care if we play in D.C., Boise, or somewhere else as long as we get to play in a bowl.”

Depth Chart Notes

Taliaferro’s Turn

Taliaferro is an interesting name on the depth chart because it represents just how much attrition has changed the situation at outside linebacker. Since the start of the season, Aaron Clark , Cam Johnson, and now Jared Detrick have suffered injuries. The Hoos also lost Darnell Carter (of note, Jon Copper mentioned Tuesday that Carter looked like he would be back next season) in the offseason.

The 6’2″, 222-pound redshirt freshman was a standout defensive player for Tommy Reamon at Gloucester High School where he finished his career with 61 sacks. As a senior playing linebacker, he piled up 90 tackles, 34 quarterback pressures, 10 sacks, and 5 forced fumbles. He was the team MVP that season. While Taliaferro has not seen action yet in his career at Virginia, Sintim said he is a “good football player” that has improved outside of the gameday spotlight.

“He’s doing a lot of things well. What really impresses me is that he’s getting better without getting the reps,” Sintim said. “He gets a lot more reps now because he’s the next guy in. He improved a lot before we even had the opportunity to see him out there. He’s doing all the right things, he’s asking all the right questions, and he’s getting better as a player. … You can tell he wants to be prepared when the opportunity comes. I just hope he continues to do what he’s done and if he gets the opportunity in the game, I wouldn’t doubt that he would perform pretty well.”

Groh agreed with Sintim’s assessment, saying that Taliaferro had improved since training camp without specific reps with the defense in game preparation. He hopes that it is a sign that Taliaferro is not only ready to be a back-up right now, but ready to take a step toward significant playing time next season when three of this year’s starting linebackers move on.

“Aaron has done a nice job. Actually we were a little bit surprised when he got elevated to the game day roster without actually getting a lot of turns in our system over the preceding weeks,” Groh said. “Actually, he stepped in and performed better in practice than he did eight weeks ago when he was getting regular turns during training camp. Hopefully, it’s a sign of his readiness but most particularly a positive sign of his readiness to maybe challenge for some time next year.”

Worth Quoting

“I’ve looked at a lot of film even from games all the way back to USC just to see what I don’t do well and what I do do well. I’ve learned a lot about myself as a player and I have a lot of things to get better on.” – Clint Sintim on watching film to improve.

Fun With Numbers

  • 0 current Virginia players have ever seen game action against Clemson. Only 5 players were members of the team the last time UVa faced the Tigers in 2004.
  • Virginia owns an 11-1 record all-time when Cedric Peerman gets 15 or more rushing attempts.
  • Clemson holds a 35-8-1 edge in the series, including a 15-5 lead in Charlottesville. However, UVa has won 3 of the last 4 in Scott Stadium.
  • 24 fourth- and fifth-year players will be recognized Saturday as part of Senior Day.
  • The ACC’s top two passing offenses will be in action in this contest. Clemson averages 229.1 yards passing per game while UVa’s average is 220.1 yards per game.
  • Receiver Kevin Ogletree has 50 receptions so far this season. He is only the 2nd player in Virginia history to have 2 seasons with at least 50 catches.