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Saturday’s game against Virginia Tech likely will be Al Groh’s last game as the head coach at Virginia. |
At 1 p.m. Monday afternoon, Virginia coach Al Groh strode into the pressroom at the John Paul Jones Arena for his weekly press conference. Other than Groh’s slightly more casual attire than usual – he wore a wheat blazer with a collarless black shirt underneath – there was nothing visibly different about Monday’s press conference. But, there sat the elephant in the room. In all likelihood, Al Groh had sat down for his last weekly press conference at JPJ as the coach of the Virginia football team.
In the meantime, though, Groh discussed the Hoos’ season finale against Virginia Tech, which is, among other things, an opportunity to at least soften his image with skeptics of Virginia football. And, with no bowl game on the horizon, players said they are treating this contest like it was their bowl game. Even Groh, the adamant defender of treating every game the same, admitted that this game carries something extra.
“Just like a number of our coaches said before last Saturday’s game, just in speaking with them at the pregame meal or on the bus to the stadium, they were like, ‘I love games like this. I love going against the best players and going against the best teams in games that really count for something in this type of environment,'” Groh said. “The better the opponent, the bigger the game, the more juice. And then when you add a natural rivalry to that, that certainly makes it one of the most exciting games of the year.”
But of course, there was the occasional uncomfortable question for Groh and his players. Every one of the five players in attendance – all seniors – was asked, in one form or another, about the impact of playing for a coach that is likely on the way out. During Groh’s segment, the most direct question about his future came from a reporter who virtually pleaded with the coach that he discuss his future – “Al, this being the last game of the season, could you comment on questions about your job security, please?” the reporter asked.
“No, it’s really not about me,” Groh replied. “It’s about the team and it’s about the players. That’s all I’m really thinking about, so I don’t really have any thoughts on it.”
Other than a few hardball questions, though, most of the presser took a more positive tone, with the topics of meaningful seniors, the importance of the Virginia Tech rivalry, and, as Groh put it, the “stick-to-it-iveness” of this year’s Cavalier team.
Senior Day
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Senior Nate Collins is one of 30 fourth- or fifth-year seniors who will be honored on Senior Day this Saturday. |
Seniors Vic Hall, Aaron Clark , Denzel Burrell , Nate Collins , and even shield-punt specialist Patrick Slebonick all came to the JPJ on Monday to discuss their last game as Cavaliers and to reflect on their careers. Collins admitted that it has not all been fun and games with three losing seasons and assistant coaches moving in and out like wildfire over his four years, but said he has no regrets.
“It was not typical of what I guess you would want, but you have to go with the punches,” Collins said. “I feel like things went well, I don’t regret anything. I’d probably still pick Virginia if I had to four years ago again.”
In what has become a tradition for Virginia, all the seniors will have the opportunity to speak in front of the team the night before the game. For the most part, players said they were most inspired in years past when their closest friends on the team spoke as seniors.
“It’s actually fairly gut-wrenching,” Clark said. “To see your friends you went to school with, you played ball with, you’ve worked, and struggled, and bled with, to get up there and to have the raw emotions that they have going into their last game – some people will never play football again, and that’s a tough cookie to deal with.”
The seniors in attendance unanimously said they didn’t know yet what they would tell the team, and that they would probably, as the saying goes, make it a game-time decision.
“You can’t really plan what you’re going to say, because you get up there in front of your teammates, and that goes out the window,” Clark said. “I commend Coach Groh for writing notes every time he comes into a meeting – having that little sheet – because, I’ll get in front of the team with something to say, and completely lose it.”
“I’m not long-winded with words, but whatever’s on my heart, on my mind, I’m going to speak it,” Hall said.
Slebonick in particular can offer some advice to the seniors, as he thought his football career was over less than a year ago. At the end of last season, Slebonick, then a redshirt junior, was told that he would not receive a scholarship to return for a fifth year. Slebonick figured that he would get called back in within a couple weeks, but when that didn’t happen, he gave up hope that he would have another chance to play. A month-and-a-half after he was told it was over, however, special teams coordinator Ron Prince did in fact make that call, asking if Slebonick would remain as Virginia’s swinging-gate protector on shield punts.
“I’ve really tried to convey how really great of an opportunity this is [to play],” Slebonick said. “When you’re sitting there as a team in two-a-days in August, it might not seem like the most wonderful opportunity in the world, but then all of a sudden, a couple months from now, I’ll be killing to be back there in August sweating it out with the guys.”
As a whole, Groh said that this year’s senior leadership has been unique. Because it was not immediately apparent after last season who this year’s captains would be, the team waited until the summer to elect its captains. Players who had never realized leadership roles before, Groh said, suddenly sensed the opportunity.
“It took throughout the course of winter program, spring practice, summer program, not only for those players to emerge, but they emerged because certain guys really decided, ‘Hey, I want to be one of those guys,'” Groh said. “You can see how some of them very definitely took the reins. But it took a little while for it to develop, even into the season, for them to really see where their presence could make a difference in what they could do.”
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Vic Hall was the only easy choice to be a captain this year, after he had already held the position as a junior. |
The only player who was an easy pick for captain this season was the lone returning captain to the team, Vic Hall. There is no bigger fan of Hall then Groh, and he offered one more overall sentiment on the “do-it-all” Gretna native.
“I always feel very inadequate in trying to properly profile Vic for people who don’t know him,” Groh said. “You just have to be around him on a daily basis to know his goodness and his values and everything that he’s about. That’s why I would extend it beyond saying he’s a special player. He’s a very special person. It’s one of those kind of associations that make this a very fortunate profession to be able to be in.”
One reporter joked with Hall that Groh has a shrine of Hall on his car. Hall smiled politely, and said that he thinks that it is his dependability and willingness to help the team any way he can that puts him on the good side of his coach. A prime example came after Hall sat out two games early in the season with a hip injury – which has continued to plague him all season – with Sewell entering a comfort zone as the every-down QB; Hall went into Groh’s office to take himself out of the picture at quarterback. Since, of course, Hall has played multiple other positions, has scored a receiving touchdown and a passing touchdown, and was robbed of a punt return touchdown by a block-in-the-back penalty.
The season certainly didn’t turn out the way many fans envisioned it would for the opening game starter at quarterback, but it has been an experience that Hall said he would always remember.
“I got a chance to play quarterback, defensive back, wide receiver, and also line up in the Wildcat, so I take it as a great experience,” Hall said. “Not a lot of guys get to do over the span of four years, and I got a chance to do it in this one season, so it’s been a memorable and very exciting season for that matter.”
Stick-to-it-tiveness
When Virginia lost the opportunity to become bowl eligible with its lost to Boston College two weeks ago, the Cavaliers did not throw in the towel. In last week’s loss against Clemson, though the Hoos were outclassed in the second half, they pulled out all the stops to hang in during the first half.
And, even with the Tigers holding a double-digit lead in the waning minutes, Virginia’s will to keep playing was apparent. Down to the final whistle, no one on Virginia’s side was going to quit.
“The last two or three possessions that Clemson had, even at that point, I think those two or three possessions were all three-and-outs – quickly out – that the defense created,” Groh said. “So they continue to fight and play and hopefully continue to develop.”
The refusal of the Virginia players to give up has been an ongoing theme since last season. After Virginia’s loss to Boston College, some of the team’s seniors re-instilled that message, letting the younger players know that the rest of the season still mattered.
“The captains came together, and we made a point that, after we had everyone out there, just to let everyone know that we weren’t going to accept anyone just quitting on the team,” Collins said. “We weren’t going to accept anyone just moping around, or basically giving up on the team. Because us seniors, we have more to do, and we’re still trying to win as many football games as we can.”
The ability for Virginia to stay tough has been, in fact, a recurring necessity throughout the five years of this year’s senior class – no class of players in the Groh era has endured more losing seasons, and no class has seen more coaching changes.
“This group has had a lot of players that really stick-to-it-iveness has had to be a part of it,” Groh said. “There’s a lot of players here who had to be very resilient and continue to work and grind to get their chance. I think there were some of those other classes that some of those players personally experienced some more immediate success to fuel them on.”
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Jameel Sewell has shown toughness while frequently playing hurt this season. |
Two players who Groh has always lauded for this resiliency and their overall toughness are Hall and Sewell. Both players have been injured for most of the year, but have continued to play in roles where they can take bruising hits. Both players have been doubtful to play physically in several games, and both players suited up. They have the qualities, Groh said, that he seeks out even in the recruiting process.
“What you try to do is find people that have demonstrated that along the way – a highly competitive nature, and a mentality of never giving in, never giving up,” Groh said. “You try to find instances in the evaluation of players, try to quiz people as to that. Most particularly, you’d like to see some things with your own eyes.”
Groh said that those qualities were apparent in both Sewell and Hall out of high school.
“Jameel was in our camp twice, and in that camp they do more than just do drills – they play touch football games, and do one-on-one and whatnot, and you could see that he had a pretty hot fire when it came to competition,” Groh said. “And certainly as we got to know Vic throughout the recruiting process, and saw how he always elevated his team. When his team won all those games and the State Championships while he was playing, there were some games in there where they were pretty significantly behind at one point, and he just took over and not only willed his team to win but performed his team to win.”
Taking Down Tech
Every year, Virginia talks about how badly it wants to beat Virginia Tech. Yet, one thing that every player on the roster has in common is that they have never seen that happen; the last time the Cavaliers prevailed against the Hokies came in 2003, two years before this year’s fifth-year seniors were on the roster.
“That’d be pretty disheartening [to never beat Virginia Tech],” Clark said. “I don’t know if I could stand hearing that every day, so I know it’s number one on my list and I know a lot of other people’s lists to win this game.”
The rivalry is not one that all players understand when they arrive at UVa, particularly from out-of-state. Collins, Port Chester, N.Y. native, said his appreciation of the rivalry has evolved throughout his four years at Virginia.
“My freshman year, just seeing Clint [Sintim], and [Chris] Long, and Tom Santi , and some of those guys, and how much they’re just like, ‘We hate Tech, we have to beat Tech,'” Collins said. “I’m just going about it like it’s just another game, and they’re like, no, it’s not just another game, it’s different. But over three years, you realize it.”
Inside the Commonwealth, most players grow up fans of one team or the other. That doubtless has an impact on recruiting, and the result of this game, Groh said, does as well. He referenced a quote he read from a Clemson player about the atmosphere surrounding the program, as an analogy to how the atmosphere surrounding this game may affect recruiting.
“I read a statement by one of the true freshmen players on the Clemson team about what the impact of the overall set-up there had to do with his recruitment,” Groh said. “That circumstance brought those type of players there, that creates that type of team, that brings about that type of result.”
Worth Noting
- Groh has defeated Virginia Tech four times in his football career – as a player for Virginia in 1957, as the coach at Wake Forest in 1982 and 1983, and as the coach at Virginia in 2003.
- Groh and Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer just missed each other on the gridiron. Groh played at Virginia from 1963-65, and Beamer with the Hokies from 1966-68. Beamer’s first collegiate start came against UVa in 1965.
- Virginia Tech has a 48-37-5 advantage in the all-time series.
- In each of the Cavaliers’ last seven wins in the series, they have scored at least 32 points.
- The Cavaliers are 44-71-4 all-time in regular-season finales.
- Right tackle Will Barker will make his 49th career start Saturday, tying him for second in school history.
- Virginia will recognize 30 fourth and fifth-year seniors on Senior Day this Saturday.
Worth Quoting
“Coach Groh’s a funny guy. We always talk about – guys on the team – that he needs to be in a movie somewhere. He tells great stories – we feel like he has a million different stories for any and every situation you could possibly see yourself in.” – Nate Collins on what fans may not know about Al Groh.
“It’s definitely difficult on the players. You try to avoid it, but as a player I turn on the television, I read the newspaper, and things like that. But, at the same time, we just want to keep fighting and get this win. We know not only how big a win this would be for us as players, but for the coaches. We know that they’re putting their 100 percent effort for this game, and we really want to win it for them as much as for ourselves.” – Denzel Burrell on dealing with talks of the Virginia Tech game being Al Groh’s last as Virginia’s coach.
“We certainly expected more. There’s been an awful lot of energy and effort put into it, more than ever, on the part of people. And when you say not everything is going to go perfect, you’re exactly right, but we expect better than say what we had the other day [against Clemson]. We had two mishandled kickoffs. That part of it is not that difficult. Tracking your guy down and blocking him and whatnot on the run, sometimes that’s a little bit more difficult. There have been issues like that that fall on the category we spoke of before, execution issues.” – Al Groh on the lack of big plays from the special teams this season.
