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Mike London’s team faces a tough task at TCU. |
For an offense that is struggling in several areas, Fort Worth isn’t ideally where you’d start a search for answers. Fort Worth, after all, is home to the Texas Christian University football team and the Horned Frogs don’t make things easy on opposing offenses. In fact, it’s outright hard to score on the TCU defense.
Dating back to the 2006 season, in fact, the Frogs have allowed an average of more than 20 points per game just once – last season’s 22.2 points per game (Football Bowl Subdivision games only). From 2006-2010, FBS opponents averaged in the teens: 12.2 (2006, 3rd nationally), 18.7 (2007, 9th nationally), 11.7 (2008, 2nd nationally), 12.1 (2009, 2nd nationally), 12.4 (2010, 1st nationally).
TCU accomplishes that with a 4-2-5 scheme that is essentially a full-time nickel package with a player that can roam between linebacker and defensive back depending on the play call. In some ways, it is reminiscent of Virginia Tech’s defense, though the Hokies don’t call their defense a 4-2-5. Regardless of semantics, however, UVa hasn’t fared very well against this type of defense in its recent history against either VT or TCU. The Hoos produced just 177 yards of offense and fell 30-14 in their last meeting with Texas Christian in 2009.
“I mean, we have our hands full thinking about TCU right now. I think it’s a challenging defense. … Whether you call them rovers or whether you call them the strong safeties that are down in the box, they’re one of the elements that can force the run because they play their defensive ends in a six technique, meaning they’re head up on the tight ends, so when the tight ends block, that employs a run read for those safeties,” Virginia coach London said during his weekly press conference. “… They kind of dare you to throw the ball, but they have those defensive ends, linemen, outside safeties that can come off the edge or they can play coverage. They can run, so they’re very fast and athletic. They pose a lot of problems for – not only in the two games we saw this year, they played Grambling and Kansas, but some of the games they played last year you see some of the issues they present because of the style that they play.”
That’s not music to any Cavaliers’ ears. Virginia’s offensive line is struggling with run blocking and pass protection regardless of what particular scheme the opponent presents. As a result, the whole offense is inconsistent. The preferred power-running, play-action approach has lost any effectiveness because the Hoos simply can’t run the football so far in 2012. The 65.0 rushing yards per game average against FBS teams is 114th nationally.
TCU’s run defense has ranked in the top 30 consistently during coach Gary Patterson’s tenure so it won’t be easy to turn things around this week for UVa. But London said that UVa needs to run the ball better if the offense is going to have a chance to succeed during the 2012 season.
“Well, got to block better. I think that part of the elements of being able to run and also the elements of everyone else, too, tight end making it so you seal the defensive end, the back that’s kicking out, the runners who run in the right holes, it’s an ongoing process when you have a running game. …,” London said. “You know, we have to do better there because the season, like I said, is just three games into it, and we have to address it with personnel, which we’re going to do with our inside guys. We’ll have to address it with how we will handle it if we don’t have one of our bigger backs being able to be in there and participate. But it’ll have to be addressed in a way that as coaches we’ve got to coach our guys and put them in those type of positions to be successful and then look at our personnel and see what we can do to make sure that – because we’re going to have to run to let the clock run because if you’re not firing on all cylinders in the throwing game, you tend to – the play is three, four, five, six seconds old, and then before you know it you’re punting again. You need to be able to ball control a little bit to be able to help offensively.”
A Stinging Loss
Virginia’s 56-20 loss at Georgia Tech on Saturday still stings even though the team has moved on to prepare for TCU. Senior defensive end Ausar Walcott said that he’s noticed a different mentality in practice early this week.
“A lot of players on the team have a fire under them now because we were tested,” Walcott said. “A lot of players think they didn’t play good and things like that and a lot of players have taken ownership of the team by telling each other and by telling themselves that it’s on us. It’s not on the coaches. The coaches had nothing to do with the way we played physically and things like that. They gave us the game plan and we were supposed to go out there and do what they told us to do. I feel like a lot of players took that to heart. Our captains talk to us and they told us you can do two things. Run or you can stand up and fight. I think a lot of players want to stand up and fight.”
Long’s Donation
The UVa athletics department announced Tuesday that former Cavalier Chris Long has made a donation toward the new George Welsh Indoor Practice Facility. Long, who plays for the St. Louis Rams, made a $300,000 contribution to the Virginia Athletics Foundation.
“I am so proud to be a part of a brotherhood like the Virginia Football program,” Long said in a news release. “I am completely committed to helping Coach London build this program and I know it’s going to take time and hard work to do it the right way. Some of my greatest memories were experienced at UVa working with my teammates to set a standard of excellence on the field that my University could be proud of. Virginia football players of the future deserve this same opportunity and the construction of this facility goes a long way towards ensuring that reality.”
“A big thank you is in order because this is a tremendous commitment from Chris. We appreciate his leadership in helping our program as we work to complete the fundraising for this project,” said Craig Littlepage, Virginia director of athletics, in the same news release. “This gift is the largest we’ve received from an active professional athlete and it will provide some added momentum to our fundraising efforts.”
Read the full news release here.
To Beard Or Not To Beard
Virginia fullback Zach Swanson currently is sporting a beard reminiscent of another Zach, actor Zach Galifianakis. It all started because of a bet with teammate Jake McGee . The tight end wagered in the neighborhood of $150 that Swanson wouldn’t, or couldn’t, grow it out all season.
“I don’t think that’s going to be worth it,” Swanson joked Monday.
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Clifton Richardson spent a lot of early practice time on a sideline bike. |
Richardson To Redshirt?
UVa running back Clifton Richardson has battled a nagging hamstring injury from the start of fall practice in early August. He made his only appearance of the season to date last week at Georgia Tech (1 rushing attempt, 3 kickoff returns) and seemed to have tweaked the injury during the game.
London indicated on Monday that this week is a critical one in determining where to go with Richardson this season. If a player is sidelined for medical reasons before participating in a certain percentage of the season, a medical hardship waiver is still possible to obtain. Cavalier receiver Tim Smith and basketball player Mike Scott both fell into that category during their career. A student-athlete’s injury or illness must be considered incapacitating by the following guidelines to meet the criteria for a waiver:
- Occurs in the first half of the season
- Occurs prior to the first competition of the second half of the playing season and results in incapacity to compete for the remainder of that playing season
- Occurs when the student-athlete has not participated in more than three
contests or 30 percent (whichever number is greater) of the institution’s scheduled or completed contests - Supported by medical documentation
“When you’re a runner and you rely on your wheels and your wheels aren’t working to the way that you need them to work, it’s always going to be an issue,” London said. “So we’ll see here. I mean, this will be a critical week in terms of where he is and how he can perform, because again, I think there is kind of after three games you get to a point where you have to make a decision, and we’ll see pretty soon here in practice about which direction we need to go in with him.”
Worth Quoting
Worth Noting
- The ACC’s television partners exercised a six-day options some league games for Saturday, Sept. 29. That means kickoff for the UVa-Louisiana Tech will be announced after this week’s games are completed.
- Senior Ausar Walcott arrived at UVa as a 195-pound safety. He’s now a 240-pound defensive end.
- The last time Virginia played in Texas was Oct. 21, 1995 in Austin when facing the Texas Longhorns.
- Fullback Zach Swanson and cornerback Kelvin Rainey are the only two Cavaliers from Texas. Swanson is from Katy, Texas, which is about 30 miles west of Houston. He played at the same high school as former UVa hoops standout Adam Hall. Rainey is from Houston and attended the same high school as NFL QB Andrew Luck .
- True freshman corner C.J. Moore remains on the depth chart, but has yet to see action. London said Monday that he would like to redshirt Moore at this point, but that he’ll still travel and be available in case of emergency.
- True freshman Sean Karl is on the depth chart this week at right guard where he is listed as the back-up option. Karl has not appeared in a game yet this season.
- The full transcript of Coach London’s press conference is available here.
