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Coach Mike London’s team opened the season with a win again. He’s undefeated in season openers as a head coach. |
Virginia waited out a slow-moving thunderstorm, lost the lead in the fourth quarter, and rallied with a late touchdown to take down BYU in its opener on Saturday. While the weather circumstances weren’t ideal and many didn’t expect the Cavaliers to defeat the Cougars, the celebration proved to be short for the football team.
UVa coach Mike London with what little voice he had left Saturday quickly reminded his team to enjoy the win but be ready to get back to work.
“Right in the locker room, right after we always have a little celebration of dousing each other with water and all that good stuff – yelling and getting it out right now – because after that, it was on to Oregon,” London said. “You can’t be complacent. You know, it was good to win another home opener. It was good to win a game, but we can’t be satisfied, and we’re not satisfied. We understand that there’s a tremendous challenge in front of us, not just with this team, but other teams to come into Scott Stadium and for us to go on the road. So we’ll have to rise to the challenge again.”
Virginia receiver Darius Jennings , who led all players with 7 receptions and 62 yards, heeded the advice. After enjoying the win, he pulled up the BYU game film at home Saturday night. The players each have an iPad where film is almost immediately available after the game or after practice.
“I think we’re there now. It was great to have that win. Guys were happy that night, but [Sunday] we were in the weight room and studying some film,” Jennings said. “We know to take one game at a time. We got game one out of the way. Now we’re going to game two.”
While Jennings had a good day that included a tough touchdown catch in the pouring rain, the offense as a whole didn’t scorch the stat sheet. UVa had just 223 yards of offense on 74 plays, a paltry 3.0 yards per play. In the end, the Hoos punted 13 times and barely cracked the 100-yard barrier for rushing and passing.
Jennings said that there is “a lot” of room for improvement from the offense.
“We’ve been working hard. I think you saw some progress, but we still have a long ways to go,” Jennings said. “I think with each practice, each rep, each game that we have, I think we will get there. It’s going to take time and hopefully by Saturday after a whole week of game planning, we can come out and put our best foot forward.”
Harold’s Big Day
After going head to head for the entire offseason, Morgan Moses was excited to see Eli Harold ‘s big day against BYU. The sophomore defensive end piled up 11 tackles, 1 forced fumble, and 2 sacks in the win. Harold had just 2 sacks in the entire 2012 season as part of just 36 total tackles.
It’s safe to say that Harold is off to a fast start in Jon Tenuta’s new defensive scheme.
“What a tremendous game he had,” Moses said. “We talk every day after practice, especially after one-on-ones, just on the things I tell him he needs to work on and for him to get a feel for the game. He gets down sometimes because in practice he can’t just run past me like he does most people. (smiles) It shows the hard work he put in this summer. He definitely got me better and I got him better.”
While Harold had a good day at end, Moses also had a good day at tackle. After playing mostly right tackle over the previous three seasons, he started at his new full-time home of left tackle against BYU. Moses said he still has a lot of work to do to polish his football skills, but opening with 0 sacks allowed by the offense Saturday is a good place to start.
“He’s played over there before. I think it’s a natural position for him. He can play either side but he knows that you’re going to get the other team’s best rusher. … I know he had a winning grade,” London said. “But Morgan knows that he’s got to turn it up because he’s got to protect the quarterback’s blindside. We didn’t give up any sacks – that is the first time in a long time. We can keep doing those types of things. Now we just pick up the completions for the third down situations, and I think we’re more efficient, and we keep the ball longer and we move the ball. So Morgan playing well is critical for us to be successful.”
Worth Quoting
Morgan Moses on Oregon: “They’ve got great coaches, great players, just like every D-I school. Everybody has great players. They’ve got great facilities, but at the same time their facilities are not playing on the field. No matter what the uniform is – if it’s Nike or Russell, it’s not going to help you play better. We know they’ve got hundreds of helmets and we might have two helmets, but it’s still going to protect your head so it doesn’t matter about the uniforms. They’re a great team and I expect them to come in here ready to play just like we’re going to be ready to play come Saturday.”
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Darius Jennings led all receivers with 7 catches for 62 yards and one touchdown. |
Oregon’s Take-Away Talent
The Ducks led the nation last season in turnover margin at +1.62 turnovers per game. The defense had a big hand in that with 40 turnovers gained in 2012. Oregon intercepted 25 passes and recovered 15 fumbles.
Jennings said that the offensive players need to protect the football and trust their training against the Ducks.
“Obviously they do a great job of doing that, but when it comes down to it we still have to do what we need to do,” Jennings said. “I feel as though every defense we play is going to try to take the ball from us. Just the way we think and train ourselves, if we can cut down on all the small mistakes, all the penalties, and all the turnovers, then we can be a very successful offense.”
Romero In The Middle
Late in the game against BYU, Daquan Romero slid to the middle linebacker spot for Henry Coley while Demeitre Brim subbed in at outside linebacker in the Cavaliers’ nickel package. London said Monday that defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta likes to mix up his packages and personnel at times to gain an edge in some area. In this case, the move came with speed in mind.
“I think you try to get speed on the field. Not saying that Henry’s not fast. But I think what you’ll see, you’ll see the defense or you’ll see Jon trying to get guys on the field that can run, particularly for this game that’s coming up, because you’ve got to be able to run,” London said. “There is a faster element on the field, so we’ll continue to keep coming up with defenses and personnel that will best suit what we’re trying to accomplish. I think at that point in the game, we wanted to get a little faster on the field.”
Terrell’s Turn-Around
After struggling as Virginia’s punt returner as a true freshman in 2011, Terrell’s return to the position in the season opener on Saturday looked like a totally different player in the role. He looked confident in his decision-making, tracked the ball well, and caught the punts cleanly.
With 3 returns for 45 yards (15.0 yards per return) against BYU, Terrell is already closing in on his 2011 numbers. That season he finished with 14 returns for 61 yards (4.4 yards per return) and struggled to make consistent decisions on when and how to field the ball.
“I think one big thing is to tell a guy that might be struggling a little bit listen, I believe in you and we’re going to stick with you. I think that sends a message of confidence to the individual that, hey, these guys are going to stick by me. Although he didn’t have many passes thrown to him during the course of scrimmage plays, I thought he did an excellent job of fielding the punts in conditions that, as I said, were rainy and guys coming barreling down on them and making that one run that started some things for us,” London said. “So Nikki has done a great job of being a team player, and another one of the players that is a selfless player that just wants to find a way to help us win. And in the BYU game, it was the return game. There will be games where he will catch passes as a receiver, but in this game he came up big for us in the return game.”
Terrell’s turn-around mirrored the special teams as a whole with the exception perhaps of Khalek Shepherd ‘s late fumble on a kickoff return and a botched substitution on a the games’ final extra point attempt. The Hoos will need to improve their kickoff return average (19.0 yards per return) and remain c consistent on punt coverage, but overall it was a solid outing.
“Well, I think all we want to see is improvement and against a caliber of team like that, there was noticeable improvement in game one of a lot of games left to play. We can talk about it at the end of the season,” London said. “But for Game 1, there is more improvement that needs to be made. It was good to see that there were a lot of players that did a lot of good things, and we want to continue to build on that.”
