Conference Calls: Orientation Week
Virginia vs William & Mary: Good news, Tribe alumni! Those of you who survived your education and its notoriously high (if maybe misleading) suicide rate have a reason to keep on keepin' on after the season opener against UVa's Cavaliers. W&M officials ought to think about hiring on cornerback B.W. Webb as a campus counselor for at-risk students following his performance in the game. He was on call for three passes from Virginia quarterback Jameel Sewell, turning the last of these picks around for a touchdown. Sewell was just one of three quarterbacks (in addition to Vic Hall and Marc Verica) to take the helm of an offense that coach Al Groh promised was all-new and all-different -- but proved to be all-slippery at best. In its 26-14 loss, Virginia committed a whopping seven turnovers, as if they were trying to catalog the possibilities for losing the ball. A bad snap, a fumble, a confusing backward pass, and a total punt fail contributed to Virginia's efforts to do 9999 damage to its season's prospects.
The Tribe only needed not to lose, and despite penalties that cost them a total 100 yards, redshirt senior quarterback R.J. Archer did the job, throwing a harmless eye-en-tee in the fourth and a touchdown early on to capitalize on Virginia's self-destruct sequence.
What's Virginia's path to recovery? Next week, Virginia plays #17 Texas Christian University, and the Cavs have everything to prove. The team (surely) can't commit more turnovers in their next game, so Groh would do well to focus on the more glaring problem in the offense: the hole in the team's pocket. Quarterback-by-committee might be the right strategy to try to stop the bleeding in a game pockmarked by disastrous turnovers, but the team needs a leader. In the team's only highlight during the game, Sewell lit up for 5 passes for 45 yards and 4 carries for 35 yards. That's a place to start.
Maryland vs Cal: Expectations were set appropriately low for Maryland's season-opening 52-13 rout at the hands of #12 California. Maryland had nothing to match last year's highlight reel–winning hit against Cal carrier Jahvid Best, after which he vomited. But it was Maryland left with the bad taste in their mouth this year: Cal completely and utterly dominated the game on offense, putting together a dominant 542 yards, with contributions coming from the air and the ground. Heisman-looker Best ran a solid 137 yards on his lonesome -- and on only 10 carries at that. To Maryland's credit, this loss was the most lopsided season-opener in over a century. There's nowhere to look but up from there, and Dan Brown's new defensive blitz scheme will probably take a game or two to cement.
Virginia Tech vs Alabama: One of the best games of the evening -- following #3 Oklahoma's ego-crushing loss against #20 Brigham Young University -- resulted in a respectable loss for #7 Virginia Tech against #5 Alabama. The game wasn't beautiful by any means: Both teams suffered two turnovers and neither managed any fourth-down conversions. And Virginia Tech essentially lost the game on third-downs, converting only 2 for 12. But it nevertheless managed not to be a race to the bottom. Alabama easily overwhelmed the Hokies on offense, with passing and rushing gains totaling just shy of 500 yards compared to a miserly 155 total offensive yards. Virginia Tech picked up a special teams score and capitalized on some damaging penalties. Given a few more of those against teams with less-towering offenses -- say, the other teams in the ACC -- Virginia Tech's season still has promise.
How did #2 Texas do? I'm glad you asked! The highlight of the game belonged to freshman tailback D.J. Monroe, who returned a kickoff for 89 yards for his first play in regular-season college football. Heisman-surefire (that's right!) Colt McCoy didn't look half-bad with 317 passing yards for two TDs (and one itsy-bitsy interception).