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Sept. 26, 2006
Charlottesville, Va. – Opening Statement from Al Groh: “We’ve got a pretty interesting matchup this week. We have two teams that certainly, at this stage, resemble each other very closely. Both teams have done relatively well on defense against the run. Both teams probably have given up more long passes than they would have liked to have given up which has negated some of the good work against the run that the teams have been able to do. Both teams have three sophomores and two juniors on the offensive line, one of our sophomores being a redshirt freshman, but still in his second year in school. Both teams have not run the ball as well as I am sure they would like to do. There’s a lot of similarities between the two teams, there are similarities in the teams’ defensive schemes, not exactly but there are similarities. I think it’s pretty even matchup. I’d say given that Duke has had a lot more time to rest and most particularly prepare, and the fact that they are at home, that’s probably an advantage for them when things are even. It certainly would be a desirable advantage to have.”
Q: You mentioned long passes. You’ve given up four passes of 58 yards or more. What’s the difference from last year?
Groh: “It’s the same old answer that usually comes up in this particular case, individual breakdowns in the secondary is what it so often comes down to. That’s been at the core of each particular circumstance. They haven’t been complex patterns, in almost all of the cases they have been quite elementary patterns. (We) just either misplayed the pattern or misplayed the ball.”
Q: You went into 2004 with a pretty solid veteran team and if someone had said you would be 1-3 after four games, you would have said, `no way.” Is this totally unexpected to you to be struggling like this?
Groh: “I didn’t have any expectations simply from the standpoint that any time you start out with a brand new quarterback, I think it’s unrealistic to have any expectations as to how it might go. It might go fantastically well and that certainly would be surprising or it might go less than what you wish. It just struck me observing some of the games this weekend that almost all of the teams that are going through their own transitions at this position, most particularly when they have lost a veteran player who was a top performer for them, it seems it’s pretty common what’s going on at most places when you are in that circumstance. We all know the value of defense to winning;, but no matter how well you play on defense you have to get more points than the other team does. To a large degree it comes down to offensive production and to the way the game is played these days, we have said this for six years, that it’s a quarterback-driven sport. Top play there usually produces enough points to win and when you don’t get enough points or enough play making there, then you are going to struggle for your points.”
Q: You’ve had to use your tight ends more for protection…?
Groh: “Yes, we have here in the last few games.”
Q: How do you get them more involved?
Groh: “You take then out of the protection more. Who knows whether that is a good news or a bad news deal. One of those things that they understood very well is that if the quarterback is under siege nobody is going to get the ball anyway. It doesn’t make much difference if they are out in the pattern. They’ve been very unselfish about it and they have understood what was necessary. They were a good aid at Georgia Tech. The quarterback wasn’t perfect, but certainly was under less duress than he had been in previous games.”
Q: After the loss to Western Michigan, you used the terminology quicksand. Has it seemed the team has stepped out of quicksand or do you feel that it has the same mentality that this is the way things are?
Groh: Until we start to producing more offensively, it will be hard to work out of it. Some times you get in that quicksand and you thrash around but you don’t go any place. We have been kind of doing that. We hope that increase turns for some of these players will bring about the necessary improvement in performance.”
Q: Do expect to see a difference in Jameel Sewell this week, since he knows going into this week that’s the quarterback?
Groh: It’s too early to get any reading. I wouldn’t put it in the `expectation’ category, but I would put it in the `hopeful’ category. That’s certainly what we would hope to see.”
Q: Sewell said you were focusing on him to stopping aiming the ball. How much of a focus has that been for him?
Groh: (I tell him to) just pick it up and throw it. The same thing occurs to any one who releases a ball. Baseball coaches say that to pitchers; pitchers want to throw strikes and sometimes they get overly precise they try to aim it in there. There is a way to improve a pitcher’s accuracy but it is not by aiming the ball. It’s to improve things mechanically. Jameel’s always been pretty good about just letting that thing rip in practice. He saw the other day he was trying to be a little bit too careful, trying to aim it in there and once he got over that and just start let it rip a little bit, those throws improved throughout the course of the game. We would hope that would be one of the lessons that came out of that first experience for him.”
Q: After the game last Thursday night and a little bit today, you touched on your offensive production and how you would like to see it improve. When you look at Duke and analyze them do you see Saturday as a good opportunity for offense improvement?
Groh: “No. I would say it looks pretty challenging here. The last two teams they’ve played are teams that historically have been very steeped in running the ball–Wake Forest and Virginia Tech. Both of those teams had minimal success in running the ball. Most of the yardage gained in both of those two games was by passing the ball. There was one point well into the fourth quarter–you know Virginia Tech has got that scoreboard that keeps the run/pass numbers on it–the first time I watched that game there was one time well into the fourth quarter, I think the score was 30-0 or 36-0 at that time, and Virginia Tech had 78 yards rushing and something like 320 yards passing. They have been very sticky against the run. Obviously they gave Wake Forest a very difficult time, particularly against the run. I would say right now at this stage, it looks very challenging.”