Cavs' Cold Start Puts Groh on Hot Seat

When it comes to Virginia's unsettled quarterback position in its new spread offense, embattled Cavaliers coach Al Groh doesn't expect to pull a rabbit out of a hat. He's not intentionally being secretive. Of the team's three quarterback options, none could avoid producing multiple turnovers in last weekend's disastrous home defeat to William & Mary. Or was it to Peter, Paul & Mary?

Doesn't matter.

With No. 16 Texas Christian traveling to Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Groh may need to put together the best coaching job of his career to get the Cavaliers pointed in the right direction. According to Virginia media, if Groh doesn't and the team, which faces one of the country's most challenging schedules, gets off to a poor start, there are already rumors flying that UVa could pull a Clemson from a year ago and replace Groh with one of his assistants during a bye week.

(That would be Sept. 26 on calendar planners, for all the wanna-be Dabo Swinneys out there).

In past years, however, Groh has been superb in bringing back teams from slow starts. And it's no secret the Cavaliers will need to get a much, much better performance from their offense, specifically at quarterback, to have any chance against the Horned Frogs in their season opener. TCU, relaxed and rested, finished last year ranked seventh and has been one of the nation's most successful programs during the last decade.

"Until one [quarterback] steps up and establishes that this is the guy we should ride, which hasn't been the case so far, we feel it will be necessary to use, whoever and how many are necessary to get the position to play well enough," Groh said Wednesday during the ACC teleconference call.

"Clearly, as we searched throughout the game last week for the level of performance we needed ... we really weren't able to come up with enough."

The Cavs used three different quarterbacks and had seven turnovers overall in their 26-14 defeat to Bill & Mary. Jameel Sewell threw two interceptions, converted defensive back Vic Hall fumbled twice and Marc Verica mixed it up with one of each. The trio combined to complete 18 of 33 passes for 137 yards with just one completion longer than 20 yards.

When asked if he had decided on a starter for the TCU game, Groh said no. But it was obvious he desperately wants one of the three to establish himself behind center. The Cavs had 268 total yards against the Tribe, converted just 5-of-17 third-downs and lost the possession of time battle by 10 minutes. UVa was in the shotgun formation on every snap of the contest, even a fourth-and-1 that was eventually a quarterback keeper.

"It's not a secret. It's based on performance by the players and which one seems to be more comfortable with the plan and who can execute the plays," Groh said.

"We are not trying to pull any magic tricks or be secretive; we are just looking for executing. Until we find the consistent level of execution that we need, we will have to continue to search. We would like it to be otherwise, I am sure we would. We hope it becomes otherwise but all we can do is coach it and hope the players take the initiative to show us the execution that we need."

If not, Groh could face execution, coaching-style. While UVa fans haven't shied away from voicing their displeasure, Groh always conditions his players during the offseason to deal with both the applause and criticism.

"One of the things that we tell [players] before the season ever starts is a team collectively and the players individually have to be prepared to handle both the love and the hate, because both of them come during the course of the season," Groh said during his weekly press conference on Monday.

"Every week the team is going to get one or the other. If you're 12-0, the team has to be able to tune out the love. And if you're 0-12, a team has to be able to tune out the hate. Either way affects how the players think and all the players can think about is what they need to do to do their jobs."

TCU Coach Gary Patterson watched the Cavaliers' loss to William & Mary and said it is difficult to read too much into a seven-turnover performance. He believes the Cavs were better than their opener indicated.

Groh, searching for a silver lining, reminded his players that two previous UVa teams lost openers but rebounded nicely. He said the key is remaining unified and trusting each other.

"I told the players we had two teams -- in 2002 and 2007 -- that lost the first game. In fact the 2002 team lost the first two games and both went on to win seven games in a row and cumulatively won nine games," Groh said.



"That history doesn't mean that that's a resource to do it again other than to point out that this has been done; it can be done. What they did have in common, they stay unified; they stayed consistent in their approach. They kept working and they kept believing in what they were doing and in the system and they used practice every day to get better and to keep marching forward.

"Probably I don't think -- as I don't really remember -- but I think it's probably unlikely that from outside the walls of the building that those two teams were getting a great deal of positive reinforcement either. But they got it to where it was necessary and that was through the relationships that they had with each other and the confidence that they had in the system."

Groh's system is on the clock.