After months of waiting, today’s the day

By Jay Jenkins

Published: August 29, 2008

Sprint after sprint. Squat after squat.

For the past eight months, as players came and went for varying reasons, Virginia’s football program had a true attention-getter to prepare for: a season-opening date with vaunted Southern California.

That comes full circle today at 3:30 p.m. inside Scott Stadium as the new-look Cavaliers entertain the third-ranked Trojans in front of a sell out crowd and a national audience.

With the marquee opponent on the docket, Virginia attempted to use the newfound level of concentration to its advantage during its annual training camp with hopes of making a statement.

“It probably tightened the focus on every little detail as far as the players are concerned,” said Virginia coach Al Groh. “As an individual player, when you are going to go up against one of the best players in the land at your position, and as a team when we are going to go up against a team like this, I think, everybody recognizes the need to try to get our game as finely tuned as possible.

“That’s probably the greatest impact [playing USC] had on our camp.”

Regardless of the result, much can be gained, Groh said, from tangling with a national title contender in a game he said was somewhat “outlandish” on paper.

“Competition is not about always scheduling to win,” he said. “Competition is about stepping out there and putting yourself out there a little bit and seeing what you can do with it.

“I think the type of players that we’re going to play against will be worthwhile for us. I think as a coach I have benefited from the challenges of getting ready for a team like this. I’ve learned some new things in having to deal with this team and some schemes that we haven’t had to deal with before.”

Few college football experts give Virginia, a 20-point underdog, a chance against USC. The Trojans have been to six straight BCS contests and had 40 players drafted over the past six years.

“Nobody expects us to win,” said Virginia linebacker Clint Sintim.

Groh joked that to win, the Cavaliers would need to “play like the New York Giants did” in Super Bowl XLII against the New England Patriots. “Rush the passer. Make big plays. Win at the end.”

Virginia certainly did its share of the latter last year — en route to a nine-win season, the Cavaliers set a record by winning five games by one or two points.

That previous model, of course, featured a pair of All-Americans — defensive end Chris Long and guard Branden Albert — and

veteran quarterback Jameel Sewell. Those faces and 11 other starters have departed, leaving Virginia with 10 returning starters, its lowest total in 22 years.

The candidates to the replace those voids have been all but announced at every spot except one: quarterback.

Pete Lalich, who played eight games as a reserve last year, battled with fellow sophomore Marc Verica and fifth-year senior Scott Deke over the past month with few details spilling out of training camp.

“Each one has done his part to have earned the position by doing the right things,” Groh said. “You just try to keep it from becoming a sideshow.”

Their teammates said they have an idea of the position’s winner, most likely Lalich, but the quarterbacks jockeying for position on the depth chart remained silent throughout the preseason practice period.

“We have tried to maintain an air of calm and sanity around the process,” Groh said. “The distractions come from outside, frankly, much more so than they from within the locker room and within the team.”

Until earlier this week, USC had its own quarterback controversy. Expected starter Mark Sanchez, who made three starts last year, was limited most of training camp by a dislocated kneecap. The junior has since returned to practice and was anointed as today’s starter earlier in the week by USC coach Pete Carroll.

While USC has only four returning starters on offense, its defense may be the best in the country. The Trojans ranked second nationally last year in total defense (273.2 ypg) and in scoring defense (16.0 ppg) and were one of only five programs to register more sacks than Virginia.

Carroll would like to see improvements, starting today, in one area defensively. The Trojans forced 28 turnovers last year and finished the season No. 41 in turnover margin.

“It will mark the difference between being a really strong, effective defense,” Carroll said. “We are going to be a good defense anyway, but how good we can be will be determined by how many times we can take the ball away.”