Cavs seek starter — again

By Jay Jenkins

Published: August 28, 2008

It took nearly three weeks before Jameel Sewell felt comfortable in the huddle.

For Anthony Martinez, the experience was over almost before it started.

Kevin McCabe claimed to have been given a four-hour notice to adjust to his new job title.

Such is the life of a starting quarterback thrust into college football’s brightest spotlight.

And for the sixth time in as many seasons, Virginia is set to add another member to the high-profile club Saturday as it entertains third-ranked Southern California at Scott Stadium.

Few people inside the sold-out venue will be able to relate to the pressure that will be instantly thrust upon the victor of the month-long, three-way quarterback battle that includes Pete Lalich, Marc Verica and Scott Deke.

It is a feeling, however, that Sewell can certainly relate to.

The most recent starting quarterback for UVa was thrown into the fire two years ago on national television at Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets finished that campaign ranked 27th nationally in total defense and scoring defense and held Sewell to just 115 yards passing while forcing two interceptions.

Sewell, temporarily out of the loop, is left to assume that it will be Lalich, who made eight appearances last year and served as the Cavaliers’ top backup.

“Pete is about to step into — as an official starter — an even more vicious defense than what Georgia Tech had,” said Sewell, who helped create the vacancy at quarterback after he was placed on a one-year academic suspension last January. “It is going to be hard. He is going to have to show his team that he’s not going to back down. Even if we were to lose, which I don’t think will happen, if he shows the true fight of a warrior, the team will have his back.

“He can’t come out and be in the Friday night lights. Everything is going to be spinning. There is going to be a lot of pressure that he can’t let his boys down.”

The coaching staff and his teammates certainly backed Sewell in 2006 as he slowly adjusted to life as a starter.

“For me to actually get comfortable it was until the Miami game, almost three weeks, to actually feel like I fit in with the guys,” he said. “I was accepted and they knew that I was going to ride with them, but they didn’t know my full capability out there on the field for a while.”

After dropping his debut at Georgia Tech, 24-7, and losing two of his next three starts, Sewell went on to post a 12-6 record and led Virginia to last season’s Gator Bowl.

“To know that if you don’t play a perfect game and they are saying, ‘We are still with you,’ means a lot,” Sewell said. “I don’t put up great stats, but I win. That’s what I like to do.

“I don’t care about stats. I don’t look at touchdowns or stats or yards. I only look at interceptions.”

Sewell’s positive experience as a starter was not shared by several other former quarterbacks. Martinez, McCabe and Christian Olsen were relegated to reserve duty shortly after earning starting status.

The leash was so short for Martinez that he struggles to recount the experience all together.

After Matt Schaub was injured in the season opener against Duke in 2003, Martinez earned a road start at South Carolina. After passing for just 54 yards during a dreadful loss, Virginia coach Al Groh turned the following week to Marques Hagans, who had been conveted into a wideout at the time.

“Actually, I never think about that game,” said Martinez, now playing minor league baseball in the Baltimore Orioles organization. “I watch football and I still talk to my friends from the team, but it is a blur in my mind.”

Hagans kept the position warm for Schaub, and went on to start every game in 2004 and 2005 before his graduation left yet another void.

Groh initially turned to Olsen to run his offense in 2006. That lasted all of seven quarters and included a woeful 25-point loss at Pittsburgh.

McCabe emerged next and was given a start against Western Michigan in the season’s third game.

After a pair of interceptions, the McCabe experiment ended before the game reached the fourth quarter.

“I didn’t get the call that I was going to start until 11:00 that morning,” McCabe said. “I know we were in a transition that season and we struggled in the first couple of games, but at the same time, you want the guy that is going to pull the trigger for you to feel comfortable unless you are trying to run him out.”

McCabe did leave, and awaits another turn as a starting quarterback Saturday for Division II California (Pa.) University.

He said he remains hopeful that the next Virginia quarterback will be given a longer leash.

“In that game, I started to get into a good flow of the game and I had one errant pass that went off a receivers’ shoulder pad and that was it,” he recounted. “It’s just hard when you are playing at that level and you are trying to play like someone else.

“You are trying to be someone else by playing in the system instead using your God-given talent and just naturally showing things. It just never happened for me.”

Without knowing the reasoning, McCabe seemed baffled that Virginia had not announced a starting quarterback.

“If they know that they are going in with a guy, there is no reason to screw around with that gray area,” he said. “As a quarterback you are thinking, ‘If they are not that confident in naming me the starter three days before the game, then how confident are they going to be in me if I make a mistake or if I don’t do this right.’

“I am sure when Matt Schaub and Marques Hagans were under the reins, they were able to go out and be themselves. It just kind of made them feel at home, as well as Jameel. He had all the freedom in the world and everybody knows players can make plays.”

Groh had his reasons, the biggest of which stemmed from the idea’s origin: the quarterbacks’ suggestion. Shunning interview requests from the media, Groh said, provided a “cocoon” and “sanity” for the trio.

“What we wanted to do is create the circumstance of sanity,” Groh said. “As soon as it was mentioned, it seemed to make a lot of sense. And it’s worked out great.

“They’ve had a nice, quiet, sane period of time to do what they were supposed to do — work on their game — and not become a team spokesman, wittingly or unwittingly.”

That calm feeling, of course, will evaporate shortly after Saturday’s kickoff.

“It’s only as hard as you make it,” Martinez said. “At first you have all the jitters and all the nerves, but it is something that you just have to find a way to fight through.”