Didn’t take long for Al Groh to sum up the challenge in traveling to Connecticut for this Saturday’s game against the Huskies. All the Virginia coach had to do was remember back to last year’s 17-16 win over UConn in Scott Stadium.

When Virginia designated Saturday’s football date with Richmond as its “retro game,” the Cavaliers weren’t counting on having to rely on winning in the same fashion as last year.

One hundred and twenty years of Virginia football and only one Cavalier team managed to win 10 games in one season: the 1989 squad.

It didn’t take long for the naysayers to come out of the woodwork and declare the 2008 Virginia football season officially over.

Lalich, the golden arm from West Springfield High School, the kid who was groomed to be a passing quarterback from early on, launched his ownership of the Virginia quarterback job under the sternest test on Saturday. Southern California’s veteran defense threw everything it had at the young right-hander and he survived.

In perhaps the biggest home opener in nearly a quarter of a century, the nation’s best football program over the past six years will bring a national spotlight to Charlottesville. While the oddsmakers and the naysayers don’t give Groh’s Cavaliers a snowball’s chance, don’t tell the Wahoos.

Last year was a good time to be Dave Borbely, in his second season as Virginia’s offensive line coach. From stem to stern, he had veteran linemen at every spot, including first-round NFL draft choice Branden Albert at guard. That was last year.

Point is, football is a lot more fun when teams are competing against the best and that’s what this Saturday is all about. Southern California, the best college football program in the country this decade, comes to town for a 3:30 p.m. showdown with Al Groh’s Wahoos.

Cedric Peerman and Mikell Simpson combined last season for 1,155 yards rushing, 501 yards receiving, 15 touchdowns and a whole lot of headaches for defensive coordinators.

Paul Kane and 15 other players will tee it up this morning in the second annual match play event that boasts the top 16 finishers and alternates from the season-long Battle Trophy competition. Two rounds will be played today, with the semifinals and finals set for Sunday.

A nose tackle can play a perfect game and almost no one would know —there’s not a lot of glory tossed their way.

Don’t expect any long-winded conversations with Virginia starting cornerback Ras-I Dowling. If a question can be answered in 20 words, Ras-I can do it in 10.

John Swofford said Tuesday morning that if some think the ACC has a post-expansion image problem, he doesn’t share that opinion.

When Clemson rewarded Tommy Bowden with a lucrative contract during the winter, expectations soared as high as his new salary. Bowden had flirted with an offer from Arkansas until Clemson opened its coffers.

After the grades from the first semester were compiled, Sewell was placed on an academic suspension for the next two consecutive semesters, meaning he would miss spring practice and this coming season. So, Groh and his staff were forced to find another quarterback and return to a different style of play.

Grove went out like a champion, made the birdie for a final round of 1-under par 69 and a two-shot victory with a three-day total of 3-under 207.

The city championship has been the most unpredictable of all the local major tournaments over the past two decades.

If you’re wondering why Virginia was eager to host the NBA Top 100 Camp the past two years, look no further than Sylven Landesberg.

Brian Skatell has a story to tell, and he has his fingers crossed that The Golf Channel’s “Big Break” series will be the avenue.

Thirty-one golf balls sailed simultaneously down the 14th fairway at Farmington Country Club, each a memory of the late Bill Battle and what he meant to those assembled to celebrate his life.

The good doctor served not only the University of Virginia’s athletic teams and the general community here over that span, but also made regular trips to William & Mary, Richmond, VMI, even what was then Ferrum Junior College many moons ago. He would travel the state helping high school and college athletes recover from serious injuries suffered in their respective sports.

Albemarle High School’s baseball team was accustomed to bouncing back from adversity. In fact, the Patriots thrived on such situations.

While many of his accomplishments, coming to John Kennedy and PT 109’s rescue during World War II, helping Kennedy win the presidential election, serving as ambassador to Australia, running a major corporation, running for governor of Virginia, and many other deeds, have been well-documented in this newspaper the past two days, we knew Battle more from the golfing perspective.

When Virginia gained back-to-back commitments from football prospects in the talent-rich Tidewater recruiting area this week, more than a few eyebrows were raised.

Beware of Ben Rubeor, Virginia’s star goal producer on a Cavalier lacrosse team headed back to the Final Four.

There’s a note that’s been sitting on Dom Starsia’s desk for almost two years, one of his keepsakes from the 2006 national lacrosse championship that Virginia won under his direction.

When sixth-ranked UMBC, billed as the hottest lacrosse team in the nation with 11 straight wins, came to rain-soaked Klockner Stadium on Sunday, needless to say Virginia was ready.

More than 20 years had passed since Gus Gerard last set foot in Charlottesville. That’s when his life began to crumble as a result of his addiction to drugs and alcohol - an addiction that cost him his family, friends, and a small fortune accumulated as a pro basketball player.

When Brad Butler starred at right tackle for Virginia’s football team, he was dead serious about the game. However, he wasn’t a one-dimensional guy.

When Jim Dombrowski came to the University of Virginia in the early 1980s, he figured his future was in medicine and not on the gridiron.