Mythical Troy now a reality

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Published: August 29, 2008

By now, Virginia’s players can probably hear USC’s fight song in their sleep.

Coach Al Groh had team managers play the Trojans’ battle cry during practices to help set the mood for when Southern California would come to town. This afternoon, the song and the Trojans are for real.

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.

You gotta believe

They believe they can shock the world, well, at least the college football world. Easier said than done. USC brings a roster that looks like the dream team off any national recruiting publication’s list. They’re 10 deep at tailback, for heaven’s sake.

Someone said this week that the Trojans have more depth than an NFL team. They’re right. Nine deep at both wide receiver spots. You get the picture.

Coach Pete Carroll, who owns the nation’s highest winning percentage of any active college football coach, has collected so much talent that his team just keeps rolling along. They’ve strung together six straight 11-win seasons.

One gets the notion that if Virginia can keep from being nudged off the planet, let alone prevent being blown out of its own stadium, then the Cavs have done a good job.

However, Carroll doesn’t expect it to be quite that easy. Truth be told, Groh doesn’t either. The Los Angeles papers and some of the national sports shows that previewed the college season have referred to Virginia as a “tough opener.”

While the roster at UVa can’t match up with USC, that doesn’t mean this won’t be an interesting game. On paper, the Trojans look every bit the 19-point favorite or even more. But you know what the old coaches say about paper.

A day of possibilities

The nature of college football is that sometimes even the head coach doesn’t know exactly what he’s got until after a few games. They don’t get the preseason advantages enjoyed by NFL teams. Both Groh and Carroll have been there.

Groh said this week that even though Carroll knows he’s got a pretty good football team, there’s probably a lot of things that the USC coach wants and needs to learn in this one before taking on Ohio State in a couple of weeks.

There are several items on Groh’s checklist today.

Among the three quarterbacks slugging it out for playing time, who will show their best stuff under game conditions? Will it be hot-shot Pete Lalich, the recruit with the golden arm, or one of the dark horses, Marc Verica or Scott Deke?

Can kicker Yannick Reyering successfully make the transition from futbol to football?

Will Virginia’s three new starters on the offensive line handle the Trojans’ blitzes and stunts?

Can the new defensive line keep USC blockers off the Virginia linebackers long enough to slow down an offense dotted with some of the nation’s most explosive talent?

Those are just some of the questions that Groh is curious about heading into his eighth season at the UVa helm.

We’re curious to see if the redshirting policy that Groh began a couple of years ago, redshirting nearly an entire recruiting class at a time, will finally begin to pay off for Virginia the way the same philosophy has for Jim Grobe at Wake Forest.

We’re also curious to see if this will be just another USC blowout, or because it is a season opener will the Trojans be a little rusty? While Carroll’s team is loaded with talent, the offense features seven new starters, including Mark Sanchez at quarterback. He has missed part of camp with a dislocated kneecap and reportedly hasn’t been the picture of accuracy on his throws.

Then there’s the Southern California defense, maybe the best in the nation. It will test a Virginia offense that has been less than spectacular the past couple of years. This time around, the Cavaliers have returned to the Matt Schaub offense that features as many passes as necessary to get the job done.

With what Groh has described as the best team that has come to Scott Stadium during his era, we’re talking big-time football. There’s been some pretty good Florida State, Miami, Penn State and Virginia Tech teams to visit during that span. If USC is better, then maybe there’s nothing the Cavaliers can do to slow the high-powered Trojans down.

Who knows? Or, should we put it, Hoo knows? Virginia certainly hasn’t exactly distinguished itself in a good way lately as far as season openers are concerned.

Remember Wyoming last year?

Aaarrrrgh!

However, as great an opportunity as it is to play and even host USC, Groh isn’t putting everything into this one game. Certainly he wants to win, pull off the upset. Nothing could be better for his program than to knock off one of the big boys.

As he reminded us last year after losing to the Cowboys — the ones from Laramie, not Dallas — there are 11 more games remaining. The ones that mean the most are the ones with ACC sewn on their jerseys.

If nothing else, Groh and his hopeful Cavaliers will find out what works and what doesn’t when taking on the Trojans.

So, a win would be monumental. A loss would be expected and a true learning experience.