Verica may hold key to ending Virginia’s swoon

By JERRY RATCLIFFE
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
Published: November 21, 2008

At last glance, Virginia quarterback Marc Verica was sitting outside the locker room down in Winston-Salem, N.C., still absorbing a stinging loss to Wake Forest.

While the Cavaliers have adopted a slogan of winning and losing as a team, Verica, a stand-up guy, couldn’t help but shoulder a good portion of the blame. Two costly interceptions in the first half essentially provided the Demon Deacons with 14 of their 28 first-half points in a 28-17 Wake win.

Even though Verica leads the ACC in passing accuracy heading into this weekend’s crucial home game against Clemson, the pressure will be on the Cavalier quarterback to play turnover-free football.

Coach Al Groh lamented his young quarterback’s mistakes after the Wake loss and stated that for all the good things that Verica had done, the interceptions had to stop. With the Cavaliers still in the mix for the Coastal Division title, the interceptions, the turnovers have to stop now.

No paper Tigers

Clemson — ranked No. 9 nationally in the preseason polls before things went awry — has plenty of talent on its roster. The Tigers boast the No. 6 ranked pass defense in the country.

There will be immense pressure on three Cavaliers in particular in this game: the accuracy of Verica’s arm, the accuracy of freshman kicker Robert Randolph’s leg, and whether or not UVa defensive back Byron Glaspy can remain upright in his pass coverage.

Virginia was burned in two of those areas last time out with Verica’s interceptions — and Glaspy falling down for the second straight game, allowing an opposing receiver to take it to the house on key plays. Randolph will have to be perfect against Clemson, while Verica and Glaspy will have to be close behind.

Walking the tightrope

In the wild and wooly ACC, where most games seem to be coming down to a handful of plays, there’s little margin for error. Against Wake, the Glaspy fall resulted in a 58-yard TD for the Deacs. Verica’s first interception came while UVa was in a five-wide receiver set with no protection against a well-timed Wake blitz, which eventually led to the TD pass against Glaspy and a 14-0 lead.

Verica’s second came with only 3:16 remaining in the first half, a pass to wideout Kevin Ogletree with the ball popping in the air , to be returned 47 yards for a TD and a 28-3 lead.

That one was particularly upsetting to the Virginia coaches.

“That one had a dramatic result on the scoreboard,“ Groh said this week of the third-and-16 play. “If we just punt the ball, then [Wake] is not going to score before the half is over. They’ve got 21 points instead of 28. Sometimes you’ve got to think ‘I’ve got to protect the next play.’“

As the old coaches will tell you, sometimes it’s not so bad to punt the ball away. This would have been one of those times.

So, how does a head coach broach the subject with a redshirt sophomore quarterback in his first year as a starter, still attempting to feel his way through the process, still waiting for the game to slow down before his very eyes?

“In most healthy relationships, communication is the key,“ Groh said. “I think it’s important that whenever necessary, all the players in the program understand what the head coach feels.

“As you can imagine, [turnovers, interceptions] aren’t things that make me feel warm and fuzzy, so I try to relate that particular circumstance,“ Groh said. “It affects all of us. Anybody who has the ball in his hands is carrying the hopes and aspirations of all of us. Whether you’re running it, catching it, throwing it, it’s not your ball. It’s all of us… all our work.“

As Groh noted, when one dies, they all die. When one scores, they all score. When one gets a penalty, they all get penalized. It’s all about being in this thing together.

Don’t get Verica wrong. And, no, we’re not picking on him. Like we mentioned early, he’s a stand-up kid, who always shows up for post-game media interviews — win or lose, a great throwing night or a not-so-good one.

As we also mentioned several weeks ago, he’s not going to be perfect every week, although he tries to be.

He rarely throws a pick in practice. In fact, he tries to complete every pass in practice.

But there’s a difference that even the Pennsylvania native will admit.

“When the bullets are flying out there, it’s a much different tempo than in practice,“ Verica said. “It’s for real. Their guys aren’t going to just tap you on the shoulder like they do in practice. They’re going to hit you.“

The good thing about the young QB is that he learns from his mistakes. He confessed that on that second interception at Wake, there was a small window, and he tried to squeeze the ball to Ogletree through that difficult frame in a Brett Favre-esque manner.

“I think there was contact as soon as Kevin had touched the ball,“ Verica said. “It was a difficult catch to make in traffic. Guys were hitting him as soon as he was touching the ball and it kind of popped into the air. The challenge is knowing when to take a shot and when to accept the punt.“

He’s no dummy. He is quickly learning the hard way that ball security is primo.

“It’s something over time that I’ll get better at,“ Verica said.

Time is running out on this season. The turnovers have to stop now, or there may not be a tomorrow for this football team.