Cavs' Lundy Ready to Return to Stage

Pearman's Work Left Him With Reduced Role in 2004

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Tailback Wali Lundy is one of only three University of Virginia players to run for 800 yards or more in three seasons. He has scored 41 touchdowns during his career, third-most among active college football players and ninth in ACC history. He scored nine times in the Cavaliers' first three games last season and was being mentioned as a possible Heisman Trophy candidate during his team's fast start.

So when Lundy was seemingly cast aside during the latter part of the 2004 season, when Alvin Pearman was getting the majority of carries and becoming one of the best running backs in the country, Cavaliers fans collectively asked, "Where's Wali?" With Pearman averaging 27 carries during Virginia's last five regular season games, Lundy was more difficult to find than the children's book character that wears black-rimmed glasses, a funny hat and red-and-white striped sweater.

Was Coach Al Groh upset with Lundy because he fumbled at critical times against Clemson and Virginia Tech? Was Lundy's pass blocking not up to snuff? Was he not taking care of business off the field? Groh insists he had no problems with Lundy last season and has gone out of his way to defend the player during the preseason this year.

"It's like, 'Hey, Wali Lundy is back,' " Groh said. "So everybody likes Wali Lundy. Wali Lundy never went anyplace. There was never any problem with Wali, other than some games he missed because of injury. We happened to have a guy who got very hot for us last year and did a real good job for us."

Pearman, who was picked in the fourth round by the Jacksonville Jaguars in April's NFL draft, averaged nearly 150 rushing yards during the Cavaliers' last five regular season games in 2004. In a 37-16 victory at Duke, Pearman ran 38 times for 223 yards, one yard shy of the school record set by John Papit against Washington & Lee in 1948. Pearman had 31 carries against Maryland, 21 against Miami and 28 against Virginia Tech.

Lundy, 5 feet 10 and 214 pounds, ran 10 times or fewer in games against Florida State, Miami, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech. He gained only nine yards on four carries in a 24-10 loss to the Hokies, his lowest rushing total since the ninth game of his freshman season in 2002.

Groh said Lundy's lack of opportunity wasn't as much about what he wasn't doing as what Pearman was doing.

"If it was a basketball team and Wali was the starting four, and we told the other guy he was going to go in at the seven-minute mark and he suddenly hit four straight three-pointers and kept hitting them all year long, you'd have to be fairly foolish to say we're going to the way things were," Groh said. "That's the only situation that occurred there."

Lundy, who turns 22 next month, is used to overcoming obstacles. He grew up in a housing project in the outskirts of Philadelphia. His father, Brian Lundy, was in and out of jail and died of a stroke when Wali was 3. His mother, Joann Lundy, died of breast cancer three years later. After his mother died, Lundy's grandparents, Etta and Frank Davis, sold their retirement home in Florida and moved back to Philadelphia to raise their four grandsons, none of whom had even started high school yet.

"It was tough, but I was really young when it happened," Lundy said. "It's part of life. It's something that made me stronger and made me the person I am today."

Lundy's grandparents bought a house in nearby Burlington Township, N.J., which had safer streets and fewer temptations for their grandsons. They had three rules in their home: Their grandsons went to school, attended church every Sunday and played sports to keep them out of trouble. Lundy's oldest brother, Shaheed, graduated from Rutgers. His other brothers, Jamaal and Mikal, played college football and graduated from Connecticut and Towson, respectively.

Lundy, who nearly died of an intestinal disorder when he was in eighth grade, credits his grandmother, now 76, for raising him and his brothers the right way. His grandfather died of complications from heart surgery in 1989.