Groh Says Team's Quarterback Predicament Is Not 'Totally Unexpected'

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Sept. 19 -- By any measure, the first three games of Mike Groh's tenure as offense coordinator of the Virginia football team have been rocky. Three quarterbacks used. A 1-2 record. National offensive rankings in the triple digits.

The picture, one painted mostly by ineffective and inconsistent quarterback play, is bleak but, Coach Al Groh said Tuesday, not one that is all that surprising.

With Jameel Sewell's turn up in the quarterback derby, Groh said he wanted to use a single quarterback the entire season and keep a set rotation, which he tried by making Christian Olsen the unquestioned starter out of spring practice. The problem is, neither Olsen nor Kevin McCabe mustered any offense, so quarterbacks have been shuffled in as if they were disposable.

"We'd like to have them all set," Groh said. "We'd like to have one guy, and he's in there for the whole time. And that's the way we wanted it to be to start with. The situation that we're in, frankly, isn't one that was totally unexpected. But we just had to play to find out what the reality of things were."

And that's a sobering reality. The rankings of Virginia's offense in scoring (12 points per game), total offense (225 yards per game) and rushing (51 yards per game), respectively: 107, 112 and 117 out of 119 Division I-A programs.

Not all of the blame falls on the quarterbacks. A young offensive line has struggled, and the running game hasn't helped carry the load.

"Cedric Peerman hasn't been as effective as I thought he would be," Groh said.

As small as the offensive output has been, Virginia's players insist they're closer to breaking out of their slump than it would seem.

There is not one glaring problem that can't be fixed; it's just a number of small issues biting them at the wrong time, they say.

"We get something right in practice, then we go to the game field and we see it and it just doesn't go the same way," Sewell said. "It's just mental issues."

"We just have to pick things up," wide receiver Fontel Mines said. "I don't really point fingers. We're just not clicking at all together.

"One person will do something right one time, the other person will do something right the other time. Once we get together as a cohesive unit, we'll be fine."

Something in Common

Though Sewell received his first significant playing time Saturday, not everything seemed new to him. Mines, a senior, and Sewell, a redshirt freshman, went to Hermitage High together in Richmond. Though they never played together because of the age difference, they knew each other and did play on the basketball team together. Mines praised Sewell for his poise, something other Cavaliers picked up, too.

"A lot of linemen noticed he was very calm and collected in the huddle," Mines said. "That's very comforting for the other players, seeing a quarterback taking control. I think he did fine last week.

"That's the type of person that he is, just more a laid-back guy."

Olsen and McCabe are both wound tight, but that's not the only difference from Sewell. The freshman is left-handed, which can make a difference for receivers.

"It has a different spin to it," Mines said. "But it's something a good receiver should be accustomed to."