Cavs Not Overly Concerned About Being Underdogs

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Two thousand miles from the University of Virginia, oddsmakers in Las Vegas provided an objective third-party assessment of the Cavaliers that might mean little to Coach Al Groh but says much about the current perception of his football team.

Duke, loser of 25 consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference games, enters Saturday's game against Virginia favored by a touchdown. Although that means nothing once the teams take the field at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, N.C., it indicates a stark reality about a Virginia program reeling from the loss of its 10th non-senior from the 9-4 team that reached the Gator Bowl last season, and a Duke program that appears reinvigorated under first-year coach David Cutcliffe.

"Being an underdog didn't surprise me," said wide receiver Kevin Ogletree, aware of Duke's hot start and home presence but not aware of its ACC losing streak.

Groh said that streaks are relevant only to fans and reporters. Players in Duke's locker room might disagree.

"Our redshirt seniors are 1-31 in their ACC careers, 0-24 in their three-year playing career," Cutcliffe said. "I really don't have to do much reminding. They're very aware of it."

Virginia and Duke were idle last weekend, giving both teams time to prepare for a game that will reveal how much the first month of the season is indicative of the program's future.

During the bye week, Groh shuffled parts of his lineup. Redshirt freshman Corey Mosley usurped safety duties from junior Brandon Woods, and redshirt freshman Nick Jenkins overtook junior Nate Collins at defensive tackle.

Three freshmen and a sophomore now start on Virginia's defense. The two-deep depth chart includes five freshmen as backups, and the overwhelming youth on the Cavaliers' roster explains why they visit Durham as underdogs.

Causes for departure for 10 non-seniors from last season's team ranged from an early entry to the NFL draft to academic causalities to players with legal problems, the latest being former starting quarterback Peter Lalich's dismissal from the team after he admitted to drinking alcohol while under probation for an alcohol-related arrest.

"Our inventory is a little bit lower than what we expected at this time," Groh said. "If we looked at how some of these positions were stocked a year back and look forward to this date, the inventory is not quite the same as what we anticipated it was going to be. As that happens, the team goes through cycles and is having to deal with those issues. But if it's not what we're accustomed to or want it to, it's not because the players don't have their full hearts into it. They certainly do."

One area where the decline in depth is most apparent is defensive line. Groh would prefer to rotate ends, with Jeffrey Fitzgerald and Sean Gottschalk expected as key pieces. Fitzgerald left Virginia for academic reasons, and Gottschalk is on a leave of absence for personal reasons.

Fifth-year senior quarterback Scott Deke calmly advised critics to hold their breath. The first month is not even finished, and Deke was quick to remind outsiders that 1-2 is not an entirely untenable position. With nine games remaining, including the entire ACC schedule, Virginia has time to turn around the season.

The Cavaliers can just look to the Duke game last season, which was preceded by an embarrassing 23-3 loss to Wyoming. They rebounded by topping Duke to start a seven-game winning streak. Observers would be hard-pressed to compare the 2007 team to the current edition, at least as it appeared in two losses by a combined score of 97-17.

Groh said history would not help the team this season, but some of the players who contributed to last season's surge remain.

"Obviously you don't want your team to have amnesia to that," Groh said. "You are who you are. Some of that resilient, tough-minded energy team, that wasn't provided simply by players who have graduated and moved on. Players who are on this current team applied a lot of that, too. That is pretty consistent. What isn't consistent is some of those teams and some of those performers need to be replaced, and that hasn't happened yet."