The No. 11 Virginia men's soccer team will kick off the 2002 ACC Championship today against unranked Duke. The match will take place at 3 p.m. in Cary, N.C., a small town 20 miles south of Durham and deep in Blue Devil territory.
"I think it's been great," Rivers said when asked how his first child with his wife, Tiffany, has affected his season. "If it has done anything it has helped. It has been very balanced, and I wouldn't want it any other way."
Football and family have been with Rivers since early in his life. Rivers grew up in Athens as the son of the local high school football coach, and by the time he finished high school he was named the Alabama Player of the Year.
When he decided to attend N.C. State, his family moved to Raleigh, N.C. with him and his father now coaches a local Raleigh high school team.
Rivers jumped right into the starting quarterback role and shined at the position his first year, setting seven school records and winning the ACC rookie of the year award.
His life off the field seemed to be going just as smoothly. Rivers married his high school sweetheart, Tiffany, and was able to maintain the same high academic standard that led him to graduate early in his senior year of high school with a 3.7 grade point average. His freshman year of college saw him earn All-ACC Academic honors.
In 2001 Rivers continued his excellent performance on the field and finished with a quarterback efficiency rating of 134.80, beating his freshman rating by eight points.
As a junior this year, Rivers led the Wolfpack to a 9-0 record and a top 10 rating in some polls before dropping the last two games against Georgia Tech and Maryland.
"We accomplished a lot of things," Rivers said of dealing with the two losses. "We still have three more games we can win. We just need to get back on the winning side. Beating Virginia is the number one goal. It's tough to bounce back."
When asked what goals he had for the rest of the season, Rivers answered, "Win the rest of them. A lot of teams would love to be 9-2 right now. We haven't talked about down the road a lot this week, we've talked about coming to play this tough Virginia team."
Rivers has responded to the pressure placed on his shoulders with uncanny focus and determination, watching lots of game film on opponents as well as other games on television.
"I think it's been pretty solid," Rivers said of his season so far. "I can go back in and look at every game and correct the little things I did wrong, the little mistakes. The guys who are in the NFL 15 years go back and do that every game. The game last night, the Marshall
[Miami of Ohio] game, I watched just about every play of that game. Those two quarterbacks played well. I just like watching games in general."
According to N.C. State Coach Chuck Amato, his study of football and his game experience has paid off for Rivers.
"He's seen just about everything he can see," Amato said. "I'm sure he's going to sooner or later see something different, but there's only so many thing defenses can do and he's already experienced all that stuff."
Despite having to rely heavily on true freshman T.A. McLendon for the bulk of the ground attack, Rivers has been able to post the best numbers of his career through the air and was mentioned as a Heisman Trophy candidate before the two losses.
"I haven't been paying much attention," Rivers said of his chances to win the most coveted trophy in college football. "I think that's the way it goes, it's a matter of your team winning games. If you look at the top four or five guys that people are mentioning right now, their teams are I think all in the top 10."
Rivers, however still ranks sixth in the nation with a 150.7 quarterback efficiency rating and first in the ACC in both passing efficiency and yards, and as a junior Rivers has become the leader of the N.C. State team.
"Whatever year you are as a player, as a quarterback you have to be a leader," Rivers said. "I felt like that even as a freshman, and now being one of the older guys on the team. Certainly on this team there's been great seniors, but it's just natural instinct, a lot of it comes with the position. I take it upon myself to lead us and win games."
It has become clear that Rivers is not only the leader, but also the lifeblood of the Wolfpack team.
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