This was it. This was the year. A preseason AP rank of 18. A thrashing of West Virginia in last year's Tire Bowl, with starting tailback Wali Lundy scoring four touchdowns and earning the game MVP award. A top-five recruiting class from a season ago, playing with a year of experience. Schaub4Heisman.com. Rumors that last year's 10-sack man Darryl Blackstock would only be the third best linebacker on the team with the arrival of freshmen Ahmad Brooks and Kai Parham. Even GRIDIRON'S publication, a Cavalier Daily 64-page football supplement, sparked a frenzy of football fervor around Grounds.
As the Star Spangled Banner waned, I entertained visions of a quarterback nobody wanted just a year ago Tom Brady-ing us to a first-ever BCS appearance and the school's first ever outright ACC title.
After hundreds of basketball fans left the Duke game early last year despite camping out in the cold for a week, the term "basketball school" was officially dropped from any association with the University of Virginia.
This fall seemed like the perfect time for football to push hoops off the mountain as the king sport at U.Va., especially with the pending arrival of powerhouses Miami and Virginia Tech into the ACC in 2004.
Al Groh best summed up the school's apparent "football makeover." Not one with an affinity for Virginia's precious tradition of ties, spring dresses and swaying during the "Good Ol' Song," the third-year coach let it be known how proud he was of the fans in the most anticipated season opener of his tenure at Virginia.
"I want to congratulate the fans -- it appears as if we're finally trading neckties for body paint, blue cotton Oxford shirts for t-shirts and orange ones at that," Groh said to reporters. "It looked like a real football house tonight."
Although Groh's fashion observation may be wishful thinking, there was no doubt that football was in the air Saturday night.
But after the first drive of the year, all of those hopes and all of those expectations are now facing a wave of uncertainty surrounding the most important position on the field --- the quarterback.
I won't lie. When I saw Matt Schaub sacked by DeAndre White while threatening on the Duke one-yard line, a flurry of images immediately popped into my head. Michael Vick. Chad Pennington. Derek Jeter. Ken Griffey Jr.
And when I saw redshirt freshman Anthony Martinez warming up on the sidelines, I knew the season for the Cavaliers had just taken a drastic hit with repercussions far worse than having to settle for a field goal inside the 10.
Not knowing what to expect from the notoriously strong-armed former pitcher, I sat back and cringed as Martinez sent his first pass over the middle directly into the back of Art Thomas' helmet. I watched Wali Lundy press his facemask against his new QB's and explain the throw he should have made as Martinez nodded nervously. What followed was a delay of game penalty, three incomplete passes and then another delay of game.
I started to get that sick feeling in my gut -- the one you get when you're in a hopeless situation.
But then, a glimmer of hope appeared. Martinez's next throw was a beauty, a 39-yard completion to Thomas down the sideline, which set up Lundy's two-yard touchdown run. He then ended the half with a perfect lob to a leaping Heath Miller in the corner of the end zone for the first TD pass of his career.
Groh praised his new QB for handling the pressure of playing in front of a home record crowd of 61,737, specifically mentioning those two big completions to Thomas and Miller.
He knows that Martinez is no Schaub -- yet -- and totally retooled the game plan around a three-pronged ground attack once No. 7 went down. Stat of the night? With Schaub at the helm, nine pass plays and four running plays were called. With his replacement? Fifteen passes, while Lundy, Alvin Pearman, and Marquis Weeks were asked to run the ball 38 times.
Welcome to the show, Anthony. It's baptism by fire, and the pressure will no doubt be even fiercer next week in front of a hostile GameCock crowd in Columbia. Let's pray for another Brady-esque performance.
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