It's time to get back to work.
Only six days removed from the biggest win of Al Groh's tenure at Virginia, the Cavaliers (4-2, 2-2 ACC) are heading down to Chapel Hill with a chance to get back above .500 in conference play. The Tar Heels (2-3, 1-1) will be ready -- they've had nothing to do but prepare for this game since getting embarrassed at Louisville Nov. 8, 69-14.
"Since 10 o'clock Sunday morning, [UNC] is all I've been looking at," Groh said. "Everybody else is looking in the past, but for the last 50 hours, all we've been looking at is the future. We're very tuned into their team -- with the extra week of preparation, I'm sure that they are too."
Another conference loss would just about put the final nail in the coffin for U.Va.'s chances in the Coastal Division race. Virginia put itself in a hole with two early losses to Maryland and Boston College, and the ACC standings have taken notice.
North Carolina doesn't have much sympathy for the Cavaliers after what happened in Charlottesville last year.
Two games into the 2004 season, Virginia walked all over UNC, piling on 549 yards and 56 points at Scott Stadium. After Wali Lundy's three touchdown runs and Marquis Weeks' 100-yard touchdown kickoff return, the Cavaliers didn't send out the punt team until the start of the fourth quarter.
But Virginia also gave up 434 total yards on defense, 299 of them coming in the air. Even though the Tar Heels lost by 32 points, their quarterback tandem of the now-departed Darian Durant and 2005 starter Matt Baker was able to outgun Marques Hagans by 90 yards.
Baker is all alone behind center now. If his team is going to pull off an upset, it's going to have to be because of his arm -- Carolina only rushes the ball for 91 ypg, dead last in the ACC.
While Baker is third in the conference in passing with 245.8 ypg, he only completes 52.2 percent of his throws. He has more interceptions (8) than touchdown passes (6), and his No. 1 receiver, junior Jesse Holley, only pulls down 52.2 ypg -- tenth-best in the conference.
These kinds of numbers are a welcome relief to a Virginia secondary that picked off FSU quarterback Drew Weatherford twice through the first 59 minutes, and still needed a big play to win the game in the final 60 seconds.
Virginia re-entered the Top 25 this week after a brief absence following the loss at Boston College. Tight end Tom Santi apparently didn't get the memo -- he found out about the team's No. 23 ranking Tuesday afternoon, when asked about it by reporters.
"Are we [ranked]? The rankings don't mean anything, because we still have to go out and play," Santi said. "I personally don't look at them at all, and that's true. As well as you could ever play, or as poor as you could ever play, what other people think can't direct the way you play. We still have to beat North Carolina this weekend to be able to have the kind of season we want to have."
And North Carolina has to beat Virginia to be able to have the kind of season it wants to have. Even though the Tar Heels have a losing record, they only have one loss where it counts: the ACC standings. Virginia is not only a conference game, but more importantly, it's a Coastal Division game.
Already in a deep enough hole, Virginia now has even more of a reason to get back to work.
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