A college football player knows he is receiving national attention when he appears on ESPN's College GameDay, the Saturday morning program featuring analysis of the day's college football games and stories focusing on breakout players or emotional anecdotes. This is exactly the type of coverage senior defensive end Chris Long received Saturday before Virginia's nighttime clash with Maryland.
The show ran a feature on Long that showed Long's popularity has grown with his skill. Though many people know Howie Long, Chris's father, through his fame as a football analyst and former NFL star, Chris has managed to stay under the national radar until recently.
The reporter told Chris Long of someone saying to his father, "I know who you are: You're Chris's dad." This seemed to be a sign of just how popular the younger Long is becoming.
Chris did not disappoint the hype built up in the show about his stellar play, either. Against the Terrapins, he recorded 10 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, two sacks, two pass breakups and a key safety for the Cavaliers -- cutting the Maryland lead to 17-12.
Named to several pre-season award watch lists, Long has lived up to his pre-season billing as one of the nation's top players just eight games into the season. He has accumulated numerous mid-season honors, including being named an All-American on at least three different lists.
Even though he is not being seriously considered for the Heisman Trophy, Virginia coach Al Groh makes the case that he should be.
"If it's for the best player in college football, it's hard to imagine anybody playing his position that's better than Chris Long is," Groh said.
In the face of all the attention, Long remains modest and even laughed when responding to Groh's comment.
"It's humbling and it's cool to hear it from Coach Groh, who is somebody we all look up to, but no," Long said with a chuckle.
The senior prefers to look at his individual success this season in a much simpler way:
"[I'm] just chipping away, trying to make plays for this defense."
One of the reasons Long is experiencing a breakout season is because he always thinks about football.
"Chris has got his mind on the game all the time," Groh said. "It's hard for him to get his mind off the game, [he thinks about it] 24 hours a day ... He's preparing for it six days a week before the game. That, along with the natural ability that he brings, that's the combination of how he ends up with the plays he does."
Long attributes his success to the way he perceives the game. As a senior, Long has already -- midway through the season -- surpassed the number of tackles and sacks he recorded his entire junior year.
"The game kind of slows down, year by year, game by game," Long said. "So you're more capable of making plays on the ball whereas last year you might play the block well and not make a play on the ball. Now I play the block well, and the game slows down enough to where you can kind of make decisions in that split-second time period."
Groh also cited Long's knowledge with certain offenses as a factor in his success.
"He's had four years to work on his moves and his techniques to become familiar with pass protection schemes," Groh said. "[He's become familiar] with the strengths and weaknesses of each scheme, to be able to more quickly assess the technique abilities of any particular pass protector that he's going against. He's a just a more savvy player. It shows the benefit of being a fourth-year player."
As a senior, Long has played in his fair share of close games, but nothing like this season. The Cavaliers have already eked by Maryland and Connecticut by one, Middle Tennessee State and North Carolina by two, and Georgia Tech by five.
"As the season goes on, it's really unbelievable how many games we've won by close margins, but I think that makes us stronger," Long said. "To win is the objective and how you do it, to me, does matter. I think close games are valuable ... When we get to some close games here in November and October, we can draw from those [earlier games]."
Noting the hard-nosed attitude of the team and the tougher opponents the Cavaliers will face in the remainder of the season, Long believes it is important for a team to know how to win. Still on the schedule for Virginia is N.C. State away, Wake Forest at home, Miami away and Virginia Tech at home. If the Cavaliers can sweep their final four games, they will win the Coastal Division and head to the ACC Championship game.
"Guys are walking around the sideline saying, 'We're not going to lose this game' Long said. "This is the same team, personnel-wise, as last year and the record's much different. I think that's a testament to guys understanding how to win ball games. That's a skill, you can't describe it; you have to just be a part of it."
If Long can help the Cavaliers to a couple of wins down the stretch, Virginia might earn itself another featured spot on College GameDay: this time as the victors of the ACC and contenders for the 2007 Orange Bowl. Only time will tell.
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