In football, a common saying is that ‘It’s not about the Xs and the Os, it’s about the Jimmys and the Joes.’ The Jimmys and Joes on California’s team proved far superior to Virginia’s when the Cavaliers lost their season opener 7-52 Saturday.
“USC was a big, powerful fast team with superior quarterback play today,” Virginia coach Al Groh said. “We were anything but big and fast.”
While USC has numerous All-Americans on its roster, the fact that it had its way against Virginia still hurt Virginia senior linebacker Clint Sintim.
“To know when something is coming and still not make any dent into it is very demoralizing,” Sintim said.
USC junior quarterback Mark Sanchez had a coming-out party Saturday. Sanchez, a former five-star quarterback who had to wait behind Matt Leinart and John David Booty for three seasons, played up to his billing coming out of high school. Sanchez completed 26 of 35 passes for 338 yards and three touchdowns.
Sanchez “was very poised back there,” Sintim said. “He made some nice throws and he’s very mobile, considering the injury to his knee.”
Sanchez’s counterpart on Virginia ended up being Peter Lalich. While it wasn’t much of a surprise that Lalich ended up getting the starting nod, what was surprising was how well he played, especially considering the competition he was up against in his first collegiate start. Lalich went 18-35 for 155 yards. He did throw an interception and lost two fumbles, but those three incidents did not occur until more than halfway after the third quarter, when the game was out of reach.
“This is my first start, and I’m hoping to improve every week,” Lalich said. “That’s just my main goal as a football player.”
Virginia senior tight end John Phillips noted how well Lalich played and mentioned other aspects of the game in which he did well.
“He’s very comfortable in the huddle and he wasn’t nervous at all.” Phillips said. “He’s grown up in a year.”
One major difference in Virginia’s offense besides the quarterback was the formations used. Shotgun formations and three and four receiver packages abounded; a far cry from the I-Back and two tight end packages Groh is known for. Whether that offense will run through the rest of the season, however, remains to be seen.
“You prepare for a team game by game, week by week,” Phillips said. “So, for this game, that is what we decided to do.”
Lalich said he has confidence whether he lines up via shotgun or under center, but did note the advantages the formation had against a team such as USC.
“Sometimes in the shotgun, especially against fast defenses, it’s easier to hit the dump-off passes because you’re not worried about a guy that’s coming two inches from your face,” Lalich said.
While USC may be more talented than Virginia, it still was a concern for the Cavaliers that the offensive and defensive lines’ performances fell below expectations. The defensive line did not force a single sack all game and let Sanchez direct the offense with relative ease.
“We never got any pressure on [USC’s] quarterback and they got a lot of pressure on our quarterback,” Groh said. “Those are two of the ingredients that usually foretell the result of any game.”
Virginia was also hurt by the loss of sophomore cornerback Ras-I Dowling out of the game with a leg injury. Redshirt freshman cornerback Chase Minnifield played for the first time in Dowling’s absence, and it was not the ideal team to get his first action against.
“It won’t get much tougher than that,” Groh said. “I thought that there was about six or seven of those receivers that came in on a continuous rotation, and if they looked big to you in the press box, you should have seen the size of them from where we were standing.”
Virginia now prepares to face Richmond Saturday, battling former defensive coordinator Mike London, who is now Richmond’s head coach. The Cavaliers intend to build on their experience this week in getting ready for their next challenge.
“We got humbled,” Sintim said. “Losing by 40-some odd points is very humbling, but it let us know exactly where we are as a team and what we need to do to get better.”
Though Virginia moved on from last year’s season-opening loss to an inferior Wyoming team to win nine games, how the team reacts to this loss remains to be seen.
“It’s going to be up to us as a team to decide what we are going to do with what we experienced here today and what we make out of it,” Groh said.
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