Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

Tar Heels take ACC soccer title with 3-1 win

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Junior forward Ben Speas tallied two goals and an assist helping Carolina to its third ACC Championship in school history as the Tar Heels pulled off the rare double with a 3-1 win over Boston College Sunday in Cary, N.C. The title game win gives the Tar Heels both the outright regular season and tournament titles for the first time in school history.

The Tar Heels jumped out to a 1-0 lead just before halftime when substitute Carlos McCrary headed home a cross from Ben Speas to put UNC in front. Rob Lovejoy worked his way around the defense on the right side of the field and fed a pass toward the top of the box that Speas settled.

Speas broke to his right and toward the end line and lofted a cross to the far post where McCrary was waiting. McCrary headed the ball to the near post and beat Boston College’s Justin Luthy for his third goal of the year and second of the ACC Tournament.

The Tar Heels looked content to take the 1-0 advantage into halftime but when Enzo Martinez was tripped up forty yards from goal Carolina took advantage of its opportunity.

Speas stood over the free kick and sent in a ball that was in-swinging toward the near post. Luthy came out of his goal to attempt to punch the ball away but ran into Matt Hedges and Rob Lovejoy and was unable to stop the ball as it bounced into the net for a 2-0 Carolina lead.

Carolina controlled possession throughout the contest but were caught off guard on a Boston College counter-attack in the 62nd minute. The Eagles played a ball in between a pair of Tar Heel defenders and Matt Hedges closed down in an attempt to make a tackle catching too much of an Eagle forward getting a yellow card and awarding BC with a dangerous free kick just outside the box.

Boston College’s Kyle Bekker took the free kick from 20 yards out and sent it toward the far post. The ball rocketed off the inside of the far post and found the back of the net to pull the Eagles within one at 2-1.

Redshirt junior forward Billy Schuler made his first appearance of the afternoon at the 64:02 mark when he came on to replace Carlos McCrary and immediately paid dividends for the Tar Heels.

Schuler made a run down the right side and cut around a defender before playing a ball across the face of the goal. Speas was Johnny-on-the-spot as he put away the pass for his second goal of the day and helped Carolina regain its two-goal lead.

Goalkeeper Scott Goodwin would make sure the lead would remain two over the final 25 minutes of the contest as the junior came up with three impressive saves for the Tar Heels.

In the 71st minute Colin Murphy was able to jump on a free ball at the top of the box but the charging Goodwin cut off Murphy’s angle and jumped on the ball. A little over eight minutes later, Isaac Taylor challenged Goodwin who was able to punch away the shot for a corner kick.

The 83rd minute saw the Eagles float a ball in from the right flank that Kevin Mejia attempted to flick on goal with his head but Goodwin read the play perfectly and jumped on the shot to keep the Tar Heels in front.

The win is the third ACC Championship in school history for the Tar Heels as the 2011 group joins the 1987 and 2000 teams as tournament champions. It also marks the first time in school history that Carolina has accomplished the double, winning both the ACC regular season and tournament titles. Carolina is the eighth team in ACC history to accomplish the double and the first since Boston College in 2007.

Carolina put five members on the ACC All-Tournament Team for the second straight year as Speas was named the ACC Tournament MVP as he joins Derek Missimo (1987) and Caleb Norkus (2000) as previous Tar Heel winners.

Joining Speas on the All-Tournament team were Enzo Martinez, Matt Hedges, Billy Schuler and Scott Goodwin.

The Tar Heels have officially punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament with the ACC title win but will learn their fate on Monday at 4:30 p.m. on NCAA.com when the NCAA Bracket is released.

ACC All-Tournament Team
Ben Speas – North Carolina (MVP)
Enzo Martinez – North Carolina
Matt Hedges – North Carolina
Billy Schuler – North Carolina
Scott Goodwin – North Carolina
Kyle Bekker – Boston College
Diego Medina-Mendez – Boston College
Colin Murphy – Boston College
Charlie Rugg – Boston College
Hunter Jumper – Virginia
Brian Span – Virginia
Luca Gimenez – Wake Forest

Featured stories, N.C. State, The skinny, UNC

UNC’s Mangum, State’s Overgaard named to academic all-district team

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For the second year in a row, North Carolina’s Pete Mangum has been named to the Capital One Academic All-District Football Team, which honors student-athletes who excel both academically and athletically. N.C. State offensive tackle Mikel Overgaard, starter, was also named to the team.

The All-District teams, from which Academic All-America selections are made, were announced Thursday by the CoSIDA, the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Mangum, a junior defensive back from Raleigh, is majoring in biomedical engineering. A special teams starter in every game this season, he earned a scholarship for 2011 after playing for two years as a walk-on. He was named special teams MVP in 2010. In addition to maintaining outstanding grades (the award requires a minimum 3.3 GPA), he is active in community outreach along with the rest of the Carolina football team.

Mangum is a graduate of Leesville Road High School, where he was football MVP and team captain as well as a four-year member of the honor roll. He has been named to the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honor Roll in each year at UNC.

Overgaard is a 6-foot-6, 289-pound senior from Idaho who carries a 3.65 GPA in human biology and has started every game since transferring to State from Snow Junior College in Utah. He hopes to go to medical or dental school after graduating this spring.

Mangum and Overgaard are two of five ACC players to earn spots on the team. Joining them on the All-District 3 team for Division I football were:

Jonathan Plisco (punter, Old Dominion); Logan Kilgore (QB, Middle Tennessee State); Danny Coale (WR, Virginia Tech); Pat Kelly (WR, Liberty); Chris Drager (TE, Virginia Tech); A.J. Harris (RB, Elon); Kurt Odom (WR, Campbell); Joe Cline (OL, Davidson); Michael Hoag (OL, Wake Forest); James Normand (OL, Tennessee Tech); Mikel Overgaard (OL, NC State); Orry Frye (OL, Appalachian State); Adam Miller (OL, UT-Chattanooga); Matt Bevins (K, Liberty); Corey Watson (DB, Tennessee Tech); Peter Kidwell (DB, Davidson); Pete Mangum (DB, North Carolina); Troy Sanders (DB, Appalachian State); Colten Burris (LB, Campbell); Josh Carroll (LB, Austin Peay); Michael Rudisill (LB, Campbell); John Behm (LB, Davidson); Matt Milner (DL, East Carolina); Iosua Siliva (DL, Austin Peay); Reese Bulmash (DL, Austin Peay); Morgan Popham (DL, Davidson)

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

Tar Heels complete first mission; win opener on aircraft carrier

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North Carolina completed its first mission of the year on the USS Carl Vinson Aircraft Carrier with a 67-55 over Michigan State on Veteran’s Day. (11/11)

Despite being outrebounded, the Tar Heels kept fighting and took a lead with five minutes left in the first half and never trailed again.

All-America Harrison Barnes led the way with 17 points, including three triples in the second half that kept the Spartans at bay. Barnes’ first three gave Carolina its biggest lead of the game up to that point at 43-27. The second gave Carolina its biggest lead of the game at 59-39.

But the biggest three was the third that stopped the bleeding after the Spartans had outscored the Heels 10-0 to draw the deficit to 10 at 59-40 with six minutes left. Barnes lifted in a three from the left side with 5:20 left to make it 62-49 and Michigan State never got closer than 11 the rest of the way.

For more on the game, please click here.

Featured stories, The skinny

HS Football: Has Cary met its defensive match?; Will Fuquay get revenge on Middle Creek?

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The high school second round of the football playoffs are tonight in nice, cool football weather. There are a number of games within close driving distance though. All games start at 7:30 p.m. In bold below are the predicted winners. I’m picking Leesville Road to beat Wake Forest Rolesville again (they won 41-16 during the regular season) even though they have a new quarterback due to injury. I’m picking Britt to beat Cary simply because the Imps have finally met their defensive match and Britt is playing at home. Fuquay wants revenge after losing to Middle Creek in double overtime during the regular season and I think they’ll get it. Last week my first round playoff record was 9-2. I went 93-18 during the regular season and am now 102-20 overall. The News & Observer provides details of some of these matchups here.

E.E. Smith at Durham Hillside

Fuquay-Varina at Middle Creek

Wilmington Laney at Garner

Wake Forest Rolesville at Leesville Road

Cardinal Gibbons at Triton

Cary at Jack Britt

Chapel Hill at Douglas Byrd

Southeast Raleigh at New Hanover

Check for results at the High School Football area on the top left of the home page.

Duke, Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

UNC, Duke dominate All-ACC men’s soccer team; ACC tourney in Cary

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First-place finisher North Carolina captured three major individual awards, and Duke’s Andrew Wenger earned Offensive Player of the Year honors to highlight the 2011 All-Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Soccer Team announced today by Commissioner John Swofford.

The Tar Heels play Virginia at 5:30 p.m. Friday in the ACC semi-finals at the Wake Med Soccer Park in Cary while Duke faces Boston College at 7:30 p.m.

Wenger, a junior forward who previously played the back line, earned the conference’s top offensive honor one year after being named the 2010 ACC Defensive Player of the Year. The Lititz, Pa., native became the first player to capture both the ACC Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year Awards.

The Tar Heels’ Matt Hedges was named the 2011 ACC Defensive Player of the Year, while UNC coach Carlos Somoano received Coach of the Year honors, and Mikey Lopez was voted Freshman of the Year in balloting among the league’s nine head coaches.

Hedges, a senior who transferred to UNC from Butler prior to this season, earned the distinction of being named Defensive Player of the Year in two Division I conferences. The Carmel, Ind., defender was voted the 2010 Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year. This season, Hedges has spearheaded a UNC defense that has allowed an ACC-low 13 goals in 19 matches (0.66 per game) and has posted an ACC-leading eight shutouts.

Somoano, in his first year as a head coach, has led the Tar Heels to a 15-2-2 overall record and a No. 3 national ranking heading into Friday night’s ACC Championship semifinal game against Virginia. In addition to its defensive prowess, Somoano’s UNC team leads the conference in goals scored (45). Lopez, a midfielder from Mission, Texas, has contributed both defensively and at the offensive end, tallying nine points on three assists and three goals, including one game-winner.

Duke’s Wenger enters the ACC Championship semifinals leading the ACC in goals scored (17), points (42) and shots taken (105). He ranks third nationally in points per game (2.21). Wenger has tallied more than one goal in six matches, including a pair of hat tricks, and has delivered eight multiple-point performances.

Featured stories, The skinny

Hurricanes growing moustaches for men’s health charities

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Carolina Hurricanes Derek Joslin, Jamie McBain and Brandon Sutter are growing moustaches during the month of November to raise money for men’s health issues.

Hurricanes Community relations staffer Kristina Boyce wrote a piece about the effort.

Have you all noticed the growing moustaches on the faces of Jamie McBain, Brandon Sutter and Derek Joslin? Well, you may have wondered why these normally clean-shaven men have decided to sprout facial hair above the upper lip.

Starting November 1, our three generous Carolina Hurricanes players began participation in Movember, an annual, month-long charity event. Movember is a global movement that raises money and awareness for prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men. Each man that participates in the event is called a “Mo Bro,” and each woman that supports her man in the growing of his moustache is a “Mo Sista.”

The rules of Movember are simple. Each Mo Bro begins the month of November clean-shaven, and registers on the Movember website. For the entire month, they grow a moustache and work to raise money through their personal sites. Not only are they raising funds to support research, but each man is a walking billboard to raise awareness and start discussions on the importance of men’s health issues.

Brandon Sutter is leading the charge with our Carolina Hurricanes Movember team. We are encouraging our fans to donate to one or all of our players by visiting their personal pages:

Derek Joslin – http://us.movember.com/mospace/2063988

Jamie McBain – http://us.movember.com/mospace/2013176

Brandon Sutter – http://us.movember.com/mospace/1182052

Featured stories, N.C. State, The skinny

O’Brien says the surging Wolfpack is finally getting healthy

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N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien says that his team has played well over the last month except for the hiccup at Florida State and he attributes that to getting healthy again.

“We’re working hard (in preparation for Boston College) to have continued success that we’ve experienced three out of the last four weeks,” he said.

Q. Coach, how much of a change of (James) Washington’s success this year is taking the opportunity he’s had at runningback?
COACH O’BRIEN: I think more importantly he’s healthy for the first time. Each of the two previous seasons coming in, especially last year when we were counting on him, he ended up spraining his ankle in pre-season camp and wasn’t healthy until November of last year. I think he’s worked hard in the strength and conditioning area to make sure he would be healthy going into this year. Certainly given the opportunity to succeed, he’s made the most of it. So I think it’s a combination of both of those things.

Q. He’s developed into one of Mike’s favorite targets. How does that help both Mike and the offense?
COACH O’BRIEN: Well, I think it’s important for us, especially our running backs, that they can catch the football. It’s one thing they have to be able to do. We work hard, especially when people back up, if they’re going to dump the ball off to a running back, they’re going to have to be able to catch it and make something out of it. That’s part of his game that he works hard on. Mike, certainly can trust him now to be able to catch the ball. He keeps making catches and making key downs for us.

Q. What have you been most encouraged by over this last four-game stretch here?
COACH O’BRIEN: Well, we finally started to get healthy. We went through the stretch, Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, where we had 12 guys out that played a lot of football for us. We started to get healthy at Central Michigan. From that point on, we played pretty good.
The first half of Florida State was not a good defensive effort, but certainly the second half from Central Michigan, second half of Florida State, Virginia, and certainly the North Carolina game, our defense finally started to get healthy again and get guys back playing much better. I think that’s the best thing we’ve been doing now. Then we haven’t been turning the football over. If we play good defense and not turn the football over, you have a chance to win all the time.

Q. You say this is going to happen as soon as we get healthy. Did you see this coming once the injury problem went away?
COACH O’BRIEN: I didn’t know we were going to get healthy. Certainly we knew in order to have any success, we would have to get healthy and get guys back.
D.J. Green is out for the year, (Jeff) Rieskamp is out for the year, two guys important to the defense. Other kids now have stepped up and played. We have to continue doing this, especially this week going to Boston.

Q. I’m doing something on ACC tight ends. I was wondering about George Bryan. His numbers are a bit down this year. Can you talk about how he’s played, what you see from him.
COACH O’BRIEN: Well, I think he may have pressed early. The other thing he was probably frustrated early. Coming into the year with a new quarterback and new wide receivers, defense rightly so said we’re going to have to take George Bryan out of the game, they won’t have anybody to throw you. In a lot of cases, first five months, he was double and triple teamed. Now that we’ve established the fact that T.J. Graham, Tobais Palmer, Bryan Underwood, Jay Smith, some of those guys can catch it and hurt you. They’ve had to cover other guys, it’s allowed him a little more freedom to get into the passing game. He’s done a solid job blocking in the running game.
His game is back to where it should be and where we need it to be in this crucial step in November.

Q. Tobais Palmer had a big game Saturday. Talk about his development this season.
COACH O’BRIEN: He was a guy certainly we were counting on coming in. He came in, we redshirted him last year even though he spent a couple years at Georgia Military. We thought it would benefit him because he was a running back, coming out of high school and junior college. Made the transition to wide receiver. We used that year to coach him, give us an extra time to get him ready to go.
He’s been an integral part of any success we’ve had because he’s learning more and more each and every week what it takes to be a big-league wide receiver.

Q. Your history has been that your teams seem to get better as the year goes on, especially after that bye week. What is it about the bye week and second half the season that seems to bring out the best in your team?
COACH O’BRIEN: Well, I think a couple years it’s had to do with injury problems the first half of the year, trying to get guys back in the lineup and healthy, then we were able to get back to where we wanted to get to. Certainly I think everybody that plays this game tries to get better each and every week.
We’re such a fundamentally sound oriented staff, sometimes those things take weeks to kick in, especially if you’re not a veteran team. We haven’t been a senior football team yet since I’ve been here. You got a lot of young kids that maybe they’re playing for the first time, learning. They will get better as the year goes on because it’s important to them and they want to be good.

Q. When you have a bye week, do you concentrate on fundamentals? What exactly do you work on during those weeks?
COACH O’BRIEN: The bye week we always go back and work on fundamentals. It’s similar to a spring practice or pre-season camp. We go back to coaching everybody. Everybody gets the same rep from the first group to the last group. We try to make the whole football team a more sound fundamental football team.

Q. Tom, one of the defenders who has been really steady for you all year and had a big game against North Carolina, Terrell Manning. Talk about the way he’s performed for you this year. I guess he sort of slid into Nate’s old spot.
COACH O’BRIEN: Terrell is playing the same spot. Nate played there two years ago. Last year Nate moved to the middle linebacker. Terrell has been the weak side linebacker for a little more than two years now. He was the most experienced player coming back, the three linebacker positions at his position. He had to play well for us. It was tough for us when we lost him for the Cincinnati and Georgia Tech game, but able to get him back there for the Central Michigan, from that point on, with getting other people back, the defense has been much better.
I think the thing that happened Saturday, with (J.R.) Sweezy getting back, (Thomas) Teal getting back and playing, we had some guys up front now that could keep the offensive linemen off the linebackers. Audie Cole and Terrell Manning could run and make plays on Saturday, which they both did.

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

Everett says Tar Heels needed a bye week before Virginia Tech

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North Carolina coach Everett Withers, coming off a loss to N.C. State that will likely cost him any chance he had of winning the coaching spot permanently, says that his team needed a week off. The Tar Heels have a bye weekend before playing Virginia Tech next Thursday.

“It’s obviously good to have the bye week this week,” he said. “We’ve gone through training camp and then now having the bye week, we’ve had some injuries, some guys back. The kids need a little bit of time here to kind of get their legs back under them.

“We didn’t play very well last week offensively. I thought we played fairly well defensively last week. Obviously if you don’t score, you can’t win. We did not score. So we have to find a way during our bye week to get better on offense, clean up, get better on defense. We’re looking forward to the week off and preparing for a Thursday night game against a very, very talented Virginia Tech team.”

Q. Coach, what, if anything, update is there on Bryn Renner? How is he feeling coming off of concussion-like symptoms on Saturday?
COACH WITHERS: Bryn is progressing well. We’re not putting him out there in practice this week. We want to try to give him some time to fully recover. But he was out at practice yesterday throwing the ball around a little bit but not necessarily practicing. But we expect to have him. There’s a good chance he could practice tomorrow or Friday. We expect him to be ready to go when we start game preparation.

Q. Of all the things that went wrong offensively Saturday, what was the most disappointing thing to you?
COACH WITHERS: Well, the inability to sustain a rhythm on offense is probably the biggest. We’ve been able to run the ball, even though people have blitzed us, stacked the line of scrimmage, we’ve been able to have some success. As long as we continue to run the football, eventually the two- or three-yard gains turn into four- and five-yard gains. That didn’t happen for us Saturday. That was probably the most disappointing. We had too many missed assignments up front. We didn’t as an offense play like we needed to.

Q. Does that surprise you, that the offensive line missed that many assignments this deep in the season?
COACH WITHERS: You’re dealing with 18- to 22-year-olds. You never know what is the culprit, what is the underlying thing that happened. We tried to go back this week and really just work on fundamentals, the things that we know we can do good and get confidence back in what we’re doing.
You always chalk it up to there’s going to be that one game that you’re not in sync. Hopefully this was ours as far as the offensive line and we’ll be better for the rest of the season.

Q. You’ve had 10 games in the season. How is Gio Bernard holding up under the pounding of a long season? Did he get nicked up any more than usual Saturday?
COACH WITHERS: He did tweak his ankle a little bit Saturday, but he was able to tape it up and come back. He’s a tough young man, a very competitive young man. He wants to be out there. He wants to be at practice. We’ll try to take care of him this week. We’re not going to put him out there very much this week.
He’s held up well. I think he’s done a great job of holding up and being ready Saturday to play. It is a long season, especially for a kid that tore his ACL a year ago and really this is his first stint of playing. For him to go through 10 straight weeks of being a running back in this league in a running offense, I think he’s done very well.

Q. Dwight Jones is on a pace where he may challenge for the school’s all-time receiving records in receptions and yardage. Can you talk about what he brings to the table, why he’s taken the big step forward this year?
COACH WITHERS: Well, I think Dwight’s maturity level has really improved over the last two years. You could see the young man grow up, become more accountable and responsible for himself on and off the field. I think Dwight’s knowledge of what we want to do offensively is at its highest level.
He understands what people are trying to do to him. He understands what the defense each week is trying to do to him. He understands his responsibilities in the run game and in the pass game.
Once you take on a shift and responsibility of what you can handle, if you’re a talented player, then those things tend to happen for you. You tend to make more plays and the ball tends to get thrown to you a little bit more. I think it’s all that in one for Dwight.

Q. You mentioned how the off week comes at a good time to heal up. It’s awfully late. I think it’s the latest bye week in the ACC. Would you have rather seen it a little earlier, break the season up at a different place, or not?
COACH WITHERS: Well, you know what, most coaches would say yeah. I would tend to say yeah, we would have liked it to come a little bit earlier in the year. You say you got a bye week, but we don’t even have a complete bye week. We go play next Thursday night. We got a half a bye in my mind.
Yeah, we would have liked to have had it earlier in the year. When you go through training camp, an emotional training camp because of what happened at the beginning of the year in July, you go through an emotional training camp, then you start the season, it’s week after week after week, there’s all kinds of things going on in the media, the kids are trying to stay focused. At some point in time when you’re dealing with young people, you lose some of that focus.
I’ve been really proud of our kids for the most part. They’ve handled the stress and the grind of this year. This is an unusual year for this team and they’ve handled it. I would have liked to have had a break earlier so we could get them back recharged.
But it is what it is. The ACC’s made the schedule. TV controls a lot of things. It is what it is. We have to line up and play each Saturday.

Q. Could you talk about C.J. Feagles performance Saturday, where that competition between him and Thomas is in the off week?
COACH WITHERS: Obviously it will continue to go. It’s a competition every week. We felt like we needed to take a look at C.J. He’s punted before. We wanted to make sure that our operation times were correct. He had the best operation times prior to NC State. As we practice this week, we’ll evaluate the operation and distance this week in practice and we’ll see who will be our punter on Thursday night versus Virginia Tech.

Q. Do the three blocks earlier factor into the decision?
COACH WITHERS: I don’t think they factored into because they didn’t have one thing to do with operation time. They had to do with our shield, not getting their head in the right place.
I really believe the operation times and all that is important. But the operation time that C.J. brings, we would have liked to have had a little bit more distance in the punts. We understand the wind and the weather situation Saturday also, that he kicked into the wind some, too. It’s a competition. We want to get the best punter out there.

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

Diamond Heels First Pitch Dinner set for Jan. 28

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For the fourth straight year, supporters and fans of the University of North Carolina baseball program will have the opportunity to kick off the upcoming season with a memorable evening at the Diamond Heels’ First Pitch Dinner, scheduled for Jan. 28 at the brand new Loudermilk Center For Excellence on the UNC campus.

This year’s event will feature five Tar Heels that made their Major League debuts in 2011, including Seattle Mariners Player of the Year Dustin Ackley. Joining Ackley will be fellow Mariner Kyle Seager, Colorado Rockies right-hander Alex White, Oakland Athletics right-hander Andrew Carignan and Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Tim Federowicz.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to meet the 2012 Tar Heels and this year’s senior class will preview the upcoming season.

Duke, Featured stories, The skinny

Cutcliffe says Duke playing hottest team in the ACC in Virginia

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Things don’t get any easier for Duke this week as the Devils play Virginia, in a game many at the first of the season thought Duke would be favored.

“We have a huge challenge playing arguably the hottest team in the Atlantic Coast Conference in Virginia,” Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. “They’re winning football games like you’re supposed to win them. They’re running the football, playing great defense, playing great in the kicking game.

“When a team’s playing that solidly and soundly, it’s very difficult to beat them. So a huge challenge. Biggest challenge we face is obviously us playing better than we played a week ago. Hopefully we will take that challenge or we will have a long day in Charlottesville if we don’t.”

Q. Yesterday you told us y’all had a really physical practice Tuesday morning. You said there would be another one Wednesday. You explained to us why you thought you needed to do that. Did you come out of it okay physically in terms of not banging anybody up?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: Yes. We have not had an issue at practice. As I said earlier in the week, a little tougher in the ballgame than we had hoped. But we have not reinjured anybody, to answer your question. It’s been great work, work that we needed. We’ve dodged that bullet at this point.

Q. When you look at your young defensive front, you were really happy with the way they played against Virginia Tech. It looked like they got manhandled against Miami. Can you address the ups and downs. Was that a function of youth or something else going on?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: Part of it is matchups. It was a little tougher matchup in two or three slots for us down there. The other part of it is that it is a function of youth to be inconsistent. Without the work, without keeping it on point as well as we were able to, we had a lot of them beat up. They didn’t get the technique and formal work we would like to give them for a couple weeks. It took its toll. We weren’t given a choice but to go back to a little spring practice atmosphere. I know it’s helped us and hope it will help us on Saturday.

Q. Coach, Michael Rocco, the UVA quarterback, as you’re getting ready for this game, studying tape from game one all the way up to now, are you seeing a different quarterback? What is your analysis of what his maturation is? Are you seeing that as well?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: I think he’s a talented player, for one thing. He’s got a nice arm. He’s got good vision, good feet, all the things you need to be successful. When you’re running the football as well as they’re running it, a quarterback can play smart and mature and grow. He’s taken advantage of that. He has taken care of the ball better, picking his spots. He has become a much better third-down quarterback.
The more you play at this level, if you got talent, the better you’re going to get. He’s got talent and you see it happening.

Q. You’ve been able to win the last three against UVA. Is there something you guys are consistently doing against Virginia football allowing you to come out on top?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: No, not really. There are other teams in our league that if we would have played a little better in those particular games, we might have won all three of those games against those opponents. We’ve had two really close games against Virginia that fell our way, and probably more than anything else just a little luck of the draw. It just happens sometimes. But I’m not a big believer in one season to the next or any circumstance like that playing in a ballgame. As a player, I never thought about that. As a coach, you don’t ever think about that during the heat of a ballgame at all.

Q. David, last week there was a lot of talk about Virginia becoming bowl-eligible, of Maryland having to win out to become bowl-eligible. It’s now mentioned you have to win out to become bowl-eligible. Do coaches give any thought at all to becoming bowl-eligible?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: Sure. I think it’s got to be one of the goals of your program when you’re in a BCS conference. Everybody hollers for a tournament all the time. You’re watching it. We’re in a playoff system. Got a lot of big games all year long. In November, the stakes get higher. All of us want that opportunity for our players. Particularly when you’re in my shoes here, I’ve been so fortunate in my career to have been a part of so many bowl games, I would love for these great young men we have to experience it sooner than later.
So, yeah, I think we all do pay attention to it.

Q. Last year (Brandon) Connette, your backup quarterback, did some good things against Virginia. Is he being redshirted or is he just behind at this point?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: He’s injured and out for the season. He had a major shoulder separation. Just has not been able to make it back. So he played very little at the beginning of the year. Obviously our hope would be with him being unable to play the rest of the season that he may get the year back and serve as a redshirt year. That’s what I would hope would occur.

Q. Coach, mentioning Donovan, what has he meant to the program in the four years since he started there, the kinds of things that he has added to what you’re trying to build?
COACH CUTCLIFFE: Well, the first thing is his durability. He brings it every practice, every game. I don’t even know what he weighs, 170 pounds. He is just a physical warrior as well as a great speed guy. It’s just every day. You look for Donovan – I’ve thought about this already – you look for Donovan in practice to create energy and excitement. He loves to compete. Every game, you just heard the statistic, he’s there every game catching balls, making conversions on third down. He’s really quite a special young player.
There’s been a lot of great small players all through different eras of college football. He is very much one of the fine small players of this era of college football because he has been so consistent as a true sophomore. He led the ACC in receptions. He’s continued to play well, particularly as we spread the ball around, have better players around him, he has still remained a big factor in our offense.