Cavs focus on tackling

In Al Groh’s eyes it was essentially a disease and an unwholesome condition.
Allowing Connecticut’s offense to run wild on Sept. 13 was a collective effort, Virginia’s coach said.
No one player was to blame for allowing 382 yards of rushing, which included two 63-yard runs.
“It was a collective malady,” Groh said.
Missed tackles mounted rapidly and gaps turned into vacant alleyways at a rampant clip.
“That was just sloppy performance,” linebacker Clint Sintim said. “I know off the top of my head that I missed four clean tackles, including the sacks. That is just sloppy. I take full
responsibility for that.”
Jon Copper, another veteran linebacker, tried to take the same personal blame for allowing the Huskies to rush for 16 first downs.
“If you don’t tackle well you won’t win, you won’t be able to be competitive in many games,” Copper said. “That is something that we are working on to improve.”
Virginia (1-2, 0-0 ACC) will need a new-look defensive performance on Saturday at Duke (2-1, 0-0) to avoid falling into last place in the league’s Coastal Division, a spot annually reserved for the Blue Devils.
Making improvements in regards to tackling in the midst of a season comes, Copper said, through individual work and in “team periods.”
“You hold each other more accountable for being there and actually making a tackle,” he added. “It is just little things like that.”
For now, it appears that Groh has also elected to shuffle the lineup at two spots in search of a spark.
Redshirt freshman Nate Jenkins and former starter Nate Collins have flipped roles in a rotation at nose tackle that provided almost equal playing time before.
More importantly, Groh has made a move that could provide the secondary with a much-needed swagger. One of the team’s hardest hitters, redshirt freshman Corey Mosley, is slated to replace junior Brandon Woods at safety.
Albeit through limited evaluation, Groh has been pleased with Mosley’s
tackling.
“Our small evidence out here, meaning periodically throughout the course of each season as we hold post practice — what we call developmental scrimmages — 15 to 18 plays or the scrimmages during training camp, and the live work in the spring, that’s been the case,” he said. “Clearly, the key test is what happens in a real game, but the evidence so far is positive, that he’s done a good job with [tackling].”
Regardless of Mosely’s performance individually, the unit as a whole needs better production and attention to detail to improve on their current standing as nation’s 98th-worst defense, Copper said.
“All over [against UConn] we had issues coming off of blocks where we were supposed to be,” Copper said. “That wasn’t just a D-line thing. That was a whole defense thing. That was one of things that I did poorly. You have a night like that and it rolls. It doesn’t go your way.
“It has been a while since we’ve won a football game and it’s been over a week since we’ve played so I think everybody is looking forward to coming out Saturday and playing better than we have.”
The one exception
Entering Saturday’s game, only one Duke football player can accurately claim to have won an Atlantic Coast Conference contest.
That win, however, did not come in football.
Ryan McFadden, a reserve tight end that sees time on special teams, has played lacrosse for the Blue Devils the past four seasons. During that stretch, the Blue Devils are 10-1 in league play and 5-0 against Virginia.
McFadden, a fifth-year senior in his first stinit with the football team, will have an additional year of lacrosse eligibility.