Cavs get their first road test

HARTFORD, Conn. — John Phillips remembers the moment vividly.

In the minutes that preceded Virginia’s road game last year at Middle Tennessee State, a Blue Raiders fan picked player after player to berate.

As a native of the state, former tight end Tom Santi was an easy target.

Former safety Jamaal Jackson also drew the creative fan’s wrath. Jackson had a uniform malfunction — the numerical sticker on his helmet was different than his jersey number.

“Are you No. 3 or No. 27? Maybe we should add them together and call you No. 31.”

Chris Long, Virginia’s defensive star last year, was also the brunt of a late-game joke when the Cavaliers found themselves trailing.

“Why the Long face, Chris?” the fan shouted.

Such is life on the road in college football.

Some of Virginia’s players will find that out for the first time tonight. The Cavaliers (1-1) play their first road game of the season at Connecticut (2-0) at 7:30 p.m. at cozy Rentschler Field.

The Huskies would love nothing more than to duplicate what they encountered in Charlottesville last year inside Scott Stadium for their guests from the ACC.

Inside Scott Stadium, which is not known as one of the louder venues in the league, UConn struggled with the soaring volume levels late in the game, forcing a pair of bad shotgun snaps.

UConn coach Randy Edsall drew chuckles during his weekly press conference when he challenged the Huskies’ fan base to duplicate Virginia’s trickery.

“We need to make sure that they fumble some snaps and get some procedure penalties because it was a tough environment going down there to Virginia last year,” Edsall said. “Our fans have been great, but this is one of those games where we need them to be as loud and crazy as they can be to keep our winning streak alive at home.”

UConn, which beat Temple last week in overtime, has won eight straight games at home by an average of 19 points.

Regardless of the outcome, Virginia should discover its team identity away from home. Last year, Virginia was 4-2 in road games, winning at North Carolina, Maryland, Miami and Middle Tennessee State. That came after the Cavaliers won just two total road games in 2005 and 2006.

“You learn about it at home. You learn about it away from home,” Virginia coach Al Groh said. “There’s something to be learned every time the team plays.

“Clearly, we learned something about our team every time that we played last year well into the very end of the season. We would anticipate that we will learn that in this circumstance.”

Senior linebacker Clint Sintim, one of Virginia’s captains, said the youthful Cavaliers must buy into a certain mentality.

“I guess we just have that attitude, ‘Our house is anywhere inside the white lines.’ It doesn’t really matter where you play,” Sintim said. “It is the same field everywhere you go.

“To have that attitude that we can play anywhere would really benefit us and the younger guys that haven’t been [on the road].”

That may be drastically important for sophomore quarterback Marc Verica. On Wednesday, Groh announced that Verica would replace starting quarterback Pete Lalich, who did not accompany the team on the trip as he awaits a hearing on Sept. 26 in Charlottesville General District Court.

Verica has appeared in only one game, but did not attempt a pass. He will be backed up by senior Scott Deke, who could play, Groh said.

While Verica is more of a threat to run than Lalich, Edsall said the late announcement did not alter the Huskies’ prep work.

“When you read the things, they basically said all three quarterbacks really have a similar style,” Edsall said. “It’s not going to affect what we prepared for and what we practiced for.

“You go into every game studying some things on tape, but there’s going to be some things that will be ‘what if’ situations.”