Groh finds a kicker

The wait is over.

Virginia coach Al Groh announced the winner of a heated three-way battle for a starting spot in the Cavaliers’ season opener Aug. 30 against No. 3 Southern California.

The position pegged, however, was not nearly as glamorous as the most anticipated battle up for grabs.

Just weeks after being added to the program’s roster, Yannick Reyering has been given the early nod as the program’s placekicker. The former forward on the UVa soccer team is slated to handle placement kicks and kickoffs.

“If it keeps going the way it is, we’ll start the game with Yannick Reyering,” Groh said.

Reyering, a senior from Mettingen, Germany, is penciled ahead of redshirt freshman Chris Hinkebein and walk-on freshman Robert Randolph.

For now, and perhaps until the first snap is taken on offense against USC, UVa’s quarterback battle remains wide open. Pete Lalich, the frontrunner, is battling fellow sophomore Marc Verica and senior Scott Deke.

“Do we have any news on it?” Groh said Thursday. “Not necessarily.”

Perhaps designed to keep the collection of quarterbacks focused on potentially starting, Groh said a “number of things” could happen over the next eight days to impact his final decision.

“Somebody could drop a weight on his foot,” he said. “Somebody all of a sudden gets stage fright and doesn’t look like he is up to it or whatnot. So, rather than do something here, there’s no need to do other than to fill up newspaper space. It’s not going to make any difference in the turns the quarterbacks take and how they study tape.”

Virginia offensive coordinator Mike Groh had said Monday that he wanted a No. 1 signal caller in place when the training camp schedule shifted to prep work for Southern Cal, which occurred on Wednesday.

That view — at least publicly — was not shared by his father and the quarterbacks.

“It just makes things a little bit saner and more quiet for [Deke, Lalich and Verica],” Groh said, “so we’ll probably stay with this approach well into next week and then see where we go with that.”

The three quarterbacks are “pretty happy” with the current competition, Al Groh said.

“All they have to do is come to practice and not have to deal with any outside circumstances, so they seem to be most comfortable with it,” the elder Groh added. “And that is the most important thing in my consideration.”

Lalich is the lone quarterback in the mix to have completed a pass in a contest. The sophomore played in eight games last year, including the first four, passing for 321 yards.