Virginia aims to get back on track

The last time Virginia lost on the road to Duke in 1994, Kevin Ogletree was a 7-year-old elementary school student living in Queens, N.Y.

Now, 14 years later, Virginia’s top wide receiver finds his team slated for a return trip to Durham, N.C., as a one-touchdown underdog.

“I don’t think it is odd,” Ogletree said. “Being the underdog didn’t surprise me.”

Based on the opening month of the season, it probably should not surprise anyone.

Virginia (1-2), trying to recover from a circus-like atmosphere following the forced exit of quarterback Pete Lalich, is coming off a 45-10 loss at Connecticut. The Cavaliers have the ACC’s worst scoring offense and defense.

Duke (2-1) recorded a 31-7 win over James Madison and outlasted Navy, 41-31, during its current four-game homestand. The Blue Devils, who lost to Northwestern, lead the ACC in passing offense and time of possession and rank second in total offense and pass defense.

“They are playing inspired,” Ogletree said of the Blue Devils. “I am sure they don’t want to lose at home. It is an ACC game so I am sure they will be pumped up and ready to play.”

Duke, under first-year coach David Cutcliffe, has extra motivation. That, at least in ACC circles, is merely known as The Streak.

“What streak?” Ogletree asked.

The Blue Devils have lost 25 straight games against ACC opponents, a stretch that dates back to the end of the 2004 season.

“I didn’t even know that, so it doesn’t matter to us,” Ogletree added. “It might matter to them. It should.”

The game itself, at least according to the players, does matter to Virginia.

“Nobody’s trying to lose out there,” reserve quarterback Scott Deke said. “Everyone is putting their heart and soul into winning.

“The season can totally be changed right now. This is where it starts for us.”

The alternative could be crippling. In fact, every team that Virginia will play the remainder of the season currently has a winning record.

For now, Virginia coach Al Groh remains pleased with what he has seen in practice.

“It’s been good. There’s been a lot of positive energy,” Groh said. “Practices have been intense, upbeat.”

The Cavaliers responded in similar fashion to their first road loss last year. After being whipped at Wyoming, the Cavaliers won seven straight games, the first of which was against Duke.

“They certainly proved last year, there’s a lot of tough-minded kids in this group, and there are a lot of determined kids in this group,” Groh said. “And there are a lot of very positive kids in this group.”

Virginia’s issues, the coach pointed out, are not in relation to “want-to, or effort, or toughness.”

“Some of the issues that we have ... our inventory is a little bit lower than what we expected at this time,” he pointed out, referring to eight players missing from program for varying reasons that were originally expected to be on the two-deep depth chart.

“If we looked at how some of these positions were going to be stocked a year back and looked forward to this date, the inventory is not quite the same that we had anticipated that it was going to be,” Groh said. “But if it’s not looking as good we’re accustomed to and what we want it to, it’s not because the players don’t have their full hearts in it. They certainly do.”

Shuffling it up

Virginia’s two-deep has a new look, although Groh warned that was merely what it looked like as of Tuesday.

For now, redshirt freshman Corey Mosley is listed as the starting safety alongside Byron Glaspy and redshirt freshman Nick Jenkins has leapfrogged junior Nate Collins at nose tackle.

A pair of true freshman — Mike Price and Matt Mihalik — also made their debuts on the two-deep. Price replaced Anthony Mihota as the top reserve at center, and Mihalik has bypassed Lamar Milstead.

“The depth chart we hand out every Tuesday, is based on what it is that day,” Groh said. “The events of that week prove that somebody else has done the work to outperform the guy in front of him, then that could change. But as of the work of last week, that’s where that stands.”

To date, sophomore Ras-I Dowling has not regained his starting status at cornerback. He is listed behind sophomore Mike Parker.

The third option

It remains unclear what Virginia would do if newly-appointed quarterback Marc Verica and Deke were unable to play in a contest.

One option, Groh confirmed, would be playing true freshman Riko Smalls. The Texas native has been “involved in the competition,” for the third spot. A host of walk-on quarterbacks are also in the mix.

If Smalls was not used, he would still possess four years of eligibility.

“That would be nice, but really for this year, we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” Groh said. “We have had a number of these developmental scrimmages here during this time frame so we’ve had a chance to look at quite a few of them doing it. I would say that situation remains undecided.”