Decorated group set to finish UVa tenure

Virginia’s seniors really don’t know what’s about to hit them this Saturday when they say goodbye to Scott Stadium.

These players are household names in Wahoo Nation: John Phillips, Eugene Monroe, Cedric Peerman, Maurice Covington, Clint Sintim, Jon Copper, Antonio Appleby, Byron Glaspy and Alex Field, among others.

As media, we get to know some better than others. A few of them, such as Phillips, Peerman, Sintim, and Copper, are regulars and have been showing up at UVa’s weekly press gatherings for the past couple of years. That’s when we get a more personal glimpse at these players and some of their teammates.

Hopefully, we do a decent job of presenting their personalities to our reading audiences.

In our limited exposure we gain a sense of what these guys are all about and if there was one thing taken away from Tuesday’s weekly interview session, it’s that these seniors are taking this weekend very seriously.

Don’t count them out

After all, the Cavaliers are still mathematically in the mix for the ACC’s Coastal Division title, and one win away from becoming bowl eligible. Those items will be on the agenda all week long before Clemson comes to town on Saturday.

The night before Senior Day is a very special occasion in Virginia football. That’s when seniors — all of ’em — are invited to address the team at the hotel and tell everyone what it means to be a Wahoo, what playing at UVa has meant to them.

It can get very emotional and we suspect that Friday night at the Omni will see some passion and some tears.

When there’s leaders like these opening up their hearts to teammates, there’s bound to be some unforgettable moments. Peerman, “The Running Reverend,” speaks straight from the heart with all the fire of an old-time Baptist preacher. You can count on Sintim and Phillips and Copper laying it on the line, maybe even big ol’ Monroe, if they can pry a few words out of him.

Fly on the wall

It’s a team thing. No outsiders. But wouldn’t it be wonderful to hear what they say?

One thing is for sure — these guys don’t want to lose their last home game. They don’t want to go out that way. They don’t deserve to go out that way.

What’s more, they don’t want to be left out of the postseason, something that’s very important to them. So, the next two weeks will mean everything to this group of seniors.

Sintim, one of the nation’s finest linebackers, remembers what it was like in 2006, the only season this group of current seniors and fifth-years didn’t go to a bowl game since their arrival in Charlottesville.

The Cavaliers started that season 2-5 but finished 5-7. Even though that group sent its seniors out with a win over Miami in their last home game, they saw any bowl chances vanish in the chill of Blacksburg on the final day of the season.

Sintim can close his eyes and still feel the emptiness of that day. It’s a feeling he doesn’t want to experience this time around.

“As soon as the [Virginia Tech] game was over I felt bad,” Sintim said Tuesday. “There were a lot of seniors on that team who really put their heart and soul into it. I felt like I didn’t do enough and we didn’t do enough to send them out the right way. It made for a long, long offseason.”

Certainly it has been an interesting group. Phillips, known to his teammates as “Big Country” for his Bath County roots, has continued the legacy of a string of UVa tight ends and has blossomed as a senior.

Interestingly enough, it wasn’t easy for him as he pointed out Tuesday. When Country came to Charlottesville, he was more than annoyed with city life, all the stoplights and such (I don’t think there’s a single one in Bath County).

“When I first got here, I didn’t like all the noise,” Phillips said. “When I went to sleep, I didn’t want to hear anything — people partying or anything.”

Copper is one of those great stories that continue to evolve in college athletics, a guy that nobody wanted who will be making his 36th career start on Saturday.

If that’s not inspirational, then what is?

Oddly, to stay in the race, to get to a bowl, to give the seniors the proper sendoff, the Cavaliers must beat Clemson, a team that no one on the roster has ever played before. The fifth-years were redshirts the last time UVa played the Tigers in 2004 (a UVa win in Charlottesville).

Virginia has played Pittsburgh twice, UConn twice, even Wyoming twice during that span, for goodness sakes, but hasn’t played Clemson from its own conference. Scheduling quirks from expansion.

Phillips said he doesn’t care if the Cavs end up in the new D.C. bowl or in Boise or wherever, as long as they make a bowl game.

Even Tampa, site of this year’s ACC Championship game, would be nice and UVa still has a chance if:

a) The Cavaliers beat Clemson and Virginia Tech, and Miami loses twice, including Thursday night at Georgia Tech ... or,

b) The Cavs win twice, and Georgia Tech beats Miami, and Miami beats N.C. State, and North Carolina wins out. That would create a four-way tie between Virginia, Miami, Georgia Tech, and UNC at 5-3, and that’s when the tiebreaker rules change dramatically. UVa and UNC would have the same group record (2-1), eliminating Miami and Georgia Tech, and UVa would own the tiebreaker over UNC, which the Cavs beat 16-13.

Like Phillips said Tuesday, the only thing the Cavs can do is beat Clemson, then focus on the Hokies, and let everything else fall as they may.

Regardless, this is a special group in Coach Al Groh’s heart. It’s not the winningest class in UVa history (34-25 with at least two to go), but it has some special character.

“This group really seems to be and has throughout the season, how would I say it ... overtly wore their status as, ‘We’re the seniors, we have a lot of responsibility and this is really significant to us. We’ve been here through a lot and this is the last time through,’” Groh said. “You can clearly see this has been part of their group personality throughout. I think that had a lot to do with their holding course and giving direction through the early part of the season.”

That may have been the toughest part of their career here until the challenge that lies before them the next two weekends. Pull that off and they become legendary in these parts — a team that no one will ever forget.