Offensive output gives UVa new hope

At last glance, Virginia’s offense exited Hattiesburg, Miss., with its self-respect intact for the first time this season.

In a loss to Southern Miss, the Cavaliers made a strong showing on the offensive side of the football after a dreadful start in home losses to William & Mary and TCU. There were several contributing factors to the improvement, chiefly a philosophical change as coach Al Groh resorted back to what he and his team knew best.

The concept of the spread offense wasn’t totally shelved — just tightened up in some places, tweaked in others as the line splits were narrowed, backs were kept in the backfield to protect quarterback Jameel Sewell and tight ends became more active.

In other words, it looked more like an Al Groh offense on the field against the Golden Eagles, and it was an offense that scored enough points to win in a 37-34 setback.

Just like old times

Fast forward to high noon today in Chapel Hill, N.C., where the Cavaliers will resume the South’s oldest rivalry when they take on North Carolina for the 114th time. It’s an opportunity for UVa, a

13-point underdog, to walk out of Kenan Stadium later today with a 1-0 record in the ACC.

While Virginia has struggled to get much of a ground attack going behind an offensive line that has failed to get its act together, Groh has clearly hitched his wagon to Sewell. The senior southpaw threw for 312 yards at Southern Miss and looked more comfortable in the retro offense.

Wahoo fans who know Sewell’s history are keenly aware that in past seasons he has started slowly but picked up his performances as seasons progressed. Two years ago, he led the Cavs to a rare nine-win season behind his passing arm.

Senior moments

In some ways, critics could argue that Sewell is a better overall quarterback now because he’s got more experience under his belt, is a better leader on the field, and is less hesitant to run, which could be a key against the Tar Heels today. Georgia Tech quarterback Josh Nesbitt ran the ball 30-some times against UNC a week ago in a lopsided Yellow Jackets win.

Yes, Nesbitt is a horse — 235 pounds, as compared to the much more slightly-built Sewell. But Sewell is quicker and a good runner, who hasn’t had much trouble running more than 20 times a game.

However, it was Sewell’s arm that came alive in the Deep South two weeks ago. Part of it was some perfectly-timed passes and some of it was his young receiving corps stepping up big-time.

So what was the deal with the receivers?

“It almost feels foolish to answer the question this way,” Groh said. “But [the receivers] just ran faster. And they ran faster out of conviction and confidence of what they were doing, just another week of what they were doing, because even with the interjection of some things that we have done in the past, not many of the returning receivers have much background in those things and nobody has any background in many of the other things that we are doing.

“So Kris Burd’s never really played in games. He was a special-teams player last year. Javaris Brown has never played, Jared Green hasn’t played that much, Tim Smith has never played,” Groh pointed out. “There are just a lot of players in their first games and running those routes and reading the coverage for the first time. We are just seeing these things developing faster and getting into the secondary with more burst and more push.”

In other words, these receivers are growing up before our very eyes. Therein lies one of the keys to a win in Chapel Hill. The receivers have to be at their best to pull out a win, but the Cavs still need to run the ball in order to control the clock.

Georgia Tech kept the ball away from the Tar Heels last weekend and dominated the game. When UNC did manage to get its hands on the pigskin, the Heels couldn’t do much with it. Their only offense came on six catches by a freshman wide receiver, who accounted for 107 of Carolina’s 154 yards of total offense and you can take it to the bank that Groh’s defense isn’t going to allow that receiver to inflict the same amount of defense on it this afternoon.

Sewell told a few sportswriters on Wednesday that he and others had difficulty comprehending the wide-open spread techniques, which led to two bad performances and Groh’s sudden shift of philosophy heading into Southern Miss game preparation.

With a bye week last Saturday, the Cavs have had two weeks to polish up on the new/old way of doing business from the offensive perspective.

Sewell also said that the year away from football due to an academic suspension caused him more problems in shaking off the rust than he expected.

“Jameel was back, but he wasn’t back-back,” Groh said Thursday.

If Sewell can put together another week of 300 yards passing, he must might be back-back.

So, the year away really hampered him?

“That’s what I’m going to blame it on,” Sewell said with a chuckle. “Things change. It was almost like coming out of high school ball to college ball and getting adjusted to the speed of the game again.”

However, the performance in Hattiesburg gave him and the entire offense a lot of confidence, something lacking after the first two games when offense appeared disjointed.

“It gave us confidence that we could compete,” Sewell said. “We were able to put points on the board, which we hadn’t done lately. We just have to continue to do that.”

There’s no better time than today.