SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2010 College football The region
FROMTERRAPINSINSIDER Smith appears to regain his old form
For nearly two
months, Maryland wide receiver Torrey Smith struggled to regain his acceleration and cutting ability because of a nagging ankle injury. But Smith had a big day Saturday against Virginia --- he had 216 all- purpose yards in the first half —and he said he was tackled on a 62-yard reception only because he was winded. Covered by cornerback Devin
Wallace, Smith caught the deep ball in the second quarter and cut across the field en route to the end zone. But Smith labored and Wallace caught him at the Virginia 7. “I died,” Smith said. “I was just
tired.” —Eric Prisbell NEXT UP: Saturday vs. Florida State. NEXT UP: Saturday at Miami.
FROMHOKIESJOURNAL Beamer not looking back on JMU loss
While the Hokies were busy winning their eighth straight
game on Saturday, James Madison was scoring an upset ofWilliam & Mary, the No. 1 team in division I-AA heading into this weekend. So now that Virginia Tech needs just one win to clinch the ACC Coastal
Division and is enjoying its longest winning streak since 2005, the logical question is:What if Sept. 11, 2010, never occurred?What if the Hokies hadn’t suffered that fluky loss to James Madison? “We don’t do that,” Coach Frank Beamer said after his team beat North
Carolina, 26-10. “At the end of the year last year, I said we really had a good football team and I think we’re getting to be a really good football team right now. At the beginning of the year, we were just a little too young to be a real good, consistent football team.” The Hokies would be in position to qualify for a playoff—that is, if big-
time college football had such a thing. But when asked after the game, Beamer wasn’t ready to shake things up too much. “I’ve always said, ‘I like the BCS.’ This particular year, a playoff wouldn’t
be bad,” Beamer said with a smile. “I wish we could get the two games and then one game, take the four best teams at the end. I wish we could get to that, but I don’t see it changing any time soon.”
—Mark Giannotto NEXT UP: Saturday at Boston College. Adams, O’Brien lead U-Md. past Cavs terrapins from D1
Virginia’s senior day, the Terra- pins eliminated their bitter rival from bowl contention with just their second win in their last 10 games in Charlottesville. Virgin- ia (4-6, 1-5) finishes the season with road games at Boston Col- lege and Virginia Tech. “I wanted this one real bad,”
Friedgen said. All week,Friedgenhadbeen as
tight as he had been all season, jumpingonplayers for the small- est practice miscues. He was su- perstitious enough to change ho- tels this season and stay 70 miles from Virginia’s campus. The stress turned to joy after histeam snapped a three-game losing streak against Virginia and showed no lingering effects from last weekend’s last-minute loss atMiami. Maryland can thank Virginia
for committing 16 penalties — one shy of the program record— for 145 yards. And the Terrapins also can thank theirownredshirt freshmen. Quarterback Danny O’Brien threwfor 289 yards, had two touchdown passes and ran for another. Friedgen said O’Brien, 20, has turned into a “coach on the field.” D.J. Adams, a redshirt fresh-
man running back, scored three touchdowns of six, one and two yards. Although pass protection continues to be an issue for Ad- ams, when he is handed the ball in the red zone “he will fight his butt off to get in the end zone,” Friedgen said. Offensively,Maryland exploit-
ed Virginia’s one-on-one cover- age with big plays, including two for more than 50 yards. Wide receiver Torrey Smith finished with 157 receiving yards on seven receptions. And a new wrinkle wasintroduced:320-poundZach Kerr, a defensive lineman, lined up at fullback a handful of times. Defensively, safety Eric Frank-
lin and linebacker AdrianMoten each intercepted a pass in the second half after the unit settled down. Moten said he simply wrestled the ball from Virginia wide receiver Kris Burd because “I wanted it a little more.” “This was a big win in the
rivalry,” Moten added. “They hate us.We hate them.” This was a wild, emotionally
charged game that saw a former Virginia team manager throw a touchdown pass on a fake field goal, a backup Virginia place kicker belt a 52-yard field goal and enough dropped passes to leave coaches on both sidelines shaking their heads. And that
FROMCAVS JOURNAL
Dowling can’t stay healthy
Virginia cornerback Ras-I Dowling
left Saturday’s game against Maryland less than six minutes into the first quarter after making his first start since Oct. 9 at Georgia Tech. Dowling retreated to the locker room, then returned to the sideline on crutches with a protective boot on his left foot early in the second quarter. After logging three plays in
Virginia’s past four games due to a knee injury, Dowling’s return was short-lived. He played five snaps before tripping over safety Rodney McLeod at the end of a four-yard Maryland completion to Smith. —Steve Yanda
FROM MIDS
INSIDER
Proctor fills in Reserve quarterback Kriss
Proctor started Saturday’s game against Central Michigan, giving regular starter Ricky Dobbs a chance to rest and recover from nagging ailments as Navy heads into the stretch run. Proctor, a junior, is no
stranger to starting, having done so twice last season when Dobbs was nursing a cracked kneecap. Proctor has played sparingly this season, but when he has stepped onto the field, he has excelled. —GeneWang
NEXT UP: Saturday vs. Arkansas State.
KLMNO
EZ SU
D9
AREAROUNDUP
TheDukes come back to top Tribe
Madison overcomes 10-point deficitwith 3 touchdowns by Scott
FROM NEWS SERVICES AND STAFF REPORTS
Dae’Quan Scott ran for 125
yards on 21 carries and scored three touchdowns as JamesMad- ison defeated William & Mary, 30-24, on Saturday in Harrison- burg, Va. The Tribe (7-3, 5-2 Colonial
Athletic Association) jumped out to a 10-0 lead after a three-yard touchdownpass fromMikeCalla- han to Alex Gottlieb in the open- ing quarter and a 22-yard field goal from Drake Kuhn with 4 minutes 26 seconds left in the second quarter. The Dukes (5-5, 2-5) took their
first lead, 14-10, with 24 seconds left before halftime after a blocked punt was returned for a score by D.J. Bryant. Scott extended the JamesMad-
ison lead to 21-10 on a three-yard touchdown run with 6:30 left in the third. Callahan completed a 17-yard
PHOTOS BY JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST Redshirt freshmanD.J. Adams ofMaryland is brought down by Virginia'sMichale Carter. Adams scored three touchdowns in a 42-23 win.
was only in the first half. The third quarter brought
more wackiness. Late in the quarter, with Maryland facing a third and 14 from its own 40, O’Brien took a five-step drop and threwa pass over the middle that should have been intercepted by linebacker Darnell Carter. But the ball deflected off Carter’s hands and was caught by Mary- land receiver LaQuan Williams for a 26-yard gain. Friedgen said James Franklin, the offensive co- ordinator, quickly went from “No!No!No!” to “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Carter smashed his helmet in apparent disbelief. Three plays later, Adams scored his third touchdown of the game on a two-yard run. The drive sucked the life out of Virginia. “We got really lucky,” O’Brien
said. “Thenwetook advantage of the change in momentum and rolled after that.” With a little less than eight minutes remaining in the game
— after Maryland widened its lead to 12 with Da’Rel Scott’s two-yard touchdown reception —the Terrapins sealed the game with Franklin’s interception. That sent most of the Virginia fans home. After the game, reporters
asked Anderson if the seventh win ensured Friedgen’s return in 2011, the final year of his con- tract. Former athletic director Debbie Yow had said a winning regular season was her expecta- tion before she left to take the same position this summer at North Carolina State. Anderson remained noncom-
mittal regarding Friedgen’s fu- ture. “Looking for the eighth” victory, Anderson said. “Florida State is big and we want every- one [fans] out.” The comment was not intended to be a magic number for Friedgen to reach, but rather a sentiment that could have been expressed by any Maryland fan hoping for contin-
Maryland's AlexWujciak embraces Coach Ralph Friedgen. The team had an impromptu party in the locker room after the game.
ued success. “Here we are with two games
to go in the season and we have a shot to win our division,” Fried- gen said. “We were picked to
finish last by all of the experts, and that in itself is an accom- plishment. We’re not looking to stop there, though.”
prisbelle@washpost.com
For Cavs, 16 penalties ‘killed’ any chance they had BY STEVE YANDA
charlottesville — Despite being charged with nine penal- ties for 71 yards in the first half, Virginia trailedMaryland by just one point entering halftime after a 52-yard field goal by Chris Hinkebein.CavaliersCoachMike Londonbelieved at that point his team had wrestled back momen- tum from the Terrapins and was poised to strike immediately in the third quarter, when Virginia would receive the ball first. But the opening kickoff of the
secondhalfyieldedthesamecon- clusion as 15 other Virginia snaps SaturdayatScottStadium:witha penalty flag on the ground and a call going against the Cavaliers. Virginia lost to Maryland, 42-
23, because its defense could not contain the Terrapins’ passing attack and because its offense combined early inefficiency with late turnovers. But the Cavaliers (4-6, 1-5 ACC) didn’t help their
cause by tallying 16 penalties — one shy of the program record— for 145 yards. In Virginia’s past three games, it has committed 38 penalties for 353 yards. And the damage could have
been worse against Maryland (7-3, 4-2), which declined two other penalties called against the Cavaliers and offset yet another Virginia infractionwithoneof its own. “It killed us,” senior linebacker
Darnell Carter said. “I really don’t understand how — I know it was an emotional game, but penalties killed [us]. . . .Youcan’t win a ballgame with 16 penal- ties.” Accumulating massive amountsof penalties hasbecome a disturbing trend for Virginia. London said he and his assis- tants need to be held more ac- countable for the techniques they teach during practice. But the issue is broader than
that. Late in the third quarter, Carter got his hands on a Mary-
land pass attempt, but the ball sailed through his fingers and into the arms of a Terrapins re- ceiver for a 26-yard gain into Virginia territory. “It hits your hands, you’ve got
to catch it,” Carter said. Virginia’s offense has demon-
strated considerable progress in recent weeks, and it moved the ball fairly efficiently against Maryland. And yet at least a half- dozen catchable balls were dropped in the first half Satur- day. “Just lack of focus,” junior
wide receiver Kris Burd said. “Just kind of getting lazy on catching the ball. Virginia registered 382 total
yards, and offensive coordinator Bill Lazor said he felt the Cava- liers moved the ball well. “I’ve just got to look at if I did a
good enough job of preparing them and just being focused enough,” Lazor said. “Because whenyou have the penalties, and I think we dropped a couple
balls, those things hurt us and probablystoppedusfromgetting some touchdowns on those early drives.” Lazor said that last week, the
offense reviewedeach of the pen- alties Virginia committed when it possessed the ball during the Cavaliers’ 55-48 loss Nov. 6 at Duke. And yet Virginia’s offense was flagged five times Saturday for false startsandtwicefor hold- ing. “There’s no doubt there are
times when a guy makes a deci- sion to do things the wrong way, and there are times when an aggressive play leads to” penal- ties,Lazor said. “We’vegot todoa better job of getting them to stop.” The Cavaliers’ defense was pe-
nalized twice for pass interfer- ence, once for roughing the pass- er, once for holding and once for a face mask infraction. Four pen- alties were assessed on Virginia’s special teams. Londontook responsibility for
making sure the number of pen- alties starts to trend downward, as well as for the techniques being taught by his staff and for the players’ apparent lack of comprehension of “what’s ac- ceptable and what’s not accept- able.” “We were moving the ball well
offensively, you know, run and pass,” saidquarterbackMarcVer- ica,whothrewfor265yards.“But just way too many penalties, way too many yellow flags on the ground. It’s hard to overcome that. It’s hard to win a football game in the ACC when you have close to 20 penalties. “I thought that was disap- pointing, and that’s a trend that’s been kind of consistent through- out the whole season. We won’t wingamesuntilwecaneliminate those kinds of things.” And what, exactly, is the
source of all those penalties? “Just probably overall a lack of discipline,”Verica said.
yandas@washpost.com
touchdown pass to Ryan Moody on the first play of the fourth quarter and then converted a two-point conversion to tie the score 21-21. Scott scored on a 30-yard run
toput theDukes infront for good. l LEHIGH 24, GEORGETOWN
7: Jay Campbell rushed for 118 yards and a touchdown, and the visiting Mountain Hawks clinched their first Patriot League title since 2001with awin over theHoyas. The win was the sixth straight
for Lehigh, which earned its first playoff berth since 2004. Tom Randazza kicked field
goals of 32, 23 and31 yards for the MountainHawks (8-2, 4-0 Patriot League), who beat Georgetown for the 10th time in a row. Quar- terback Chris Lum completed 24 of 47 passes for 297 yards butwas intercepted three times. Lehigh trailed, 7-6, at halftime,
but got touchdown runs by Mi- chael Colvin and Campbell in the second half to take control. The Mountain Hawks outgained Georgetown 441-214 in total yards. Georgetown (3-7, 2-3), which
lost its sixth straight game, got its only score on a nine-yard touch- down run byDalen Claytor in the second quarter. l BETHUNE-COOKMAN 35,
HOWARD 20: Eddie Poole re- turnedanonside kick 37 yards for a touchdownwith 1:12 left to help theWildcats remain unbeaten in a victory over the Bison inDayto- na Beach, Fla. With the win, Bethune-Cook-
man (10-0, 7-0 Mid-Eastern Ath- letic Conference) clinched at least a share of the conference championship. TheWildcats also clinched, by
virtue of the league’s tiebreaker system, the MEAC’s automatic berth in theNCAA’s division I-AA playoffs, which begin in two weeks. The Bison (1-9, 0-7) lost their
fifth in a row. l BRIDGEWATER 38, CATHO-
LIC 28: The Cardinals’ Mike Smith scored his third touch- down of the day to pull Catholic within 10 early in the fourth quarter, but that was as close as the Cardinals would get in the home loss. Catholic fell to 4-6 overall and
2-4 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, while Bridgewater improved to 8-2, 4-2 with its 11th straight win over the Cardinals.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168