Rather than make excuses for Thursday's shutout loss to Georgia Tech, Virginia football coach George Welsh acknowledged his team's lackluster play and chose his words carefully when forecasting its upcoming match against N.C. State.
Georgia Tech "was one of those [games] where everything went wrong," Welsh said in a press conference yesterday.
"I never really thought we were out of the game until it was 35-0," senior quarterback Dan Ellis said. "Going into the second half, we really thought we could put some points on the board."
Georgia Tech handed Virginia its first shutout in 16 years. But to add injury to insult, Virginia may have lost several key players for this season's last home game against N.C. State Saturday.
Ellis suffered a second injury to his right hamstring, which has troubled him since playing Maryland a month ago. His status is "doubtful" for Saturday.
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"If he doesn't practice at all and he says he's ready Saturday, I don't think I'm going to go with him," Welsh said, "He needs at least one day of practice."
"My goal is to be out on the field by Wednesday," Ellis said. "If I can't play, obviously I'm going to be extremely frustrated with it being my last home game. I'm going to do everything I can to get out on the field on Saturday."
Sophomore running back Arlen Harris has swelling in his knee that will make him questionable against the Wolfpack as well.
Thursday's loss dropped the Cavs' record to 5-4 overall and 4-3 in the ACC. They will have to win one of their next two games to be bowl-eligible, and both games if they hope to tack on a 14th season of at least seven wins.
The Cavs' last two games are against teams - N.C. State (6-3) and Virginia Tech (9-1) - that already have qualified for bowls. Virginia Tech lost its only game of the season to Miami.
But Welsh refused to predict defeat. "We bounced back from the Clemson loss, and we bounced back from the Florida State loss, and I expect this to be the same," he said.
It's for the fans
Virginia athletics director Terry Holland and Welsh collaborated on the decision to give up television coverage of the N.C. State game in favor of a later start time.
Jefferson-Pilot Sports offered to air the game at noon, but they turned down the offer. Virginia will play at 2:30 p.m. instead. The Cavs have already played two noon games this season, against North Carolina and Maryland.
"I did not want to play another 12 o'clock game at home," Welsh said, "we're obligated to do one, and we've done two at home."
"I think it's fair to say 12 o'clock starts are not popular with our fans, and my recommendation was not to go on television and play it later in the afternoon."
Holland was more cautious. He said, "I think all of us really appreciate television exposure," but agreed that the 2:30 start time would be more agreeable to fans.
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