Nearly every Virginia student who attended last year's first home football game against Wyoming remembers the closing seconds. With the Cavaliers up by a point in the first overtime, all the Cowboys needed to do was make the extra point to send the game into a second overtime. The normally automatic extra point sailed right, however, and the Cavaliers escaped unscathed with a dramatic 13-12 win.
Tomorrow, the Cavaliers pay a visit to Laramie, Wyoming for the first game of the 2007 football season against those same Cowboys. If last year's game is any indication, this year's should be challenging and fun, too.
"That first game at Wyoming is going to be a challenge," senior tight end Tom Santi said. "Just going out there is going to be a long trip, a different atmosphere. I'm excited about going out there. Those guys played as hard as anybody we played against. They were pulling out all the stops, fake punts, bringing the ball six yards deep out of the end zone. They want to win. It doesn't matter to them. They want to beat an ACC team."
Wyoming did indeed pull out all the stops last year, namely converting two first downs on two fake punts. In the offseason the Cavaliers focused on preventing such mental mistakes.
"These are awareness things, situational things," coach Al Groh said. "It's really been at the forefront since the start of practice in the spring. There are certain things that we put in categories called 'things that make you win or cause you to lose' that go beyond tackling and blocking."
Even though these two teams clashed last year, some of the faces on the teams are different. Both teams were relatively inexperienced last year, but this year both teams return a wealth of starters. Virginia returns 10 starters to a defense that ranked 17th in the country last season.
On offense, the main difference for both teams is that the quarterbacks that start Saturday did not even play in last year's meeting at Scott Stadium. Sophomore quarterback Jameel Sewell started the final nine games for the Cavaliers, throwing for 1,342 yards and five touchdowns. Sophomore quarterback Karsten Sween of Wyoming threw for 1,304 yards and nine touchdowns last season.
"Both of those players had a very positive impact on their team in the second half of the season," Groh said. "I'm sure each team is anticipating that with experience and the spring [training] and training camp, that each one of those players will be that much better. That will be one of the interesting story lines of the game: Which player can be that much better than he was on the last day of last year."
Much preseason discussion has centered on who will start at wide receiver opposite junior Maurice Covington for Virginia. Groh has decided that walk-on redshirt freshman Staton Jobe will get the nod. Jobe had been vying for playing time with junior Cary Koch.
"I can't wait to get out to Wyoming," Jobe said. "I've dreamed my whole life of playing college football, and this is definitely exciting for me."
The Cavaliers' dismal road record of 2-9 during the last two seasons is a weakness players said they do not think about.
"We just to have focus on this year and just be prepared to play anywhere," sophomore defensive end Jeffrey Fitzgerald said.
If the Cavaliers want to improve on their road woes, they know that a key is scoring first. The Cavaliers boast a 37-15-1 record on the road dating back to 1987 when they strike first.
Several well-documented questions surrounding the 2007 football team will finally be answered Saturday in a place the players do not know a lot about.
When asked what he knew about Wyoming, Fitzgerald said, "It's a long way from here"
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