Dominating and embarrassing. Encouraging and frustrating. Uplifting and erratic. Midway through its 2008 campaign, the Virginia football team has left fans grappling for adjectives to properly capture what has been one roller coaster ride of a season thus far. With a decisive 35-20 victory against East Carolina Saturday, the Cavaliers (3-3, 1-1 ACC) successfully silenced critics’ cries that their runaway upset of Maryland the week before was a fluke. Questions, however, continue to linger as to whether Virginia coach Al Groh’s squad has truly turned the corner after a rocky start to the season.
“That was the challenge facing us this week,” sophomore quarterback Marc Verica said after the game. “To show that this wasn’t a one-week thing, and the challenge was really, can we play that way consistently from week to week?”
While Verica’s play over the last two games has contributed in large part to the team’s offensive turnaround — the sophomore has notched a completion percentage of more than 70 percent while racking up nearly 500 yards through the air in his last two outings — the running game has been the real remedy for the Cavaliers’ early season offensive woes. Nearly half of the team’s total yardage against both Maryland and East Carolina came on the ground, and senior tailback Cedric Peerman alone has rushed for almost 300 yards over the two-game span.
Peerman “has a way of just enforcing his will upon the defense,” Verica said.
Hampered by a leg injury at the start of the season that forced him to play limited minutes in the first three games of the season before completely sitting out Virginia’s loss to Duke, a healthy Peerman — after piling up 110 yards on the Terrapins — exploded for a season-high 173 yards against the East Carolina Pirates. Two of the senior’s 16 carries on the day were trips to the end zone for more than 60 yards and came at critical junctures in the game for the Cavaliers.
With Virginia trailing East Carolina 0-6 following two early field goals by the Pirates, Peerman not only sliced through a string of defenders but managed to avoid the sideline as he tiptoed his way to a 79-yard touchdown run to end the first quarter.
“I’ve never had to really tight-rope the sideline like that throughout my career,” Peerman said. “I’m just trying to run wherever the green grass is and avoid all that contact.”
Just two offensive drives later, the two-time Virginia high school state titleholder in the 100-meter dash again called upon his speed to find a hole in the Pirate defense, this time breaking free for a 60-yard run and giving the Cavaliers a critical 14-6 edge they would never relinquish.
“It’s just a mind-set of, ‘Don’t get caught,’” Peerman said of breaking the big touchdown runs. “‘Don’t let them catch you.’”
Perhaps more important than points, Peerman’s recent string of big carries and touchdown runs have provided the Cavaliers with a much-needed emotional spark.
“When you’ve got a guy back there like [Peerman] who can just carve out so much, it inspires everybody,” Groh said. “He does more than carry the ball for us — he carries the flag, too, and he’s given great tribute to that the past couple of games.”
In the midst of an up-and-down season, it is necessary that leaders like Peerman, as well as fifth-year senior outside linebacker Clint Sintim, are ready, Groh said, “to add some passion and some juice to [the] team personality.”
Against East Carolina, Virginia also got an unexpected emotional boost from a player other than the Cavaliers’ established leaders. In the fourth quarter, senior backup quarterback Scott Deke, who holds on field goals and extra points, provided the team with some inspiration of his own, successfully converting a fake field goal on a pass to wide-open senior tight end John Phillips in the left corner of the end zone. While the trick play also helped seal the victory for the Cavaliers, it also marked the fifth-year senior’s first career touchdown pass.
“That was my favorite part of the day,” Verica said.
Although Virginia has managed to capture on-field passion from both expected leadership and unexpected play-calling in its past two outings, the second half of the season will be a test for the Cavaliers and their newfound success. Of the squad’s remaining opponents, only Miami has a losing record, and this Saturday, the Cavaliers will host a No. 18-ranked North Carolina squad (5-1, 1-1 ACC) that has serious aspirations of snagging the ACC’s automatic Orange Bowl bid.
At the halfway point of the 2008 campaign, it has already been a tale of two seasons for the Cavaliers, and Virginia fans can only hope Saturday’s win against the Pirates was a sign of things to come.
The players “have a lot of unity, and a lot of commitment to each other,” Groh said. “That’s developing right now. We maybe did a little bit more to continue to forge our personality [Saturday].”
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