Richmond @ Virginia preview
Scott Stadium
Last Meeting ( Sep 6, 2008 ) Richmond 0, Virginia 16
It’s perhaps with some mixed feelings that Virginia enters the 2010 season without almost all of its key offensive skill personnel from a year ago.
On the one hand, the Cavaliers will face the daunting challenge of overcoming the loss of their top four rushers, three of their top four receivers and the veteran quarterback who started 10 of 12 games for them last fall. But, on the other side, that same marginally talented group limped to the school’s worst record in nearly 30 years in going 3-9 a season ago, including 2-6 in the ACC.
So new Cavs coach Mike London will almost literally be starting from scratch when his team hosts his alma mater and Football Championship Subdivision powerhouse Richmond to open up the season Saturday at Scott Stadium.
London, the former Virginia assistant who became the school’s first African-American coach when he was tapped to succeed the fired Al Groh this past December, coached Richmond to the 2008 FCS national championship. In coming back to Charlottesville, he welcomes back just a little more than seven percent of the team’s receiving yards and six percent of the rushing yards from the 2009 season.
Erratic fifth-year quarterback Marc Verica is the team’s only returning signal caller to have taken a collegiate snap. He passed for 2,017 yards in nine starts over 11 games while playing for the suspended Jameel Sewell in 2008. He lists eight touchdown passes to 17 interceptions for his career.
His team’s lack of great overall speed or proven offensive playmakers means London is going to need the same sharp eye, deft analytical skills and keen instincts he first honed while serving as a former City of Richmond detective before getting into coaching if Virginia hopes to surprise its many doubters this fall.
Senior cornerback Ras-I Dowling, a two-time second-team All-ACC cornerback selection, heads up a defense that will have to shoulder more than its share of the load early on as the offense develops an identity. New defensive coordinator Jim Reid has scrapped the 3-4 defense long preferred by Groh in favor of a more traditional 4-3 scheme.
The upset-minded Spiders, winners of the 2008 FBS national title and quarterfinalists a year ago, will rely on the big arm of Southern Cal transfer Aaron Corp to give first-year coach Latrell Scott his first career victory. Scott is also an African-American and had served as Virginia’s wide receivers coach last season.
Richmond, however, is minus 15 starters, including four along the offensive line, from last year’s team that finished 11-2.
The Cavaliers’ superior size and depth up front should be a deciding factor. A date in Los Angeles with mighty Southern Cal looms ahead for Virginia.