Al Groh Last Quotations

I would say in the last 12 minutes, we had the opportunity to make some plays and BC had the opportunity to make some plays. The game hinged on their ability to make those plays and the fact that we did not.

Last year, ... we had a team built around power and that was the way we played. This year, we have a different kind of team.

Last year, we had a veteran team with a lot of proven players, and we won by some substantial margins early,

Marcus has really matured as a player, ... The way he went about preparing himself for that game last week was very impressive.

Our last message at halftime was something that we had said early in training camp. We just reminded the players that battles are not won by digging in. If you dig in, you just become a target. Battles are won by attacking. The players did a very good job of that, and they can be proud of themselves.

Last week, we didn't really care what anybody said about us, ... We don't really care this week. We know what we have to do this week to keep it going. What we care about is winning and losing, and staying together as a team, and trying to play the kind of sound, solid, tough, aggressive football that we like to think is our trademark.

I reminded him of what we said at halftime last week: 'We're going to ride you. Let's go.'

We were hoping it would be a game-time decision last week.

What we know now is the same thing we knew last night. He's got a sprained foot.

What happened last game was, Mike forgot about the ball. He was interesting in running the play and wasn't telling himself, 'Hey, I've got the ball.'

That's more positive than it was last week.

It's like, 'Hey, Wali Lundy is back,' ... So everybody likes Wali Lundy. Wali Lundy never went anyplace. There was never any problem with Wali, other than some games he missed because of injury. We happened to have a guy who got very hot for us last year and did a real good job for us.

It was certainly not an atypical Virginia game coming down to the end like that. It kinda reflected the last game that we played. I guess that is fitting.

It's been a real good progression in the last eight or nine months for him. He knows that if he wants to play more football, this is his last chance to show that he's worthy. He knows he has to make the most of it.

This kid generates energy and generates enthusiasm. He was a first-year starter at the position. He had his team in position to win the conference on the last day of the season. His team led the conference in offense and scored the most points in school history.

For the first time, we started to see the player that we saw in training camp. The absence of three or four guys that he got used to running behind last year might be a contributing factor, but I think his injury was it more than anything.