Duke offers extreme change for U.Va. defense

CHARLOTTESVILLE The first mention of it came Sunday.

While going over the plan for the week, coach Al Groh briefly reminded his team of what went down in Durham last year -- a 31-3 loss to Duke.

"He just said that we don't want a performance like last year," linebacker Steve Greer said. "It wasn't our best football at all."

The loss was a low point in Virginia's season, though recent events have helped the Blue Devils shed their reputation as an easy victory in ACC play. They're 2-1 in the conference and 4-3 overall.

Groh was coy when asked about the revenge factor yesterday, smiling while saying that "I remember the results of most games that I've been involved in."

To get the Cavs ready, he'll have to take an opposite approach from last week. Georgia Tech came to town with a rushing offense. Duke is a pass-first team.

"It's definitely going to be tough going from polar opposites -- an extreme running team to an extreme passing team," Greer said. "I'm sure coach will get us ready and change practice around."

Duke's second-year coach, David Cutcliffe, has built an offense around quarterback Thaddeus Lewis, and has shown the tendency to stick with the passing game at all times.

The Blue Devils defeated Maryland last week with just 23 rushing yards -- they're averaging 74 yards per game, 115th among 120 FBS schools.

"When they have difficulty in the passing game, they don't suddenly say that OK, now we're going to run it 60 times in this game," Groh said. "They say we have to find some patterns that will get open better than the ones we've been running."

The coach added they're comparable to Georgia Tech in that regard, as the Yellow Jackets were stymied initially by Virginia's run defense, but kept mixing up the play calls until they found a winning look in the second half.

Virginia's offense will have an easier time preparing this week, as the Blue Devils offer a similar defensive look as the Yellow Jackets.

That doesn't mean things will be easy, though, as Virginia's offense struggled on Saturday.

"We were looking for, and will continue to look for, a far more productive performance from everybody associated with the offense," Groh said.

He knows that to beat Duke, it takes more than just showing up these days. Last year's game drove the point home, and now the pressure is on for the rematch.

A Blue Devils victory would put them one game away from going to a bowl for the first time since 1994. Virginia needs the victory to keep the door from closing on their own hopes.

"We definitely don't want to come out and play like we did last year, so there's definitely motivation to play better," Greer said. "But at the same time, we have enough motivation game to game just trying to get a win."