It’s deja vu for columnist Paul Woody as he goes back to the the University of Richmond to handicap the football team’s chances against William & Mary Saturday.

Cynicism comes easily when the topic is college athletics. So much money is in play. Coaches who earn seven-figure salaries talk about “student-athletes,“ but their primary interest is the “athlete” and contract bonus clauses. Then, there are those “student-athletes” who show up at a gas station armed with a pellet gun or get involved with the community through late-night fights in bars.

Poor Bill Belichick. His coaching career has come to this: He has two defenders, Al Groh and me. Groh and Belichick have been on several NFL staffs together, so that figures. As for me, that’s a hard one PAUL
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to believe, isn’t it? I’m no great fan of Belichick and the way he runs his team. He treats the smallest piece of information as if it were a state secret. He pushes the rules to the limit and beyond.

Everyone was beginning to wonder. The Washington Redskins beat Denver 27-17 yesterday, the first time this season the Redskins have surpassed the 17-point barrier. It also was the first time this season the Redskins beat a team with a winning record. All it took was a solid running game, no turnovers, decent blocking by the offensive line and the Redskins’ punter and holder, Hunter Smith, throwing a touchdown off a fake-field goal play.

Ten yards from the finish line, LaRee Etter checked her watch, looked up at the race clock and a smile came across her face. Ten yards later, when she crossed the finish line, Etter raised her arms in exultation and said to anyone within hearing distance, “I qualified. I qualified. I need a hug.“ But when you are single and come here from Rochester, Minn., specifically to run in the SunTrust Richmond Marathon, no one is at the finish line to offer that hug.

Hope springs eternal at the start of the college basketball season, and nowhere is hope springing more eternal or with greater expectations than the Colonial Athletic Association. The CAA is loaded. Old Dominion returns all its starters, led by potential player of the year Gerald Lee. Northeastern, VCU and James Madison each return four starters.

If you think Paul Woody breezes through every taping of the World of Woody, think again.

RICHMOND, VA—Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis suffered a concussion Sunday against Atlanta. He was knocked unconscious. A day later, he still had a headache and no memory of the play.

ATLANTA Losing is one thing. Losing with a distinct lack of class is another. Yesterday in the Georgia Dome against the Atlanta Falcons, the Washington Redskins, 2-6 this season and losers of 12 of their past 16 games, entered the “another” zone. They played in the first half without discipline, organization, emotion and class.

Fortune is supposed to favor the bold, and University of Richmond coach Mike London made a bold decision late in yesterday’s game against Villanova that should have won the game for the Spiders. Spiders quarterback Eric Ward is supposed to be the coolest of the cool when the game is on the line, and he was exactly that yesterday. So, how do you explain Richmond’s 21-20 loss at UR Stadium?

Paul Woody hates daylight savings time because the sun sets before he can finish his golf game. But then, nobody can see his hooks and slices.

In the past 30 years, the Washington Redskins have seen the best of times—three Super Bowl victories—and the worst of times, one playoff appearance between 1994 and 2004, including a 0-7 start in 1998 and a 0-5 start in 2001. Never did the players or the fans lose hope. The fans were steadfast in their belief things would improve.

Many talk about reforming college athletics, but for the past 20 years, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics is one of the few organizations that actually PAUL
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tries to do something. The Knight Commission conducted a survey of Football Bowl Subdivision school presidents. They preside over colleges formerly known as Division I-A—the power conferences.

BLACKSBURG AVirginia Tech football season that began with national championship dreams, then changed its focus to Atlantic Coast Conference title aspirations has come to this. Can the Hokies make it to the Champs Sports Bowl? The Music City Bowl? If things really go badly in the remaining weeks, will they have to take a bus ride to the Eagle Bank Bowl in Washington?

A new no—contact zone is left to officials to precisely outline. The invisible rectangle is 18 by 24 inches, from the front of the rim to the front of the backboard.