Rare is the basketball game in which play must be delayed because of problems with the sun. But when the VCU and Richmond men get together for their annual intra-city rivalry game, it’s best to expect the unexpected.

Too many coaches and fans have a common lament for the lack of success of their college football programs: We can’t recruit enough dumb guys. They say it in a different way, of course. They present a college’s academic standards as an obstacle to drawing top-flight players, as if the best players can’t handle challenging classes and are averse to getting a good education.

When the Redskins’ field goal unit needed to contribute in the first half, it did not. When the Redskins’ defense needed to stop the Baltimore Ravens’ offense in the fourth quarter, it could not.

BLACKSBURG Big game. Big stadium. Big disappointment. “Our motto all year has been, ‘Leave no doubt’,“ said Dinwiddie quarterback Adam Morgan. “We got to this point, we just didn’t reach out and grab it.“ “This point” was the Virginia High School League Division 5 championship game in Lane Stadium at Virginia Tech. The size of the facility did not intimidate the Generals. The performance of the Phoebus Phantoms, though, was too much for the Generals to overcome.

The Rose Bowl is where Southern California plays next if it beats UCLA tomorrow. What a pity. The “granddaddy of all bowls” pales in comparison to what the Trojans deserve—a chance to play for the national championship.

Plaxico Burress is the NFL’s leading lunkhead, a Pro Bowl player in terms of recklessness and foolishness. But the New York Giants wide receiver should not be regarded as a criminal. Burress shot himself in the right thigh early Saturday morning while in a Manhattan night club. He had jammed a .40-caliber Glock pistol into the waistband of his sweatpants, and when he tried to grab the gun as it slid down his leg, the Glock discharged.

Al Groh wanted to mess with the minds of the Virginia Tech defense yesterday. So, Groh started a cornerback at quarterback. Then he watched as that cornerback, Vic Hall, ran wild.

Give the University of Virginia players credit for this: They stick together. On a day when the defense could have pointed all its collective fingers at the Cavalier offense for lack of support, not a single defender cracked.

To get from Birmingham, Ala., to College Park, Md., as quickly as possible is not difficult. That’s why airplanes exist. If you are a college athlete, things are not quite so simple.

Xavier Henry, a chiseled, 6-6 Adonis from Oklahoma City, announced yesterday that he will play basketball at the University of Memphis next year. Henry seems to be a nice young man from a solid family. He was well-spoken and polite during his announcement. I wasn’t with him when he made this declaration and pulled on a Memphis baseball cap to confirm it.

You probably have seen this: A men’s college basketball player takes a pass in the corner. He pauses, looks at his feet, then dribbles backward before launching a shot from behind the 3-point line.

No United States president has thought it necessary to add the position of secretary of sports to his cabinet. Such a post is long overdue. Some of the challenges in the world of sports are so overwhelming that only government intervention will bring about solutions. President-elect Barack Obama seems up to the job. At halftime of the Monday night football on the eve of the election, Obama was asked what he would change in sports. He said he would do away with the BCS system in college football and have the top eight teams in a playoff.

Success in football depends on a few simple principles: blocking and tackling, not giving up big plays, running the ball effectively and having a quarterback who is smart enough not to get you beat.

Fashion critics would not call the Redskins’ all-burgundy look offensive. But the uniforms provided no offense for the Redskins.

The inescapable conclusion regarding football at the University of Virginia is that a change is necessary. Al Groh is the coach and controls every aspect of the program. The program is in a downward spiral, and that responsibility falls on Groh. When this season ends, so should his tenure at Virginia. What is happening in Charlottesville is unacceptable.