Cavs find motives for bid against Tech

CHARLOTTESVILLE When Nate Collins heard some of Virginia's players start discussing their plans for Christmas, he gathered the captains together to address the team.

"They can worry about that in a week," the senior defensive lineman said. "We aren't going to accept anyone just moping around and basically giving up on the team. We have more to do, and we're still trying to win as many football games as we can."

For Collins and the other seniors, it's easy to find motivation this week. Not only is it their last college game, but they're likely to go out with the only head coach they've known.

Al Groh is in his ninth season and can remember meeting with the current group of seniors seven years ago when they were high school juniors. Linebacker Denzel Burrell said it's hard to ignore the talk of an impending coaching change.

"As much as you try to avoid it as a player, I turn on the television, I read the newspapers and things like that," he said.

Aaron Clark was another senior who spoke to reporters as part of the team's weekly press conference yesterday. He said he's been impressed by the team's heart, as the Cavaliers continue to fight and play close games despite a five-game losing streak. He encouraged the younger players to internalize their experiences this year for the future.

Freshman running back Perry Jones said that among the group of players who just arrived, the year will serve as motivation.

"There's been a lot of true freshmen that played this year," he said. "So we're going into next year saying we don't want another season like this year."

Aside from the obvious motivation of never having beaten Virginia Tech, some Cavs also are still playing to increase their standing with NFL scouts. Groh said that when he arrived in his office yesterday morning, there were bagels waiting from one scout, who had arrived to watch video of the team's performances.

"I think a lot of guys here have a chance to go to the next level," Collins said. "And it's solely because of him. So we wish him the best of luck next year."

Groh is a rarity among college coaches these days, in that he's been able to see the players he's recruited as high school juniors now graduate as fifth-year seniors. It's a claim that a U.Va. coach won't be able to make for another seven years.

In particular, Groh said he was proud of the community that's been established, citing players such as Chris Long and Jason Snelling returning to visit the team during their NFL bye weeks. Groh said that over a seven-year period, he got to know those players more deeply than those he just had for a couple of years.

"I think we understand each other more deeply," he said. "We appreciate each other in a way that it would be difficult for somebody who's just been here six months to be at the same level."

For those players, they can think of no more fitting way to send off that coach than with a rivalry victory on Saturday.

After the loss that knocked the Cavs out of bowl contention, Collins and his housemates, four other U.Va. defenders, said that they were going to make this weekend's game their bowl game.

"Yeah, we might not have a bowl game," he said. "But we feel like beating Virginia Tech would be better than winning any six-win bowl we were going to end up in anyway."

That's the message the captains have been communicating to their teammates ever since.

"If you want to tuck your tail and hang your head and go pout in the corner, then go do it," Aaron Clark told the players. "But you're not going to do it as part of this team."