Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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September 4, 2010

London era begins at Virginia with Spiders visit

The Associated Press Associated Press

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Marc Verica can hardly wait until Saturday night.

The senior quarterback at Virginia is a starter once again as the Cavaliers try to end a four-game losing streak in season openers when they play Richmond.

“To be able to come back and play my fifth year as the starting quarterback, there’s no doubt about it that I’m very excited to take advantage of this opportunity,” said Verica, the only quarterback on the roster to have taken a college snap.

First-year coach Mike London named Verica the starter in the spring. Verica said the air of renewed enthusiasm that arrived when London was hired last December has lingered through spring practice, summer workouts and the preseason.

“There’s definitely a heightened level of anticipation because of all the things that have happened in our program the last few years, specifically the last year or so,” he said.

Defensive tackle Nick Jenkins agreed and said everyone is “super excited” to play.

“The last three years, it’s been kind of rough for us here, and we’re excited to change things around,” said the junior, who, along with Verica, is one of six team captains.

Adding intrigue to London’s Virginia coaching debut is the opponent — Richmond.

London was the Spiders’ coach the last two seasons, and guided Richmond to the 2008 FCS national championship.

Richmond will be led by Latrell Scott, who was the Cavaliers’ wide receivers coach last year under Al Groh. Both staffs are stacked with coaches who have worked at both schools.

“I would not be human if I sat here and said it’s another game,” London said, embracing the emotion he anticipates. “It’s not another game. That’s my alma mater. I spent years there as a coach and a player and I won championships there with that team.”

Scott took over a team that lost 15 senior starters.

“We’re not a finished product by any means,” he said. “We’ve got improvements to make. There are a lot of things that we still need to fix between today and tomorrow and Saturday.”

While the Spiders claim to harbor no resentment toward London for bolting only a few days after Richmond lost in the Football Championship Subdivision playoff quarterfinals, defensive lineman Martin Parker said they will arrive at Scott Stadium with a statement to make.

A perennial playoff team, the Spiders were picked to finish sixth in the Colonial Athletic Association this season. The league is the best in FCS, but they felt slighted.

“We just want to show everybody that doubt us, that question our ability as a team, that we have players on this team that they might not know about that will step forward and come up and be great players in this conference,” Parker said.

Last season, the Spiders won at Duke and Virginia lost its home opener against William & Mary, another CAA power. And these Spiders have Aaron Corp, a Southern Cal transfer, at quarterback. He arrived in January and won a spirited battle with John Laub this summer, and joins a team that has two all-league wide receivers in Kevin Grayson and Tre Gray.

Corp will operate behind an offensive line that has added four new starters since the spring, and go against a revamped defense that has switched from the 3-4 to the 4-3.

Virginia’s John-Kevin Dolce, a defensive tackle who would have been significantly undersized in the 3-4, is eager for the 6 p.m. start, and using his speed on the line.

“I think we’ve been waiting for a long time for this game,” he said.

 

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