Hoos forget about win over Heels, focus on Hoosiers

In the minds of the players and coaches at Virginia, the team’s victory over North Carolina is an afterthought.

All that seems to matter to the Cavaliers is what lies ahead, most importantly, a contest with Indiana (3-2) on Saturday at Scott Stadium.

Having been winless this season and during the final month of the 2008 campaign, the focus has been shifted for Virginia (1-3, 1-0 ACC) to create a winning streak.

“I’ve been walking this line closely and entertaining questions on the past, but I think I’m going to stick with the way my whole day has been, I’m looking into the future here so I’m not going back into the past here about that last game that we had,” Virginia coach Al Groh said when asked about the victory.

“I’m refusing to talk about the North Carolina game.”

The players that were present on Monday toed the company line as well.

The future will need to entail five victories for Virginia to return to the postseason, something it has missed in two of the past three seasons.

A possibility for another victory looms on Saturday — the Cavaliers were listed as an early 7-point favorite against the Hoosiers.

That number is just as meaningless as the past performance against the Tar Heels.

Indiana, Groh said, presents an intriguing challenge in the first-ever contest between the two programs.

“I think our team is very excited about the challenge that we have in playing a Big 10 team,” Groh said. “It’s only the (fourth) Big 10 team we’ve played since we have been at Virginia.

“We are pretty impressed with a physical team like this. They’ll play the most physical style of anybody we’ve played so far this year, so what typically is the longstanding reputation of the Big 10, although clearly that’s changed, the style of the teams, the Michigan offense and what Purdue has done over recent years, but still known as a smash-mouth league, and they clearly play a physical style. So it will be a real good challenge for our team.”

Indiana enjoyed three wins to open the season, topping Eastern Kentucky, Western Michigan and Akron.

The Hoosiers, who went 3-9 last year, have stumbled since, falling to Michigan late and Ohio State as they opened league play.

Statistically speaking, Indiana stands near the middle of the national rankings. The Hoosiers are No. 76 in total offense, averaging 364 yards per game, and have fallen to No. 46 in total defense.

There is at least one unit, however, that has grabbed the full attention of Groh.

Through five games, Indiana has been masterful on kickoff returns as Ray Fisher has torched opposing coverage units for almost 35 yards per return.

Fisher returned a kick 91 yards for a touchdown earlier this season and had a 60-yard return last week in a 33-14 loss to Ohio State.

Doing the math

Up 12 points against North Carolina in the fourth quarter, Groh elected to kick the extra point.

The decision not to go for a two-point conversion drew quite a commotion from posters on message boards.

What was the explanation for his rationale?

“Just to get all the points that we could and make sure that the other would have to have two scores,” he said. “If they scored 14 points, they were still going to have more than us, but if they were only going to score 10, they weren’t going to have more than us. So, at the very least, we had safe-guarded that fact.”

Not so fast

With senior Vic Hall healthy enough to play on offense and defense, it spurned the question as to when — or if — he would return to his job as the team’s punt returner.

That remains a mystery comparable to injury reports from the McCue Center prior to the mandate that forced teams to release that information.

“I wouldn’t rule that out,” Groh said. “We don’t necessarily see that there and become a point of reason here where we have to say how many things can we ask this player to do.”

Hall also handled duties as the holder on placement kicks against the Tar Heels.