Wake Forest QB worries Groh

As Matt Ryan was to Boston College, Riley Skinner is to Wake Forest. So says University of Virginia football coach Al Groh, whose team faces Skinner and the Demon Deacons today in Winston-Salem, N.C.

“He makes great decisions, he’s accurate, he’s cool at the end of the games,” Groh said. “He’s clearly the engineer of that train.”

Skinner, a 6-1 junior, is in his third season as Wake’s starting quarterback. He leads the ACC in passing yards per game — 197 — and has completed 63.3 percent of his throws.

The only starting quarterback in the league who’s been accurate than Skinner plays for Groh. Marc Verica, a 6-3 sophomore who was the Cavaliers’ fourth-string QB in 2007, has completed 66.8 percent of his passes this season.

Could Verica do for UVa what Skinner, the ACC rookie of the year in 2006, has done for Wake?

“We can be hopeful that it would turn out that way,” Groh said. “This Skinner, he’s a marvelous player.”

If a marvelous game unfolds today at BB&T Field, where Virginia hasn’t played since 2002, few will be surprised. These are two of the eight ACC teams that have two conference losses apiece, and a tight finish seems likely.

Wake (3-2, 5-3) is tied for the Atlantic Division lead, thanks to Maryland’s loss Thursday night to Virginia Tech. UVa (3-2, 5-4) is tied for second in the Coastal.

“The teams look a lot alike,” said Groh, a former Wake head coach.

Both are coming off overtime games. Wake beat Duke 33-30 in Winston-Salem on a 28-yard field goal by Shane Popham. UVa self-destructed late and lost 24-17 to the Miami Hurricanes at Scott Stadium.

The Cavaliers, as you would expect, say they’ve put that defeat behind them. Maybe so, but it’s one they won’t soon forget. The Wahoos led 17-10 for the first 29 minutes, 5 seconds of the second half, during which they squandered several opportunities to knock out the ‘Canes.

“I think the team as a whole knows we let one get away,” Virginia nose tackle Nate Collins said.

Verica completed 27 of 41 passes for 240 yards and one touchdown, and he wasn’t intercepted. Still, it wasn’t his best day, which speaks to the high standard he’d set in his previous four games — all UVa victories.

“There were a lot of instances (against Miami) where we were just an inch off here or there, and that happens sometimes,” Verica said. “A couple of my passes, they were literally just inches too far. That’s frustrating to see, because had I been right on the mark on one of those, we might not be talking about this right now. We could be sitting at 6-3.”

Instead, the Cavaliers find themselves tied with Miami and Virginia Tech, and a half-game behind first-place Georgia Tech, in the race for Coastal title and a berth in the ACC championship game.

“That’s the way it happens sometimes,” Verica said.

“We’ve won plenty of games here the past couple of years the way (Miami) did, and it just didn’t go our way that day. We’re still in control here. We’ve just got to beat Wake.

“That’s the great thing about this game. There’s a chance for redemption from week to week. If things didn’t go your way the week before, then you have a great opportunity the next week.”

UVa wideout Kevin Ogletree said: “We can’t wait to get back out there. We want to go prove something again.”