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Virginia football coach Al Groh spoke for more than 30 minutes Monday before anybody mentioned special teams, usually one of the first topics of conversation when the Cavaliers are preparing to meet Virginia Tech.

CHARLOTTESVILLE --

Virginia's season might come down to the could-have-had-it, should-have-had-it explanations that always follow games like Saturday's, when Virginia watched a five-point lead evaporate in the final four minutes of a 28-17 loss to Duke. It's those few plays or miscues over the course of a game that leave Coach Al Groh repeating himself after losses.

But when too many happen during a season -- and in Groh's case, during nine years coaching his alma mater -- it leaves situations like the final 3 minutes 39 seconds of Saturday's game, when the Cavaliers were left trying to preserve their season, and possibly Coach Al Groh's job in the process.

An offseason pledge to improve Virginia's special teams, one that included hiring former Kansas State coach Ron Prince to coordinate the unit, has not yielded results as Coach Al Groh had hoped.

Aside from place kicker Robert Randolph's impressive accuracy (he's made 12 of 13 field goal attempts), no other component of Virginia's special teams has positively swayed games. The Cavaliers are eighth of 12 ACC teams in both punt and kickoff coverage.

'The major thing is your specialists have to have an outstanding performance,' Groh said. 'That is, kickers and returners on two of the three units, let's say we're not shooting par, and we're looking for a much-upgraded performance in punting the ball and kicking off.'

There's a difference in playing with a purpose to put games away, and merely playing with hopes that the clock will expire before anything bad happens.

Georgia Tech, Virginia's opponent last weekend, has the ACC's top rushing attack. Duke, the Cavaliers' opponent on Saturday, has the conference's best passing attack. But while Virginia may change its personnel against such a different offensive scheme, its overall philosophy will remain the same.

'For all the conversation when a team plays Georgia Tech, about the uniqueness of it, you've got to play disciplined,' Coach Al Groh said. 'You've got to fit on the plays properly. You've got to do your jobs. Clearly that's the case here once again. You're just deploying the same principles against a different set of variables.'

For the seventh annual musical look at ACC football, we call on Steely Dan to provide the tunes.

After watching Virginia gain 12 yards in 15 second-quarter plays and commit all manner of special-teams gaffes, here's the "lead" that I already had fashioned in my head: Virginia's football team was fortunate that it wasn't playing at Scott Stadium on Saturday.

After Virginia picked up its first win of the season last Saturday against North Carolina, senior quarterback Jameel Sewell said the Cavaliers may have found a formula for success.

If you like anemic offenses, then this game was for you.A The two teams combined for 428 total yards and 19 points.A But numbers are for statisticians.

Sometimes dominance is easy to recognize. Tiger Woods from 1999-2002. Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Now that Virginia has cleared up one problem area, others await. The Cavaliers didn't have a turnover in Saturday's 16-3 win at North Carolina.

It took just one game for Virginia to regain some of the confidence lost during an 0-3 start.

North Carolina senior Cam Thomas hangs his head on the Tar Heel's bench after a 16-3 loss to Virginia in an NCAA college football game, on Saturday, Oct.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Whenever Al Groh was asked about Virginia's new offensive system during the preseason, he made a habit of turning the question into an introduction of his new special teams. Ron Prince, the team's first-year coordinator, came from Kansas State, and Groh raved about Prince's success in the kicking and punting games there.

So far, no good.

Virginia is 120th out of 120 division I-A teams in kick return defense and 119th in kick returns. The Cavaliers are better on punts -- 44th in punt return defense and 74th in punt returns -- but not nearly enough to validate the time invested during practice and the emphasis it received it during the preseason.

Coming off a bye, Virginia's Cavaliers return to work this week to prepare for Saturday's ACC opener against North Carolina.

So, Virginia fans: Is the glass half empty or half full? Does the coach have one foot out the door, or is he confidently striding back into the room? As far as statements go, Saturday's game was more of a long, rambling sentence.

Nothing wrong with the University of Virginia's offense for the better part of Saturday afternoon.

The Virginia offense came into Saturday ranked No. 112 nationally, but quickly asserted itself against the Southern Miss defense with 268 yards in the first half.

I've always wondered what goes on at football practice. I learned a lot from Saturday's game against TCU.

It was a beautiful day and a nationally ranked team was in town. But only 48,336 fans turned out, Scott Stadium's worst crowd since Nov.