U.Va. hopes to play spoiler against Va. Tech

By Jeff White

Published: November 26, 2008

Give University of Virginia safety Byron Glaspy points for honesty. He acknowledged yesterday what many of his teammates no doubt have been saying privately: that depriving Virginia Tech of a trip to Tampa, Fla., for the ACC championship game would make a U.Va. victory that much sweeter Saturday.

"I've thought about that," Glaspy said with a smile. "That'd be a nice thing to do: send them home unhappy."

Glaspy was born in Richmond and spent most of his childhood in New Jersey. Once he joined the Cavaliers' program, however, he quickly grasped the importance of the annual battle for the Commonwealth Cup.

"When you come here, you fall into the same tradition," Glaspy said. "You hear so many stories about Virginia-Virginia Tech games, the history of the rivalry, and you just become a part of that. You get sucked up into that culture."

Does he hate Tech? Absolutely not, Glaspy said, "but I think it's just understood that that's the game that we look forward to most every year, [the team] we most want to beat."

Yesterday was Senior Day at John Paul Jones Arena, where Glaspy and several other U.Va. players talked about what could be the final game of their college careers.

The Hokies (4-3, 7-4) will advance to the ACC championship game as the Coastal Division representative if they win Saturday at Lane Stadium. Even if they lose, they're headed to a bowl.

The Cavaliers (3-4, 5-6) must win to become bowl-eligible.

"I just hope it's not our last game," linebacker Clint Sintim said. "I'm not ready to leave college football and join the real world, whatever that [may] be."

Six seniors -- Sintim, Glaspy, defensive end Alex Field, tight end John Phillips, linebacker Jon Copper and tailback Cedric Peerman -- met with reporters yesterday, as did U.Va. coach Al Groh.

"It's all about our team," Groh said when asked the possibility of dashing the Hokies' ACC title hopes.

Phillips agreed.

"I don't think our team is into spoiling their championship run or whatnot," he said. "It's more we're looking into what we have to continue to play football, which is ultimately what we want to do."

Sintim said he'd take the most satisfaction from "winning the game. . . . Knocking them out, that'd be cool, but more importantly I want to win for us."

U.Va.'s players are keenly aware that none of them has beaten Tech. Since a 35-21 win at Scott Stadium in 2003, the Cavaliers have dropped four in a row to the Hokies. Virginia hasn't won in Blacksburg since 1998.

If he were to leave U.Va. without having defeated Tech, Peerman said, "I think there would be some sort of void there. You always want to beat your rivals, and we haven't beaten since I've been there. So it's something I definitely think about, something I think the team definitely thinks about, our seniors."

Glaspy said: "I'd definitely say I feel the same way. I must have talked about this several times this week to different people: just the fact that we haven't beat Virginia Tech since I've been here, and just how nice that would be. To not only beat them, but also, I know they're looking forward to trying to get to the ACC championship, so being able to spoil that for them, that would just be an added bonus."

Contact Jeff White at (804) 649-6838 or .