If you didn’t see the Cody Grimm story, which I posted here last night, in today’s paper, that’s because there wasn’t enough space for it. Hoping we can run it tomorrow on Senior Day.

CONTAIN RUSSELL WILSON: North Carolina State’s sophomore quarterback is a dangerous passer. His 26 touchdown passes rank third nationally behind Boise State’s Kellen Moore (32) and Houston’s Case Keenum (31). But Wilson, a Collegiate School graduate, also is a threat to run. Not counting sacks, he has run 62 times this season – 19 times for at least 10 yards, including four times for at least 20.

PLAY WITH A PURPOSE: Because Georgia Tech beat Duke last Saturday and won the ACC’s Coastal Division, the Hokies cannot play in the conference championship game. So what do they chase now? They can still win 10 games. To do that, they have to avoid a letdown in today’s game, which seems to lack buzz, save for the pregame Senior Day ceremony.

CONTINUE STRONG O-LINE PLAY: The past two games, wins at East Carolina and Maryland, redshirt freshman tailback Ryan Williams has rushed for 179 yards on 26 carries (6.9 per carry) and 126 yards on 23 carries (5.5 per carry). In the game before East Carolina, a loss to North Carolina, he ran for 4.2 per carry. Williams is an elusive back, but his offensive line is giving him help. And the line has missed starting center Beau Warren (sprained left knee) the past two games. He is probable for today.

William and Mary post player Tiffany Benson, a preseason all-CAA selection, has started neither of the Tribe’s first two games. She played only 20 minutes in yesterday’s loss at Hampton.

“She violated a few team rules, so we’re going to let her sit on the bench for a while,“ said W&M coach Debbie Taylor. In addition, Taylor said, another factor is at work: “To be quite honest, right now, (6-3 freshmen Emily Correal and Jaclyn McKenna) are simply playing better.“ Indeed, Correal and McKenna each delivered a double-double against Hampton.

Fatal flaw: W&M missed 18 of 37 free throws in its loss to the Pirates.
——-
Advance ticket sales for Sunday’s big game in Charlottesville—Tennessee at Virginia—are climbing toward 8,500. U.Va. insiders believe game-day walk-up sales could push the final figure past 10,000. The U.Va. single-game record for women’s basketball (11,174) is not out of reach. This, of course, is Hot Dog Day: All fans will receive a coupon for a free Gwaltney hot dog and a 12-ounce Pepsi. Virginia has attempted this promotion once previously—in 1986, when it set the attendance record against North Carolina.
A reminder: A conflict with Sunday’s NCAA men’s soccer game has prompted U.Va. officials to change the tipoff time of the Tennessee game. The basketball game will begin not at 2 p.m.—as originally scheduled—but at 4 p.m.
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Why we love Division III: Admission is free for tonight’s R-MC Tipoff Classic at Crenshaw Gym in Ashland. You’ll be able to catch Randolph-Macon and Bridgewater, two of the state’s (and the ODAC’s) perennial challengers. Randolph-Macon plays host to Greensboro at 6. Bridgewater meets Methodist at 8. No TV. No attitudes. No celebrity coaches. Just students who happen to be athletes playing the game for all the right reasons.
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Talk about inhospitable. Liberty played the role of rude host in last week’s season-opening 71-26 conquest of Winston-Salem State. The Flames kept the Rams off the scoreboard for the first 8:44. In addition, they converted 32 Winston-Salem State turnovers into 35 points. The Rams shot 26.2 percent.

——-

Just wondering: Who would win a women’s basketball game between Virginia ‘92 and Old Dominion ‘97? With all due respect to Dawn Staley (and the future Hall of Famer is due a lot), I’m not sure I’d bet against the Lady Monarchs. Mery Andrade’s defense against Staley’s skill and savvy on offense would be a matchup to savor. Ultimately, post player Clarisse Machanguana’s mobility and creativity on offense would, I suspect, shift the balance in ODU’s direction.

BLACKSBURG – A lizard tail is taped to a wall in Cody Grimm’s apartment. So is a man’s ponytail and a plastic bag with a piece of tooth in it. Grimm and his roommate, Jeremy Rudolph, call it the Wall of Fame – a collection of the memories Grimm will take with him when he graduates from Virginia Tech in December.

Grimm is, in many ways, a regular college kid. He looks like one: 5-11, 205 pounds, buzz cut. He acts like one, charging expensive rounds of golf to his parents’ credit card, singing karaoke at the bar on a Tuesday, catching a small-mouth bass at the river with his friends so they could put it in a tank in his living room.

What makes him extraordinary is his ability to play football better than almost any college kid his size. A fifth-year senior whip linebacker, he leads Tech with 85 tackles, seven for a loss and four forced fumbles.

Grimm came to Blacksburg as a humble walk-on. But his ability to read a play, to notice tendencies that help him react, allowed him to earn a scholarship and become the Hokies’ best pound-for-pound player, according to defensive coordinator Bud Foster.

If Grimm, 22, was bigger, he’d be a lock to play in the NFL. And he still might. He isn’t worried about it now. Too many memories to collect during a final semester that Peter Pan would envy: his Senior Day game tomorrow at Lane Stadium against North Carolina State, staying up all night playing video games, sleeping until 11 a.m. because he is taking only one class.

“I’m living the dream right now,“ he said.

—

The first day of freshman year, Grimm met his suitemates: William Wall and Greg Boone. Wall, a hulking defensive lineman who later left the team, “looked like he could be a dad,“ Grimm remembered. Boone, a quarterback large enough to now play tight end, popped in his highlight tape from high school, which showed him “completely destroying people,“ Grimm said.

Grimm brought his tape to college, too, but after seeing Boone’s, “I told the guys I didn’t have one,“ he said. He learned long ago that his mind made him a more impressive player than his body ever could – even before his teammates at Oakton High in Vienna nicknamed him Bird Man because his legs were so skinny, before Tech teammate Mark Muncey shook his hand for the first time and thought, “Is this guy a kicker?“

When Grimm was 4, his father, Russ, played his last of 11 seasons as a Pro Bowl offensive guard for the Washington Redskins, a career that included three Super Bowl titles. Russ brought home game tape to study at night. “Dad, what are you watching?“ Cody asked. Russ explained he was looking to see how defensive linemen slanted in blocking.

After Russ retired, he became an assistant coach, first with Redskins, then the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2000, now the Arizona Cardinals since 2007. Cody and his older brother, Chad, visited Redskin Park to watch film of potential draft picks with Russ. When they got older, they went to Steelers training camp and sat in meetings and film-study sessions.

“I always felt comfortable on the football field and felt like I knew what [opponents] were trying to do,“ Grimm said. “As soon as a play ran, I’d be the person that saw what was developing quickest, all through little league and high school.“

Still, Grimm thought he would play college lacrosse, not football. Georgetown offered him a partial scholarship. His only football scholarship offer came from William and Mary. But he decided to follow Chad’s path by walking on at Tech. Grimm arrived hoping just to play on special teams.

Then he began surprising himself and the coaches during scout-team scrimmages as a freshman. He stuffed a fullback bigger than him, covered a faster receiver. “He just kept making all the tackles,“ said whips and rovers coach Jim Cavanaugh.

Grimm redshirted his first season. Halfway through his second, when he played special teams, he called his dad. “I think I can start,“ he told him. Grimm played sparingly at whip in 2007, behind fellow sophomore Cam Martin. They split time last season, when a knee injury limited Martin. This season, with Martin still bothered by the knee, Grimm has played 87 percent of the snaps.

He earned the time, because, as Martin said, “his football sense makes him the player he is.“ Grimm said a play in last year’s game against Maryland best demonstrates this. He was blitzing, but as he ran to the quarterback, he noticed a lineman veer blocking, toward the inside of the line – a tell-tale sign of a reverse. Grimm change course to prepare for that, and an instant later, receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey ran the reverse. Grimm tackled him for a 10-yard loss.

—

Years from now, Grimm might not remember that play. But he will remember how teammate Chris Drager’s shorn ponytail graced his Wall of Fame. Or that former center Ryan Shuman’s broken tooth joined it, after a wild night of Shuman playfully head-butting everybody in the apartment and Grimm responding by popping him in the mouth, after which the room burst out in laughter.

And he will never, ever forget the time his friend Taylor bit off his lizard’s tail. The lizard, Tyson, was a Tokay gecko – “the meanest son of a [gun] in the world,“ said Rudolph, Grimm’s high school buddy and roommate.

Last spring, Tyson got loose in the apartment. In the meantime, Rudolph and Grimm went on spring break with friends to Cancun, where they punctuated a night of clubbing by singing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” in the streets and earned 40 cents. “Cody was singing falsetto,“ Rudolph said.

A week after they returned, Tyson emerged in the middle of the night. “He must have been living off the small critters that live in this apartment,“ Rudolph said. Tyson, who has since been returned to the wild, was one of eight or nine lizards Grimm and Rudolph owned during their three years in the apartment.

There was also a rabbit named Patrick Swayze. And the unnamed bass they fished from the New River and dumped in the empty lizard tank with some water, so they and their friends could sit on the other side of the living room, drink beer and cast lines into the tank. “That’s what I’m gonna miss most, hanging out with them, probably more than I’ll miss football,“ Grimm said.

Some of Tech’s players shy away from going out in downtown Blacksburg. Not Grimm and his friends on the team: Muncey, Matt Reidy, Richard Graham – all backup or special-teams players. They are regulars at the Hokie House on NFL Sundays. Grimm didn’t even mind former quarterback Sean Glennon bringing him to karaoke night at Top of the Stairs last year so they could belt out Backstreet Boys songs.

Grimm seems secure enough in his own regularity that after a game earlier this month at East Carolina, he gave media interviews with a plug of chewing tobacco in his lower lip.

It is fitting, then, that Grimm’s favorite moments from this dream semester come not from the football field, but from the parking lot of his apartment, where he and his teammates gather with their families after games to eat, drink and play cornhole. “You don’t have a worry in the world,“ he said.

And before they go to sleep many nights, he and Rudolph look around their apartment, at the wrench they use to turn on the shower and adjust the thermostat; at the kegerator whose tap depicts a woman wearing a thong and a Chris Cooley jersey; at the lizard tank now filled with an old backpack, empty beer cans and Skoal tins.

Then Grimm and Rudolph look at each other and say, “We’re doing all right.“

Virginia Tech has listed starting center Beau Warren, a junior, as probable for tomorrow’s home finale against North Carolina State. Warren sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee during an Oct. 29 loss to North Carolina and hasn’t played in the two games since.

He practiced this week for the first time since hurting his knee, said he felt “a lot better” Tuesday and expressed hope that he could play tomorrow. Redshirt freshman Michael Via has played in Warren’s place. Via graded 83 percent in his first start, a win at East Carolina, and 80 percent in last Saturday’s win at Maryland. Hokies offensive line coach Curt Newsome considers a grade of 80 or higher to be a successful performance.

Drama doesn’t appear to be on the docket this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

In a perfect world, the points championships in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World Trucks series were to be decided this weekend. But Ron Hornaday Jr. steamrolled the competition en route to clinching his fourth trucks title last Friday at Phoenix. A day later, Carl Edwards won the Nationwide Series race to postpone Kyle Busch’s celebration until this Saturday. But once Busch starts the Ford 300, the points title—his first in the series—officially will be his.

So that leaves only the Sprint Cup title—with Jimmie Johnson leading teammate Mark Martin by 108 points going into the finale.

As a result, some are asking the question: is it time for NASCAR’s other national touring series to adopt the Chase format?

I can wholeheartedly say: Absolutely not.

When NASCAR adopted the Chase format, it wasn’t about crowning the best driver that season. It was about artificially tightening the points race so that the races in November would be watched because the season championship hadn’t been decided. You can blame Matt Kenseth for this, but in effect it was the NFL that had more to do with the change than the massive points advantage the Wisconsin native racked up in the final weeks of the 2003 season.

The only justifications for a playoff system are television ratings and ticket sales, and instituting these changes on NASCAR’s minor leagues would have little effect.

What those two series are supposed to be about are developing drivers.

Somehow, the trucks series has transformed from a feeder program that once boasted Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle (in 2000) and Carl Edwards (in 2004) into a retirement home for mediocre Sprint Cup drivers who have found their niche in the series. Take this year’s champion, Hornaday. In 45 career Cup starts—with none since 2003—he’s had one top-10 finish total.

But regardless, the series is supposed to be about developing consistent drivers who are ready to race in the Sprint Cup circuit. And as George pointed out on this week’s episode of R&R Racing, this series has churned out some of the best side-by-side racing NASCAR has, and the points battles are usually just as close.

Last season, Johnny Benson edged Hornaday by seven points, and only once in the past eight years did the champion win by 100 points or more.

The Nationwide Series is a bit different. There are many younger drivers involved, and Brad Keselowski and David Gilliland are some of the latest young stars to turn wins in that series into full-time Cup rides. And because of the running feud between former Chesterfield native Denny Hamlin and Keselowski, there may be more eyes on that series than usual Saturday. (Hamlin has all but called his shot that he will be gunning for Keselowski during the Nationwide finale.)

However, again, the goal of the drivers competing here shouldn’t be only about winning a minor-league title. At the end of the day, it’s about developing consistent drivers. And manipulating the points standings to create drama undermines the entire reason for the series and awarding points in the first place.

So if Kyle Busch runs well enough each week to run away with that title, so be it. Just offer him congratulations and move on. In fact, if NASCAR were smart about this, they should set the schedules so that Busch could run in every race all season.

Sure, he might win all three titles, but talk about your must-see TV.

Agree or disagree with Chris? Let him know by e-mailing him .

—————————————-]]> 2009-11-19T03:54:12-05:00 http://www.mytimesdispatch.com/index.php/sports/story_for_tomorrow_marika_gray_back_to_her_old_self/ The junior forward’s contributions, a year after suffering a season-ending knee injury, have helped Virginia Tech’s women’s soccer team advance to the NCAA tournament’s round of 16. College Sports, Virginia Tech Apologies for the delay. Just got back from attending a concert at Kirk Avenue Music Hall, a fine venue in downtown Roanoke. The artist: Chris Knight, an excellent songwriter from rural Kentucky. At the bottom of this post, you’ll find a video of one of his songs, and the story behind it.

First, a story for tomorrow on Virginia Tech women’s soccer player Marika Gray ...

BY DARRYL SLATER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

BLACKSBURG – Her chest heaved and her feet burned as she ran across the lumpy field. None of it felt perfect to Marika Gray. But on this July day in Alexandria, perfect didn’t matter, because Gray was playing soccer again, nine months after a left knee injury shortened her sophomore season at Virginia Tech.

She had established herself as a legitimate ACC player, before her knee made her start over, back on the lumpy field at home, playing against 14-year-olds from her club’s younger team. The time away from soccer deteriorated her touch and fitness worse than she ever imagined. A ball rolled her way and bounced off her shin. She could barely sprint without sucking wind.

She found joy, that day, in the simpler things, like breaking in her cleats. “I’ve never been so happy to get blisters in my life,“ she said. Soccer, which had become routine, now seemed, after the injury, more special. “It kind of brings your passion back,“ she said.

Gray eventually regained her touch, got in shape and became, all over again, one of Tech’s best players, while deflecting praise just like she always has. She scored seven goals in the regular season and ACC tournament, including the only one in the Hokies’ 1-0 win over No. 1 North Carolina. Last weekend, she scored three in two games, as Tech beat Murray State and Dayton and advanced to the NCAA tournament’s round of 16.

Winless in two previous NCAA appearances, the Hokies play Friday night at Portland, which is 20-1 and ranked second in the nation. Gray, a forward whose 10 goals now lead the Hokies, will play a major role in determining whether Tech sustains its best season ever.

She has been a difference maker since her freshman year, scoring two goals in her first game and finishing the season with a team-best eight. She had four in the first eight games last season and seemed on her way to another when she pursued a loose ball, for a potential breakaway, in that eighth game, against James Madison.

She took two steps and heard a ripping sound coming from her left knee. She collapsed to the grass. The knee didn’t swell much, so she hoped to avoid the worst case: a torn anterior cruciate ligament. The day after the game, she was sitting on the bench during practice when the team trainer received a phone call with the result of Gray’s MRI. A complete tear, the trainer told Gray. She started crying.

Despite playing recklessly as a kid, she had avoided a major injury. Her dad wouldn’t let her take up soccer until she was 9 because he feared she’d hurt herself. For good reason. In first grade, she came home with a knot on her head after a boy shoved her into the goal post when she scored. Then there were the scars from falling off the jungle gym, the scraped elbows from playing football, always with the boys.

Little changed when her dad finally turned her loose on the soccer field. She wore glasses out there until that game when she got smacked in the face and her glasses cracked in the middle, scarring her nose, but just a flesh wound. “I’ve never really had soccer taken away from me,“ she said.

The scar that did it runs two inches vertically up her knee. It is one of the few reminders of her injury. When she runs, her stride is choppier than before. But other than that, she is the same player, gliding down the left side of the field, making the opposing coach yank his right back when she is at her best.

“The best thing about Marika is that she doesn’t actually know how good she is,“ said junior midfielder Jennifer Harvey. “She really has no idea.“

When a teammate runs over and tells Gray she scored a great goal, Gray responds by crediting the teammate for setting up the shot – a thankful reaction from someone who appreciates, more than ever, the process of reaching the goal. “There’s always something before that happens,“ she said, “that makes the goals happen.“

***

    The Sooners come to town Saturday. As of this morning, about 300 tickets remained for the game.

    The Rams haven’t played a nationally-ranked team at home since 1993, when they beat No. 12 Long Beach State 95-61.

Warren said he is around 80 percent. He is wearing a blue jersey, which limits him to non-contact drills. His status for Saturday’s home game against North Carolina State will be revealed on Thursday’s injury report.

“I’m staying off of full contact, obviously, and anything that’s a little bit too quick for my knee right now,” Warren said after last night’s practice. “It feels a lot better today. They taped it up really good. Hopefully day by day it’ll keep getting better, and hopefully I’ll have the ability to go in on Saturday.”

Warren’s rehab included working out on an Alter-G anti-gravity treadmill, which can take away a percentage of the user’s body weight. Warren, who is listed at 288 pounds, started running at 50 percent, then moved up to 60 and 70. This is a pretty good explanation of how the Alter-G works.

Warren got hurt on a running play at North Carolina’s 1-yard line, when a pile of players collapsed on his left leg, bending his knee inward. “I heard a pop,” Warren said. “I was like, ‘Well, it’s probably torn.’ It’s a good thing that they require us to wear these knee braces. Otherwise, my knee, no question, would have been blown out.”

An MRI a couple days after the game revealed no tear, but did show some damage to the meniscus. “But not that much to affect my knee at all,” Warren said.

Redshirt freshman Michael Via replaced Warren against North Carolina and has started the past two games. He has acquitted himself well, considering he had never started a game, and prior to going in against Carolina, he had played 24 snaps this season – all during blowout wins over Marshall and Boston College.

Via graded 83 percent in his first start, a Nov. 5 win at East Carolina. He graded 80 percent last Saturday in a win at Maryland. Tech’s offensive line coach, Curt Newsome, considers a grade of 80 or higher to be a winning performance.

—-

With two games left in the season, and the Hokies out of contention for the ACC championship and a Bowl Championship Series game, the development of younger players such as Via is becoming a noteworthy storyline.

The Hokies have to replace left tackle Ed Wang and left guard Sergio Render next season. Sophomore Greg Nosal, a backup guard who has played 227 snaps this season, seems the likely candidate to replace Render. Via has a tackle’s build – 6-7, 284 pounds – so he could compete for Wang’s spot, along with the current backup tackles: sophomore Andrew Lanier (110 snaps) and redshirt freshman Nick Becton (28 snaps).

On the defensive side, keep an eye on a few players who could factor in more next season, especially on the line and in the secondary …

Sophomore end Chris Drager, who moved from tight end for this season, has done a nice job making the transition. He could replace Nekos Brown next season. Redshirt freshman tackle Antoine Hopkins (Highland Springs High) will see more time in 2010, too, because starter Cordarrow Thompson and top backup Demetrius Taylor will be gone. Drager has played 151 snaps this season, compared to 145 for fellow backup Steven Friday, a junior. Hopkins has played 206, compared to 289 for Taylor.

In the secondary, Tech will lose field cornerback Stephan Virgil and free safety Kam Chancellor. Look for Jayron Hosley, who is returning punts this year as a true freshman, to contend for Virgil’s spot. Hosley played nine snaps and broke up two passes at Maryland. Sophomore Cris Hill, from Highland Springs, played 11 snaps against Maryland and also will be in the mix. Sophomore Eddie Whitley (six snaps at Maryland) is on track to replace Chancellor.

* Moving the 2012 football game against Cincinnati from Cincinnati to FedEx Field was a deal done between representatives from Cincinnati and FedEx Field. “We were not involved in that at all other than saying that we would be glad to play there,” Weaver said.

* Next season’s non-conference schedule will be finalized “very shortly,” with the addition of a Division I-AA team to replace Western Michigan, which Weaver released from the schedule so it could play at Notre Dame. Western Michigan will play at Tech at a later, to-be-determined date, Weaver said.

The 2010 non-league schedule currently looks like this: Sept. 4 at home against Central Michigan, Sept. 18 at home against East Carolina and Oct. 2 vs. Boise State at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. The schedule also includes conference games at Miami, North Carolina, Boston College and North Carolina State, and home ACC contests against Duke, Georgia Tech, Virginia and Wake Forest.

* Tech heard back from the NCAA last week regarding the self-reported rules violations in men’s soccer. As for the specifics of the NCAA’s response, Weaver said, “I can’t comment on it until the university general counsel tells me that we can, because of the whole scenario. And she is out this week at a conference.”

* The Boise State game next season was always scheduled for Oct. 2, but last month, the idea of moving the game to Labor Day weekend popped up. Here is how that happened …

“It was started by ESPN and the ACC,” Weaver said. “They came to us [about moving the game to Labor Day weekend] and I talked with coach [Frank Beamer] and we’d be glad to do it. In the meantime, I had back surgery on the 19th of October. Came back the next week or two and went on the radio show and said it seems like that’s what’s gonna happen, in response to a question Bill Roth asked from an e-mail. I didn’t know that the ESPN people hadn’t contacted Boise. It wasn’t my job to coordinate all that. That’s how it came about. It was an inadvertant comment, assuming that when they wanted us to move they had talked to the other people [Boise].”

Boise State didn’t want to play the game on Labor Day weekend because of a tough turnaround before its next game, Sept. 11 at home against Toledo. The Broncos’ non-league schedule now looks like this: Toledo on Sept. 11, at Wyoming on Sept. 18, Oregon State on Sept. 25, Virginia Tech at FedEx Field on Oct. 2. So they don’t have a game scheduled for opening weekend.