The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Alvin Pearman Joined Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller Live On "The Jerry & Jerry Show!"

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

Alvin Pearman, Stanford University Professor and Former UVA Star Running Back, joined Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller live on “The Jerry & Jerry Show!” “The Jerry & Jerry Show” airs live Tuesday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to “The Jerry & Jerry Show” on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Tuesday morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show. So much to cover on this week's episode of the program as Virginia football jumps to 2-0 overall in 1-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. Virginia, an impressive victory. You know, cardiac calves come from behind, stealing some thunder in Winston-Salem. I don't know how you want to put it. It was a hell of a win for Virginia.

1-0 in conference play. Now Maryland on the docket. The Terrapins visit Scott Stadium for an 8 o'clock kickoff. ACC Network. Maryland currently a 2.5 point favorite. We'll break down what went well for Virginia against Wake Forest. We'll talk Anthony Calandria. We'll talk the defense.

But first, Judah Wickhauer, why don't we welcome Alvin Pierman to the program. A name that needs no introduction. Hootie Ratcliffe set up this interview. Hootie, my friend, fantastic wahoo on the line today. Yeah, I'm delighted that Alvin was able to join us from out west. Like we said earlier, he's a professor in the Stanford Graduate School of Education.

And I remember covering him back in the early 2000s when he was just a stellar running back for Al Groves' offense. Alvin Pierman, all ACC, just a tremendous running back for the Wahoos and even a better person. Alvin, welcome to the program. Well, it is an absolute delight to be here. But I'd say even more delightful than being on shows is reconnecting with you, Jerry. I just want to take a moment and just say how appreciative I am of your service

and commitment to Cavalier Nation. In the email correspondence we had, when you had asked me to be on the show, I had mentioned that obviously we hadn't spoken in many years, but I still remember your just persistence, your work ethic, you were there every Tuesday asking probing questions with like a genuine interest in us as individuals, that is, you know, as athletes, as individuals. And I just always remember you being this just calm, wonderful

presence. I think, you know, somebody who, you know, was fortunate to play for a while, you know, there's at times some measure of skepticism that you might hold people in the media, not necessarily knowing the angle that they're coming from, but your spirit, your energy was always something that sort of created a lot of trust in me, right? And laid a really, really great foundation for how I thought about the media throughout my career. So I just wanted to begin by giving you your flowers, because you are the GOAT, my friend, and it's great to be here with you today. Well, thank you so much. That's touched my heart. I appreciate that. It's so nice that back during the George Walsh days and the Al Groh days,

and it's kind of tailed off as we've grown, progressed, I guess, older. But you got to know the players a lot better back in those days and develop friendships, everlasting friendships and relationships. And I sure treasure mine with you for sure. I guess one thing I wanted to mention, I guess you'll be in Charlottesville later this week. You're going to be the honoree for the Virginia Football Alumni Clubs, Who's Making a Difference,

a great program that they've started a few years ago, recognizing former football players and other contributors to the program for not just being great football players, but great human beings and great contributors to society. What's that recognition mean to you alvin oh well it's um it it's an it's an honor for sure uh you know there's um there's a couple things i like to say about it the first thing i like to say about it is um the the person who's leading it in many respects is Case Luzar, who was a former teammate of mine who has a role with the Football Alumni Association now. Similar to reconnecting with you, I hadn't spoken with Case in quite a while, but Case is another individual who I just want to take a moment and shout out. He's, you know, I think in most social groups, there's folks who kind of

provide the glue for the social group and hold things together. He's always kind of been that individual, even when we were teammates, what, 25 years ago. And to see kind of the role that he's, uh, he's moved into, uh, that is kind of leading the, the, the football alumni association and providing still that glue that holds, uh, a lot of us, you know, a lot of us former players who may or may not be loosely connected, uh, together, uh, is really just a testament to his dedication to the program, uh, you know, his love of people. And so to receive an honor that I believe he might have been the vision behind it, but being able to receive it based on something that he believed was good specifically for the football community, football alumni community, but also the UVA community more generally, that by itself is a pretty cool thing. You know, I don't get back

to the grounds often, right? It's been a number of years since I got back. So, you know, so that this provided the occasion for me to head across the country and visit with some old friends and reconnect with so many people in the athletics department is a really, really good thing. As you mentioned, I'm a professor now. I'm actually going to be giving a lecture at UVA the day before my talk. So I've kind of turned it into a whole several days of UVA involvement, which will also be fun. But yeah, overall, you know, honors are cool. You know, I think I see it as much of anything as just an opportunity to to to feel again part of this incredible community that that meant so much to me seemingly so many years ago. Now, you know, now that I'm getting a little bit a little bit older, that that feel of community is really a treasure of mine.

And to feel it, you know, once again is is is a distinct honor. Came out of Charlotte Country Day School. Who recruited you to Virginia? Yeah, so if you recall, Danny Wilmer began. Still close to Danny Wilmer, yeah. Are you really? Yeah, yeah. You must, you must tell him I said hello. He, you know, for the listeners, so Danny Wilmer was on George Welsh's staff for a number of years up until, what was it, 2000.

And he was the first point of contact at UVA for me. And kind of my recruiting journey was somewhat circuitous. I had committed under George Welsh as a, I think, early part of my senior year. But then Coach Welsh retired, I believe it was. Actually, it was either the end of my junior year or senior. Now the dates are, I can't quite remember. But when Welsh retired, I decommitted and wound up opening up my recruitment and took visits to a number of other schools. But then on signing day in February, I signed with UVA. So when Coach Groh took over the job, and I want to say he took over the job sometime in November, perhaps.

I think it was actually in December, I believe. Yeah, December. Right. And so he took over. And I think within a couple of days of him taking over the job, he came to my house in Charlotte, North Carolina, which is where I'm from, and pitched a good case to me and had hit a couple of chords that meant a lot to me and kind of resold me back on the vision of what Charlottesville and what UVA could be for me and how I might fit in. So after Wilmer and Welsh, it was actually Coach Groh who wound up being the primary recruiter for me at UVA. You went on to a tremendous career with Virginia. You're still 10th

on the UVA career rushing list. I didn't know if you knew that or not. You played on some really terrific teams, Alvin, and you were a major part of it, being as versatile as you were as a running back who could also catch the ball. You guys, your last three years went 9-5, 8-5, and 8-4. Wow. I mean, that's a pretty nice streak, particularly at Virginia, where it's, as you know, has been pretty rough sledding the last 15 years or so. But 2002, when you guys went 9-5 and came close to a 10-win season,

you beat four ranked teams that year, and you played six or seven ranked teams that year. And then you ended up walloping number 15 West Virginia in the Continental Tire Bowl, 48-22, in your backyard there in Charlotte. And then 2003 when you guys went 8-5 and won the Tire Bowl again, beating Pitt and Larry Fitzgerald. And then 2004, 8-4, you guys rose to number six in the nation before beating Clemson 30 to 30 to 10 and then lost at Florida state the following weekend. But I mean, that's a nice run.

You know, it was, and this is the part of the interview where you used i start putting on rose colored glasses and talking about how i used to be able to throw footballs over mountains and that sort of thing but that uh that that that 2004 year uh you know i think you mentioned we finished eight and four i think it was i like many of my, would probably say the same thing, which is we underachieved a lot that year. We finished, we had an opportunity to be even better than what we finished up as. And I think that was the general sentiment around the ACC as well.

I mean, we really started that season rocking and rolling. That was, again, my senior year. And we had just a talent-rich team. I mean, I'm willing to wager, if not record-wise, talent-wise, that might have been, I mean, arguably one of the most talented teams in UVA history. And we had that thing rocking and rolling for a little while, lost, went down to Tallahassee and had a tough kind of unexpected loss there, which is kind of

a wild thing to say, given how dominant Florida State was at that point in the ACC. But I think we went down there as the first time UVA, the first time FSU has been an underdog at home. Right. So that kind of just speaks to kind of where where expectations were for us. And then at the end of the year, man, I think we came right came right down to the end in terms of of winning the ACC and and lost a heartbreaker to Miami. Again, a game that we should have won, and then we lost at Blacksburg in another really close game. But, you know, this is one of those seasons where, you know, you can't get things back, right?

But you sure, in your dreams, you can. And I've thought about that season playing out differently in a lot of ways. But to your point, yeah, we did have some good success there, a good successful run. You know, Coach Groh, you know, still a great mentor of mine. But he had he had done such a phenomenal job of building a foundation quickly. And that's a tough thing to do. You know, especially, you know, coming in, you know, part of the reason why he was able to do it so quickly is, you know, he's a big culture guy and he's a big expectations guy and he's a big boundaries guy. You know exactly what's expected, you know, where you stand, right? You know, you know what tomorrow's going to look like. And sort of with that tight run, with that tightly run of a ship, you know, you had to get on board, right? And some folks weren't willing to get on board and weren't able to stay on the ship. But those who were found that that ship can set sail quite quickly. And that's exactly what we did.

No question about it. Yeah, I remember that year specifically Al kept mentioning that he thought this could be a 10-win team for sure. And there's only been a 10-win team once in UVA football history. And so that was a very important thing for him trying to motivate you guys to accomplish that goal. But you played with some really good players on both sides of the ball but a quarterback uh it was a nice luxury to be with matt schaub for three years and marcus higgins your final year um that that must have been pretty cool yeah i mean it's it's it's it's of, you know, growing up in Disney World, right?

I mean, these guys are, again, two of the all-time greats, very different in their profile as quarterbacks, and, you know, both amazing people, right? Marcus is one of my closest friends on the planet, even to this day. And just both of them, just such a joy to watch play. And I was able to have quite a bit of success with both of them.

And then both of them went on to have good, long, successful careers in the National Football League as well. Obviously, Marcus changed positions to some degree. And I say to some degree because I didn't actually realize Marcus remained like the third quarterback on his roster. So he was a receiver, switched to receiver when he went to the national football league, but, but was like the, the, the, the emergency quarterback, which,

you know, makes a whole lot of sense given, you know, his, his background, his trajectory, his experience, and his just incredible athleticism.

So, so I'm, I'm, I'd be wrong to call him just a receiver post, post, post, post college. In fact,

I believe he got a snap at quarterback in Kansas City, if I'm not mistaken. I think you're right, yeah. Which, you know, at that point, the question I asked Marcus when I saw him not too long ago was how his game would translate at the next level now, right, 20, 25 years later, where there seems to be a lot more openness to the idea of, you know, the Kyler Murray, Bryce Young, even I put Tua even

in that category of, you know, smaller-ish athletic quarterbacks who just have extraordinary arm strength. So anyway, he agreed with me that he probably would have had more opportunities today than he had back when he came out to play the quarterback position. But to your point, yeah, I think the success of those teams began with the success of that position uh right and uh shout out to mike grow who was the quarterback coach for the most part when uh during that run that we uh we were uh we were on that you you mentioned um but uh yeah i mean i mean matt was just such a student of the game so methodical uh you you know, so incredibly talented in his own right. But he was also really bought into the approach, the quote unquote system that we were in, right? I remember we played Florida State my, I believe it was my junior year.

And we kind of knew what we were expecting from them defensively. And there was a good shot that there was just going to be a lot of underneath opportunities in that game. And Matt just kept feeding me the ball out of the backfield. And in fact, that was it. I think we set the ACC record that day for most receptions in a game. I think he had 16 catches in that game. But I bring that up, I guess as a minor flex, but more specifically, that's what Matt was, what the game provided him. He's taking right. If he needed to adjust, if he needed to, if he needed to pivot in his approach, he was just so responsive to the to the game.

And that adaptability, I think, was one of his sort of underappreciated super strengths that made him quite successful. For those who are newbies to the Virginia football fandom, I'll give you a little review of Alvin's personal career. This guy was the man. He was the man. This guy was the man. I was at UVA when he was in the backfield. That's right, you were, yeah. This guy was the man. Because I was at UVA when he was in the backfield. That's right, you were, yeah.

This guy was the man on grounds here. He's very humble. He was the man on grounds. I mean, 500 career rushes, 2,394 yards rushing, 19 touchdowns, 138 receptions for 3,790 total yards. In 2004, your most productive year, you were a 1,000her 1037 yards 5.3 yards a carry yeah 10 touchdowns 402 yards receiving 13.9 yards per catch and a touchdown nearly 1500 total yards 6.4 touched the ball over 224 plays um i mean you guys lined up uh you had talent seems like everywhere and um you were a threat every time you touched the football if i recall oh well i appreciate that and i think when you're on when you're on a talented team like I was, it's a lot easier to be a threat because there's so many people demanding attention. Right. of the folks who um who inspired me you know coming along right i think you know i mentioned

that i committed under george welsh prior to grow uh grow coming you know a big i mean obviously two pieces uh one um a uh just intrigue with the university in general and what what that uh could uh you know could be for me moving forward as a person, right? But there was a lot of football dimensions growing up in high school, middle school and high school that drew me to the university, right? I mean, I grew up a huge Tiki Barber fan. I grew up a huge Thomas Jones fan.

I mean, these are my guys um you know when when when people ask me like who who are who are like who's on that mount rushmore for you uh you know i know objectively there's you know certain answers but but for me personally uh guys who just radically um impacted what i thought was possible for myself. And, you know, these are guys with kind of similar profile to me, right, from like a physical standpoint, similar profile, like personality wise, like they, there was there was a lot in those guys that, that I aspired to, right. A matter of fact, I still remember I had, I had at the combine, what was this in 2005, I had at the Combine, what was this, in 2005, I had a meeting with the Bears. And, you know, you've probably heard many stories about how these meetings go. Some of them are pretty intense.

The questions they ask you can be, you know, expected, unexpected, inbounds, out of bounds. I mean, they can go in any number of directions. But I had a – and moreover, the meetings themselves can involve any number of people. It could be a one-on-one with the head coach. It could be you with the entire organization right in front of you. But I had one meeting with, with Lovey Smith, the Bears in, in, in 05 at the combine. And, and it was, it was actually, I think, I think it was a one-on-one meeting. I think the only teams that only met with the coach were the bears and the Colts at the combine. So Tony Dungy and, and, and Lovey Smith, all the other teams were, uh, like the whole brass, uh, uh,

either offensive staff or the front office. But at any rate, I'm meeting with Lovey Smith and we had a couple, we had a, you know, a couple, a couple of questions back and forth. And, uh, and, and the first, the first, the first question that he asked me that really paused and got me thinking was he that, hey, I grew up a UVA fan. So so when I think about, you know, the greatest of all time, I mean, Thomas and TJ, those are like, you know, those are those are my guys. And and I and I mentioned something along those similar lines. But, you know, what Lovey was trying to understand was whether I thought I was the greatest at UVA. That's right. That's what he's asking that question for. He wanted to know about my confidence, which was never in question. But I had such deference for those guys that when I think about the greatest of all time, I think about obviously who they were for the program, but more specifically how they inspired me and compelled me forward to be the running back that I was able to be on grounds. Well, this is the one thing that has to stick in a lot of running backs' crawls here at UVA, is that the single-game rushing record, I think I asked you about this once a long, long time ago,

the single-game rushing record at UVA was set in 1948 and still hasn't been broken. John Pappett, 224 yards against Washington and Lee on only 16 carries, so you've got to give him some props but one yard behind that is alvin pierman 223 yards against duke in 2004 and i think i think you were taken out of the game so i guess nobody knew you were within one yard or breaking that record or tying that record frank quayle in 66 finished with 221 yards. And Thomas Jones, one of your heroes, 221 yards twice against NC State and Buffalo in 1999.

That's got to be something that you said all you guys, I know I've asked all of you about it. They said, damn, if we'd have just known we would have made the coach give us one more carry that's that's right I still remember that you know I I was never I never liked to know what my stats were in the like in the midst of a game it for me it got me a little got me distracted um right um now sometimes it's, you know, unavoidable. I think in games in Charlottesville, they will oftentimes, you know, provide updates on the side, you know, on the screen. So you can kind of, kind of see that, but, but no, I did not know at all

about that, about where I was in with, you know, with regard, how close I was to that record. Moreover, on the last drive I was in the game, we got down to, I think, the three-yard line, and we decided to throw a pass instead of run, and there was no doubt that we would have scored a touchdown on any run given how dominant the offensive line had been. But what's funny about that game, I still remember that game was on a Saturday. And on Friday, I was on campus going to McHugh Center, and I was kind of hustling along,

and I twisted my ankle on the way to McHugh, not even at football, not even, you know, not sports-related in any way. And I twisted my ankle. But it was pretty bad how, you know, where I twisted it. I had to go straight to the Ethan who's still, you know, still working in training, I think, with the basketball team now. But I went to Ethan. I said, Ethan, you're not going to believe this. I just twisted my ankle, you know, this morning we're on our,

about to get on the flight to go to Duke. So I had to give, had to get treatment, you know, basically that, that entire day before for a non-sports related ankle injury and got it, you know, spatted, taped up before the game and kind of the rest was history. But, you know, to that, to that point, I mean, the one thing that I haven't commented on that certainly deserves as much praise as anything that I've mentioned is those offensive lines that I was able to run behind were similarly to what I mentioned previously about just how talent-laden, you know, the team was in general, uh, that offensive line, like per, uh, per cap, you know, per, uh, per, per weight, uh, was probably the most talented, uh, offensive line in, in, in the country across the board. I mean, from left tackle all the way across, you had a high draft picks, uh, guys who played for, um, extended periods of time, guys who played for extended periods of time, guys with Hall of Fame credentials. And then when you combine all of that, the offensive line coach that was there at the

time was Ron Prince, who had instilled in them this just fighting mentality, this dogged mentality, this rugged mentality that when combined with as much talent as they had, we just had just this brilliantly nasty offensive line that opened up some big holes, to say the least. so much of those that success rushing the ball and it wasn't just me rushing the ball you know that we had Wally Lundy who was another extraordinary runner during my time and sort of he and I split a lot of work my senior year, my junior and senior year, and then Mike Johnson as well, who, you know, showed up on the grounds as exceptionally heralded running back from Newport News. So we had a lot of, you know, we had a lot of success running the ball. We must have been, as a unit, one of the, you know, most units uh in the country my senior year um i'd be curious even what that was because i i've rushed for over a thousand while it was close to a thousand

um and i imagine our rushing offense had to be tops in acc but uh you know it all begins with those guys up front and uh and i certainly am uh indebted to them. One thing I was curious about is what is the buzz out at Stanford about becoming a member of the ACC? That had to have kind of blown your mind a little bit, too, as a professor there, that you're now sort of in your old stomping grounds again. That's right. That is right. Yeah, I am now in my fifth year here on faculty at Stanford, and I'm kind of on the tenure clock. I'm still a quote-unquote junior faculty member until promotion here in a couple years. But I've been fortunate to be a part of some of the institution building around

sort of the new era of athletics on the farm. So my people in Charlottesville call it the grounds here. In Palo Alto, we call it the farm. And so I'm on a number of committees that are charged with thinking through a lot of the new developments taking place with regard to intercollegiate athletics. And this is in my role as a faculty member, right? And, you know, you're involved in different kinds of committee work as a faculty member. I just happen to be tapped by the university to do some of that, some of that thinking. So I've actually been pretty close to many of the conversations as the PAC-12 was unspooling and as different opportunities were presenting themselves. Admittedly, I did not think there was a shot

when I began hearing rumors about the ACC. It just seemed so far-fetched. But as the conversations evolved and it began to make more and more sense, which is kind of a wild thing to say given how seemingly senseless it seems to be. But in fact, this is a great opportunity for Stanford student trying to be as adaptive and as adaptive as possible with regard to. They've put in a lot of checks and balances and protective measures for us, for student athletes. So the university has been extremely thoughtful and intentional about this move.

I'd argue as thoughtful, as intentional as one can be. But it is, as an ACC guy myself who grew up in ACC country, there is an aspect of kind of coming home that this whole decision has prompted in me, right, being able to see, you know, my ACC schools coming out here, right, to play. I think we've got a number of them coming out this season already, you know, Stanford going, you know, across the country, right, and playing against teams that I grew up, you know, grew up rooting for. The first thing I did was, the first thing I did when the schedule came out because the schedule identifies what years teams play where, the schedule, the dates might not be set yet.

But yeah, the UVA is not coming out to Palo Alto for a couple years actually, which was, I guess somewhat of a surprise. I had hoped it would have been sooner. By the time they come out here, hopefully I'm a tenured professor by the time Stanford, by the time UVA gets out here. But, yeah, no, it's a wild thing for sure. But it's certainly a return home for me. Yeah, it's definitely going to be an interesting trip to see how Cal and Stanford and the ACC blend together and toss SMU in there as a middle-of-the-road, I guess middle-of-the-country member now.

It'll be interesting to see how that develops over the years for sure. Assuming that college football doesn't blow up and become something else that we're not exactly expecting. But that's another aspect for discussion, I guess. Ask him about comparing football to professorship. Yeah, did you hear that? Yeah, football and professorship. Yeah, did you hear that? Yeah, football and professorship. Yeah, I mean, that's, I actually think a lot about that. You know, I think there's a couple things I'll mention. One, a commitment to excellence, a commitment to doing things not just well, but to attempt I mean, as a, as a aspiring athlete, as a professional athlete, um, that's, that is baked into what it means to be an athlete. That is, you are attempting to be

as, uh, excellent as you possibly can be now, uh, you know, as somebody who kind of grew up in that world and spent so much of my early part of my life in pursuit of that goal, that is the goal of being a really good, in my case, football player, right? You don't realize, and I certainly didn't realize that that commitment to, to the pursuit of excellence is not a common thing, right? That's not like a, that, that trait, that characteristic is not, you may go extended periods of time without interacting with people, without interacting with people who kind of operate from that, from that paradigm, right? And, you know, what I've, what I've realized is that, you know, that same sort of mentality is absolutely applicable in the kind of the walk of life that I'm in, in, you know, high pressure research one institution where you are expected to produce first rate scholarship

every year, right? Where you're expected to be the very best in your subdomain, whatever that may be. That is how you earn tenure at Stanford, is you are making significant contributions to a meaningful scholarly base, right? And making contributions that no one else is able to make, right? That's kind of the general criteria that's used to evaluate tenure cases, right? And, you know, that's sort of a high-pressure situation, right? That's a situation that's premised in large part on how productive you are, right? And, you know, as somebody who's,

you know, an accomplishment oriented individual like myself, who's, you know, pursued a lot of high stakes, or at least far reaching goals, far off goals, it resonates with me, this kind of career path resonates with me where, where just from, you know, an approach to life standpoint. Now, I've always been a, you know, a, you know, deeply curious individual. I'm, you know, love to write, love to think. I've loved to teach, right? So there's some just like natural personality traits that sort of align with this line of work. In fact, I mean, I probably I'm probably dispositionally closer to a professor than I am a professional athlete, just from like a personality standpoint. But at any rate, it's I think there are a lot of a lot of similarities. When I when I

finished up grad school in 2017 and took my first faculty job on the tenure track at the University of Pittsburgh, I had a conversation with with Coach Groh. And anytime I'm going through like a big kind of transition in life, he's one of the first people I chat with. And I was talking about the tenure track with him. And obviously, he's familiar with that trajectory, given his involvement at different universities and with different personnel at universities. You're going to have an advantage over a lot of your colleagues in this career. And I was like, huh, that's interesting. Why do you say that, coach? He said, because, Alvin, you know what it feels like to try and make the team every year, right? And I never thought about it like that. But in fact, that's a powerful experience to draw from.

Right. And it's an incredibly relevant experience to draw from, given what I mentioned about, you know, what it takes to earn tenure, especially at a place like like Stanford. This is a what have you done for me lately business, right? This is a business that certainly, you know, interests in your cumulative body scholarship, but you are expected to be producing relevant, impactful research, you know, throughout your journey, right? And if you don't, they'll show you the door. They will still thank you. They will say thank you for your service. But but good luck. Right. And that's that that's certainly a conversation that, you know, many athletes ultimately face. I certainly certainly had to encounter that that conversation at the end of my career more than once. Right. And those are those are tough conversations and those are tough experiences to have.

But they're also really, they're part of the process, right? When you are someone who dreams big and desires hard and has, you know, some God-given abilities and talent and the opportunities to pursue those, right? I mean, there's some incredible opportunities to do things that you dream of doing, but they also come with the potential consequence of finding a door slam in your face, which can be pretty devastating, right? You dream big and you can fall hard. But I think one of the things I'm most grateful for about my time at the grounds

and time at UVA was, you know, even, you know, when that final door was slammed, right, in 2010, when my career came to an end, you know, that fall, if you will, wasn't that long of a fall. I mean, I was back in graduate school within a couple months of my last year with the Tennessee Titans. And that really launched my next chapter of my life, right, which is, you know, in pursuit of scholarly excellence and becoming the very best professor I could be. Yeah, it's amazing to me how many of Al Groh's former players still get a lot of advice from him on life. I do myself. I became really close to Coach Groh, and I go to him for advice myself. So a very wise man for sure.

Alvin, thank you so much for spending part of your morning with us. And I look forward to seeing you this weekend. Hopefully I'll bump into you somewhere while you're here. And I know all the Wahoo fans who will be in Scott City. I'm hoping to go 3-0 this weekend. We'll give you a warm welcome back home. Oh, man. I would love to see you. If you're around Friday morning, I'm giving a lecture at the Curry School of Education on some

district reorganization efforts in San Francisco school closure proceedings that have been happening over the last few months and my involvement in them. If you're interested in sitting in for a lecture, I'll be talking on Friday morning on campus as well. I'll take some notes. talking on Friday morning on campus as well. I may just. But I do hope. I'll take some notes. All right. All right, brother.

Well, listen, safe travels. And thank you again so much for taking time to spend with us. We appreciate you. Absolutely. I enjoyed it. You guys take care. All right. Take care.

Okay. All right. Take care. Thank you. We appreciate you. That was Alvin Pierman. Fantastic interview. One wonderful running back and human being from the 2004, his final year at UVA. And what an impressive guy.

What does Alvin Pierman not do well? I mean, this guy was – Probably nothing that I can think of. I mean, think about it. All ACC. One of the best tailbacks in Virginia football history. I mean, frankly, one of the best offensive players in Virginia football history. I think we can say that.

No question. Plays in the National Football League. Yeah, he was around for quite a while. Quite a while. Three teams. Right. He's a professor at Stanford University. I mean, one of the most well-spoken, humble guys.

Good-looking guy. What a representative for UVA. What does he not do well? I don't know. He could probably run for political office or something. 100%. I was thinking the same thing. Yeah.

He could be a great football TV commentator. Right. So we're looking at a U.S. senator potentially right there. Yeah. Who knows? Who knows? I mean, stranger things have happened. A fantastic interview set up by Hootie Ratcliffe.

His fantastic network of stakeholders and influencers and former players and leaders. Just, as you said, a fantastic representative of the University of Virginia. Another one in the Al Groh family tree. If you think about it, he brings up Ron Prince. If memory serves correct, Ron Prince, didn't he end up becoming the head coach of Kansas State? He did. He coached an offensive line that was loaded with talent.

I still hear from Ron from time to time. NFL talent on that offensive line. Mike Groh is a coach of the National Football League. He had Alvin Pierman. Wally Lundy played in the National Football League. Matt Schaub, Marcus Higgins, of course, in the National Football League. Tight end university, Patrick Estes, now the athletic director at the Covenant School,

formerly an offensive lineman. You're a San Francisco 49ers fan, if memory serves. An old lineman with the 49ers, Heath Miller. Heath Miller. I mean, wide receivers everywhere. Yeah. Was DeBrickishaw on that team? DeBrickishaw was on that team.

He was a freshman All-American during Alvin Pierman's tenure and then ended up being one of the top draft picks with the New York Jets. Played for 12 years or longer, starting left tackle. Yeah, one of the best left tackles in football at one time. Yeah, they had a bunch of really good NFL linemen during that time period for sure. We should not take for granted the Algro tenure. I mean, just look at that.

Those three years, they won 16, 20, 25 games in three seasons. The best last three-game stretch for Virginia football. Yeah. Maybe one of the best three-game stretches in program history. Probably so. Because there hasn't been a ton of nine-win teams. Right. And there was 9, 8, and 8. And could have been better, as he said. He said they underachieved his fourth year. His senior year, yeah, 2004. Al Groh, I remember

Al talking to me a lot about how he really wanted that team to win 10 games. He thought they could win 10 games. And that would have been only the second team in UVA history to do so. And that was important to him. He really thought that this was the team that could do it. And they had a couple of setbacks. But exciting football team.

Exciting football team. We have another exciting football team this year's program. Absolutely. That Wake Forest game. Oh, my exciting football team this year's program. Absolutely. That Wake Forest game, oh my, Hootie. It does get much more exciting, right? I know in the third quarter, it looked like doom and gloom. I didn't think there was any way in the world these guys would come back. Not that you can't come back and win, but the way they got dominated in the third quarter,

they couldn't stop Wake Forest. Couldn't stop Wake Forest. And they couldn't get anything going offensively. They only ran eight plays, and one or two of those were punts. So for them to come back in the fourth quarter like that, and then to hold Wake off on two desperate attempts to kick a field goal. To force a turnover. Yeah.

Late in the game. That took a lot of guts, no question about it. These were the type of games Virginia football was losing last year. Yeah. And we spoke a lot, Jerry. I gave you props on the show yesterday. We said that Wake Forest game, and I said Hootie highlighted this months ago, critically important for Virginia football.

Oh, yeah, no question about it. If they want to make a bowl game, they had to win that game. There's no question about it. You and I talked a lot in training camp and even over the summer about how this team in the past didn't know how to win. I think they took a step forward in that department Saturday night because that's the kind of game that they would have lost before.

They would have found a way to lose or they would have let that third quarter get them down. But they were talking to players after the game. They were walking up and down the sideline saying, we're going to win this game. This game is ours, and Tony Elliott just said, get it to the fourth quarter. We'll win the game. So there was so much confidence in the face of all that adversity.

If you're a Wahoo fan, you've got to be proud of what these guys were able to overcome. I was watching the game with my wife. We started on the screen porch. First half, fantastic. Second half, third quarter, she's like, I'm going to bed. Then we go from the screen porch, watching the game,

a couple of cold pops in hand to the bed watching. And I wake her up, and she watches the final five or six minutes. She goes, what's going on here? She's like, they're playing with, her words, different pep right now. You see them playing with confidence. She said they're walking around with confidence.

Starts with the quarterback, and still we see some mistakes that shouldn't happen. But Calandra, I mean, the team is going to go as this young man goes. He's got Moxie. He's got Swagger. He was not in there for that, what do they call it, the big boy package on the O-line? Was it the Grayson package? Right. He was not in there.

He's the first to come in and give props to the quarterback and the team to punch it in the end zone. And he's coming with his check. I mean, this guy is, what, 5'10", a buck 65 soaking wet? He's gained some weight and muscle, but he's still under 200 pounds. Under 200 pounds. They were even talking on the broadcast generously listed. Yes.

But they go as he goes. And he's never lacked for confidence. But the thing that you've got to admire about him is he's never going to give up either. He always believes that they can come back and win no matter what the situation is. It reminds me of the saying, it's not the size of the dog that matters, but the size of the fight and the dog that matters. And he epitomizes the fight and the dog, where he does not believe that the team is out of it, no matter what the scoreboard is saying. Now, I'd like to see the decision-making improve a little bit. I'm sure that is something Kitchens and Tony Elliott are speaking with him about.

Yeah, and I'm sure that, you know, it's all part of the maturation of a quarterback. We still got to remember this was only his 10th game of his career. So he still has a lot of growing up to do, but he's getting there. How about Malachi Fields? If you look at this week's statistics, NCAA statistics, Calandria is in the top 25 in about nine or ten categories for quarterbacks. Malachi is in the top 25 in numerous categories for receivers. Monticello High School graduate. He's off to a monstrous start for this season.

He looks like a pro on the field right now. Now, it's two games in. Yeah, but I think he is a pro. I think he'll be a pro. We'll see him on Sundays. I think so, too. He's finally learned to take advantage of his size, and he's become more aggressive.

And, you know, I think that's all he needed because he's always had the hands he's always been a really intelligent route runner and I think they just needed to bring out a little bit more out of him just in terms of being a more aggressive player, playing with a little more fire, and, again, being intelligent enough to take advantage of his size because he's a big dude. Muscular and big. I mean, there are teams now getting pass interference. He's drawn several pass interferences in two games

because people just simply can't cover him all the time. He's just too good. He finishes with 11 catches for $1.48, and he opened the field because of the defensive coverage he guarded for Trell Harris and Tyler Neville. The tight end, two touchdowns. Trell Harris and Tyler Neville. The tight end, two touchdowns. Trell Harris, he dropped one. He makes up for it with the touchdown catch.

The one he dropped is probably a catch he's never going to forget, a drop he's never going to forget. Yeah, I'm sure. Because that hit him in the breadbasket. Still, he performs admirably, 7 for 91 and a touchdown. The passing game looks absolutely dynamite. I've got to ask you two questions. I've got to ask you two questions. I've got to ask you, what's going on with the running attack?

23 carries, what, 73 yards, 2.6 a touch. What's going on with Kobe Pace? Also got to ask you, what's going on with Chris Tyree? Those are big questions, and I don't know that I have the answer for it. I'm baffled that Chris Tyree hasn't been more of a contributor. Four catches for 11 yards, 2.8 a touch. Yeah and he had a couple of nice returns on kicks and you could see the speed on those returns. In terms of him not being a more part of the offense, I don't understand what's going on there.

You would think he'd be getting more touches, and maybe he has to earn those in practice or in a game. I don't know. The first week when he had the drops, Tony Elliott attributed that to him wanting it too much, that he was pressing. He was actually running before he made the catch and I guess trying to make something happen.

Maybe this will be his week. It will certainly be a great time for him to break out against the Terps. They're going to need him, for sure. Terps, two and a half point favorites right now. Big game. Another big game on the schedule. And with the running game, I'm a bit puzzled as well. What's going on with Kobe? I don't know. Right now, Xavier Brown looks like the best option they have running back.

He seems to be faster and seems to be running harder than Pace does. I don't know exactly what's going on there, but the running game is going to have to continue to develop if they want to get to that six-win level. Certainly they're going to need it this week and in the weeks to come because they're going to be facing some pretty decent football programs and they're going to have to be able to run the ball. Right now, they're just not getting it done on the ground. Virginia's got the Terrapins. This is a football game that is extremely winnable.

It's an 8 o'clock kick. Ladies and gentlemen, it's at Scott Stadium. Maryland is a 2.5-point favorite, the over-under as of now, 54 and change. More on the Wake Forest contest. Wake Forest is a good team. Wake Forest knows how to move the football. Its quarterback finishes with 400 passing yards, Hootie.

9.6 per pass. Its rushing attack, I mean, there were times where Claiborne could not be stopped, the Wake Forest tailback. 141 on the ground. Defense we thought all along, everyone thought all along, was going to be a big-time strength. Now, I understand against Wake Forest, a number of injuries, not a lot of depth on the defensive side of the ball. At least it appears through two games, there's not a lot of depth. We'll start open-ended with you. What did you see defensively?

Some points of concern there. Well, I think Wake Forest offense is still... Very good? Very good. I mean, people, everybody has trouble trying to shut down that offense. I mean, even the best teams in the league have struggled to shut them down. They usually have to win scoring battles almost like a track meet because it's such a unique offense. And you've got to give whoever hired Dave Clawson at Wake Forest,

you've got to give them kudos because they did what Virginia's tried to do and bring a coach with a different system that people have to prepare for. And in one week, it's awfully hard to do. And it's awfully hard to stop. I still think Wake, I don't know what kind of team they're going to turn out to be this year because I think they've got some defensive issues. But I think offensively, they're still going to be putting a lot of points and a lot of yards on the board.

It's going to be interesting to see how that turns out. But I do think Wake is – their weak point is on the defensive side of the football. But you've got to give Calandria a lot of credit too because he was so accurate in that game. He completed 77% of his passes, which is incredible. And when he counted the most in the fourth quarter, he was 10 of 11 and the one in completion was a throwaway. So he was near perfection in those two crucial drives in the fourth quarter. The throwaway was one of my favorite passes of the night.

I sincerely mean that. It was a smart play. It was a smart play because he would have forced that last year. Yeah, no question about it. When he threw it away, I was like, okay, he's maturing as a quarterback. You've got Maryland, another very important game. A chance to start 3-0 for Virginia football. A team, if it's able to beat Maryland, and again, this is just a two-and-a-half point line, than has Coastal Carolina in a Boston College team that is perhaps way better

than we initially anticipated in the summer. What do you want to go with the Maryland game, a breakdown of that contest? Well, Maryland, you know, they played Michigan State a tough game. Michigan State won it on a 37-yard field goal with one second left to play. And Michigan State had tied the game on a 77-yard touchdown pass with only 4.22 to play and then forced Maryland to go three and out to set up the winning kick. So I don't know how good Michigan State is.

I don't think they were picked very high in the preseason Big Ten poll, but then Maryland wasn't either. I think they were picked 11th maybe. So we're really not sure how good Maryland is at this point. They're one and one. Like you said, they're coming in. Here's a two-and-a-half-point favorite, at least right now. I know Wake Forest was a two-and-a-half-point favorite at this time last week,

but I was told that Virginia became the favorite by game time. By game time, it was Virginia by a point, depending on where you're shot, a point and a half. Right. And moved. So, you know, who knows? The same thing could happen here. Think about why they keep building casinos here.

Virginia wins by, what, a point? I mean, think about that. Exactly. Yeah. Those guys in Vegas are hard to fool. Hard to fool. But, you know, Maryland's defense gave up 493 yards in that game last Saturday, and 363 of that was through the air,

which might have Mr. Calandria champing at the bit a little bit, getting a look at that secondary. And the Terps only ran for 86 yards, so they seem to be struggling running the ball too, which could make them a little one-dimensional and would help Virginia's defense out a little bit. Close the program, keys to victory against Maryland, and what potentially stood out to you through now two weeks

in the Atlantic Coast Conference? Well, ACC seems to be a lot more wide open than we ever expected or anybody expected. Florida State has stumbled right out of the blocks. Clemson we're not sure about. They certainly won easily last week, and they should have. Boston College is pretty good. Boston College is ranked.

Miami seems to be pretty decent. We're not sure yet. NC State appeared to be a bit of a fraud, getting just walloped by Tennessee and Charlotte. Wow. Even though Notre Dame's not in the ACC, a lot of ACC

teams playing, what about them getting? To me, that was one of the biggest shocks in 10 years of college football, them losing at home to Northern Illinois. And then Virginia Tech bounced back. I don't know. Georgia Tech lost to Syracuse. That was a bit of a surprise.

Syracuse 2-0, 1-0. Yeah, so it seems to be a lot up for grabs, at least right off the bat. North Carolina's trying to break in a new quarterback. Their other quarterback broke his leg in the opener, and as of Saturday he was still in the hospital in Minnesota. So the new guys seem to come through against Charlotte, which I was listening to some of that game on the way to Wake Forest

and I didn't realize that Charlotte has like 60 new players through the transfer portal. It could be a wild topsy-turvy year in the ACC. It is wild. A lot of opportunity here for Tony Elliott's program.

Maryland, 8 o'clock, Scott Stadium, 2.5-point favorite, the Terrapins, 54.5 as of Tuesday morning, the over-under. This is a winnable game for Virginia football. Then Coastal Carolina in Week 4, that's a very winnable game for Virginia. The opportunity to start 4-0 going into a Boston College team that is looking on paper through two weeks pretty darn strong, it's viable and it's realistic. Yeah, Virginia hasn't started 3-0 or 4-0 since 2019,

that ACC Coastal Division champion that played in the Orange Bowl. That's right. That's something to strive for. That's something to strive for. That is something to strive for. JerryRackliff.com for everything Virginia related. The Alvin Pierman interview set up by Hootie Rackliff, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. Viewers and listeners and

potential partners, this show, the Jerry and Jerry show, is really on fire in a lot of ways, thanks to Jerry Rackliff and his namesake website, is becoming very much the water cooler for Virginia athletics. Judah Wittkower, he scrambled today. He really showed us what the MVP he was.

Hootie, you should have seen him this morning. He was doing everything. He was doing everything, Hootie. He was the man. He was doing everything, Hootie. He was the man. He was doing everything. Hootie and I get to sit here and interview UVA football legends and talk about sports, which we're passionate about. This guy does all the technology. Judah makes it easy.

Makes it easy. Makes it absolutely easy. He's a wizard. He is a wizard. For Judah Wickhauer, our producer and our director, for the star of our, Jerry Hootie Rackliff. My name is Jerry Miller. This show archived on jerryrackliff.com, where you get your podcasting and social media content. And ladies and gentlemen, Saturday, 8 o'clock, under the lights at Scott Stadium. It's a big one.

Make sure you give Alvin Pierman a real warm round of applause when he's introduced. Heck, fill the stands. Yeah, fill the stands. Fill the stands, folks. Let's try to eclipse a legitimate 40,000 in attendance. That would make me happy. Not announced, but actual. That would be good. Fill the stands, please. For Hootie and Judah, I'm Jerry. So long, everybody. That was awesome.