Yes, Virginia, Hawai'i wants you

"I'm not saying this to be jerky, but I think if a player prefers playing in Hawai'i to playing in the premier football conference in the country, I think it worked out well for everybody."

— Virginia football coach Al Groh as quoted by the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch after highly touted running back Andrew Pearman chose UH over the Cavaliers.

Well, it did come out sounding "jerky," which was why it quickly caught Geoff McDonald's eye and inflamed his sensibilities.

"It (ticked) me off," said McDonald, a Richmond, Va., attorney, who graduated from Radford High and played for the University of Hawai'i (1981-82) and Virginia (1985). "If (UH) Coach (June) Jones had said the same thing, I probably would have reacted the same way."

Clearly, Groh was speaking from the frustration of losing Pearman, a marquee running back (2,268 yards and 37 touchdowns as a senior) he thought he had sewed up, to a school 4,100 miles away.

For Pearman, whose brother plays for Virginia, had verbally committed to the Cavaliers, who lost other big ones to Southern California, Miami and Michigan. Still, said McDonald: "If he talks trash, he needs to be a man and back it up."

Which brings us to a potential solution and the reason McDonald faxed the comments to Jones and The Advertiser: Why not a Virginia vs. Hawai'i game?

Why not, indeed.

Apart from Groh running his yap, Virginia still owes UH a game. They were contracted to meet in 1999, but Virginia, then coached by George Welsh, canceled out in 1998.

In exchange for being let out of the deal, the Cavaliers agreed to come in 2003. But a year after Groh took over at Virginia, the Cavaliers bailed on that one, too.

Then-UH athletic director Hugh Yoshida was able to get Washington State to fill the 1999 opening and set in motion Alabama to fill last year's puka. What UH did to the Crimson Tide in last year's game isn't likely to make scheduling any easier, though.

Jones says he'd welcome Virginia on the schedule and has passed on the suggestion to athletic director Herman Frazier to follow up.

Whether the Atlantic Coast Conference becomes "the premier conference in the country" after Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College join, remains to be seen. But a UH vs. Virginia series, home-and-home, would be interesting.

"What was true when I played and I think is true today, Virginia is about a half step above Hawai'i in athleticism," McDonald said. "However, Hawai'i is a more physical team and more intense than maybe what Virginia is used to. I think it would be a good game.

"I just think he (Groh) needs to do the right thing and put Hawai'i on the schedule."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.