CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Former colleagues Mike London and Al Groh spoke Thursday, each wishing the other luck on opening day.

Groh, of course, needed more than luck Saturday. His University of Virginia football team, facing third-ranked Southern California, lost 52-7 at Scott Stadium.

His former defensive coordinator's debut as a head coach had a happier ending. The University of Richmond, ranked No. 4 in the NCAA's Football Championship Subdivision, romped 28-10 on Saturday night at Elon.

And now comes a game that will draw considerably more interest than most matchups between teams from different NCAA divisions. UR plays Saturday afternoon at U.Va., where London had two stints as an assistant under Groh.

Three other former Groh assistants are now head college coaches -- Danny Rocco at Liberty, Al Golden at Temple and Ron Prince at Kansas State -- but U.Va. hasn't faced any of them. Moreover, London's staff at UR includes Vincent Brown and Bill Polin, who were graduate assistants at U.Va. under Groh. Another Richmond assistant, Byron Thweatt, played linebacker at Virginia for Groh's predecessor, George Welsh.

"It's going to be a cute story for you guys to write about, but it isn't going to be a consideration for us," Groh said on a teleconference last night. "We're going to prepare for this game the way we would for any other."

Virginia may have lost more than a game against USC. Senior Aaron Clark, a starting outside linebacker in U.Va.'s 3-4 defense, hurt his right knee early in the third quarter. Groh said he was awaiting the results of an MRI done yesterday on Clark's knee.

If Clark, who has a redshirt year available, is out, junior Denzel Burrell will take his spot. In his longest stint as a Cavalier, Burrell made two tackles and broke up a pass against the Trojans and "did a pretty decent job," Groh said.

The same couldn't be said for U.Va. as a team. The Trojans piled up 558 yards -- 340 through the air -- and held Virginia to 187, shutting down what's expected to be one of the ACC's better running games.

It didn't help that Cavaliers sophomore Ras-I Dowling, a projected starter at cornerback, missed the game with a leg injury. Two other cornerbacks who at this time last year were expected to be on the 2008 two-deep -- Chris Cook and Mike Brown -- are no longer in the program.

"Most teams have some flaws," Groh said, "and we are well aware of our flaws, even if we chose not to discuss them at length before the season started. Sometimes even if you know what your flaws are, you can't always fix them immediately."

Senior safety Byron Glaspy sparkled Saturday for Virginia, making eight tackles and breaking up two passes.

"A lot of guys showed up and were ready to play," Glaspy said. "We just made some mistakes, and we know that there's a lot of things that we're in control of fixing that don't have to do with just talent. So I think those are the things that we can correct and expect to be better next week."

That's what happened last season. After being embarrassed in its opener at Wyoming, U.Va. came back to win its next seven games.

"It definitely helps, just knowing that we were in this place last year and we were able to turn it around," Glaspy said.