Miles Gooch to serve as scout team quarterback in 2010

Virginia Coach Mike London said in a teleconference Tuesday that freshman Miles Gooch will not play this season and will serve as the Cavaliers' scout team quarterback. Gooch, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound signal caller out of Decatur, Ga., had been viewed as the longest shot among those competing to become starer Marc Verica's backup.

With Gooch out of the equation for the near future, redshirt freshman Ross Metheny and true freshmen Michael Rocco and Michael Strauss remain in contention for the No. 2 quarterback role. London said the coaches are working to trim that group by one so as to have a definite hierarchy among the team's top three quarterbacks.

"And the other guy is just going to have to soak or perhaps find something else for him to do," London said. "We've got Marc, but we're still trying to find who's going to be the second and the third out of those next three."

As for Gooch, London said the Cavaliers are testing him out in different capacities on the offensive and special teams scout units.

"We're going to get a true assessment of his ability," London said. "He's not playing this year, and we're going to see if there's something else that he can do. But I told him I'd give him a shot at quarterback, and we'll see how this season goes when he is the scout team quarterback, or he might be the guy who's going to try to represent that athlete for the scout team look that week. Miles is doing a nice job here, and he's going to be a good player."