Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 24, 1993 TAG: 9310240151
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
The Cavaliers have been ranked No. 1. They've played in four bowls in the past six years and should have added to that number last season. They've won an ACC championship and had a Heisman Trophy contender.
Still, as big-game hunters, they most often have shot themselves in the foot or been swallowed by Nittany Lions, Tigers or various other bears.
Oh, my! On a gorgeous Saturday at Scott Stadium, could that have been the same Virginia program that has welshed on its promise so often before?
"Maybe this team is different," said P.J. Killian, a senior linebacker for the Cavaliers.
Killian's team-leading 12 tackles spoke with more certainty as 21st-ranked UVa seized second place in the ACC with a 17-10 victory over 12th-ranked North Carolina. It clinched the Cavs' seventh consecutive winning season and all but bought their bowl ticket.
"There was so much emotion for this one, if we wouldn't have won, we'd have had trouble," said UVa coach George Welsh, who has steadfastly refused to overhype opponents to his team this season.
"This was a big win," Welsh said. "But it wasn't a big game."
He was just being a wise guy. Obviously, in the past, the Cavaliers weren't always buying his sales pitch. Welsh promised after UVa's 40-14 loss at top-ranked Florida State on Oct. 15 that his team wouldn't play on its heels against UNC.
He was right. Virginia (6-1), which defensively has taken the option all wrong in the past, limited Carolina (7-2) to a season-low 101 ground yards, an average of 2.6 yards per rush. With the Tar Heels' "Johnson & Johnson" tailback tandem slowed to 67 yards, UNC was hurting.
That's how the Cavaliers won. The offense was just good enough. In the kicking game, Virginia punted.
Quarterback Symmion Willis completed 22 of 31 passes, but his numbers were much more impressive than his throws. UNC's secondary spent the day funneling Virginia receivers over the middle, but the Cavaliers' sophomore didn't throw to wide-open targets.
Then, in the final minutes when UVa has wilted so often in games of this magnitude, the defense had to stick the Tar Heels only because the Cavaliers fumbled scoring opportunities when Larry Holmes and Demetrius Allen dropped what would have been touchdown passes.
When fullback Charles "Air" Way jumped higher than Ralph Sampson ever did, scoring the game's deciding and final touchdown on a fourth-down 1-yarder, the Cavaliers found themselves where they've been many times before.
"In the past, we've let games like this, leads like that, slip away," Killian said. "In the second half a lot of times we just haven't gotten the job done."
Killian no doubt was recalling last year's visit by Clemson, when Virginia blew a 28-0 first-half lead, losing 29-28. That was the beginning of the end of a 7-4 season that began 5-0.
"This game has to be the biggest we've won since we beat Clemson here in 1990 [Virginia's only victory in a 32-game series]," Killian said.
Perhaps Virginia learned a valuable lesson last season. Although it was the best team that didn't go to a bowl - Rutgers and Southern Mississippi were the only other 7-4 finishers who didn't play past November - UVa found out it still wasn't a finishing school.
UVa has to visit N.C. State and Clemson and play Wake Forest and Virginia Tech at home. Although the victory over UNC pointed the Cavaliers' bowl destiny toward the ACC's No. 2 spot in the coalition - likely Fiesta, Gator or bigger - it also gave the Cavs some margin for error.
Welsh's team can lose two of its last three ACC games and still reach a bowl, because the ACC has its Nos. 3 and 4 teams locked into the Peach and Hall of Fame bowls, respectively.
So, unlike last year, it won't matter if athletic director Jim Copeland loses the Copper Bowl's telephone number, as it seemed when Utah, Baylor, Oregon, Arizona, Southern Cal and Illinois all went bowling with worse records than the Cavaliers.
By finally winning a big game, UVa has made it apparent it will play another one at the end of this season.
by CNB