Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 3, 1995 TAG: 9511030090
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
The Florida State-Virginia game belonged in University Hall. It was Arenaball, without a net.
Only it was a standing-room crowd of 44,300 that was bouncing off the walls, not to mention tearing down the goal posts.
The defense didn't rest. It never got a chance. And typical of UVa's season, it included another last-gasp, fantastic finish against superb competition.
The Cavaliers, frustrated last-play losers to ranked teams twice this season, showed they could win in the final ticks, too - if only by an inch or so.
Virginia stopped not only Warrick Dunn's trick-play run just short, but also halted FSU's unbeaten season and historical, 29-game ACC winning streak. The Cavaliers also ruined the conference's hopes of a national championship with a stunning 33-28 victory.
This wasn't the night UVa (7-3) was supposed to clinch a bowl bid. The Cavaliers were 18-point underdogs, and few would have argued they'd go to bed as the best 6-4 team in the country.
So, how many Cavaliers do you think went to sleep Thursday night?
This was a different team than the one that played nine consecutive Saturdays to start the season. It was resilient. It was operating on some fresh plays and fresh legs.
UVa tried a lot of things, including 12 men on the field, a mistake in the final 10 seconds that could have doomed the Cavaliers again.
Of course, it was understandable they would have trouble counting, because so many of their schoolmates already were running onto the turf.
Virginia will be playing at Maryland in a noon kickoff on Nov.11 for a share of its first conference championship since 1989. Florida State (7-1) visits North Carolina, then has the tumbling Terps in Tallahassee, Fla.
As for running up the score, if FSU coach Bobby Bowden considered it so his Seminoles could regain the No.1 ranking, then George Welsh had to do it just to keep his team in the Top 25.
And no one needed to apologize this time.
Virginia led 27-21 at halftime, despite three turnovers and only one touchdown in three trips inside the FSU 20-yard line.
How did that happen?
Tiki Barber, the twin terror who leads the ACC in rushing. Sometimes, UVa coaches tell the back from Roanoke he is going too fast. Well, Barber had lots of company on this damp night.
He sped past Tommy Vigorito, Marcus Wilson, Terry Kirby, Frank Quayle and John Papit on the Cavaliers' single-season rushing list with a 111-yard first half.
He finished with a career-high 193 yards on 31 carries, and is 1 yard behind Barry Word as UVa's top one-season rusher.
That ball control of 34-plus minutes was how the Cavaliers survived. A defense that helped FSU's Danny Kanell to a long 32-of-67 night - he was a 76 percent passer in five ACC victories this season - was how UVa held off those tomahawk choppers.
After the teams combined for 98 plays in 30 minutes, someone suggested a calculator might come in handy.
How about a realtor? The two teams at the top of the ACC standings combined for 718 yards by halftime. The question then wasn't which team would win, but which would survive?
The long-distance irony of the night was that in Gainesville, Fla., Gators coach Steve Spurrier had to be rooting for his former nemesis, Welsh, against his current one, Bowden. It might be the first favor Welsh has done for the former Duke coach.
Second-ranked FSU had been giving up 301 yards per game. UVa's offensive average was 396 per game. The Cavaliers had 358 by halftime. Somehow, FSU had 2 more.
But at the end, the Seminoles were 1 short.
Scouts from the Fiesta, Sugar, Gator and Peach bowls weren't being picky about who they liked on this night. They all were just hoping their own games could be as good as this one.
Forget it.
The ACC has no title tie-breaker. The bowl alliance spot would go to the highest-ranked co-champ. That's still likely to be FSU, which in only its second road game of the season finally found a worthy opponent.
The knock against FSU was that the Seminoles hadn't played anyone to substantiate the No.1 ranking ahead of Nebraska, Ohio State and Florida. Their first seven opponents had the Seminoles' schedule ranked 88th on the NCAA's computer.
``How good we really are we don't really know because we've not been tested for four quarters,'' FSU defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews said before the game.
Four quarters, and not one second less, is exactly what one of the biggest upsets in ACC football history took.
This time, Virginia finished what it started. In the ACC, no longer are the Seminoles unbeaten, much less invincible.
``They could easily be 10-0,'' Bowden said.
He wasn't talking about his team.
by CNB