Senior tailback Mikell Simpson returned to form against the Tarheels, rushing for 100 yards in 20 attempts. Photo by Jason O. Watson.

Chapel Hill, N.C. — Sometimes I like to think about what it would have been like to live in a different era. The Cuban Missile Crisis sounds exciting. They tell me gas used to cost $10 a tank. A dime for a movie. And they tell me the Virginia football team once won nine games.

Just when that started to seem like ancient history (courtesy of a seven-game losing streak dating back to last year), the Cavaliers hearkened back to their 2007 season Saturday against North Carolina with a 16-3 victory, their first win of the season. On the verge of utter futility, Virginia resisted the dagger of a potential 0-4 start.

“Maybe we’re kinda hard to stick a fork in,” coach Al Groh said.

Maybe.

Virginia’s performance wasn’t exactly convincing of a turnaround — a starting point, perhaps — but was a win nevertheless.

“We’re finally getting back to old school Virginia football — you know, hard-nosed, tough,” senior quarterback Jameel Sewell said. “My guys up front are being very physical; they’re taking care of business.”

Sewell didn’t have his best game. Often lined up in the shotgun, the senior was a sitting duck for North Carolina sophomore defensive end Robert Quinn, who unleashed his unremitting fury against the quarterback with three sacks. When the pocket collapsed and receivers couldn’t break free, Sewell elected to scramble backwards — rather than throw the ball away — and lost 43 yards rushing.

None of Sewell’s mishaps was a game-changing mistake, however, and he made up for them with timely passes. Leading only 6-3 with 5:04 left in the 3rd quarter, he marched the Cavaliers from their own 36-yard line to the North Carolina 26 with back-to-back downfield passes to sophomore Kris Burd and freshman Javaris Brown, each good enough for a first down. A 6-yard flick to senior fullback Rashawn Jackson put Virginia in range for sophomore Robert Randolph’s 43-yard field goal, which extended the lead to 6, giving the Cavaliers a bit of breathing room.

And for all the ineffective quarterback keepers that resulted in negative yardage, Sewell came through when it mattered most with one final burst that, for all intents and purposes, sealed the game. After completing a 9-yard pass to sophomore Jared Green on 3rd and 4 from the North Carolina 36-yard line, Sewell again delivered on the most pivotal third down play of the game. Facing 3rd and 3 on the Carolina 20-yard line with roughly six minutes to play, the senior found a hole and sprinted forward for a 12-yard gain.

“I finally read my blocks properly — that’s what that was,” Sewell said. “They were doing all they could. It just looked like how it’s handed out in practice — that play that we called — we hadn’t really called that play during the game.”

On the very next play, the drive appropriately culminated in an 8-yard touchdown run by senior Mikell Simpson. The tailback carried the ball 20 times for the first time since Virginia’s second game of the 2008 season against Richmond, and reached the 100-yard rushing mark for the first time since 2007.

“I felt good out there,” Simpson said. “I give a lot of credit to my offensive line. They kinda looked like ‘07 today, just opening their holes up and getting on their guys. And the receivers did a good job of getting on the corners and safeties, and I was just running.”

As if the team had some sort of premonition that Simpson would reemerge as a workhorse on the ground against North Carolina, prior to the game the players watched footage of Simpson’s finest game as a Cavalier – 2007’s matchup against Maryland at College Park, in which Simpson accumulated 271 total yards and two touchdowns on 29 offensive touches. And even though the Cavaliers ranked second-to-last in rushing offense in the ACC prior to Saturday’s game, Groh said it was not part of the game plan to necessarily increase Simpson’s touches.
“It was just because he was the tailback and he was running the ball pretty well and had a good sense for where the openings were,” Groh said. “It was that kind of game.”

Simpson was not spectacular in the sense of making individual game-changing plays or demonstrating unique agility and power carrying the ball. What he did do was find creases in the defense, follow his blockers, and run with conviction — something Virginia had yet to see out of its ground attack this season.

It was this kind of performance by Simpson — coupled with the Cavaliers’ best defensive effort all year, yielding just three points and 174 yards of total offense — that had many players drawing comparisons between the current squad and the 2007 team.

Indeed, the defense was swarming from the get-go. Redshirt freshman linebacker Steve Greer made back-to-back tackles for a loss on the Tar Heels’ first two plays from scrimmage, resulting in a quick three-and-out that set the tone for the game.

“As a defense, it definitely got us psyched and ready to go,” Greer said. “We talked all week about being a tough team, and I think those plays demonstrated that.”

The defense allowed fewer than 10 first downs for the first time this season. The front seven stifled North Carolina’s pathetic running game, holding the Tar Heels to a mere 39 yards rushing on 23 attempts. Even senior Vic Hall, who played on both sides of the ball Saturday, got in on the action early in the first quarter, hurrying junior quarterback T.J. Yates on a safety blitz that allowed senior defensive end Nate Collins to smother the quarterback in the backfield for a sack. On the following North Carolina possession, fifth-year senior safety Brandon Woods sent Yates crashing to the ground — a hit so devastating that Yates barely mustered the courage to return to his feet. If there was any doubt he’d have a permanent date with the grass, sophomore defensive end Zane Parr erased it with another Virginia sack six plays later.

“We had a new wrinkle in our defense and we did a couple new things,” Collins said. “Coach told us this week, ‘Just be too hard to handle, for everybody.’ I feel like we did that up front.”

Although Collins wouldn’t say precisely what changes the team made on defense, the results were evident in one particular play in the 4th quarter with Virginia leading 9-3 and 9:22 remaining in the game. Collins, sophomore defensive end Matt Conrath and sophomore nose tackle Nick Jenkins each hurried Yates, who rushed a pass, and sophomore cornerback Chase Minnifield came up with an interception in North Carolina territory. The ensuing drive for the Cavaliers resulted in a touchdown from which the Tar Heels never recovered.

The play was “very cool, we all got to do our jobs and get to the quarterback,” Conrath said.

Although Virginia’s defensive performance was praiseworthy, it should not be overlooked just how unspeakably atrocious the Tar Heels’ offense was. For all the offensive struggles the Cavaliers had heading into the game, North Carolina’s offensive effort was equally despicable Saturday.

Trust me — those three points didn’t come easily. Wondering how North Carolina scored 31 points against East Carolina is like trying to understand Dennis Rodman. There’s simply no explanation.

And it’s worth noting that the Tar Heels sported the second worst scoring and total offense in the ACC heading into the game. We all know who the worst was.

Thus, it remains unclear what to expect from the Cavaliers against Indiana this Saturday and for the rest of ACC play. I’m not quite sure what it means to say that Virginia has returned to its 2007 form. Chris Long is not walking through the door. But, for a day, Virginia is victorious. For a day, Virginia is undefeated.