Thunderstorms delayed the start of the 2001 Virginia football season, but in the end it was Wisconsin who truly rained on the Cavaliers' parade. Head coach Al Groh and his team sloshed to a 26-17 defeat at the hands of the Badgers on Saturday.
At first, Virginia seemed unfazed by the half-hour rain delay. Freshman Alvin Pearman started the game with a 61-yard kickoff return, and within the first three minutes, the Cavaliers were in field goal territory. David Greene put the 35-yard kick between the posts and the Cavaliers took their only lead of the game.
But soon, courtesy of three penalties and two turnovers, Virginia found itself in a deep hole.
Virginia running back Antwoine Womack took a screen pass from starting quarterback Matt Schaub 74 yards into the end zone, only to have the touchdown called back on a clipping penalty.
"We execute a play on a long touchdown and can be up 10-0 and we have a penalty on the play. So instead of being 10-0, it's 3-0... but that's your own fault, you know that's your own fault," Groh said.
In the next few drives, Schaub struggled against Wisconsin's blitz, giving up two interceptions inside his own 20-yard line that resulted in 10 Wisconsin points.
To add injury to the penalty and turnover insults, Womack, the ACC's leading rusher in 2000, went down at the end of the first quarter with a high ankle sprain and did not return.
Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, neither did their lead.
Sophomore quarterback Bryson Spinner was called in to replace Schaub before the end of the first half, proving Virginia's starting quarterback position is still up for grabs. Spinner finished with 154 passing yards and two touchdowns, and completed 10-of-22 passes. Schaub had only 24 yards and was 3-for-10 with two interceptions.
"When things go bad, you just have to learn from them," Schaub said. "We'll see how it goes next week."
The Cavaliers had a shining moment early in the second half with a touchdown play that put them back within reach of the Badgers' lead. Spinner took a pitch from tailback Arlen Harris and lofted the ball into the end zone where wide receiver Billy McMullen snagged it over two Wisconsin defenders.
"It was up to Billy," Spinner said. "He just made a great play on the ball."
The Badgers presented a formidable offensive combination in quarterbacks Brooks Bollinger and Jim Sorgi.
Bollinger had 41 passing yards and 27 rushing yards but was injured in the third quarter with a contusion of the liver. Backup Jim Sorgi threw two touchdowns and put up 150 passing yards with very little readjustment necessary.
Bollinger and Sorgi "both have the same reads and they both throw it out there when it's time to throw it out there," Wisconsin wide receiver Lee Evans said. Evans completed two of Sorgi's passes for touchdowns in the second half, including a 78-yard run to put the Badgers up, 26-10.
Virginia had one last hurrah in the end zone late in the fourth quarter, as Spinner took the Cavaliers on a 74-yard drive finished by a touchdown run by Tyree Foreman, but the Cavaliers were unable to repeat the task in their last drive of the game.
The wet artificial turf was a challenge to both teams, with players slipping and splashing on the easiest of runs.
"It was slippery," Antwoine Womack said, "But we're not making excuses. We lost the ball game."
Groh was not discouraged by this loss, his first game at the helm of the Virginia program."I had fun being their coach today," he said. "That doesn't mean that I'm happy, but I had fun being their coach.
"We'll practice hard this week and try to avoid [errors] in our own conference," Groh said.
With Richmond on deck for next Saturday, and its second Big Ten opponent of the season - Penn State - the week after that, Virginia will have to find its rhythm out of its conference as well.
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