After an emotional pregame ceremony in honor of the victims and rescue workers associated with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Virginia football team provided little drama to be decided on the field. The Cavaliers (3-1, 2-0 ACC) controlled the game early and often against Duke (0-4, 0-2) on their way to a 31-10 victory over the Blue Devils.
As a microcosm for the rest of the contest, Virginia set the tone on its second possession. Starting from their own 35-yard line, the Cavaliers handed the ball off to junior tailback Arlen Harris on six of the first eight plays in the drive.
"That's Virginia football," Harris said. "Running the ball and pounding them and then going up in the air. We're just beating up defenses and getting the yardages to prepare to get in the end zone in the air."
The Cavaliers did just that. The 13-play, 65-yard ground-it-out drive resulted in a Bryson Spinner touchdown pass to senior wideout Billy McMullen. Using McMullen's 6-foot-4 frame, Spinner simply lofted the ball into the corner of the end zone above the Blue Devil defenders.
"That was a great throw Spinner made to McMullen," Virginia coach Al Groh said. "He knew who he had and he put it in the only place where our guy could make a play on it. That was a good way to get the game started."
From there, the Cavaliers continued to roll over the Duke defense on the ground and through the air with two different quarterbacks at the helm. Spinner started the game and played most of the first half, finishing 15-of-23 for 194 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Sophomore Matt Schaub entered halfway through the third quarter and finished 9-of-13 for 90 yards and a touchdown pass.
"The quarterback tandem did a nice job," Groh said. "We've got two guys who are pretty good players. They're both evolving players and we're going to use both of them as they help us best."
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With the offense wearing down the Duke defenders, the Virginia defense was able to disrupt the Blue Devil offense with continued pressure on quarterback D. Bryant.
"We want to be aggressive with the rush scheme," Groh said. "One of the things inherent to playing good defense is you got to hit the quarterback. We came in with that mentality today and we got pretty good pressure on the quarterback."
Virginia's mental errors contributed to Duke's lone touchdown score. The Cavaliers committed one personal foul and two pass interference penalties during the Blue Devil fourth quarter drive. Virginia finished with 13 penalties for 110 yards.
"I've about had it with penalties," Groh said. "My rope is burned to the end on that. I'd like to cut these penalties by about 100 percent."
With Virginia's victory, the team is tied for first place in the ACC with Maryland, next week's opponent.
"We're in the hunt," Groh said. "Nothing has happened in these short four games to let us get too full of ourselves, but it's good to be in the hunt"
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