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
Read More
Payton Cormier breaks Division I goals record
By Michael Liebermann | 7 hours agoCormier has forever cemented his legacy as one of the greatest lacrosse players in NCAA history.
Cavaliers advance to NCAA Championship with second place finish at Baton Rouge Regional
By Stephen O'Dea | 8 hours agoVirginia will head to the National Championship in Carlsbad, Calif., with a chance to make history.
Thank you, Reece Beekman
By Ben Istvan | YesterdayBeekman will leave Charlottesville as the program's all-time leader in steals.
