The last time the Virginia football team played on national television Sept. 21, their offense was dominated by Georgia Tech. Last night, the Cavaliers (3-5, 2-2) turned the tables, humbling the North Carolina Tar Heels 23-0.
"We're starting to look like we've always felt that this team, as it developed, would have a chance to look," coach Al Groh said. "Obviously we've still got quite a bit to get done here during the course of the season -- it's the best we've played -- but there's still some things out there we need to get fixed."
When not forcing Carolina into three-and-outs, the Cavaliers were making big plays to snuff out developing Heels drives.
After allowing Carolina to march to the Virginia 20-yard line, sophomore cornerback Chris Cook stripped Heels running back Ronnie McGill and an alert Jeffery Fitzgerald recovered the ball with 1:47 remaining in the first quarter.
After Gould's second field goal of the night, a 43-yarder with 10:24 remaining, Virginia's defense once again bent but did not break. On 2nd and nine at the Cavaliers' 40-yard line, sophomore linebacker Antonio Appleby broke through the line and chased down quarterback Cam Sexton for a 13-yard loss, leading to a Heels punt two plays later.
UNC's halftime switch of quarterbacks from Sexton to Joe Dailey did not help the woeful Tar Heel offense.
On the opening drive of the second half, Dailey's screen pass skipped by wide receiver Brooks Foster and was ruled a fumble which was recovered by junior safety Nate Lyles with 11:46 left in the quarter.
"The three takeaways were really the key," Groh said. "Each one of them was a pretty significant play that either stemmed a tide or gave us a chance to get some scores that would crack the thing open."
Taking over on the 50-yard line, redshirt freshman quarterback Jameel Sewell did just that. He led the Cavaliers down the field, hooking up with senior tight end Tom Santi for a 30-yard pass to the Carolina 21. Four plays and an exchange of penalties later, Sewell took an option keeper into the endzone from the 18-yard line to give Virginia a 16-0 lead.
After three drives in the first half had resulted in field goals of 31, 43 and 43 yards, hitting paydirt was a welcome sight for Virginia.
"Coach told us that if we get this touchdown, it's going to be real hard for them to get back in the game," Snelling said. "It's kind of icing on the cake -- putting that drive together felt really good."
The Cavaliers were able to maintain and increase the lead in large part due to the effective running of senior tailback Jason Snelling. The Chester, Va. native picked up 61 yards on the ground in the first half and hit the 100-yard mark with 5:40 left in the third quarter. He would finish with a career-high 131 yards rushing and one touchdown.
"Teams that can really run the ball, and tough-minded teams, need someone that does more than just carry the ball," Groh said. "I think [Snelling] helped set the tone, set an attitude, set a style. Some of those runs he made were real warrior runs."
Sewell also continued his solid play, completing 17 of 25 passes for 166 yards, one touchdown and zero interceptions. Sophomore wide receiver Kevin Ogletree was once again his favorite target -- Ogletree caught five passes for 43 yards.
After last week's collapse against Maryland in which Virginia fell despite a 20-0 halftime lead, playing a complete game was critical for the Cavaliers last night. Indeed, Virginia did not let-up in the second half, outscoring UNC 14-0 while having their way on offense and dominating the dreary Heel offense.
"It was really important to us," Lyles said. "That was all we talked about at halftime: Turning up the juice, turn it up in the second half because that's when we relaxed last week."
For the game, Virginia notched 370 yards of total offense compared to just 182 yards for Carolina.
Next for Virginia is N.C. State on Oct. 28 at 12 p.m.
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