MIAMI -- After a season of heart-stopping victories, Virginia made it look easy Saturday night with a shut-out victory that spoiled the farewell party at the Orange Bowl.
After 468 games over 71 seasons, the Orange Bowl went out on one of its worst -- the worst home loss since 1944 when Miami fell to Texas A&M 70-14.
The Cavaliers (9-2, 6-1 ACC) scored early and often and never gave Miami (5-5, 2-4 ACC) a single chance to compete. The offense moved like a freight train and the defense did not miss a beat. By the time it was all over, Virginia had a 48-0 victory.
"This stadium has been a wonderful place for football," Virginia coach Al Groh said Saturday. "Our team was very mindful of some of the great performances individually and team-wise that occurred in this stadium. We tried to set it as a standard for our team ... It looked like it raised the level of our play a little bit tonight."
Did it ever. The Cavaliers got to the Miami defense quick, scoring on their first drive.
The first play was a hand off to sophomore Mikell Simpson. Starting at his own four yard line, Simpson lost a yard on the carry. After that, Virginia never looked back.
The Cavaliers' first drive went 96 yards in three minutes and seven seconds, thanks to a 24-yard pass to senior Tom Santi and a 28-yard hand off to Simpson. From 37 yards out, sophomore quarterback Jameel Sewell found junior Maurice Covington, who dodged downfield through the defense to put Virginia up 7-0.
"[The fast start] helped us a lot to come out and set the tempo," Sewell said. "We knew what we were up against. We knew they were a good team that has great athletes, and we just wanted to make sure we were able to play our ball and keep going down there and scoring."
Those seven points matched the first-half total Miami had given up all season at home. But that was just the start. Virginia put up 31 points in the first half, due to its defensive domination of the Hurricane offense. Miami committed five turnovers, which set up touchdown after touchdown for Virginia. Sophomore Vic Hall and juniors Jon Copper and Byron Glaspy all had interceptions. Sophomore Nate Collins and junior Chris Cook recovered fumbles. Miami only got in the red zone once all night.
"We really wanted a shutout," senior defensive end Chris Long said. "We've been close all year and we get really disappointed when we give up points, but we played four quarters of defense."
Senior Josh Zidenberg, continuing his special teams domination, blocked freshman Matt Boscher's punt to put Virginia on its own 5 yard line. It was his third block of his career, adding to his two in 2006 against Wyoming and Duke.
But none of that should diminish the success of the offense, which had 418 total yards on the day. Sewell completed 20 of 25 passes, the highest completion percentage of his career, and threw for 288 yards, the highest yard total of his career.
"It was good planning, it was good calling, it was good execution," Groh said. "Really it was all three units stepping up tonight. Defense had a good night; offense had a good night; special teams had a good night. That's us. We're a collaborative team."
Statistically, the game had no influence on Virginia's conference championship aspirations. Virginia Tech defeated Florida State near the start of Virginia's game, ensuring a Nov. 24 showdown in Charlottesville to determine the winner of the Coastal Division to compete in the ACC Championship the following week in Jacksonville, Fla. Still, the victory was sweet for the Cavaliers.
"We kept coming up to each other and saying 'soak this one up, because you're going to remember this one for the rest of your life,'" Long said.
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