In a way, Billy McMullen's 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter of last Saturday's 22-17 victory over Clemson epitomizes Virginia's play during its unlikely five-game winning streak.
The Cavaliers (5-2, 3-1 ACC) haven't looked particularly pretty or talented, but they have prevailed. Good thing for them it's football and not a beauty pagaent.
"Our motto is: Whatever it takes to win, that's what we'll do," said senior linebacker Merrill Robertson. "We might not always look great out there, but we've got a lot of heart. People thought we were going to be a bad team, last in the ACC or whatever, but we have too much pride for that."
Virginia has only looked bad on the stat sheet, not the scoreboard. The Cavaliers have been outgained in each of their past four games by an average of 82 yards. They have been outrushed by 565 yards in the past three games. For the season, they have run 100 fewer plays than their opponents and picked up 34 fewer first downs.
Those are examples of what Groh called "other-numbers issues ... all those things that it's difficult to write a column without."
Ultimately, the only numbers that matter to Groh are points. Clemson's opening drive was a case in point, or lack of points. The Tigers marched 93 yards in 19 plays but had to settle for a field goal.
"The fact they got three points instead of seven, as the game unfolds, that's significant," he said. "That's livable."
Clemson's offense seemed frustrated by its inability to produce big plays against UVa's defense, which yielded small chunks of yardage but often came up with key stops. On the other side of the ball, the Cavaliers relied mainly on safe passes - tailback Wali Lundy tied a school record with 11 catches - and survived its only major miscue when the Tigers turned an interception into a quick touchdown at the end of the first half.
"They're real patient on offense. They don't put themselves in a position to make mistakes," said Clemson coach Tommy Bowden. "Their defense puts you to sleep a little bit. Coach Groh has a defensive background and he knows what he's doing."
Virginia committed just one penalty - its fewest in Groh's 19 games as coach - and took advantage of consecutive 15-yard flags on Clemson to set up McMullen's go-ahead touchdown. On the play, the All-ACC receiver took an end-around handoff from Matt Schaub and tripped over the quarterback's foot. He lost his balance immediately but managed to lurch into the end zone.
"I started laughing at him - after he scored - because he looked so uncoordinated," Schaub said.
Even Groh good-naturedly poked fun at his star player. "I told him in the locker room afterward, maybe they'll redesign the Heisman Trophy to show Billy stumbling in."
McMullen said he would try to avoid watching a replay of the touchdown, the 24th of his career and least elegant.
"I'll have to hide from that for a while," he said with a smile.
The Cavaliers are not at all ashamed of their performance this season, given the results. That certainly goes for the Clemson game, in which Virginia allowed just 15 rushing yards in the second half and scored three times in the fourth quarter.
"I thought overall - maybe not in terms of artistic appeal, but for what we had to do in the game - that it was our best half of the season," Groh said.
