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Comeback trail ends
Interception halts UVa's bid to win from 23 down
By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   ATLANTA - It would have taken the biggest comeback in school history Saturday for Virginia to have rallied past Georgia Tech.

    The Cavaliers nearly pulled it off.

    One week after overcoming a 21-point second-half deficit to defeat North Carolina, UVa fell behind by 23 points before falling to host Georgia Tech 23-15.

    The Cavaliers' bid for a seventh straight victory didn't end until an interception by Tech safety Jon Muyres at the Yellow Jackets' 14-yard line with 1:25 remaining.

    It was the only turnover of the game by the Cavaliers and quarterback Matt Schaub, who set school records for completions and attempts in finishing 41-of-58 for 372 yards and one touchdown.

    "We were feeling pretty good about what we were doing and tried to take a shot down the field," said Schaub, who had completed six of seven passes in taking the Cavaliers from their 14-yard line to the Tech 49, where they had third-and-one.

    "I threw it a little too far. It was a poor decision on my part. After I released it, I was hoping I could somehow bring it back into my hand."

    The Cavaliers (6-3, 4-2 ACC) felt the same way about a first half in which they were outgained 297 yards to 137.

    "Every game, we want to have things together from the start," UVa linebacker Merrill Robertson said. "We knew it was going to catch up with us pretty soon and today it did."

    The Yellow Jackets (5-3, 2-3) picked up where they left off in 2000, when they roared to a 21-0 first-quarter lead here and handed UVa its first shutout loss, 35-0, in 196 games.

    By the time Schaub threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jason Snelling with 11:21 remaining in the third quarter, the Cavaliers had gone more than 118 minutes without scoring at Grant Field, dating back to the 1998 meeting between the teams, when Georgia Tech overcame a 38-17 third-quarter deficit to win 41-38.

    The Yellow Jackets had outscored UVa 82-0 over that span, a run not seen in these parts since 1916, when the Yellow Jackets defeated Cumberland College 222-0, an NCAA record that has not been challenged.

    Georgia Tech took control early Saturday, stopping Virginia on three plays to start the game, then getting a 26-yard return from All-ACC specialist Kelly Rhino.

    A 37-yard run by Gordon Clinkscale on the first play from scrimmage got the Yellow Jackets to the UVa 7-yard line, and they were ahead 7-0 on a 1-yard run by walk-on P.J. Daniels with 12:48 remaining in the first quarter.

    Virginia moved down the field quickly on its next possession but had nothing to show for its efforts after Kurt Smith was wide to the right on a 25-yard field-goal attempt with 7:58 left. It was Smith's second miss inside the 30 in as many weeks.

    Two subsequent Georgia Tech drives resulted in Luke Manget field goals, but the crushing blow was a 12-yard touchdown pass from A.J. Suggs to Kerry Watkins with 2:46 left in the half, followed by a 19-yard Manget field goal as time expired.

    "We didn't play well to go down 13-0," UVa coach Al Groh said. "What I didn't like was what happened between 13-0 and 23-0. That's when we fell out of character a little bit."

    Suggs, a transfer from Tennessee who had enjoyed mixed success in his first season of eligibility in his hometown, was 17-of-26 for 160 yards in the first half.

    "I don't know where that guy came from," UVa safety Alex Seals said. "It's not the same guy I saw on film."

    After spreading the field in the first half, the Yellow Jackets seemed content to run time off the clock in the second half, when Virginia seemed to threaten on every possession. The Cavaliers penetrated Georgia Tech's 35-yard line on six second-half possessions but had only the two touchdowns to show for their efforts.

    After Schaub's 8-yard touchdown run and subsequent two-point conversion run with 2:58 remaining, the Cavaliers had three timeouts remaining and did not try an onside kick. Their only hope was to stop the Yellow Jackets on downs, which they accomplished when Richie Bedesem and Seals stopped Daniels for a 1-yard loss on third-and-one.

    Dan Dyke's 50-yard punt pinned the Cavaliers deep in their territory with 2:15 remaining and no timeouts, but Schaub completed five straight passes, the first four to Alvin Pearman. After an incompletion, a 9-yard pass to Wali Lundy got the Cavaliers past midfield.

    UVa hoped to get Georgia Tech's defensive backs to come up on a play fake, but the secondary only had eyes for McMullen, who already had 10 receptions. McMullen, looking for open space, cut his route short but Schaub already had let the ball go.

    "The ball went where it was designed to go," Groh said. "If we had that situation again, with another chance on third-and-one, we might take a different approach."

    The Cavaliers have four games remaining in which to get the one victory they need in order to be eligible to play in a bowl, but it was the conference race that had most of Groh's attention in midweek interviews.

    "If you [think] with two losses that we're probably out of the championship race, then you're correct," Groh said.

 

 

Groh not kicking himself for decisions
 
By DOUG DOUGHTY
THE ROANOKE TIMES

   ATLANTA - No one can say what would have happened Saturday if Virginia freshman Kurt Smith had not been wide right on a 25-yard field-goal attempt midway through the first quarter.

    The final score, 23-15, suggests that Georgia Tech still would have won, but the missed field goal certainly changed the way UVa coach Al Groh played the game.

    Groh later went for first downs in three fairly routine field-goal situations - fourth-and-one from the Georgia Tech 22, fourth-and-four from the Tech 6 and fourth-and-five from the Tech 25 - and the Cavaliers were stopped on all three occasions.

    For the game, UVa penetrated the Georgia Tech 35 on seven possessions. The results: two touchdowns, three failed fourth-down plays, a punt and the missed field goal.

    "That was the third kick out of four that had been missed," said Groh, who had watched Smith miss a 29-yard field goal and an extra point in a 37-27 victory over North Carolina.

    "I tried not to have a knee-jerk reaction to it, but all I can go on is what I see. At that point, I decided, if we got in another critical situation, we would probably run a play that utilized all 11 players and not just one."

    Groh later referred to a speaking engagement in Roanoke last spring, where he told boosters that his No.1 concern for 2001 was the kicking game.

    An open date will give Groh some time to take a long look at the kicking game, "but I've been taking a pretty long look at it since March," he said.

    "Maybe I need a set of binoculars to see it clearer."

    Smith has handled kickoffs and field goals all season. Bryan Smith handled extra points until he missed two point-after attempts Aug.31 at Florida State, at which point he gave way to Kurt Smith, no relation.

    The Cavaliers have another kicker, true freshman Connor Hughes, who has not played and is in line for a redshirt year unless activated. It is unlikely that punter Tom Hagan, who has experience as a place-kicker, will pull double duty.

    Hagan, plagued by inconsistency in recent weeks, had the best combination of distance and hang time Saturday that he has had all season. Hagan's five punts went for 42, 44, 30, 43 and 42 yards. The 30-yarder was a "pooch" punt caught by Kelley Rhino at the Georgia Tech 9.

    STREAKS: Virginia was outgained for the sixth straight game, although the Cavaliers trimmed a 297-137 halftime differential to 431-425. ... UVa quarterback Matt Schaub has thrown touchdown passes in nine straight games, including a 12-yarder Saturday to freshman fullback Jason Snelling.

    BY THE NUMBERS: Schaub, who was 41-of-58 for 376 yards, surpassed the school records he already held for attempts and completions in a game and had a career high in passing yardage. His 376 yards were second in school history behind Aaron Brooks ' 390 against Virginia Tech in 1998. ... Virginia has been outscored 172-77 in the first half but has outscored the opposition 192-76 in the second half, including 15-0 Saturday.

    INJURIES: Right offensive guard Elton Brown, who injured an ankle against North Carolina, started Saturday but later gave way to Ben Carber. ... Junior tailback Marquis Weeks, averaging more than 40 yards on seven kickoff returns before Saturday, was helped off the field with a leg injury after his only return Saturday.

    NEXT UP: The Cavaliers (6-3) will have an open date, their second of the season, before visiting Penn State (5-3) on Nov.9 at a time to be determined. The Nittany Lions, 13-7 losers Saturday at Ohio State, lost in Charlottesville last year 20-14.

 

 

Homecoming spread
Offense surges, defense holds on
Jack Wilkinson - Staff
Sunday, October 27, 2002
 

Georgia Tech was in danger of going 0-for-October. And that wasn't all.

Lose to Virginia, and the November forecast looked bleak against N.C. State, Florida State and Georgia, interspersed with a little dab of Duke.

Beat Virginia, and Tech might avoid a rare no-bowl, home-for-the-holidays December.

"Oh, man, it's a must win," Tech offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien said after the Jackets beat the Cavaliers 23-15 Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium. "You couldn't look at it as anything but a must win. Not a panic situation, but we had to win this game."

"I'm still sweating, a little bit," said Tech coach Chan Gailey, who could finally relax and dry off when Jeremy Muyres leaped to intercept Matt Schaub's long pass at the Tech 14 with 1:25 left. "Looked like they got a little greedy there at the end, throwing it down the field," Gailey said of Virginia (6-3, 4-2 ACC), which had moved from its 14 to the Tech 49 on six short completions before Schaub's only interception.

If Virginia was greedy, Tech was giddy. After a disappointing home loss to Wake Forest and an embarrassing second half at Maryland that dissolved into a 34-10 defeat, Tech faced a season coming asunder.

"It could've. I think that's what happened a little bit last year," said quarterback A.J. Suggs, who completed 26 of 41 passes for 220 yards and a 12-yard touchdown pass to Kerry Watkins. "We lost a couple in a row and went down from there. We had to get this one. Going up to N.C. State next week, it was huge for us to get some confidence."

Tech (5-3, 2-3) ended Virginia's six-game winning streak, and stopped its two-game skid. That leaves the Jackets one victory shy of becoming bowl-eligible.

"We don't want to be known as the team that broke the streak [of five consecutive bowls]," said linebacker Daryl Smith, who made seven tackles after popping out his left shoulder in practice Tuesday. "If we'd lost this game we'd have kept fighting, but it would have hurt."

Instead, it merely frightened a homecoming crowd of 42,727. In its finest offensive display since the BYU victory, Tech scored on five of its six first-half possessions (including three Luke Manget field goals) to take a 23-0 halftime lead. After P.J. Daniels, the redshirt freshman tailback who had 95 yards rushing, scored on a 1-yard run on Tech's opening drive, the Jackets went to a no-huddle, shotgun offense late in the second quarter. Suggs, throwing in rhythm, took Tech to two scores: the 12-yard touchdown pass to Watkins, one of seven receptions for the ACC's leading scorer; and Manget's third field goal.

Yet Tech was well aware of Virginia's second-half excellence. The Cavaliers had outscored their opponents 177-76 after halftime and rallied to win four times after being tied or behind in the fourth quarter.

"Every player out there knew," said Muyres, part of a defense that held Virginia to 53 yards rushing. "We knew what happened to North Carolina [which blew a 21-0 halftime lead against Virginia last week]. We knew the game wasn't over."

Not with Schaub throwing for 257 of his 372 passing yards in the second half and Tech playing conservatively on offense. Schaub hit Jason Snelling for an 11-yard score to open the second half, then scored from 8 yards out and added a two-point conversion to cut it to 23-15 with 2:58 left. On Virginia's final drive, Schaub used swing and screen passes before Tech defended a pump-and-go to Billy McMullen perfectly.

"We needed this win," Muyres said, "more than anything."

 

 

Jackets find promise in new offense
John Hollis - Staff
Sunday, October 27, 2002
 

The fast break is back for Georgia Tech, and it couldn't have come back at a more welcome time.

A struggling Yellow Jackets offense found just the panacea for which it had been looking in the form of a no-huddle, spread offense. The fast-paced tempo helped Tech ring up all of its points in the first half.

"We felt like if we could spread them out, we could move the football on them," offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien said. "I thought that was real effective for us."

Tech had first unveiled the offense in the second half of its loss to Maryland. On Saturday, the Jackets used it almost exclusively, lining up in four- and five-receiver sets out of a shotgun formation. It showed immediate results. Quarterback A.J. Suggs handed the ball off to tailback Gordon Clinkscale for a 37-yard gain on Tech's first play from scrimmage.

The Jackets also caught Virginia off guard by going with a no-huddle, hurry-up tempo. The ploy helped Tech total 431 yards in offense and achieve almost perfect balance between the run (211 yards) and the pass (220).

"It got people spread out, and we were real balanced out of that," wide receiver Kerry Watkins said. "They were totally off balance. They were tired in the first half."

Tech practiced the spread all week in an attempt to ignite a struggling offense. Suggs, who called about 30 percent of the plays at the line of scrimmage, made good decisions most of the game and finished 26-for-41 passing for 220 yards and a touchdown.

"It's just fun," Suggs said. "For me, it kind of puts me in the role of offensive coordinator for a few series."

Clinkscale finished with 74 yards on 10 carries. In the spread formation, the running back has the opportunity to read the defense while lining up before deciding where to run.

Walk-on P.J. Daniels rushed for a career-high 95 yards.

Watkins caught seven passes for 70 yards and a touchdown. He was among seven Yellow Jackets who caught at least two passes.

"[The receivers] love it," Watkins said of the spread attack. "We know the ball is going to be spread around, and we're going to get a lot of one-on-one situations."

 

 

Cavs' comeback denied
Wendy Parker - Staff
Sunday, October 27, 2002
 

Just when the "Comeback Cavs" were threatening to divine another miracle Saturday, Jeremy Muyres stepped in front of Billy McMullen's sideline route and put an end to Virginia's six-game winning streak.

He also eased some of the doubts about Georgia Tech's defense, exploited in losses to Wake Forest and Maryland.

Muyres' interception came late in the fourth quarter as Virginia was deep in Tech territory and trailing by eight. Muyres ran under Matt Schaub's poorly thrown pass, then did some nifty footwork to get both feet in bounds.

After sitting in dazed silence following Tech's collapse at Virginia a year ago, Muyres exuded as much relief as satisfaction.

"Words can't really explain it," said Muyres, who was battling a flu bug.

The bug that has bitten Tech in the second half of games this year resulted in a "demoralized" defensive unit, according to coordinator Jon Tenuta. He said poor tackling, an inability to make key stops and a lack of intensity were to blame. This week, the defensive seniors called a meeting among themselves. It took some time to clear the air.

"Everyone said what was on their minds," Muyres said. "There was a lot to say. But the coaches had a great game plan, and we had a great week of practice. When you can do that, good things are going to happen."

Virginia, which scored 37 points in the second half against North Carolina last week, spotted Tech 23 points in the first half. The Cavaliers then went to a spread attack that stretched the Jackets thin. But Tech showed resilience, and Virginia's eagerness to gamble aided the cause.

"They stayed out there and they fought through some tough situations," Tech coach Chan Gailey said. "It was a gutty performance by the defense today."

After holding Virginia scoreless and allowing only 137 yards in the first half, Tech weathered a rough third quarter, then denied the visitors points on back-to-back possessions. On fourth down from the Tech 6, Cory Collins tipped a pass in the end zone intended for McMullen, the All-ACC receiver who destroyed Tech a year ago.

On the Cavs' next series, the Jackets shook Schaub (41-for-58, 372 yards and a touchdown) by blitzing three times, including a foiled fourth-down pass on the Tech 25.

"They've got a team that plays well in the second half," Collins said. "We pretty much contained them in the first half, so we were expecting something different. I like it when the opponents go for it on fourth down. For me, it's a gut check."

Tech's defensive turnaround isn't complete. But the improvements made and the satisfaction of holding on for 60 minutes should hearten the unit going into next week's game against N.C. State.

"Tackling and intensity," linebacker Daryl Smith said. "Those were the two biggest things that we did better, and we got it done tonight."

 

 

Second-half rally falls short this time

By Dave Johnson
Daily Press

Published October 27, 2002

ATLANTA -- Virginia coach Al Groh repeatedly called it a non-issue. But somehow, you knew the Cavaliers' fascinating habit of winning despite sleeping through the first half would bite them in the end.

Virginia spotted Georgia Tech a 23-point lead - no big deal, right? - but this time didn't have enough second-half magic to extend what was its longest winning streak in eight years. The Cavaliers outplayed the Yellow Jackets after halftime and had the ball with a chance to force overtime, but Matt Schaub's lone interception among a school-record 58 passes sealed Tech's 23-15 victory Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium.

Dating back to last season, this was the 12th consecutive game in which U.Va. outscored its opponent in the second half. But this time, the Cavs (6-3, 4-2 ACC) couldn't avoid losing for the first time since Aug. 31.

"I don't want to take too much credit for valiant," Groh said. "That means you're willing to settle for second place. We didn't play very well in the beginning, and we paid the price for it."

Kickoff came at 3:45 p.m. By 4 o'clock, Tech (5-3, 2-3) led 7-0. That's how long it took Virginia to go three-and-out after the opening kickoff and the Yellow Jackets to go 44 yards in three plays, capped by P.J. Daniels' 1-yard run. Tech scored on five of its six first-half possessions. The Cavs blew their best chance when Kurt Smith badly pushed a 25-yard field-goal attempt.

Sound familiar? A week ago, Virginia trailed North Carolina 21-0 at halftime. Four weeks earlier, it fell behind Wake Forest 27-10. The Cavaliers entered having been outscored 149-77 in the first half, but with a 177-76 edge in the second half. Of the six consecutive games Virginia had won, it trailed at the half in four.

"I think, in the back of our minds, some of us thought we could just turn it on and off," safety Shernard Newby said.

After the worst half it had played since - well, since the previous week -Virginia began the third quarter with a seven-play, 62-yard drive that ended with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Schaub to fullback Jason Snelling. Here they go again. But unlike Wake and UNC, Tech kept its poise.

"They're a good team in coming back and we haven't done so well in the second half," said Tech linebacker Recardo Wimbush, whose team was outscored 28-7 after halftime in last week's 34-10 loss to Maryland. "But we came out with a win."

The Cavs didn't score again until 2:58 remained in the game, when Schaub's 8-yard run and two-point conversion made it 23-15.

After forcing the Jackets to punt, Virginia took over at its 14-yard line with 2:15 remaining and no timeouts. Forty-two seconds later, after a series of short Schaub throws, Virginia was at the Tech 49.

But, looking long for wideout Billy McMullen, Schaub was picked off by safety Jeremy Muyres. There appeared to be a miscommunication between Schaub and McMullen, but each blamed himself.

"He threw it up and gave me a chance," McMullen said, "but I was out of place."

"I should have scrambled for the first down or thrown it away," said Schaub, who completed 41 passes, another school mark. "Bad decision on my part."

Schaub's counterpart, A.J. Suggs, was crisp with 26 completions in 41 attempts and was never sacked. Tech ran for 211 yards, 95 coming from Daniels - a walk-on, believe it or not. Conversely, U.Va.'s leading rusher, Snelling, had 14 yards on one carry.

Virginia has a week off before visiting Penn State on Nov. 9. Sometime between now and then, the Cavaliers might want to review what happened Saturday and learn from it.

"We just can't wait until the second half to make things happen," tailback Alvin Pearman said. "The last couple of games, we had so much success in the second half that we just weren't ready in the first half. I think we learned a valuable lesson today."
 

 

Half short
Poor 1st 30 minutes finally costs U.Va.

BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Oct 27, 2002

ATLANTA - Once again, Virginia's football team won the second-half battle. But that was a hollow victory for the Cavaliers, who lost the war " a crucial ACC game " to Georgia Tech yesterday.

The Yellow Jackets built a 23-point halftime lead and held on for a 23-15 win before a homecoming crowd of 42,727 at Bobby Dodd Stadium, where U.Va. hasn't won since 1994.

The loss ended the Cavaliers' six-game winning streak and dashed their hopes of capturing at least a share of the ACC title. The victory was the eighth straight for the home team in this series, which Georgia Tech leads 13-11-1.

"We didn't play very well in the beginning, and we paid the price for it, Virginia's second-year" coach Al Groh said.

For the 12th straight game, the Wahoos outscored their opponent in the second half, a stretch in which they're 8-4. But a week after U.Va. rallied from a 21-0 halftime deficit to beat North Carolina, its reservoir of heroics ran dry.

"We might just be waiting too long to get it started, senior wideout Billy McMullen said. "This one came back to bite us in the butt.

"We were on our way back, but you can't make that many mistakes, first half and second half, and still win."

For all their breakdowns yesterday, the Cavaliers (4-2, 6-3) still had an opportunity to force overtime. After stopping the Yellow Jackets (2-3, 5-3) on third and 1 and forcing a punt, Virginia took over at its 14 with 2:15 left.

Junior quarterback Matt Schaub, who completed 41 of 58 passes, both school records, for a career-high 372 yards, quickly reeled off five straight completions, four of them going to backup tailback Alvin Pearman. Then, after an incompletion, Schaub passed to tailback Wali Lundy for a 9-yard gain.

But on third and 1 from Georgia Tech's 49, Schaub went long to wideout Billy McMullen, who was streaking down the left sideline. McMullen, however, saw double coverage, broke off his pattern and cut inside to an open area.

"The ball went where it was designed," Groh said.

Jackets safety Jeremy Muyres deftly intercepted the ball near the sideline with 1:25 left, and U.Va., which came in averaging 31.8 points, had its first loss since Aug. 31.

"Our defense had an unbelievable performance," said Chan Gailey, Georgia Tech's first-year coach.

Schaub took the blame for the interception.

"It was a poor decision on my part," he said.

McMullen, who had 10 catches for 87 yards, disagreed.

"I just read the coverage wrong," he said.

With 7:58 left in the opening quarter and Georgia Tech up 7-0, Virginia's Kurt Smith missed a 25-yard field-goal attempt. That miss seriously influenced subsequent decisions by Groh and his offensive coordinator, Bill Musgrave. Against UNC, Smith had missed a field-goal attempt and an extra point,

"I try not to have a knee-jerk reaction to it, but all I can go on is what I see," Groh said. "At that point I decided that in any other criticial situations we would probably run a play that utilized all 11 players instead of just one."

In the second quarter, with the score 13-0, U.Va. failed to convert on fourth and 2 from the Jackets' 23. On the first play of the fourth quarter, with the score 23-7, the Cavs attempted a pass on fourth and 4 from the Tech 6. It was incomplete. Five minutes later, Virginia gambled again, on fourth and 5 from the Tech 25, and failed to convert again.

After surrendering 297 yards in the first half, U.Va. held the Jackets to 134 after the break. The defense "certainly responded to the challenge that was in front of them," Groh said.

So did his offense, which amassed 288 yards in the second half. Virginia, blanked 35-0 by Jackets in 2000, didn't score in the final 20 minutes, 6 seconds of its 1998 loss at Bobby Dodd Stadium either. Its Atlanta scoring drought finally ended with 11:21 left in the third quarter yesterday when Schaub threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to fullback Jason Snelling, a freshman from L.C. Bird High.

With 2:58 left, Schaub ran 8 yards for a touchdown that pulled Virginia to 23-13. Then he ran for the conversion to make it 23-15 and lift the Cavaliers' hopes.

"I thought we rediscovered who we were a little bit," Groh said of his team's second-half play.

For the first time this season, U.Va. failed to record a sack. The lack of pressure allowed the Jackets' heretofore inconsistent quarterback, junior A.J. Suggs, to complete 26 of 41 passes for 220 yards and one TD. Suggs wasn't intercepted.

"I thought the quarterback was the key to the game," Groh said.
 

 

U.VA. NOTES

Oct 27, 2002

NO GIMMES: Virginia (4-2, 6-3) failed in its first attempt to become bowl-eligible, losing 23-15 to ACC rival Georgia Tech yesterday, but still has four regular-season games left.

Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, their closing stretch looks brutal. They visit 18th-ranked Penn State on Nov. 9, play host to No. 12 N.C. State a week later and entertain defending ACC champion Maryland on Nov. 30. They end the regular season Nov. 30 against third-ranked Virginia Tech at Lane Stadium.

The Wolfpack and the Hokies are unbeaten. Maryland has won five straight games.

"Since the beginning, we said, with the team and so forth, that this is a season that will test our resolve from start to finish," Virginia coach Al Groh said.

Nothing has changed, Groh added. "That resolve will continue to be tested right through the first of December."

COSTLY INJURY: Virginia outside linebacker Darryl Blackstock entered tied for the ACC lead with eight sacks. But the freshman from Newport News hurt his back in the first quarter and, though he stayed in the game, finished with only two tackles. The Cavaliers failed to record a sack for the first time this season.

"I just couldn't get off the ball like I wanted," Blackstock said as he struggled to put on a sock in the locker room. "I think I tore something in my lower back. I was all out of whack after that."

LIKE CLOCKWORK: With the score 23-7, the clock continued to run after Virginia quarterback Matt Schaub threw an incompletion with about five minutes remaining. Groh protested, and after Schaub completed a 16-yard pass to backup fullback Jason Snelling on the next play, the officials stopped the game to discuss the matter.

"You guys see what I saw?" Groh asked reporters after the game.

The officials apparently didn't. To Groh's disbelief, they declined to add any time to the clock.

"I was told that after discussion between the people in the press box and people on the field, everybody representing the Atlantic Coast Conference thought the call was correct," he said.

Had those precious seconds not ticked off, Groh said, Virginia wouldn't have had to use all its timeouts on the Yellow Jackets' penultimate possession.

RISING TO THE OCCASION: Snelling, a freshman from L.C. Bird High, had eight catches for 93 yards - both career bests - and one touchdown.

"We gave him a little bit more to do today than what we've been giving him," Groh said, "and typical of what he's been doing all the way, he stepped up with more."

UNLIKELY HERO: The Cavaliers' top rusher was Snelling, who gained 14 yards on his only carry. Redshirt freshman P.J. Daniels, a walk-on, led the Jackets with 95 yards on 21 carries.

"What you have to do is just keep giving effort until the coaches see you," Daniels said. "That's what my parents used to tell me, because I used to go home and tell them how I felt."

FORMER COLLEAGUES: The head coaches in yesterday's game - Groh and Georgia Tech's Chan Gailey - worked together at Air Force in 1979. Groh was defensive coordinator; Gailey, a defensive assistant.

Groh (Jets) and Gailey (Cowboys) are among the eight head coaches in Division I-A who are former NFL head coaches. The others: Southern Cal's Pete Carroll, Oregon State's Dennis Erickson, South Carolina's Lou Holtz, Hawaii's June Jones, Arizona's John Mackovic and UNLV's John Robinson.

ALUMNI NEWS: Since returning to the ACC in 2001, Jon Tenuta is 2-0 against his alma mater. Tenuta was defensive coordinator last season at North Carolina, which beat Virginia 30-24. The 1982 U.Va. graduate now runs Georgia Tech's defense.

Tenuta, who began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at U.Va., was interviewed during the search for George Welsh's successor. Welsh retired as Virginia's coach in December 2000.

UP NEXT: The Cavaliers (6-3), idle next weekend, play Nov. 9 at Penn State (5-3). The 18th-ranked Nittany Lions lost yesterday at No. 4 Ohio State.

U.Va. closed the 2001 regular season with a 20-14 win over Penn State at Scott Stadium. In the teams' last meeting in State College, Virginia won 14-6 in 1989. PSU leads the series 4-2. - Jeff White