That is the mind-set Virginia Coach Mike London has set out to change, and perhaps Saturday night’s 14-13 win over No. 25 Florida State will help. The final 76 seconds of his team’s eighth victory of the season painted a picture of everything London wants his program to be known for — persistence and winning.
Virginia’s triumph set up a winner-take-all game in Charlottesville next Saturday against in-state rival Virginia Tech, with the victor representing the ACC’s Coastal Division in the conference championship game on Dec. 3.
“To come in here and beat this team, it’s unbelievable,” London said. “But that’s the way we should start thinking. That’s the way we want to start thinking. We want to build a program that guys feel confident about their abilities and who we go against and the things that happen.”
The list of things that happened in the closing minutes of Saturday night’s game is long and somewhat convoluted. The adventure began when Virginia linebacker Steve Greer sacked Florida State quarterback E.J. Manuel for a loss of 14 to the Cavaliers 44-yard line, pushing the Seminoles out of field goal range. Florida State punted and Virginia, trailing 13-7, took over at its 25-yard line with just less than two minutes to play.
“You try to tell them all game, ‘You have to go on this drive,’ ” Virginia offensive coordinator Bill Lazor said. “I guess they waited until they really had to go at the end.”
For much of the night, Virginia had struggled to sustain any sort of offensive momentum. But sophomore quarterback Michael Rocco completed a 34-yard pass to redshirt sophomore wideout Tim Smith and then completed a 16-yard pass to junior tailback Perry Jones.
With the ball at the Florida State 10-yard line, the Cavaliers decided to start running the ball. To that point, Virginia had tallied 68 rushing yards, and no one thought redshirt freshman tailback Kevin Parks would take a handoff up the middle and run into the end zone. Until he did. Place kicker Robert Randolph’s extra point put the Cavaliers ahead by one, 14-13, with 1 minute 16 seconds left.
A long kickoff return set up the Seminoles at their 41-yard line, but the Virginia defense held steady. This was how it had been all night, a significant offensive gain by Florida State followed by a staunch second effort by the Cavaliers.
Virginia forced fourth and one at midfield with 38 seconds remaining. Senior defensive end Cam Johnson sacked Manuel, but he grabbed the quarterback’s face mask in the process. The personal foul penalty gave Florida State a new set of downs.
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