Can Cavaliers continue streak?

Denzel Burrell has been around Wahoo football for five years and even he didn’t know the answer when a sportswriter asked the linebacker on Monday if he knew the last time Georgia Tech won a game in Charlottesville.
No idea, Burrell answered.
When informed that the Yellow Jackets last won here in 1990, Burrell was blown away.
“Wow,” he said. “The pressure’s on.”
Indeed.
Heartbreaking loss
Want to ruin any Virginia football fan’s day? Just bring up
Nov. 3, 1990, the eighth game of the season that year. The Cavaliers were sitting on top of college football, ranked No. 1 in the national polls for the third straight week.
Led by quarterback Shawn Moore, wide receiver Herman Moore and running back Terry Kirby, it was the best offense most of us had ever seen. It was good enough to pile up 512 yards and 38 points on also unbeaten Georgia Tech that evening before 49,700 fans in Scott Stadium and a national television audience.
But it wasn’t enough.
The name Scott Sisson is still cursed by every living, breathing Wahoo to this day. He was the Georgia Tech kicker who made a
37-yard field goal (Ty Lewis still insists the kick wasn’t any good) with seven seconds remaining to crush Virginia’s dreams of a possible run at the national championship in a gut-wrenching,
41-38 defeat.
The Jackets went on to claim a share of a split national championship, winning the UPI title, but not the AP. Virginia went on to the Sugar Bowl, blew a sizeable lead to Tennessee and lost the game.
Memorable win
Oddly, Tech hasn’t won here since in eight tries, four against George Welsh, four against Al Groh. Four Tech teams have come in ranked and lost, particularly the 1999 Yellow Jackets that were ranked No. 7 in the nation and were upset
45-38.
Another memorable upset was in ‘01 when Mike Groh called a hook-and-ladder play that went for a touchdown to lift the Cavs past the
No. 20 Ramblin’ Wreck,
39-38.
Heck, maybe some Wahoo did put a curse on Georgia Tech that November night back in 1990.
Burrell might not have had a clue about the last Yellow Jackets win here, but Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson sure did, even though this is only his second season with the program.
“Georgia Tech hasn’t won up there since Methuselah was a boy,” Johnson quipped.
That brings us to this coming weekend’s visit by the Georgians. This time, Tech will pack the nation’s No. 11 ranking in its bags, fresh off an upset win over Virginia Tech last Saturday at Bobby Dodd Field.
Question is, can Al’s boys do it again? They’re on one of those patented Groh rolls that are born from disaster and usually play out well in the end. This one is HUGE. If Virginia, currently the only team without an ACC loss, can find a way to keep its streak over Georgia Tech alive, then the Cavaliers can take a giant step toward a Coastal Division title.
If Virginia can beat Georgia Tech, the Cavs can beat anybody in the league.
The only problem is that none of us know the status of quarterback Jameel Sewell, running back Mikell Simpson and defensive end Matt Conrath, arguably UVa’s top defensive player, for the contest. The ones who know, aren’t tellin’.
“This is about as good a challenge as we could look for this week,” Groh said Monday during his weekly press conference. “Sure could make a pretty strong argument that [Georgia Tech] is the hottest team in the ACC, and plays with a unique system in two of the three elements of their team.”
Groh was speaking of Tech’s option offense, something akin to Bear Bryant’s wishbone that he used to run in the 1970’s and ‘80’s, and some sophisticated schemes on special teams, both of which cause opponents painstakingly longer preparation time.
The Cavaliers had to face this yardage-chomping monster last season in Atlanta and after struggling the first couple of series, shut Tech’s offense down for the most part the rest of the day in an upset win. Few defenses had the success against the Jackets that Virginia enjoyed that day.
Groh said that Tech’s special teams have been ahead of the curve for the past two seasons and that’s no mistake.
“As a result, they frequently gain a big field position advantage in each one of the turnarounds, which then puts this ground-eating offense in a very advantageous position to start with,” Groh said. “It’s clear to see how they’ve tried to line the two of them up together and it’s worked very effectively. They’ll make it quite a bit of a different type of a week for us in many respects.”
Georgia Tech will bring the nation’s No. 2 rushing offense to town, averaging 281.57 yards per game, which is the chief reason the Jackets are also averaging 32.43 points per game.
It’s a grind-it-out, chop-blocking, milk-the-clock ground attack designed to control the ball, control the pace of the game.
Like Welsh said the other day, most people don’t know how to defend it properly.
Stop Tech’s run and you’ve got it made, even with the Jackets featuring big-time receiver Demaryius Thomas, who’s averaging 24.9 yards per catch and has already accumulated 671 receiving yards and four touchdowns.
The option lulls secondaries to sleep, then strikes with a big pass play.
It’s assignment football in its purest form: the cornerback must cover the outside receiver; the safety must support the run defense and normally covers the pitch back; the defensive end attacks the quarterback to force the pitch; and a defensive tackle or linebacker is assigned to tackle the fullback on the dive play every snap.
One mistake, one blown assignment and
quarterback Josh Nesbitt, a burly guy for a QB at 214 pounds (we think he’s heavier than that) or tailback Jonathan Dwyer (the 2008 ACC offensive player of the year) can go 60, 80 yards to paydirt.
Groh said Monday that Nesbitt’s maturity in the offense is evident, that his split-second decision-making is sharp. No wonder that the quarterback is Georgia Tech’s leading rusher this season.
The Jackets, however, aren’t flawless. Miami used its superior athleticism to shut down Johnson’s option. Virginia will have to use its smarts to do the same.
Even though Tech has already qualified for bowl status with a 6-1 record
(4-1 ACC) and is scoring lots of points, it is surrendering them at an alarming rate. Mississippi State got 31, Florida State hung 44 on the Jackets, and Clemson managed 27. Overall, they’re giving up 26 a game, quite a lot for a team ranked on the edge of the top 10.
Just for good measure, one of UVa’s best players from the 1990 team, All-ACC lineman Ray Roberts, will return to Scott Stadium to have his jersey retired.
This time around, Virginia’s going to need all the good luck it can get.