Honoring a Virginia legend

Fourteen years later, random Virginia fans still approach Anthony Poindexter on the street, in the grocery store, in restaurants and ask about one play in his illustrious football career.

“The Florida State play ... all the time,” Poindexter said just a few days before UVa finally gets around to retiring his jersey in a special pre-game ceremony this afternoon (3:13 p.m. on the field at Scott Stadium).

The FSU play

Now defensive backs coach for the Cavaliers, Poindexter played a key role in one of the most glorious plays in Wahoo lore on Nov. 2, 1995, when he and teammate Adrian Burnim stopped Florida State running back Warrick Dunn inches from the goal line on the final play of the game. The tackle preserved UVa’s 33-28 upset over the No. 2 Seminoles, ending FSU’s 29-game ACC winning streak since joining the league in 1992.

The play is forever frozen in the minds of every Virginia fan who witnessed the dramatic ending.

Poindexter, who came to Charlottesville from Jefferson Forest High School in Lynchburg, was only a redshirt freshman at the time. From that moment on, those who didn’t already know quickly realized that he was something special.

He was the fiercest hitter this columnist has ever seen in college football, and Poindexter’s coach, George Welsh, ranks him among the most elite.

No fear whatsoever

“I can’t say Anthony’s the only one, but he’s one of the two or three [fiercest hitters Welsh ever saw],” the coach said Friday. “He had no physical fear. I had a guy at Navy like that, Chet Moeller, but he wasn’t as big or fast as Poindexter. He was one of the few Midshipmen that tested psychologically that he had no physical fear for his body.”

Welsh and the Cavaliers won a fierce recruiting battle over Tennessee, Virginia Tech and North Carolina for Poindexter, who played several positions in high school. In the end, UVa recruiters Danny Wilmer and Art Markos got their man. Both of those men will be on the field along with Welsh, Poindexter and several of Dex’s teammates and players he has coached in today’s ceremony.

“What convinced me that we had something special was that summer when he played in the high school all-star game and a couple of those coaches told me, ‘You’ve got yourself a great football player,’” Welsh remembered. “That was the first indication.”

Poindexter had a knee problem early in college, and UVa, well-stocked at safety, redshirted him.

The following season, Dex played as a nickel back and as a backup safety, finding it tough to break into a lineup that included Paul London and Percy Ellsworth. As Welsh pointed out, Poindexter was just as good, but lacked experience.

So, Welsh and defensive coordinator Rick Lantz played him as a nickel back and blitzed him.

In that FSU game, Welsh went to a three-man rush instead of the standard four and moved the athletic Poindexter to an outside linebacker.

With the game on the line in the waning seconds, the Seminoles snapped the ball directly to Dunn, who was standing beside QB Danny Kanell in the shotgun formation and Dunn streaked toward the goal line. Skeet Jones had smelled out the play and started screaming to teammates. Jamie Sharper got a hand on Dunn’s ankle and slowed him, maybe even staggered him as the Seminole dived toward the end zone.

But it was Poindexter and Burnim that were there to stop him, setting off one of the wildest celebrations in Wahoo history.

To this day, Dunn describes the play as the most disappointing moment of his football career and, according to those close to him, will go to his grave thinking that he scored.

“Oh, I know he didn’t,” Poindexter said this week. “If I thought he got in, I wouldn’t have jumped up in the air like I did.”

While that is the play Virginia fans will remember, Welsh said there were too many great plays by Poindexter over the length of his career to try and pick out a few. Dex, primarily a star safety, said the same thing.

There was the incredibly physical performance against Ricky Williams’ Texas team, when Poindexter & Co. punished the Longhorns star all night. After the season, Williams said it was the toughest defense he had ever played against.

There were the 19 tackles against Virginia Tech in 1996 and 19 more against Maryland in 1998.

His bone-jarring hits drew oohs and ahhs from crowds in every stadium, home or away. If he were around today, he would be a walking ESPN highlight tape.

This afternoon’s pre-game ceremony should be a treat for Wahoo fans and hopefully there will be a highlight film of some of “Dex’s Greatest Hits,” on the Scott Stadium big screen so everyone can see what this guy was all about.

“It’s a great honor that this program and this school thought so highly of me,” Poindexter said about his jersey retirement (UVa doesn’t retire football numbers any longer, just jerseys). “A lot of people helped me achieve this, my teammates and coaching staff. You can never do this on your own.”

As always, Poindexter remained humble. There was never a hint of an ego with No. 3, who was the ACC defensive player of the year in 1998 and was one of only two Virginia players to become two-time All-Americans.

Asked about how he’ll handle things today, the assistant coach chuckled that his main goal was to have his players and the rest of the Cavaliers ready to play against Indiana, that he is an insignificant part of what today is really all about, trying to get a win.

“I’ll probably enjoy it more after the game is over,” Poindexter said. “It’s still a working day for me.”

There are so many Poindexter stories out there, they won’t fit into one newspaper article, so The Daily Progress will have more on No. 3’s career in Sunday’s game coverage.

For now, Welsh said something Friday that wraps up the Poindexter career better than anything else.

“I’ll give you a quote from [Penn State coach] Joe Paterno about Ted Kwalick [the Lions’ first two-time All-American],” Welsh said. “Paterno said, ‘God intended Ted Kwalick to be a football player.’ I feel the same way about Anthony Poindexter.”