The UVA athletic department decided to go “retro” for Saturday’s football contest against Richmond. The players wore the electric orange jerseys of two decades prior. Michael Jackson’s “Bad” and Different Light’s “Walk Like an Egyptian” were blasted through the speakers at Scott Stadium before the game, and during halftime, the marching band moved through a medley of ’80s songs from Phantom of the Opera and Top Gun.
The Cavaliers flew into the danger zone against the Spiders of Richmond. They were scheduled as the cupcake from the lower division, yet UVA’s 52-7 loss to Southern Cal last week was enough to have some pundits picking an upset, particularly because Richmond’s head coach, Mike London, was UVA’s defensive coordinator last year and could use his knowledge of the players against them. But admirable defense combined with just enough offense to pull out the victory.
“We saw this as a significant challenge,” said UVA Head Coach Al Groh after the 16-0 win. “Apparently there were quite a few people in the country who saw us as being the underdog in the game. Players seemed to respond to that challenge pretty well.”
For 45 minutes, however, it appeared that the pundits were prescient—UVA went into the fourth quarter up only 3-0. On its first possession, the Cavalier offense came out with a bang, patiently working down the field until quarterback Peter Lalich hit receiver Kevin Ogletree (who finished with 103 receiving yards) to set up first and goal on Richmond’s 1-yard line.
But like Hurricane Hanna, UVA’s offense over promised and under delivered. The Cavs couldn’t punch it in, settling for a field goal, and every other drive of the half stalled. Less than a minute before halftime, the Cavaliers got to the Spiders’ 15-yard line, but on third down, Lalich threw a pass to a Richmond linebacker who would have returned it for a touchdown had not UVA receiver Cary Koch chased him down.
Groh isn’t exactly known as a gambler, but four times he went for it on fourth and short. Perhaps he should have stuck to being conservative—UVA converted only once, and one of those failures gave Richmond the ball on UVA’s 29-yard line.
Yet even as the offense continually put the game in jeopardy, the Cavalier defense ferociously guarded the endzone drive after drive for the shutout, which required six sacks, two interceptions and a blocked field goal to make happen. Six of Virginia’s points came from cornerback Vic Hall returning a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Groh did the old we’re-happy-for-the-win routine after the game, but he had some choice words for critics of Lalich. The sophomore’s name was in the papers at the end of the week for off-the-field issues—he reportedly violated the terms of his probation for a July underage possession charge.
“We’re here to talk about football,” said Groh. “It’s unfortunate that some people have chosen to misrepresent the player without having all of the facts. Those people should examine themselves.”
After a record crowd of almost 65,000 showed up to watch the USC game last week, a mere 51,000 showed interest in the match-up with the Spiders. Many of the students who did show up, however, brought blank signs to protest the athletic department’s new posterboard ban. ESPN.com’s Rick Reilly had encouraged students to do just that earlier in the week.
UVA doesn’t play another game in Charlottesville until October 4, when Maryland comes to town.