Virginia went down swinging in their fifth straight loss 34-21 in Death Valley to the ACC Coastal Champs, the Clemson Tigers. In what most certainly will be Al Groh’s last road-game on the Virginia sidelines, the Hoos could not stop the deadly tandem of C.J. Spiller, and former Fork Union product Jacoby Ford. Ford had a great day receiving, and wound-up with 103 yards on six catches . The Tigers won their sixth straight game, and gave their home fans a nice showing on senior-day. Clemson’s coach, Dabo Swinney, was handed a nice 40th birthday present, as he received nearly a one million dollar bonus for reaching the ACC Championship game. WOW! Can you imagine how much fun that is? His salary for this season went from about $800,000 to almost 1.8 million bucks by just making it to the championship game.
Jameel Sewell finished the day 11/17 for 160 yards and one touchdown. The Hoos leading rusher was Mikell Simpson (14 attempts/84 yards), who also played quarterback on a handful of plays in the wildcat formation. Clemson’s baseball player and quarterback Kyle Parker finished the contest 19/26 for 234 yards and two touchdowns.
In the first half, the Hoos ran three trick-plays on a touchdown scoring drive that ended with all-everything and fan-favorite Vic Hall tossing a sweet pass to Joe Torchia in the end-zone.
Virginia is now 3-8 on the season as the vultures are now nearing closer to their prey. The Hoos have one game remaining, Saturday at 3:30 against dreaded rival Virginia Tech.
On a personal note, my wife Harmony and I just found out that we are going to be parents for the first time. Yes! Go Hoos!