Wow. Longtime Virginia fans were whooping it up Saturday evening like never before. Road losses were in the past. Time for a new era in Virginia football. That was all the feeling till the second-half, when the collective Wahoo sphincter tightened up like it was 1990 all over again.
Virginia went into halftime with a 16-3 lead, and everything seemed to be clicking on all cylinders, until Indiana roared back and scored 28 points in the second-half.
The orange and blue were down by 8 points in the fourth quarter with 6:34 to go in the game, but marched down the field and tied things up. The drive was capped by Perry Jones’ 3-yard TD run with 1:36 remaining, and was followed by Michael Rocco chucking and completing a two-point conversion to tight end Paul Freedman for the tie.
Things looked bad for the Wahoo faithful as the 4th quarter ticked away with the Hoosiers in charge, that is until defensive end Cam Johnson went in and recored nearly a decapitating hit on IU’s QB Edward Wright-Baker forcing a fumble that Johnson simply took away from Wright-Baker. Mike London’s team was close to the end zone after the possession change, and London opted to play for the field goal. And 4th year kicker Robert Randolph was up for the task as he booted through a 23-yard field goal as the clock expired to give Virginia their first road win since 2009.
Virginia’s quarterback Michael Rocco struggled in his second start of his young college career going 15/29 for 192 yards with 0 TD’s, and two picks. True freshman quarterback David Watford played just a few plays and finished just 1/1 for 7 yards, and he rushed once for just 2 yards.
Perry Jones carried the ball 22 times for 78 yards and 1 TD, and he also was Virginia’s leading receiver with 85 yards on 5 receptions.
I will have a full write-up of this game tomorrow afternoon. Go Hoos! Questions, comments? trent@c-ville.com