Virginia Football finally got their first win of the 2009 campaign Saturday afternoon on a glorious afternoon in Chapel Hill. The Hoos (1-3) were led by Mikell Simpson, who rushed for 102 yards and had another 45 yards receiving. Virginia also got three field goals from kicker Robert Randolph. Defensively, Virginia had several players step-up , including Matt Conrath, who batted 3 balls down, and No. 13 Chase Minnifield who continued his stellar play.
Carolina (3-2) could not seem to move the ball at all, and at times, Virginia dominated almost every aspect of the contest. North Carolina committed 3 costly turnovers and Virginia has beaten the Tar Heels 10 of the last 12 times. UNC only rushed for 39 yards in the entire contest.
Jameel Sewell played a gutsy game at quarterback and got hit several times where I thought he wasn’t going to get up off the turf in Kenan Stadium. Marc Verica came in and spelled Sewell for a series in the second half as Jameel remembered what planet he lived on. Vic hall returned to action from his hip injury, and was everywhere on the field. Vic was out there running the wild-cat at QB, holding on kicks, playing the slot-receiver on offense. He even played some on defense.
Virginia’s defense harassed Carolina’s quarterback T.J. Yates for the entire game. Yates never seemed to look very comfortable in the pocket out there today. Virginia had a couple of key sacks on the day and Matt Conrath played his best game as a Wahoo
today.
This was my fifth game at Kenan Stadium, and I’ve never seen a crowd so quiet. With three minutes to play there were only about 15,000 folks left in the stadium. As I was leaving the stadium and walking back to my parking spot, a Carolina player still dressed in half his uniform was leaving the hospital with his arm in a sling. It was that kind of a day for the Heels.
The Hoos return to action next weekend in a homecoming match-up with Indiana. The game starts at 3:30 p.m on Saturday. I have a feeling a great deal of folks that thought they might skip that game in Scott Stadium have very quickly reconsidered their plans for next weekend. Big win today… Go Hoos.