Great talent, great leadership: George Welsh and the 10-Win Season in ‘89

By Jerry Ratcliffe

The only 10-win season in Virginia football history started and ended on a rather precarious note in George Welsh’s eighth year at the helm of the Cavaliers in 1989.

UVa opened the season in a long-awaited contest against defending national champion Notre Dame in the Kickoff Classic, staged at the Meadowlands. The No. 2-ranked Irish, led by Coach Lou Holtz, easily defeated the Cavaliers, 36-13.

The season ended at the Florida Citrus Bowl in a 31-21 defeat by 11th-ranked Illinois, led by future NFL quarterback Jeff George.

Just about everything in between — except for a 34-20 road loss at No. 15 Clemson — was pretty memorable.

“That was the first team we had that won a lot of games,” Welsh said during a week-long series of interviews a few years back. “Great talent, great leadership.

“The offense, the execution was unbelievable and we had a pretty good defense,” the Hall of Famer said. “I was surprised when I looked up the scores of that season and there were some close games. I thought we had blown everybody away, but we beat Louisville, 16-15 thanks to a long run by Shawn [Moore], and a field goal. Penn State was 14-6. We did what we had to do.”

After that opening loss to Notre Dame, the Cavaliers traveled to Happy Valley and stunned No. 12 Penn State on the strength of UVa’s passing combo of Moore-to-Moore (Shawn & Herman).

Virginia then reeled off three more wins in a row over Georgia Tech, Duke and William & Mary, before Clemson interrupted the win streak. The Cavaliers bounced back and closed the regular season with six victories in a row: UNC, Wake, Louisville, No. 18 N.C. State, Virginia Tech, and Maryland.

Welsh, who never beat Notre Dame while at Navy, really wanted the early season kickoff game against Notre Dame. While he knew his team would be a decided underdog, he also recognized it would harden his team for the remainder of the season.

“I thought two things,” Welsh said. “In some ways we were in a little bit of awe with Notre Dame being the previous national champion. That’s why I wanted the game badly and I lobbied for it. If you’re going to get in the big leagues, then you’ve got to start playing those kinds of games.

“And then, I think a big problem was in the first half of that game, we got tired,” Welsh continued. “I made a mistake in coaching that I learned that year. I should have learned that against Penn State (in a 42-14 loss the year before). We went to New York and I thought we were a bit tired.”

All of UVa’s coaching staff agree that they had worked the players too hard leading up to both games (Penn State in ‘88, and the Irish in ‘89).

“We weren’t sure we had our legs,” Welsh said upon reflection.

Behind game MVP Tony Rice, Notre Dame’s QB, the Irish were in full control at halftime. Welsh, who was somewhat encouraged that his team performed better in the second half, believed that Holtz called off the dogs. Holtz told this columnist years later that he didn’t, but Welsh didn’t buy Holtz’s story.

With the Kickoff Classic on a Thursday, Virginia didn’t play at Penn State until nine days later, which gave the Cavaliers time to get their legs back and to game plan a little longer for Joe Paterno’s team.

“What helped us is that we were able to go to Penn State and practices weren’t as intense,” Welsh remembered. “It was hot [at PSU game day]. We got great execution. I don’t know how we held them to six points.”

Had his team started the season 0-2, who knows how that might have impacted his players confidence. The win over Penn State definitely boosted Virginia for the rest of the season.

“Those kids came out of that game feeling good about themselves,” Welsh said. “Shawn did great. Herman did great. We were playing a new center and a couple of new guys and that worried me, but they held up. I remember Blair Thomas came down the sideline right in front of me for a touchdown, but he was out of bounds by about an inch, and the official saw it and called it back. But I think we outplayed Penn State that year.”

In the annals of UVa football history, some will forget just how good the ‘89 team was even though it had a record number of wins. Some point to the following year when Virginia was No. 1 in the nation for three weeks, while others point to the ‘95 and ‘98 teams.

Welsh said ‘89 is probably overlooked.

“We had a better offense in ‘90 than we did in ‘89, but we had a better defense in ‘89,” the coach said. “10 wins in ‘89 says a lot.

“If Shawn hadn’t got hurt in the William & Mary game — we had 400 yards rushing and couldn’t put them away — he hurt his shoulder. I’m not saying we would have beaten Clemson (the following week), but when you lose your starting quarterback with that kind of production, it’s got to hurt a little bit.”

Shawn Moore was the perfect quarterback for that time period and Herman Moore was the perfect receiver.

Welsh said he coached three quarterbacks who were perfect college quarterbacks, Shawn Moore, John Hufnagel (Penn State) and Aaron Brooks. They were perfect in the old salt’s view because they could run and throw, kind of like Bronco Mendenhall’s idea of perfect QBs, dual-threats that he terms “Thorterbacks.”

“They could break tackles, they had speed, and they were very clever with the football,” Welsh said of that trio, much like Bryce Perkins is for Bronco.

While all three were terrific, Welsh hesitated on who was the best.

“Shawn came around at the right time for us,” Welsh said. “What helped is he had Herman and a big league offensive line and [Terry] Kirby. It all blended well. I would take a quarterback like that even in this day and age (2009) as opposed to somebody else who’s going to be back throwing the ball 40 times a game.”

One of the most overlooked players on that ‘89 team was starting running back Marcus Wilson, who ended up with a nice NFL career. He was a veteran back that started ahead of true freshman Kirby, who had been ranked the nation’s No. 1 offensive high school player.

“Marcus had 1,100 yards rushing,” Welsh pointed out. “That was the first year that he knew how to run off tackle. We had to coach him and coach him and coach him. He wasn’t a natural, but he was a great kid. When he first came here I think he would have been a great strong safety, but he went six years in the NFL at running back.”

Along with Kirby, Virginia had lured Tabb High School teammate Chris Slade, who ended up becoming one of the most valuable players in Wahoo history as an aggressive defensive end.

“Slade was a great player as a freshman,” Welsh said. “He had natural strength and great quickness. He didn’t have to be in the weightroom at that point.”

Virginia went on to win its share of its first ACC Championship that season with a 6-1 conference record. Because Duke finished with an identical league mark, that set off a huge controversy at season’s end. More on that in a moment.

First, the Cavaliers had to beat Maryland on the road to secure its share of the ACC crown, and they did it convincingly, 48-21.

Shawn Moore remembered that game well.

“It was cold as hell that night and I’m not a cold weather guy even though I lived in Denver (NFL) for five years,” Moore said. “There’s something about playing in cold weather when quarterbacks tend to throw a tighter spiral and it seemed like everything I threw that night — I could never hit a slant route and I know Coach (Gary) Tranquil (offensive coordinator) and Coach Welsh hated calling it because I could never hit it — but I hit two or three of those, one for a touchdown to Tim Finkleston that night, and it was almost like the Duke game. Maryland couldn’t stop us.”

Virginia fans, delighted with their first taste of an ACC football title after decades of frustration, tossed all sorts of fruit onto the field in celebration of a team headed to the Citrus Bowl.

However, there was some strong exchanges between Virginia and Duke over the shared crown.

Virginia had pounded Duke, 49-28 earlier in the season. Duke had upset defending league champion Clemson, while UVa had lost to the Tigers in Death Valley.

Cavaliers fans, players, and even Welsh believed that while both UVa and Duke finished 6-1 in league play, that Virginia should have been considered the real champion because of the lopsided head-to-head meeting.

Duke coach Steve Spurrier, who seemed to irritate Welsh more than anyone during Spurrier’s brief time in the ACC, claimed that the Blue Devils should have been the champions “because we beat the kings (Clemson) and Virginia didn’t.”

That really annoyed Welsh, who later told this writer “those Duke people can be insufferable … but don’t print that.” I didn’t until now, but it did show Welsh’s disdain for the Blue Devils.

“I’ll tell you what,” Welsh said, still irritated after all those years. “I might have been able to score 70 (on Duke) that night if I had wanted to. They started onside kicking.

“One thing I could never understand about Steve Spurrier, and you can quote me on this, we scored touchdowns on seven straight possessions in that game,” Welsh said. “And if they hadn’t recovered a couple of onside kicks, it could have been worse … a lot worse.”

One thing was for certain, Welsh was attracting the best talent in Virginia and some from neighboring states, thanks in part of Schultz coming through on building a new football home, the McCue Center, after longtime team physician Dr. Frank McCue, Jr.

Consider that UVa won its last five games of 1988, went 10-3 in 1989, then won its first seven in 1990. That adds up to a 22-3 stretch that led to the Cavaliers becoming No. 1 in the country in ‘90.

NEXT UP: “Holy Cow, momma, we’re No. 1.”