Let’s hear it for the returning 1989 UVA ACC champions

By Jerry Ratcliffe

The only team in Virginia football history to win 10 games will be honored at Scott Stadium on Saturday when the 1989 squad returns for a grand celebration.

It was the first UVA team to win a share of an ACC title, finishing 6-1 in conference play and tying with Duke for first place, although any Wahoo worth his salt will readily boast that Virginia kicked Duke’s ass, 39-28, in a head-to-head showdown.

The Cavaliers went on to finish 10-3 on the season, all three losses coming against opponents that finished ‘89 ranked in the final AP top-20 poll: Notre Dame No. 2, Illinois No. 10, Clemson No. 12.

Not many would have predicted that outcome in the preseason, with UVA’s first two games scheduled against defending national champion Notre Dame in a sellout crowd at the Meadowlands, followed by a trip to 12th-ranked Penn State in Happy Valley.

While the Cavaliers were humbled against Lou Holtz’s Fighting Irish (36-13), they bounced back with a strong performance, upsetting Joe Paterno’s Nittany Lions (14-6) before the largest crowd of the season (85,956).

Following the Notre Dame loss, Virginia won 10 of its next 11 games of the season (the lone setback coming at Clemson, 34-20), before losing to Jeff George-led Illinois (31-21) in the Florida Citrus Bowl.

Many of the players from the ‘89 team will be back for Saturday’s game against Boston College, and there’s plenty of reason to celebrate for Wahoo fans who remember the greatness of this team. There’s a great UVA-produced video (see below) featuring Cavaliers coach Tony Elliott and a member of his coaching staff — Chris Slade — who happened to be a prominent player on the ‘89 team.

𝔽𝕠𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ‘𝟠𝟡 𝕓𝕠𝕪𝕤
⚪️🟠⚪️#UVAStrong | #GoHoos⚔️
pic.twitter.com/sul5Hqd2V8

— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) October 2, 2024

Here’s a list of accomplishments for that team:

• Won a school record 10 games
• Finished 6-1 in the ACC for a share of the school’s first conference championship
• Finished ranked in the final top-20 polls by The Sporting News (12th), UPI (15th), USA Today (16th) and AP (18th)
• The 10-2 regular season finish, against one of the most challenging schedules in program history, came against nine of 12 opponents that finished with winning records and five teams that went on to play in bowl games: Notre Dame, Penn State, Duke, Clemson and NC State.
• Virginia’s 13 opponents posted a collective record of 88-58-5 (.599). The six nonconference foes finished with a 50-18-3 record (.725)
• UVA posted wins over two teams that were ranked in the final AP top 20: Penn State (No. 20) and NC State (No. 18)
• George Welsh became UVA’s all-time winningest coach, breaking Art Guepe’s record of 47 wins (47-17-2 from 1946-52). Following the ‘89 season, Welsh’s eight-year record at Virginia stood at 50-40-2 and he wasn’t anywhere close to finishing
• Senior defensive end Ray Savage made the 1989 Kodak All-America team, while senior offensive guard Roy Brown was named a second-team All-American by the Associated Press
• Ten Cavaliers were named either first- or second-team All-ACC
• Junior QB Shawn Moore was named the 1989 ACC Offensive Player of the Year by United Press International, while Welsh was voted UPI’s ACC Coach of the Year
• The Cavaliers were on a roll, having posted a 15-3 record over their previous 18 games and set up the 1990 season where they rose to No. 1 in both national wire service polls
• Virginia set a school record for most total yards in a season (4,936), and its 350 points were the most scored by a Cavaliers team in a season in 75 years

Strangely, all of this success was set up with a lopsided loss to Notre Dame.

By NCAA rules, all seven major conferences had to be represented in the Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium. In ‘89, it was the ACC’s turn to participate, and defending league champion Clemson wasn’t interested in starting the season against defending national champion Notre Dame.

UVA had been the runner-up in ‘88, but Welsh had to twist some arms to convince the committee that the Cavaliers were worthy of an appearance against the Irish.

Virginia had won 12 of its last 16 games and finished second place in the ACC the previous two seasons, but that still wasn’t enough convincing.

Welsh talked to the head of the New Jersey Authority that hosted the game, and had gained some good will with the group by accepting an invitation to the Garden State Bowl with his Navy team before coming to Virginia.

“I don’t think I talked him into inviting us, but I told him [UVA] had finished 7-4 (in ‘88) and won our last five games,” Welsh told this writer. “I told him we had 17 or 18 starters back, we had a good quarterback, a big-time offensive line, this and that, and that we had Terry Kirby (the nation’s No. 1-ranked high school recruit) as a running back, along with Chris Slade, Ray Savage, Roy Brown, Herman Moore. So I told him we were going to have a good football team.”

While Welsh’s campaigning earned Virginia the invite to play Notre Dame, which was attempting to win back-to-back national titles, even the accomplished Cavaliers coach worried if his team could handle the Irish.

“I had a little trepidation about it because our kids weren’t used to any games like that,” Welsh said. “You had to take that step. We weren’t used to anything like that, all the hoopla, and there were probably 50,000 Notre Dame fans in the stands and we had 25,000.”

Welsh’s fears were realized and the Irish scored on their first six possessions to build a 33-0 halftime lead, outgaining the Cavaliers 333-60 in the first half en route to a 36-13 win.

Welsh said he felt like Holtz took it easy on him in the second half, but Holtz swore to this writer years later that he didn’t call off the dogs and that Virginia buckled down in the second half.

“We got psyched out … we played very poorly in the first half,” Welsh said, reflecting upon the game years later. “I think we evened it up in the second half. It was the psychological aspect of the game.”

Because that game was played on a Thursday night, Welsh gave his team a few days off before preparing for the trip to Penn State, a daunting task for any team. Even though things didn’t go well at The Meadowlands against the Irish, the game actually built UVA’s confidence.

“Penn State was still Penn State,” Welsh said. “The good part about the Notre Dame game was that we got a couple days of to recover. I remember Paterno telling me, and maybe it permeated his team, he said, ‘You guys looked sluggish against Notre Dame.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, we were sluggish.’

“Actually, I think we were. I worked us too hard and it was hot (Aug. 31). It was a couple of days that week it was really hot, and we dragged our butt off the practice field. Maybe we never quite recovered.”

Virginia stunned Paterno’s team on another hot-weather gameday, taking a 14-0 lead into halftime, highlighted by a 24-yard touchdown pass from Moore to Moore, followed by another 11-yard scoring strike by the combo. Penn State didn’t penetrate Virginia’s 40-yard line in the first half and even though the Nittany Lions got inside the 20 twice in the second half, they failed to score a touchdown.

“I don’t know how we did it … I don’t,” Welsh said years later. “They had two great running backs (Blair Thomas and Gerry Collins). Collins made a run down the sideline for a touchdown but he stepped out of bounds. Do you know how far he was out of bounds? He was right in front of me. He hit the chalk and it was about an inch, and they called it back.”

Virginia went on to defeat Georgia Tech, 17-10, in Atlanta, setting up a battle with Steve Spurrier’s Duke Blue Devils in Charlottesville.

Shawn Moore was brilliant, completing his first 13 passes and 14 of 15 for the day, finishing with 295 yards and three touchdowns, while rushing for two more (he had 333 yards of total offense). Herman Moore caught five passes for 134 yards and two scores. Virginia didn’t punt the entire day.

The roll continued with a 24-12 win over William & Mary before the Cavaliers’ lone ACC loss, a 34-20 defeat at Clemson, where UVA had never won at that point.

UVA played without an injured Shawn Moore.

“Yeah, (Clemson coach Danny Ford) came up to me before the game and he says, ‘Your quarterback’s not playing, is he?’ They seemed to know those things,” Welsh said years later.

Welsh was always paranoid about Ford’s Clemson teams. He always felt like Clemson spied on Virginia before every meeting.

“We played it without Shawn,” Welsh said. “I’m not sure we could’ve beaten them with Shawn, but it would have given us a better chance because (backup) Matt Blundin had hardly played at that point in time. We went 12 straight weeks, which was highly unusual in those days, except for the two days off after Notre Dame. I think we were lucky that we avoided the injury bug, otherwise we probably wouldn’t have been able to win them all.”

Blundin played admirably against Clemson, throwing for 248 yards, including a 75-yard TD hookup with Herman Moore that tied the game at 17-all early in the third quarter, but Clemson was just too strong. Ray Savage had an outstanding day, making 17 tackles against the Tigers.

It was this loss that Duke’s Spurrier used as a reason that his Blue Devils deserved to be ACC champions instead of Virginia. Duke defeated Clemson, 21-17, a week after the Blue Devils were humiliated by UVA.

After the season, Spurrier said Duke deserved the title because it beat the defending champion Tigers.

“You can’t be champion if you don’t beat the champion,” Spurrier said. “Virginia lost to Clemson, has never beaten Clemson and never will beat Clemson.”

Certainly that irritated Welsh to no end as Welsh told this writer, “Those Duke people are insufferable.” Welsh had a disdain for Spurrier and Duke that lasted well after the “old salt” retired.

Virginia got back on the winning track the next week, thrashing North Carolina, 50-17, then beat Wake Forest, 47-28, and edged Howard Schnellenberger’s Louisville team, 16-15, on a Jake McInerney 37-yard field goal as time expired.

The Cavaliers won out the rest of the regular season with a 20-9 win at NC State, a 32-25 win over Virginia Tech and a 48-21 win at Maryland, UVA’s first win in College Park since 1971. Shawn Moore accounted for five touchdowns.

It was a special team at a special time in UVA football history, a year to remember.