FSU Comes Up Short Once Again At Scott Stadium

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Bronco Mendenhall acknowledged late Saturday night that he had never seen the Warrick Dunn short-of-the-goalline play in 1995 when Virginia stunned No. 2 Florida State, ending the Seminoles’ dream of a national championship.

Heck, he didn’t have to ever see it. He lived it all over again in UVA’s wild finish in a 31-24 win over FSU in the same Scott Stadium.

This ending was eerily similar to ‘95. Instead of Dunn taking a direct snap from center and darting, diving toward the goalline, where he was stopped by Virginia’s Adrian Burnim and Anthony Poindexter as time expired, it was FSU’s Cam Akers who took the direct snap out of the shotgun formation and made a mad dash toward paydirt.

This time, it was UVA free safety De’Vante Cross who slowed Akers’ progress before All-American cornerback candidate Bryce Hall delivered the coup de gras four yards short of the goalline as the stadium clock struck zeroes.

Virginia 31, Florida State 24.

This time, the Cavaliers weren’t an underdog, pulling off a major upset over the nation’s No. 2 team and ending FSU’s never-beaten, 29-game winning streak in the ACC. UVA was at least a touchdown favorite and hoping to prove to the college football polls that it was not only deserving of its No. 25 ranking, but that it was for real.

“I felt like we won the game like three times … and we didn’t,” said Mendenhall in the postgame.

The ending was chock-full of drama. After Virginia had taken the lead on an impressive, 72-yard drive ending in running back Wayne Taulapapa’s third touchdown of the night, and punctuated by an elusive Bryce Perkins’ scramble for a nail-biting, two-point conversion, only 2:34 remained on the clock.

Florida State had to go 75 yards to score the upset. The Seminoles went 71, in a mostly penalty-aided drive that consumed all the remaining time. UVA was flagged four times as Coach Willie Taggart’s desperate team gobbled up yardage without running the clock.

Corner Nick Grant drew the first flag and a controversial, 15-yard pass interference call that advanced FSU to its own 35. But the officials weren’t through.

Mendenhall was so upset with the call on Grant that he was hit with the first unsportsmanlike conduct penalty of his career, and to the 50 with 1:15 to play. While Mendenhall later apologized to his team for drawing the penalty, it had a frenzied crowd of 57,826 — the largest at Scott Stadium since Notre Dame in 2015 — on the edge of its seats.

After two plays and an FSU timeout with 1:09 to play, the Seminoles ended up with a fourth-and-five at the UVA 45. QB James Blackman threw an incomplete pass, and everyone thought the game was over until a yellow flag was spotted in the FSU backfield.

Linebacker Jordan Mack had been flagged for roughing Blackman on the pass, resulting in another first down at the UVA 30 (40 seconds to play).

Two plays later, Hall was called for pass interference in defending FSU’s lethal receiver Tamorrion Terry. First down ‘Noles at the UVA 16, 0:25 left in the game.

After Blackman was sacked by Zane Zandier at the 20, FSU called its final timeout with 19 seconds to play. Blackman’s next pass to Terry was incomplete, stopping the clock with 13 seconds to go, then he hit Keyshawn Helton down to the UVA 4 with the clock ticking and no timeouts.

Everyone in the joint expected FSU to spike the ball and stop the clock. Everyone but Florida State offensive coordinator Kendal Briles.

Having gained the reputation as one of the nation’s most brilliant offensive minds while working for his father at Baylor, then last year with a high-octane Houston offense, Taggart brought Briles on board to juice up his “Gulf Coast” attack.

Maybe Briles had seen the ‘95 ending and wanted to get some payback or maybe just catch Virginia by surprise.

He called the direct snap to Akers, last week’s ACC Back of the Week with 193 rushing yards.

“We didn’t get what we wanted, we wanted a touchdown,” Taggart said about the play, stopped by an alert Hall and Cross. “We called a play and there were four seconds left and we didn’t have any timeouts, so we called a play and it didn’t work. We just didn’t get it done.”

Blackman said it was a “great” play call.

“It was executed. Everyone tried their hardest to execute the play. Cam made a great effort trying to get it to that end zone. He was going to fight his hardest,” Blackman said.

Instead, it was Hall and Cross who executed and stopped Akers cold, sending Scott Stadium into bedlam. Fans tsunamied the field, swallowing up their heroes, who had won on its home turf as a ranked team for the first time since 2005.

“It was honestly like it was happening in slow motion,” Hall said of the last play. “I just saw [Akers] had the ball and then we just ran and just tried to get him down. I think it was me and De’Vante [Cross] and then Joey [Blount] came and cleaned it up. 

“But yeah, that’s kind of what really happened, that’s what I saw, it was kind of a funky play but you know we just had to get him down by any means.”

Hall said later that he had never watched a replay of the ‘95 ending either, but he and Cross will go down in history like Poindexter and Burnim for the clutch play at the most critical time.

QB Bryce Perkins turned in a marvelous performance, perhaps his most complete game since he arrived in Charlottesville more than a year ago.

Perkins was golden, completing 30 of 41 passes (both career highs) for 295 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 46 yards, including the two-point scramble and a key fourth-and-two run for six yards to keep a critical drive alive.

More importantly, Perkins shook off two first-half interceptions to deliver near perfection in the passing game the second half. The senior was 17 of 19 (including one drop and one throw away) in the second half, completing 16 consecutive passes during one long stretch.

It was a huge win for the Cavaliers, who go to 3-0 for the first time since 2005, including two wins already in the ACC.

“I mean we have a lot of confidence,” Perkins said. “We know what we can do. I think that through three games we’ve gotten better in the second half than the first. We’ve continued to make plays and continue to feed off the energy on both sides. It’s just what we do and how we’re built. Just the training that we’ve put in, we’re so ferocious that these games are where we thrive.”

 

COMING SUNDAY at JerryRatcliffe.com: Perkins has put Virginia football on the map just how Mendenhall envisioned, plus more…