Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 26, 1993 TAG: 9310260032
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
The Cavaliers don't want to hear it.
"We're playing to have the best record we can have," UVa coach George Welsh said Monday. "The better record we have, the better chance we have to play after Nov. 20."
A win Saturday would lift 16th-ranked Virginia to 7-1 overall and 5-1 in ACC, and five conference victories last year got third-place North Carolina into the Peach Bowl.
This year, four ACC teams have been guaranteed bowl bids, provided they finish better than 6-5.
"I haven't thought about that," Welsh said. "I can't get into that. I don't want the team to think that way."
Welsh concedes that Virginia is in a battle for second place behind No. 1-ranked Florida State, which already has posted victories over the ACC's other two ranked teams - UVa and North Carolina. The Football Bowl Coalition will take two ACC teams, the Peach Bowl will invite a third and the Hall of Fame Bowl gets a fourth.
"I don't know if [a victory] would clinch anything," Cavaliers linebacker P.J. Killian said. "Nobody wants to finish in fourth place and just clinch a bowl. That would be disappointing. This is my fourth year. I want to go out in style.
"I didn't like being home for Christmas last year. I always thought that I'd like to be home for that nice long break. It wasn't any fun. The way Virginia football is now, it's going to be a disappointing season whenever Virginia doesn't go to a bowl."
A string of three bowl appearances was interrupted last year, mostly because of a late-season collapse that included a 31-7 loss to N.C. State. The Cavaliers lost four of five games before beating Virginia Tech to finish 7-4.
"I always used to hear that we played well against State," Welsh said, "and we did play well against [the Wolfpack] from 1986-91. But we did not play well last year, and they've [the players] got to be reminded of that.
"You've got to make something happen. It won't happen just because it's always happened."
\ RETURN TO FORM: Killian, starting for only the second time this season, had a team-high eight unassisted tackles Saturday in the Cavaliers' 17-10 victory over No. 12 North Carolina, but two of his best plays were not reflected on the stat sheet.
It was Killian who met Carolina quarterback Jason Stanicek in the backfield and forced a hurried pitch to Leon Johnson on third and goal from the 2-yard line. The ball was fumbled, and Carolina was fortunate to recover before kicking a field goal to make it 10-10.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Carolina called a screen pass to flanker Corey Holliday on third and five from the UVa 44, but Killian stripped the ball from Holliday in the backfield. The play was ruled an incomplete pass, forcing Carolina to punt.
"It's kind of like our `jailbreak' play to Larry Holmes," said Killian, who missed four of the first seven games with a knee injury. "I remembered it from practice."
Virginia was so successful in shutting down Carolina's vaunted option game in the first half that the Tar Heels almost abandoned it in the second half. A year earlier, Carolina had rushed for 351 yards in a 27-7 victory over UVa.
"It's assignment football," Killian said. "The last two years, I was as guilty as anyone. [Chris] Slade and I were on the same side. One of us would have the quarterback and the other would have the pitch, and we'd both be flying in at the quarterback or the dive."
\ INJURIES: Left offensive guard Peter Collins is the injured UVa starter most likely to be sidelined Saturday. Collins has a strained calf muscle and is likely to be replaced by redshirt freshman Jeremy Raley, who missed the first three games with a knee injury.
\ EXTRA POINTS: Rushing touchdowns by Charles Way and Kevin Brooks, the sixth of the season for each player, were the first by the Cavaliers in three games. . . . UVa did not have a rushing attempt of more than 8 yards Saturday until the last series, when it was trying to kill the clock. . . . Virginia rarely has substituted as little as it did Saturday, when only 13 players played as many as 10 plays on defense. . . . Of the four teams that remain on Virginia's schedule, three have 5-2 records - N.C. State, Clemson and Virginia Tech. The fourth, Wake Forest, is 2-5. . . . N.C. State, a six-point underdog, has back defensive tackle Carl Reeves, out since the preseason with a broken leg. Reeves, a second-team All-ACC choice, had 10 1/2 sacks and 20 tackles for loss last year. . . . N.C. State quarterback Terry Harvey took a recruiting visit to Virginia in 1991, as did North Carolina's Stanicek.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.