Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 6, 1994 TAG: 9411100041
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: DURHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
That's all it took Saturday afternoon to beat Virginia 28-25. In an ACC upset between nationally ranked teams at Wallace Wade Stadium, the Blue Devils used so many plays, they even tried some they hadn't practiced.
The Cavaliers were consistently predictable, which is why their bid for a major New Year's game probably will go elsewhere - as the visiting Fiesta Bowl scout did after the game when he visited the Duke locker room.
``We're going to a bowl, no doubt about that,'' said Fred Goldsmith, who took the Duke job on the rebound during the winter. ``We're going to a good bowl. When you've been at Rice for five years, baby, they're all major now.''
It could have been Tom O'Brien on the Devils' sideline instead of in the UVa coaching booth. O'Brien turned down Duke's head coaching offer to stay at Virginia as the offensive coordinator. Goldsmith, after initial reluctance, made the move.
Except for the two longest plays of UVa's season - touchdown catches by Tyrone Davis and Demetrius ``Petey'' Allen that started and finished the scoring - O'Brien's offense was somnolent and staid against Duke's blitzing defense.
``I don't know what's going on,'' said George Welsh, UVa's head coach.
He wasn't alone. Duke outplayed and outcoached the Cavaliers.
Virginia managed only one field goal in two trips inside the Duke 5-yard line. The Cavaliers were seven-point favorites, and they could have buried the Devils early, but they didn't do it.
Although Davis is having a spectacular season, the Cavaliers kept throwing to the diminutive Allen as if he were Jerry Rice. And in the second half, bullish fullback Charles Way had only one carry. No wonder Welsh didn't know what was going on.
Virginia's defense stuffed Duke's 1,000-yard rusher, Robert Baldwin, but that hardly deterred the Blue Devils' attack. Quarterback Spence Fischer passed the Cavaliers silly.
UVa kept waiting for Duke to run. The Devils, after no success early, refused to play that game. And Goldsmith told his offensive coordinator, Mike Heimerdinger, that he ``called the finest game he ever has in a winning effort in my [six] years with him.''
``We threw more on first down than in the past,'' Fischer said. ``We didn't do anything different than we did in the early series; we were just going at their strength then.''
Duke went to double tight ends and threw to them. The Devils also offered Fischer uncommon protection. They tried a no-back set with four wideouts. They used a no-back set with two tight ends and three split receivers.
Then, there was the humdinger Heimerdinger third-and-22 call from the UVa 24, two plays after Virginia had kept alive its season-long streak of not allowing a first-quarter score.
Fischer threw over the middle to tight end Bill Khayat for a 23-yard completion to the Virginia 1. It wasn't surprising in that Khayat is the Devils' leading receiver.
It was stunning in another fashion, however.
``We never even practiced that play this week,'' Heimerdinger said. ``I didn't even think we'd use it, but Spence asked for it. Khayat said the linebacker kept letting him go by, so why not try it?''
Goldsmith said it was Fischer's finest game ``because it wasn't easy.''
Fisher didn't force things, and he said the Cavaliers became a quick study.
``I just think we got familiar with what they were doing, and they kept doing it,'' said the Blue Devils' quarterback. ``We changed up. We'd had a tendency to run on first down, so we started throwing in the flat.
``We had great play-calling upstairs. We weren't stubborn. We realized we couldn't run every down against Virginia. Their safeties kept coming up and squatting a lot, like they were going to support the run.''
Heimerdinger said the Devils also wanted to throw deep and did, although he wasn't disappointed Fischer completed few long passes.
``We had to throw the ball to win today,'' Heimerdinger said. ``We didn't want to stretch our offense as much as stretch their defense. We said, `Fine, they're going to have to back off sometime,' and they did.''
While Duke played with its heart and its head, Virginia (6-2) committed silly penalties and displayed predictability, little emotion and special-teams mediocrity.
The Cavaliers were seeking a seventh consecutive victory in a season for only the second time since 1949. Was this the start to another all-too-common finish in which the Cavaliers fall with the autumn leaves?
With North Carolina losing to Clemson only 11 miles down Tobacco Road, the favored Cavaliers also wasted an opportunity to establish themselves as the ACC's No.2 club in the bowl coalition.
Duke, which finishes against North Carolina State and the Tar Heels, is no fluke. The Blue Devils (8-1) have eight victories for only the second time since they went to the 1960 Cotton Bowl. The Wade-coached '41 team (9-1) that played host to the Rose Bowl moved here during World War II was the last with more victories.
In Goldsmith, it's apparent Duke hired the right guy.
by CNB