No mystery here. The L of the Week goes to Virginia and, coming out of championship weekend, how can it not?
Oh, Virginia. My alma mater. The first major football team I ever covered. You were so close. All you had to do to win the ACC, to claim the first and only conference championship in the history of the program, which dates all the way back to 1887, was beat Duke.
That’s it.
Just beat Duke — which emerged from a convoluted series of tiebreakers in the ACC to back into the conference title game despite going 7-5 during the regular season.
Just beat Duke — you know, the same Duke team that the Cavaliers beat rather convincingly in Durham back in November.
Just.
Beat.
Duke.
But it couldn’t be that easy, could it? Oh no. In reality, this rematch in Charlotte felt different from the break; Duke opening the game on a scoring drive that gobbled 5:22 off the clock and it never truly felt like Virginia had the advantage. Even when the Hoos immediately answered Duke’s TD. Even when Virginia rallied from 10 points down in the final 5:02 to force overtime.
It was, in short, a bad time for Virginia to have one of its worst games of the season.
To play defense as if tackling the ball carrier was optional.
To react with shock and awe when Duke ran a fake punt even though the Blue Devils had flaked kicks in back-to-back weeks coming into this one.
Or, to surrender to impatience and run a trick play on the first offensive snap of overtime, like the game clock was down to the final seconds.
It’s still been an astonishing season for Virginia, which was picked 14th in the ACC in preseason, won 10 games, and finished atop the league standings. And, if the Hoos can beat Missouri in the Gator Bowl, they’ll post 11 wins in a season for the first time in the program’s long history.
But, regardless of how the bowl game goes, this loss is going to ache for Virginia and its fans.
And it damn well should.
‘L’ Of The Week Archive
Oct. 20-26: Mississippi State football
Oct. 27-Nov. 2: Carson Beck
Nov. 10-16: That Texas state trooper from the A&M-South Carolina game
Nov. 24-30: The University of Arkansas