Wahoo Wire

Say what you will about UVa football coach Al Groh, but the man gets it done in the month of October.  That trend continued today in a stunningly impressive 47-7 thrashing of the Indiana Hoosiers.

Only 44,000 and change showed up to Scott Stadium for this year’s Homecoming game, but everyone dressed in orange and blue left happy. Virginia, previously ranked 117th out of 120 FBS teams in offense, racked up an astounding 536 yards of offense–reminiscent of the Southern Mississippi game two weeks ago. This time, though, the Cavaliers would not relinquish the lead. First of all, it was a much larger lead (30-0 at the half, and 47-0 before Indiana managed to score), and secondly, the defense that dominated North Carolina a week ago was in full form against the Hoosiers.

The offensive and defensive clinic was a welcome sight, as well as one more piece of evidence to the “Groh-tober” theory. The ‘Hoos went 4-0 last October, and only picked up one other win the entire rest of the season.

Even the seemingly perfect rout had its scary moment, though. Running back Mikell Simpson, who had already scored 4 TD’s and scampered for 83 yards, was banged up so severely on a 3rd quarter rush that he had to be placed on a stretcher and carted off the field. Scott Stadium fell silent for a few moments, but applauded when Simpson gave the crowd a thumbs-up. He was taken to the hospital and was released later in the evening.

Overall, it was quite a way for Virginia to pick up its first home win of the year. Strangely enough, this was also the only matchup all season between an ACC team and a Big 10 team, so the ACC holds quite the advantage in that matchup’s small sampling. The Cavs will look to keep things rolling next week as they head into the second week of ACC play at Maryland.