October 15, 2005

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- It was a beautiful fall day in Charlottesville coming up on 15 years ago. The sun was shining, the tailgate lots were full all over Grounds, and it was truly a perfect day for a college football game. A then 16-year old Justin Ferber threw the football around with his friends in the U-Hall lots for a while, and then headed up Alderman Road towards Scott Stadium as the sun began to fade behind the Blue Ridge, and a 7:45 p.m. kickoff approached.

Virginia (3-2) entered that contest on a two-game losing skid, having dropped games at ranked foes Maryland and Boston College in its previous games with had an uphill battle against undefeated and fourth-ranked Florida State ahead. The Noles came to Charlottesville with a 5-0 record and wins over Miami and BC under their belt. UVa had beaten Florida State just once ever, nearly 10 years to the day. The previous season, UVa had gone down to Tallahassee with high hopes, a No. 6 ranking, and a 5-0 record, only to be humbled with a 36-3 loss that snapped the Wahoo faithful back to reality.

There was a buzz in the crowd prior to kickoff that night, with a big-time foe in town for a primetime ESPN game. Although we were still in high school, my friends and I ended up in the last row of the student section and had to show up well before kickoff to end up there. I remember watching the famous “Bush Push” USC/Notre Dame game wrap up on HooVision during warm-ups and noted that the grass inside the 20 yard-line on the Hill side was still faded a bit from the Rolling Stones concert that had taken place on the field just over a week earlier.

Virginia was an underdog, but something felt a little different on that day.

After failing to score a touchdown in the 2004 meeting in Tallahassee, UVa found paydirt early against the Noles in this one. Virginia’s Marcus Hamilton picked off FSU’s Drew Weatherford on the first drive of the game, and UVa cashed in with quarterback Marques Hagans throwing a strike to tight end Jonathan Stupar on the run, with the big man rumbling in for six over the pylon, right in front of the student body.

FSU responded in what looked to become a back-and-forth affair with the Seminoles hitting a “home run” by way of a 58-yard scamper from Lorenzo Booker for six to tie the game. Then, the teams traded field goals, before Virginia’s always reliable kicker Connor Hughes hit two more to put the Cavaliers up 16-10. UVa had also picked off Weatherford again in that sequence, with Chris Gorham’s snag leading to Hughes’ third field goal of the day. He would finish the game 4-for-4, including a 50 yarder in arguably the biggest game of his Cavalier career.

After a short FSU punt from deep in their own territory set the Hoos up 43 yards from the end zone, UVa struck a big blow, with Hagans hitting running back Wali Lundy out of the backfield for a 16-yard score, capping a quick three-play, 43-yard scoring drive that put Virginia up 23-10 at the break. The home crowd gave the team a huge ovation as the players left the field into the tunnel.

And then, the lights went out. There was some sort of malfunction during halftime and the delay was certainly strange in the middle of what had been a great night for the Cavalier faithful up to that point. Some fans threw up their hands and thought “of course this would happen when we’re up 13 on Florida State.” But eventually, the game restarted and Virginia added to its lead with another field goal, now 26-10.

FSU struggled for much of the evening but finally caught a gear in the fourth quarter. Virginia was done scoring for the night, so it would simply come down to how many stops the Hoos could get. Weatherford hit receiver Chris Davis along the sideline and after an incredible spin move into the end zone and a successful two-point try, the game was 26-18 Virginia.

On a potential game-tying drive for the Seminoles, UVa’s defense bowed up in the red zone, and forced a 32-yard field goal to make it 26-21 with 7:30 to play. As Virginia tried to hang on, the crowd was in a frenzy. UVa forced a punt with 3:40 to go, and hoped to drain the clock and send the Noles packing with a loss. FSU did finally get a stop and a change of possession, taking over with 56 seconds remaining in its territory. The suspense wouldn’t drag on long, though, as Weatherford threw his third pick of the night on the first play of the drive, hauled in by Tony Franklin (Brad’s cousin) who quickly went to ground. The upset was sealed, and the electric crowd of 60,000+ who had been engaged all night went nuts.

The Result:

No. 4 Florida State 21

Virginia 26

It was a great night to be in Scott Stadium and it culminated with a massive field rush, as players were mobbed by students and fans alike, myself included. Back then, FSU was a dominant force and felt almost unbeatable at times. If you went to games at Scott weekly, it was easy to see the talent disparity between what the Seminoles rolled off the bus and what most other teams did. Those games also just felt important. Rarely did UVa get a primetime Saturday night home game in those days, which made beating the Seminoles on the national stage all the more sweeter.

But the lasting memory of this game was the brilliance of Hagans, who played his finest game in the orange and blue. The senior quarterback completed 27 of his 36 pass attempts for 306 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. And while his stats were impressive, they don’t totally tell the story here. Hagans made one dazzling play after another in the victory, often having to escape from athletic FSU defenders and make plays on the move. It was a team effort, and the defense played great, but it’s fair to say that Hagans put the team on his back in this one, and he did it on an injured hamstring. As many know, legendary coach Bobby Bowden summed it up best: “I’ve never seen a quarterback make as many one-man plays as he made tonight. We couldn’t stop that dadgum No. 18.”

I picked this game to re-live because I’ve probably never had more fun at a UVa game at Scott Stadium than I did then. Sports are a little different when you’re younger, and on that night, the Cavaliers slayed what seemed like giants, and brought an outstanding crowd to its feet time and time again. And it was actually Virginia’s most-recent win over a team ranked in the top 10, though they’ve come close several times. FSU isn’t in the same place now as back then, but 2019’s home win over Florida State did sort of bring back the echoes of those wins in 1995 and 2005.

And in front of a 60,000+ crowd, it showed what Scott Stadium could still be like on a primetime Saturday night when a team like the Seminoles came calling.

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