No. 10 Football Rolls over San Jose State

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October 3, 1998

By HANK KURZ Jr.
AP Sports Writer

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) – Run left. Run right. Run all day.

It was the simplest of game plans for No. 10 Virginia on Saturday, and itworked to near-perfection as the Cavaliers’ offense rolled up 446 yards on theground and 556 in all in a 52-14 victory against San Jose State.

“The past couple of week we’ve been hearing that we weren’t able to putpoints on the board, that we were struggling,” tailback Thomas Jones said.”But we know what we can do. We know if we come out and everybody does whatthey have to that we can score points and we wanted to prove that today.”

No one proved it more than Jones, who carried 23 times for 203 yards and twotouchdowns, including an 80-yard burst that tied the third-longest in schoolhistory. Antwoine Womack added 142 yards on 17 carries.

“It felt like it clicked today,” Jones said.

“The offensive line was just jamming it down folks’ throats,” said Womack,who scored another of Virginia’s six rushing TDs on a 13-yard run. “As long asthey do it like they did it today, the sky’s the limit.”

Aaron Brooks also ran for two touchdowns and threw for another for Virginia,and Tyree Foreman scored on a 3-yard run for the Cavaliers (5-0), who trailed7-3 after one quarter and scored the next 42 points.

“It felt great standing over there on the sidelines for so many plays,”Virginia safety Anthony Poindexter said. “It felt good to watch the offense beable to drive the ball down the field and give us a breather.”

San Jose State (2-3), playing its first game ever east of Minneapolis, waslimited to 239 yards – 87 on the ground – in its second blowout loss to aranked team. The Spartans lost 58-3 to No. 17 Oregon on Sept. 19.

“We knew they were ready to bust out offensively,” said second-yearSpartans coach Dave Baldwin. “We were not capable of stopping them.”

In contrast to Baldwin, George Welsh is in his 17th season at Virginia, andset an Atlantic Coast Conference record with his 192nd game as coach.

“When you’re able to stay at a job and do what he’s done and see theplayers keep coming in, he’s built a program here,” Baldwin said of Welsh,117-72-3 at Virginia. “It’s fun to watch, but not fun to play against.”

Trailing 7-3 after the first quarter, Virginia scored three more timesbefore halftime as Brooks ran for two scores and Jones added his first. TheCavaliers had 193 rushing yards in the half, with Jones accounting for 108.

“They looked like the team they’re supposed to be,” said Marcus Arroyo,the Spartans’ first- and third-quarter quarterback. He was 8-for-11 for 92yards, while Chris Kasteler was 4-for-10 for 60 yards with a touchdown.

Jones added his long jaunt on Virginia’s second play of the second half andwent to the sidelines for good before the third quarter was over.

Jones’ total marked the 10th time in Virginia history that a player rushedfor 200 or more yards, and the first since Terry Kirby gained 207 against Dukein 1992. It also was the first time since 1995 that two Virginia players had atleast 100 yards. They did it that time against Maryland.

The Spartans trailed 45-7 after Womack’s scoring run and Brooks’ 19-yardtouchdown pass to Southern eight seconds into the final quarter.

Brooks finished 8-for-15 for 80 yards with one interception. He was liftedwith 12 minutes left as Virginia began substituting freely.

San Jose State took a 7-3 lead on James Hodgins’ 2-yard run with 3:11 leftin the first quarter, but didn’t score again until Kasteler’s 14-yard pass toOliver Newell with 12:10 left in the game.