William & Mary gives Dukes hope against WVU

I spent my Saturday sleeping till the crack of noon, losing my Biltmore Grille virginity (could’ve been better) and watching JMU eat Lock Haven — so I didn’t get to watch a lot of non-Dukes college football.

However, I did notice that the College of William & Mary nearly beat the University of North Carolina. The final score was 49-38 in favor of the Tar Heels.

Now, I’m not sure how many "nearly beats" merit columns, but for some reason, this strikes me as significant.

UNC is in the Atlantic Coast Conference. And after an off-season that saw the ACC add Virginia Tech and the University of Miami for the 2004 season — with Boston College entering in 2005 — it has been lauded by talking heads in television screens as the premier college football conference in the nation.

Granted, the mighty Tar Heels haven’t been so mighty lately. Their last winning season was in 2001, in which they went 8-5 and capped the year with a 16-10 Peach Bowl win over Auburn University.

Last year, Carolina limped through its schedule, staggering to a 2-10 record overall. The 2002 season wasn’t much better; the Heels finished 3-9.

Coach John Bunting in his Tuesday press conference, implored the Tar Heel faithful to do their part in the resurrection of Kenan Stadium.

Bunting will need fans more than ever this weekend, especially with UNC traveling to the University of Virginia. Carolina hasn’t beaten UVa. in Charlottesville since 1981.

And with that, we finally get to my reason for this column: William & Mary giving a bit of hope to JMU.

William & Mary, which nearly defeated an ACC team is a JMU peer as both schools call the Atlantic 10 Conference their football homes. Since division affiliation gaps have been most prevalent in Breeze sports as of late (if you’ve been reading), it seemed a timely occasion for a column.

Going into the fourth quarter, William & Mary led UNC 31-28 until Carolina running back Ronnie McGill played heartbreaker and dashed for 100 yards in the final quarter.

The Heels, however, had an absolutely miserable time against the Tribe until that last period. On the very first possession, Carolina fumbled and William & Mary recovered. The turnover led to a Tribe touchdown on a 46-yard pass from red-shirt senior quarterback Lang Campbell, who proved implicit to William & Mary’s upset bid.

The A-10 Offensive Player of the Week turned in a career afternoon. He completed 23 of 41 pass-attempts for 322 yards and two touchdowns.

Saturday was the first time a Tribe quarterback had thrown for 300 yards since Dave Corley (1999-’02) torched the Virginia Military Institute for 346 in 2002. Also, with Campbell’s touchdown passes, he now has tossed a touchdown pass in every game he has started for coach Jimmye Laycock (Campbell assumed the starter’s role last season after waiting behind Corley for three years.)

In addition to that, the Tribe seems to have a knack for annoying Division I-A programs. Last season, William & Mary came close to beating Indiana University but ended up losing by 8 points, 25-17. In 2001, the Tribe posted 23 points against East Carolina University — too bad ECU scored 38.

Interesting side-note about ECU, two years ago there was a quarterback out of the University of Florida looking to transfer by the name of Patrick Dosh because the Gators had just signed some kid named Chris Leak. Perhaps you’ve heard of him.

Dosh’s father, Pat Dosh played basketball at JMU from 1975-’78. The younger Dosh chose ECU over JMU, where I’ve heard he currently runs the third team offense.

I am happy with Rascati.

Anyway, in 1998, William & Mary took on Temple University and beat the Owls, 45-38.

But the whole point of this wordy, space-filling monstrosity is in a few weeks, JMU takes on an I-A opponent in the Big East’s West Virginia University. Lang Campbell and William & Mary give are hope that just maybe the A-10 Dukes will make it a game.

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