CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- As the final seconds ticked off the Scott Stadium scoreboard, hundreds of Virginia students stormed the field and headed straight for the goal posts.
The last time the neon yellow uprights came down was after a 33-28 upset of No. 2 Florida State. After that scene, the goal posts were reinforced to ensure they would not come down again.
As hard as the fans tried, the Cavalier goal posts stayed up, and the only thing that came crashing to the ground Saturday was the national championship hopes of the No. 23 Longhorns. Virginia (4-0) took advantage of six turnovers as it went on to embarrass Texas 37-13 before an overflow crowd of 45,100.
"It was just not a well-played game on our part," Texas head coach John Mackovic said. "We had a lot of mistakes, we had a lot of penalties, and we have a lot of work to do. We played hard for awhile, but we didn't play well enough to beat anybody."
No. 12 Virginia was determined to wash away the painful memories of last year's 17-16 defeat by the foot of Texas kicker Phil Dawson. The junior nailed a 50-yard kick into a stiff breeze as time expired to give the Longhorns a one-point win and give the Cavaliers some motivation for Saturday's rematch.
With that in mind, the Cavaliers wasted no time in taking advantage of a national television audience coupled with adverse weather conditions.
After Virginia punted on its first possession, UVa forced Texas tailback Shon Mitchell out to the right side for a loss of six.
On second and 16, Texas quarterback James Brown dropped back and threw a 50-yard pop up that was intercepted by Cavalier safety Anthony Poindexter.
Then, with ESPN's cameras rolling, Virginia running back Tiki Barber rolled over the Texas defense and bolstered his growing Heisman Trophy campaign. Barber made gains of five to the left, five to the right, six on a catch in the flat and seven yards on a pass to the left side.
Finally, Touchdown Tiki worked his magic as he took a pitch and juked and jived to the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown. Texas had ample opportunities to tackle Barber, but the shifty back proved too elusive for defenders. He finished the day with 121 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
"With a back like that, who's shifty like Tiki is, you have to gang tackle him," Texas inside linebacker Tyson King said. "We can't just have one guy hit him and bounce off and he run for 20 more yards and have another guy hit him. You have to gang tackle him, and we didn't do it."
Texas, down 7-0, tried again to go through the air. Brown was intercepted again, this time by Virginia cornerback Rhonde Barber. The pass was a replay of the first -- deep down the field and up for the taking.
It only took an 11-yard pass from UVa quarterback Tim Sherman to fullback Charles Kirby and a 26-yard touchdown run by Barber to up the ante to 14, and put the Longhorns in a hole that was growing deeper by the minute.
On Texas' next possession, the offense started from from its own 30-yard line. The scoring machine that averages 35 points a game either had no fuel or needed new spark plugs, because it was going nowhere fast.
After a 12-yard catch by split end Matt Davis, the offense fell on its face. A pass intended for Texas tight end Pat Fitzgerald fell incomplete, and a handoff to fullback Ricky Williams up the middle got nothing.
Finally on third-and-15 from the Texas 43, UVa linebacker James Farrior came on an outside blitz and drove Brown into the turf, causing a fumble that linebacker Jamie Sharper recovered. Virginia had a 14-0 lead and was in business again at Texas' 32.
"We just couldn't get in a rhythm," Texas lineman Dan Neil said. "We would have one good play, then three bad plays. You can't play like that. We have to string more good plays together, and we just didn't do that tonight."
With 3:08 to play in the first quarter, Sherman hit wide receiver Germane Crowell for a gain of 20 as Texas cornerback Taje Allen opted to swat at the ball instead of making the tackle. Tiki Barber took the ball on the next play and ran right through the middle of the UT defense for a 12-yard touchdown.
"You're not going to bring me down with an arm tackle," Barber said. "If I made a good cut, they would slip."
Now trailing 21-0, Texas started its first possession of the second quarter on its own 49-yard line. But just like three previous drives, it ended abruptly in a turnover.
On the second play of the drive, Brown scrambled and threw an interception to Farrier, who returned it 15 yards to the Texas 44. Virginia moved the ball down to Texas' 12 before kicker Rafael Garcia booted a 30-yard field goal to give UVa a 24-0 lead, and the rout was on.
"The atmosphere didn't bother us any," Brown said of the hostile crowd. "I came out and threw three interceptions. You can't win like that when it's a 24-0 lead early."
After watching Brown commit his fourth turnover of the day, Mackovic brought in backup quarterback Richard Walton, desperately looking for a spark of any kind. Walton completed passes for gains of five, seven and six yards to move the ball to UVa's 22.
But just when it seemed that Texas would finally get on the board, things still didn't go according to plan. Dawson, 1995's hero, missed a 39-yard kick with 5:07 to play in the half.
Then after stopping UVa's offense, Texas' Tony Holmes blocked Virginia's fourth-and-one punt to give the Longhorns their best field position of the day.
The result: a loss of five and two incompletions before Dawson hit a 37-yard field goal to finally put Texas on the board with 1:24 to go in the second quarter.
"I didn't know what his name was to tell the truth," UVa head coach George Welsh said of Walton's performance. "All we've heard for two years is James Brown."
Welsh may have heard of Brown for two years, but for the final two quarters of Saturday's game, he didn't hear from him at all. Mackovic decided to let Walton play the remainder of the game, and he completed 14 of 27 passes for 180 yards while helping Texas score 10 points in the second half.
"I was just glad to get the opportunity to get in and play," Walton said. "James had some tough plays in there. He took some hits, and we didn't want him to get hurt in a non-conference game."
Brown said: "I really don't know [why I didn't play in the second half]. Halftime, I asked [Mackovic] if Richard was going back in, and he said 'Yes.'"
Mackovic's decision will no doubt stoke the quarterback-controversy fires this week in preparation for Oklahoma State -- Texas' next opponent.
"We haven't made any decisions yet on anything," Mackovic said. "I'll decide next week about quarterback. I thought Richard gave a good account of himself, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we'll switch quarterbacks."
Whatever they do, the Longhorns need to switch back to the ways that helped them to a 2-0 start. Neil said that Texas can either drop its head or bounce back against Oklahoma State.
But after an "embarrassing" loss that was preceded by a heart-breaking one, the foundation that two wins provided could now be unstable. A win against the Cowboys this Saturday could keep the Longhorns standing upright.
Just like those goal posts.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- After taking a handoff around the right side for a gain of six, Virginia running back Tiki Barber trotted off the field to a standing ovation.
The raucous applause was not for a man who had spearheaded a rushing attack that dismantled another opponent, it was for something more.
Many saw Saturday's game, and 121-yard performance, as just another step toward Barber's final goal. That being, to be recognized as the best player in Cavalier history and the best player in the nation.
The junior has a personal web page that describes his life, his likes, his dislikes and his wants and desires. But sitting atop the entire site is a picture of something he desires most -- the Heisman Trophy. It's an intangible dream that Barber is bent on turning into reality.
Texas expected the Cavaliers to come out with Barber as the main offensive threat. But instead, Virginia head coach George Welsh unveiled a triple wide-out combination that had quarterback Tim Sherman taking to air before establishing the rushing attack.
"I think that Tim Sherman's a senior quarterback who's been in their system, and because of that, he understood what they wanted to do and how they wanted him to do it," Texas head coach John Mackovic said. "They set some things up with the run very well."
Barber scored the first three touchdowns of the game on runs of 16, 26 and 12 yards. The Longhorns time and time again had Barber trapped for no gain or for a loss of yardage, but they failed to wrap him up to finish the play.
Missed tackles was the overbearing theme afterwards as Barber finished with 121 yards on 25 carries. The Longhorn defense never got to Barber in the backfield, and he finished the day with no yards lost.
"It was just a matter of tackling," Texas linebacker Tyson King said. "They didn't do anything that we haven't worked on. When you hit him in the backfield and he gains 20 or 30 yards, that's no supposed to happen. We just didn't tackle."
Texas defensive coordinator Gary Darnell believes that the key to Barber's success was his ability to get the ball in various ways other than a straight handoff. Barber had five catches out of the backfield for 52 receiving yards to bring his all-purpose yardage total to 173 for the night.
"Where I would second-guess myself is that we went in and tried to do too much," Darnell said of the blitz and stunt packages. "When guys are missing tackles, that means that they're out of position. Should we tone it down some to keep them in position so they can make some plays that they might make?
"It's the things that are happening up in the first five yards that are a major concern for my part. That's my concern. What happens in the first five yards of the ball."
Mackovic said: "Poor tackling. I think that we weren't in position to make many tackles. That was the biggest thing."
It may have been a case of the Longhorn defenders lining up in the wrong position, but some credit has to be given to Virginia's Barber. After all, his elusiveness is the main reason he is being considered for the Heisman.
"On a wet, rainy night, if you give a ball carrier a chance to get into the secondary, he'll be awfully hard to tackle because he'll definitely be slippery," Mackovic said.
Missed tackles were a big reason that Notre Dame racked up 292 rushing yards a week ago, and it's the biggest reason that Virginia rolled out 196. The leading tacklers for Texas Saturday were inside linebackers King and Kyle Richardson, who had eight each.
Mackovic said Saturday that a lot of work needed to be done before the stretch drive of the season. The defense is not the only area in need of improvement, but it's an area that can be sharpened with some refocusing.
"It's easier to focus because we're 2-2, and we haven't won in two weeks," cornerback Taje Allen said of this week's task. "We know what we have to do to win, and next week, we'll have to definitely focus a lot more than we did tonight."
Texas 0 3 10 0 -- 13
Virginia 21 3 3 10 -- 37
Virginia T.Barber 16 run (Garcia kick), 7:20.
Virginia T.Barber 26 run (Garcia kick), 9:44.
Virginia T.Barber 12 run (Garcia kick), 12:25.
Virginia FG Garcia 30, 3:56.
Texas FG Dawson 37, 13:36.
Texas P.Holmes 1 run (Dawson kick), 1:33
Virginia FG Garcia 46, 6:51.
Texas FG Dawson 22, 12:07.
Virginia Sherman 24 run (Garcia kick), 1:46.
Virginia FG Garcia 28, 11:18.
A--45,200.
Texas Virginia
First Downs 20 26
Rushes-Yards 37-111 42-196
Passing 243 180
Comp-Att-Int 18-36-4 14-25-0
Return Yards 39 62
Punts-Avg 2-28.5 5-27.2
Fumbles-Lost 4-2 2-1
Penalties-Yards 9-94 4-40
Time of Possession 28:53 31:07
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
Texas - Williams 19-44, Mitchell 8-38, Adams 1-15, Holmes 3-12,
Butcher 2-8, Walton 2-0, Brown 2-(minus 6).
Virginia - T.Barber 25-121, Sherman 5-44, Southern 4-21, Jones 7-16,
Brooks 1-(minus 6).
PASSING
Texas - Brown 4-9-3-63, Walton 14-27-1-180.
Virginia - Sherman 14-24-0-180, Brooks 0-1-0-0.
RECEIVING
Texas - Adams 6-94, Jackson 2-32, White 1-28, Williams 2-25,
Armstrong 1-16, Fitzgerald 2-13, Davis 1-12, Mitchell 1-9,
Mcgarity 1-8, Walton 1-6.
Virginia - Crowell 3-56, T.Barber 5-52, Derey 2-28, Byrd 1-19, Owen 1-13,
Kirby 1-11, Wilkins 1-1.