It’s first-and-10 at the UVa. 29. Aaron Corp has just picked up a big first down on a third-down pass to Tre Gray. The Spiders are down 28-13 inside of 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, but a quick score gets them back into a one-score game, and anything can happen in a one-score game.
Corp and wideout Kevin Grayson appear poised to get it back there on this first-down play. The call in the huddle was for Grayson to line up on the right flank and to run a basic stop-and-go. Virginia cornerback Chase Minnifield bites hard on the stop, allowing Grayson to take off on the go toward the Cavalier end zone as Corp releases the ball, and Grayson seems to be on his way to an easy touchdown as the ball floats into the night sky.
Minnifield reaches back in desperation at the last possible moment and grabs Grayson, stopping him almost dead in his tracks. Back judge TIm Cobb moves his right hand in the direction of the yellow laundry in his right back pocket, ready, you have to think, to throw it in the direction of Minnifield to flag him for pass interference or at the least holding or illegal contact.
Minnifield, perhaps with some momentum from the wrestling match with Grayson, overtakes the receiver and tracks the ball down at the goal line.
Interception. The home crowd goes wild.
Look up there at the picture by AFP photographer Mark Miller. Not just at Grayson, who is already pleading his case, but at Minnifield, who seems to be looking back in the direction of Cobb, as if he expects the flag to be on the ground.
Cobb doesn’t pull the trigger, and Minnifield runs the interception all the way to the Richmond 33. A Keith Payne touchdown a few plays later seals it for Virginia.
After the game, I ask Minnifield about the play, noting in my question how it seemed that he had been clearly beaten by the stop-and-go move.
I love his answer.
“I’m just going to say it was a gift from God. It was an awkward play, but at the end of the day, it was a big play for the team,” Minnifield says.
Next question from another reporter seeking an innocuous quote to fill his notebook with blather about how important the win was for this team.
Maybe I’m the only guy who saw the play for what it was – outside of Minnifield, Grayson and Cobb, anyway.
Column by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at [email protected].
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