Southern Cal was a 17.5-point favorite going into the game with Virginia, and the Trojans had of course mauled the Cavaliers in their 2008 meeting in Charlottesville by a 52-7 final.
This one was supposed to be a cakewalk for first-year USC coach Lane Kiffin’s group. The 17-14 win late Saturday in the Los Angeles Coliseum was anything but what anybody outside the UVa. football program had expected.
“It was a tremendous effort by the guys in the locker room. No one gave us a chance. We played a good game, but we need to get some things in order,” said first-year Virginia coach Mike London, whose ‘Hoos could and maybe should have flown back home from the Left Coast with the W.