RALEIGH, N.C. - Sixth-ranked Virginia took advantage of a generous early schedule to reach its highest ranking in 14 years. Now, the Cavaliers can show they deserve it.<br>
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Four of Virginia's final six games are on the road, beginning with a visit to No. 7 Florida State on Saturday. Their only road game in their first five this season was a visit to lowly Temple for their opener.<br>
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``As I've said before, you have to play them all sooner or later,'' Virginia coach Al Groh said. ``The end result is all that counts. You have to play the top teams. Generally in terms of the end result and who wins the most games, I don't think it has a great deal of relevance where it's placed.''<br>
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The Cavaliers (5-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) are tied with No. 3 Miami atop the league standings, a half-game head of the Seminoles and North Carolina State. Groh tried to downplay the importance of Saturday's game ``What any of these games do for our program, we'll find out in December,'' he said but it's clearly one of the biggest since he returned to his alma mater almost four years ago.<br>
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A victory would give Virginia sole possession of first, since the Hurricanes don't have a conference game this week. It also would solidify Groh's rebuilding job at Virginia.<br>
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But first, the Cavaliers have to get past the Seminoles, long the ACC's standard for football excellence.<br>
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``They're still significantly faster than we are,'' Groh said. ``Historically, this has been the case. It's one of the fastest teams in the country.''<br>
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Elsewhere in the ACC this week, Georgia Tech hosts Duke, North Carolina State travels to Maryland, North Carolina visits No. 11 Utah, Utah State is at Clemson and Florida A plays Virginia Tech. Miami got the schedule started Thursday night against Louisville.<br>
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In their first five victories, the Cavaliers have dominated on both sides of the ball. They lead the conference in total offense and are third in defense, while outscoring their opponents by an average of more than 30 points.<br>
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Groh said those gaudy numbers go out the window against Florida State.<br>
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``I think it's better that we're playing them with our record now than if we were 0-5 or 1-4,'' he said. ``Confidence is the result of demonstrated performance. We've had a good number of players who have performed well.<br>
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``By the same token,'' he added, Virginia's players ``are attempting to do something that they haven't done before'' namely, beat Florida State, which hasn't lost to Virginia in nine years.<br>
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The Seminoles narrowly beat Syracuse 17-13 last week, thanks mostly to 164 yards rushing from tailback Leon Washington. Quarterback Wyatt Sexton, making his second start in place of Chris Rix, was 15-for-26 for 169 yards, with one interception.<br>
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``I feel like I can definitely lead our team to a victory no matter if we are struggling in a game or if we are playing a top-10 opponent,'' Sexton said. ``I feel that I am capable and have shown that I am reliable and I feel like I deserve a chance to be stuck with through kind of a tough game.''<br>
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At Georgia Tech, Reggie Ball must be feeling the same. He was the ACC rookie of the year last season, then had a couple of rough performances that led to losses. After bouncing back to lead the Yellow Jackets to an upset of the Terrapins last week, no one knows what to expect from Ball against Duke.<br>
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``If I knew exactly what it was, I would fix it and it never would break again,'' Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey said. ``We'll try to do more things like we did last week.''<br>
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The Blue Devils surprised the Yellow Jackets last season and gave coach Ted Roof his first victory. A repeat will be difficult.<br>
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``We're going to have to play a fine football game to put ourselves in position to win this one,'' Roof said. ``We're going to have to take care of the football, we've got to be opportunistic and we have to tackle better.''
