COLLEGE FOOTBALL ROUNDUP : Virginia’s Loss Clouds ACC’s Bowl Picture

No. 13-ranked Virginia’s top-rated rushing defense had given up only 56 yards a game, but North Carolina State freshman Tremayne Stephens rushed for 133 yards, including 84 on a touchdown run that rallied the Wolfpack to a 30-27 victory Friday at Charlottesville, Va.

The fourth-quarter touchdown by Stephens, the first rusher this year to gain 100 yards against Virginia, capped a wild game that further clouded the Atlantic Coast Conference’s confusing bowl picture.

Playing in front of scouts from the Sugar, Fiesta, Peach and Independence bowls, the Wolfpack, 8-3 overall and 6-2 in the ACC, clinched second place in the league behind Florida State.

“It all would have been easy, so easy,” said Tom Fridena, a member of the Fiesta Bowl selection committee. “This really throws everything up in the air. It’s very dusky and dusty now.”

Virginia (8-3, 5-3) was a two-touchdown favorite to defeat the Wolfpack, wrap up second place in the league and go to the Sugar, Fiesta or Cotton bowls. Instead, the Cavaliers had four turnovers and their defense gave up uncharacteristic big plays.

Virginia wound up in a third-place tie in the ACC with Duke and North Carolina and probably played itself out of the major bowl picture.

“I think this team had a heck of a year,” Virginia Coach George Welsh said. “If you had asked me in August would 8-3 have been a good season, I’d have said yes. Because we had a chance for a major bowl and didn’t get it is no reason to be demoralized.”

N.C. State trailed 6-0, 13-7, 19-7 and 25-24, but kept coming back.

“I could never be prouder of a group of men,” N.C. State Coach Mike O’Cain said. “Very few people gave us a chance of beating them here.”

Georgia 48, Georgia Tech 10--The big story of this nonconference game at Athens, Ga., was that Bulldog quarterback Eric Zeier suffered a strained ligament in his right knee during the second quarter.

Georgia (6-4-1) qualified for a bowl and also handed Georgia Tech (1-10) its ninth loss in a row.

“I’m going to be ready for a bowl game,” Zeier said. “I thought it was hurt a lot worse than it was. It’s going to be fine. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks. It’s not that serious. It’s not that bad.”

Zeier passed for 115 yards and two touchdowns before he went down with 7:34 left in the second quarter. He had completed a short pass when Tech’s Elliott Fortune rolled into his right knee. He was helped from the field and later rolled to the locker room on a cart.

“What I was thinking probably wouldn’t be printable,” Georgia Coach Ray Goff said when he saw Zeier on the ground. “It was a big, big concern.”

Zeier completed his regular-season career No. 3 on the NCAA pass yardage list with 11,153.