When asked by reporters after Saturday’s game how difficult it was to stop Virginia running back Mikell Simpson, there was one common response from Terrapin defenders.
“Who?”
After single-handedly out-gaining the Terps in total yards, 271-233, and capping off a career-night with a game-winning score, no Terps could identify the anonymous sparkplug of the Cavaliers’ 18-17 victory.
“Which one is Simpson?” Dre Moore asked.
Linebacker Erin Henderson had only a slightly better idea.
“Who’s Simpson, [number] five?”
Simpson, who wasn’t even listed on the team’s depth chart, will now be a household name to Virginia fans and taboo to any Terps who are having a tough time shaking Saturday’s loss.
No one saw that kind of a night coming from a guy who had just two rushes for a combined negative nine yards this season. He hadn’t touched the football in the last three games and didn’t even step onto the field last week against Connecticut.
“We thought he was a trickster,” Henderson said. “We thought he was a trick guy. We thought when he came into the game it would be for trick plays, but he turned out to be the feature back for the day.”
The trick was on the Terps’ defense, which made Simpson’s performance look like a vintage Reggie Bush outing. The little-known sophomore had 120 yards on 16 carries and added 13 receptions for another 152 yards.
With Virginia’s starting running back Cedric Peerman injured and unable to play for the second week in a row, the Terps focused in practice on stopping Andrew Pearman and Keith Payne, who split carries last week.
“It was just that we had never seen him before,” cornerback Kevin Barnes said. “This is like one of his first games playing. You don’t really know how to prepare for him; we were preparing for [Pearman] and ‘five’ came in.
“All we knew about him was that he was a fast guy.”
Even Ralph Friedgen had no clue about No. 5’s role for the Cavaliers. When asked what he knew about Simpson going into the game, the coach responded, “that he was a wide receiver.”
More than just any set position, Simpson was the motor for Virginia’s remarkable -plus minute, 90-yard game-winning touchdown drive. He totaled 77 of those yards, the last one being a dive across the goal line for six points.
The touchdown never would have been possible without the four yards he picked up on a fourth-and-four screen pass, which he stretched for and reached the first-down marker by less than an inch.
Simpson accounted for the Cavaliers’ first touchdown, too, when he cut through the Terps’ defensive front and sprinted 44 yards untouched to bring his team within four points before halftime.
“He’s a pretty explosive running back, he did a good job of hitting the holes and keeping his legs churning and running,” Henderson said. “He talked a little bit; I kinda like that too. He’s a tough guy, tough running back, and he did a good job.”
Simpson’s prime-time performance should make him as well-known to the Terps as those yellow characters with the same surname who appear on FOX Sunday nights. The thought of him probably won’t be anything to laugh about though.
Because of him, the Terps now have two conference losses, and are a long-shot to compete for the ACC title.
Meanwhile, Virginia stayed undefeated in ACC play thanks to the shot in the dark that head coach Al Groh took by playing Simpson in his extended role.
“We just decided this was something Mikell has been waiting for, for a long time and let’s ride him and see what happens,” Groh said after the game. “Obviously, he showed us early that he was up for it.”
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