CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Fourth-quarter comebacks aren't the norm for Virginia's football team, but anything goes when the opponent is Georgia Tech.

Especially when the setting is Scott Stadium.

Georgia Tech won at Virginia in an epic battle of 1990 unbeatens, but that was the last Yellow Jackets' victory at Scott Stadium, where the Cavaliers made it eight in a row Saturday with a 28-23 victory.

Recently ranked Georgia Tech erased a 14-point first-half deficit and went ahead 23-21 before Virginia scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 25-yard pass from Jameel Sewell to walk-on Staton Jobe with 8:56 remaining.

"After three of those [narrow wins] in a row, I guess we can see what type of team we're fashioning," UVa coach Al Groh said. "When a game's on the line, we won't crack.

"We might be a little better than most people credit us for."

Three weeks after losing its opener at Wyoming, Virginia (3-1, 3-0 ACC) sits atop the ACC's Coastal Division. Georgia Tech (2-2, 0-2) won the Coastal Division last year and entered play Saturday as a 3¹₂-point favorite.

The Yellow Jackets were ranked in the top 20 nationally in scoring defense, rushing defense and total defense, but quickly found themselves down 21-7 to a Virginia team that had scored a total of six touchdowns in six games, dating back to last season.

The Cavaliers had touchdown drives of 81 and 94 yards on their first two possessions; then, before the Cavaliers could get the ball again, UVa defensive end Jeffrey Fitzgerald intercepted a Taylor Bennett pass and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown.

It was the first turnover for the Yellow Jackets this season.

"I tipped it, and then it went behind me," UVa's other defensive end, Chris Long, said. "Then Bennett tried to spike it and I think it hit Clint Sintim's helmet. Then, it went in the air and Fitz tipped it once to himself.

"That ball was hit by like six people."

Virginia stopped Georgia Tech on downs on its next series, but the game turned around when the Cavaliers' Vic Hall fumbled a punt that was recovered by the Yellow Jackets' Tony Clark at the UVa 30.

Two plays later, Tech got a 21-yard touchdown run from Jonathan Dwyer and it was a game again.

The Yellow Jackets dominated the second and third quarters and took a 23-21 lead on Travis Bell's third field goal, a career-long 51-yarder, with 4:22 remaining in the third period.

Virginia was struggling offensively and three times inserted freshman Peter Lalich for Sewell, with little impact.

The one constant was junior tailback Cedric Peerman, who rushed for 62 yards on nine first-quarter carries but got the ball intermittently thereafter.

Most glaring was a sequence after UVa had picked up a first down at the Yellow Jacket 29 at the end of the third quarter.

Clearly, the Cavaliers were inside the range of field-goal kicker Chris Gould, but Peerman didn't get the ball before Lalich was intercepted on second-and-10.

Peerman obviously was distraught when he came to the bench and the Cavaliers would not ignore him again. He finished with 28 carries for 138 yards, his third straight rushing effort of 100 yards or more.

"Cedric was wonderful again," Groh said."

Despite Peerman's hard running, it took a break for the Cavaliers to get back in the game. That came with just over nine minutes remaining, when Georgia Tech's Andrew Smith fumbled a punt that was recovered by UVa's Trey Womack at the Tech 25.

Womack was able to recover the ball because teammate Aaron Clark had plowed into Smith, rendering him incapable of recovering his fumble.

Peerman might have been the obvious call on the subsequent first down, but the Cavaliers went to Jobe on a glance pattern, sometimes known as a "skinny post."

"Once I got the play call, I was hoping I would get the perfect coverage," said Sewell, who noticed Georgia Tech's two safeties preparing to blitz, "and it was the perfect coverage and a perfect play call by Coach [Mike] Groh."

Jobe already had dropped two passes, one ruled incomplete on review.

"I definitely did not play my best game," said Jobe, whose whole family had made the trip from Austin, Texas, to Charlottesville. "I'm still not happy about my game, When they called the play, I knew it was my chance to step up."

Georgia Tech still had two offensive series after Jobe's touchdown and got to the UVa 16-yard line before Long sacked Bennett on fourth down.

The trip to Wyoming is a thing of the past, but it doesn't sound like the Cavaliers want to forget the criticism that followed it.

"I'd be lying to you if I said we didn't think about it," Long said. "It's almost a double standard for a player. When the fans are up and fans think you're pretty good, you've got to ignore it. When fans think you're no good, I like to pay attention to that."