CHARLOTTESVILLE -- After entering the season as Virginia's No. 1 running back and its top receiving threat out of the backfield, fifth-year senior Mikell Simpson didn't play a snap Saturday in a 14-10 loss to Boston College.

When the Cavaliers gave starter Rashawn Jackson rest, true freshman Perry Jones got the call.

Jones, who did not have a rushing attempt in UVa's first nine games, carried the ball four times for 2 yards Saturday.

Coach Al Groh said Simpson was available Saturday, but Jones' play in practice was responsible for a move up the depth chart.

Jones, from Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, had played primarily on special teams.

Simpson hasn't been the same since an Oct. 10 game with Indiana, when he had 149 all-purpose yards before sustaining a neck injury in the third quarter.

He didn't play one week later at Maryland. In three subsequent games, he's had 18 carries for 39 yards and caught eight passes for 36 yards.

How much Simpson has been affected by the injury is hard to say.

"That would be a natural thing for anybody," Groh said. "Or should I say, it wouldn't be an unexpected thing for somebody who had been taken off the field on a board.

"We thought, in one of the first games that he was back, that he didn't have quite the same abandon that he had before."

The Cavaliers' leading ball-carrier for the season -- by a wide margin -- is quarterback Jameel Sewell. Sewell has 109 rushing attempts (that figure includes sacks), Jackson has 79 and Simpson has 66.

Simpson's injury "provided an opportunity for another player [Jackson] who has taken real good advantage of that opportunity," Groh said.

Jackson has rushed for 60 yards or more in five of the last six games. The exception came in UVa's 34-9 loss to Georgia Tech, when Jackson got one carry after 19 carries for 90 yards one week earlier at Maryland.

n Simpson has rushed for 1,074 yards in his career, more than half of it coming in a six-game span during the 2007 season. ... Virginia has had one 1,000-yard rusher in Groh's nine seasons, Alvin Pearman, who rushed for 1,037 yards in 2004. Predecessor George Welsh had nine 1,000-yard rushers, including eight between 1989-2000.

n Virginia is on a pace, with 266.7 yards per game in total offense, to have its worst showing since the Cavaliers' 1970 team amassed 266.5 yards per game. UVa has failed to average 300 yards per game in only three of 38 succeeding seasons. ... Only New Mexico State, among 120 Division I-A teams, is averaging fewer yards (232.5) than Virginia.

Post mortems

Groh said that Virginia's best chance to win Saturday might have come on a first-and-10 from the Boston College 21, when an Eagles' defensive back fell down and left UVa's Dontrelle Inman alone at the BC 4-yard line with less than a minute remaining. Sewell spotted Inman but whizzed a throw over his head.

n Both of Boston College's touchdowns Saturday followed pass-interference penalties on Virginia defensive backs and a would-be Virginia touchdown by punt-returner Vic Hall was nullified by a block in the back. UVa also was called for a roughing-the-kicker penalty that perpetuated a BC drive.

"Every player is responsible for his own penalties," Groh tells his teams.

"That's part of being a good player, understanding what causes penalties and how to avoid them. Somebody said we won a lot of these kinds of games two years ago.

"Minus a couple of those penalties, we would have won another close game this time."

Strange twist

UVa was on its second set of chains and first-down markers by the time officials called for a measurement following the Cavaliers' final offensive play Saturday.

The first set of chains was broken on a sideline play that also resulted in an injury to one of the chain-gang members. A replacement set was retrieved from Bryant Hall, the field house in the south end zone, but repairs were needed to those chains and a third set was on order by the time the game was continued.

Odds 'n' ends

Kickoff for the Cavaliers' season finale Nov. 28 against visiting Virginia Tech will be 3:30 p.m. ... UVa will end up with seven 3:30 p.m. games this year, including this Saturday's contest at Death Valley, where the Cavaliers (3-7, 2-4 ACC) will visit Atlantic Division-leading Clemson (7-3, 5-2).