The Cavaliers waited almost a full calendar year to have this feeling again, but they snapped their 10-game losing streak with authority on Saturday. Virginia’s football team mixed together good plays from all three phases to gash Richmond, 45-13.
“I’m very happy with our effort, particularly the second half effort. We had a lot of turnovers today and a lot of production from a lot of people; we had a chance to play a lot of players,” UVa coach Mike London said. “It’s been a long time since we won a football game. My hat goes off to the players and coaches to get ready for this. It’s short-lived with Louisville coming in next Saturday, but it’s a good feeling to have. We haven’t had this feeling in a long time. We’ll learn from some of the mistakes we made and improve the football team, but very pleased with the effort.”
“It feels great. It feels great to walk out of the locker room with a smile on our faces,” Wahoo linebacker Max Valles said. “It sucks going home and being sad and just wanting to sit in your bed and go to sleep. It’s a great feeling to get a win and go have fun with our team. Then we’ll get back to it tomorrow.”
“A win is a win. We’re just happy that the win is under our belt. We’re going to go from here and try to build on success,” Cavalier QB Matt Johns said. “It was exciting. The team was jumping and down. We had some chants going. Coach London smiling. It’s a good feeling.”
The biggest storyline entering the game – quarterbacks on both sides – unfolded with six different players taking snaps for the two teams. UVa got the better end of the duel in the end with both Greyson Lambert and Matt Johns having good days on the stat sheet. Lambert started the game and finished 13-of-15 passing for 102 yards with one touchdown. He added a 10-yard run as well. Johns, who guided the team for the majority of the middle two quarters, ended up 4-of-7 passing for 65 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. David Watford picked up some snaps in the fourth quarter and completed his only pass for six yards.
On the other side, two former Virginia quarterbacks combined for 47 passing attempts. Michael Strauss started for the Spiders and went 24-of35 passing for 266 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. Michael Rocco completed 5 of 11 passes for 97 yards with one interception. Rocco also ran for a six-yard touchdown and lost a fumble. David Broadus wrapped the game up under center.
With Lambert and Johns both having solid outings, it did little to clarify the quarterback picture that became fuzzy after the opener with UCLA. In that game, Lambert threw two pick-six interceptions, while Johns took over the reins late in the first half and threw for two touchdowns. Against Richmond, however, both players had command of the offense, made good decisions, and delivered touchdown drives. Each tossed TD passes to Canaan Severin, who tallied 33 yards on those two grabs. Darius Jennings led the way with 79 yards on four catches.
The QBs insisted after the game that they are not concerned about a so-called controversy, they’re only focused on getting victories.
“It is what it is. Whatever the coaches want, that’s what we’re going to do. It’s just like practice. Whoever is in there at the time, the other is cheering him on,” Lambert said. “It’s a competition but not really. It’s one of those things where we love each other on this team and this whole team has been unified since day one. … We just try to approach it like practice. Matt and I have roomed together all camp. We roomed together last night and were going over the plays and going over everything. … We’re just trying to help the team win.”
When asked after the game if he could live with a two-quarterback system moving forward, London didn’t hesitate.
“I can live with anybody that helps us win. Anybody and anything that helps us win,” London said.
The Richmond quarterbacks faced a lot more pressure than Lambert and Johns. That’s because Virginia’s defense got after it for the second straight week and piled up some impressive statistics as a result. The Hoos forced seven turnovers in the game and added four sacks too. The D also had seven pass break-ups.
The big day featured back-to-back takeaways in the third quarter. That included a defensive touchdown by Eli Harold. On the play, Valles burst around the end and smashed into Strauss as he began his wind-up to pass downfield. The ball popped free behind the line where Harold scooped and scored from 22 yards out. Daquan Romero, who led the defense with 12 tackles on the day, had a pick on the next series. After Richmond isolated passing plays toward the linebackers for much of the day, Romero wrestled a pass away to notch his first career interception. In fact, that’s the first interception by a UVa linebacker since Darnell Carter had one in 2010.
True freshman Quin Blanding and corner Tim Harris added a pair of picks too, while Brandon Phelps and Valles joined Harold with fumble recoveries.
“Going into the first ACC game, you want to put on film and show opposing coaches and players that you can do things and make plays,” Harold said. “Last year, we really tried to stress to cause turnovers. We tried to do whatever we could in practice to increase our turnovers. Today, we had seven and could have had nine. To show a team that you can get after it like that, I feel it forces them to adjust the game plan and take some stuff out.”
The most critical take-away of the day, perhaps, came late in the first half. Trailing 14-3, Richmond converted a fourth down and drove the ball all the way to the Virginia one-yard line. After the first down play was stuffed, U of R handed off to T.J. Moon again to try to get to the end zone. Henry Coley had other ideas as he burst through a gap, hit Moon well behind the line, and forced the ball to fly free. Phelps recovered. Coley, the ACC Linebacker of the Week last week, finished with eight tackles.
“It was a big play. It was another one of those turnovers that sparks or changes momentum,” London said. “The fact that we had the ball coming back to start the second half, that was also important. Henry did it in the last game, made a couple of plays to change the outlook. He did it again.”
After finally breaking the 10-game skid, the Cavaliers will try to do it again next week too. Kickoff with Louisville is set for 12:30 p.m. at Scott Stadium.
Two sophomore QBs developing week by week, along with a young offensive line. The emergence of big, young receivers. The influx of high-grade talent from recent recruiting years. Veteran coaches at every position. This could be fun.