Virginia Takes Big Step Back After Rough Outing Against GT

Two steps forward. How many steps back? The Virginia football team pieced together a respectable October with wins against William & Mary and North Carolina alongside a close overtime loss to Miami. In terms of where the program had been so far in the Tony Elliott era, that little stretch provided some signs of progress and a little bit of hope.

Then Georgia Tech happened.

The Cavaliers came back to Scott Stadium talking about the drive for the first ACC home win of the Elliott era and the motivation to get it done against team they beat the year before. Instead, they laid an egg. A giant, 45-17 losing egg to be exact. After a competitive opening quarter, things unraveled the rest of the way with the offense giving up turnovers and negative plays while the defense missed tackles and looked confused at times.

To make matters worse, a year already challenged with injuries added more to the list. Tony Muskett exited after just a few plays with an ankle sprain that is day to day. Mike Hollins (neck) and Kam Robinson (knee) didn’t finish the game either, though the Hoos seem hopeful they’ll be back on a short week for the Thursday night game at Louisville.

Before UVA returns to the road, though, what did the Pro Football Focus (PFF) Report show from the Georgia Tech game? Let’s take a look at what the execution grades can tell us about Virginia.

Quick Virginia Overview

A quick look at the PFF grades shows a regression to September execution levels. That’s not too surprising given what the eye test said on Saturday. The Hoos seemed flat and never could snap out of it in any area really.

In the 12 categories in the data, Virginia logged below average grades in 8. That’s the worst across the board issues since the Boston College loss back on Sept. 30. The only category to hit above average was pass blocking.

Here is the big picture breakdown for the week.

• Overall: 62.7 (below average)
• Offense: 61.2 (below average)
• Defense: 60.0 (below average)
• Special Teams: 67.9 (average)

PFF appears to adjust its grading so each week, this space will also repost the week-later settled grades for comparison. The previous grade is listed too.

• Overall: 72.7 (above average; moved down from 74.0)
• Offense: 70.5 (above average; moved down from 72.4)
• Defense: 63.1 (average; moved up from 62.6)
• Special Teams: 64.7 (average; moved down from 64.8)

PFF Offensive Player Of The Game

For the first time this season, at least at the time of publication, Virginia left tackle McKale Boley landed in the top grading spot. He earned a 71.7 overall with a 78.1 pass blocking mark and a 65.6 run blocking mark.

Interestingly, Boley is now listed as the top graded player from the UNC game a couple weeks back too. His grade moved from an 80.5 overall and an 83.6 for run blocking up to an 88.8 and 91.0 in that game. You only really pick up on shifts like that when you go back to look for individual player trends.

Anyway, a sophomore now just 15 games into his career, the recent trend for Boley is promising. He has posted a 68.5 or higher pass blocking grade in 4 of the last 6 games and a 65.6 or higher run blocking grade in 2 of the last 3 games. In pass blocking, that stacks up as 84.7 (NC State), 88.2 (Boston College), 68.5 (Miami), and 78.1 (GT). In run blocking, it was 91.0 (UNC) and 65.6 (GT).

The only grades even near those neighborhoods last season came sporadically. He had a 63.4 overall against Pitt, a 74.4 (ODU) and 69.3 (Pitt) in pass blocking in two games, and a 68.6 in run blocking against Illinois. That’s it for his debut campaign. In fact, for someone that started with marks of 39.8 and 20.1 in pass blocking in his first two games as a true freshman last year, the turnaround to this point is impressive.

Boley has now played 635 snaps this season with 359 in pass blocking and 276 in run blocking. He’s been hit with just 2 penalties

More On Virginia Offense

Breaking down the 61.2 grade overall for offense, PFF gave the following: passing (56.2, below average), pass blocking (70.2, above average), receiving (60.1, below average), rushing (62.1, below average), and run blocking (58.1, below average). That passing grade is the lowest since the Maryland game on Sept. 15. The run blocking grade broke a three-week trend of 63.2 or better.

Shifting to individuals, Boley was joined by Mike Hollins (71.0 on 7 snaps), Malik Washington (70.8), Ty Furnish (68.3), and Kobe Pace (67.3) in the top 5 overall. No one else broke 65 with Noah Josey in 6th with a 64.1; Josey did have a team-high 87.2 pass blocking grade.

For Washington, that 70.8 is above average but a stretch of 7 games with a 72.1 or higher overall grade. Still, dating back to Northwestern, 11 of his last 13 grades have been at 69.8 or above and 9 of 13 have been at 72.1 or higher. For Pace, the 67.3 is second highest mark of the season overall. He grabbed a season-high 78.5 pass blocking grade as well.

Furnish, meanwhile, has bounced back from the bench. After playing just 10 snaps against William & Mary, he has played 69 or more snaps in each of the last three games. Those outings produced a 70.9 overall at UNC, a 57.9 at Miami, and the 68.3 against GT. He had an 84.7 pass blocking number against the Heels and a 77.3 in that category this past Saturday.

One more item of interest: quarterback Anthony Colandrea. Thrust back into action with the injury to Muskett (5 snaps), Colandrea picked up grades of 59.4 overall, 59.5 passing, and 58.0 running. In the four games with at least 63 snaps, he has overall grades of 62.9 (JMU), 56.3 (Maryland), 68.8 (NCSU), and 59.4 (GT).

PFF Defensive Player Of The Game

The top grade this week is a good one to see simply because this player quietly toils away in the middle of the defense each week. Defensive tackle Jahmeer Carter received a 71.5 overall grade with a 72.8 mark in run defense.

Those two grades represents season highs in both categories. Carter had a 69.7 against JMU overall with a 68.9 in run defense in that same game. Interestingly, this week’s numbers were offset by a 53.9 tackling grade, Carter’s only below average mark of the season. He had logged a 69.7 or higher in the other games that were graded in the category.

Carter’s top grade last season was a 72.1 overall against Syracuse. The only other mark in the 70’s in his career came in 2020 against Miami (73.7). With that said, his season average is on track to be the best yet as a Hoo – he’s sitting at 61.9 right now, slightly ahead of a 61.3 last season.

More On Virginia Defense

Breaking down the defense’s 60.0 grade overall, PFF gave the following: rush defense (56.6, below average), tackling (63.0, average), pass rush (58.3, below average), and coverage (65.6, average). Of the run defense, pass rush, and coverage categories, coverage has become he most consistent in terms of execution. UVA has had a 62.6 in 8 of 10 games in that spot. The run defense only has 2 games above that mark and the pass rush has 4.

Looking at more individuals, Ben Smiley III (70.3), Dave Herard (69.9), Sam Westfall (68.8), and Aaron Faumui (67.4) rounded out the top 5 spots. Tayvonn Kyle (65.0) was the only other player at 65.0+. With three defensive linemen in the top 5 spots between Carter, Smiley, and Faumui, the PFF evaluation suggests that the front did its job mostly and that suggests that the linebackers and safeties did not fill in well behind them, at least in run defense.

The data in run defense broke down as a 66.0 for Robinson (13 snaps) and a 64.4 for Mekhi Buchanan, but below average marks for everyone else. Herard had a 62.0 at safety. Kyle had a 60.3 in his hybrid safety spot. Trey McDonald, James Jackson, and Josh Ahern landed at 59.7, 51.6, and 41.4 respectively.

In terms of some positive grades for the week, Jonas Sanker had an 86.5 in tackling, Herard a 72.8 in coverage, and Smiley a 69.2 in pass rushing.