Opening with a neutral site game generally has not gone well for the Virginia football program. That trend continued in Nashville.
The Cavaliers faced No. 12 Tennessee at Nissan Stadium on Saturday and fell 49-13 in an overmatched opener. UVA trailed less than three minutes into the game and saw the deficit slowly increase the rest of the way. In just their fourth neutral site opener in school history, the Hoos fell to 1-3 with a win against Dickinson (12-0 in 1890) followed by three lopsided losses to William & Mary (41-21 in 1960), Notre Dame (36-13 in 1989), and the 32-point defeat to open 2023.
The Volunteers came into the game as 28-point favorites and delivered on those projections. As measuring sticks go, Virginia coach Tony Elliott stated the obvious as he begins his second season at the helm in Charlottesville.
“As I’ve said when I’ve been asked several times, when you play a game like this, it’s going to show you where you’re at as a program and we’ve got some work to do,” Elliott said on the Virginia Sports Radio Network. “I think we’re headed in the right direction and if we stay humble and we take ownership and accountability for where we’ve got to get better, then we’ll improve.”
Statistically, little went in UVA’s favor in the loss. Tennessee outgained Virginia 499 yards to 201 yards. The Volunteers posted 287 rushing yards and a 70% completion rate on the way to 212 passing yards to easily outdistance the Cavaliers, who had 95 rushing yards and 106 passing yards on a 46.0% completion rate. Tennessee lost just 7 yards all day and converted all of its red zone trips into touchdowns.
The eye test matched those numbers for most of the day. The Volunteers controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and the results followed that dominance.
The rushing yards showed the advantage for the offense as three players posted 50+ yards. Jaylen Wright led the way for Tennessee with 12 carries for 115 yards, while Jabari Small added 13 carries for 67 yards and Dylan Sampson put up 52 yards and 3 touchdowns on 13 carries. Quarterback Joe Milton also had 9 carries for 33 yards and 2 touchdowns as the offense ran the ball into the end zone five times among seven red zone scores. Milton also completed 21 of 30 passes for 201 yards and 2 touchdowns, while not facing too much pressure. Sampson also had one of those receiving touchdowns, but Ramel Keyton led the group with 3 catches for 66 yards.
Some of that production is a little bit deceptive for how well the Virginia defense played earlier in the game. Despite giving up the touchdown on the opening drive when the Vols scored on 4th-and-5 from the 9-yard line, the Hoos entered the final two minutes of the first half trailing just 14-3. The defense had a fourth down stop and forced three straight punts before allowing a second score. Still, Tennessee kept coming and the end-of-the-half touchdown followed by a 10-play, 77-yard TD drive to start the second half started to show the cracks in the Cavalier D. Linebacker Stevie Bracey led the defense with 10 tackles, while Kam Butler and Lex Long added 8 each.
Virginia defensive coordinator John Rudzinski said that playing a portion of the game well isn’t good enough for the defense, though.
“Our guys were ready for the challenge. We showed glimpses, but we’re not in a glimpses business,” Rudzinski said on the Virginia Sports Radio Network. “We’ve got to be consistent. We had a chance to consistently, in that first 25 minutes we were good, but it’s not a 25-minute game. You’ve got to play 60 minutes and we did a poor job in the middle eight with the two-minute [drive] and then the first play of the second half.”
Tennessee’s advantages up front defensively essentially shut down Virginia throughout the afternoon. The Vols posted 11 tackles for loss with 4 sacks as the repeatedly showed up in the backfield, sometimes before the play even really began.
Those troubles made it difficult for the offense to find much success. Even with good field position, that held true. Virginia took over inside of Tennessee territory three times in the first six drives, but produced just 3 points. After the defense held on downs and UVA started from the Vol 29-yard line, Will Bettridge missed a 28-yard field goal. On the other two drives that began at the UT 40 and 46, the Hoos went 3-and-out both times with -10 yards of offense.
The best drive of the day finally came in third quarter when UVA used 8 plays to cover 75 yards for a touchdown. That set of plays included an 11-yard run from Perris Jones, a third-down catch for 15 yards by Malachi Fields, and a 22-yard run for Kobe Pace before Jones scored on a 17-yard carry.
In the end, Jones and Pace put up matching lines of 7 carries for 39 yards, while Fields logged 4 catches for 63 yards. Malik Washington added 4 receptions for 29 yards as well. Virginia starting quarterback Tony Muskett completed 9 of 17 passes for 94 yards before leaving the game with an injury. He got tackled with his arm underneath his body and did not return. The Hoos did not have a status update for him as he was expected to get x-rays upon returning to Charlottesville. True freshman Anthony Colandrea checked in and went 2-7 passing for 12 yards with 2 carries for 17 yards as well. Bettridge did bounce back from his early miss to make kicks from 30 and 40 yards.
Virginia did not have a turnover for the first time since the 2021 season.
“We will be aggressive and try to stay aggressive so when you throw the ball on first down and you don’t complete, then you’re pushed behind the chains,” Virginia offensive coordinator Des Kitchings said on the Virginia Sports Radio Network. “So that was some of it early on. We got ourselves into a lot of third-and-longs that are not favorable. Then when we had successful drives, we had good positive first down plays, able to get our tempo, … but you’ve got to have success on first down. In the second half, we were able to re-establish our run game, move the ball, and get a scoring drive out of that.”
It all added up to the 49-13 final margin.
Playing its first game in 294 days, certainly Virginia would have liked to create a storybook beginning to the 2023 season. The tough result, however, did not change a near year-long show of resilience.
After the cancellation of the 2022 season followed the tragic shooting deaths of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr., and D’Sean Perry, the Cavaliers spent months picking up the pieces and looking for sense in the senseless. They attended funerals. They tried to move forward. They dealt with anger, sadness, frustration, and a range of emotions beyond.
They returned to workouts, practices, and the program. They worked through the preseason. When the time came to finally return to the field, the Cavaliers had a postponed start to their trip when airplane delays cauesd a late departure and late arrival to Nashville. Then within three minutes of actual football, Tennessee led 7-0. Then at the end of the first quarter following a fumble recovery, UVA defensive tackle Olasunkonmi Agunloye collapsed on the sidelines and was carted off the field. He hurt both knees while celebrating on the sideline.
Virginia still competed and trailed just 14-3 in the final two minutes of the first half. Obviously, the scoreboard got away over the rest of the game. The resilience hung in there, though.
“I thought they accepted the challenge from an effort standpoint. I thought they accepted the challenge from emotionally getting themselves in a state of mind to be able to go out and play and play at a high level,” Elliott said on the Virginia Sports Radio Network. “So really, really proud of their effort. I didn’t question anything about how hard these guys played. Depth ended up being an issue for us down the stretch. Just extremely proud of this group of young men, our staff, the administration just to get to this point. I’m not trying to ask for or point out any moral victories. I’m just talking about for nine months what these young men and this staff have had to endure. I couldn’t be more proud to be fortunate to lead them because every day they walk in the building, every day they walk on the field, every day they walk on Grounds, they’re reminded of what happened and still there’s not a whole lot of clarity, there’s not any resolution, and it’s something that’s part of our new normal so I’m just extremely proud of their effort, their toughness to get to this point, and we’ve got work to do.”
Still got embarrasses. London 2.0
Our offense is horrible. Team overall is not good, coaching uninspiring
Yes, the team’s opening performance was disappointing, but this is a time to support the program—the players and the coaches. Have some perspective and be a human being.