Playing on the road as a significant underdog for the second straight week, the Virginia football team nearly pulled off another upset Saturday. The Cavaliers, 19.5-point underdogs entering the game, took a lead late in the fourth quarter and again in overtime, but eventually fell 29-26 to Miami in Coral Gables.
The narrow defeat added to a season full of almosts as UVA fell to 2-6. The Hoos have 4 losses this season by a combined 10 points after falling to JMU by a single point and coming up short 3 points short against Maryland, Boston College, and now Miami.
Virginia coach Tony Elliott said the latest close loss hurts, but that he expects that his team will keep battling with four games remaining on the schedule.
“It’s a hurting football team. You know they care – if they didn’t care, they wouldn’t show up every single week,” Elliott said. “You think about kind of the world they live in, especially everything that happened last year, there’s probably a lot of people that tell them why would you, you don’t need to, you shouldn’t and then you start 0-5 and everybody’s probably telling you why are you still playing, the season’s over, but they keep on scrapping, they keep on, and they keep on getting better and keep on improving. I think we’ve learned a lot over the course the season, we’ve still got a ways to go.”
In many ways, the latest setback resembled earlier games this season. Virginia took an early 7-0 lead with a strong opening drive, the third time in the last four games that the offense put points on the board with its first possession. UVA found itself trailing 17-10 by midway through the third quarter, though. The Hurricanes took that lead when Kamren Kinchens returned an interception 29 yards for a pick-6.
That left the Hoos in a position similar to their last two outings. They trailed both William & Mary and North Carolina by 10 points earlier in October before rallying to their 2 wins. They showed similar resilience at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday.
On the drive following the INT, the Cavaliers produced a field goal. They moved the ball 69 yards on 15 plays and converted two third downs before things stalled out at the 6-yard line. Will Bettridge made the kick to cut the lead to 17-13. The Virginia defense got the ball back to the offense quickly when linebacker Kam Robinson made his first career interception in Miami territory. The Wahoos took advantage of the field position at the 49-yard line with a touchdown drive that featured a pair of Perris Jones plays for 25 yards and a pylon dive from Mike Hollins for the 10-yard score. The visitors led 20-17 at that moment.
“Just overall starting to see offensively we’re playing a little bit more consistent,” Elliott said. “Obviously, still got areas we’ve got to clean up, but overall you’re seeing a little bit more rhythm offensively. Defense is scrapping. They’re playing a bunch of young guys over there and they’re continuing to find ways to get stops.”
The Hurricanes tied the game early in the fourth quarter thanks to a 50-yard field goal from Andres Borregales, which was part of a big day for the kicker. He converted from 47 and 50 yards too in the game.
UVA’s offense had another drive left in the tank, though. This time, Virginia covered 60 yards on 12 plays to break the tie again. Key plays this time included a 12-yard pass to Malik Washington and an 18-yard completion on 4th-and-3 to Malachi Fields. Tony Muskett added a 14-yard run and nearly picked up another first down with an 8-yard scramble on 3rd-and-10 later in the drive. The Hoos, however, took the 32-yard field goal from Bettridge for the lead.
Washington extended his streak with a catch to 33 games, dating back to his career at Northwestern. He finished with 12 receptions (tied a career high) and 152 yards. That’s his 6th 100-yard performance in 8 games this season. That’s tied with Germane Crowell and Dontayvion Wicks for the most 100-yard receiving games in a single season at Virginia. Muskett finished 24-38 passing for 239 yards; Miami had 6 sacks. In addition to Washington’s big day, Fields had 7 catches for 67 yards.
Other statistical notes reveal good outings for several players. Hollins rushed for 2 touchdowns, moving his season total to 7 rushing touchdowns. That’s the most by a UVA running back since Wayne Taulapapa had 12 in 2019. Hollins finished with 49 rushing yards, while Jones and Kobe Pace added 58 and 25 more to the cause. the Cavaliers had 138 rushing yards to become just the second team this season to eclipse the 100-yard rushing mark against Miami.
“We ran the ball effectively. We didn’t make the play at the end and we gave up too many negative plays win particular with the sacks that got us behind the chains,” Elliott said. “I thought when we were efficient and effective on first down, we were able to play with a little bit of tempo and kind of keep them off balance, but at the end of the day, you’re measured by winning and losing and we didn’t make the play at the end to win the game.”
Unfortunately, after Virginia took the lead late in the fourth quarter, the hosts drove to tie the game with another Borregales kick and the game went to overtime tied at 23-23. The Cavaliers went first from the 25-yard line and Bettridge hit from 35 yards for one last lead. He has made 12 straight attempts and matched his career high of four made kicks in a single game back in his home state.
Miami’s turn resulted in an 11-yard touchdown carry from Mark Fletcher Jr. when he tiptoed along the sideline before breaking the plane. The ending was a disappointing final drive for the Virginia defense, which held Miami in check for most of the day other than Borregales’ long kicks.
The Hurricanes produced just 276 yards of total offense, their lowest output of the 2023 season. Quarterback Tyler Van Dyke went 20-30 passing for 163 yards with 2 interceptions, while Xavier Restrepo was the leading receiver with 3 catches for 48 yards. Fletcher had 47 rushing yards, while Ajay Allen added 67 rushing yards and a score of his own.
For UVA, Robinson had 9 tackles to go with his INT. That tied Jonas Sanker for the team lead as the safety also had 9 tackles. James Jackson added 8 stops, while Coen King and Caleb Hardy had 6 each. King had a near interception as well that turned out to be a valuable 3 points for the Canes. Hardy made his first career start, the sixth true freshman to start a game this seaosn for the Hoos. Sam Westfall also had an interception.
Despite the solid statistical days for numerous Wahoos, another close loss stung for the group. This marked the second straight season that the Hurricanes defeated the Hoos in overtime. Miami is 3-0 in OT against UVA in the history of the series (14-12 in 2022 and 24-17 in 2008).
Elliott said he’ll continue to try to find a way to lead his team to more wins with the November home stretch on deck.
“One thing about me is I’m not going to stop believing,” Elliott said. “That’s what faith is. Faith is the hope of things to come and the evidence of things unseen. There’s four games left and we’re going to battle. We’re going to take it one game at a time, one day at a time, but I know one thing about me, I’m not quitting and the sense that I get with that football team in there is they’re not quitting either. They want to taste that taste of victory and they’re going to work their tail off and we’ve got a lot to play for still this season.”
There is no doubt this team has improved from the beginning of the season.
This team fights, but isn’t good.
Hope we can win out!!
Wasn’t the loss to Maryland 42-14? That’s way more than 3 points.
It’s not like Elliott was left with a full cupboard. Everyone griped that Armstrong was held back last year. Well he transferred to NC State to be reunited Anea and now he has been benched. So maybe he had a great year but couldn’t carry it forward. Also tell me a coaching staff that had to endure what they did last year. The coaches have held this team together and they have been playing better but it has taken time. The fact that the players haven’t packed it in tells me they believe in the program.