The Virginia football team created some positive momentum and glimmers of hope in October with two wins, including a shocking upset of previously undefeated North Carolina. The start of November, however, resurfaced previous issues and left a disappointing forecast for the season’s stretch run as Georgia Tech romped 45-17 on Saturday at Scott Stadium.
The Cavaliers led at the end of the first quarter, but seemed flat for much the afternoon. A hangover from back-to-back night games on the road against ranked opponents vs. a sleepy-feeling fall afternoon at home? Perhaps, but the mood only spiraled when injuries and an increasing deficit hit.
After making some progress last month and generally playing close contests this season, the Hoos (2-7, 1-4) did not see the letdown coming, but will try to quickly regroup for a Thursday night game at Louisville this week.
“It’s on me. I did not do a great job of having this football team prepared and ready to play at a high level,” Virginia coach Tony Elliott said. “It’s the tale of football, how momentum can swing and how things in the game can change quickly. We weren’t able to capture the momentum once it changed. For a little while, we were going back and forth and it was competitive football. And then we started making some critical mistakes and they found some answers and made some adjustments that we could not adjust back to.”
“We practiced well. We put our best foot forward on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Monday,” UVA receiver Malik Washington said. “Throughout the week, we put our best foot forward, we just came out a little flat today.”
The game’s early script actually followed some of the Hoos’ recent games. In fact, Virginia led after the first quarter for the fourth time in the last five games.
Saturday’s 7-3 lead came courtesy of a touchdown drive on the second possession of the game. UVA got moving with 21 rushing yards from Mike Hollins and a 21-yard reception from Washington on the drive’s first four plays. Tight end Josh Rawlings eventually finished it off on a 9-yard touchdown catch, the first of his career, with 8:30 remaining in the quarter.
Even before that scoring sequence, however, signs of concern already had emerged. The first drive of the game featured a double whammy. Virginia moved the ball near midfield, but a downfield shot ended up as an interception when Georgia Tech’s Myles Sims somehow came up with the ball on what potentially looked like simultaneous possession on the play with Malachi Fields.
On the same snap, the Cavaliers lost starting quarterback Tony Muskett. He got looked at in the medical tent and never returned to the game, later exiting the locker room with a boot on his right foot. The early report is a high ankle sprain with future weeks still up in the air.
UVA quarterback Grady Brosterhous filled in to start the second drive while the evaluation began on Muskett and he completed the 21-yard pass to Washington. Once word came down that Muskett would not return, however, Virginia turned to backup Anthony Colandrea the rest of the way. That removed any chances of a redshirt as his fifth appearance of the season.
Colandrea delivered with the touchdown strike to Rawlings on that drive, but had an up-and-down day otherwise. The freshman showed the same characteristics as his starts earlier this season when Muskett sat with a shoulder injury, namely a toughness running, scrambling with some swagger, and some good throws with zip. That included the touchdown pass to Rawlings with pressure in his face. At the same time, he also had moments where he tried to force play, misread the defense, or didn’t protect the ball while running.
Colandrea finished 21-37 passing for 200 yards with 2 touchdowns, 1 interception, and 1 lost fumble. He actually had another pass picked off too, but it was negated by a facemask penalty against GT.
“Coach Elliott always tells me, you’ve got to know when to press,” Colandrea said, while also noting that he needed to cover up the ball on the fumble. “You’ve got to know when to press and when to lay off. You don’t always have to score on one play. You can just drive down the field and score.”
“You just try to coach him through it and a lot of times, he knows as soon as he does it,” Elliott said. “What we have to do, is we just have to coach him through it and get him to understand that doesn’t take away from who you are. It actually makes you better and a more complete quarterback when you understand to just make the play required.”
Virginia did produce some solid stat lines for Kobe Pace, Fields, and Washington. Fields had 5 catches for 65 yards. Pace added 6 carries for 26 yards plus 3 catches for 16 yards, including an 8-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter.
Washington ,meanwhile, continued his sensational season. He hauled in 11 catches for 109 yards. That’s his fourth straight 100-yard game and his third straight with double-digit receptions. He also surpassed 1,000 yards receiving on the season with 1,044 to date. He’s the first player in Virginia history to have four straight 100-yard receiving games and just the sixth player to reach the 1,000-yard receiving mark.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to get UVA back to the winner’s circle and the news got worse as the day progressed. In addition to losing Muskett with the ankle, Hollins left the game with a neck injury and linebacker Kam Robinson exited with a knee problem.
Robinson is just the latest blow for the defense, which has lost Antonio Clary, Lex Long, Olasunkonmi Agunloye, and Kam Butler from the early season depth chart. Ben Smiley III, Paul Akere, Josh Ahern, Malcolm Greene, and Chico Bennett Jr. have missed games as well.
Saturday, Jonas Sanker led UVA with 10 tackles. King added 8, while Trey McDonald had 7. Bennett, Tayvonn Kyle, and Jahmeer Carter chipped in 6 tackles each.
Regardless of the injury issues, that unit struggled with the Yellow Jackets. A 7-3 lead after the first quarter flipped into a 24-10 deficit by halftime thanks to a rough second quarter for the D. GT quarterback Haynes King ran in mostly untouched for a 2-yard score and he duplicated it later with a similar 34-yard touchdown run up the middle.
With the hole already 17-7 at that point, the game really flipped with a 33-yard touchdown run from Dontae Smith on 3rd-and-14 with 28 seconds to go in the half. Tech then started the second half with another touchdown strike. This time it was a 58-yard touchdown catch for Eric Singleton Jr., who got behind Coen King for the score.
It all added up to 514 yards of total offense for the Yellow Jackets. That included 305 rushing yards at a clip of 6.9 yards per carry.
King completed 23 of 30 passes for 208 yards and a touchdown to go with 83 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns. Smith had 15 carries for 78 yards and 2 touchdowns too. Jamal Hayes added 17 carries for 119 yards and a touchdown as well. Singleton led the way in receiving yards with 80.
With less than 24 hours before a return to practice Sunday afternoon and a Thursday night game looming at Louisville, the Hoos didn’t have much time to sulk about the setback, though.
“It’s definitely going to challenge a lot of guys, myself included,” Sanker said. “So, we’re gonna be able to watch the film, see where, we need to improve, see where we need to play faster, win blocks. Our identity as a defense, we don’t want to let a team just run on us. So, it’s going challenge us to how we’re gonna respond next week. [Are we going to] take this and just let that kill our confidence, or are we going to bounce back and keep fighting for the team and try to build that culture and this program?”
Totally inept on D. Injuries or not, backups or not, this group was ill-prepared to play. A pitiful display all around. Kris tried valiantly to put a positive (or at least neutral) spin on our performance, but it couldn’t be done. If this was to be a close, winnable game, what will the last three be like?
C’mon basketball season – can’t come soon enough!
If you are a smart opposing coach you run the ball against UVA. You get TOP, you get scores, and you minimize UVA chances. Think everyone knows but UNC