Virginia football coach Tony Elliott gave his team a simple message during a two-hour storm delay Saturday. It’s not often you get a chance at redemption.
Playing its home opener on UVA Strong Day against an in-state opponent and leading when weather hit for the second straight year, the Hoos wrote a much different script this time around. A year ago James Madison rallied during the delay to steal a one-point win. This year, the Cavaliers immediately and emphatically slammed the door as part of a convincing 34-13 at Scott Stadium.
Virginia led wire to wire after building a 20-0 lead early in the second quarter. The program has won seven of its last eight season openers.
“They stayed very upbeat, stayed very engaged throughout the course [of it],” Elliott said. “Many times you don’t get a shot at redemption. I think about last year on UVA Strong Day, we had a similar situation and we didn’t finish. I’m really proud of the staff and the guys for finding a way to finish tonight.”
After the visiting Spiders scored just before the severe weather delay to make it 20-7, the first drive after the break captured what much of the game looked like. UVA got a 37-yard kickoff return from Xavier Brown to give the offense possession near midfield. Then the next four plays all featured the same theme, i.e., give Kobe Pace the ball.
The senior running back carried the ball left for 1 yard, up the middle for an explosive 43-yard gain, 7 yards again up the middle, and then 3 yards to the right side for the touchdown. Any thoughts of a repeat letdown were immediately erased with those runs and the 27-7 lead was never threatened.
Pace finished with 11 carries for 93 yards and the touchdown, good enough for 8.5 yards per carry, plus 2 catches for 51 yards.
“We wanted to push the tempo when we got back out there and I feel like that’s what we did. I feel like we executed the game plan,” Pace said. He added: “It felt good. It’s not all about me, it’s about those guys up front that helped me get to that next level and also in the end zone.”
Part of the game plan not just on that drive, but overall was to control the line of scrimmage and get positive production from the running game. The Hoos accomplished that.
With 49 yards from starting quarterback Anthony Colandrea and 44 more from Brown, the team’s total landed at 200 rushing yards on 37 carries with 2 touchdowns. Colandrea added the other TD run from 7 yards out midway through the third quarter, the first rushing score of his career. The only lost yardage play on the day in the run game was a 30-yard sack taken by Colandrea when he tried to double back across the field while retreating instead of throwing the ball away.
Other that that play, though, Colandrea put together an impressive performance from both a decision-making and playmaking standpoint. Statistically, that shuffled out as 17-23 passing for 297 yards and 2 touchdowns plus the positive rushing yardage. He accounted for 346 yards of total offense, the second highest total of his career behind only the Louisville game (403) last fall.
Overall nine players caught a pass. Cavalier receiver Malachi Fields secured nearly a third of that yardage with 5 catches for an even 100 yards, the first 100-yard receiving day of his career. Trell Harris and Jack Griese each had big touchdown receptions to supply 95 yards too.
The first TD throw came on the opening drive when Colandrea lofted his first pass attempt of the game down the left side for a 35-yard scoring connection with Harris that got UVA on the board just 3:25 into the contest. That marked Harris’ first touchdown at Virginia after he transferred in from Kent State, where he had two TDs in his career, this offseason.
It’s the first time the Cavaliers scored on their first pass attempt of a game since 2018 when Bryce Perkins and Olamide Zaccheaus linked up for an 86-yard score against Ohio. It’s also the first time in program history (135 years) that the Wahoos scored a touchdown on their first pass of the season.
Colandrea’s second touchdown toss gave the hosts a 17-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. He rolled to his right and then found Griese releasing up the sideline in scramble drill. That play turned into a 57-yard touchdown catch for Griese as the running back sprinted toward the Virginia tunnel. A dropped pass from Sackett Wood Jr. near the goal line on the second possession of the game could have made it a 3-score day through the air.
Those two scores captured both parts of Colandrea’s game. The first came on the designed play call, while the second required the improvisation that he thrived in at times as a true freshman. Overall for the day, he walked that decision-making tight rope well. Colandrea distributed the ball evenly to multiple targets, didn’t put the ball in jeopardy in the passing game with any forced throws, and both went out of bounds or slid before contact on some scramble plays.
Elliott liked what he saw from the young quarterback.
“Proud of just the maturity and growth you saw,” Elliott said. “Again, not everybody’s going to be able to see the same things we do as coaches, but I thought he made some head’s up plays. He went out of bounds a couple of times, which shows progress. I thought he did a really good job of taking care of the ball. Did have the one sack that he’s going to learn from, but I saw a lot of growth and maturity from his standpoint.”
With the offense finding success outside of third down (3-11), it set the stage for the defense to handle the rest of the winning equation. The Hoos delivered there too.
Richmond managed only one touchdown on the night, a 13-play drive that covered 75 yards and ate up 6:56 of the clock. Virginia had two chances to get off the field during that possession, but the Spiders converted two fourth down plays before quarterback Kyle Wickersham finished it off with a 5-yard TD carry.
Otherwise, UVA didn’t allow much. Richmond posted only 257 yards of offense, 147 rushing and 110 passing. Wickersham had all 110 passing yards, while Zach Palmer-Smith led the ground game with 7 carries for 76 yards. Many of the Spider stats came after the Wahoos had jumped out to a 34-7 lead. Richmond got 116 yards and a pair of field goals in the final 23:31 after the scoreboard was well in hand for the Hoos. The visitors lost a fumble and converted just 3 of 15 third downs.
Safeties Jonas Sanker and Anthony Clary led the Virginia defense with 8 tackles each. Ben Smiley III, Jahmeer Carter, Anthony Britton, and Jason Hammond all posted 4 tackles as part of the defensive line’s efforts. Smiley and Hammond split the Hoos’ lone sack of the game.
In the end, it all added up to accomplish what UVA needed in its 2024 season opener. A win, plenty of positives to acknowledge, and valuable feedback on what needs improvement. The Cavaliers will take that 1-0 start and refocus for a road trip to Wake Forest next week in their ACC opener.
“I thought we did a really good job right out of the gate in all three phases. I thought we won what we call the middle eight. The one area where I want to see us do a little better is finishing the fourth quarter, we got a little bit sloppy with a couple of penalties and didn’t sustain some drives,” Elliott said. “But overall, a lot to build upon. Hopefully, this is kind of the floor of this football team that we continue to build upon this.”
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