Can Anthony Colandrea (right) and Virginia create some positive momentum this week? ~ Photo by Kris Wright/TheSabre.com
The Virginia football team built a little early season momentum with back-to-back wins out of the gate, but then stumbled in a big home game against Maryland on Saturday. The Hoos now head back on the road Saturday for a 2 p.m. showdown at Coastal Carolina in the first ever meeting between the programs.
When this series was first announced back in 2021, it carried a little more of a ho-hum reaction as a regional game between a power conference team and a smaller conference team. Now with a 12-team College Football Playoff and a guaranteed spot for at least one Group of Five team, the matchup suddenly has a little more weight. Coastal Carolina believes it can play itself into that conversation a after a 3-0 start and a consistent winning tradition (55 wins since 2017).
UVA coach Tony Elliott said he addressed the expected challenge with the Cavaliers as a fired up program awaits that’s hosted only one Power Four team previously.
“I don’t want to talk about it too much, but I do want to acknowledge it,” Elliott said. “I’d rather them hear it from me than from everybody else on the outside, and let the message be clear. The message was that this football team we’re getting ready to play believes they have a path to the playoff, which they do, and if they win every game on their schedule and they beat a Power Four at home, they’re going to have a chance to get into the playoffs. It’s a prideful bunch down there that’s playing for a lot, and we need to make sure we don’t focus too much on them, but we also don’t buy the lie, and the lie is oh, well, it’s a Group of Five and you should be able to show up and win.”
So what’s on tap for Virginia and Coastal? Let’s take a quick-hitting look through lists of three.
3 Players To Watch
Coastal Carolina quarterback Ethan Vasko (6’3”, 220), No. 15: After starting his career at Kansas, Vasko has found a home as the starter for Coastal. A product of Oscar Smith High School in Virginia, you’d expect him to be fired up and focused for a game against the state school back home. Vasko has 512 passing yards with three touchdowns plus 190 rushing yards with a touchdown in hand already this season so UVA must be ready to contain him in both facets of the game.
Coastal Carolina running back Christian Washington (5’10”, 200), No. 20: On a team that’s relied on the rushing attack so far, Washington has been the go-to runner for the Chanticleers. He has 44 carries for 206 yards and four touchdowns. He had two touchdown carries in each of the last two games. That’s just shy of 15 carries a game and he’s sitting at 4.7 yards per carry. Before transferring over to Coastal, he had 85 carries for 321 yards at New Mexico.
Virginia center Brian Stevens (6’2”, 300), No. 55: The Hoos’ starter at center for the past 13 games, Stevens exited the Maryland game with an apparent ankle injury before returning to finish it out. He didn’t look as strong later in the game and was still in a precautionary boot early this week in practice. While Coach Elliott said Stevens would be fine when recapping UVA injuries, Stevens has been the steady anchor for the line. If he’s out or not at his best, that could be an issue for the O-Line, which will likely be without McKale Boley and Ty Furnish this week as well.
3 Trends To Know
Coastal Carolina holds serve at home: From the start of the 2020 season, the Chanticleers own a 23-4 (85.2%) record in home games. During that time span, that’s as many home wins as powerhouse programs like Georgia and Oregon. They won their only home game against a Power 4 team with a 49-22 victory against Kansas in 2021.
The Chanticleers have gone two straight games with no turnovers, while the Hoos have had a turnover in four straight games: Coastal had a fumble and interception in its season opener, but did not commit any turnovers in its next two wins. That marked the first time since 2021 the program posted back-to-back turnover free games. Those clean sheets have lifted CC to a positive turnover margin of plus four on the season, which is tied for No. 13 nationally in the rankings.
Virginia, on the other hand, has not played a turnover free game since its win against Duke last November. In the season’s first loss to Maryland last week, UVA lost two fumbles and threw two interceptions. With seven turnovers lost already this season, the Hoos currently are tied for 121st nationally among 134 Football Bowl Subdivision teams. Only six programs have more turnovers so far this season.
Coastal Carolina has allowed only 11 sacks in the last 14 games: The Chanticleers allowed just 10 sacks over the final 11 games of the 2023 season and have given up only one so far in 2024. Last fall, that led to an averaged of 1.31 sacks allowed per contest to tie for 25th nationally. Right now at 0.33 sacks allowed per game, Coastal is tied for No. 9 nationally. UVA has six sacks this season, but five of those came in the game at Wake Forest.
3 Virginia Predictions
Malachi Fields bounces back: After a pair of triple-digit yardage games to start the season, Fields (6’4”, 220) posted just 36 receiving yards last week. He also had a fumble and a key holding penalty that negated the Hoos’ first touchdown of the game. Dante Wright had nine catches for 99 yards last week for Temple against Coastal Carolina and this defense has allowed eight catches of 20+ yards this season.
Jonas Sanker or another defensive back makes an interception: In the postgame media session last week, Sanker (6’1”, 210) noted that the defense needed to find a way to get some takeaways. As one of the leaders on this roster, Sanker feels like someone that might step up and get that done himself this week. Sanker has four forced fumbles and one interception in his career, but he’s always around the ball with 29 tackles this season already and 204 in his career.
Kobe Pace makes a big contribution: Pace (5’10”, 215) currently leads Virginia with 27 carries for 153 yards, an average of 5.7 yards per carry. With Xavier Brown (5’9”, 196) leaving last week’s game, this could be a situation where Pace gets a heavy workload. Coastal gave up 112 rushing yards to Army’s Tyson Riley late last year in that run-heavy offense. Pace may not reach 100, but an 80-yard day with at least one reception would boost the offense.
3 Keys To The Game
Give Coastal a dose of its own medicine: Coastal Carolina enters this game at No. 13 nationally with 251.67 rushing yards per game. On the other hand, the defense has allowed 131.33 rushing yards per game to fall in the middle of the pack (tied for 67th nationally) despite facing teams ranked 99th and 124th in rushing offense this season in Jacksonville State and Temple. Last year, the Chanticleers ranked 100th in run defense at 167.77 yards per game allowed while giving up 4.72 yards per carry (106th). This may not be an all-out strength for Virginia, but the offense is at its best when it can get some sort of running game going and this looks like a matchup where that’s possible. Test it early and often.
Slow the run and the short passing game: The Chanticleers have a potentially potent passing attack, but they seem to thrive on running the football to eat up yards, control the clock, and set up big-play completions. A week ago, Maryland found its offensive rhythm with 82 rushing yards in the second half plus repeated success in the short passing game on receiver screens and quick throws (UVA defensive end Kam Butler said film review showed a need to funnel to those plays faster to make tackles). If the Wahoos can control those elements, it could force QB Ethan Vasko to be more efficient in the passing game as long as the pocket is contained. Vasko has completed 35 of 63 passes this season or just 55.56% so the goal here would be to make him show he can get it done with his arm drive after drive. Virginia did post eight pass breakups last week too.
Finish things: So far this season, UVA is 41.67% on red zone touchdown percentage (114th tie) and 22.5% on third down conversions (131st tie). Those are the money moments for an offense and not finishing at a better rate in either of those categories can easily lead to losses and a lot of ‘what ifs’. Last week’s Maryland loss had that ‘what if’ feeling after the Hoos left a lot of potential points on the board in the first quarter. Throw in defensive drives with similar closing problems (Maryland went 10-21 on third and fourth down last week and the Cavaliers didn’t come up with two possible interceptions) and not finishing equals not winning.
3 Virginia Picks
Offensive Player Of The Game: Anthony Colandrea. Virginia needs its young quarterback to step in and lead with a strong performance after last week’s loss. Colandrea (6’0”, 183) responds with 200+ yards passing and at least 2 touchdowns.
Defensive Player Of The Game: Kam Robinson. There’s not guarantee yet that Robinson (6’2’, 234) will be back from the knee injury that kept him out of the Maryland game, but I’m guessing he returns and has a big game of 8+ tackles and at least two havoc plays (sack, tackle for loss, forced or recovered fumble, interception). Temple linebacker D.J. Woodbury posted 10 tackles with a sack last week against CC.
Winner: This game has the feel of a game with some big picture implications for the Hoos. I think they’ll be ready. Virginia 38, Coastal Carolina 27 (Season to date: 2-1)
