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Virginia at Pitt Game Notes
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Sept. 28, 2013
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Virginia Team Notes
- Today the Virginia coaching staff wore a Coach to Cure MD patch to raise awareness and funding for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy research. This is the sixth annual Coach to Cure MD effort from the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) and UVa has taken part all six seasons.
- Virginia (2-2) is now 2-4 all-time against Pitt and 0-3 in Pittsburgh.
- Virginia drops its ACC opener for the fourth season in a row.
- OLB Max Valles and TE Rob Burnsmade their first career starts.
- UVa’s defense held an opponent to under 200 yards of total offense in back-to-back games for the first time since 1972.
- UVa held VMI to 79 total yards and Pitt to 199 total yards.
- In 1972 UVa held Vanderbilt (Oct. 7) to 188 total yards and VMI (Oct. 14) to 122 total yards.
- With seven sacks against Pitt, UVa has collected at least three sacks in three of UVa’s four games (BYU, VMI, Pitt).
- The seven are the most since UVa recorded nine against Duke in 2006.
- UVa was held scoreless in the first half for the first time since the 2012 TCU game.
- UVa did not score a touchdown for the first time since the 2011 Virginia Tech game.
- The UVa defense intercepted multiple passes for the first time since they snagged three at NC State in 2012.
- The UVa defense held Pitt to eight yards rushing, the fewest since Maryland rushed for -2 in 2012.
Virginia Player Notes
- OLB Max Valles recorded his first career sack in the first quarter.
- Valles finished the game with a career-high 2.5 sacks.
- QB David Watford’s 19-yard rush in the second quarter was a career high.
- CB Demetrious Nicholson recorded his third career interception in the second quarter.
- It was Nicholson’s first interception since the Georgia Tech game in 2011.
- WR Darius Jennings with two catches against Pitt extends his consecutive game streak with a catch to 17.
- CB Maurice Canady collected his first career sack on the final play of the first half.
- CB Anthony Harris forced his second career fumble in the third quarter.
- Harris collected his second interception of the season and third of his career in the third quarter.
- DE Jake Snyder recovered his third career fumble in the third quarter.
- Alec Vozenilek booted a career-long 77-yard punt in the third quarter.
- The 77-yard punt is the fourth-longest in UVa history.
- The 77-yard punt is the longest by UVa since Will Brice’s 78-yard punt against Georgia Tech in 1994.
- WR Dominique Terrell registered his second career rush for a career-long 21 yards.
- Terrell’s rush was his first since his collegiate debut in 2011 against William & Mary (three yards).
- Terrell’s reception in the fourth quarter extends his consecutive game streak with a reception to 18.
Pitt Postgame Notes
- Stretching its winning streak to three games, the University of Pittsburgh (3-1, 2-1 ACC) outlasted Virginia (2-2, 0-1 ACC), 14-3, in a defensive battle on Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field. The Panthers recorded their third consecutive victory for the first time since a four-game winning streak that overlapped between the 2010 and ’11 seasons. Pitt now has its first same-season three-game winning streak since the team defeated Syracuse, Rutgers and Louisville consecutively in 2010.
- The 14 points Pitt scored was the lowest points total in a victory for the team since the Panthers defeated West Virginia 13-9 on Dec. 1, 2007. The win also marked Pitt’s first ACC triumph at home.
- Wide receiver Tyler Boyd recorded his third consecutive 100-yard receiving game, becoming the first Pitt freshman to achieve that feat since Antonio Bryant in 1999. Boyd finished with seven catches for 111 yards.
- The Pitt defense had its best game of the season, forcing two turnovers that the Panthers converted into first-quarter touchdowns (scored by James Conner and Devin Street) and limiting the Cavaliers to just 179 yards of total offense. The two turnovers resulted from first-career fumble recoveries by redshirt freshmen Trenton Coles and Bam Bradley, respectively. The Panthers’ defensive unit made clutch plays throughout, holding Virginia to 1-for-4 on fourth-down attempts and halting five UVA drives in Pitt territory.
- Both teams struggled to run the ball effectively. Pitt held Virginia to 65 yards rushing; the last time the Panthers held an opponent to less than 75 yards rushing was at South Florida on Dec. 1, 2012 (eight yards). As a partial result of quarterback Tom Savage being sacked seven times, Pitt finished with just eight yards rushing, its lowest total since SMU held the Panthers to 10 rushing yards in the BBVA Compass Bowl on Jan. 7, 2012.
- The last time Pitt held an opponent to three points was at South Florida on Dec. 1, 2012.
- Senior defensive tackle Aaron Donald tallied two of Pitt’s three sacks of Virginia quarterback David Watford. The pair of sacks pushed Donald’s career total to 24.5, moving him into seventh place on the school’s all-time sack list ahead of Brandon Lindsey (22.5), Dennis Atiyeh (23) and Bryan Knight (23.5).
- For the third straight week, Todd Thomas forced a turnover on downs by making a key tackle on fourth down. The junior linebacker snuffed out fake-punt attempts by New Mexico and Duke the last two weeks, and against Virginia he brought down Cavaliers running back Kevin Parks on a fourth-and-two play in the second quarter.
- Junior linebacker Anthony Gonzalez recorded a team-high and career-high 10 total tackles. His previous career-high total was eight tackles, which he achieved twice and most recently against Duke last week.
- Two true freshmen made their first career starts for Pitt: linebacker Matt Galambos and H-Back Jaymar Parrish. Galambos and Parrish joined tight end Scott Orndoff and wide receiver Tyler Boyd as true freshmen to earn a start for Pitt this season.