Belk Bowl Report

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By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
 
CHARLOTTE, N.C.– On a stage wheeled onto the field at game’s end, University of Virginia football coach Bronco Mendenhall happily joined five of his team’s leaders: quarterback Bryce Perkins, wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus, linebacker Chris Peace, running back Jordan Ellis and safety Juan Thornhill.
 
Their smiles told the story, especially when they turned to face the crowd noisily celebrating on the sunny side of Bank of America Stadium. Thornhill raised the Belk Bowl trophy in triumph, and Virginia fans roared.
 
Who could blame them? For the first time since 2005, the Cavaliers ended a season with a victory, and they did so in stunning fashion Saturday afternoon. Against an SEC opponent that entered as the favorite, UVA blanked South Carolina 28-0.
 
The Wahoos (8-5) scored a touchdown in each quarter and gave up only 261 yards.
 
“This is probably our best game we’ve played,” said Zaccheaus, the game’s MVP, “and it couldn’t come at a better time, at the end of the season when a lot was at stake.”
 
UVA, which improved its bowl record in Charlotte to 3-0, finished with eight wins for the first time since 2011 and only the second time in the past decade. Even better for the ‘Hoos, they’ll welcome back a strong nucleus of veterans in 2019, including Perkins, a junior, and All-America cornerback Bryce Hall, who confirmed after the game that he plans to return for his senior season.
 
“I think it just catapults us into next season with confidence, with strength,” said redshirt junior Eli Hanback, a three-year starter on the defensive line. “I know it’s going to help recruiting, it’s going to help our fan base, it’s going to help everything about the Virginia program, and I think with both Bryces coming back, it’s going to be huge for our offense, huge for our defense.”
 
Mendenhall has said repeatedly that his program has not yet arrived, and “that’s how we feel: We’re just getting started,” Hall said. “We kind of took a lot of people by surprise [Saturday], but we knew how hard we’ve been working, and we knew what we were capable of, and that’s all that really mattered to us.”
 
After closing the regular season with back-to-back overtime losses, the first at Georgia Tech and the second at Virginia Tech, UVA began preparing for South Carolina with a heightened sense of urgency. Moreover, the Cavaliers hadn’t forgotten what happened in last year’s Military Bowl, where they lost 49-7 to Navy.
 
“We weren’t here for a vacation,” Zaccheaus said. “This was a business trip, and we wanted to win this game.”
 
The Gamecocks (7-6) came in averaging 440.2 yards and 32.6 points per game, and their quarterback, junior Jake Bentley, had passed for 510 yards against second-ranked Clemson on Nov. 24.
 
None of that fazed a Virginia defense whose depleted line lost a starter, true freshman Aaron Faumui, to mononucleosis this month. The Cavaliers lost another starter, sophomore linebacker Zane Zandier, to an injury in the first half Saturday, but they still posted the shutout.
 
“We held them to zero points, and the whole talk coming into this game was how fast their offense was and how good they were on offense,” Zaccheaus said. “Granted, they didn’t have their number-one receiver” – Deebo Samuel, who opted not to play in the game – “but still, at the end of the day, we came out and performed.”
 
The Cavaliers forced two turnovers. Thornhill, a senior, intercepted a Bentley pass and returned it 54 yards early in the fourth quarter. Cornerback Tim Harris, a sixth-year senior who’s battled injuries for much of his college career, picked off a Bentley pass on the Gamecocks’ final possession, helping to preserve the shutout.
 
“That was one of the best moments of the game for me,” sophomore safety Joey Blount said. “I’m just so happy for Tim and what he’s accomplished, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for him.”
 
In 2016, their first season under Mendenhall, the Cavaliers finished 2-10. They improved to 6-7 last year and took another significant step forward this season. Leading the effort were Virginia’s seniors, many of whom turned in stellar performances Saturday.
 
In addition to Thornhill and Harris, Ellis rushed 26 times for 106 yards and one touchdown, and Peace had 1.5 sacks in his 38^thconsecutive start. And then, of course, there was Zaccheaus, who had 12 receptions and three touchdown catches – both bowl records for Virginia. He’ll leave on the short list of the most productive receivers in program history.
 
“I just wanted to be a spark for the offense and make the plays that the team needs me to make,” Zaccheaus said. “The coaches trust me to make those plays, and the team trusts me, and I put that on my shoulders.”
 
The seniors, Hanback said, “all played like it was their last game in a Virginia uniform, and when you have your leaders and your best players play with everything they have in their hearts, for one last time, for everyone on this team and for everything that has to do with this program, we get the result that we got today. They left it all out there.”
 
Perkins, who enrolled at UVA in January after starring last fall at a junior college in Arizona, sparkled, too, as he has all season. Against South Carolina, he rushed 15 times for 81 yards, and completed 22 of 31 passes for 208 yards and three TDs.
 
“I’m just very fortunate that he chose UVA,” Mendenhall said. “I’m very lucky that he’s here, and we don’t have an eight-win season without him, and the optimism for the future and hope for our program isn’t the same if he’s not here.”
 
On an afternoon when Virginia totaled 413 yards, the highlight for the offense was its magnificent second-quarter touchdown drive. It started at the UVA 10-yard line with 8:52 left in the first half. It ended at the 42-second mark with Ellis’ 9-yard run.
 
“That was our hope,” Mendenhall said, “that we could move the ball effectively, score and use clock all at the same time, and we did that.”
 
In the final 90 seconds, with the victory secure, Virginia’s players sneaked up on Mendenhall and doused him with water. Moments later, they did the same to defensive coordinator Nick Howell, who also oversees the Cavaliers’ secondary.
 
“Coach Howell is one of the most energetic coaches I know,” Hanback said. “He loves, loves, loves football, and he loves us too, and he wants us to play to the best of our ability every game, and he has supreme confidence in us every game, and he gives us a fantastic game plan to win. But at the same time he holds us accountable when we don’t perform up to par.”
 
When the postgame celebration finally ended on the field, Zaccheaus’ teammates selected him to wield a sledgehammer and smash a rock in the locker room, as one Cavalier does after every victory. But Zaccheaus was delayed on the field, and by the time he entered the locker room, cradling his MVP trophy, the rock was in pieces.
 
“The team voted for Olamide, and then Olamide was still out on the field, so I broke it by default,” Mendenhall said, smiling. “I was the second choice. I was just praying that I hit it.”
 
He nailed it, a fitting exclamation mark to a game in which his team hit the mark time and again.
 
“I’m so proud of our football program, coaches and players, and the progress that we’ve made in a three-year span,” Mendenhall said.
 
ALL IN: It was impossible for him to know ahead of the game how motivated the Gamecocks would be, Mendenhall said, but he was confident his team would be ready to play Saturday.
 
“One of the best indicators was when I announced that we’d be practicing on Christmas,” Mendenhall said. “That was a test, and they just looked right at me with this nod. And then I explained the best gift I could give them is work them harder than their opponent, and the memories will last longer. And they embraced that.
 
“And I have to say that none of that was just bowl-prep specific. After our game against Navy a team ago, this team [decided that] what’s going to accelerate this program at the fastest rate is obviously playing well in our in-state rivalry game and also winning bowl games. It wasn’t just going, it was winning.
 
“They hit one of the two, but maybe more importantly they hit the last one.”
 
Perkins said: “We had two goals in the beginning of the season — beat [Virginia] Tech and win the bowl game. We accomplished one, and for the seniors it means the world.”
 
PLAY IT AGAIN: Some NFL mock drafts have projected Hall as a first-round pick in 2019, but he decided this month not to leave school early.
 
“It’s always been on my heart,” Hall said Saturday. “The last couple weeks have made it more clear, mostly because I feel like I want to finish what I started here. This program gave me so much, and before I leave I want to give everything I have to them. I want to develop also as a leader, and when that next phase of life comes, I want to be prepared.
 
“I feel like I can compete at that level. I really believe there’s just more things I want to work on, prepare, as far as developing as a person, a leader, also my game as well. I believe I can do that further. The league’s always going to be there, so I’m not as concerned about that. I’m more focused on how can I give and share everything this program’s given me, these coaches, this culture, and help build and leave it in a better place than where I started.”
 
He didn’t make his decision public before the Belk Bowl, Hall said, because he didn’t want to draw attention to himself.
 
“I’ve known for some time, but honestly I didn’t want to make this story about me,” he said. “It had been on my heart for a while, after the [Virginia] Tech game I had been thinking of it, and as time went on I think it became a lot clearer.”
 
Mendenhall said: “He’s not satisfied yet with where the team is, and he’s not satisfied with where his own performance is, and he’s trusting us to help him. I’m very fortunate that he’s coming back, and I think he’s an exceptional player and an exceptional person.”
 
POWERFUL CONNECTION: Near the entrance to the Cavaliers’ locker room, Mendenhall greeted his players one by one after the game, usually with an embrace. Many of them, including Harris, thanked Mendenhall and told him they love him.
 
“I think it’s the ultimate compliment and the ultimate reward,” Mendenhall said, “just to have someone say, ‘Thank you,’ or ‘I appreciate you coming to UVA and I love you,’ or ‘I appreciate you.’ There’s no price that you can put on that. That alone is maybe the greatest motivator and the greatest gift I could ever receive from a player.”
 
LOOKING AHEAD: Media members who cover the ACC picked Virginia to finish last in the Coastal Division this season. The Cavaliers tied for third, and they figure to be one of the preseason favorites in the Coastal in 2019.

“Honestly, I wish I had another year, because I know next year’s even going to be better than this year,” Zaccheaus said. “But I’m just happy that I was able to leave this place better than I found it, and I’m appreciative for Coach Mendenhall and his staff, for everything they’ve done for me and my teammates, and everybody who’s involved in this organization and this program. I’m so thankful for everyone.”
 
That his college career is over “still hasn’t hit me yet, to be honest,” Zaccheaus said. “I’m just excited to get this win with my brothers and this organization. We’re moving in the right direction.”
 
Mendenhall, smiling, said: “Maybe we won’t be picked last [next year].”
 
THEY SAID IT: There was much to talk about on both sides after the game, which drew a crowd of 48,263. Among the noteworthy comments:
 
* South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp: “When you get into a 21-0 game against their defense, I knew it was going to be a difficult deal.”
 
* Bentley on the Cavaliers’ defense: “They were schemed-up and did a really good job of disguising their coverages.”
 
* Ellis on Zaccheaus’ performance: “That’s nothing out of the ordinary for him. He had a regular game today. It didn’t really surprise us. He does things like that every day in practice.”
 
* Blount on Thornhill, an All-ACC selection who led the team with six interceptions this season: “Juan’s a one-of-a-kind player, and his shoes are going to be hard to fill, but someone’s going to step up. There’s no way, the way our program’s going, that someone’s not going to step up.”
 
* Zaccheaus: “We got after it this whole bowl prep and we didn’t take any day lightly, and it paid off for us.”
 
* Hanback: “I think Bryce Hall is one of the most selfless players we’ve ever had. He cares about his team more than himself … He has unfinished business, he said, and that’s more important to him than going to the NFL.”