Subscribe to UVA Insider Articles | UVA Game Notes | UVA Football on Twitter | Pitt Game Notes | Jeff White’s Twitter
By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
PITTSBURGH –– UVA’s football team entered its 2018 opener with junior-college transfer Bryce Perkins atop the depth chart at quarterback. His backup was true freshman Brennan Armstrong, who like Perkins had enrolled at Virginia about eight months earlier.
Neither had ever played in a major-college game, and on the Cavaliers’ first possession, Perkins threw an ill-advised pass that a Richmond linebacker intercepted and returned 72 yards for a touchdown.
On the sideline, quarterbacks coach Jason Beck recalled Thursday after UVA’s practice in Charlottesville, “I was just like, ‘Oh, boy, which way is this going to go?’ You wonder if it’s going to snowball negatively or if he’ll bounce back.”
Perkins shrugged off his mistake. He had TD runs of 36 and 22 yards later in the first quarter, and Virginia rolled to a 42-13 victory at Scott Stadium.
“That was huge,” Beck said, “just the way he responded and came back.”
Perkins proved to be a revelation for a program that hadn’t had an elite quarterback since Marques Hagans, now the Cavaliers’ wide receivers coach, graduated more than a decade earlier.
The 6-3, 215-pound Perkins finished the season with a school-record 3,603 yards of total offense, and Armstrong impressed when pressed into duty (while retaining that year of eligibility). And so at quarterback the Wahoos are in a more desirable situation as they head into their fourth season under head coach Bronco Mendenhall.
“Last year we were wondering what we’d get in that first game and how it was going to look,” Beck said, “where now we’ve had 13 games under our belt with Bryce, and Brennan’s played in meaningful moments, and we’ve seen how he’s done.”
Mendenhall said: “We weren’t so sure about our quarterback a year ago. We’re much more sure not only about our starter, but our backup, and that’s a good place to be in.”
From a team that finished 8-5 in 2018, Perkins, Armstrong and numerous other key players are back, and in the ACC media’s preseason poll Virginia was picked to win the Coastal Division.
“It’s a nice acknowledgment that we’re relevant and in the conversation where we haven’t been,” Mendenhall said. “That’s been three years’ worth of work. That’s really where it ends.”
For the Wahoos, the season begins Saturday night at Heinz Field, home of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers. In a game that will air on the new ACC Network, Virginia meets reigning Coastal champion Pitt at 7:30 p.m.
“Obviously, on offense, Bryce Perkins is the guy,” said Pat Narduzzi, the Panthers’ head coach. “He’s the guy you got to stop.”
The Cavaliers, who have never won in this city, have dropped four straight in the series. The Panthers rallied to win 23-13 at Scott Stadium last year, and as they had in 2016 and ’17, pushed around UVA during key stretches.
Mendenhall has acknowledged as much to the media and to his team.
“I don’t back off that statement,” Mendenhall said Monday. “Pitt has been the more physical team in the previous three years, especially in the trenches on both sides.”
Such a statement “stabs you in the heart,” said UVA offensive line coach Garett Tujague, “but it’s true. [Pitt is] a physical group, and the coaching staff over there does a very good job. Those kids play tough and hard. I think that’s our challenge, to be able to match that.”
Mendenhall’s words may sting, senior cornerback Bryce Hall said, but the Cavaliers pride themselves on accepting “brutal feedback, and our coaches are real honest and straightforward with us. And so when you look at the games and the films, that’s just what it is and what it’s been. So realizing that, it’s pretty clear: How do we trust these coaches and what do we need to do to gain the advantage and not let that stuff happen again?”
Pitt’s top two running backs from last season are gone, including Darrin Hall, who rushed for touchdowns of 41, 2 and 75 yards at Scott Stadium. The Panthers have a revamped offensive line, too, and a new offensive coordinator (Mark Whipple), so the Cavaliers aren’t sure what to expect Saturday night.
Under Narduzzi, a former Michigan State defensive coordinator, Pitt has been a run-oriented team, but he wants more balance on offense.
“We’re still going to be able to run the football,” Narduzzi said. “It starts there. Your passing game won’t be worth a darn if you can’t run the football. [But the Panthers] don’t want to be one-dimensional, coming out of the game saying we ran the ball 80 percent of the time. I’d like to say it’s 60/40 run. 50/50 would be nice.”
The Cavaliers, co-defensive coordinator Kelly Poppinga said, are “preparing for everything at this point. That’s one of the challenges with the first game. You really don’t know what you’re going to get, so you’ve got to go based upon what the offense coordinator did before and what they’ve had success with before as a program. We’ve got to play a well-rounded game.”
In each of the Hoos’ first three seasons under Mendenhall, they opened against an FCS opponent.
“I think the first game, whoever you’re playing, is pretty urgent because it’s the first one of the season. It sets a tone,” junior wide receiver Terrell Jana said. “But I think playing an in-conference game adds just a little more urgency.”
Narduzzi said: “We know we’re going to have a hungry Virginia team coming in here trying to kick our tails because we got a win down there last year.”
After finishing 2-10 in 2016, Virginia improved to 6-7 in 2017. Last year the Cavaliers finished above .500 for only the second time in a decade.
“I know the program has been in a building process,” Jana said. “I like where we’re at right now. This is an exciting challenge for us. I think the boys are ready to go and it’s going to be a really good game.”
With Pitt up first on the schedule, Perkins said, the Hoos “have to start fast and then carry that throughout the season. We don’t have time to meander into it. This whole [offseason] has been a grind in preparation for that hard opening game.”
The Cavaliers haven’t played since Dec. 29, when they defeated South Carolina in the Belk Bowl to cap a season with a victory for the first time since 2005. To UVA’s players and coaches, it may seem like an eternity has passed since that game, but it “always feels that way,” Beck said. “Between spring ball and fall camp, you just get so used to practicing against yourselves that when the game finally comes and it’s time to play, it’s pretty exciting.”