By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE –– The mood in the home locker room at Scott Stadium was more subdued Saturday night than it typically is after a victory, with players and coaches visibly frustrated by the final minutes of Virginia’s win over Coastal Division rival Georgia Tech. The Cavaliers’ spirits lifted, though, when head coach Bronco Mendenhall summoned Keytaon Thompson to his side.
Thompson turned 23 on Saturday, and his teammates serenaded him with a rendition of “Happy Birthday.” As the song neared its end, he raised a sledgehammer and smashed the rock on the floor in front of him, punctuating UVA’s 48-40 victory.
“It was great, man,” a smiling Thompson said late Saturday night when asked about his teammates’ singing. “I think it sounded much, much better after a win.”
Mr. FBP himself @Thompson_Kt5 did it all out there. And on his birthday!🎊🎉 Go ahead and break the rock!#GoHoos | #THEStandard pic.twitter.com/HhTYDXlR60
— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) October 24, 2021
A graduate transfer who’s in his second year at Virginia, Thompson rushed seven times for 65 yards and caught nine passes for 89 yards against the Yellow Jackets (3-4 overall, 2-3 ACC). The performance underscored why he’s listed simply as “football player” on the depth chart and why the Wahoos love No. 99, who’s been playing with a broken left hand.
“He’s an athlete,” Georgia Tech safety Juanyeh Thomson said. “Put the ball in his hand and he makes plays, and he made a lot of plays tonight.”
That was true of several other Cavaliers, too, including quarterback Brennan Armstrong, wideouts Dontayvion Wicks and Billy Kemp, and tight end Jelani Woods. Virginia (6-2, 4-2) finished with 636 yards of total offense, its highest total in 11 years.
Still, what should have been a comfortable victory for UVA wasn’t decided until the game’s final play, a Hail Mary pass by Georgia Tech that safety Joey Blount knocked down in the end zone.
“Honestly, I’m upset with how the game ended,” said Blount, who finished with eight tackles and had a second-quarter interception that helped swing momentum in the Hoos’ direction. “Even though we won, I think we need to win in better fashion, and we can’t leave it up in the air like that … I just hold the team to a high, high standard.”
For the first 56 minutes, Mendenhall said, the game played out as the Hoos thought it might, but the “finish was a whole different script.”
With 3:50 to play, Armstrong and wideout Ra’Shaun Henry connected on a 20-yard touchdown pass, and Brendan Farrell’s extra point made it 48-27.
“It felt like it was over,” Armstrong said.
Georgia Tech, however, refused to go away. The Jackets scored a touchdown with 1:16 left, cutting the Cavaliers’ lead to 48-34, then recovered an onside kick.
Fifty-four seconds later, Georgia Tech scored again, and suddenly it was 48-40. The Jackets’ two-point conversion attempt failed, but they followed that with another onside kick, and they recovered that one, too, with 20 seconds remaining.
Completions of 7 and 12 yards moved Georgia Tech to the Virginia 31. Cornerback Anthony Johnson broke up quarterback Jeff Sims’ next attempt, setting the stage for the game’s final play, after which the Cavaliers could finally exhable.
“Giving up those two onside kicks, and then having the defense come back out and not play well, was definitely not great,” Virginia safety Coen King said. “No one thought that was a positive thing.”
Mendenhall noted that “48-27 would have been better” than 48-40, but he credited the Jackets with two superb onside kicks. “They executed super well,” he said.
The Cavaliers, who became bowl-eligible with the victory, have won four straight since losing Sept. 24 to Wake Forest at Scott Stadium. They’ve been on a roller-coaster ride defensively this season, and Saturday brought more of the same.
Coming off a 48-0 win over Duke, Virginia gave up 570 yards against Georgia Tech. The Jackets scored touchdowns on each of their first two drives and led 13-0 late in the first quarter.
“They had us on our heels a little bit,” said Blount, one of many UVA players from the Atlanta area.
Armstrong and Co. were able to erase that deficit, but on a night when two key defensive starters (lineman Mandy Alonso and linebacker Noah Taylor) suffered injuries, the Hoos rarely played the complementary football that’s their goal.
“So, we’ve just got to keep working, keep working, keep working,” Mendenhall said.
ON A ROLL: Armstrong, who’s in his second year as Virginia’s starter, continues to put up video-game numbers. Against Georgia Tech, he rushed for 99 yards, the most by a Cavalier this season, and passed for 396. He threw for four touchdowns and ran for two more.
Armstrong completed 29 of 43 passes Saturday night, and he wasn’t intercepted. His longest run gained 45 yards.
“The biggest thing was trying to show him different looks throughout the game,” Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins said. “We did do that, but the kid is really good. He was finding the holes, the soft spots in certain coverages. We kept trying to change it up and kept trying to change the pressures, and he just kept seeing and finding it. He just has a knack for finding a way to keep plays alive and find his receivers and he keeps his eyes downfield and he makes plays.”
Armstrong hurt his right knee in UVA’s second game, a 42-14 win over Illinois. The injury didn’t keep him out the lineup, but in the next few games Armstrong did not often look to run. He’s close to 100 percent now, however, and his running ability gives Virginia “one other weapon to move the ball forward,” Mendenhall said.
No. 5 still wears a brace on his right knee for protection, “but I’m ready to run now,” Armstrong said, “and we got to utilize that tonight.”