Hoos Hungry for More Success After Comeback Win

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Standing outside the tunnel that leads from the visitors’ locker room to the field at Allegacy Stadium, University of Virginia tight end Tyler Neville savored the moment. Rarely does a football team rally for a stunning road win against a conference rival, and Neville knew the Cavaliers had accomplished something special Saturday night. But he was also thinking about Virginia’s next challenge.

“The excitement is there, the energy is there, and I’m hoping the fans are there next week,” Neville, a graduate transfer from Harvard, said after UVA’s 31-30 victory over Wake Forest. “This really is a program win, and we just have to follow it up with another program win next week.”

Maryland (1-1) is coming to Charlottesville for a Saturday night game at Scott Stadium, and a win would give Virginia its first 3-0 start since 2019.

“We’ve got more opportunity ahead of us,” third-year head coach Tony Elliott told his players in the Cavaliers’ jubilant locker room.

It was the ACC opener for both teams Saturday night, and the game drew an announced crowd of 30,012 at 31,500-seat Allegacy Stadium. Many Wake fans, however, left in the third quarter, presumably confident that the home team was headed toward a sixth straight victory over UVA.

The Hoos, who trailed by 14 points in the second quarter, cut their deficit to three at the half, but the Demon Deacons dominated the third quarter and led 30-17 heading into the fourth.

The Cavaliers hadn’t defeated Wake in Winston-Salem since 2002, and their prospects for breaking through looked bleak with 15 minutes to play, but they never stopped believing in themselves. Since he took over the program, Elliott has preached the importance of winning the fourth quarter. The Hoos often have faltered late in games—five of their nine losses in 2023 were by seven points or fewer—but they authored a different ending Saturday night. And that made their victory even more satisfying.

“It definitely does,” senior wide receiver Malachi Fields said. “We’ve been harping on it all week, all year, all camp. We’ve got to finish in the fourth quarter. And to be able to come out here and do that just boosts our confidence. It’s a huge win for us, huge team win. We’re just going to keep continuing to grow together and be that team that’s able to finish in the fourth quarter.”

The Hoos’ second-half comeback started with a 66-yard touchdown drive whose final three plays were passes from quarterback Anthony Colandrea to wide receiver Trell Harris. Those completions gained 18, 15 and 24 yards, respectively.

Harris, a graduate transfer from Kent State, finished with seven receptions for 91 yards and one touchdown. On the Cavaliers’ second possession, he’d dropped what would have been a 55-yard touchdown pass from Colandrea, but Harris took no missteps thereafter.

“Everyone has a bad play, and it wasn’t a bad play,” Colandrea said. “I kind of put it behind him, so I kind of put that on myself. But Trell is a really good football player, and he showed out tonight.”

Wake still led by six points after Harris’ TD, but its next drive ended when UVA linebacker Trey McDonald, who’d been pressed into service when starter Kam Robinson left with an injury, sacked Wake quarterback Hank Bachmeier on fourth down.

The defense’s focus before that play, McDonald said, was simple. “We were like, ‘Get the ball back,’ ” he said. “That’s what we talked about all week: just get the ball back to our offense, whether that’s with turnovers or big fourth- and third-down stops.”

The Cavaliers took possession with 7:20 remaining, and this time they produced a 66-yard touchdown drive capped by their version of the tush push. Into the game went the Grady Bunch, some of the team’s biggest and strongest players. Reserve quarterback Grady Brosterhous scored from the 1-yard line with 2:07 remaining, and Will Bettridge’s extra point made it 31-30.

The drive included two fourth-down receptions by Fields, who also drew a pass-interference call on a Wake defensive back. Fields finished with 11 receptions for 148 yards, both career highs.

“He’s a big-time player,” Colandrea said.

Malik Washington, who’s now in the NFL, put up record-setting numbers at UVA last season and sometimes overshadowed Fields, but No. 8 “still was one of the better guys in the ACC,” Elliott said. “And the challenge this offseason was for him to go make his stake as the best in the league. And he’s played unbelievably the last two weeks and made some huge, huge plays.”

The Deacons had two more possessions after Brosterhous’ TD. The first ended when UVA’s Malcolm Greene forced a fumble that fellow safety Antonio Clary recovered at the Cavaliers’ 29.

“It was up to one of us to go out there and try to just end the game off,” Greene said. “That’s what we prepared for all summer, all winter. We’ve been preparing for plays like that, moments like that, to just dominate and be precise and play with effort.”

The Hoos went three-and-out, but Wake used all three of its timeouts stopping the clock, and when Daniel Sparks’ 59-yard punt rolled dead at the 5, only 57 seconds remained. Wake didn’t get back to the midfield, and when the final second ticked off the clock, a frenzied celebration started on the UVA sideline that eventually moved to the locker room.

“Man, it was ecstatic,” Fields said. “Everybody was happy that we were able to finish in the fourth quarter, happy we got the job done. So it was just super exciting seeing the smiles on the guys’ faces and the joy, pure joy, in the locker room.”

Neville said: “I’ve played a lot of football. I’ve won a lot of games. Won a lot of big games. I’ve never seen anything like that. This was probably the coolest one of my life. I’m thirsty for more.”

So are the rest of the Cavaliers. “This is a huge comeback win in a game against a great team where, frankly, we felt like we could have done more,” Neville said. “So we’re going to be full of confidence come next week.”

GAME BALLS: After Wake built a 17-3 lead, Virginia finally settled into an offensive rhythm. Colandrea threw two touchdown passes in the first half, both to Neville, who finished with four receptions for 68 yards. He’s first UVA tight end since Tom Santi in 2007 to have two TD catches in a game.

“This is kind of what we talked about in my recruitment,” Neville said. “I came to Virginia to play a big role in offense and win a lot of games. I want to help them win … I’m a sucker for a good program, and Coach Elliott runs a damn good program. So being brought in here, in a program like this, which really, I think, molds young men better than almost every program in college football, it’s a dream.”

On a night when Virginia totaled 430 yards, most came through the air. Fields dominated throughout, and Colandrea completed 33 of 43 passes for 357 yards and three touchdowns, with two interceptions.

When the Hoos fell behind, Colandrea “didn’t blink,” Elliott said, “but I can’t say that that’s anything we’ve done coaching-wise. That’s AC.”

Elliott also singled out Jack Witmer, a converted tight end who has started, and played well, at left tackle this season in the place of the injured McKale Boley.

“Hopefully Boley will be back here pretty soon,” Elliott said. “We’re hoping he’ll be ready to go this week. But just shout out to Jack, because that came in huge, especially versus [Wake’s] defensive front.”

UVA’s defense lost several starters to injuries during the game, and Wake’s offense finished with 544 yards. But the Cavaliers recorded six sacks, with McDonald, Clary, Robinson, safety Jonas Sanker, linebacker James Jackson and end Chico Bennett Jr. collecting one apiece. Virginia totaled only 11 sacks in 12 games last season.

“Hopefully this will continue to build our confidence,” Elliott said, “because we’re gonna need those guys putting pressure on the opposing quarterbacks for us to be successful defensively.”

UP NEXT: Former ACC rivals UVA and Maryland renewed their series last year in College Park, and they’ll meet again Saturday night in Charlottesville. The 8 o’clock game will air on ACC Network.

The Terrapins (1-1) now belong to the Big Ten, and this will be their first visit to Scott Stadium since Oct. 13, 2012, when they knocked off the Cavaliers 27-20. Maryland lost 27-24 on a last-second field goal by Michigan State on Saturday.

Last year at SECU Stadium, the Terps broke open a close game in the fourth quarter and rolled to a 42-14 win over the Cavaliers.

In a series that started in 1919, Maryland holds a 45-32-2 lead.

SOUND BITES: With the win, its first over Wake since 2007, UVA extended its series lead to 35-17. Among the Cavaliers’ postgame comments:

* Elliott on his team’s fourth-quarter performance: “Hopefully the guys are starting to see the fruits of their labor, because they’ve been working extremely hard. That’s a group of guys in that locker room that believe in each other, and they play for the love of each other. And it was just awesome to see those guys have success. And, again, to be successful at the level that we want to be successful, you got to win games in the fourth quarter.”

* Elliott on Virginia’s third-quarter struggles: “The guys were very engaged, but sometimes things don’t manifest the way that you want. You want every possession, you want every drive, to end in a score, but that’s probably unrealistic, and so the key is, how do you respond? And so there was energy on the sideline, a lot of encouragement, guys weren’t turning on each other They weren’t fussing at each other. They were emphatically encouraging each other that, hey, we’re going to go make a play. We’re gonna get it to the fourth and we’re gonna find a way to win the game.”

* Greene on Clary’s fumble recovery: “Just playing around guys like that, I love it. Just playing with guys that have the same type of heart as you, hunger as you. That’s why you play the game, to have brothers by your side that are going out there putting everything on the line just like you are.”

* Colandrea on the Hoos’ resilience: “It’s awesome. It just shows this team, how we strain in the fourth quarter. Shout out to the guys up front, all of them. And they did a great job straining. They played a heck of a game, and this wouldn’t happen without those boys up front.”

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