Never-Say-Die Cavaliers Building Momentum

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — One hundred and seventy media members cast ballots for the ACC preseason football poll, and collectively they picked Virginia to finish 16^th out of the league’s 17 teams.

Five games into its third season under head coach Tony Elliott, UVA is 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the ACC. The Cavaliers aren’t worried, though, about proving prognosticators wrong. They’re focused on proving that their self-belief was justified.

“We know that we’re a really good football team and not a lot of people are going to believe in us,” sophomore quarterback Anthony Colandrea said Saturday afternoon after Virginia rallied to defeat Boston College 24-14 at Scott Stadium.

“Not a lot of people believed in us in that game or any game we play, and we know that everyone in our locker room believes that we can win any football game we’re in.”

In 2022, when the Wahoos’ season was halted after 10 games, they won three games, and they finished 3-9 last season. Many outside the program expected Virginia to struggle again this season, but “I told these guys, we’re not worried about that,” Elliott said. “We want to prove ourselves right.”

The Cavaliers found themselves trailing 14-0 early in the second quarter Saturday, exactly the slow start they wanted to avoid. But they’d erased a 14-point deficit in a comeback win at Wake Forest on Sept. 7, and they didn’t panic against the Eagles (4-2, 1-1).

“They didn’t get down,” Elliott said of his players. “They didn’t start pointing fingers. They all looked at themselves in the mirror and said, hey, we’re going to figure out what it takes.”

One of the Hoos’ many standouts was senior safety Jonas Sanker. He returned a fumble 40 yards for a touchdown with 6:02 to play, and Will Bettridge added the PAT to make it 24-14.

BC never threatened thereafter. The Eagles turned the ball over on downs on their next drive, and then UVA defensive back Kendren Smith, a graduate transfer from Penn, sealed the win by picking off a Thomas Castellanos pass with 3:04 remaining.

“As a program we grew up today,” Elliott told his players afterward. “We took a step. That was a complete team win, all three phases.”

Sanker attributed the Cavaliers’ comeback to “being steady, not getting emotional, not getting down on ourselves, just having confidence … We could be down 21 points, we could be down seven points, but it doesn’t matter. We’re going to go out there and we’re going to execute and we’re going to what we’re supposed to do.”

Elliott said he believes “that the guys in the locker room are buying into what we’re trying to build as a program, and they’re learning how to win close games, they’re learning how to win four-quarter games. And so I believe it just shows that the foundation that we laid in those first two years is starting to produce some results. But we’re far from where we want to be.”

UVA came up with three takeaways Saturday, all in the second half. The first was an interception by defensive end Chico Bennett Jr., who came down with a pass deflected by the right hand of defensive tackle Anthony Britton early in the third quarter.

“It was a fun moment,” Bennett said of his first career interception.

Two plays later, the Hoos took a lead they never relinquished. Tailback Kobe Pace ran for 20 yards on first down, and then Colandrea teamed up with wide receiver Malachi Fields on a 30-yard touchdown pass with 10:39 to play. On a pass from Colandrea to wideout Andre Greene Jr., Virginia added the two-point conversion to go up 17-14.

UVA is one of five ACC teams unbeaten in conference play. For the Hoos, the key to handling success, Bennett said, will be staying humble.

“It’s a great feeling, obviously, to be 4-1,” Bennett said. “But overall, we know what we’ve got to do, because Coach Elliott always emphasizes reload, recalibrate and attack. And so that’s the mindset.”

The Eagles came to Charlottesville with a 7-1 all-time record against UVA, and for the first 17 minutes it appeared they would continue their dominance in the series. At the end of the first quarter, Virginia had one first down, and BC went up 14-0 with 13:08 left in the second quarter.

The Cavaliers managed to stay connected, though, and grew stronger as the game went on. The first of Bettridge’s three field goals made it 14-3, and a pivotal sequence late in the first half kept BC from taking a commanding lead.  The Eagles picked up a first down at the UVA 35, but their next three plays netted only one yard, and they ended up punting.

Virginia took over at its 3-yard line with 1:44 left in the half. Two penalties on BC—the first a targeting call—helped the Hoos drive across midfield and into the red zone. On the final play of the half, Bettridge’s 33-yard field goal cut the Eagles’ lead to 14-6.

Elliott said he sensed his team’s confidence growing late in the second quarter. “I started to see kind of the body language shift. [BC’s] body language kind of slowed down a little bit, ours picked up a little bit, and we were able to keep that momentum even through halftime.”

A year ago, in Chestnut Hill, Mass., Boston College had rallied for 17 unanswered third-quarter points in a 27-24 win over UVA. On Saturday, the Hoos were the ones celebrating an stirring comeback.

“We’re going to fight,” Sanker said. “We’re going to battle back. Last year they did a great job of that. This year it was our turn.”

UP NEXT: For the first and only time this season, Virginia will play a second straight home game. At 3:30 p.m. next Saturday, UVA takes on ACC rival Louisville at Scott Stadium. The game will air on ACC Network.

No. 22 Louisville (3-2, 1-1) lost 34-27 to visiting SMU on Saturday afternoon.

Virginia has dropped two straight games to Louisville, which leads the series 7-5. When the teams met last season, the Cardinals rallied for a 31-24 win at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium in Louisville.

HOMETOWN HEROES: UVA seniors Jonas Sanker and Malachi Fields are from Charlottesville, and each had a memorable game Saturday.

In addition to his fumble recovery for a touchdown, Sanker, who graduated from Covenant, made six tackles. Fields had four receptions for 63 yards and one TD, and he showed why he’d played quarterback at Monticello High School. Late in the third quarter, Fields pass to tailback Kobe Pace for a 29-yard gain on a trick play.

Such feats are “nothing out of the ordinary when you’re talking about Malachi and Jonas,” Elliott said. “They’ve been making plays all year for us.”

SPIRIT OF ’89: Recognized at the game were members of the UVA football team that in 1989 won 10 games and captured the program’s first ACC title. Its stars included Chris Slade, who now coaches the Cavaliers’ defensive ends.

As a tribute to the ’89 team, the Hoos wore white pants, orange jerseys and white helmets on which there were no V-sabres Saturday.

“It was an honor to be able to do kind of a throwback-ish uniform to honor those guys,” Elliott said, “because, again, I’m trying to build a complete program. And part of that is being connected. You gotta [connect] the past with the present as we build towards the future, so just super, super proud that those guys were able to come back and be honored. It was a team that was different, and we want to be different.”

SOUND BITES: For the second straight game, Virginia did not turn the ball over. Among the postgame comments Saturday:

* Jonas Sanker on his fumble recovery: “[Linebacker] Kam Robinson did a hell of a job getting to that quarterback, forcing that fumble. Props to him. Everybody was giving me so much credit for that. But he made that play. That was his play. I just happened to be there in that position to scoop it up.”

* Wideout JR Wilson, who caught four passes in his 2024 debut, on the Hoos’ slow start in a noon game: “I feel like once we got woke up a little bit, we just played our game. And once we played our game, nobody could stop us.”

* Elliott to his players in the jubilant locker room: “That’s why you do it, for moments like this. That’s why you work so hard, and that’s why you sacrifice.”

* Elliott on Kobe Pace, who rushed 19 times for a game-high 83 yards: “Just super proud of him, because that’s who he wants to be, and I think that’s who he is.”

* Elliott on wideout Andre Greene Jr., a transfer from North Carolina who caught four passes Saturday (plus the two-point conversion): “Talent’s never been a question for him. It’s just a matter of time, because he’s still learning what we’re doing. I felt like it was great for him to have success, and hopefully that’s just going to re-energize him to keep working.”

* Elliott on his postgame message to his players: “I told them I felt like it was a culture win. I believe that BC as a program historically has a good culture, and that culture is built off of toughness, running the football. So I felt like it was a culture win. We had a chance to kind of show what kind of toughness we have as a team. And then I felt like they just proved themselves. And they’re believing in each other, they’re believing in themselves, and they’re really starting to have it ingrained as the next play. Regardless of what happens the previous play, it’s the next play, and the game’s not over. And we believe that at any point, we can go make plays. They got confirmation today, and that’s what I’m happy for those guys.”

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