By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Around 7 p.m. Saturday, under the lights at Scott Stadium, the University of Virginia football team reached the midpoint of its regular season. The first half included several memorable wins for the Cavaliers, and they hoped to have another one to celebrate Saturday.
It wasn’t to be. UVA gave up a late touchdown to ACC rival Louisville and lost 24-20. A win over the Cardinals would have moved the Wahoos to the brink of bowl-eligibility. Instead, the Hoos fell to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in ACC play, with a daunting schedule ahead of them.
Virginia’s six remaining regular-season opponents have a combined overall record of 27-10. Four are ranked in the latest Associated Press poll, and that doesn’t include Virginia Tech, UVA’s nemesis for the past two decades.
Still, the Cavaliers, who already have won more games than they did in 2022 or ’23, are looking forward to the battles that await them.
“One thousand percent,” sophomore quarterback Anthony Colandrea said. “I feel like we’re playing good football right now. We just have to execute and finish in the fourth quarter.”
Third-year head coach Tony Elliott, at his postgame press conference, said his players were “hurting right now, but I don’t think it’s a football team that’s lost confidence … I think they still know that everything is out there in front of them. We just gotta take it one game at a time, and we’re gonna learn and we’re gonna grow. So we’ve had an opportunity to learn in success and now we got a little bit of heartbreak. But I know the character of that football team, and they’re gonna respond the right way.”
Louisville (4-2, 2-1), which has been ranked as high as No. 15 in the AP poll this season, came to Scott Stadium on a two-game losing streak. After Virginia rallied for 13 unanswered second-half points to take a 20-17 lead, it appeared the Cardinals might leave with a third straight defeat. But the Cards drove 67 yards for the go-ahead touchdown, an 11-yard pass from quarterback Tyler Shough to tight end Jamari Johnson with 1:55 left.
That drive also included an 18-yard reception by wideout Caullin Lacy, an 18-yard run by tailback Isaac Brown, and a 14-yard reception by Johnson.
“We gave up too many big plays,” UVA sophomore linebacker Kam Robinson said.
Even so, the Cavaliers had a chance to secure their third comeback win of the season. They took possession at the 25-yard line and quickly drove to the Louisville 39-yard line. But four straight incompletions followed, and the Hoos’ hopes evaporated.
On each of the first three downs, Colandrea tried to connect with wideout Malachi Fields, who was well-covered in each case. On fourth down, a defender appeared to hold Colandrea’s target, tight end Tyler Neville, but no penalty was called, and the Cards were able to run out the clock.
“They made the plays at the end of the game to win the game, bottom line,” Elliott said. “But we’re super proud of our guys for competing, to be in that position. We continue to, I think, take steps forward, even though we didn’t win the game.”
On the game’s opening possession, Virginia drove 75 yards for a touchdown, the final yard coming on a fourth-and-goal sneak by reserve quarterback Grady Brosterhous. Will Bettridge added the extra point, and the score remained 7-0 until early in the second quarter, when Isaac Brown, moments after rushing for a 27-yard gain, ran it in from the 7.
Brown, a freshman, finished with 146 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries.
“He can run, for sure,” Robinson said.
Late in the first half, with the score 7-7, the Hoos passed up what would have been a 20-yard field-attempt for Bettridge and went for the touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the Louisville 3. Colandrea’s pass, intended for true freshman wide receiver Kameron Courtney, fell incomplete, and the teams went into halftime tied.
The Cardinals scored the first 10 points of the second half—on a field goal and a 14-yard run by Isaac Brown—before UVA’s comeback began.
“I’m proud of our team,” Elliott said, “because they didn’t flinch.”
Bettridge kicked two field goals in the third quarter, connecting from 31 and 23 yards, to cut the Cavaliers’ deficit to 17-13, and UVA regained the lead early in the fourth quarter.
On third-and-6 from the Louisville 46, Colandrea avoided the pass rush and lofted a pass to tailback Xavier Brown in the right flat. Brown, who’s from Lexington, Ky., caught the ball at the 40, broke a tackle and then sprinted down the sideline to the end zone. Bettridge’s PAT made it 20-17 with 10:03 to play.
Louisville “made the plays at the end of the game to win the game, bottom line,” Elliott said. “But we’re super proud of our guys for competing, to be in that position. We continue to, I think, take steps forward, even though we didn’t win the game. Just proud of the guys for making it a four-quarter ball game, getting it to that point.”
UP NEXT: Virginia visits No. 10 Clemson (5-1, 4-0) next Saturday. The noon game will air on ACC Network.
“We’re going to flush this loss and get back to work on Monday,” Xavier Brown said. “We’ve just got to come back and go to work, and we’ve got to clean up the little things, those mental mistakes and the little plays that end up adding up over time. We can’t have those next week against a good football team.”
The 10th-ranked Tigers have won five straight since dropping their opener to Georgia. Clemson romped 49-14 over Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Saturday afternoon.
This will be Elliott’s first game against Clemson since he left Dabo Swinney’s staff after the 2021 season. Elliott is a former Clemson wide receiver who spent 11 seasons as an assistant at his alma mater.
The Cavaliers haven’t played in Death Valley since 2020, when they fell 41-23 to the Tigers. Since losing 30-10 at Scott Stadium in 2004, Clemson has won five straight over UVA. The Tigers lead the series 40-8-1.