Hoos Looking to Finish With Flourish

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — They won three games in their abbreviated 2022 season and three games in 2023. With two regular-season games to play this fall, the Virginia Cavaliers have five victories, but they’re hungry for more.

“Five wins is better than what we’ve done the two previous seasons, but I don’t think anybody on this team or on the staff is satisfied with where we’re at,” defensive end Kam Butler said Tuesday after practice.

UVA’s home finale is Saturday. At noon, in a game to air on ESPN2, Virginia (5-5 overall, 3-3 ACC) meets No. 13 SMU (9-1, 6-0) at Scott Stadium. A win would make the Wahoos bowl-eligible for the first time under head coach Tony Elliott, who took over for Bronco Mendenhall in December 2021.

“That would be one of those five, 10, 15 years down-the-road type of deals where they’ll look back and say, ‘Man, I was really a part of that,’ ” Elliott said Tuesday during his weekly press conference at the Hardie Center. “When all of the glory of football fades and you’re an old man and you’re reminiscing, you’ll see the value that you had. And then what will happen is you’ll hear it from your teammates, because your teammates will express to you just how grateful they were to you for what you established.

“Then they’ll also be able to have a front-row seat to see all of maybe the things they aspired to do, but somebody else is doing them, but they wouldn’t be doing it without their investments. So those individuals will be standing on the shoulders of what I consider giants. Those guys will be giants within the program because they laid the foundation.”

The Hoos haven’t played in a bowl game since 2019, when they lost 36-28 to Florida in the Orange Bowl. They were eligible in 2020, a season played amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but declined to pursue an invitation.

In 2021, Virginia was scheduled to meet SMU in the inaugural Fenway Bowl in Boston. That game was canceled, however, because of COVID-19 issues in UVA’s program.

The Cavaliers were already in Boston when the game was called off. “I remember guys in the hotel just ready to go and then getting that message,” wide receiver Malachi Fields, a true freshman that season, said Tuesday.

Forty players—fourth-years, graduate students and Bryce Purnell, who’s graduating early— will be recognized in a Senior Day ceremony before the game Saturday. Fields will be part of that group. To win his final game at Scott Stadium “would mean everything,” said Fields, a graduate of nearby Monticello High School. “It would be so awesome, because I haven’t been able to play in a bowl game since being here.”

Many of the players who’ll be honored Saturday were in the program in November 2022 when three beloved team members were shot and killed after returning to Grounds from a class field trip. Their teammates could have left Charlottesville and continued their college careers elsewhere, but players like Fields and Butler and Jonas Sanker and Chico Bennett Jr. stayed and “have really helped us to solidify the culture that we have got in place right now,” Elliott said.

“Regardless of what maybe the win-loss record is, these young men always have a special place in my heart just because of the character that they’ve exhibited and how they’ve helped me grow as a human being and how they’ve helped the staff grow, how they’ve helped us bring this team back together to be able to work daily on turning that tragedy into triumph … We wouldn’t be here without those guys making the decision to stay and fight and battle for what they believe in. They believe in the University of Virginia. They believe in this athletic department. They believe in this community. They believe in this football program, and that says a lot …  There’s nobody that wants a win in Scott Stadium more than I do for the senior class.”

UVA closes the regular season Nov. 30 against Virginia Tech at Lane Stadium.

UNEXPECTED TWIST: Mendenhall announced on Dec. 2, 2021, that he was stepping down as UVA’s head coach, and Elliott was hired as his successor eight days later. Athletics director Carla Williams had agreed to let Mendenhall coach the Cavaliers in the Fenway Bowl, but Elliott was in Charlottesville for some of the bowl preparation.

Mendenhall “allowed me to stay around up until a certain point,” Elliott said Tuesday. “So I was just observing practice from a distance. I wasn’t involved in any meetings.  The only meetings that took place were just individual meetings that I had with Coach Mendenhall. Then there was a certain point that he didn’t feel as comfortable with me around, so that’s when I took off and went home and then got the call that the game was going to be canceled.”

Elliott said he was “planning on flying to Boston and just kind of being around in the background, just observing. That was the plan. Then it was like, ‘OK, the team is yours.’ I was like, ‘Oh, I have to accelerate the process,’ because I thought I had about another week and a half to kind of observe and make some more decisions. Then it just was turned over to me.”

He hasn’t discussed those events at length with his current team, Elliott said, “as much as we’ve just talked about how it’s time. It’s time for us to get back to the postseason. We’ve missed out for too many years around here, and we need to make the floor the postseason and then start building towards raising the ceiling.”

MORE OF THE SAME: SMU will be the Cavaliers’ fourth ranked opponent in their past five games. Virginia lost 48-31 at then-No. 10 Clemson on Oct. 19, upset then-No. 23 Pitt 24-19 in Pittsburgh on Nov. 9, and lost 35-14 to then-No. 8 Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., on Saturday.

“These ones mean more,” senior center Brian Stevens said. “These are the ones people remember too, especially in November, playing a harder schedule. It gets tougher and tougher each week.”

In games against high-level competition, Butler said, the “little things matter that much more. Every team on our schedule, and the ranked teams in particular, they all do the little things really, really well. And obviously, they all play really, really hard, and they’re extremely disciplined. So it’s really just honing in on the details that is what’s gonna give us an advantage in the rest of the games this season.”

From their games with ranked foes, Elliott said, the Cavaliers have learned many things, including “the importance of depth and staying healthy. I think when we’re healthy and we’re at full strength on our top-tier guys, you saw us battle.”

Another lesson UVA has learned: “We just can’t beat ourselves,” Elliott said. “We can’t lose to Virginia … [Good teams] know how to capitalize on other people’s mistakes. That’s what they’re waiting on. They’re waiting on you to make a mistake, and they’re going to pounce on you. We’ve made our fair share of mistakes. So if we’re healthy and we’re not losing to ourselves, we can go compete. And then big picture for the future we really have to attack is developing our depth.”

SMU is the only ACC team unbeaten in conference play this season. The Mustangs’ success this season, their first in the ACC, might have surprised some observers, but not Elliott.

In a meeting with his fellow UVA head coaches before the school year began, Elliott said Tuesday, he noted that “there’s a commitment to football within [the Mustangs’] program, and it’s been there over the years. Now they have an opportunity to level the playing field with everybody else. I think you’re seeing the byproduct of the investment that they’ve made in football.”

NO RUSH TO JUDGMENT: Sophomore quarterback Anthony Colandrea has started every game for the Cavaliers this season, but fifth-year senior Tony Muskett took over for him in the second half against Notre Dame and led the offense on two touchdown drives.

“I thought he did a good job, as he has done all year,” Elliott said of Muskett. “Each week he’s owned the game plan and been ready to go. He gave us a spark. He found a way to help us move the ball and score some points.”

After the Notre Dame game, Elliott indicated the coaching staff would evaluate both quarterbacks this week before deciding which one would start against SMU.

Asked Tuesday for an update, Elliott said both “have taken reps with the first team [in practice] and just been going about owning the game plan.”

If the SMU game were Tuesday, Colandrea would have taken the first snap, Elliott said. But the Cavaliers’ head coach is not ready to name a starter.

“We have [Wednesday],” Elliott said. “We have Thursday. Then Friday is a prep day if we need to go, but right now, like I said, if we were to run out there [Tuesday] AC would have an opportunity to go out there and show everybody how he can respond.”

For the season, Colandrea has completed 180 of 293 passes (61.4 percent) for 2,017 yards and 12 touchdowns, with 11 interceptions. He’s rushed for 282 yards and two TDs.

“He’s put us in position to win a lot of football games,” Elliott said. “Unfortunately, we came up short in a couple, but we also have won a couple because of the position he put us in. That’s kind of where we are. If that changes, then I’ll be ready to make that decision at the end of the week.”

SHORT-HANDED: A UVA defense that’s already missing two injured starters—safety Antonio Clary and tackle Jason Hammond—will also be without linebacker James Jackson and safety Corey Thomas Jr against SMU. Each left the Notre Dame game with an injury.

Elliott said Virginia’s other starting linebacker, Kam Robinson, is probable for Saturday. Robinson left the Notre Dame game, too, after aggravating the shoulder injury he’s been playing with most of the season.

END IS IN SIGHT: Butler, who began his career at Miami University (Ohio) in 2018, is wrapping up his seventh season of college football. He’s excited about Senior Day.

“It’s wild,” Butler said. “It’s been a long time coming.”

He laughed. “It’s been a really long time. But I’m just happy to be here. I’m happy to go out and play the last game at Scott.”

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