Surging Hoos Grateful for Bye Week

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

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After playing for six straight weekends, the University of Virginia football team has an opportunity to rest and get healthier before tackling the second half of its regular-season schedule. That prospect cheered UVA players and coaches alike Saturday evening.

The upcoming bye week “is huge,” head coach Tony Elliott said after an ACC game in which the 24th-ranked Cavaliers prevailed despite losing two offensive starters to injuries.

“I’ve never had a more perfectly timed bye week in my career,” said defensive end Mitchell Melton, who’s in his sixth season of college football. “I’m definitely going to take advantage of it as best I can. Just rest, rejuvenate and recover.”

Dominant offensively for much of the season, the Wahoos frequently sputtered when they had the ball Saturday against ACC foe Louisville. UVA came in averaging 539.6 yards per game and managed only 237 against the Cardinals, 75 of which came on a second-quarter touchdown drive. But a team whose mantra is “find a way to win” did just that on an unseasonably warm fall day at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium.

“You can’t put a price on finding a way to win a football game on the road versus a very good opponent when you don’t have your best stuff,” Elliott said.

Eight days after defeating then-No. 8 Florida State in two overtimes at Scott Stadium, UVA had to play more than 60 minutes of football again, this time on the road.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get it done in regulation,” said Elliott, whose team led by 10 points after three quarters Saturday, “but in overtime I think the experience last week really, really helped.”

After holding Louisville to a field goal on the first possession of OT, the Hoos needed only four plays to score the winning touchdown: a 14-yard completion from quarterback Chandler Morris to tight end John Rogers; a 2-yard run by tailback J’Mari Taylor, a 7-yard run by Morris; and, on third-and-1, a 2-yard run by Taylor on a direct snap from center Drake Metcalf.

Taylor’s touchdown lifted Virginia to a 30-27 victory and silenced the home fans in the crowd of 50,032. The Cavaliers ended a three-game losing streak against the Cardinals (4-1 overall, 1-1 ACC).

“It takes the heart of a champion to win a game like that,” Elliott told his jubilant players afterward. “It takes grit, it takes belief. Not all of them are pretty, and they don’t have to be. You just gotta find a way to win.”

The Hoos, who are in their fourth season under Elliott, improved to 5-1 overall, matching their win total from 2024. They’re 3-0 in ACC play for the first time since 2007.

“It’s been a while,” Elliott said, “and I let the guys know that because I want them to be able to, one, have good perspective for the journey that they’re on, but then at the same time stay humble. So you do have to celebrate some of the small victories along the way, but I believe this team has bigger aspirations. They desire to continue to hit more milestones and really, really propel this program to another level.”

Since losing 35-31 at NC State on Sept. 6, the Cavaliers have won four straight games. They were in position to win that afternoon in Raleigh, N.C., but “let one get away,” Elliott said Saturday.

In retrospect, though, “I think that loss there was helpful for us to grow and learn,” Elliott said. “That has helped us get to where we are. But we got a lot of football left. We’re not satisfied with just being 3-0.”

Next up for Virginia is the first of its two bye weekends. The Hoos don’t play again until Oct. 18, when they host Washington State (3-2) at 6:30 p.m. at Scott Stadium.

“We’ve got a lot more to work to do, a lot to clean up,” said Melton, a graduate transfer from Ohio State.

Elliott agreed. “At the end of the day, finding a way to win is the most important thing, but it’s a great opportunity for us to go back to work. That offense that did those things in the previous weeks is still in that locker room. It just didn’t click [Saturday]. But we got two weeks to go tighten the screws, get back healthy, especially with some spots up front, and get back rolling.”

Like the loss to NC State, the win over Louisville will be a valuable learning experience for his team, Elliott believes.

“We needed a game where everything wasn’t clicking right,” he said. “I hate that we made it as close as we did, but we found a way to win, and so that gives us some great momentum going into the open week to really, really be able to coach and teach and learn all the way around all of us get better. Because we want to play our best week in and week out. We know how challenging that is. The precision wasn’t what it needed to be, but the passion was there and the effort was there. And at the end of the day, when you have those things as part of your DNA, in your core, you’re going to win a lot of football games.”

The Cavaliers struggled to stop Louisville wideout Chris Bell, who finished with 12 catches for 170 yards and two touchdowns, but they held game-breaking tailback Isaac Brown to 66 yards on 13 carries. Brown, who rushed for 151 yards and two touchdowns against UVA at Scott Stadium last season, came into Saturday’s game averaging 8.1 yards per carry.

The defense produced many of the Cavaliers’ highlights Saturday. For the first time since 2003, UVA scored two defensive touchdowns in a game. The first came on a 61-yard return of a fumble by cornerback Donavon Platt, the second on linebacker Kam Robinson’s 47-yard interception return. Moreover, the Hoos recorded five sacks, all in the second half.

“In moments where we needed them, they stepped up, gave us the ball back, gave us points,” Rogers said of the defense. “And that’s what we needed, especially on a day where our offense, we were fighting for yards. And they stepped up big time.”

Robinson also returned an interception for a touchdown against Louisville as a true freshman in 2023. “That’s crazy,” he said with a smile.

Late in the fourth quarter, with UVA’s lead down to three points, the defense held the Cardinals to a field goal. Defensive coordinator John Rudzinski’s group came through again in overtime, keeping Louisville out of the end zone.

“It’s a game of inches,” said Melton, who led Virginia with two sacks, “and three points instead of seven, it’s a big swing, especially at the end of the game. Kudos to all the guys in that defensive line, the linebackers and the defensive backs. We pulled it together. We got a stop when we needed it most, and it was really cool to see.”

Already short-handed on offense, Virginia lost tight end Dakota Twitty to a lower-leg injury less than a minute into the game. McKale Boley, UVA’s starter at left offensive tackle, departed later with an injury and didn’t return either.

“So now we got Ben York, redshirt freshman tackle, out there,” Elliott said. “Buckle up, bud, time to go. And they found a way. They just keep battling.”

The teams went into halftime tied 14-14. The Cavaliers led 24-14 after three quarters, only to see Louisville battle back to force overtime.

On the game’s final play, Virginia lined up without the leader of its offense. Morris took a hard shot to the head on his scramble to the 2-yard line and had to leave the game, with redshirt freshman Daniel Kaelin taking his place. To see Morris sacrifice his body for the team like that fired up the rest of the offense, Taylor said. “With the QB putting everything on the line, why can’t we repay him [by] scoring the game-winning touchdown?”

Morris, a graduate transfer from North Texas, is “a warrior and he’s a winner,” Elliott said. “And injury-wise, he’s going to be OK. He took a tough hit, but he bounced up after a few minutes on the ground. That’s just who he is. He’s a warrior, and he’s going to lay it on the line. He knows that’s what it takes. That’s why everybody in that locker room and in our building has complete confidence in him and follows him wherever he wants to lead us.”

HAPPY REUNION: Former UVA tailback Perris Jones was an honorary captain for the game. Jones suffered a career-ending neck injury during Virginia’s game at L&N Stadium in 2023 but regained full mobility after having spinal surgery at the University of Louisville Medical Center.

Jones, who earned two degrees at UVA—a bachelor’s and a master’s—is now in a PhD program at Louisville. He stopped by the Cavaliers’ hotel Saturday morning.

“It was so cool to be able to see him,” Elliott said. “He came over and spoke to the guys during our chapel service, before our pregame meal, and just to see him, I got flashbacks of the hospital room that I went into and saw him two years ago laying on that bed, not knowing what I was going to see … He’s an inspiration to me, and he’s been that way from even before the injury … because of how he conducted his business. So I’m just happy for him to be recognized and then also happy to be able to find a way to pull this one out for him.”

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