Bowl-Eligible Hoos Pursuing Bigger Goals

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The football team picked to finish 14^th in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season is making those prognosticators look foolish. At 6-1 overall (and 3-0 in the ACC), the Virginia Cavaliers are not only bowl-eligible for the first time since 2021, they’re off to their best start since 2007.

Success, however, brings new challenges. If opponents underestimated UVA early in the season, that’s no longer the case, head coach Tony Elliott reminded his players late Saturday night in the home locker room at Scott Stadium. The Wahoos have won five straight since losing Sept. 6 in a non-conference game at NC State.

“You’re now the hunted,” Elliott said. “You’re going to get everybody’s best shot.”

Washington State came to Charlottesville a week after nearly upsetting then-No. 4 Ole Miss. Intent on knocking off 18^th-ranked Virginia, the Cougars nearly succeeded.

Wazzu led by 10 at halftime and by that same margin after three quarters. But the Hoos dominated the final 15 minutes, and that surge helped them pull out a 22-20 victory in front of a Homecomings crowd of 56,048.

“Your backs were against the wall, but you found a way,” Elliott told his team, which trailed at the half for the first time this season. “Hopefully we can learn in victory. We were close to having to learn a very hard lesson that was unnecessary.”

Coming off overtime wins over Florida State and Louisville, Virginia looked uncharacteristically flat for the first two quarters Saturday night.

“I felt like the team in the other locker room wanted it more than we did,” Elliott said. “And I think we flipped it in the second half, and our team wanted it a little bit more and found a way to make more plays down the stretch. And then I felt like we took pride in what we talk about a lot, and that’s the fourth quarter. Get the game to the fourth quarter and then find a way to win it.”

Virginia has outscored its opponents 55-25 in the second halves and overtimes of games this season. Against Wazzu (3-4), the Cavaliers’ defense kept them connected until their offense awakened.

The Cougars, who led 17-7 at intermission, gained only 74 yards in the second half. UVA cornerback Ja’son Prevard’s fourth-quarter interception set up the Will Bettridge field goal that made it 20-20, and there was more drama yet to come.

On the kickoff that followed Bettridge’s second field goal of the game, Wazzu’s Kirby Vorhees called for a fair catch, but his teammate Leyton Smithson fielded the ball and started to return it. That’s against the rules, and the Cougars had to start their possession at the 2-yard line.

The Cavaliers’ defense, sensing Wazzu was rattled, ratcheted up the pressure. On third-and-11 from the 1, Washington State tried to run the ball, and UVA linebacker Kam Robinson’s hit on Vorhees in the end zone resulted in a safety with 2:41 remaining.

His reaction to the play? “I’m thinking the game is over now,” Robinson said, smiling.

The safety, on which defensive tackle Hunter Osborne also was credited with a tackle, gave the Hoos their first (and only) lead of the game. Washington State had to kick the ball back to Virginia, which took over at its 30-yard line with 2:35 to play. On third-and-3 from the 37, tailback J’Mari Taylor ran for a first down that allowed the Cavaliers to run out the clock and celebrate a hard-earned win.

“There’s a lot of things we can learn from it,” said Elliott, who’s in his fourth season at UVA. “But at the end of the day, the football team made a decision at the half to come out and find a way to win the football game, and they did.”

Five regular-season games remain for the Cavaliers, all against conference foes. UVA (6-1, 3-0) is one of three teams unbeaten in ACC play, along with No. 12 Georgia Tech (7-0, 4-0) and SMU (5-2, 3-0).

“We know we’ve got to bring our best,” Bettridge said, “because ACC games are one-possession games, no matter who you play.”

Skeptics scoffed when Elliott talked up his team before the season, but the Cavaliers aren’t satisfied simply with being bowl-eligible, he said Saturday night. “They want to go and compete to see if they can play for the biggest bowl possible. And so far, they’ve found a way.”

To become bowl-eligible so early in the season, wide receiver Jahmal Edrine said, is a noteworthy accomplishment, “but we know we’ve got a lot more. We’re just going to go back to the drawing board and just keep working, because we know this year could be special.”

Next up for Virginia is a date with North Carolina (2-4, 0-2), which is in its first season under Bill Belichick. In a noon game to air on ACC Network, the longtime rivals will meet at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C.

The Cavaliers figure to be favored in that game, and, if they keep winning, they might not be underdogs again in the regular season. Handling success can be difficult for many teams, as Elliott, a former Clemson assistant, has noted repeatedly, but his players believe they’re capable of doing so.

“I think it’ll take a lot of humility,” Edrine said, “a lot of sticking to our core values and really just believing in Coach and keep letting him lead us down the way. I know Coach Elliott has been around these type of things before, so he’s just a great leader to us. So just keep trusting in his words and staying humble.”

Edrine, a graduate transfer from Purdue, caught five passes for a season-high 102 yards Saturday. Two of his receptions came on the 97-yard touchdown drive that cut the Cougars’ lead to three points in the fourth quarter. Other standouts on that drive included tailback Harrison Waylee, who had a 22-yard run; tight end Sage Ennis, who had a 23-yard reception; and quarterback Chandler Morris, who completed all three of his passes.

The offense rarely sparkled Saturday night, but Edrine and Co. delivered when they had to.

“We just had to stick our head down and stay with it,” Edrine said. “The defense did everything they could for us tonight.”

The Cavaliers improved to 5-0 at Scott Stadium, where they’ll play twice more this season: Nov. 8 against Wake Forest and No. 29 against Virginia Tech. In its first three seasons under Elliott, UVA rarely benefited from a significant home-field advantage, but that’s changing.

A rowdy crowd turned out for the Florida State game last month, and UVA fans were in full voice again Saturday night. The din contributed to multiple false-start penalties called on the Cougars, as well as a charged timeout that preceded the game-winning safety.

“That boosted our momentum a lot,” Robinson said of the crowd’s support.

Elliott also saluted UVA’s fans, who played a role in a crucial false-start call on Florida State in the second overtime of that game.

“We’re learning, we’re growing,” Elliott said, “and then now to have the crowd  have an impact on it, it’s huge. And then when the energy—not just then, but all throughout the second half—the energy is up and it’s third down and the crowd is loud, it just creates more juice and excitement for those guys on the field. And so it was awesome to see the crowd. I appreciate everybody showing up. I appreciate people being here early.  The students were awesome, and we could still continue [to increase attendance]. As this football team still has more opportunity to grow, we can grow in that area to become something all the way around that’s really special.”

Wideout Cam Ross, perhaps the most dynamic player on UVA’s offense, returned the opening kickoff 31 yards and later ran 19 yards on a reverse for a touchdown. Ross took a blow to the head in the final minute of the first half, however, and sat out the rest of the game. Elliott said Ross was held out as a precaution.

The Cavaliers also lost tailback Xavier Brown during the game. Brown went down with an apparent knee injury late in the third quarter and didn’t return.

“He’s battled injuries in the past, and he’s been a warrior,” Elliott said, “so hopefully it’s not too bad, but I don’t have an update yet.”

Morris hurt his shoulder in the first half but played through the pain the rest of the way. He finished 15-of-25 passing for 179 yards and wasn’t intercepted.

Elliott said he’ll know more about the extent of Morris’ injury Sunday, but “the fact that he came back in and made plays in the second half lets me know that he should be all right.”

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