Hoos Locked In for Homestretch

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

BERKELEY, Calif. — After a wild, wacky weekend in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the University of Virginia football team stands alone.

When the 15^th-ranked Cavaliers left Grounds for the West Coast on Thursday, they were one of only two ACC teams unbeaten in league play. That list was halved Saturday. UVA improved to 5-0 in conference games with a 31-21 victory over the California Golden Bears. Later in the day, though, some 2,800 miles from the Bay Area, No. 8 Georgia Tech lost 48-36 at NC State.

That defeat dropped the Yellow Jackets (8-1, 5-1) into a tie for second with Pitt (7-2, 5-1) in the ACC and left UVA (8-1, 5-0) alone atop the conference standings.

When tailback J’Mari Taylor transferred to Virginia in January after graduating from North Carolina Central, this was “basically everything I dreamed about,” he said Saturday at California Memorial Stadium. “This is a fun process, the way it’s going, but I can’t lose sight of the bigger picture at the end.”

Defensive back Corey Costner echoed that comment. “Obviously, it feels great, but we have more work to do.”

The Cavaliers, who are in their fourth season under head coach Tony Elliott, have three regular-season games left. Two are at Scott Stadium, where they’re unbeaten this season.

“We’re going home to defend Scott,” Elliott told his team before the Wahoos left for the airport in Oakland on Saturday.

After hosting Wake Forest (5-2, 2-2) under the lights next Saturday—the 7 p.m. game will air on ESPN—UVA visits Duke (5-3, 4-1) on Nov. 15. The Hoos’ second bye week follows, and then they close the regular season at home against Virginia Tech (3-6, 2-3) on Nov. 29.

“We understand the big picture,” senior wide receiver Eli Wood said, “but we know we’re not going to get there if we don’t just take it one week at a time.”

From the start, the Cavaliers’ goal has to been to play in the ACC championship game, Dec. 6 in Charlotte, N.C., and then earn a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Virginia, which was picked to finish 14^th in the ACC, is in position to reach its goals. Elliott said he knows, however, that at “the end of the day all that stuff down the road doesn’t matter if you don’t take care of the business in front of you, and I think the team has really adopted that mindset and mentality that they know that we’ve got to do it one step at a time and focus on what we can control.

“I constantly remind the guys to simplify their life and cut off social media. It’s only going to get harder this week, because this is the week where they start doing the [CFP] rankings and all that kind of stuff. Hopefully I can get ahead of it and tell the guys none of that stuff matters. Really, from the beginning, I told them that preseason rankings don’t matter, midseason rankings don’t matter. The only ranking that matters is where you’re at at the end of the season. If we don’t take care of business week to week, then we’re not going to be in that conversation.”

For long stretches Saturday, it appeared the Cavaliers might win comfortably for the first time since Sept. 20, when they hammered Stanford 48-20 at Scott Stadium. But with 45 seconds to play, their lead was only three, and Cal had the ball as its 14-yard line.

The Cavaliers, though, have junior linebacker Kam Robinson. No. 5 shines in the biggest moments, and he came through again for UVA. Robinson picked off Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele’s first-down pass and returned the interception 35 yards for a touchdown that sealed the Cavaliers’ seventh consecutive win.

“When that ball went up in the air. I was like, ‘I gotta have it,’ ” Robinson said.

The pick-six was the third of Robinson’s UVA career and his second this season. With Cal out of timeouts, Robinson could have taken a knee after his interception and allowed the Hoos to run out the clock, but he never seriously considered that option.

“When I saw that he picked it off. I said, ‘He ain’t going down. He’s going to go score,’ ” Elliott told reporters, smiling.

“Kam’s a baller,” said Costner, a true freshman who also had an interception Saturday. “When I saw him with the ball I was like, ‘Shoot, take it to the crib.’ ”

At 8-1 overall, the Hoos are off to their best start since 1990. This also marks the first time in program history that they’ve been 5-0 in ACC play.

UVA has a large alumni base on the West Coast, and the Cavaliers were well-represented at the first-ever football game between two of the nation’s top public universities. An announced crowd of 30,893 showed up at Cal’s 51,892-seat stadium on a picturesque fall day, and many of those fans were clad in Virginia blue and orange.

“We could hear ‘em,” Wood said. “That was special.”

The Hoos are 3-0 in overtime games this season. Their résumé also includes a two-point win over Washington State, so perhaps it wasn’t surprising that there was more drama in Berkeley.

Taylor’s 25-yard touchdown run capped the game’s opening possession, and UVA never trailed Saturday, but Cal twice cut its deficit to three points in the second half. Multiple breakdowns on special teams kept the Cavaliers from pulling away, but Elliott said his players never lost faith.

“They just continue to believe that they’re going to find a way to win the game,” Elliott said.

On offense, the Cavaliers didn’t turn the ball over, and they ramped up their production after a three-game stretch in which they gained 237 yards against Louisville, 301 against Washington State, and 259 against North Carolina.

Against Cal, Virginia totaled 456 yards and picked up 23 first downs. Quarterback Chandler Morris completed 24 of 36 passes for 262 yards, Taylor rushed 21 times for 105 yards and two touchdowns, and wideouts Cam Ross and Trell Harris had five receptions each.

“We knew we had to come out and have a fast start today,” Wood said. “The last three weeks, we definitely haven’t played our best, and there’s still a lot of plays we left out there today.”

Several Cavaliers hurt their ankles or suffered cramps during the game, including Harris, wideout Jayden Thomas, tailback Noah Vaughn and offensive lineman Ben York. That thrust teammates into unexpectedly large roles, Wood among them.

“Hopefully everybody sees that it takes everybody,” Elliott told his team afterward.

Wood, who joined the program as a preferred walk-on in 2022, had two receptions Saturday, one of them a career-long 38-yarder, and scored the first of UVA’s two second-half touchdowns. On second-and-goal from the Cal 3, Morris threw a lateral pass to Wood, who ran forward and crossed the plane of the goal line with the ball in his outstretched right hand.

“When my number’s called, I gotta make plays for the team, just like anyone else,” Wood said. “We dealt with some injuries today, and a lot of guys had to step up. I’m just so proud of this team. We battle.”

Wood, whose UVA teammates in 2022, ’23 and ’24 included his brother Sackett Wood Jr., is “kind of the glue that holds that position together,” Elliott said of the wide receivers.

“Everybody in that room loves him, with that tremendous amount of respect. He’s a guy that’s been here for a long time. He’s so unselfish. He doesn’t care. He learns all the positions. He does whatever you ask him to do. And I’m just so happy that when his number was called, he got an opportunity, and he made some plays.”

On defense, Virginia came up with two takeaways, recorded four sacks and held Cal to 263 yards. Robinson, defensive tackle Jacob Holmes and defensive end Fisher Camac had one sack apiece, and defensive ends Mitchell Melton and Cazeem Moore split the other one.

Robinson and safety Christian Charles led UVA with six tackles each, and safety Devin Neal added five. Holmes, a transfer from Fresno State, had a team-high two tackles for loss.

When Cal took over with 45 seconds left after Morris’ fourth-down pass was deflected for an incompletion, it fell on the Hoos’ defense to lock down the victory.

“We didn’t have to say too much,” Costner said. “We knew what we had to do.”

One play later, Robinson was in the end zone, and the Cavaliers could exhale. Until Saturday, they’d never won a game on the West Coast, and they made sure to savor their breakthrough.

“This is what it’s all about,” Elliott told his players. “This is why we work so hard. This is why we sacrifice so much: for moments like this.”

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