No. 17/18 Virginia Dominates Hokies; Clinches Berth in ACC Championship

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — On a frigid night at Scott Stadium, the UVA football team basked in the warmth of a one-sided victory over its biggest rival.

With a 27-7 win over Virginia Tech in the regular-season finale for both teams, the Wahoos regained possession of the Commonwealth Cup and ended a four-game losing streak in the series. An announced crowd of 58,832, the largest for a game at Scott Stadium since 2011, savored the victory Saturday night, and hundreds of fans spilled out of the stands and off the hill to celebrate on the field with UVA’s players afterward.

In the home locker room, head coach Tony Elliott hoisted the Commonwealth Cup in front of his jubilant players. The win was the Hoos’ first over the Hokies since 2019.

“It’s been a long time coming, but the cup is ours,” Elliott, who’s in his fourth season at UVA, told his team. “Now we’ve got the responsibility to keep it here. Every day this is what we fight for.”

The first player to whom Elliott handed the cup was defensive tackle Jahmeer Carter, who’s in his sixth year in the program.

“It was awesome,” Carter said. “It’s something I’ll remember forever. I’ve waited a long time to hold that cup, and I can’t picture a better year to hold it than this one.

Having secured only the second 10-win season in program history while vanquishing the Hokies, Virginia, which is No. 18 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, will try to collect a bigger prize next weekend: an ACC title.

Picked in the preseason media poll to finish 14^th in the 17-team ACC, UVA finished first with a 7-1 record in league games. This is the first time in program history the Cavaliers have ended the regular season in sole possession of first place in the conference.

In the ACC championship game next Saturday night in Charlotte, N.C., UVA (10-2 overall) will face Duke (7-5 overall). The Blue Devils, one of five teams to finish 6-2 in ACC play, won the tiebreaker to determine who would face the Cavaliers in Charlotte.

The championship game will be a rematch of their Nov. 15 meeting at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, N.C., where Virginia defeated Duke 34-17.

“We started the year off saying we wanted to win a championship in Charlotte,” Carter said. “The Commonwealth Cup and the state championship is a step along the way, but we have our eyes set on wining next week.”

This will be Virginia’s second appearance in the ACC championship game. In 2019, the Cavaliers fell to Clemson, whose assistant coaches that season included Elliott.

Last-minute drama marked several of the Cavaliers’ games during this regular season, but there was no such suspense against Virginia Tech (3-9, 2-6). UVA led 7-0 after one quarter, 14-0 at halftime and 24-0 heading into the fourth. The Hoos stretched their lead to 27-0 before the Hokies finally scored.

“It’s a great exclamation point on the season,” said offensive guard Noah Josey, who brought the Commonwealth Cup to the postgame interview room.

Virginia’s defense held Tech to 197 yards, 57 of which came on quarterback Kyron Drones’ touchdown pass to Shamarius Peterkin with 4:21 to play. The Hokies’ six first downs were their fewest in a game since 1998, and UVA forced Drones into an abysmal performance.

Drones, who was sacked twice, completed only 4 of 16 passes for 78 yards and was intercepted twice: first by linebacker Maddox Marcellus, on the game’s first series, and then by safety Antonio Clary, the only Cavalier player remaining from the 2019 team.

“I was super excited for him,” Josey said. “Clary has been here a while, but he’s also been through an extreme amount of adversity, and he’s overcome so much. And so to see him be rewarded tonight with that pick was amazing.”

When the defense dominates the way Virginia’s did Saturday night, Josey said, “it takes a load off the offense. You go out there, you play free. When you’re playing complementary football on all three sides, it allows you to play free. You’re not worried about making mistakes, because you know somebody else can help you come back from it.”

Marcellus, who started in place of the injured Kam Robinson, shined throughout.

“He hadn’t started a game this year up until now, had been in a kind of a backup role where he was rotating,” Elliott said of Marcellus, “and to fill in on this stage and to lead us with nine tackles, a half a sack, and an interception, just shows the type of young men that we have in our locker room.”

UVA’s offense totaled 380 yards. Before giving way to his backup, Daniel Kaelin, in the fourth quarter, quarterback Chandler Morris completed 21 of 35 passes for 182 yards, and he wasn’t intercepted.

Tailback J’Mari Taylor rushed 20 times for 80 yards, giving him 997 for the season. He ran for the Cavaliers’ first touchdown, on a direct snap from the 1-yard line, and passed for the second. On that play, Taylor took another direct snap, took a step forward and then pulled up and lofted a pass to tight end Sage Ennis in the end zone.

Not since Wali Lundy in 2004 had a UVA running back rushed for a TD and passed for a TD in the same game.

Wide receiver Kameron Courtney, pressed into a larger role after Cam Ross departed in the first half with a hamstring injury, led Virginia with six receptions for 50 yards. Another wideout, Trell Harris, caught five passes for 43 yards.

Morris scored UVA’s third touchdown on an 8-yard run, and kicker Will Bettridge accounted for the rest of his team’s points. Bettridge was 3 for 3 on extra points and 2 for 2 on field goals, connecting from 27 and 32 yards.

Under Elliott, the Cavaliers finished 3-7 in 2022, 3-9 in 2023 and 5-7 in 2024. In the aftermath of the November 2022 mass shooting that claimed the lives of Cavalier players Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry, UVA’s game with Virginia Tech was canceled that season. But the Hokies handled the Hoos 55-17 in 2023 and 27-17 in ’24.

For UVA to win in such convincing fashion Saturday night, “I think it makes a statement for 365 days and that’s it,” Elliott said. “We’ve got to do it all again. What happened tonight [doesn’t] carry over to next year, but I think it gives us confirmation. It gives us motivation. It gives us encouragement, a little bit of validation that we’re definitely headed in the right direction to make this a competitive rivalry and make Virginia a program of relevance locally and then also nationally.”

Elliott opened his press conference by thanking the families of Davis, Chandler and Perry, whose killer was sentenced recently in Charlottesville.

“This one’s for them, and we’re not here without the inspiration that they provide us on a daily basis,” Elliott said. “So hopefully this brings them some joy as they really kind of now get a chance to embark on their road to healing and recovery. I think that all of us outside of the families, the Davis family, the Chandler family, the Perry family, have had an opportunity to kind of move forward a little bit and grieve and heal. They haven’t. It’s been a very, very long three years for them … and hopefully tonight is just an opportunity for them to just find some joy in the program that their sons were a part of.”

Virginia Team Notes 

• Virginia clinched its second-ever berth in the ACC Championship game (est. 2005) and will play Duke on Dec. 6 in Charlotte. The only other time UVA played in the conference title game was in 2019. 
• UVA matched the program’s single season record of 10 wins. The 1989 team is the only other team in program history to achieve a 10-win season.
• For the first time in program history, UVA (7-1) finished the regular season in sole possession of first place in the ACC standings.
• Tony Elliott, who’s in his fourth season at UVA, became the fastest UVA head football coach to clinch at least a share of first place in the final ACC standings.
• The Cavaliers we co-ACC champions in 1989 and 1995.
• UVA’s 7-1 record in ACC play also tied with the 1995 Cavaliers’ best record in ACC play in school history. 
• Virginia’s six home victories this season mark just the third time in the past 34 years that UVA has recorded at least six wins at Scott Stadium. Entering Saturday’s game, UVA has achieved six or more home wins in a season 13 times: 2025, 2019, 2002, 1991, 1989, 1951, 1925, 1914, 1913, 1912, 1911, 1910, and 1902.
• Elliott is now 6-0 as UVA head coach in games following a bye week.
• Virginia forced two turnovers and improved to 9-0 this season when forcing a turnover.
• Saturday marked the first time UVA has held Virginia Tech to single-digit points since the 1991 meeting, a 38-0 victory in Charlottesville. 
• Virginia has held its last five opponents, all ACC contests, to an average of 15.4 points per game.
• UVA achieved its largest overall win improvement from year to year since 1986 (3-8) to 1987 (8-4). The only other time in program history that UVA improved by five games from one season to the next was in 1892 (3-2-1) to 1893 (8-3). The Cavaliers finished 5-7 overall in 2024.
• Virginia recorded the program’s 698th all-time win. UVA’s first season of football was 1888.
• The Cavaliers earned their second victory of the series with Virginia Tech for only the second time in the last 21 meetings, dating back to 2004.
• The Cavaliers held the Hokies scoreless in the first half. It marked the third team they held scoreless in a half this season.
• Prior to Virginia Tech’s fourth-quarter touchdown, UVA’s defense had allowed only one offensive touchdown in the previous 11 quarters (4th quarter at Duke).
• UVA now has 12 interceptions on the season, its most in a season since 2019. With Maddox Marcellus’ first quarter interception, eight different Cavaliers have picked off a pass this season.
• The Cavaliers held the Hokies to four completed passes. The last time they held a team with five or less was in 2018 against Georgia Tech, when the Yellow Jackets had only one completion.
• Virginia held the Hokies to six first downs, the fewest by a UVA opponent since Akron’s six on Sept. 18, 2004.
• Virginia Tech was 2-for-14 (14.3%) on third-down conversions, the lowest by a UVA opponent since Notre Dame was 1-for-12 on Nov. 16, 2024. The Cavaliers came into the contest ranked third in the country in third down defense.
• Virginia secured its sixth victory of the season while ranked in the AP poll. It marked the first time since 2004 that UVA recorded six or more wins in a year in which it appeared in every AP Top 25.
• UVA earned its second straight victory over the Hokies on Nov. 29. The previous time the Cavaliers defeated Virginia Tech on that date was Nov. 29, 2019, at Scott Stadium.

Virginia Individual Player Notes 

• Making his first start of the season and first since playing for Eastern Kentucky last season, linebacker Maddox Marcellus led the Cavaliers with nine tackles (3 solo) and recorded his first interception as a Cavalier and third of his career. He was also credited with a half sack and one tackle for loss.
• Tailback J’Mari Taylor played in his 50th college game and finished with 80 yards on 20 carries and scored his 14th touchdown of the season. He is three yards shy of 1,000 for the season and leads the ACC with 997.
• Taylor is the seventh UVA player to rush for 14 touchdowns in season and the first since Keith Payne in 2010. The UVA single-season record is 17 posted by Wali Lundy (2004) and Bill Dudley (1941).
• Taylor also was credited with his first career touchdown pass with a 1-yard pass to Sage Ennis in the second quarter. He is the first non-QB to throw a TD pass for UVA since Olamide Zaccheaus vs. Duke in 2015.
• Taylor is the first ACC running back with a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown in the same game since Clemson’s Will Shipley against Wake Forest in 2021. Tony Elliott was Clemson’s offensive coordinator. He’s only the second UVA running back since 1995 to accomplish the feat, joining Wali Lundy against Western Michigan 2003.
• Quarterback Chandler Morris rushed for his career-best, fifth touchdown of the season. He now has 15 in his collegiate career.
• Wide receiver Kam Courtney established a career high with six receptions and had 50 yards receiving. 
• Kicker Will Bettridge took over sole possession of third place on UVA’s all-time scoring list with nine points (2-2 FG / 3-3 XP). He now has 302 career points and is 10 points behind Wali Lundy (312)

Offensive Starters: QB #4 Chandler Morris, RB #3 J’Mari Taylor, WR #7 Jahmal Edrine, WR #11 Trell Harris, TE #0 Sage Ennis, WR #82 Eli Wood, LT #52 McKale Boley, LG #77 Noah Josey, C #76 Brady Wilson, RB #60 Drake Metcalf, RT #68 Jack Witmer. 

Defensive Starters: DE #52 Daniel Rickert, NT #90 Jahmeer Carter, DT #91 Jason Hammond, DE #17 Mitchell Melton, LB #1 James Jackson, LB #11 Maddox Marcellus, CB #19 Emmanuel Karnley, CB #9 Jordan Robinson, NB #18 Corey Costner, S #30 Ethan Minter, S #27 Devin Neal.  

Game Captains: #0 Sage Ennis, #1 James Jackson, #4 Chandler Morris, #90 Jahmeer Carter.