I wanted to ask UVA Football coach Tony Elliott if he would have thought going in that his offense would run the ball on 57 of its 68 snaps in Saturday’s opener with NC State, but I couldn’t get the attention of the guy who kept calling on the same reporters over and over.
Such is life.
Technically, the new QB1, Beau Pribula, scrambled on two dropbacks, so it was really 55 runs, 13 passes, among the play calls in the 34-8 Virginia win.
I’d written going in that it seemed to me that the game plan would be run-heavy, given how NC State was coming in rather thin up front – the D line room had a lot of guys with barely any college snaps.
But, 57 rushing attempts?
“Just really proud of the offensive line,” Elliott said, in response to another question – not as good as mine would have been.
One day, I’ll be one of the cool kids.
ICYMI
Pribula was the most effective runner – 14 rushes, 15 with the sack, which counts as a run in the college game, for 120 sack-adjusted yards on the ground.
And most of that was designed runs – 12 rushes for 106 yards on designed runs.
He had his most success running around the right end – around right tackle Monroe Mills, who missed last season after tearing an ACL in spring practice.
Pribula had 71 yards on five attempts around Mills.
Elliott isn’t sure he wants to have his QB running the ball that much.
“Fifteen carries every game is probably not the way that we want to make a living. But it’s what was required today to win the game. We’d like to be able to feature the backs a little bit more,” the coach said.
Jekail Middlebrook (15 carries, 64 yards) got the start at tailback, but all five guys on the depth chart got snaps and carries.
It was nice to see Xavier Brown, who went down with a torn ACL in October, back out there, scoring two TDs – on a tough-sledding 1-yard TD run, and a 45-yard catch-and-run after shifting pre-snap from the backfield into the slot.
“It felt amazing. Honestly, it’s just a blessing,” said Brown, who had 98 yards from scrimmage on 10 touches on the day. “You know, talking to a few guys for a game, just shed a few tears for the game. Honestly, just finally being back after coming back from such a significant injury. So yeah, it was just it was just a blessing.”
With the success on the ground, Pribula only attempted, as was previously mentioned here, 11 passes – completing nine, for 155 yards and two TDs.
Three came in a quick flurry coming out of the halftime locker room. Pribula only attempted three passes in the first half as Virginia built a 17-0 lead.
It was obvious that the State braintrust would work on fixes on the defensive end oriented toward stopping the rush.
So, offensive coordinator Des Kitchings came out with a flea-flicker on the first play from scrimmage, leading to a 20-yard completion from Pribula to Ty’Lyric Coleman.
The next play was a pass in the flat to slot receiver Kameron Courtney for an 8-yard gain.
On second-and-2 from the State 47, Pribula faked a handoff, and the play-action drew the Pack secondary in as Da’Shawn Martin streaked through the secondary.
The 47-yard TD pass was among the easier of the pitch-and-catch variety that you will see.
“I mean, I’ll do whatever it takes to win the game. I think that’s kind of the way I am,” Pribula said. “When we have an offensive line like we do, I’ll do it every day. Maybe this week I had to run more. Maybe, you know, the next time we play in a couple weeks, we’ll have to pass more. But I think that’s what’s good about our offense, and Coach Kitchings’ scheme is, you kind of do a bunch of different things, and when you can run the ball like we did today, you can open up a lot of things in the passing game. So, I think that’s important, to have a balance.”
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Chris Graham
