The recent decent stretch for Virginia, the wins over William & Mary and North Carolina, the OT loss at Miami that should have been a UVA win, turns out, it was fools’ gold.
The Cavaliers, two-point favorites going into Saturday’s matchup with Georgia Tech, fell apart after getting out to an early 7-0 lead, with the D getting gashed for 305 yards on the ground, 514 yards overall, in what turned into a 45-17 loss.
Starting QB Tony Muskett was among the casualties, leaving the game after throwing an INT on Virginia’s first possession of the game.
Muskett was on the sidelines in a walking boot in the second half. His status going forward, at this writing, is very much uncertain.
His backup, true freshman Anthony Colandrea, put up OK counting numbers – 21-of-37 passing, 200 yards, two TDs, one INT – but the offense was stagnant with him behind center until garbage time.
The bad news with Colandrea: his insertion into the game, for his fifth game appearance of the season, burns his redshirt.
And unfortunately, the redshirt went up in flames with Colandrea not providing anything near the spark that he had in his three-game run as the starter back in September, when he had to fill in for Muskett after the QB1 went down to injury in the fourth quarter of the Week 1 loss to Tennessee.
Georgia Tech, down 7-3 at the end of the first quarter, scored TDs on three second-quarter possessions, most of the damage coming on the ground – the Yellow Jackets gained 170 yards rushing in the second quarter – to go into the halftime break up 24-10.
A Haynes King-to-Eric Singleton 58-yard TD pass padded the lead to 31-10 two minutes into the third quarter, and the rout was on from there.
The Virginia offense didn’t pick up a first down until the 1:30 mark of the third quarter, on a drive that would ultimately end on a turnover on downs in plus territory that sent the relative few fans left heading for the exits.
Georgia Tech, on its next possession, would push the lead to 38-10 on a 10-yard Dontae Smith TD run.
A Colandrea-to-Kobe Pace 8-yard TD pass with 8:47 to go and a Jamal Haynes 43-yard TD run closed out the scoring from there.
Haynes finished with 119 yards on 17 attempts for Georgia Tech (5-4, 4-2 ACC, and King had 83 yards and two TDs on the ground, and was 23-of-30 for 208 yards and a TD in the air.
Malik Washington was the lone highlight of the day for Virginia (2-7, 1-4 ACC), with another 100-plus-yard game receiving – 109 yards on 11 catches, on 15 targets.
This was the seventh 100-yard-plus game of the season for Washington, who has already surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the season.
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Chris Graham
