Hero ball doesn’t work for UVA in two notable instances in loss at Illinois

You talk to most coaches, whatever the sport, they’ll tell you, they don’t want their guys making hero plays. Two guys trying to make hero plays cost Virginia big-time in the Cavaliers’ 24-3 loss at Illinois on Saturday.

The biggest was the inexplicable decision by fifth-year player Billy Kemp IV to try to make a big play out of a first-quarter Illini punt.

Fielding the punt at the UVA 12, Kemp would have been better served to go with the fair catch, but he tried to gain positive yardage, taking a hit at the Illini 10, then reversing field, inside the UVA 5, before fumbling, into the end zone.

The recovery by Matthew Bailey put Illinois on the board, and changed the momentum of the game.

“That’s costly there. That’s where, you know, when you learn how to win, you don’t press, you don’t panic, you don’t flinch,” Virginia coach Tony Elliott said.

Kemp, it was noted above, is a fifth-year guy, so there’s no reason for him to press, to panic, to flinch.

Elliott said back in training camp that the advantage of having a guy with experience like Kemp returning punts is that he could be relied on to make the smart play.

There was really no reason for Kemp to go the hero route here.

It was early in the game.

Virginia was ahead at the moment.

Damn.

The second hero play involved junior defensive back Fentrell Cypress, who recovered a Pat Bryant fumble in the end zone, six or seven yards deep, and inexplicably tried to return it, instead of taking the touchback.

It was obvious from the end zone replay that there was nothing in the way of any kind of opening downfield.

Cypress ended up getting tackled at the UVA 5, instead of setting up the offense at the 20 with the touchback that he 100 percent should have taken.

The first play of the ensuing Virginia offensive series was a 62-yard pass play from Brennan Armstrong to Lavel Davis Jr.

The drive stalled from there and resulted in a missed field goal that you could think would have been 15 yards closer without Cypress’s mental error.

Some of this is coaching. It needs to have been ingrained in their heads to play smart.

But the bigger part of this is, does a coach need to tell Billy Kemp that he shouldn’t be running backwards inside the 10 on a punt return, or tell Fentrell Cypress that he shouldn’t be running out of the end zone with no open field ahead of him on a fumble recovery?

It’s not that UVA kids aren’t smart kids. By definition UVA kids are smart kids.

Play within the game, guys.