It’s one thing to upset a Top 10 team when everything goes right. Virginia, which upset #8 FSU, 46-38, in two OTs on Friday night, did not have everything go right.
The ‘Hoos led 14-0 in the second quarter, and then, in a flash – two bad-decision INTs from Chandler Morris – Florida State was up 21-14, two-minute timeout, UVA at their own 36, FSU set to receive the second-half kickoff.
You wouldn’t have faulted Virginia head coach Tony Elliott and offensive coordinator Des Kitchings if they’d said, you know what, let’s just play this one safe, head into the locker room where we are, and see if we can regroup.
“You can’t coach scared,” was how Elliott put it, and the sequence coming out of the two-minute timeout demonstrated that.
Morris threw a pass into coverage on a second down at the UVA 46, and Trell Harris caught the ball off a tip, then rumbled through arm tackles all the way to the FSU 26.
Next play, J’Mari Taylor ran through a big hit at the line for the 26-yard TD that sent the teams into the break tied at 21.
“I don’t know if y’all heard it. That was, that was a loud hit. He got hit, right, squarely in the hole, and found a way to keep his legs moving and pop out. And so we were able to go in at half and and be basically 0-0 with the 21-21 tie. That was huge,” Elliott told reporters after the game.
The D got a stop on a third down just outside the red zone on FSU’s first third-quarter possession, and Jake Weinberg missed a 45-yard field-goal try.
Here, the halftime adjustments came to play.
Virginia’s first two second-half possessions went 12 plays and 16 plays – the 12-play drive was 11 runs, one pass; the 16-play drive was 11 runs, five passes.
Both were TD drives of 75 yards; they took a combined 14:11 of game time off the second-half clock.
ICYMI
- UVA Football | ‘Hoos outlast #8 Florida State in double-OT instant classic
- UVA vs. Florida State | Live Coverage: ‘Hoos shock #8 FSU in two OTs, 46-38
Florida State came into the game with the nation’s top-ranked offense.
Virginia, on its two second-half scoring drives, was able to not only score two touchdowns, but take two, maybe three, FSU possessions off the books.
Sometimes your best defense is keeping the ball away from the other guys.
“Hey, man, that’s the #1 offense in the country, right? They scored 77, 66, and man they beat, you know, Alabama,” Elliott said.
FSU, down 35-28, inside of two minutes to go, was able to get the game-tying score on a fourth-and-goal pass from Tommy Castellanos to tight end Randy Pittman, which sent the game to OT.
Virginia won the toss, elected to let FSU go at it on offense first, held the ‘Noles to a field-goal try, and Jake Weinberg was good from 36.
Next gut-check: Virginia’s possession in the OT stalled, and Elliott had to send out Will Bettridge, who missed a chippie in last week’s win over Stanford, and barely cleared the crossbar on a second short try, for a 39-yard kick that needed to go through, or else, game over.
The kick split the uprights, as most of the 50,107 in attendance lost several years off the end of their lives.
The way OT works, it was UVA back out there to start the second overtime, and Morris – 26-of-35 for 229 and two TDs, and three INTs, through the air – scored his third TD of the night on the ground, on a four-yard scramble.
The rules of the second OT now require you to go for two, which Elliott and Kitchings were obviously not aware of – Elliott send out the kicking team for an extra-point try.
After regrouping, Morris found Trell Harris in the back of the end zone for the two, and the eight-point lead.
Castellanos apparently connected with Duce Robinson – who had a damn game: nine catches on 12 targets, 147 yards, holy bejeezus – for a 22-yard TD that would have set up FSU for a two-point try to extend the game.
Upon review, though, man, by the tiniest of margins, Robinson, who caught the ball off a carom, and dragged one foot in bounds, had just a split-second of a split-second of air between his hands and the ball after the foot-drag, and going out of bounds.
After a lengthy review, the call was overturned, sending the ‘Noles to fourth down.
Virginia defensive coordinator John Rudzinski dialed up an all-out blitz, sending a ‘backer and a safety from the right, and a corner from the left, forcing Castellanos to throw off his back foot in the direction of Robinson.
Ja’Son Prevard, who had an INT earlier in the game on a safety blitz on which he batted a Castellanos pass into the air before pulling the ball down for the pick, came down with the ball in the end zone.
Ballgame.
It was far from a masterpiece.
Morris had the three INTs, two leading to short FSU TD drives.
The ‘Noles racked up 514 yards of total offense, and ran for 258 yards.
“People are going to say, well, this is cliché, but at the end of the day, it’s belief. We believed,” said Elliott, whose team is sitting at 4-1 for the second straight season – but this one is obviously an order of magnitude different.
Elliott and his staff were handed what we’re now told was a $35 million NIL budget to recruit a roster after last season’s flameout – Virginia lost six of its last seven after that 4-1 start.
This team is built to win, and with this one – the goal isn’t a low-tier bowl game, it’s Charlotte, and a chance at a CFP berth.
Note to the stringer at the dinner table in the media room before the game who told me to tamp down when I suggested a Virginia win would give our kids an inside track to Charlotte: kiss my narrow White ass.
“It’s a race to Charlotte for everybody in our league, OK. And you gotta win if you want to be a champion, man, you got to go beat champions. They don’t give you games. You got to go win them,” Elliott said.
Dub, motherf—er.
Whatever they’re paying your dumb ass, it’s too much.
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Chris Graham
