The WVU Football team, out of Morgantown, northern part of its state, and the UVA Football team, out of Charlottesville, sorta northwest part of its state, could just meet in one of their two home stadiums.
Instead, they’re playing in Charlotte.
The reason: instead of one getting paid, they both get paid.
I’m not there, because the budget for such trips comes out of my pocket, and also because, Charlotte is fine, but it ain’t Nashville or NYC.
I’m covering from the home office, which means I don’t get to see what the defensive backfield is doing, but aside from that, I’ve got access to in-game stats, and I can hear what the TV people are saying – which probably isn’t a help, but anyway.
Game Week: UVA (2-0) vs. West Virginia (2-0)
- Week 3 Preview: What UVA Football fans need to know about West Virginia
- First look: West Virginia is 2-0 early, but not exactly against tough tests
- WVU assistant coach Noel Devine arrested on felony strangulation charge
- UVA Football: D tackle Jason Hammond needs surgery on left elbow
- UVA Football: It’s been a while since we played WVU. Wonder why?
Game Details
- Series: Virginia leads series, 12-10-1
- TV: ACC Network
- SiriusXM Radio: SiriusXM 179 / SiriusXM 234
- SiriusXM App: SiriusXM 958
First quarter
Update: 7:47 p.m. Jekail Middlebrook scores on an 8-yard run
Drive: 12 plays, 62 yards
Play calls: eight runs, four passes
Virginia 7, West Virginia 0, 6:49/1st
Update: 7:59 p.m. Michael Hawkins Jr. scores on a 13-yard designed run.
Drive: 8 plays, 75 yards
Play calls: seven runs, one pass
One very helpful defensive pass interference call.
Virginia 7, West Virginia 7, 4:09/1st
Update: 8:07 p.m. Beau Pribula missed badly on two throws after a couple of Jekail Middlebrook rushes picked up a first down.
Punt.
Update: 8:15 p.m. Xavier Brown broke through the line on a third-and-2 at the 47.
No one from WVU touched him.
Drive: three plays, 55 yards
Play calls: three runs
Virginia 14, WVU 7, :07/1st
First quarter summary
Both teams relied on their running games:
- UVA: 14 runs, 6 passes
- WVU: 11 runs, 4 passes
Second quarter
Update: 8:29 p.m. Michael Hawkins Jr. to DJ Epps 29 yards for a TD.
Drive: 9 plays, 75 yards
Play calls: six runs, three passes
Virginia 14, West Virginia 14, 11:49/2nd
Update: 8:47 p.m. Des Kitchings has no confidence in the passing game.
Absolutely none.
Update: 8:53 p.m. That sack signals to me that the O line wasn’t prepared for WVU’s looks on D.
They’ve double-A-gap blitzed to force a quick incompletion, and got an easy sack just by putting a backer in the A gap, and getting McKale Boley, the preseason All-ACC left tackle, to work inside, and leave the edge guy untouched.
Update: 9:02 p.m. Michael Hawkins Jr. gets his second rushing TD of the night, a 15-yard scramble.
Hawkins: 12 runs, 79 yards, 2 TDs on the ground; 4-of-11, 105 yards, 1 TD passing
Drive: 6 plays, 70 yards
Play calls: five runs, one pass
West Virginia 21, Virginia 14, :26/2nd
First half report
The offensive game plan was built on running the ball down WVU’s throat, and the numbers are fine: 21 attempts, 133 sack-adjusted rushing yards, 6.7 yards per.
Almost all of that was in the first quarter.
In the second quarter: just 12 yards on eight attempts (1.5 yards per).
WVU adjusted, and is daring Virginia to beat its D through the air.
Des Kitchings is signaling to us that he doesn’t think his team can move the ball through the air.
Five of Beau Pribula‘s 10 pass attempts were at or behind the line of scrimmage – he’s 3-of-5 for 18 yards on those.
He missed badly on his only deep ball, intended for Rico Flores Jr.
Thus, 3-of-4 for 28 yards on short and intermediate stuff.
StatBroadcast credits the WVU defense with one sack and two QB hurries, but it feels like more than that, maybe because Kitchings is conceding things by going with screens and swing passes.
This allowed WVU to stack the box to take away the run, which is what they did after the second TD drive, which wasn’t so much a drive as it was a good play by Xavier Brown.
On defense, we knew going in that the WVU offense was Michael Hawkins Jr. running the ball effectively on designed runs.
He has 69 yards on 10 designed runs, and a 15-yard TD on a scramble.
It feels like the unit wasn’t prepared for what it was obvious they were going to do.
Third quarter
Update: 9:35 p.m. The first offensive series didn’t inspire confidence. On the third-and-medium, the play call was another pass at the line of scrimmage, which was complete for no gain.
No confidence that Beau Pribula can read the D on intermediate and deep balls.
None.
At least their gimmick QB can hit deep balls.
Update: 9:45 p.m. Beau Pribula 1-yard TD pass to Jekail Middlebrook.
Drive: 11 plays, 66 yards
Play calls: six passes, five runs
Pribula was 2-for-4 for 43 yards on intermediate and deep balls.
Game tied at 21-21, 7:09/3rd
Update: 10:03 p.m. Virginia got the ball on offense after a three-and-out at midfield. Ran the ball into the line twice for three yards, then on third-and-7, tried a shovel pass that went nowhere.
West Virginia gets the ball back, and goes 83 yards, and scored on a third-and-7 pass, 21 yards for the TD.
This is the x’s and o’s getting Virginia beat here.
West Virginia 28, Virginia 21, :12/3rd
Third quarter summary
I’m at a loss on the game plan, the play calls on offense, the lack of basic adjustments on defense to get their gimmick QB into containment.
This isn’t the same team that we saw in Week 0.
This is on the staff.
Fourth quarter
Update: 10:15 p.m. A drive moved the ball effectively with three pass completions for 38 yards.
Then, inside the 20, run up the middle, two yards, run up the middle, one yard, third-and-7, WVU brings another double-A-gap blitz, the running back can only block one of them, sack, fourth down.
Will Bettridge missed the 39-yard field goal.
Having a fifth-year kicker was supposed to mean, you make all of your 39-yarders.
This one is in the books.
West Virginia 28, Virginia 21, 9:13/4th
Update: 10:23 p.m. Michael Hawkins Jr. will have a hard time getting a job as a scout-team QB in the Arena League, but tonight, he’s got 190 yards passing and two TDs, and 128 sack-adjusted rushing yards and three TDs on the ground.
Forty million on this football roster, wasted.
West Virginia 35, Virginia 21, 5:24/4th
Update: 10:29 p.m. Now we need to ask the questions that some of us have had since Week 0, when they were able to win despite only throwing the ball 11 times.
Is Beau Pribula the right QB for the UVA offense?
He blew a timeout early in the second half because he seemed to call the wrong play out of the huddle, then realized too late, tried to shift the tight ends from the left side of the formation to the right, and the play clock was about to expire.
On this last series, on third-and-5, he changed the play at the line, but again, too late, and the play he changed to just got him a 50/50 ball 25 yards downfield, which didn’t work out.
Why is it that I can see them lining up the double-A-gap blitzes, and I’m a dumb politics hack not even in the stadium, and the fifth-year QB with access to all manner of coaching can’t see it?
The QB needs to see things sooner, to get the play call right, and needs to be able to read the defense when it’s snapped.
Pribula seems ill-equipped to do either.
Doesn’t matter that he has elite athleticism. QB is a position where the guy needs to be able to process things quickly.
Pribula is a fifth-year guy, and he is still too slow in terms of his processing to be effective at anything more than wildcat plays.
Quick recap
Tony Elliott and his staff need to donate their salary for this week to charity, because they didn’t earn a dime of what UVA Athletics is paying them.
It’s back to the drawing board time.
Some of y’all will want to say, yeah, but we lost to NC State in Week 2 last year, and rebounded.
That one was a tight game that our guys win if they don’t fail to score twice inside the State 5 in the fourth quarter.
This one was over early in the fourth quarter, and against a team that is going to struggle to get to six wins.
This one is less, early loss to NC State in 2025, and more, early losses to bad Maryland teams in 2023 and 2024.
A key difference being: those teams were pre-big spending.
This one is the best team that the donors’ money could buy, and it got boatraced by a team whose coach was so desperate for bodies that he publicly mulled having tryouts to flesh out his roster.
Highlights
Jekail Middlebrook TD run
.@JMiddlebrook9 gets us on the board with his first TD as a Cavalier 👏
📺 ACCN pic.twitter.com/l2EJcGbl4A
— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) September 19, 2026
Xavier Brown TD run
“THE X-MAN TO THE HOUSE, 47 YARDS‼️”
📝That’s @XavierBrown22‘s third TD of the year.
📺 ACCN pic.twitter.com/EXQSJjXuYo
— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) September 20, 2026
Jekail Middlebrook TD catch
Touchdown No. 2 for No. 21 💯@JMiddlebrook9
📺 ACCN pic.twitter.com/EZGhS2VhX2
— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) September 20, 2026
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Chris Graham
