Even when Virginia did beat in-state rival Virginia Tech, those two wins in the last quarter-century, it was tight – a 35-21 win in 2003 that turned on a fourth-quarter fake field goal, and a 39-30 win in 2019 that was in equal parts a fourth-quarter comeback and a Mandy Alonso fumble recovery TD that registered on the Richter scale.
What UVA Football fans got to do last night was be a part of something that fans on the other side have been able to do often – celebrate a beatdown of the rivals.
The final score: Virginia 27, Virginia Tech 7.
It wasn’t that close.
Tech had six first downs; starting QB Kyron Drones completed four passes to his guys, and two to the UVA guys.
ICYMI
- UVA Football: ‘Hoos dominate Hokies, clinch spot in Charlotte vs. Duke
- ‘Hoos 27, Virginia Tech 7: Virginia, preseason 14th in ACC media poll, headed to Charlotte
The Hokies’ lone score came with 4:21 to go with the game having already long since having been decided.
At that point, I’d already booked my hotel room in Charlotte for next weekend.
“That felt good, you know, going out there, just making plays and having fun playing football and being able to beat them,” said Antonio Clary, a seventh-year senior – the guy kept having his senior season cut short by injuries, so he’s been around forever, including being on the sidelines in 2019 as a true freshman the last time the ‘Hoos beat the Hokies to earn a spot in the ACC Championship Game.
The 6,700-square-foot scoreboard towering above the west end zone at Scott Stadium sent fans home with the message “State Champions,” needling the rivals from Blacksburg, who took to claiming those minimal bragging rights as the football program down there has taken the steady fall from the Frank Beamer glory years – Beamer’s last four teams went 29-23; his successor, Justin Fuente, was fired after 25-25 in his last four seasons; Brent Pry was fired earlier this year after putting together teams that went 19-30 in the four seasons that he was responsible for.
UVA-Virginia Tech in photos
- Facebook reel featuring photos by Mike Ingalls: click here.
Man, that Whit Babcock, gotta give him credit, for taking a good thing and running it straight into the ground.
But as much as Tech Football has royally sucked now dating back to the end of the Beamer years, they’d won all but one of those unofficial state titles dating back to the “throw it to the hoss” fake field goal.
“You can’t win one until you get that first one and get that monkey off your back,” said UVA head coach Tony Elliott, who got his first win over Virginia Tech last night, after a pair of ugly losses – 55-17 in his first Tech game, in 2023, and 37-17 last season in Blacksburg.
The quote reminds me of Tony Bennett in the locker room after his 2019 team, as a #1 seed, beat #16 seed Gardner-Webb in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, a year after his top-seeded team had been upset by #16 seed UMBC, coached, as fate would have it, by his de facto successor, Ryan Odom, the first 16-1 upset in tournament history.
Bennett had somebody pack a toy monkey for the postgame, and the usually reserved TB made a scene of putting the monkey on his back, then dramatically flinging it to the ground, fireman’s carry-style.
Bennett’s SID, Erich Bacher, is now the head of the media-relations office at UVA Athletics.
Erich, my man, hope you had that monkey from TB handy for Elliott to throw down.
Because last night wasn’t a 9-2 Virginia team escaping a 3-8 Virginia Tech team by the skin of its teeth to punch its ticket to Charlotte, and keep the program very much in the running for a first-ever berth in the College Football Playoff.
It was emphatic.
Virginia scored on its first possession, and was never in peril.
The offensive game plan was conservative, a nod to the cold weather; this one was about the defense, which forced seven three-and-outs, and was a missed tackle in garbage time away from finishing off a shutout.
The word thorough comes to mind; it’s telling that the response from Tech fans on the socials afterward was, well, we hired Penn State’s coach, so you’d better enjoy it now.
*Note: Penn State’s coach was available because Penn State fired him earlier this year. Not because he decided that Virginia Tech is a better job.
Elliott has bigger fish to fry – the ACC Championship Game, maybe the CFP – but he did allow himself a moment to reflect on the significance of the monkey no longer on the back.
“To be able to come out and to and to play well, and to win kind of the way the guys did, I think it makes a statement for 365 days, and that’s it, you know. We got to do it all again. Just because of what happened tonight, it don’t carry over to next year,” Elliott said.
“But I think it gives us confirmation, it gives us motivation, it gives us encouragement, a little bit of validation, that we’re definitely headed in the right direction to make this a competitive rivalry and make Virginia a program of relevance on the locally and then also nationally,” Elliott said.
State champions.
It’s a modest goal, but, mission: accomplished.
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Chris Graham
