Tony Elliott likes benching guys for mistakes: How about benching his offensive coordinator?

UVA Football coach Tony Elliott is now benching guys for making mistakes. Wonder if he’ll bench his offensive coordinator next week for the massive mistake that ended the Cavaliers’ comeback effort in Saturday’s 34-17 loss to Louisville?

The setting: Brennan Armstrong connected with wideout Demick Starling on a nicely executed screen on a third-and-14 from the Louisville 18 that appeared to pick up a first down inside the 3.

Virginia was down at the moment, 34-17, with the clock ticking toward eight minutes left.

The game officials, though, ruled Starling had stepped out at the 5, and though video replay would later show that he hadn’t, the ball was set there for a fourth-and-1.

Here’s the full video pic.twitter.com/vCmg6NUvXT

— EmbraceThePace (@EmbracePaceUVA) October 8, 2022

“Definitely thought it was a first down. That was all the communication, that it was a first down. Otherwise, we would have, hey, let’s make a decision on what exactly we want to do. We’re down three scores, 17, you can make the decision to kick the field goal and try to play for two touchdowns, or try to go there. All the information was that it was a first down,” offensive coordinator Des Kitchings told reporters after the game.

But actually, none of the information was that it was a first down, because the officials set the ball at the 5, and directed the down markers flipped to 4.

And because Kitchings had sent in direction to Armstrong to set the offense for a quick snap, and a handoff to tailback Mike Hollins, he wasn’t giving the replay official in the booth time to buzz down to the referee, Gary Patterson, to stop play for a review that would have allowed the bad call to be corrected.

Instead, Armstrong, as directed by Kitchings, took the quick snap, handed the ball off to Hollins, who after having his progress stopped initially just short of the first down, appeared on second effort to get the ball inside the 4 for what would have enough yardage to move the sticks.

Only, before the next snap, the replay official had enough time to buzz down this time, and though the footage seemed to confirm that Hollins had indeed made forward progress inside the Louisville 4, Patterson decided that he hadn’t, leading to a turnover on downs.

Louisville got the ball back with its three-score lead intact, and bled the final 8:11 from the clock to close out the win.

Elliott confirmed to reporters after the loss that he benched starting defensive tackle Aaron Faumui for penalties he’d picked up in recent weeks.

According to Pro Football Focus, Faumui has been assessed for three penalties in the 2022 season.

The guy who started in his place, Ben Smiley, also had three going into the Louisville game, and was called for a fourth on Saturday.

Penalties by D linemen are either offides calls that give a QB a free play or at the least shave five yards off the distance-to-go, or 15-yarders – hands to the face on an offensive lineman, roughing the quarterback, a late hit, something dumb after a play.

Those can extend drives and lead to scores or if nothing else, a flipped field.

Kitchings not knowing what down it was inside the 5 in a ballgame that would effectively be over if UVA doesn’t score is probably a tiny bit more egregious than that.

Virginia doesn’t necessarily come back and win the game if that scenario plays out differently and ends with a Cavaliers TD, but then again, we’ll never know, will we?

This is the kind of mistake that a coach just cannot make.

Unfortunately for the people who pay the bills for this new brand of UVA Football, this kind of thing is becoming the norm.