Virginia had one win in 2023 coming into last night’s game in Chapel Hill, but could have easily had three others to add to it – if not for blowing an 11-point lead at home in a loss to JMU, flubbing the final 36 seconds in a walk-off home loss to NC State, squandering a 14-point halftime lead in a final two minutes loss at Boston College.
“I’ve seen it coming. It’s just, it was at some point we had to make the decision to finish the game, right,” coach Tony Elliott told reporters after his team’s improbable 31-27 win over 10th-ranked North Carolina, which saw its national-title hopes dashed by a team that hadn’t won a game against an FBS opponent in literally a year and a day.
Despite what seemed obvious to everyone else going in, Elliott was preaching to his guys all week, Remember how close we were to these guys last year, citing the 31-28 loss to UNC on Nov. 5, 2022, in Charlottesville, in a game that Virginia led 17-14 at the half, and was a back-and-forth affair all afternoon long.
That loss was one of three losses by three or fewer points for Virginia in a 3-7 season, so, doing the math, that would be six losses by a field goal or less for Elliott in a season and a half.
Just finish the game sounds easy, but you have to learn how to win like you have to learn anything else in life – unfortunately, the hard way.
“The belief has been there for us all year,” said Tony Muskett, who was 20-for-30 passing for 202 yards and two TDs, and ran for 75 sack-adjusted yards on the ground, in the win, playing through an injured left shoulder that will require surgery once the season is over.
“You look at the first six games, I mean, there’s a couple in there that were similar situations, we just don’t seem to get it done. So, we’ve always had that belief, it was just a matter of taking that last step in the fourth quarter,” Muskett said.
“We never lost sight,” said Coen King, who had 11 tackles and a pass breakup on 79 snaps on Saturday. “I remember against Maryland, and it was 21-14, and I saw a few guys lose a little bit of focus, but this game, it wasn’t that at all. We were mission-focused, and we were ready for anything they threw at us.”
That Maryland game, you could add that to the mix of games that Virginia needed to, just finish.
That one was, as King alluded, a 21-14 game in the fourth quarter, and Virginia had a third-down pass into the end zone that could have tied the game that ended up being intercepted, before the wheels fell off in what turned into a 42-14 loss.
“We envisioned. We kept fighting, and this team is full of fighters,” said tailback Mike Hollins, the ultimate fighter among the fighters on the Virginia roster, returning to the field in the spring four months after suffering life-threatening wounds in the Nov. 13, 2022, mass shooting that left three of his teammates, Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry, dead.
“There’s no quit anywhere, not in the coaching staff, not anywhere in the program, so it definitely means a lot for a team that’s been fighting for seven weeks,” said Hollins, who had three TDs last night.
Hollins appeared to be on his way to a fourth TD with 4:50 to go in the game, with Virginia clinging to that 31-27 lead, when the ball came loose as he was being tackled inside the UNC 1.
The ball squirted into the end zone, and bounced out of the back end for a touchback.
It felt, at the moment, like, Well, here we go again, but this time was different.
“It was one of those deals, it’s a quick, you know, it’s a quick turnaround, but I did have a chance to, you know, to make eye contact with Mike, and call him over and say, Hey, man, we’re coming back to you, you’re gonna get another, you’re gonna get another opportunity at this, so just believe” Elliott said.
“That’s what we’re trying to build as a program is, it’s all about the next play, right, zoom focus,” Elliott said. “So, whether you have a good play the previous play, or a bad play, it’s all about the next play. And at times, you’re gonna have, you know, some of those situations, but what you saw is just a group that believed, and what I’m proud of is, you know, I’ve told the guys from Day 1, they can do it, right, I told them, they could play with the first opponent all the way through this one, right.
“The key is believing that you are going to be the guy that’s gonna make the play and not waiting on somebody else. And I think that’s what you saw. You saw more guys tonight saying, You know what, let me be the one that that makes the play.”
North Carolina, after the Hollins fumble, only needed two plays, passes of 33 and 29 yards, to get into the red zone, but the Virginia defense stiffened, sacking Drake Maye on first down, then forcing three straight incompletions to get the turnover on downs.
The UVA offense was able to get one first down on its next series, which got UNC to use up its timeouts, but the Heels would get the ball back at its own 25 with 1:12 to go with a chance for the walk-off.
A 14-yard completion from Maye to Devontez Walker set up Carolina with a first down at the UVA 48 inside a minute to go.
An incompletion on first down set up a second-and-10.
On the second-down play, Paul Akere, who has been in and out of the lineup all season with injuries, sped around the edge and hit Maye as he was throwing.
Linebacker James Jackson dove to the turf, scooping the ball just before it touched grass, and …
Ballgame.
“Oh, yeah, it’s, it’s awesome, it’s, for me, it’s really just, the sounds, the smiles, the smell, just everything about it, being present in the moment, that’s what you coach for,” Elliott told reporters, as his kids were still celebrating in the locker room, and would be for a while after, “is an opportunity to see your guys celebrate victory, and more so just a confirmation of all the work that they put in, the belief that they that they had for 60 minutes, just the hard days that they’ve been through, to all, you know, culminate to experience that joy in the locker room.
“It’s an experience that’s hard to describe. But that’s why you that’s why you coach, to see these young men experience joy like that,” said Elliott, noting how much has changed for his football program since the close loss to North Carolina last November.
“It’s a testament to where our football program is, you know, since Nov. 13 of last year, man, we’ve had to fight every single day for everything, right,” Elliott said. “We’ve had to fight on the field, we’ve had to fight in the classroom, and we’ve had to fight mental health, and we’ve had to fight everything. So that’s just you’re seeing it on the field, and hopefully, we can build upon that fight. Because what I tell them all the time is, yeah, you got to have that fight, but you also got to have other components to be able to win at the highest level.”
Just like you have to learn technique, learn a playbook, learn how to play, you have to learn how to win – and learn that winning isn’t just something that happens under the bright lights.
“The guys did a great job from a preparation standpoint. Coaches did a great job with the previous week of making sure we got the work that we needed, tried to get our guys back to full strength, and then when Tony and the crew showed up on Monday, you could tell, you know, that they had they had a fire and a tenacity about them to get after it, and I think it’s, one, for this game, but two, more so importantly to me, is they want to they want to attack the second half of the season, right. They recognize the opportunities that we let slip away. We don’t have room for error, and they got the mindset to go and attack,” Elliott said.
The next lesson for his team: learning how to handle success.
The season isn’t over, by a long shot. Virginia, with the win, is now 2-5 in 2023, and Elliott was talking all week, against reason, it seemed at the time, about how his team still had the goal in mind of earning a bowl invite.
The schedule the rest of the way is daunting – next week, Virginia travels to Miami, which beat Clemson last night, then there are games with two more Top 25 teams, Duke and Louisville, in addition to games with Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech.
Four more wins is, yes, mathematically possible, and a team that can beat North Carolina in Chapel Hill should be capable of anything.
“Hopefully, they won’t get too caught up in it, and just understand that this is what you’re capable of, and so then there’s no turning back, right,” Elliott said. “Let this be, you know, that fuel to the fire that just wants, it wants them to get back on the practice field, like, let’s go see what we’re, what more can we do, you know, as opposed to, OK, well, this is just a one-off, right.
“Hopefully these guys will understand, this is what I’ve been telling them all year, this is what you’re capable of. But I believe, you know, second half of the season, these guys are going to. I’m going to use this to help them down the stretch.”
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Chris Graham
