Tony Muskett has relieved Anthony Colandrea in each of the past two blowout losses for the UVA Football team, and put up good numbers.
Muskett, last year’s QB1, was 6-of-7 for 119 yards and two TDs in garbage time of the 48-31 loss at Clemson on Oct. 19, and 8-of-13 for 125 yards and a TD in the 41-14 loss to North Carolina on Saturday.
Colandrea, meanwhile, struggled in both – the sophomore was 15-of-26 for 159 yards and two TDs in the Clemson loss, and 16-of-28 for 156 yards and two INTs in the loss to UNC.
Colandrea has also been beaten to a pulp of late – taking four sacks in the Clemson game, and nine (!) yesterday.
Virginia is heading into its second bye week of the 2024 season, which will give the coaching staff a chance to catch its breath, and evaluate where things are.
Coach Tony Elliott was asked after the ugly loss to Carolina if he was thinking of making a change at QB.
“We’ll go evaluate it, right?” Elliott said. “I’m not ready to answer that question, you know, especially in the heat of the moment. We got to go evaluate the film and kind of see what happened. But we’re going to be fair, you know, and we want to win football games. And, you know, it’s been good to see, you know, Tony come in and and have some success. But we got, we got a lot of things to discuss these next two weeks.”
Elliott got another question on the timing of yesterday’s move at QB, which he didn’t make until Virginia’s second possession of the fourth quarter, with the score at 38-6 UNC.
Did he think about going to Muskett earlier, to try to create a spark for the offense?
“Well, you know, there wasn’t a ton of discussion, because, you know, in fairness to Colandrea, there wasn’t some time, there wasn’t much time, you know, he was getting his back foot in the ground, and guys were on him, and so I thought he battled considering the circumstances, you know, to just keep playing, he was getting hit and sacked,” Elliott said.
“The discussion didn’t really take place until later in the game, because, because, again, in a situation like that, we felt like his ability to elude and escape, you know, gave us, you know, the best opportunity amidst the struggles that we had up front today,” Elliott said.
About the poor O line play
The O line had its worst game of the season, per Pro Football Focus, with an average blocking grade of 50.8.
Colandrea was pressured on 18 of his 38 pass dropbacks, and was 1-of-8 with an INT and eight sacks on those pressured dropbacks, per PFF numbers.
The line was missing starting center Brian Stevens, who was ruled out on Friday, forcing Noah Josey to move over from left guard.
Aside from the bad snap on a first-and-goal from the UNC 1 in the first quarter that set Virginia behind the chains and led to a short Will Bettridge field goal, Josey played well, getting a unit-best 61.2 PFF grade.
The problem was, the guys who filled in for Josey at left guard, Ugonna Nnanna and Charlie Patterson, gave up a total of three sacks and eight QB pressures.
And Jack Whitmer, the converted tight end who had only allowed one sack and 10 QB pressures on 200 pass dropbacks going into yesterday’s game, was overmatched by the UNC front.
Witmer, splitting time at left and right tackle, was dinged for three sacks and a total of seven QB pressures on 46 pass dropbacks on Saturday.
The bulk of the issues with the line came with Colandrea in the game.
Muskett, operating largely against subs and soft coverage in garbage time, was only pressured on four of his 15 dropbacks, and was sacked just once.
Bottom line
Muskett has put up solid counting numbers the past two weeks – 14-of-20, 244 yards, three TDs in mop-up duty – but it’s apples and oranges to compare his productivity in garbage time against subs in soft coverage to what Colandrea has done while facing first-teamers and aggressive defensive play-calling.
I don’t see a change coming – or rather, I don’t see a good reason to make a change.
I would interpret a move from Colandrea to Muskett as a sign of desperation on the part of Elliott, who has to be feeling some heat after dropping three straight following a 4-1 start, with games against three Top 25 teams and a road game at Virginia Tech left.
And who knows, Elliott may be desperate.
I mean, I’m not the one staring a seven-game losing streak to end a third straight losing season in the face.
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Chris Graham
