I suggested, jokingly, to #TeamAFP’s Scott German, on our way back from Baltimore today, that if the Virginia-Notre Dame game was out of hand by halftime, MeTV was beginning a two-hour block of “The Three Stooges” at 5 p.m. ET that might be worth tuning in.
As it would turn out, we’d already had enough slapstick by the half to render the idea of voluntarily subjecting ourselves to two more hours of it, even considering the genius of the Stooges, utterly joyless.
Five first-half turnovers, the first on the opening kickoff, led to four Notre Dame touchdowns, and by the time it was over, Virginia, which lost 35-14 – and no, it wasn’t that close – had found itself a new starting quarterback.
Anthony Colandrea, who’d started the first 10 games of the 2024 season, can’t possibly be the starter next week when the ‘Hoos (5-5, 3-3 ACC) host SMU (9-1, 6-0 ACC) with the season on the line.
The sophomore was picked off three times in the first half, and they were all rookie mistakes, which he had seemingly grown out of last year, but Colandrea has noticeably regressed over the past three games – 54.8 percent completion rate, one TD, seven (!) INTs.
The 2023 opening week starter, Tony Muskett, had a serviceable second half, leading two touchdown drives, both of which he finished off with TD runs, while completing nine of his 14 pass attempts for 103 yards.
It’s not so much that Muskett went out and decisively won the QB1 job back, but that Colandrea had meekly just given it back – and I don’t think I’m overstating it when I say, it’s time to hit the portal for two guys who can compete in the spring to be the guy in 2025, because it seems pretty clear, he is done as far as his Virginia run is concerned.
In the meantime, Muskett gives this 2024 team its best chance to pull the upset of SMU, which remains unbeaten in the ACC by virtue of its closer-than-expected 38-28 win over Boston College on Saturday, to get a sixth win that would get the program to bowl eligibility.
The game plan from offensive coordinator Des Kitchings tried to minimize the exposure for Colandrea, trying to build off the run, including giving AC some chances to move the chains with QB keepers, and lots of efforts at using screens to try to get the Notre Dame defense, which uses a lot of man coverage, out of position.
But you have to be accurate to make that work, and Colandrea wasn’t accurate – going 8-of-21 for just 69 yards with the three INTs before head coach Tony Elliott gave him the hook at halftime.
There’s not much else to analyze here.
The defense gave up 448 yards, but a lot of the issue there was the constant quick changes with the turnovers.
The D racked up five three-and-outs in the first half, bailing out the offense time and again, before a fumble on a second quarter red-zone run by tailback Kobe Pace, as the Cavaliers were driving for a potential tying score following a Notre Dame special teams turnover, opened the floodgates.
The Irish drove 88 yards on their next possession, scoring on an 8-yard pass from Riley Leonard to Jayden Harrison, to go up 14-0 with 6:37 to go until halftime.
To be fair, it was already beginning to feel that the game was over at this point, given the way the Virginia offense was struggling to find its way.
The next score was set up by an Adon Shuler INT return that set up the Irish offense at the UVA 2, ahead of a 2-yard TD pass from Leonard to Cooper Flanagan that made it 21-0 with 2:20 left on the first half clock.
Colandrea was picked off again at the 1:23 mark, setting up a quick three-play, 32-yard drive that was capped by a 16-yard Leonard-to-Mitchell Evans TD pass that made it 28-0.
Colandrea’s last pass of the night was intercepted by safety Xavier Watts at midfield with 17 seconds left in the half, but a 54-yard field goal try by Marcello Diomede was wide right at the horn.
The second half, a coronation for Notre Dame, which improved to 9-1 on its Senior Day, and added another item to its College Football Playoff bid resume, was two hours of our lives as UVA fans that we all wish we could get back.
The SMU game is set for a noon kickoff next Saturday.
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Chris Graham
