Three weeks ago, the UVA Football team got its fifth win with an upset at then-#19 Pitt, snapping a three-game losing streak, and reviving hope of an invite to a cold-weather bowl, somewhere way, way up north, but still, a bowl.
In their final three, with a chance to go bowling on the line in each, the Cavaliers fell behind 35-0 at Notre Dame, 26-0 at home to SMU, and then on Saturday night in frigid Blacksburg, Virginia Tech was up 27-3 before fifth-year senior Tony Muskett was briefly able to will his team back into it, in what still turned into a 37-17 loss.
Tech has now won four straight over Virginia, 19 of the last 20, and 23 of the last 25, dating back to the last time the ‘Hoos were victorious in Lane Stadium, way back in 1998.
I was a young man of 26 back in 1998; that was literally half of my lifetime ago.
I, once again, deluded myself, before this game, into thinking a win was possible, given the circumstances surrounding it.
You can explain away losing to Notre Dame and SMU, with the Irish already having punched a ticket to the College Football Playoff, and SMU, they’re probably there, whatever happens in next week’s ACC Championship Game with Clemson.
Virginia Tech, though?
The Hokies were also 5-6 coming in, and third-year coach Brent Pry, whose team was talked about as an ACC title contender back in the summer, had to start his third-string quarterback, a freshman, Pop Watson.
Virginia coach Tony Elliott also made a change at QB, going with Muskett over the kid who started the previous 11 games in the 2024 season, Anthony Colandrea, who was the subject of ugly rumor-mill smears to the effect that he had quit the team and not made the trip to Blacksburg for the regular-season finale.
Not true, Colandrea was on the sidelines, watching as his offensive coordinator, Des Kitchings, saddled Muskett with the same unimaginative game plan and baffling play calls that had bogged the UVA offense down the past two months.
Game story
The defense made Watson into the second coming of Lamar Jackson in the opening quarter, with Tech rolling to a 10-0 lead, getting a touchdown and field goal on its first two possessions, while the UVA offense ran all of five plays in the opening 15 minutes.
It was 20-3 Tech at halftime, with the Virginia offense putting up 84 total yards, averaging an anemic 3.1 yards per play.
A failed fourth-down conversion near midfield on the first possession of the second half set up a short-field Virginia Tech touchdown that pushed the Hokies’ lead to 27-3.
Credit here to Muskett, who kept plugging away, igniting the next UVA drive by converting a third-and-10 near midfield with a scramble, then getting the ball inside the Virginia Tech 5 with a 15-yard gain on a keeper.
Muskett scored on the next play, on a 2-yard keeper, and completed the two-point try with a pass to tight end Tyler Neville, to get the score to 27-11.
The Hokies tacked on three more on John Love’s third field goal of the game with 3:08 left in the third, ahead of Muskett working some more magic, finding Kam Courtney for 19 yards, moving the chains with an 11-yard keeper, picking up a third-and-short with a tough 2-yard run, and ultimately scoring on a 5-yard keeper that got the score to 30-17 early in the fourth.
After the Virginia D got a stop, the offense got the ball back at the UVA 19, down two scores, with a golden opportunity to make this one a game, ahead of this probably predictable series:
- Muskett threw a short pass to Suderian Harrison on a crossing route that Harrison flat-out dropped. Even if he had caught it, it would have led to a short 2- or 3-yard gain.
- On second down, Muskett gained four on a designed run.
- On third-and-6, for some reason, the play call was, target Trell Harris deep left. Harris was blanketed, and the pass fell to the turf at midfield incomplete.
Four plays later, Bhayshul Tuten, who had 124 yards and two TDs on the ground on the night, broke a tackle in the backfield and went untouched thereafter for a 58-yard TD run that put the game out of reach.
Game notes
We were told, repeatedly, by Elliott this fall that the coach didn’t think Muskett was mobile enough to operate effectively behind Virginia’s leaky offensive line.
We were misled – Muskett had 86 sack-adjusted yards on 13 carries, and both of Virginia’s TDs were Muskett TD runs.
His passing numbers weren’t good – 19-of-36, 178 yards, two INTs – but that was a direct result of the awful scheme and worse play-calling from Kitchings, the coordinator, who should not survive the weekend, if indeed the current coaching staff survives the weekend.
(Spoiler alert: it will.)
Watson, the freshman, the third-stringer, finished 14-of-21 for 254 yards and a TD through the air, and 65 sack-adjusted yards on nine rushing attempts on the ground.
The Tech offense gained 456 yards, and averaged a healthy 7.5 yards per play.
Virginia finished with 274 yards of total offense, and averaged 4.0 yards per play.
Where things go from here
If not for the massive uncertainty in the administration at UVA Athletics, Elliott would be packing his office on Sunday.
As it stands, we don’t know the status of the athletics director, Carla Williams, who at last check had not signed a contract extension, meaning she could be heading out the door in the next little bit, with her contract set to expire on May 31.
If the AD is, indeed, a lame duck, you can’t expect there to be pressure on her to fire the football coach, since we wouldn’t have an idea of who would be the person to hire the next guy, and it’s kinds, sorta, important to have an idea of who is going to be doing the hiring before you decide to do the firing.
And that having been said, the 2024 roster was top-heavy with old guys – 20 seniors and 23 grad students.
It’s going to take an act of god to be able to get enough guys on the roster to practice in the spring as it is, not accounting for a possible coaching change, which would throw the roster into absolute chaos.
This being where we are, Elliott, now 11-23 in three seasons at Virginia, with a roster rebuild in the offing, has not earned a Year 4.
Mike London was 11-25 in his last three years, and got the axe.
Dick Bestwick was 11-22 in his last three seasons, and got the axe.
Don Lawrence only got three seasons, back in the early ‘70s, when the money wasn’t anywhere near where it is now, and he was 11-22, and got the axe.
Al Groh only had two losing seasons at the end of his tenure, after having five winning seasons in a six-year stretch, and two was enough for him to get the axe.
But Elliott will hang around in spite of himself, entirely because of the lack of certainty at the future of UVA Athletics above his pay grade.
Williams, lame duck or not, needs to force her coach’s hand on his staff, beginning with ordering him to fire Kitchings, who was a reach hire in the first place, and has not grown into the job in his three years.
Now is a perfect time to cut ties with a failing offensive coordinator, with a forced roster overhaul in the offing.
Hey, she did this in 2021 with Bronco Mendenhall, just two years after Mendenhall had led Virginia to the Orange Bowl, telling him that he had to fire his defensive coordinator, Nick Howell, which was what precipitated the shock sudden resignation of Mendenhall, ushering in Elliott, who hasn’t had a winning season since taking the job.
This is the primary reason why Williams hasn’t earned another five years as the AD; you don’t get to run off a successful football coach, get your guy in his place, see him go 11-23 in three seasons, and keep your job.
Sorry, Carla.
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Chris Graham
