I loved the offensive game plan and the play-calling within the game plan for Virginia in the 43-24 win down at Coastal Carolina on Saturday.
Obviously, Des Kitchings saw something on film that told him he could run the ball down Coastal’s throats, and to his credit, he drew it up and stuck with it, to the tune of Virginia going for 384 yards on the ground – for reference, UVA had gained a total of 396 yards on the ground in the first three games this season.
Backup tailback Xavier Brown, in particular, had himself a day – 171 yards on nine attempts, one that went for 75 yards, another for 29, a third for 24.
Virginia had 12 runs of 10+ yards among its 58 rushing attempts, and just two of the attempts went for negative yardage – one of those was the kneel-down play at the end of the game.
It was a game plan and execution of game plan that Al Groh would love.
Virginia owned the line of scrimmage, and kept things simple.
Basically, if the other guys can’t stop the run, you keep running.
Because of the way the rushing attack was working, not much was required of Anthony Colandrea, who was 13-of-20 for 131 yards and two TDs through the air – both to Malachi Fields, who had four catches on six targets for 65 yards.
Their first hookup came after the special teams forced a fumble on the opening kickoff, and UVA punched it in on a 7-yard pass on a third down, with Colandrea finding Fields on the left sideline.
The second came when the outcome had already been decided. The success in the running game set up a play-action, with Colandrea rolling to his right, Fields sprinting into the flat, and pulling in one of the easier 37-yard TD passes you’ll see.
I’d love to sell this as a harbinger of things to come with the ground game, but I don’t know that what we saw today was anything more than, Coastal was just outclassed up front.
The pass defense: Needs work
Virginia was up big most of the day, so whatever Coastal Carolina was thinking about doing coming in, the plans changed, and the Chanticleers had to go to the air more than I assume Tim Beck, the second-year head coach, and former offensive coordinator with stops at Nebraska, Ohio State, Texas and NC State, would have wanted.
Ethan Vasko, who won back-to-back Virginia 6A state championships at Oscar F. Smith (Chesapeake), both in calendar year 2021, due to COVID, only completed 10 passes, but he had 222 yards passing, because of big plays – 65 yards to tight end Kendall Karr, 58 yards on a wide-receiver screen to Tray Taylor, a 29-yard TD on a fourth-and-2 to Jameson Tucker.
Vasko’s backup, another Virginia kid, Noah Kim, who played at Westfield (Chantilly), completed a floater to Senika McKie that eventually went for 41 yards, and had a 15-yard TD pass on a late, over-the-middle, across-the-body pop fly that landed in the hands of Bryson Graves.
Not meaning to besmirch Coastal Carolina here at all, but there’s no way they should have had 302 passing yards in this one.
Game Balls
- Sixth-year safety Antonio Clary had a team-best eight tackles, an INT and a pass breakup.
- Sophomore linebacker Kam Robinson, back in the lineup after missing the Maryland game with a knee sprain, had seven tackles.
- The starting O line – Brian Stevens, Blake Steen, Noah Josey, Jack Witmer, Ugonna Nnanna – for clearing the way for 384 yards on the ground.
Highlights: Virginia grounds, pounds Coastal
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Chris Graham
