Joe Reed Breaks Through, Keys Virginia Win

By Scott Ratcliffe

When Virginia’s Joe Reed registered solid kickoff returns of 37, 31 and 35 yards in the first half of Saturday’s game against Liberty, you had a feeling that the 6-foot-3 junior from Charlotte Court House just might break one before the end of the day.

On the opening kick of the second half, Reed — already the all-time UVa leader in kick return yardage after reaching 1,903 career yards in last week’s loss to Pitt — did exactly that,

He received the ball at his own 10 and made his move, racing down the home sideline 90 yards for six to extend the Cavaliers’ lead and providing a huge jolt of momentum right out of the locker room.

“After the first couple [kickoff returns], we had gone back to the sideline and made a couple corrections,” Reed said. “We talked about what we saw on the previous returns coming from halftime, and the score was kind of close so we knew this was going to be a huge return for us, and the blockers and myself, we just executed well.

“I just saw open space when I was running, the blockers did everything that they have been coached to do and I had the easy part of running. I finally had a chance to complete the whole return and it was awesome.”

The return touchdown — the third of his UVa career which ties for 11th-longest in program history — was just a part of what was a huge day for Reed, who broke out for three total touchdowns after scoring just twice in the team’s previous nine games.

On the Wahoos’ first possession, Reed had his man one-on-one on the edge and went up top for a ball delivered by UVa quarterback Bryce Perkins.

“That’s a play we’d been running all week,” Reed said, “so it didn’t surprise me that that’s how it was going to be covered. I just had to go up and get it.”

Reed climbed the ladder and hauled it in from 14 yards out for his third receiving touchdown of the season, tying the game at 7-apiece early on.

With the Cavaliers sporting a 14-point lead with time winding down in the fourth quarter, Perkins found Reed again, this time on a 6-yard screen pass into the end zone for his third score of the night, and when Coach Bronco Mendenhall headed into the postgame celebration, it was a unanimous choice who was going to be the one to break the rock.

“When I walked into the locker room,” Mendenhall recalled, “the team was already yelling, ‘Joe Reed! Joe Reed!’ It was in unison. There were no other candidates that were voted for breaking the rock today.”

After a slow start to the season, Reed has come along the past few games, and it culminated into Saturday’s rock-breaking performance.

“Oh man, it was definitely an honor to break the rock,” said Reed. “It’s exciting, especially just the feeling when you’re watching other people do it — obviously it’s even better doing it yourself.”

Mendenhall was happy not only with Reed’s two touchdown catches, but his overall performance — more specifically the play of the kick-return team as a whole.

“After three pretty fierce weeks of work on our kick return, it was great to see Joe Reed be able to perform, not just with the kickoff return for a touchdown after halftime, but with the consistency of the returns today. It looked much better.”

On the day, Reed finished with 213 all-purpose yards to lead the team, with 193 of those coming on his four kick returns. He is now the only player in Virginia football history with three returns of 90-plus yards.

When asked about Reed’s emergence and integration into a more impactful role with the offense, Mendenhall said it was just a matter of “time and consistency,” along with some trial-and-error, before things started coming together for Reed.

“It’s just becoming clearer, not only how we have to coach and teach and communicate with [Reed], but what helps him best in practice in terms of volume and circumstance, much like any student in a teacher-student relationship, eventually you end up finding the right relationship, the right communication style, the right things that work, and so we’re just getting closer.

“It’s really gratifying to see someone who really tries so hard and is such a great person and great kid to be able to be able to see it happen on the field.”

Saturday’s performance put Reed over 2,000 career kickoff return yards (2,096), and he’s still got plenty of games to add to that total over the next few weeks and next season. The next on the list in second place is Darius Jennings’ 1,839 return yards from 2011-14.

Offensively, Mendenhall was pleased with the way the ball was spread around, and added that everyone knows that same kind of effort must be repeated as the ‘Hoos continue to fight for an ACC Coastal Division title over the final two weeks. Reed agreed that it’s very helpful to have multiple weapons for Perkins going forward. But as for Saturday, Reed was hoping to help send the senior class out on a high note in their last game at Scott Stadium.

“Tonight it seemed like everything was clicking,” said Reed. “I had heart-to-hearts with the seniors that are leaving, told them I would do everything that I could to send them out with a bang on their last time playing here. I was just trying to execute and play team ball.”

Wahoo Nation would agree that Reed more than accomplished that mission in style Saturday evening.