Only one thing matters for Virginia football this week

By Jerry Ratcliffe

For Tony Elliott this week, only one thing matters: Beat Tech.

Elliott’s Virginia football team is seeking a sixth win, which would make the Cavaliers bowl eligible. Such a win would get a lot of fans off his back and allow him to continue a rebuild of UVA’s program.

All those things are benefits of a win, but as Elliott points out, beating Tech is his single focus; making this a rivalry game again is what is meaningful. All the other stuff is gravy.

“Records don’t matter,” Elliott said. “Bowl eligibility on the line doesn’t matter. What matters is you win the rivalry game.”

Saturday’s game at Virginia Tech (8 p.m., ACC Network) is Elliott’s second chance to make an impact. The rivalry wasn’t played in 2022 due to the tragic shootings that took the lives of three Virginia players, causing the final two games of the season to be cancelled.

Last year, Elliott probably didn’t fully understand the magnitude of the UVA-Tech rivalry. After a humiliating 55-17 drubbing, one of the most embarrassing performances in UVA football history, the new head coach fully felt the impact.

“I’ve framed [the rivalry] in a different way,” Ellliott said this week of how he has changed his tactics. “I’m leaning on my experience in rivalries in the approach and understanding the big picture, what it means. It’s not just a game that you play because it’s the last one on the schedule.

“It’s one that’s a season of itself. It lasts for 365 days. It means a lot to a lot of people. We don’t have a choice. We’ve got a responsibility.”

For the past quarter century, this game, originally played in 1895, has been an extremely lopsided rivalry. Virginia Tech has won 22 of the last 24 meetings, with UVA claiming victory in 2002 under Al Groh and 2019 under Bronco Mendenhall. The last time Virginia won in Blacksburg was 1998, when it required the biggest comeback ever by the Cavaliers to pull off the victory.

In that game, UVA, paced by future NFL stars Aaron Brooks and Thomas Jones, won 36-32, with Brooks hooking up with receiver Ahmad Hawkins (presently Virginia football’s radio analyst) for a 47-yard touchdown pass with 2:01 to play for the winning score.

Elliott, who is leaning on his years as a player and coach at Clemson and the Tigers’ rivalry with South Carolina, said there are a lot of things he has changed collectively in order to get this back to being a competitive rivalry.

However, nothing is going to make that change complete until Virginia finds a way to win.

“That’s where we have to take a step as a program, as a staff, players, everybody. It’s rivalry week. That’s been the message to everybody. Nothing else matters. It really doesn’t.”

Talk is cheap. Virginia fans have heard coaches say the right thing over the past 25 years, with little to show for it. Even when UVA has held the upper hand, seeming having the game sewn up or being in a position to win, Tech has almost always figured out a way to win, such as 2020 when the Cavaliers had a first down near the Hokies’ end zone, only to see offensive coordinator Robert Anae make some of the dumbest play calls in Wahoo history, capped by a fourth down, tackle-eligible play that had a disastrous ending.

Elliott was reminded by media this week that over the years, at least during the last 24 games, Tech has always seemed to find another gear, regardless of the odds.

“I knew I was going to get this question,” Elliott said. “It’s rivalry. Bottom line, it’s rivalry. It’s a rivalry game. That’s the difference. And that’s where we have to take a step as a program, as a staff, players, everybody. That’s been the message to everybody.”

Wahoo fans haven’t understood the approach by Virginia over this losing span. They haven’t understood why this isn’t treated as the most important game on the schedule, why game plans haven’t been more creative, why UVA hasn’t thrown everything — including the kitchen sink — at the Hokies. Why not more trick plays (besides the tackle eligible), why not pull out all the stops?

Elliott certainly saw that during the Clemson-South Carolina series, as he pointed out. Two in-state schools, houses divided, bragging rights.

“It’s a true dislike, right? That’s not just on game day. It’s 365 days. Man, you have to live with the comments. You have to live with people having bragging rights. You also understand that households, like everything they do in their household is around this. I mean, it’s deep,” the coach said. “Everybody wants to brag about every sport, but they really want to brag about football.”

Both Tech and UVA will be fighting to become bowl eligible, which has happened a few times in the rivalry during this quarter-century span. Each time, Tech has prevailed.

Should Virginia win this weekend’s matchup, it would mean that the Cavaliers are bowl eligible for the first time under Elliott, now in his third year. That would be significant.

I don’t know if anyone else has ever written this, but Elliott’s four predecessors — George Welsh, Al Groh, Mike London and Bronco Mendenhall — all had Virginia in bowl games in at least their second year on the job, with Welsh, clearly the most successful, in his third year. Of course, Welsh was the one who turned UVA football completely around.

Welsh, after starting 2-9 in 1982, went 6-5 in ‘83 (but wasn’t invited to a bowl) and 8-2-2 in ‘84 and won the Peach Bowl.

Groh went 5-7 his first season and took UVA to a bowl with a 9-5 record in his second.

London started 4-8, but had UVA in the Peach Bowl and finished 8-5 his second season.

Mendenhall had a terrible 2-10 start, but was 6-7 his second year and played in the Military Bowl, before going 8-5 and 9-5 the next two seasons.

Going to a bowl in his third year would be huge for Elliott in rebuilding the brand.

“Yeah, I think in terms of getting to a bowl game, that’s the next step in the development of the program,” Elliott said. “That would be huge. I think the focus right now is not necessarily the bowl game. If that happens, then we have the ability to think about the bowl game.”

But that’s not the focus. Right now, only one thing matters: Beat Tech.