Where oh where would Virginia be without ‘difference-making’ QB Bryce Perkins?

By Jerry Ratcliffe

CHARLOTTE — When Clemson coach Dabo Swinney began to scout ACC Championship opponent Virginia on film, the first thing that jumped out at him was Bryce Perkins.

How could he not?

Perkins has been the difference in UVA being a mediocre football team to a really good football team, potentially a great team depending on what happens in the postseason. Swinney was no doubt watching the month of November games, a span in which the Cavaliers went 4-0 for the first time in that month since 1951.

During that stretch, with wins over North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Liberty, and Virginia Tech, Perkins accumulated 1,146 passing yards (completing 67 percent of his throws), seven touchdown passes, rushed for 412 yards and six more TDs (averaging 5.3 yards per carry).

All that, the speed — Perkins has another gear when he needs one that leaves defenders in his wake — his running instincts, his decision-making, and all the numbers were great. Dabo spotted something else, too.

“Bryce Perkins plays with an incredible will to win,” Swinney said. “He has this belief to him. It’s very easy to see that.”

Perkins came to Virginia from Arizona Western Community College where he earned junior college All-America honors. Still, not many Power Five schools were interested. UVA coach Bronco Mendenhall pointed out that fact during Friday’s pre-championship press conference at Bank of America Stadium, where tonight’s game will be played.

No doubt that Virginia’s coaches saw that will to win on Arizona Western tapes. It has been something that’s always been there, part of who Perkins is, part of who his entire family is.

“Just growing up, competing with my brother and working with my parents, it’s just built into me that no matter what, the score, how I feel, I’m going to go play for my team,” Perkins said this week. “I know [my team] is going to give it all for me.”

Perkins’ older brother, Paul, was the star running back for UCLA when the Bruins defeated Virginia in back-to-back seasons, then went on to play for the New York Giants. Perkins’ dad played as running back in the NFL and uncle Don Perkins is in the Dallas Cowboys “Ring of Honor,” for his exploits as a running back in the 1970s.

Think the Perkins family might know a little something about the will to win?

That part Perkins said about no matter what the score, no matter how he feels, that he was going to go play for his team? Well, that’s been tested time and again over the past two seasons.

Remember when he got beaten up last season against Louisville? Wrapped up his finger, kept playing all season with the injury. How about at Georgia Tech, lying in the Bobby Dodd Stadium end zone, writhing in pain? Went to the medical tent, while everyone in the press box figured that Perkins’ season was done.

After missing one series, Perkins came back in, finished the game and the season, leading the Cavaliers to their first bowl victory since the Al Groh era. There have been times this year when he took a licking and kept on ticking.

He started the week of the Virginia Tech game, perhaps the biggest game of his career, in the hospital with a severe case of tonsillitis. Didn’t practice that Monday. Came back and played one of the best games of his life, leading Virginia to its first win over its state arch-rival in 16 years.

“First of all, he’s a great leader,” Clemson’s Swinney pointed out. You just see that. He’s one of those guys that makes everybody around him better. That doesn’t just happen. He’s got the total respect of everyone. Kind of as he goes, they go.

“He’s dangerous. I mean, he’s done a lot of things with his legs. He’s a difference maker, just truly a guy that can make plays in a lot of different ways.”

Perkins’ two long TD dashes right up the middle of Virginia Tech’s defense early in the game definitely caught Dabo’s eyes, and those of his famed defensive coordinator Brett Venables as well.

The Clemson coaches pointed out how dynamic Perkins is, how he comes up with the big play when Virginia needs one.

“[Virginia] does a great job schematically to make sure he’s equipped with answers,” Swinney said. “Just going to be a great competitor to have to find a way to beat.”

Mendenhall said Friday that Virginia simply wouldn’t be playing in tonight’s ACC Championship game if it had not been for Perkins. With so many touches, Perkins is one of the most dynamic players Mendenhall has ever coached, and certainly one with the most touches.

“We ran a trajectory similar when I was the coach at Brigham Young University with Taysom Hill,” explained the coach. “Taysom’s season became shortened because of injury, so it didn’t come to fruition, the same volume we would have hoped it would.”

Hill was a terrific quarterback, but didn’t possess the athletic ability of Perkins, nor the speed.

There has been tremendous pressure on Perkins to be the answer time and again for the past two seasons, and he’s delivered as much as humanly possible. He’s 17-8 as a starter at Virginia, 11-1 at home. He’s brought the Cavaliers a Coastal Division championship, making him one of only three UVA quarterbacks to win a championship (Shawn Moore 1989, Mike Groh 1995).

With that responsibility comes immense pressure, and Perkins felt that earlier in the season until former UVA quarterback Marques Hagans, now the team’s wide receivers coach, sat him down for a little chat.

“I felt like I put more pressure on myself in those games and didn’t allow myself to play as well as I could,” Perkins said this week. “Coach Hagans came and talked to me and about really just playing within myself and trusting everybody else to do their job.

“I felt a lot of pressure from that (earlier), but after our talk I was able to go out and play more freely. I kind of beat the pressure, focused on my job and let everybody else focus on what they do.”

Then there was that offseason talk with Mendenhall, when Perkins came into his office and wanted to know how he could get better. Mendenhall told him about mechanics and such, but what it boiled down to was winning.

“I told him that the difference between good quarterbacks and great quarterbacks was that great quarterbacks win championships,” Mendenhall said. “Can you win us a championship?”

Those words have burned in Perkins’ mind all season long and last Friday, he delivered Virginia’s first ACC Coastal Division championship in the most meaningful way for Wahoo fans, taking it in a showdown with the rival Hokies.

Beating Clemson, the nation’s No. 3-ranked team, winners of 27 straight games, defending national champions, will be an incredible challenge for Virginia, a four-touchdown underdog. Taking on an upper-echelon SEC team in the Orange Bowl, won’t be a walk in the park either.

Perkins will certainly give it everything he’s got.