Virginia announces future football series with Washington State

Photo: UVA Athletics

Virginia Athletics announced Tuesday that it has added a home-and-away football non-conference series with Washington State to its future schedules.

Virginia will host Washington State at Scott Stadium during the 2025 season on Sept. 27. The Cavaliers are slated to travel to Pullman to face the Cougars in Gesa Field at Martin Stadium on Sept. 13 during the 2031 season. The games will be the first two meetings between Virginia and Washington State.

Both games are scheduled for Saturdays.

Virginia’s non-conference schedule for 2025 currently includes home games against Coastal Carolina (Aug. 30) and William & Mary (Sept. 13) in addition to the contest with Washington State.

Carla Williams named to College Football Playoff Selection Committee

Photo: UVA Athletics

The College Football Playoff (CFP) Management Committee has appointed Virginia director of athletic Carla Williams to the CFP Selection Committee, it was announced today (Feb. 8) by Bill Hancock, Executive Director of the CFP.

Also named to the committee were Patrick Chun, athletics director at Washington State; Randall McDaniel, former All-American defensive lineman from Arizona State; Gary Pinkel, longtime head coach at the Toledo and Missouri; Mack Rhodes, athletics director at Baylor and Hunter Yurachek, athletics director at Arkansas.

Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel was appointed as the selection committee chair for the 2024 football season.

As a new member, Williams will begin a three-year term starting this spring. The new members will replace Mitch Barnhart, Boo Corrigan, Mark Harlan, Gene Taylor, Joe Taylor and Rod West, whose terms have expired.

Hancock also announced that the management committee has extended the term of Will Shields, former All-American lineman at Nebraska, for an additional year.

“The additions of Pat, Randall, Gary, Mack, Carla and Hunter will bring some great new voices to the selection committee as we enter our 11th season,” Hancock said. “Their knowledge, passion and character, along with their understanding of college football, will allow them to make the transition seamlessly with the returning members. And it is great to have Will Shields returning. His understanding and wisdom will be a real benefit.”

“It is an honor to be invited to serve on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee,” Williams said. “This is an exciting time for the sport with the expansion to 12 teams. There is a tremendous responsibility associated with this position and I am excited to serve at such an important time in the sport’s history.”

“Carla is an outstanding advocate for college football and will be a knowledgeable, passionate and valuable member of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee,” said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips. “Throughout her time at Virginia as well as her entire career, Carla has consistently shown to be a tremendous leader. She follows the three-year tenure of Boo Corrigan, including two years as the chair, and we are very grateful for Boo’s dedication and service as a representative of the ACC.”

Williams is in her seventh year as director of athletics at Virginia. During her time in Charlottesville, UVA teams have captured multiple national titles across numerous sports, including the 2019 men’s basketball title, 2019 and 2021 men’s lacrosse titles, three straight women’s swimming and diving championships from 2021-23, and the 2022 and 2023 men’s tennis team titles. In addition, UVA has won 17 ACC Championships.

In the classroom, UVA student-athletes have set record numbers for placement on the ACC Honor Roll, achieved the highest-grade point average totals in program history, and been recognized by the NCAA for outstanding achievement on academic progress reports. In all, 12 UVA student-athletes have been named ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year in their respective sports since 2020. In 2021, the Sports Business Journal named Williams one of its finalists for Division I athletics director of the year.

Williams was a three-year starter and All-SEC guard for the Georgia women’s basketball team from 1987-89. Williams then served as an assistant coach for the team before moving into administration as UGA’s assistant director of compliance for a year before taking administrative roles at Florida State and Vanderbilt. In 2004 Williams returned to Georgia where she worked her way up the ranks to deputy director of athletics before departing for UVA. Williams has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Georgia and a doctorate from Florida State.

Anthony Colandrea named ACC Rookie of the Week

Photo: UVA Athletics

Freshman quarterback Anthony Colandrea was named ACC Rookie of the Week, announced by the league office on Monday.

The first-year signal caller is UVA’s first Rookie of the Week Award winner since the 2020 season, when Lavel Davis Jr. won it twice.

In his first collegiate start, Colandrea was 20-for-26 with 377 yards and two touchdowns, all single-game UVA freshman records. His 377 passing yards are the eighth-most in a single game of any FBS quarterback through the first three weeks of the season and the most by any FBS freshman quarterback in 2023.

The two touchdown passes matched the school mark for a freshman held by Jameel Sewell (2006) and Scott Gardner who did it twice in 1972. Colandrea’s 75-yard touchdown pass to Kobe Pace on the first play of the second half was the longest ever by a UVA freshman quarterback (Previous: Todd Kirtley, 73-yard TD pass vs. NC State in 1978). The 75-yard completion was the longest by the Cavaliers since 2021. The pass also eclipsed UVA’s single-game passing record by a freshman (previous: 243 by Jameel Sewell vs. Maryland in 2006).

UVA Opponent Series: Terps look for 3rd straight winning season behind Tagovailoa

Countdown to KickoffEDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third in a 12-part series of Virginia’s football opponents by our interns Clay Meeks and Harry Farley. Today, Meeks looks into Maryland. For the other season previews, check elsewhere on our website

By Clay Meeks
JerryRatcliffe.com Correspondent

Photo: UVA Athletics

Maryland hasn’t played Virginia since the Terps bolted the ACC for the Big 10 after the 2013 season. Up until then, the border rivals had met 78 times and every year since 1957.

Life hasn’t been easy for Maryland in Big 10 football, but after a somewhat successful 2022 season, going 4-5 in conference play, and 8-5 overall, the Terrapins are counting on a promising offense led by quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa to put them into at least the top 25 nationally. Tagovailoa, of course, is the younger brother of former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, now with the Miami Dolphins.

The Terps have strung together back-to-back winning seasons and are coming off a Duke’s Mayo Bowl win over NC State, the best run since Ralph Friedgen roamed the College Park sidelines nearly two decades ago.

Maryland coach Michael Locksley, who briefly coach the older Tagovailoa as ‘Bama’s offensive coordinator prior to taking over the Terps program, has set goals as high as a conference title, but expects his team to put in the work required, commenting during the Big 10 media day, “The players and coaches in our program know what expectations are. They know that the work has to supersede the goal. We’re not going to let a goal of wanting to compete for championships get in the way of the type of work and the amount of work it’s going to take to do that.”

The Terrapins on either side of the ball are going to bring quite a few new faces. Tagovailoa will be passing out wide to two new transfers, Kaden Prather of West Virginia and Tyrese Chambers of Florida International. Offensive line Coach Brian Braswell is tasked with four new starters and a lot of questions to be answered as well. This new line will have to prove themselves, and the Terrapins are certainly not guaranteed another 140+ rushing yards a game.  In good news for the Terrapins, however, if they find themselves in dire need of consistency on the offense, they will have it in redshirt sophomore running back Roman Hemby. Returning from a nearly 1,000 yard season, Hemby shows no signs of slowing down, and is ready to improve alongside the rest of the squad and possibly return to his top 10 positional rank in the conference. Additionally, if Tagovailoa can continue his valuable production, barring injury, and breach his impressive 3,000-yard, All-Big 10 second team 2022 season, then fans of this Maryland team can still look forward to an impressive offense to put on a show and compete this year.

The Terps defense, though, will still likely leave fans with a lot to be desired. The transfer portal struck the defensive lineup hard, and an already lackluster 24 sacks and an average of 357 combined yards allowed per game last year give the Terrapins defense plenty of room for improvement, especially at the line of scrimmage. Though only five starters are returning, Locksley isn’t worried, citing the rotation of players as giving plenty of guys exceedingly adequate playing time.

“We rotated a bunch of players a year ago,” Locksley said. “Guys like (defensive tackle) Tommy Akingbesote was similar to a starter in terms of how much he played. Taizse [Johnson]  played a ton of reps the last couple of years.” Transfers Jordan Phillips (nose tackle) from Tennessee and Donnell Brown from St. Francis may offer some additional experience to a line that needs physicality to shine through.

Maryland’s schedule will bring some early victories from teams like Towson and Charlotte, and the Terrapins are favored in their Sept. 15 matchup against the Cavaliers. Exiting the month will bring some inevitably challenging conference play to the squad, and it won’t get any easier. No. 3 Ohio State awaits them in October, followed by No. 2 Michigan in November. This season will be a true test of this Maryland team’s ability to fulfill promises, and if Coach Locksley is correct, they will be fighting for a conference title.

Maryland Terrapins

Saturday, Sept. 15
SECU Stadium
College Park, Maryland
Head Coach: Michael Locksley
2022 Overall W-L: 8-5
2022 Big 10 Conference W-L: 4-5
Offensive Starters Returning: 4
Defensive Starters Returning: 5
All-time record against UVA: 42-32-2
Last matchup against UVA: October 12, 2013, 27-26 Maryland
Top 6 players to watch: Taulia Tagovailoa (QB), Tyrese Chambers (WR), Kaden Prather (WR), Roman Hemby (RB), Donnell Brown (DL), Delmar Glaze (OL)

Elliott expects “Big Boy Football” from Vols; Muskett under 2.8 pressure

Tony Muskett (Photo: Monmouth University Athletics)

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Tony Elliott knows what to expect this weekend out in Nashville when his Virginia football team takes on a highly-favored Tennessee team. Elliott likes to call it “Big Boy Football.”

No. 12 Tennessee is a 28-point favorite by the oddsmakers, and some observers believe that figure is too low. Virginia, coming off a 3-7 season, is still in rebuilding mode and will bring a highly unproven offense to sold out Nissan Stadium (noon Eastern, ABC-TV).

Elliott has a pretty good guess at what the Vols’ defensive game plan will look like.

“I think they’re going to play — in my opinion, what I told the guys — big boy football,” Elliott said in his press conference on Tuesday. “They’re going to line up, be in your face and come after you with six. Then if they can’t, they are going to go seven and play zero coverage and say, ‘Hey, let the best man win.’ That’s what I’m anticipating.”

Elliott and his offensive staff have been researching Tennessee’s philosophy for months and the Vols play an aggressive brand of defense, a particular pattern in almost every game except in the Orange Bowl at the end of last season, when Josh Heupel’s team handled Clemson by a lopsided 31-14 count.

“Now, they played Clemson differently when you watch them on film and I’m still trying to figure out why they did, considering at the end of the season Clemson was down a couple of receivers,” Elliott said. “[Tennessee] played a little bit more two-shell, cover-2.

“Part of it was to try and frustrate and confuse (Cade) Klubnik (then-freshman QB for Clemson) with some variations of coverage.”

Otherwise, the Vols are somewhat predictable and they don’t seem to care. It’s up to the opposing offense to stop them.

One thing immediately jumped out at Elliott on film — Tennessee’s size across the defensive line, particularly the inside guys who weigh in at 320, 340, 310, 301 and 310 pounds.

“That’s big on the interior,” Elliott said.

By comparison, Virginia’s defensive line weighs in at 270, 312, 302, 262.

“They’re not just big two-gapers,” Elliott said of UT’s defensive line. “These guys can move, push the pocket, get off blocks. They can disrupt the run. And then you’re going to have to double them, right? It’s going to be hard to single-block those guys. Roman Harrison and Tyler Baron, man, they’re twitchy, talented. They can get after the quarterback.

“I think their best player is Aaron Beasley (6-1, 225 senior linebacker). He roams, he’s a great pass rusher. Man, he’s a big guy that’s a matchup problem on your backs, doesn’t matter who your back is. Our biggest (running back) is 215. Beasley is listed at 225, but he plays a lot bigger than 225.”

If that’s not impressive enough, the Vols brought in help from the transfer portal in former BYU linebacker Keenan Pili (6-3, 238 senior).

All this could add up to a long day for Virginia quarterback Tony Muskett, who transferred into the Cavaliers’ FBS program from FCS Monmouth, where he had a successful career, but never faced the likes of Tennessee’s pass rush.

“I think they’re going to challenge Tony … they’re not going to let him hold the ball,” Elliott said. “They’re going to be able to push the pocket interior-wise, create pressure and squeeze the pocket coming off the edge, force the ball out of his hand quickly.

“I think they will try and bring some pressure, see if they can overwhelm our backs in protection and get to the quarterback, see if they can rattle him. Hey, I want to see you throw and catch in tight windows, and you better not hold the ball longer than 2.8 (seconds) or you’re going to be on the ground.”

Elliott believes the Vols will play man coverage on the outside and say, “Are you good enough to beat us?” Tennessee will put six men in the box to shut down the run, play cover 1, man coverage, and man free across the board.

This strategy can cause all kinds of problems if Virginia’s offensive line can’t control the line of scrimmage and punch holes in Tennessee’s front with the running game. That would signal to Beasley & Co., to pin their ears back and come after Muskett with a fury.

Should he spend a lot of time on the ground and be forced into throwing mistakes, it could lead to turnovers and a Tennessee cakewalk.

UVA offensive coordinator Des Kitchings and his staff have emphasized to the offensive lines and backs who may pass-protect that they can’t afford to leave any Tennessee defenders unblocked. The Cavaliers may not necessarily have to win the line of scrimmage, they just can’t afford to lose it.

“A tie is a win at the point of attack,” Kitchings said. “Obviously I want to change the line of scrimmage and we can do that and give Tony time to get the ball out. Then we have a chance to move the ball and have the chance to put some points on the board.”

Kitchings is well aware of the damage Tennessee can do with its blitzes. The Vols are a heavy blitz defense.

“Based on last year, they were 47-percent blitz over 13 games, so I imagine it won’t be any less than that, especially with them moving [Beasley] to Will linebacker,” Kitchings said. “He’s the guy that was really good in pressure packages in the past, so I can see that being the case.”

UVA’s offense has had a taste of that in training camp with defensive coordinator John Rudzinski throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, at Muskett in order to get him familiar with what is coming his way.

“There was a lot of crossover from what we saw in camp just from structure, five-man front, four-man front, coverage variations,” Kitchings said.

Tennessee will show more cover-1 than Virginia used in practice, but everything else Rudzinski used was similar.

UVA has stressed to its backs over the past week how important it may be for them when it comes to pass protection.

“[Tennessee] has five-man pressures, they have some six-men against five linemen and our backs are going to have to protect,” Kitchings said. “We have to win one-on-ones. They will try to isolate and create one-on-ones in those situations, and we have to win those.”