Can Colandrea, UVA bounce back against Terps?

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia’s football team no doubt remembers the humiliation it endured in last year’s visit to College Park in a lopsided 42-14 defeat.

The Cavaliers surprised everyone at Byrd Stadium with aggressive play-calling and some trickeration, as UVA jolted the host Terrapins by vaulting out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead. Then, reality set in with Maryland reeling off 42 consecutive unanswered points in the rout.

Virginia freshman quarterback Anthony Colandrea was intercepted three times and the Terps stacked up 461 total yards. Colandrea showed flashes of what fans could expect, throwing for 263 yards in that game. He went on to shatter the program’s freshman passing records and has picked up where he left off.

Maryland returns the visit to Virginia on Saturday night (8 o’clock, ACC Network) and was a 1.0 to 1.5 betting favorite (click here to listen to our podcast for a complete breakdown of the game, plus a betting analysis from Anthony Esposito of Krackwins.com).

Considering the defensive struggles by both the Terrapins and Cavaliers a week ago, Saturday night could be a wild, high-scoring affair. Maryland gave up 493 yards of total offense in a 27-24, last-second loss at home to Big 10 opponent Michigan State, while UVA allowed a whopping 544 yards of offense to Wake Forest.

Neither Virginia’s nor Maryland’s pass defense could feel good about surrendering chunks of yardage through the air: UVA gave up 403 passing yards to Wake and Maryland yielded 363 to the Spartans.

Colandrea is likely frothing at the mouth in anticipation of opportunities awaiting him at Scott Stadium if the Terps haven’t shored up their pass defense.

Same holds true for Maryland QB Billy Edwards Jr., a transfer from Wake Forest who was MVP of the Terps’ Music City Bowl win over Auburn last season.

Edwards, who threw for 381 yards against UConn in the opener and 253 vs. Michigan State last week, leads the Big 10 in passing yards and is second in the FBS rankings heading into the game.

Both Maryland and Virginia have struggled to establish running games thus far, and may test that aspect of the game early on to feel out the opposing defenses.

“There’s a lot of similarities between Edwards and (Taulia Tagovailoa) last year,” said UVA defensive coordinator John Rudzinski this week. “They’re both super athletic, both have big arms and pose a ton of threats.”

Edwards has a favorite target in wide receiver Tai Felton, the nation’s No. 1 receiver statistically, who caught 11 passes against Michigan State for 152 yards and a touchdown. Felton has back-to-back, 100-yards receiving games.

“First play of the game this season, [Maryland] found a way to get the ball in his hands,” Rudzinski said. “And there’s a reason they did it, because he’s a super-talented player.”

Maryland will get the ball in Felton’s hands as much as possible on reverses, passes and the screen-passing game.

While the Terps managed to only pick up 86 yards on the ground last week, look for them to test the Cavaliers early with experienced backs behind a massive offensive line.

If UVA can stop Maryland’s running game, it will be interesting to see if Rudzinski decides to roll the dice and gamble on blitzing as much as he did against Wake, when the Cavaliers posted six quarterback sacks.

That was quite a contrast to last season, when Virginia registered only 11 sacks for the entire campaign, which tied for the fewest among the 130 FBS teams.

“I think there were some things schematically that would give us an opportunity to get some extra hats,” Rudzinski said. “It’s a testament to our guys executing the plan, being disciplined with their eyes, and that allowed some guys to show up around the quarterback.”

Virginia used a three-pronged passing attack for much of its yardage against Wake Forest, with Colandrea hooking up with receivers Malachi Fields and Trell Harris along with tight end Tyler Neville, a former All-Ivy League tight end from Harvard.

See our related story on Virginia’s passing game and Fields’ monstrous start to the season here.