Colandrea leads Virginia to 34-13 win over Richmond in opener

By Scott Ratcliffe

A few familiar faces on both sides of the football helped Virginia withstand a lengthy weather delay and post a season-opening, 34-13 victory against Richmond on Saturday at Scott Stadium.

The new-look Cavalier offense came out firing under recently named starting quarterback Anthony Colandrea, who picked up where he left off in his impressive freshman season.

The Florida native threw for 297 yards — already the eighth 200-plus-yard passing performance of his young career — and a pair of touchdowns, and added 49 more yards and another score with his feet, setting the tone for a 497-yard day for the UVA offense.

The Wahoos (1-0) rattled off big play after big play, building a 17-0 advantage by the end of the first period. Kent State transfer receiver Trell Harris got the scoring started early on in his Wahoo debut, reeling in a 35-yard touchdown pass from Colandrea on the team’s opening drive, and it was 7-0 just three minutes and 25 seconds into the ballgame.

UVA extended the lead to 20-0 before the visiting Spiders (0-1) finally got on the board with 4:48 left in the first half on a Kyle Wickersham QB-keeper to cut it to 13.

Shortly after that score, lightning was spotted in the area, followed by a long, torrential downpour, and the players headed to their respective locker rooms while the stadium was cleared out. It turned out to be a two-hour, 18-minute break (sound familiar, Wahoo fans?) before a small portion of the announced 40,811 in attendance eventually returned for the remainder of the contest.

Last time that happened, Virginia held an 11-point lead in the 2023 home opener against James Madison before falling apart after a similar delay, eventually losing by a point in the final minute.

“I mean, it’s tough,” Jack Griese said regarding the team keeping its focus in the locker room over the long delay. “Two and a half, two hours and 15 minutes of just kind of sitting there. No one went on their phone, we kind of stayed mentally locked in.

“For the first part of it, we were just going over the tablet, looking at the first half. Just seeing things that we can improve on and really just trying to stay locked in for that long. It’s hard, but off the first drive, we came back and we scored a touchdown, so it just showed how mentally focused we were during that break.”

As Griese pointed out, this time around, the Hoos wasted no time getting back into the end zone thanks to a 3-yard touchdown run from Kobe Pace, and Virginia took a 20-point lead into halftime — which was only the length of a three-minute media timeout.

The Cavaliers got the ball right back to begin the third quarter, and Colandrea directed another scoring drive, crossing the goal line himself on a 7-yard trot, and Will Bettridge’s extra point pushed the lead to 34-7 with 8:31 remaining in the frame.

“We learned a lot from last year,” UVA head coach Tony Elliott said of the difference between how the team dealt with sitting in the locker room last year compared to Saturday. “Obviously this was a longer delay … We eat pregame meal about four hours before competition, so when you add that two-hour delay, it had been a long time since our guys ate… they stayed very upbeat, stayed very engaged throughout the course of it.”

The Spiders tacked on a pair of Brandon Peskin field goals — one as the third-quarter clock expired, the other with 4:46 to play — to complete the scoring, as the Cavalier defense limited Richmond’s offense to just 257 total yards on the night (147 rushing, 110 through the air).

The unit’s two veteran starting safeties, Jonas Sanker and Antonio Clary, each provided a team-high 8 tackles, while Ben Smiley III and Jason Hammond combined for the Hoos’ lone sack of the game. The Virginia D did amass 7 tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

“It felt great,” Clary said of being back out on the turf for the first time in two years. “It definitely felt great being back out there. I’m blessed for the opportunity and grateful. … I feel like we’ve got a lot of weapons, got a lot of old guys, a lot of veterans that have a lot of experience. So that’s gonna play a big part this year as we move forward.”

Last year’s starter under center, Tony Muskett, entered the contest midway through the third quarter with the Cavaliers comfortably in control, but finished the night 0 for 3 with a late interception.

Meanwhile, Colandrea completed 17 of his 23 passes and carried the rock 11 times, with a long of 35 yards. He looked quite poised, comfortable and confident for the majority of his snaps, but it wasn’t all perfect. The second-year gunslinger was sacked twice for 29 yards and made a few miscues that he wished he could have back, but overall his explosiveness and big-play abilities made up for it.

Pace led the way in the rushing department, posting 93 yards on 11 carries, and also hauled in a pair of catches for an additional 51 yards. Backfield mates Griese (12 yards on 5 carries and a 57-yard TD grab in the opening quarter) and Xavier Brown (8 carries for 44 yards) provided some versatility out of the backfield as well.

Senior wideout Malachi Fields had a huge game of his own, making his impact felt with a game-high 100 yards on just 5 receptions, including a diving, highlight-reel circus catch in the second half that went for 41 yards.

“That was one of the craziest catches I’ve ever seen in my life,” Colandrea said of Fields’ acrobatic play. “He’s an absolute stud.”

In all, nine Cavaliers caught at least one pass.

Photo Gallery by Nikolozi Khutsishvili

UVA Offensive Stats

Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• UVA has won seven of its last eight season openers and owns an 86-40-9 (.670) all-time record in season-opening games

• The Cavaliers are 80-21-7 (.773) all-time in home season openers and have won 23 of their last 28 season openers in Scott Stadium

• Virginia improves to 31-3-2 all-time against Richmond have won 13 of the last 14 meetings.

• Virginia’s first completed pass of the season went for a touchdown, a 35-yard completion from Anthony Colandrea to Trell Harris. It marked the first time in 135-year history of Virginia football that the first completed pass of the season went for a touchdown.

• It was the first time UVA scored on its first completed pass in a game since 2018 when Bryce Perkins found Olamide Zaccheaus for 86-yard strike against Ohio (Sept. 15).

• The 497 yards of total offense by Virginia was the most in a game since posting 513 against Old Dominion on Sept. 16, 2022.

Player Notes

• On UVA’s first drive of the game, Trell Harris notched his first touchdown reception as a Cavalier on a 35-yard completion from Colandrea. It was Harris’ third touchdown of his career, he had one in each of his first two years at Kent State.

• Jack Griese notched his second career touchdown (first receiving) on a 57-yard reception late in the first quarter … It was the fourth reception of his career and the longest reception of his career.

• Malachi Fields first career 100-yard receiving effort. His previous career-high was 89 yards against Virginia Tech last season. A Cavalier has recorded a 100-yard receiving performance in Eight-straight games dating back to last season.

• Kobe Pace career-high is 191 yards against Wake Forest (at Clemson) in 2021. He has two career 100-yard games, both came at Clemson.

• Anthony Colandrea accounted for 346 yards of total offense (297 pass, 49 rush), the second-highest total of his career (403 vs. Louisville in 2023). His three total touchdowns (2 pass, 1 rush) matched a career-best. He recorded his first career rushing touchdown with a seven-yard keeper with 8:31 left in the third quarter.

• Jason Hammond made his first college start at defensive tackle. First years Ethan Minter and Billy Koudelka made their collegiate debuts.

UP NEXT

The Hoos will set out for their first road trip of the 2024 campaign next Saturday, when they travel to Winston-Salem to take on Wake Forest in the ACC opener at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.

ACC Week 1 Scoreboard

Thursday
Wake Forest 45, North Carolina A&T 13
No. 24 NC State 38, Western Carolina 21
North Carolina 19, Minnesota 17

Friday
Duke 26, Elon 3
TCU 34, Stanford 27

Saturday
Virginia 34, Richmond 13
No. 1 Georgia 34, No. 14 Clemson 3
Vanderbilt 34, Virginia Tech 27 (OT)
Louisville 62, Austin Peay 0
Pitt 55, Kent State 24
No. 19 Miami 41, Florida 17
Syracuse 38, Ohio 22
California 31, UC Davis 13
Georgia Tech 35, Georgia State 12
SMU 59, Houston Christian 7

Monday
Boston College at No. 10 Florida State