Finally, Virginia’s running game delivers a stunning upset in Chapel Hill

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Ever since Tony Elliott stepped foot in Charlottesville, he talked about how important it was for his offense to include a power running attack. Saturday night in Chapel Hill, a year-and-a-half into the Elliott regime, we found out why.

Virginia controlled the line of scrimmage, ran the ball with authority, dominated time of possession with its newfound ground game and pulled off one of major college football’s biggest stunners of the season, a 31-27 upset over 10th-ranked North Carolina. UNC was a 24-point favorite (see related game story for details, stats and notebook).

“They ran the ball a lot on us and I’m really disappointed in our front seven, and that’s why they had the ball for 37 minutes to [UNC’s] 23 and ran 84 plays to [UNC’s] 77,” said Tar Heels coach Mack Brown on the key to the game. “It’s a formula for losing. They kept the ball and we didn’t.”

Virginia came into the game with a 1-5 record, its lone win coming over an FCS program (William & Mary), but wisely used a bye week in between to self-evaluate and throw in a few new wrinkles. Still, it came down to old-fashioned, nuts-and-bolts football: run the ball, stop the run, something the Cavaliers had struggled mightily to do this season.

For the record, Virginia rushed 54 times for a season-high 228 yards, led by sixth-year back Perris Jones (14-67), Mike Hollins (15-66) and quarterback Tony Muskett (12-66). Hollins scored three touchdowns, plowing his way into the Kenan Stadium end zone. He would have had four, but watched helplessly as the ball slipped out of his hands and rolled out of the end zone for a touchback.

Terry Heffernan’s much-maligned offensive line played a hair-chested game, punching holes in a UNC defense that was giving up only 130 yards rushing per game and had surrendered only 11 rushing TDs in six games coming into Saturday.

By controlling the line of scrimmage, not only did UVA dominate the clock, but also kept Heisman Trophy candidate Drake Maye and his array of big-time playmakers on the sidelines. While Maye still threw for 347 yards, UVA’s defense didn’t allow but a couple of explosive plays against one of the ACC’s most dynamic offensive attacks.

“We believed we could run the ball on these guys,” UVA offensive coordinator Des Kitchings said.

Elliott was delighted with his team’s fight and ability to control the game on the ground, which made it easier for the passing game to open up and for Muskett to use play-action or take off for key gains when receivers were covered.

“The offensive line has been through some adversity and they’ve been shuffling about every week,” Elliott said. “But what I saw, more times than not, we were playing on [UNC’s] side of the line of scrimmage. When you create a surge, you can get the backs going downhill. And not only do they do that, they captured the edges and held on to them so we could get the ball to the outside.”

Elliott was beaming about the balance. In most games this season, Virginia has had to rely on the arms of Muskett and backup Anthony Colandrea to move the ball, but the running game was almost nonexistent. That hasn’t been the case with back-to-back, 200-yard rushing efforts against W&M and Carolina, the first time UVA has pulled that off since 2021 against Georgia Tech and BYU.

“It’s confirmation they can do it,” Elliott said of the running success. “You did it versus one of the top defenses in our league. [Carolina] was fighting for their season, too. They had big aspirations and were coming off a big win (over Miami).

“Hopefully, when our guys watch the tape, they’ll get confirmation that I can do this. The key is being consistent. You have a chance to be balanced and when we’re balanced, then we have a chance to be able to score some points, put up some yards.”

Considering that Virginia was more than a three-touchdown underdog, playing in a hostile environment against a top-10, undefeated rival like North Carolina, for the Cavaliers to pull off the upset was monumental. For the older UVA alumni, Carolina has always been the main rival, perhaps because it is the South’s oldest rivalry, dating back to 1892.

Wahoo Nation hasn’t had a lot to cheer about the last two years when it comes to gridiron prowess, but could celebrate long into the night over this one and the fact that Virginia has won five of the last seven games against the Tar Heels. It was a stinging defeat for Carolina, now 6-1. Brown believed he had something special in this team with a star quarterback, a solid running game, a playmaker receiver in Tez Walker and for once, a reliable defense. A shot at the ACC Championship (which still exists) and possibly a spot in the College Football Playoffs were Tar Heel daydreams.

Virginia may have crushed those aspirations with Saturday night’s shocker, the first time since national polls were created that a Cavalier team has knocked off a top-10 team on the road, and the first win over a top-10 since Al Groh and Marques Hagans knocked off Bobby Bowden’s boys back in 2005.

“I’ve seen this coming for several weeks,” Elliott said after the win. “All those games we’ve been close in, right? I’ve seen it coming … at some point we had to make the decision to finish the game and not be close.”

Virginia’s offense controlled much of the game, but the defense had to finish it. Maye was still a danger to deliver another heartbreaking defeat to Virginia, getting the ball back at his own 25 with 72 seconds to play.

Three straight completions later, and at UVA’s 48, Maye dropped back with half a minute to go. This time, he was forced into making a bad decision, bull-rushed by defensive end Paul Akere, reactivated after missing the last two games with an injury. Maye’s throw was intercepted by linebacker James Jackson with 26 seconds to go.

This time, Virginia didn’t just come close. This time, the Cavaliers didn’t implode. This time, they took a knee in victory formation and tasted triumph in a wild locker room celebration.