Five Things We Learned After Virginia’s 16-13 Win Over No. 16 Miami

Here are five things we learned about Virginia football from Saturday night’s win over 16th-ranked Miami:

1. The Pursuit Drill Really Works: As a sportswriter who is allowed to attend a few Virginia football practices, I’ve seen the “Pursuit Drill” in action. It is a challenging drill where a player is required to chase down another player, having to make up a significant distance with speed and desire.

We saw it for real in Saturday night’s game with five minutes remaining in the first half when Miami running back Travis Homer broke through the Virginia line and took off on a 70-yard run, all the way from the Miami 15 to the Virginia 15. Had it not been for Cavaliers’ defensive back Bryce Hall’s dogged pursuit, Homer would have scored a game-tying TD and made it 10-10.

Instead, Hall caught Homer from behind, knocking him out of bounds at the 15, saving a touchdown. After three unsuccessful plays, Miami had to settle for a 28-yard field goal, which made it 10-6.

This is what Joe Marino, senior NFL Draft analyst and chief administrative officer of the Draft Network observed: “Love the vision and initial burst from Miami RB Travis Homer but check out this effort from Virginia CB Bryce Hall. Dude chases him down playing boundary corner on the opposite side of the field. Hall has been one of the most competitive football players I’ve seen this year.”

Bronco Mendenhall was as surprised as the rest of us to watch Hall run Homer down.

“Bryce Hall chasing down …. wow,” Mendenhall commented. “He was close enough to where I could see his eyes and I could hear him kind of grunting and it was like, ‘man, he’s going to catch that guy.’ It might have been my favorite play.”

2. No Turnover Chain, but Instead a Turnover Machine: Virginia’s secondary picked off three passes by Miami’s two quarterbacks, Malik Rosier and redshirt freshman N’Kosi Perry, who tore up Florida State in last week’s comeback. The Cavaliers had 117 yards in interception return yardage and converted two of those miscues into 10 Wahoos points in a 16-13 upset over the Hurricanes.

Juan Thornhill had two picks for 86 yards in returns, including a 62-yarder. Joey Blount had another for 31 yards. It was Thornhill’s second and third interceptions of the season and Blount’s second.

On Thornhill’s last pick, which stopped Miami inside the Virginia 30, Hurricanes’ QB Rosier had this to say:

“It was tipped a little bit, that’s just football. [Thornhill] did a good job of getting his hands up and tipping the ball, then they had a guy underneath. If not, Will Mallory was wide open and it was going to be an easy completion, but I mean that’s just plays in football. Tipped balls are something that every defense works on and they just did a good job of deflecting it.”

Virginia has a ball-hawking secondary that should serve the Cavaliers will during the second half of the season, which could swing any close game they play in.

3. Don’t Kick Onside Toward Evan Butts: After Miami had drawn to within a field goal of UVa at 16-13 with three minutes left in the game, the Hurricanes lined up for an onside kick. They made a mistake of kicking it directly to Cavaliers’ tight end Evan Butts, who knows what to do when the ball is in his hands.

Butts picked up the ball and darted 30 yards down the Miami sideline all the way to the Hurricanes’ 27-yard line.

Reminded in his postgame press conference, Mendenhall said, “Oh, I forgot about that … how about that?”

“Evan Butts … who better to be in a critical moment, making a play?” the coach said.

4. Offensive Line is Getting Better: Earlier in the week, UVa offensive coordinator Robert Anae, said that the Cavaliers needed to find a way to get running back Jordan Ellis going. Anae said the reason Ellis had not enjoyed a great season to this point was the offensive line, that the O-Line wasn’t getting the job done.

Saturday night against one of the nation’s best run defenses, the Cavaliers put up 139 net yards and an average of 3.4 yards per rush. A lot of that was attributed to UVa’s offensive line and its best performance of the season.

“A different level of targeting by our offensive front, a re-emerging of violent, physical mindset collectively. Coach Anae on the field has a lot to do with that. He loves the conflict and confrontation in wherever stuff is happening. I think that influenced as well as the work we’ve been putting in the last couple of weeks.

“It certainly wasn’t a dominant or breakthrough performance, but it was progress,” Mendenhall said. “I saw it and we all saw it. The one touchdown run was a huge play in my opinion.”

Anae spent the entire 2016 season on the sideline and last year in the coaches box upstairs beside the press box. On Saturday night, though, Anae was back on the sidelines and it apparently had an impact.

Virginia had a dozen rushing first downs, and only three passing. Ellis rushed for eight of those first downs, Perkins for four, and another by drawing a personal foul when he was hit after he was on the ground.

5. There’s a Fan Base Out There Waiting to Explode: A total of 42,393 fans showed up for Virginia’s win over Miami, the largest crowd of the season and the third-largest crowd of the Mendenhall era.

It was only the fourth time UVa has drawn at least 40,000 fans since Mendenhall inherited a program that was down on its luck. The best crowd was his debut in 2016, when 49,270 showed up for a stunning loss to Richmond. Last season, 40,882 turned out for the Carolina game and 48,609 for Virginia Tech at the end of the season, a 10-0 Hokies victory.

Saturday night, Scott Stadium was rockin’ even though it was well short of a sellout. Students showed up and rushed the field after the win. It was UVa’s first win over a ranked opponent since beating Louisville in 2014. The Cavaliers had lost nine straight to ranked foes up until beating the Hurricanes.

While the crowd wasn’t the largest, it was very loud and very into the game. Players noticed the pom poms being waved in unison by the swell of students that showed up and covered the hill and part of the stands.

Bronco noticed, too, calling it the best crowd since he’s been here, now midway into his third season.

“It was really gratifying to see the energy of the crowd,” Mendenhall said. “I’m not talking about the numbers, I’m just talking about how engaged they were. And that atmosphere made a difference; it makes a difference. And I sensed maybe a beginning of what this really can be and more and more folks catching on and maybe believing this is for real and that this is going to happen.”