By Jerry Ratcliffe
Tony Elliott’s philosophy is if you’re going to dream, then why not dream big?
After eeking out a second overtime Thriller Diller in as many weeks on Saturday at Louisville, Elliott said that Virginia’s 3-0 start in ACC play is cool, but he and the Cavaliers are not satisfied. Nor should they be.
UVA was essentially a touchdown underdog the last two weekends to previously unbeaten Florida State, which arrived in Charlottesville with the No. 1-ranked offense in the country, then traveled to Louisville, where UVA hasn’t had much success over the years and upset the Cardinals on their home turf. Both victories required overtimes, adding to the drama.
As a reward, Elliott’s Wahoos jumped five spots in the AP Top 25 poll on Sunday, up to No. 19 in the nation, and sit atop the ACC standings (see full poll below). All that left Elliott and his squad dreaming of more.
“These young men believe they’ve got an opportunity to stake their claim for a spot in Charlotte come December,” Elliott shared. “I know that people have given me slack for that, but if you don’t believe, you can’t achieve.”
At this point of the season, it would appear that Miami, Virginia, Duke, Georgia Tech and SMU have the inside track on landing spots in the ACC Championship game in Charlotte.
UVA’s schedule for the second half of the season is manageable to say the least. According to various organizations, the Cavaliers have one of the highest chances percentage-wise of getting to Charlotte. Certainly, at least as of today, Virginia won’t likely be an underdog the rest of the season, except for maybe its trip to Duke, which fell behind early at Cal late last night and came back to run the Bears out of their own stadium.
Elliott’s team will likely be favored to win or at least have toss-ups the rest of the way: Washington State (home), at North Carolina, at Cal, Wake Forest (home), at Duke, Virginia Tech (home).
Beating Louisville was no easy assignment. The Cardinals made some crucial mistakes and veteran QB Miller Moss (who started at Southern Cal last season until he was benched late in the campaign), made some bad decisions. Still, Virginia managed to take advantage of those turnovers, which is the sign of a good team.
An early fumbled pitch to star running back Isaac Brown led to a 61-yard return for a touchdown by Donavon Platt for a 7-0 UVA lead. Kam Robinson, the Cavaliers’ outstanding linebacker, in his third game back from a training camp injury, picked off Moss and returned it for a TD for a 21-14 Virginia lead. Game officials ruled that Moss’ knee had not touched the ground as he unwisely tried to make a play against an aggressive pass rush.
“I was just trying to make a play, trying not to get sacked. I just got to eat it,” Moss said afterward.
Louisville coach Jeff Brohm said the loss stung for the previously unbeaten Cardinals, who had hoped a win would launch them into this week’s Top 25.
“The execution on certain things was really disappointing and shouldn’t happen,” Brohm said. “Forcing balls when things aren’t there can’t happen. Losses are going to happen, but to give people 14 points like that, it’s very disappointing.”
Perhaps it was poetic justice in that for the previous two years, Virginia had Louisville on the ropes and let the Cardinals off the hook with self-inflicted mistakes. This time, the Cavaliers were advantageous.
It was a win that required everything Virginia had to win. The Cavaliers traveled to Louisville with a banged up offensive line and things got worse when left tackle McKale Boley was injured in the first half and O-line coach Terry Heffernan had to insert redshirt freshman Ben York in Boley’s place to protect QB Chandler Morris’ blindside.
That caused some shifting of the O-line personnel and impacted Virginia’s ability to run the ball the way it had most of the season. The Cavaliers came into the game having rushed for 200-plus yards in four straight games. Elliott knew it wouldn’t be that easy against a strong Louisville front that held UVA to 88 yards on the ground.
The Cardinals boasted the No. 18 total defense in the country and showed why, limiting Virginia to a season-low 237.
John Rudzinski’s defensive unit came up big for the most part once the Cavaliers figured out how to contain Louisville receiver Chris Bell. That was one important key to the win, because both of the Cardinals’ top running backs were banged up and weren’t able to deliver their usual production (Louisville managed only 54 rushing yards for the game).
Moss wasn’t shy about going to Bell in the first half (9 receptions, 117 yards and a touchdown).
Rudzinski added some double-coverage of Bell in the second half and turned up the pass rush, unleashing the hounds as Virginia put tremendous pressure on Moss. With those great adjustments, Bell had only three receptions in the second half for 53 yards, including a fabulous one-handed snare for a TD that cut Virginia’s lead to 24-21 early in the fourth quarter.
UVA’s defense posted five sacks, five hurries and harassed Moss the entire second half. Big Mitchell Melton (Ohio State transfer) continued to come on with the rush, getting two sacks, despite playing with a taped-up, clubbed hand. Just imagine what he’s going to be like when he gets that hand healthy.
Daniel Rickert got another sack and continued to play like a pit bull, while Hunter Osborne and Jason Hammond joined the sack party.
All in all, it came down to overtime. Louisville scored first, a field goal for a 27-24 lead.
In the OT, Morris passed for 11 yards to tight end John Rogers to the 14-yard line, followed by a J’Mari Taylor run to the 9. From there, as Morris is inclined to do, the QB took off toward the end zone and made it to the 2, where he was hit by a trio of Louisville defenders. Morris was shaken up enough that he had to come out of the game for a play and was subbed by backup Daniel Kaelin, facing a third-and-one.
It was hard to believe that Louisville wasn’t more prepared for what happened next, a direct snap to Taylor, lined up in the backfield beside Kaelin. Virginia had direct-snapped to Taylor two times earlier in the game on fourth-and-one situations for first downs, and had been using the direct snap in the last few games.
This time, Kaelin pretended that the ball was snapped over his head, while Taylor bull-dozed into the end zone for the winning touchdown.
“This team is kind of in, I wouldn’t say unchartered waters, but every week is new for them,” Elliott said of UVA’s 5-1 start. So before, I couldn’t bring up the concept of teams separate from each other in October. Before, you just kind of scramble to just find a way to win a game, but now we’re talking about the big-picture things for them to absorb, and we needed a game where everything wasn’t clicking.”
Coaches use games like that to teach and improve the team. Virginia’s bye week couldn’t have come at a better time to teach, to heal, to dream.
Dream big.
Others Receiving Votes: Cincinnati 129, Texas 111, Penn State 97, Utah 82, Nebraska 60, USC 46, UNLV 19, North Texas 16, TCU 14, Mississippi State 10, Washington 10, Navy 4, Louisville 3, Auburn 1.
Dropped From Rankings: Penn State (7), Texas (9)
