Now That UVA Has Found Its Thorterback, Time For Optimism

Holly Mendenhall isn’t accustomed to getting the answer from her husband that she received Friday night, the eve of Virginia’s ACC opener against Louisville.

“She asked me, ‘How do you think you’re going to do?’” UVa coach Bronco Mendenhall explained to media after the Cavaliers dominated visiting Louisville, 27-3 on Saturday. “I said, we’re going to win.”

Rarely does Mendenhall say that to his wife or to anyone else for that matter. His confidence showed to his team because he noticed a different level of that kind of confidence from players, assistants, leading up to the weekend.

The win boosted Virginia to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the conference heading into next week’s trip to N.C. State.

There is plenty of reason for optimism around the Cavaliers’ football program right now, and with good reason. It’s easy to be confident when there’s a true difference-maker at quarterback, a guy who can deliver big plays, and is full of magic.

Louisville had that the last two years with Lamar Jackson, who used to produce more total yards single-handedly than the Cardinals had (214) against a stout Virginia defense on Saturday.

Now, Mendenhall has one of those guys, in his words, a true Thorterback, who resembles the old Norse god of thunder and lightning, in Perkins, who transferred in from Arizona Western Community College in the offseason.

Perkins was magnificent against Louisville’s defense. He passed for 197 yards (17-for-24) and two touchdowns, and had one interception that bounced out of his receiver’s hands. He ran for 78 more yards and yet another TD as he sliced and diced the Cardinals.

Man, did he run. Two of his runs included eye-popping hurdles of would-be Louisville tacklers, leaving the sparse Scott Stadium crowd of 34,000 and change, almost in joyful disbelief.

His first hurdle went for 36 yards down to the Louisville 15, setting up UVa’s first touchdown on a 3-yard pass to Chris Sharp out of the backfield and a 13-3 lead late in the third quarter. The other was the coup de grace, another mindboggling leap over a Cardinals defender at the goal line to ice the 27-3 win.

For Bronco, amazing is almost becoming common in watching his junior quarterback make plays.

“There was an amazement factor today,” Mendenhall said of those two plays in particular. “I’ve seen him hurdle but not that high.

“It was at least waist level, more number level,” Mendenhall said. “I think we’ve all seen a lot of players hurdle someone below the waist. That might have set a record, at least in my career, for height for a hurdle in the open field.”

Perkins’ plays were dramatic and entertaining, but also meaningful because he continued to be a go-to-guy who can make things happen.

Receiver Joe Reed, who hauled in a 44-yard TD pass on a third-and-14 play with 13 minutes to play (putting UVa up, 20-3), said the offense never feels like it’s out of a potential scoring situation with Perkins at the trigger.

“On third downs and backed up, Bryce can run for the first down,” Reed said. “Lot of times, third-and-20, we’d be hollering on the sidelines, ‘punt ready, punt ready.’ But now with Bryce back there, we’re waiting to see.”

There’s no question that Perkins plays with little abandon for his body. Hurdling, taking on tacklers, pushing a Louisville player out of bounds and saving a score after throwing his lone interception.

Everybody in the joint holds their breath every time Perkins takes off with the ball. Don’t expect him to change. He’s a big, physical quarterback (6-3, 210), who runs with a running back’s mentality, and with good reason. His daddy (Bruce) was an NFL running back. His brother (Paul) is a running back for the New York Giants. His dad’s uncle (Don) is in the Dallas Cowboys’ Ring of Honor as a running back in their days of glory.

Perkins is a natural runner, but also an efficient passer. Over the past two games, he has completed 42 of 54 pass attempts for 576 yards, five touchdowns and only one pick (deflected off his own guy’s hands). At least three of those 12 incompletions were flat out drops.

Heck, he even tried to catch a pass Saturday against the Cardinals, in a play that left Wahoo fans gasping.

Virginia called for a reverse pass, a handoff from Perkins to Zaccheaus, who flipped it to receiver Hasis Dubois coming from the other direction. Dubois pulled up and passed the ball downfield.

Perkins, who had clipped into the secondary, was the intended target. He didn’t catch it, and came up holding a finger on his right hand – yes, his throwing hand – and called time out with 4:28 left in the first half, UVa leading only 6-0.

After visiting with UVa doctor and hand specialist Bobby Chhabra at halftime, Perkins came back out with his right hand taped, but it didn’t seem to have an impact on his performance.

In fact, Perkins had better passing numbers with the wrap: 12-for-15, 131 yards and two scores in the second half.

“I saw [Perkins] get up and hold his hand and my first question was, is that his throwing arm?” Mendenhall said after the game. “They said, yes. So it’s kind of your life’s work flashing in front of your face really quick.”

Perkins’ finger was dislocated. He said later that the ball hit his finger, causing the dislocation, but said he would be ok. It was his pinky finger, still sore and swollen and wrapped in ice after the game.

“I heard from our trainer that they put [his finger] back in place but when he was bending it, it kept going back out,” Mendenhall said of Perkins’ injury. “I was glad to see Bryce back in and then you all kind of saw why. When you try to tackle him in the open field by yourself, good luck with that.”

Perkins said that on his first hurdle that he had dropped back to pass and saw a lane open, took off and tried to gain as much yardage as possible.

“I was trying to score and race him to the sideline, but he had a good angle,” Perkins said.

Reed said later, when commenting on Perkins’ hurdling ability, that he was standing there thinking if the leaps were premeditated or just reaction.

Perkins provided the answer.

“It was muscle reaction,” Perkins said. “I saw [the Louisville defender] go down a little bit and my body just instinctively jumped over him.”

And the second leap at the goal line?

“I thought, ‘I’m not going to run him over,’ so the easiest way was just to go over top of him,” Perkins said. “Chris Glaser, one of our linemen, told me before the game to do it, so I guess it was subconsciously in the back of my mind.”

Still, as risky as it looks, Perkins will instinctively continue to hurdle.

“I want him to do what he does,” Reed said. “We don’t want to put any limitations on him.”

Mendenhall recognizes the value. For much of the first half his offense was bogged down. A player like Perkins can change that quickly, and that’s why Virginia is a threat to do some damage this season, because a player with his ability can win games that ordinarily you wouldn’t win.

“I think ‘unbogging’ is a really good definition because there were penalties and there were things that just did not seem like the collective execution was going to be strong enough,” Mendenhall said of Perkins’ playmaking skills pulling the offense out of its doldrums.

“One of the bright spots of having a quarterback that we targeted (in recruiting) after the last two years, those type of players are who we want at that position because it ‘unbogs’ you, as you saw today,” Mendenhall explained.

Combined with some dominating play by the defense, including a hair-chested goal line stand, making it only the second time in Coach Bobby Petrino’s time at Louisville that the Cardinals failed to score a touchdown, Perkins’ ‘unbogging’ effect played a major role in Virginia winning a huge early season conference game.

Let the unbogging begin.