UVA-Pitt notebook

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Team Notes

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  Photo: UVA Athletics

  Pitt has won six of the last seven meetings including three-straight against UVA at Scott Stadium.

• The Panthers intercepted Virginia’s first two passes and returned them for touchdowns. It marked only the fifth time ever a UVA opponent has returned two interceptions for a score in a single game and the first time since 2015 against Boise State. Pitt has returned two interceptions for touchdowns twice against Virginia (2006 & 2022).
• The Panthers scored 28 points in the first quarter, tied for the most ever by a UVA opponent. Maryland scored 28 in the opening stanza of the 1959 meeting.
• With the addition of Malachi Fields’ five receptions, a total of 14 Cavaliers have caught a pass this season.
• Pitt recorded eight sacks in the contest, the most by a UVA opponent this season and the most since Notre Dame had eight against the Cavaliers in 2019.
• The UVA defense, which came into the contest averaging 3.33 sacks per game (3^rd-best in ACC), was held without a sack for only the second time this season.

Player Notes

• Brennan Armstrong broke the ACC’s record for passing yards by a left-handed quarterback. He needed 17 yards to surpass Tanner Price (Wake Forest) coming into the contest. Armstrong’s 9,034 career passing yards are the 12th-most by a left-handed quarterback in FBS history.
• Wide receiver Malachi Fields made his season debut and had a career-high in catches (5) and receiving yards (58). He caught his first collegiate touchdown, an eight-yard catch in the third quarter.
• Fentrell Cypress recorded two pass break ups in the contest to up his season total to 14. He came into the contest ranked first in the ACC and tied for third in the nation in pass break ups.
• Cornerbacks Anthony Johnson (12) and Fentrell Cypress (14) are the first set of UVA defensive backs to each record 12 or more pass break ups in a season since 1995 – Percy Ellsworth (12) and Joe Crocker (12).
• Three Cavaliers recorded double-digit tackles – Antonio Clary (13), Nick Jackson (11) and Coen King (11). The 13 tackles for Clary were a career high.
• Linebacker Nick Jackson eclipsed the 100-tackle mark and now has 104 on the season. It marks the third-straight season he’s recorded 100-plus tackles. He moved into a tie with Stuart Anderson (1978-81) for 11th on UVA’s all-time tackle list with 354.
• Defensive end Kam Butler made his 40th-consecutive start. He’s started all 10 games this season at UVA and 30-straight at Miami (Ohio).
• Billy Kemp IV had four receptions for 38 yards. He now has 192 career receptions for his career, three behind Taquan Mizzell for the third-most in program history.
• Daniel Sparks established career-highs in punts (8) and punt yards (409) in the contest. He had two punts of 60-plus yard, including a 63-yarder in the fourth quarter. He’s the third punter in UVA history with two 60-yard punts in the same game (Hunter Richards – 1968 & Will Brice – 1994).