By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia’s defense is peaking at just the right time, having come off dominating back-to-back performances against Duke and Virginia Tech to close its regular season and to boost the progam into the ACC Championship game for the second time in six years.

Even in the two games prior — a 31-21 win at Cal, and its only conference loss (16-9) to Wake Forest — the defense held things together and limited the opponent.

All Hail, John Rudzinski, the Cavaliers’ defensive wizard, who piece-by-piece has built this unit into one of the best in the nation. Coach Rud’s squad is ranked No. 2 in the nation in third-down defense, behind only Texas A&M. It is also ranked No. 21 in both run defense and total defense.

Tony Ellliott will tell you it all starts with the run defense, and Duke coach Manny Diaz, who will get a second shot at UVA in Saturday’s championship game (Saturday, 8 p.m. in Charlotte, national television), readily confessed Sunday how Rud’s group controlled that game.

“We struggled to block them, whether we were running the ball or throwing the ball,” said Diaz, who served as Penn State’s defensive coordinator before becoming Duke’s head coach. “For 11 games out of 12, I thought we’ve done a really nice job up front and that’s the one game that stood out. Give Virginia credit. We have a lot of respect for [UVA’s] guys up front.”

The Cavaliers held Duke to 255 yards of total offense (a mere 50 in the entire first half), only 42 yards rushing on 23 attempts, and quieted golden-armed Blue Devils quarterback Darian Mensah — dubbed the “8-Million Dollar Man” due to his NIL package — to 213 yards, 100 yards under his average, in a 34-17 win. Virginia led 31-3 with 10 minutes to go.

Mensah entered the game No. 2 nationally in passing yardage and among the top five in numerous other passing statistics.

Last Saturday night in clinching the State Championship with a dominating performance over arch rival Virginia Tech, the defense reigned supreme over an inept Hokies offense that simply was no threat through the air.

Rudzinski and staff knew this coming in, that the challenge was to shut down the ACC’s No. 2 rushing offense and make Tech even more one-dimensional.

Virginia’s run defense allowed only 0.5 yards before contact per Tech rush attempt and limited the Hokies to 119 yards on the ground, 31 of those coming on a run by Jeffrey Overton.

Tech’s Kyron Drones completed 4 passes all night (4 of 16 for 78 yards and two interceptions). Until a 57-yard TD pass with four minutes left in the game, mostly against UVA reserves, Drones was 3 of 15 for 21 yards.

Prior to that shutout-saving TD, the Wahoos’ defense had given up only one offensive touchdown in the previous 11 quarters.

Rud’s defense held the Hokies to six first downs in the game, the fewest by a UVA squad since 2004.

And here’s the kicker … Virginia manhandled Tech, forcing seven straight three-and-outs, the most by any Hokies offense since 1988-89.

UVA’s defense, which rotates personnel liberally, played only 47 snaps in the game.

“There’s a mindset that we’re not counting snaps,” Elliott said. “Those guys are just focusing on making their snaps count. You’re seeing chemistry, cohesion and a bunch of guys just not worrying about who gets the credit. They’re just going out and trying to play fundamentally sound defense with a ton of effort. It all starts by stopping the run.”

Early in the season, even though Virginia continued to hum along in the win column, the defense was giving up big chunk plays to opposing passers and that was mostly due to so many of its secondary signing with UVA after spring ball. Those guys arrived, not only having to learn Rud’s defense, but having never met, let alone played together to build chemistry.

With that lack of familiarity, there was some natural miscommunication that led to some busted coverages and opponents’ big plays via the pass. As the season progressed those players settled in, solved the communication issues, became comfortable staying on top of routes.

Now, they’re making opposing quarterbacks pay.

“In the meantime, our front seven was really starting to come together,” Elliott said of the early season. “I think what you’re seeing now is the guys are passionate about stopping the run, which I think opens up the ability to pass rush. I know we may not have had the number of sacks (30) that we would like, but I think we are affecting the quarterback, getting them off the spot, making them a little bit uncomfortable early in the game.”

Elliott praised Rudzinski, who by the way is a candidate for the coveted Frank Broyles Award, which goes to the top assistant coaches in the nation.

Rud, who can get intense when needed, has run a tight ship this season and has gotten big time results.

“Coach Rud and the defensive staff do an unbelievable job of breaking down the opponent that we play,” Elliott said. “They’re very detail-oriented and they have a really good way of teaching the guys how to be detail-oriented so that they can anticipate formation recognition in certain situations so that they can play fast, play free.”

As the great John Wooden, a wizard of a different kind, once said: “It’s amazing what a team can accomplish when it doesn’t care who gets the credit.”

That age-old axiom is what Virginia’s defense lives by.