Virginia’s record-breaking day: 700 yards of offense sets off wild celebration

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Des Kitchings has probably caught more hell from the Virginia fan base than anyone on the coaching staff over the past three seasons.

The embattled Cavaliers offensive coordinator has been the target of criticism for the lack of points production, the inability to score touchdowns in the Red Zone. Many have called for his dismissal.

Through it all, Tony Elliott has defended Kitchings to the max.

So nobody in the locker room on Saturday was more delighted than the head coach when he saw Virginia’s offensive linemen hoist Kitchings above their collective ample shoulders in celebration of a school-record 700 yards of total offense. Realistically, it could have been closer to 1,000 if Elliott hadn’t called off the dogs early in the Cavaliers’ 55-16 win over outmanned William & Mary.

“In all my time as a play-caller, I never had a game with that many yards, so I tip my hat to Coach Kitch and the offensive staff and the players,” Elliott said after the Cavaliers improved to 2-1. “And, man, they threw Coach Kitch up on their shoulders and it was just awesome to see that moment because that tells me that these guys believe.”

After the smoke had cleared, Virginia had rushed for 379 yards on 52 attempts (7.3 ypc), passed for 321, ran 87 plays, piled up 30 first downs, scored seven times in eight trips to the Red Zone, converted 9 of 16 third downs and 2 of 4 fourth downs in a complete domination of the visiting Tribe (1-2) coached by former Virginia coach Mike London.

All four UVA tailbacks had productive outings, led by Wyoming transfer Harrison Waylee, who rushed 10 times for 151 yards and three touchdowns, including a Virginia-record, 97-yard jaunt to begin the second half for a 49-7 lead. Waylee’s run broke Mikell Simpson’s previous mark of 96 yards against Mike Leech’s Texas Tech in the 2007 Gator Bowl, at that time the longest rushing touchdown in not just Gator Bowl history, but bowl history.

Noah Vaughn added 101 yards on eight carries before leaving the game with an injury (see accompanying notebook for Vaughn’s status), while Xavier Brown (38 yards and a TD on 7 carries) and J’Mari Taylor (31 yards and a TD, 6 carries) were pulled early in the rout.

Quarterback Chandler Morris, who finished his day late in the first half, was 13 of 19 passing for 149 yards and a TD, while redshirt freshman backup Danny Kaelin mopped up with an 8-of-14 performance and 164 yards.

A total of 14 receivers caught at least one pass, led by Kameron Courtney with four receptions for 67 yards, and a 23-yard TD run on a jet sweep to open the game. Suderian Harrison hauled in his first reception of the season and made it count on a 56-yard touchdown.

“I’ve always been a big fan of Coach Kitchings,” Elliott said. “He’s a football guy. He loves football. He knows it at the highest level. It’s awesome to see everything come together.

“Now that he’s got a better feel for the guys that he has, he could put together certain packages for certain guys. Like, ‘Hey, that was a call for Kam Courtney.’ So he’s just able to call it free because he’s got more pieces to work with.”

Virginia, which opens its ACC schedule at home next Saturday night against Stanford, established its dominance right out of the gate against William & Mary. Morris methodically marched the team to the Tribe 23 when Courtney’s number was called on the jet sweep.

“We ran it a few times in practice this week, so when they called the play, I was like, ‘Oh, touchdown,’” Courtney said. “Before (Morris) even tossed the ball, as soon as I came around the line, I looked and saw how the line of scrimmage had changed, I was like, Ok, touchdown.”

That score was a sign of things to come and opened the floodgates. Before one could blink, it was 42-7 as the Cavaliers scored touchdowns on six of their first seven possessions.

Taylor scored his sixth TD of the season on the next possession on a 1-yard direct snap (14-0), then Brown scored from five yards out (21-0), Waylee crossed the goal line on another direct snap from the 2 (28-7) on a score set up by a 54-yard Vaughn run, tight end John Rogers caught a 3-yard TD pass on fourth-and-goal (35-7), before Waylee scored again on an 8-yard run (42-7) set up by Sudarian Harrison’s 56-yard jet sweep.

Waylee scored his third touchdown of the afternoon on his record-breaking run to open the second half (49-7) as Elliott began to pull his starters on both sides of the ball.

Elliott said he apologized to Waylee for not getting him into the game in a loss at NC State last week, especially after discovering a well-hidden fact about the Wyoming transfer.

“He didn’t even know that he was the active leading rusher in college football with over 3,200 yards, and he handled [not playing] great,” Elliott said. “He didn’t complain, he just showed back up to work. He handled it like a pro. We should have gotten him in the [State] game.”

Waylee made up for it with a three-TD performance and a UVA record.

“I found out about (being the nation’s active leading career rusher) when [Elliott] brought it up during the end of practice, when he told everyone, ‘We have a guy on the team over here who’s the leading rusher, etc.,’ and I’m thinking of J’Mari because of his performance last week,” Waylee said. “And [Elliott] looked dead at me and said, Harrison Waylee. I never knew that because I don’t pay attention to my rushing records. I just go out there and play.”

The 97-yard run was a thing of beauty. Waylee said it was difficult to put into words, but kind of like playing tag with somebody that you know you can outrun.

“As soon as my receiver came over and handled the last [defender] and I picked to the right and there was nobody there, I thought, yeah, this is it,” Waylee said.

William & Mary must have thought the same, trailing 49-7 with 11:31 to go in the third quarter. UVA could have piled on, but opted for field goals the rest of the way.

While the offense had a record-breaking day, Virginia’s defense got back on track, correcting its breakdowns on run fits and improved tackling in shutting down the Tribe, which could only muster 59 yards on the ground and seven total first downs on the day (six of those from the passing game), as the Cavaliers completely manhandled the visitors.

Scoring Summary

William & Mary 0-7-7-2 — 16
Virginia 14-28-10-3 — 55

First Quarter
UVA (10:46) — Courtney 23-yd run (Bettridge kick). UVA 7, W&M 0.
UVA (5:23) — Taylor 1-yd run (Bettridge kick). UVA 14, W&M 0.

Second Quarter
UVA (13:18) — Brown 4-yd run (Bettridge kick). UVA 21, W&M 0.
W&M (13:01) — Thompson 79-yd pass from Hughes (Shackford kick). UVA 21, W&M 7.
UVA (9:27) — Waylee 2-yd run (Bettridge kick). UVA 28, W&M 7.
UVA (6:01) — Rogers 4-yd pass from Morris (Bettridge kick). UVA 35, W&M 7.
UVA (1:59) — Waylee 8-yd run (Bettridge kick). UVA 42, W&M 7.

Third Quarter
UVA (11:31) — Waylee 97-yd run (Bettridge kick). UVA 49, W&M 7.
UVA (6:46) — Bettridge 24-yd field goal. UVA 52, W&M 7.
W&M (2:13) — Brannock 6-yd run (Shackford kick). UVA 52, W&M 14.

Fourth Quarter
UVA (12:58) — Bettridge 31-yd field goal. UVA 55, W&M 14.
W&M (7:59) — Safety. UVA 55, W&M 16.

Player Stats

Rushing

W&M — Noah Brannock 9-35; Rashad Raymond 7-14; Tyler Hughes 5-6; Tariq Sims 1-2; Jor’dyn Whitelaw 1-2; Josh Miller 1-0. TOTAL — 24-59. UVA — Harrison Waylee 10-151; Noah Vaughn 8-101; Xavier Brown 7-36; J’Mari Taylor 6-31; Davis Lane Jr. 5-24; Kameron Courtney 1-23; Cole Geer 2-15; Xay Davis 4-13; Chandler Morris 1-7; Owen Gardner 2-4; Daniel Kaelin 3-2; Team 1-(minus-23). TOTAL — 52-379.

Receiving

W&M — Deven Thompson 5-108; Alfred Honesty 1-39; Jackson Blee 1-20; Isaiah Lemmond 1-19; Armon Wright 1-11; Tariq Sims 1-3; Josh Miller 1-2; Rashad Raymond 1-1; Trey McDonald 1-1. TOTAL — 13-204. UVA — Kameron Courtney 4-67; Suderian Harrison 2-62; Jahmal Edrine 2-31; Trell Harris 4-31; John Rogers 3-30; Dakota Twitty 1-26; Isaiah Robinson 2-24; TyLyric Coleman 1-23; Dillon Newton-Short 1-10; Josiah Abdullah 2-9; Xavier Brown 1-8. TOTAL — 23-321.

Passing

W&M — Noah Brannock 8-17-111-0-0; Tyler Hughes 5-8-93-1-0. TOTAL — 13-25-204-1-0. UVA — Daniel Kaelin 8-14-164-0-1; Chandler Morris 13-19-149-1-0; Cole Geer 2-2-8-0-0. TOTAL — 23-35-321-1-1.