Washington finishes regular season No. 1 or 2 in all receiving categories

By Jerry Ratcliffe

After a record-breaking night in a lopsided loss, Virginia’s Malik Washington finished the season ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 in the three major NCAA receiving categories.

Washington is No. 1 nationally in receptions per game (9.2), and No. 1 in receptions with 110, edging out LSU’s Malik Nabers in both categories. Nabers had 108 catches and averaged 9.0 per game. They were the only two FBS receivers in the country to post 100 or more catches during the regular season.

Washington finished behind No. 1 Nabers in two other categories: receiving yards and receiving yards per game. Washington had 1,426 receiving yards (120 behind Nabers) and 118.8 receiving yards per game (Nabers had 128.8 per game).

After Virginia’s 55-17 loss to Virginia Tech, Washington made his postgame talk with media less about him and more about his one year at UVA after transferring here as a grad student from Northwestern.

“I want to start off by saying how grateful I am for being welcomed into this community, into this home,” Washington said. “My teammates, you guys (media), everybody around (the program), it has been a great experience and I’m thankful for it.”

Washington, as noted in Saturday night’s game story, said he was happy with the season he had, but not completely satisfied. Certainly he would have liked to have been part of more than a 3-9 season by the Cavaliers.

“I’m grateful for the season I had, but it could have gone better,” he said. “I wanted to give everything I had, each and every play for these guys. Not every Saturday are you going to be able to be on the winning side, so we just have to be better in the future.”

Washington said his experience at Virginia has helped him grow.

“I’ve seen myself not only become a better football player, but a better person,” he said. “It’s because of the guys I was around, it’s because of the coaches I was around, the situations I was put in. I was able to grow from those situations and see myself become a better person.

“On the football field, I gained a lot of confidence this year, each and every week, talking with the offensive staff, talking with my teammates. I’ve been confident in my abilities and confident with the 10 guys around me.”

Washington became such a leader and role model that UVA’s coaches instructed the other receivers to learn from him, players like junior Malachi Fields and freshman Suderian Harrison.

Even in Saturday’s loss, Washington was outstanding, hauling in a career-high 14 passes for 114 yards, his seventh-consecutive game with at least 100 yards receiving.

The performance helped him break the ACC single-season records for receptions and receptions per game. His 1,426 receiving yards are the fifth-best in ACC history. He is only the sixth player in the ACC to post 100 catches in a season. The 14 receptions against the Hokies were the second-most by a UVA receiver, behind only Alvin Pearman’s 16-catch performance against Florida State in 2003.

He also finished his career with a 37-game reception streak.

Nationally, Washington is the only receiver in the country with 1,400 receiving yards and 100 catches in 12 games (barely ahead of Nabers in yards). The only other receiver in Power 5 football to reach those numbers in the last decade won the Heisman.

Over the past two decades, only four Power 5 receivers have posted 10 100-yard receiving games in a 12-game season: Washington, Larry Fitzgerald (second in Heisman voting), Michael Crabtree (fifth in Heisman) and Justin Blackmon (also fifth in Heisman).