Cavaliers Now

Virginia Receivers and Passing Game Growing Confidence After JMU Game

Malachi Fields, Malik Washington, and the UVA receivers caught 20 passes from Anthony Colandrea for 377 yards against JMU

Matt Newton

Virginia Receivers and Passing Game Growing Confidence After JMU Game
Virginia Receivers and Passing Game Growing Confidence After JMU Game /
In this story:

Anthony Colandrea is getting his much-deserved flowers after delivering a spectacular performance in his first collegiate start for Virginia on Saturday. His 20 completions for 377 yards and two touchdowns rewrote the UVA freshman quarterback record books and garnered him ACC Rookie of the Week honors. It was a great showing from a player with a very bright future ahead of him. 

But he didn't do it all by himself. 

After being contained to just a little over 100 total receiving yards on 11 catches in the week 1 loss to Tennessee, Virginia's receivers - both wideouts and running backs - came to play in the passing game in Saturday's loss to JMU. While UVA's ground game continued to struggle, the passing attack soared in the second and third quarters and powered the Cavaliers to a 28-7 run, putting themselves in position to win the game before the untimely weather delay. 

Virginia amassed 377 passing yards against James Madison, a strong sign that the Cavaliers have some explosive potential and versatility in their passing game this season. Colandrea completed passes to seven different players in the game and five of those players caught every pass that was targeted for them. 

Junior Malachi Fields followed up his solid showing against Tennessee - four catches for 63 yards - with a brilliant performance against James Madison. Fields caught each of the eight balls that came his way, totaling 73 receiving yards and averaging 9.3 yards per catch. He got great separation on his routes and always seemed to be open on the sideline. Fields was a favorite target for Colandrea on third down, twice connecting with Fields to move the chains on 3rd and long. 

"[We're] more confident now just knowing that we can do it and seeing it unfold the way it did," Fields said after practice on Tuesday. "Knowing that we're able to make plays and just gotta come back to practice and just continue to execute." 

UVA offensive coordinator Des Kitchings was very impressed with Fields and attributed some of his success to UVA's other receivers making the JMU secondary respect the deep ball, freeing Fields up for shorter throws that he was able to turn into significant gains with yards after catch. 

"Malachi... he's big, he's physical," Kitchings said of Fields on Saturday. "People are trying to take away from us throwing it down the field, we throw it short to him and he takes a five-yard hitch and turns it into a 12-yard completion. That's really good football."

Northwestern transfer Malik Washington put the JMU defense on notice early in the game, as Colandrea hit him in stride on the left boundary and Washington did the rest, streaking down the sideline and making a man miss to get into the end zone for a 63-yard touchdown, both his and Colandrea's first touchdowns in a Cavalier uniform. Also, take note of the downfield blocking by Malachi Fields that made this touchdown possible. 

Washington caught five passes on six targets for a game-high 119 receiving yards. That was the first time Washington has surpassed the 100-yard receiving mark in his 42-game career and he extended his streak of games with at least one reception to 27. 

Running backs Perris Jones and Kobe Pace proved themselves as capable pass catchers out of the backfield with a couple of long passing plays. On the first play of the second half, Colandrea made a beautiful throw off one foot and hit a wide-open Kobe Pace in stride for a 75-yard touchdown, the longest touchdown pass ever thrown by a UVA freshman quarterback and the longest completion for the Cavaliers in almost two years. 

Colandrea made another highlight reel play later in the third quarter, scrambling out of the pocket and drawing in the JMU defense by making it seem like he was tucking and running, before popping out and hitting Perris Jones with a short pass. Jones completed the highlight by maneuvering his way through traffic and all the way across the field for a 60-yard pickup, setting up the second touchdown run for Mike Hollins. 

JR Wilson, who went without a catch in the season-opener against Tennessee, made a big impact play on his only target of the game, hauling in a 32-yard reception over the middle of the field. That play led to Virginia's touchdown to make it a 17-14 game right before halftime, a key moment that swung momentum in UVA's favor. 

Virginia's passing game was firing on nearly all cylinders, as absent from the box score was Demick Starling, who did not have a catch but could have had two long touchdowns, including the game-winner. Colandrea first targeted Starling on a deep ball on the first play of Virginia's final drive of the first half. Starling got behind the JMU safeties on a post route and was open by a few yards, but Colandrea slightly overthrew it and the ball landed just a couple of yards out in front of Starling. Failing to connect on that deep pass didn't matter as much as Virginia went on to score a touchdown on that drive to make it 17-14. But the next time Colandrea tried to find Starling, the stakes were much higher. 

Fast forward to the final minute of the game. UVA's 11-point lead has vanished and JMU leads 36-35. It's 3rd and 20 from Virginia's own 15-yard line and Colandrea tried to throw to Starling on the right side for a chunk of yardage that would have, at the very least, made the 4th down more manageable. Instead, Colandrea's pass was batted down at the line of scrimmage. 

Now 4th and 20, Colandrea loaded up and fired a pass high in the air looking for Demick Starling, who had again burned the JMU secondary and was free down the right sideline. If the ball lands in his hands, Starling strolls into the end zone to put Virginia back in front with less than 30 seconds to go. Instead, Colandrea's pass outdistanced even the speedy Starling by a few yards and fell to the turf to end the game. Colandrea played an awesome game on Saturday, but he was certainly kicking himself for just barely missing on what would have been an epic game-winning touchdown pass. 

Through the first two games of the season, Starling has yet to record a catch, but he's put himself in perfect position for explosive plays multiple times. Even with those misses, the Cavaliers still had six passing plays of at least 25 yards, including three completions of 60+ yards. If Virginia can connect on those deep balls with Starling, UVA's passing game will be a lot for opposing defenses to handle, with Starling, Fields, Washington, Wilson, and the Cavalier running backs all posing as viable and effective pass-catching threats for either Anthony Colandrea or Tony Muskett. 

Subscribe to the Cavaliers Now Newsletter to receive UVA sports news in your inbox first thing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

See more Virginia football news and content: Virginia Football on Sports Illustrated

See more Virginia sports news and content: Virginia Cavaliers on Sports Illustrated

To stay up to date on all Virginia Cavaliers sports news, follow CavaliersNow on social media:

Facebook: @CavaliersNow
Twitter: @CavaliersNowFN

Published
Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.

Home/Football