UVA Football Report Card: Handing Out Grades for Virginia vs. Louisville

Matt Newton | Oct 13, 2024

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Virginia suffered a 24-20 loss to Louisville on Saturday, putting an end to UVA's undefeated start to ACC play and putting the Cavaliers' hopes of reaching bowl eligibility in question as they face a brutal remaining schedule, starting with a top 10 road game at Clemson next week.

As we break down what we saw from the Hoos in their disappointing loss to the Cardinals and what it means moving forward, let's hand out some report card grades for various players, position groups, and other categories to help evaluate Virginia's performance in week 7.

Offense

Malachi Fields: A+
Louisville knew that Malachi Fields was going to be the target of many of Anthony Colandrea's passing attempts, yet the Cardinals still couldn't contain him. The Charlottesville native continued his breakout senior campaign with his third 100-yard receiving game of the year, hauling in nine passes for 129 yards on 17 targets. That included receptions of 28, 24, and 23 yards. If that wasn't enough, Fields also completed a pass for the second week in a row, finding Tyler Neville for 22 yards on a trick play in the third quarter. When Chris Tyree and Trell Harris get back from their respective injuries, that should open things up for Fields even more.

Anthony Colandrea, UVA Passing Game: B-
This was a good, but not at all a great game for the Cavalier passing offense. Despite having ample opportunity, winning the time of possession battle by a wide margin, UVA couldn't consistently move the ball down the field after that first touchdown drive of the game. Colandrea attempted a season-high 45 passes, but completed only 26 of them (58%) for 279 yards and a touchdown. He gets high marks for not throwing an interception for the third game in a row. But with a chance to win the game at the end, the Cavaliers picked up a couple of first downs, which included a couple of eight-yard passes to Kam Courtney who had a solid game, but then came four-straight incompletions, the first three to Malachi Fields and then one to Tyler Neville to effectively end the game. It wasn't a bad game for UVA's passing game, but it needed to be just a bit better to win on this day.

Rushing Game: C
Anthony Colandrea averaged 5.6 yards per rush, which factors in the three sacks that he took in the game. He scrambled effectively and moved the chains at timely moments. Xavier Brown had an excellent 46-yard catch and run for a touchdown. But Virginia's overall ground game? Mediocre at best. Kobe Pace rushed 10 times for 38 yards and Brown added 19 yards on eight carries. UVA's lone rushing score of the day came thanks to the Grady Bunch.

Offensive line: C
Anthony Colandrea was sacked three times - not great, not terrible. Virginia's inability to establish the run reflects a failure to get effective movement at the line of scrimmage. Most concerningly, McKale Boley went down with an injury, returned to the game, and then shortly got hurt again and was helped off the field. He's still not 100% and UVA's offensive line will not reach its potential until he does. Jack Witmer was a serviceable starting left tackle through the first four weeks, but against some good ACC defensive line competition, he struggled to hold his blocks in the run game.

Red Zone: C-
Last week, we gave Virginia's red zone offense a D, as in "Didn't score any touchdowns." This week, we'll give them a slight bump since the Cavaliers did manage to punch in a red zone touchdown on their first drive of the game. Unfortunately, the Hoos couldn't replicate that success, with their only other touchdown coming on a big play 46-yard catch and run from Xavier Brown. Virginia went to the red zone four times and scored 13 total points, including an empty trip late in the first half that proved costly. For the season, UVA has scored 10 touchdowns on 27 trips to the red zone (37%). That must improve.

Overall Offense: C

Defense

Linebackers: A
Virginia's linebacking duo of Kam Robinson and James Jackson did their job. Robinson had a career-high two tackles for loss plus a sack, giving him three sacks for the season to lead all UVA defenders. He has a sack in three of the last four games. Jackson posted six tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss. Virginia's defense is at its best when Robinson and Jackson are finding their way into the opponent's backfield with frequency.

Pass defense: B+
Louisville came into the game with the 13th-ranked passing offense in the country, averaging better than 303 passing yards per game. The UVA defense, despite missing some key components in the secondary, namely Antonio Clary, held the Cardinals to a season-low 231 yards through the air. There were a few blown coverages, including one that led to the game-winning touchdown pass for Louisville, but this was still a solid game for Virginia's pass defense, headlined by an incredible interception by true freshman safety Ethan Minter. Big challenges lie ahead for the UVA secondary, but this was not a bad game for that unit by any stretch.

Run Defense: C
The same can't be said for the Virginia run defense, who let Louisville running back Isaac Brown run wild for 146 yards and two touchdowns. He averaged 7.3 yards per carry and had rushes of 23, 19, 19, 18, and 14 yards. Antonio Clary is a big part of Virginia's run defense, especially when it comes to limiting big plays like that, and the Cavaliers certainly missed his presence on Saturday.

Third Down Defense: A
Virginia dominating time of possession (34:44) is as much a product of the UVA defense's ability to get off the field as it was a product of the Virginia offense staying on the field. The Cavaliers converted on eight of their 19 third down conversion attempts, but more importantly, the Virginia defense held the Cardinals to just 3/10 on third downs and 0/1 on fourth downs. That's a statistical disparity that should have amounted to a victory for Virginia.

Overall Defense: B

Special Teams: D
We had given Virginia's special teams good grades in almost every week so far this season. Then came Saturday, which we described in our five takeaways from the loss as a "relapse" of sorts for UVA's special teams unit. So as to avoid needlessly rewriting my own reporting, here's what I said in that story about the UVA special teams:

"We've applauded the Virginia special teams unit for its relatively clean play through the first five games this season. There hadn't been any catastrophic miscues that resulted in the drastic momentum swings that were the bane of the Cavaliers' existence in their many one-score losses last season. Then came a major relapse on Saturday. Daniel Sparks got away with a low line drive punt earlier in the game and then tried it again in the third quarter, sending a rugby-style punt directly into a player a few yards in front of him. The punt wound up going backwards to the UVA 14-yard line and the Cardinals scored a touchdown on the next play. In a game that was ultimately decided by four points, that's a miscue that simply cannot happen."

"It wasn't the only special teams error, as Jonas Sanker also returned a punt from deep in his own end zone and was tackled well short of the 20-yard line. It's still a safe bet that Virginia's special teams are much better than they were last year, but entirely eliminating the kind of game-changing plays like the Sparks punt, which was effectively a blocked punt, needs to remain the top priority."

The only reasons we're not giving Virginia's special teams an F is because Will Bettridge made his two field goals, Sparks had a couple of good punts to go along with the disastrous one, and the kick/punt coverage wasn't bad.

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