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

Matt Newton | Nov 10, 2024

Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Virginia walked out of Acrisure Stadium on Saturday night with the program's second-ever road win at Pittsburgh, a 24-19 victory that snapped a three-game losing streak for the Cavaliers, who now need only one more win to reach bowl eligibility. As we break down what we saw form the Cavaliers in their potentially season-saving victory over the Panthers and what it means moving forward as UVA tries to pick up one more win against one of the nation's toughest closing schedules, let's hand out some report card grades for various players, position groups, and other categories to help evaluate Virginia's performance in week 11.

Offense

Anthony Colandrea: B-
Colandrea completed 16 of his 24 passing attempts (67%) for 143 yards and one touchdown, but also threw two interceptions. The first interception was not his fault, as Malachi Fields had a rare mistake, bobbling the ball and letting it get taken away from him. The second pick was on Colandrea, as he threw his pass directly to Pitt linebacker Kyle Louis. Colandrea also had several plays where he took unnecessary sacks or ran out of bounds for a loss of yardage instead of throwing the ball away. As for the positives, Colandrea had a nice catch on the trick play pass from Suderian Harrison and also delivered a nice pass to Xavier Brown up the seam for a 24-yard touchdown. But his most impressive play of the game and one of his best throws of the season was a 25-yard strike to Chris Tyree on 3rd and 15 that kept alive the Virginia drive that ultimately took more than eight minutes off the clock and helped the Cavaliers put the game away. It wasn't the best statistical game for Colandrea, but he made the necessary plays down the stretch to win the game and that's all that matters.

Rushing Offense: A
It was a quiet day for the UVA receivers and pass offense, but the running backs did their jobs and then some. Pittsburgh came in with the fourth-best run defense in the ACC, but the Cavaliers had one of their best rushing games of the season, racking up 170 yards on the ground and scoring two rushing touchdowns. Virginia averaged 3.8 yards per carry, but that was negatively impacted by all the sacks Colandrea took. Xavier Brown had 68 yards and a touchdown and averaged 4.5 yards per carry, while Kobe Pace had 52 yards and a touchdown and averaged 4.3 yards per carry. Brown and Pace were also effective in the passing game, with Brown delivering the 24-yard touchdown catch and run and Pace adding 22 receiving yards on four catches.

Offensive Line: B+
Virginia gave up six sacks, but we're not putting most of that on the offensive line. Colandrea had a good amount of protection throughout the game, but scrambled into sacks or ran out of bounds for a loss unnecessarily. The offensive line had its full compliment of starters for the first time in a while and it showed, as the Cavaliers consistently won the line of scrimmage and managed to establish the run, no small feat against the Pitt defensive front. This was a good game for the UVA offensive line.

Playcalling: B
Credit where credit is due: there were some brilliant play designs from Des Kitchings in this game, including the trick play with Suderian Harrison passing to Anthony Colandrea, Colandrea finding Xavier Brown up the seam for a touchdown, and even the pass from Colandrea to Sackett Wood Jr. that was broken up in the end zone late in the game. Virginia also scored touchdowns on two of its three trips to the red zone and ran the ball effectively inside the 10-yard line, a rarity for the Cavaliers that only happens when the blocking schemes and execution are on point. That said, we're not giving the playcalling an A because the offense looked lifeless for a stretch in the middle of the game, as UVA went punt, interception, punt, punt, punt with those last three punts all being three-and-outs. Virginia capitalized on opportunities at a high enough rate to win the game, but there's certainly still room for growth.

Clock Management: D
Virginia won this game in spite of some horrendous clock mismanagement. In the first quarter, UVA called a timeout on 3rd and 30, saving a five-yard delay of game penalty so that the Cavaliers could call a draw that resulted in a nine-yard gain and an inevitable punt - not at all worth a timeout. But what happened on UVA's long drive in the fourth quarter was even worse. Starting from when Chris Tyree hauled in his 25-yard catch from Colandrea to move the chains on 3rd and 15, the Cavaliers had several instances where they snapped the ball with a ton of time left on the play clock while the game clock was running. In those situations with the running game clock, Virginia snapped the ball with 18 seconds, 16 seconds, 23 seconds, 38 seconds (!!), 29 seconds, 22 seconds, and 20 seconds remaining on the play clock. That's 166 seconds, or two minutes and 46 seconds of time that the Hoos elected not to run off the clock.

UVA ultimately killed eight minutes and 26 seconds with that long drive that ended with a 32-yard field goal by Will Bettridge, but the Cavaliers could have run the clock down below the two-minute warning and forced the Panthers to use their timeouts. Instead, Pitt got the ball back with two timeouts and the two-minute timeout still to work with, giving the Panthers a virtual eternity to drive the field and win the game. It ultimately worked out for the Cavaliers thanks to Pittsburgh native Corey Thomas Jr. coming up with a clutch interception, but the clock management was not pretty.

Overall Offense: B

Defense

Jonas Sanker: A++
Sanker has been Virginia's best defensive player this season and he had one of the best games of his career on Saturday night in Pittsburgh. In the third quarter, Sanker tackled Pitt running back Desmond Reid for a loss of two on 3rd and 2 to force a field goal attempt. Had that field goal been made, the Panthers would have gone ahead 16-7. Instead, Sanker followed up that TFL by blocking the field goal attempt by Ben Sauls in an incredible display of athleticism. The blocked field goal led to a Virginia touchdown and then on Pitt's next offensive snap, Sanker intercepted a deep ball from Nate Yarnell and returned it 40 yards to the Pitt 20-yard line, setting up another UVA touchdown. Though he did not score the touchdowns himself, Sanker had a massive hand in what was essentially a 17-point swing in favor of the Cavaliers. Sanker gets the game ball.

Passing Defense: A
Pitt came in with the ACC's third best passing offense, averaging nearly 300 passing yards per game. Virginia held the Panthers to 165 yards through the air and a 40% completion percentage. It should be noted that Pitt had to go to a backup QB in the third quarter after Trey McDonald knocked starter Eli Holstein out of the game on a hit that was called for targeting. Neither Holsten nor his backup Nate Yarnell had much success throwing the ball against the UVA secondary and the Cavaliers also got home for three sacks and posted two interceptions, each of which were pivotal in the victory.

Run Defense: B+
Virginia largely contained Desmond Reid, one of the top running backs in the ACC. Reid racked up 80 yards on 16 carries but allowed only one explosive play, a 34-yard run early in the fourth quarter. On his other 15 carries, Reid averaged barely three yards per rush. Virginia registered eight tackles for loss and kept a lid on Reid for the most part. Not a bad showing at all.

Overall Defense: A
Pittsburgh entered this week ranked No. 10 in all of college football in scoring offense, averaging 38.9 points per game. Virginia held the Panthers to 19 points, their second-lowest scoring output of the season.

Special Teams: A-
The only reason for the minus is because of Daniel Sparks shanking a punt out of bounds for just 16 yards, but he made up for it with a 66-yard boot that flipped the field at a crucial juncture in the third quarter. Will Bettridge was perfect in the game, making all three extra points and a 32-yard field goal in the fourth quarter. Ethan Davies had a solid 16-yard punt return and Chris Tyree had a nice 22-yard kickoff return. But the special teams play of the game, of course, was Jonas Sanker's monumental block on the field goal that totally changed the momentum of the game. This was a solid game for Virginia's special teams.

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