Virginia Football Report Card: Handing Out Grades for UVA's Loss to Maryland

Matt Newton | Sep 16, 2024

Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Virginia suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday night, falling to Maryland 27-13 at home. The Cavaliers had the upper hand for much of the first half, but struggled mightily in the second half, particularly offensively, and the Terrapins outscored UVA 20-0 after halftime to secure the road win.

As we break down what we saw from the Cavaliers in their first defeat of the season and what it means for the rest of the year, let's hand out some report card grades for various players, position groups, and other categories to help evaluate Virginia's performance in week 3.

Offense

Anthony Colandrea: C-
The highs and lows of the Anthony Colandrea quarterback experience. There was some evidence in the first two games that he had improved in his decision-making and ball security entering his sophomore year. But against the same team that turned him over three times a year ago, Colandrea again coughed the ball up three times in the rematch. There were a few good plays - the deep balls to Trell Harris and Tyler Neville and the 10-yard rushing touchdown before halftime come to mind - but Colandrea was under duress from the Maryland pass rush and did not handle it well, especially in UVA's scoreless second half. In terms of straight-up statistics, there are plenty worse games than 21/37 (57%) for 247 yards and two interceptions, but that second half in particular was just ugly for Colandrea and the UVA offense.

UVA Offensive Line: D
Let's start by addressing the injuries. Starting left tackle McKale Boley has yet to play a game this season as he continues to recover from an ankle injury. Dartmouth transfer Ethan Sipe broke his foot last week and is out for the season. UCF transfer Drake Metcalf, who was hoped to be back at some point this season, reaggravated his Achilles injury and is out for the year too. Virginia's depth on the offensive line is gone and it's starting to show. Colandrea made a few mistakes on Saturday night, but he also wasn't given a whole lot of time to throw as Maryland's pass rush was consistently getting to him within a second or two. He was sacked only once, but was hurried seven times and frequently had to throw the ball out of bounds. The offensive line has been a big problem for Virginia under Tony Elliott and it seems, perhaps mostly due to unfortunate injury luck, that may be the case again this season.

UVA Passing Offense: B-
This wasn't necessarily a bad game for Virginia's passing offense. The big plays to Trell Harris (45 yards), Tyler Neville (39 yards), and true freshman Kam Courtney (33 yards), plus a 65-yard pass to Chris Tyree that came back for a holding penalty, show that the Cavaliers can be consistently explosive. What was missing from UVA's passing offense on Saturday was consistency in the short and intermediate passes, which were pivotal when Colandrea didn't have much time to throw. The Cavaliers were 3/15 on third downs and an inability to get their go-to conversion machine Malachi Fields going was a huge factor in that outcome. If pass protection is going to continue to be an issue, Virginia must evolve its passing offense to make sure Colandrea has short and medium route options when he feels quick pressure.

UVA Rushing Offense: B
Statistically speaking, Virginia's ground game was fairly decent in this game. The Cavaliers rushed 30 times for 123 yards. That's an average of 4.1 yards per carry. Xavier Brown had some success, averaging 6.1 yards per carry on seven rushes, and Kobe Pace rushed 11 times for 46 yards. That could very well get the job done for an offense that makes its money throwing the ball. Unfortunately for UVA, that did not translate to a rushing attack that could be relied on in short yardage conversion situations. Virginia was 0/2 on rushing attempts with two yards or less to go and the Cavaliers had six rushing attempts go for no gain or a loss.

Red Zone Playcalling: D
We had to give Virginia a C for red zone playcalling last week against Wake Forest, though those issues in the red zone did not end up costing the Cavaliers the game. This time, UVA's failure to turn red zone trips into touchdowns did prove costly and thus the grade is lowered to a D.

Late in the first quarter, a 45-yard pass to Trell Harris gave the Cavaliers first and goal from the 6-yard line. Kobe Pace ran the ball for four yards to the 2 and then the Cavaliers attempted two passes, both falling incomplete, before settling for a 19-yard chip shot from Will Bettridge. On their next drive, the Cavaliers again reached the red zone, but more immediate pressure on Colandrea forced a throwaway and another short field goal. It's still early, but Virginia has scored touchdowns on only five of its 12 trips to the red zone this season. That's not nearly good enough execution at the most important part of the field.

Overall Offense: F
This may be harsh, but simply put, the an offense cannot receive a passing grade if it only scores 13 total points, gets shut out in the second half, turns the ball over four times, and fails to convert on third down 12 of 15 times. This game was frustratingly reminiscent of the 2022 UVA offense that just couldn't put points on the board despite being able to move the ball decently well. This was Virginia's first time scoring less than 14 points since the 2023 season opener vs. Tennessee. The Cavaliers can probably count on some points from big plays on most nights, but they have to convert in the red zone at a higher rate and make more effective in-game adjustments to what opposing defenses are throwing at them if they're going to have a successful season.

Defense

UVA Pass Defense: C
We'll discuss more later about how the responsibility for this loss barely falls on the Virginia defense at all. For now, we have two big issues to identify with the way UVA's pass defense played. First, after a breakthrough performance against Wake, registering six sacks, the Virginia pass rush only sacked Maryland quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. once and had only four quarterback hurries on top of that. Second, everyone knew that Tai Felton, the FBS leader in receiving yards coming in, was going to be the No. 1 target for Edwards by far. And still, the Terps were able to get Felton going for nine receptions for 117 yards and a touchdown. At some point, the Cavaliers needed to decide to make somebody else beat them.

UVA Rush Defense: B
Maryland averaged 3.5 yards per carry and totaled 128 yards on the ground. While the Terrapins did dominate time of possession, it was not because they were running the ball at will, but because Virginia's offense kept turning the ball over and couldn't convert on third down. UVA allowed only four rushes of 10 or more yards and none for more than 17 yards, keeping the big plays to a minimum. That speaks to the continued excellent play of UVA's safety tandem of Jonas Sanker and Antonio Clary. Speaking of...

Antonio Clary: A
Clary should be in the running for all the comeback player of the year awards after missing the entire 2023 season with an injury. He is leading the Cavaliers in total tackles and just set a new career-high with 14 tackles against Maryland. Things aren't perfect on the defensive side of the ball for Virginia, but the steady play of Clary and Sanker has been crucial in keeping things under control on the back end of the UVA defense.

Overall Defense: B-
Virginia's pass rush didn't do much and the Cavaliers were not nearly as good as Maryland's defense at getting off the field on third and fourth down or causing turnovers. But with that said, the 27 points the Terrapins scored is a more a product of Virginia's offense continuing to put more and more weight on the defense's shoulders. One could argue that John Rudzinski's unit took a decent step in the right direction against Maryland as compared to the Wake Forest game.

Special Teams: B
There wasn't really any special teams drama for Virginia, which, when compared to some of the chaos that has ensued on special teams for the Cavaliers in the last couple of seasons, seems like a win. Daniel Sparks punted five times for an average of 45.6 yards and a long of 53 yards. Will Bettridge made both of his short field goals of 19 and 29 yards. Chris Tyree returned two kickoffs for an average of 23 yards per return. There weren't any blocked punts or kicks and UVA did not have any busted coverages on Maryland's returns. It wasn't anything exceptional, but Virginia did not lose this game on special teams.

For More Virginia Football News

What Went Wrong: Dissecting Virginia's Frustrating Defeat to Maryland

By the Numbers: Breaking Down Virginia's 27-13 Loss to Maryland

Virginia Shut Out in 2nd Half, Suffers First Loss of Season to Maryland