CHARLOTTESVILLE — Three-plus years after the abyss, and eight days after justice, the University of Virginia football program can truly rejoice.
For what transpired inside frigid Scott Stadium on Saturday night was far more enduring than the three top-25 victories UVA subsequently authored.
This was a 27-7 beatdown of nemesis Virginia Tech. This qualified the Cavaliers for next week’s ACC championship game against SMU or Duke. This secured a second 10-victory season for a program that dates to 1888.
This was history, and Virginia made it in style, before a ravenous crowd of 58,832, Scott Stadium’s largest in 14 years.
All the baggage and demons linked to past failures in this series? The Cavaliers never let them, or the Hokies, breathe.
Gifted prime field position by Maddox Marcellus’ first-series interception of Kyron Drones, Chandler Morris promptly marched UVA 46 yards to a touchdown. He converted a third-and-6 with a 26-yard dart to Trell Harris, and three plays later, J’Mari Taylor scored on a 1-yard run.
Late in the second quarter, Taylor became the first ACC running back since Clemson’s Will Shipley in 2021 against Wake Forest to run and throw for a touchdown, completing a 1-yard jump pass to Sage Ennis.
The offensive coordinator on that Clemson team? Virginia head coach Tony Elliott.
How perfect is that?
The Taylor-to-Ennis connection and subsequent extra point doubled the Cavaliers’ lead to 14-0, their first such advantage against the Hokies since 1991, a game UVA won 38-0.
Against a Tech offense that has struggled throughout this slog of a season, the two-touchdown lead felt crippling. With Tech’s leading rusher (Marcellous Hawkins) and receiver (Ayden Greene) shelved by injury, the deficit was insurmountable.
Indeed, with the outcome obvious for much of the evening, the lone pressing matter was whether the Hokies (3-9, 2-6 ACC) would score for the 395th consecutive game, the nation’s fourth-longest streak.
In one prolonged stretch of helplessness, Tech went eight consecutive possessions without a first down, punting on seven and turning the ball over on Antonio Clary’s interception of Drones.
But with 4:21 remaining in the final quarter and Virginia playing its reserves, Drones connected with Shamarius Peterkin for a 57-yard touchdown.
That didn’t dampen the mood among UVA’s fans. And little wonder.
The Cavaliers had defeated the Hokies three times in their last 26 encounters. Three times!
That’s not a rivalry. That’s a hamster wheel.
Each of those three wins required a seminal performance by a future NFL quarterback.
In 1998, Aaron Brooks rallied UVA from a 29-7 halftime deficit in Blacksburg. The last of his three second-half touchdown passes, a 47-yarder to fellow Hampton Roads product Ahmad Hawkins with two minutes remaining, gave the Cavaliers a 36-32 victory.
Five years later in Charlottesville, Matt Schaub threw for 358 yards, then the fifth-highest total in school history, as Virginia defeated Tech 35-21.
The 2019 Cavaliers reached the program’s first ACC title game with a 39-30 win over Tech at Scott Stadium, snapping a 15-year losing streak in the series. Bryce Perkins was the architect, becoming the first UVA quarterback ever to throw for more than 300 yards (311) and rush for more than 150 yards (164) in the same contest.
Virginia didn’t need such brilliance from Morris, who was efficient, methodical and turnover-free. A one-year rental, Morris transferred to Virginia from North Texas vowing to chase a championship and, man, has he delivered.
As have many of UVA’s offseason portal acquisitions. Taylor is likely to become the first Cavalier running back since Alvin Pearman in 2004 to make first-team All-ACC. Mitchell Melton could become the first Virginia defensive end named first-team all-conference since Chris Long in 2007.
Most of these Cavaliers were elsewhere in November, 2022, when a gunman killed three players — Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler and D’Sean Perry. But anyone who has since walked into Scott Stadium or the Virginia football operations center sees their numbers — 1, 15 and 41 — honored and hears their stories told.
Two Fridays ago, an Albermarle County judge sentenced the perpetrator to five life sentences, plus 23 years.
Such was the backdrop Saturday as Virginia took the field against a Tech squad led by interim coach Philip Montgomery and striving to avoid the program’s first nine-loss season since 1987, Frank Beamer’s inaugural season as the Hokies’ coach.
Conversely, UVA (10-2, 7-1 ACC) has authored its second 10-win season and first since 1989, when Shawn Moore quarterbacked the Cavaliers to a share of their first ACC championship.
Two years ago, Virginia upset No. 10 North Carolina. Last season, Elliott’s crew won at No. 23 Pitt, and earlier this season, the Cavaliers defeated a No. 8 Florida State squad that proved to be a fraud.
Those were brief jolts of adrenaline. Saturday night was a revival.
David Teel, david.teel@virginiamedia.com
