CHARLOTTESVILLE – The new chapter in the rivalry between Virginia and Virginia Tech reads much like the pages that came before it.
UVa’s Tony Elliott can’t afford to let the past be just prologue when it comes to the Commonwealth Cup.
“It starts with me. I have to do a better job of making sure the team is ready to play every week,” Elliott said after the Hokies beat his Cavaliers 55-17 on Saturday. “I just didn’t feel like we had the right look in our eyes from the start, not really from the moment we ran into the game. And that’s my fault.”
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Seven years ago, the Commonwealth Cup Series experienced a reboot of sorts when Bronco Mendenhall started coaching at UVa and Justin Fuente took over the Hokies. This year, Tech capped the regular season with a 52-10 victory over UVa.
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On Saturday, in the first meeting between Elliott and Tech’s Brent Pry – the teams canceled last year’s game after the Virginia shooting – the Hokies suffered a similar fate.
Even though it looked comparable to 2016, in reality it was much, much worse.
This year’s Virginia Tech team won the ACC’s Coastal Division. This one needed Saturday’s win at Scott Stadium to qualify for the bowl.
This Virginia team was on a six-game losing streak and only won one ACC contest all year. This year’s group is 3-3 in its last six games, including league upsets against North Carolina and Duke.
But instead of ushering in the next generation of the rivalry with at least a competitive performance, UVa was destroyed.
“They played a good game. You have to give them their support,” said security guard Jonas Sanker. “I guess I would say we have to learn from it. Next year, the most important thing will be how we react. That will say a lot about the program.”
The Hokies took a 24-0 lead in the first half and the Cavaliers never threatened to win the game. Tech led 31-0 less than four minutes into the third quarter and UVa didn’t score any points until opting for a field goal with 7:44 left.
The crowd cheered. Maybe it was a mock celebration? Maybe it was the relief of avoiding a shutout? Whatever it was, it felt like the sound of surrender. And Elliott cannot afford for surrender to be the theme of the upcoming Commonwealth Cup games.
“I didn’t have my guys ready to play, but I’m not going to make it bigger than it is,” Elliott said. “This is a game. We will learn from it. And we will get better this offseason. Unfortunately we have to wait 365 days for another chance.”
If there’s a bright spot for UVa, it’s that Pry and Tech have developed a plan for how quickly a program can turn around in the age of the transfer portal. A year ago, the Hokies went 3-8 with an offense that never generated enough excitement to fizzle out.
They went in without playmakers and came out again with running back Bhayshul Tuten and wide receiver Da’Quan Felton, among others. On Saturday, Tuten ran for 117 yards and a score and returned a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown, and Felton caught six passes for 133 yards and two scores.
The Cavaliers were encouraged by the development of freshman quarterback Anthony Colandrea, who was forced into action after starter Tony Muskett suffered shoulder and ankle injuries. The last time, in a home win over Duke, he played a flawless game.
His only misstep that day may have come in the postgame press conference, when he fired off a comment that became the talk of Tech fans and potentially upset the Hokies.
“After this game against Tech, after we beat Tech, this program will skyrocket and everyone in the country will know about us,” Colandrea said at the time.
Elliott said he spoke with his rookie QB — and with Sanker, who made similar comments — about their choice of words.
“You have to be smarter,” Elliott said. “They were caught up in the emotions of victory.”
But with Colandrea and wide receiver Malachi Fields, as well as an offensive line that is fully back – aside from portal defects – the conditions are in place for another step forward. Some of the best defensive players at the end of the year were freshmen, including linebacker Kam Robinson, cornerback Dre Walker and safety Caleb Hardy.
Saturday’s loss doesn’t condemn Virginia to a long losing streak like the 15-year losing streak against the Hokies from 2014 to 2019. That doesn’t mean Elliott, now 6-16 in his two years as head coach, is with the Cavaliers will not be successful.
This added another discouraging chapter for UVa to a book that already contains too many of them.