It’s been a difficult preseason for determining what portion of the hype surrounding Virginia football this year might be true and what share was just that — hype. Although one game isn’t a large enough sample to make any definite conclusions, the blurry image of the 2013 Cavaliers became marginally clearer after their gutsy 19-16 win against Brigham Young.
It may not have been the cleanest or most conventional win, but fans that outlasted the two-hour and nine-minute rain delay certainly got their money’s worth Saturday at Scott Stadium. The excitement was so intense that coach Mike London lost his voice and characterized himself as sounding “like a horror movie” after the game.
Neither team moved the ball particularly well in the back-and-forth first quarter. When Brigham Young scored first after being gifted a short field midway through the second quarter, I found myself wondering if I were really watching the new and improved team I had heard so much about during training camp, or rather the same Cavalier team from last year that would flirt with you occasionally, but more often than not would turn out to be a cruel tease and break your heart.
Every Virginia fan had to be thinking just that after Cougar sophomores quarterback Taysom Hill and running back Jamaal Williams combined to shred the Cavalier defense in just over two minutes for 92 yards on 11 plays to take a 13-12 lead with 6:26 to play. They had to be thinking it when junior tailback Khalek Shepherd fumbled the ensuing kickoff and handed Brigham Young the ball back 27 yards away from another touchdown. The audible groans said it all: we’re in for another year of the same old runaround.
Only this year, new defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta’s more aggressive defense had something to say about it. The unit that had already recorded a safety and three sacks came through again in crunch time. Undoubtedly exhausted after just giving up a 92-yard scoring drive, the unit bore down and limited the Cougars’ offense to nine yards and a field goal, ensuring the offense would get the ball back down only four points and with ample time to score.
“I thought [the defense] did a great job of bending, but not breaking,” London said. “We came up with big plays when we had to.”
But in true Virginia fashion, it wouldn’t be that easy. The offense was promptly shut down, moving the ball a grand total of one yard in three plays and being forced to punt away what very well could’ve been its last chance at redemption.
Yet, the defense would inspire hope again. After being around the ball virtually all game long, junior safety Anthony Harris broke on a third-and-six pass that deflected off Williams’ hands and found himself in the perfect position to make a play.
“We didn’t have that many interceptions last year,” Harris said. “This year we’ve been trying to pressure people, working on being in the right spot, and today I just ended up in the right spot.”
The interception sent the crowd into an uproar — and I’ll admit I may not have completely maintained journalistic objectivity at this point. But when I saw Harris defy all fundamental football wisdom and lateral the ball towards junior linebacker Henry Coley, I thought I was in a horror movie of my own.
Instead, Coley defied my darkest fears and secured the ball, taking it an additional 27 yards down to the 13-yard line. The momentum had decidedly shifted and junior tailback Kevin Parks — in his own words — “wasn’t going to be denied.” Parks punched the ball in on the next play to complete the comeback. The defense held strong on the final two Brigham Young drives and just like that, what seemed like an almost certain loss turned into a memorable comeback on a soaking night at Scott Stadium.
“We just couldn’t get breaks,” Harris said. “We just told ourselves to keep fighting, keep fighting and hopefully something will come around for us … and we got one at the end.”
As good as it looked Saturday, the defense can’t always be expected to come up with monumental, game-changing plays late in the fourth quarter. At times, the offense looked downright methodical, like when sophomore quarterback David Watford guided the team 42 yards in less than a minute to set up sophomore kicker Ian Frye’s career-best 53-yard field goal. Then there were the other times, when it was easy to understand how the unit finished with a measly 223 total yards on 74 plays and converted only 6-of-20 third down attempts. The running game, which figures to be the brunt of the offensive production this year, mustered only 109 yards on 42 attempts, an average of just 2.6 yards per carry.
Watford, like the offense itself, remains an enigma. The quarterback threw a beautiful strike to junior wide receiver Darius Jennings in the back corner of the endzone, but also tossed up a bone-headed interception as he was being tackled in the second quarter and completed 56 percent of his pass attempts overall. Maybe it was just Watford’s nervous first collegiate start, maybe it was the rain, but as Watford noted, the offense left much to be desired.
It’ll take more than one game to determine if the offense will live up to its preseason billing and if the defense is truly here to stay. Though the game was certainly one of the most exciting I’ve seen in person, I don’t know if I can say it was the statement victory Virginia fans were hoping for, especially with No. 3 Oregon coming to Charlottesville Saturday.
But for now, credit is due to the defense for a spectacular first outing. Clearly, the players have embraced Tenuta’s hard-nosed brand of defense as both a system and a mindset.
As sophomore cornerback Maurice Canady — who led the team with 13 tackles — so aptly said, “That’s how you make the money.”
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