Scott Stadium shook. Echoing throughout its cement confines were the roars of a season-best 56,000 members of the Cavalier faithful. Just minutes ago their team trailed by two scores. Now, No. 18 Virginia (6-1, 4-0 ACC) was down three points — and after two false starts, Washington State stared ahead at a second-and-21 from deep in its own territory.
False start penalties are often the product of fan engagement. A booming crowd can disrupt a play call or a snap count, altering an opposing drive. Following those flags, junior defensive back Ja’son Prevard bounced up and down, waving his arms to stoke even more volume from a crowd already aflame.
“Moments like that, those are moments you dream of," Prevard said. "Big home crowd — they’re actually giving us an advantage. And then [the Cougars] had two false starts on that drive. So I was just embracing the environment.”
After a 22-20 win over the Cougars (3-4, 0-0 Pac 12), the Cavaliers advanced their win streak to five games and, more importantly, maintained their residence in the ACC’s highest echelon.
“When our backs are against the wall, we respond, throw haymakers,” graduate safety Devin Neal said. “We’ve had countless times when our backs have been against the walls, and we responded. It may be a little bit scary — maybe a heart attack — but when you see a team and say, when it comes to a close game with another great team, ‘okay, they've been in these situations.’”
Virginia entered the Saturday night affair much differently than it had any matchup for the better part of a decade. Thousands of students filled the Hill. The scoreboard told the story of a fearless, animated Cavalier outmuscling a cougar in “The Ride.” Coach Tony Elliott led his program out of the tunnel to a raucous home crowd. For the first time in eight years, Virginia football was a 5-1 team.
That dominant record could mean one of two things for the Cavaliers — a blowout victory or the always-concerning “trap game.” Through halftime, Virginia had chosen option two. The Cavaliers looked not like the No. 18 powerhouse ready to steamroll .500 Washington State but an overhyped and underprepared figment of the ACC lover’s imagination.
At the break, Elliott and company were losing — through the air, at the line of scrimmage and on the scoreboard. Pick a stat, and the Cavaliers likely trailed. Offensive Coordinator Des Kitchings and company logged almost 100 yards fewer than the Cougars. Virginia’s two-time ACC Quarterback of the Week — graduate Chandler Morris — had a completion percentage worse than all of his single-game marks this year.
Washington State’s time-of-possession dwarfed that of the Cavaliers — the Cougars held the ball for more than twice as long. And Virginia’s five first-half punts already matched its most in any 2025 contest.
This was not the same Cavalier team that took down No. 8 Florida State in two overtimes — not the same program that traveled to Louisville, serving an undefeated conference foe its first 2025 loss. Elliott and company did not even resemble the week two team that dropped a non-conference game to NC State. But Virginia refused to surrender.
“This is a collective group of young men deciding that everything that they want and that they work for, they're going to go scrap and battle and find a way,” Elliott said.
That contrast in performance existed largely on the offensive side of the ball. The Cavaliers had scored at least 30 points in every single contest this season but entered the half with only seven. Things didn’t get better when a late second-quarter injury to graduate receiver Cam Ross sidelined the Virginia playmaker for the rest of the game.
With pedestrian early-game production from graduate running back J’Mari Taylor, the Cavaliers were forced to turn elsewhere for an offensive rescue mission. Parachuting in came senior receiver Jamal Edrine.
Edrine, a Purdue transfer, has been overshadowed at times courtesy of monster games from Ross and senior Trell Harris. But tonight — with five grabs for 102 yards — Edrine and his 6-foot-3 frame stood out. His receptions, too, came at all the right times.
Down 10 points, Virginia stood at its own three-yard line in the early fourth quarter. Washington State’s long, sustained drives meant the Cavaliers couldn’t leave without a score. And with their back to their own end-zone, Elliott and company had no room for error.
Edrine hauled in two receptions on an eventual 97-yard touchdown march — both came for 15-plus yards.
Virginia’s momentum continued to build from there. Cue the aforementioned post-kickoff false-start penalties. Just one play later, Prevard recorded his third interception of the season, giving Kitchings and company possession at the Cougar 35-yard line.
Following a Cavalier field goal and a Washington State special teams miscue, it was now the Cougars’ turn to play from deep in their own end. The guests were far less successful than Virginia. Following yet another Washington State false start, junior linebacker Kam Robinson swallowed up the opposing running back, earning the Cavaliers a game-winning safety. Heart palpitations subsided.
Unsurprisingly, for Elliott and Company, even such a dramatic win is just one brief stretch on the road to loftier aspirations.
“This team has big goals,” Elliott said. “And I think a lot of people may have, especially at ACC media days, looked at me like I was crazy when I said this football team is thinking beyond just being bowl eligible, and they want to go and compete to see, can they play for the biggest bowl possible? And so far, they found a way.”
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