At this time last year, Virginia football stared down a potentially catastrophic end to an already derailed regular season. What had begun as a promising start for Coach Tony Elliott and company had quickly gone sour, with Virginia dropping all but one of the previous six games before the visit to Virginia Tech. And even though Virginia, at 5-6, was playing for bowl eligibility, that chilly night at Lane Stadium quickly turned into a disaster.
Elliott and company never led against the Hokies last year, and the contest perfectly epitomized a season rife with might-have-beens — losing by three scores to a quarterback making his first career start, dropping number 19 of the last 20 games against Virginia Tech, missing a bowl game for the third consecutive year under Elliott. Forgoing that lifeboat entirely, Virginia’s attempted swim to shore had proven futile.
But by now, Cavalier fans know — this is not 2024.
Instead of grasping for bowl eligibility, this team is playing with championship aspirations. Saturday evening, the Cavaliers can secure a spot in the ACC Championship game with a win. Virginia enters the final game of the regular season at No. 18 in the AP Poll, fighting for its 10th win of the season — a mark foreign to the program for the last three and a half decades.
Meanwhile, the Hokies sit fourth-worst in the ACC standings and are already turning their attention to the dawn of the Coach James Franklin era after they hired him as their next head coach. On paper, this game appears primed for a Cavalier victory.
But to Virginia’s head coach, all that is irrelevant.
“I don't know what the stats are,” Elliott said. “I really don't know what the tiebreaker is for the conference championship. I don't know where we're ranked. I really don't look at that stuff because, at the end of the day, all that matters is finding a way to win.”
Such a game is particularly important because of the ACC title hopes this Virginia football team has — especially considering the disappointment they faced last year.
“We talked about being able to finish,” graduate tight end Sage Ennis said before the Cavaliers’ game at Duke. “That was one of our mantras and mottos over the summer — we were going to finish.”
Such a desire to end strong has pervaded every Virginia contest this year. In eleven games thus far, Elliott and company have been outscored in the final period of play just twice. Dominance in that fourth quarter — and occasionally, overtime — is the result of relentless preparation.
Every day at practice, the Cavaliers play the same fourth quarter video that airs on the Scott Stadium videoboard. Players and coaches hold up the number four on their hands, just like they do on gameday. Why?
“That's when most games are either won or lost — in the fourth quarter,” Elliott said. “And we talk about how the least important thing is the score at halftime. The score at halftime doesn’t matter. What matters is getting yourself in position to go win the fourth quarter.”
If contests are won or lost in the fourth quarter, then seasons are made or broken in their final games against rivals. Late-campaign losses can send teams spiraling. And even if programs manage to avoid that spiral, those defeats can taint otherwise impressive seasons, leaving supporters with a bitter taste in their mouths all offseason. Such consequences further underscore the importance that this Virginia team finishes the regular season with a win against the rival Hokies.
At the heart of that push is graduate quarterback Chandler Morris, who will face the ACC’s third-worst scoring defense.
“[Morris] talked about the importance of this game — playing in Scott Stadium for the last time, and how important that is to him and to a lot of the guys that have been here before him,” Elliott said. “It's a game of significance. It's a state championship. It's a rivalry game.”
That significance is known throughout the Cavalier football program, but it is always necessary for such messaging to come through program leaders. Who better than the veteran Virginia signal-caller?
Morris’s on-field performance will also prove crucial in the upcoming contest. Virginia Tech ranks among the bottom half of FBS teams in passing yards allowed per game. Such creates an opportunity for the Cavalier helmsman and his talented receiving corps.
Winning the “state championship,” as Elliott refers to it, has been one of five season goals for Virginia. And even though Morris is new to Charlottesville this year, he is well-aware of the Commonwealth Clash’s importance to Virginia football after years of losing to the Hokies.
“[Morris] wants to play well in this game because he loves his teammates,” Elliott said. “He understands the importance of the rivalry for all of the folks associated with Virginia football and who support Virginia football, and he wants to play well in his last go-round.”
Morris wants to “finish.” It is a sentiment present throughout the program. And the Cavaliers are not doing so for the AP Poll or the College Football Playoff Committee. They are doing it for each other.
“That's what's going to make me go harder,” Ennis said. “Knowing that I have that person that I've spent this whole time with — the winter training, the spring ball, the summer workouts, the fall camp — and we've grinded and we've ruled through all of it. And, at the end of the day, I don't want to let them down.”
As the Cavaliers make every effort to “finish” Saturday evening, Ennis’s words will ring throughout the cement confines of Scott Stadium. For those with Virginia football now, for those that were there the painful year before, and for those that will come down the line, Virginia football needs to finish against its greatest in-state foe.
“We have to carry the burden of what hasn't been done in the past and we’ve got an opportunity to change the future,” Elliott said.
Xander Tilock contributed reporting.
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