Often, power-conference teams have little to prove when they welcome FCS opponents into their home stadium. Visitors often pocket a paycheck and saddle up for a beatdown while hosts get to see how capable their backups look in action. Virginia’s Friday night demolition of Norfolk State was much the same. However, a dash of commonwealth cup history, some pressure to uphold a championship worthy caliber of play, and excitement for returning playmakers made its way into the fold.
Coach Michael Vick, former NFL MVP runner-up, returned to Scott Stadium for his first time since his days quarterbacking at Virginia Tech. Now leading the Spartans (1-2, 0-0 MEAC) from the headset, he hoped to instill some leftover magic from his days beating up on the Cavaliers (2-0, 1-0 ACC).
“[The] guy's a winner, right?” Coach Tony Elliott said of Vick. “You can see evidence of that now in the way that his team is progressing. So it was a real honor to share the field with Michael again.”
What little hope hung in the air was quickly extinguished by fourth-year safety Brandyn Hillman during the opening series.
Deferring the opening kick to Norfolk State, Virginia’s defense took to the field looking to smother the Spartans early. It appeared they had on a third down sack of junior quarterback Deljay Bailey, only for a defensive holding penalty to boost Norfolk State across the midfield line. Bailey dropped back on a fourth down try, forcing a ball down field. Hillman jumped the route, elevating himself and coming down with his second interception of the season in as many games.
Not long after the Cavaliers marched down the field and into the endzone, Hillman would strike again. Backed up hopelessly behind the chains, Bailey lobbed another meatball sub over the middle, where Hillman once again hauled it in. Hillman has been responsible for Virginia’s first four defensive turnovers this season, picking off three passes and forcing a fumble in the season opener.
“That's the crazy thing is that he's just gonna get better,” Elliott said regarding Hillman. “But what he does is he makes everybody else around him better. He plays with such intensity, such passion, love for the game, and he's a natural playmaker.”
The Spartans clawed their way into field goal range twice to end the half. Behind Bailey’s 142 yards passing, they sank one of their kicks to break up the shutout. Ending the half on his own terms however, was third-year running back Peyton Lewis. Taking a pair of redzone carries downhill and into the endzone to bring the Cavalier’s first-half total to 28-3.
Fourth-year quarterback Eli Holstein took over the duties under center to begin the second half. He’d conclude his half opening drive with a drop in lob to fourth-year wide out Ty’Lyric Coleman. Holstein tossed yet another scoring pass in his next drive, this time to second-year Isaiah Robinson.
Immediately following, fifth-year kicker Will Bettridge chipped in his sixth extra point of the game. Typically a routine responsibility for a place kicker as experienced as Bettridge. But this time, all that experience had piled up to the pinnacle of the Cavalier’s record book. Bettridge left the field to an exalted spot among Virginia history as the program’s all-time leading scorer, his right leg bearing the enormous weight of 337 points over his career.
“I knew it was pretty close,” Bettridge said.” “A lot of guys told me the number, whatever. I tried not to think about it too much … we kind of got down[field] to where we're going to score again and then I was like, yeah, I think this is the one … It was special for sure.”
Eventually, the blowout granted third-string quarterback, second-year Cole Geer, his chance as the signal caller. The young prospect promptly capitalized with a redzone touchdown completion, further burying the Spartans under an insurmountable deficit.
“To be that effective, it comes down to the Jimmies and the Joes,” Elliott said. “It's not the X's and O's. It's the guys believing in what we're doing, believing in each other, and taking pride, and then also believing in the concept that our strength is in numbers, so that we can play a ton of guys and maintain the standard.”
Fifth-year Jacquon Gibson hauled in a pair of touchdowns, breaking his season-long scoring drought during his time at UMass. A quartet of other Cavaliers secured receiving scores of their own, concluding a thoroughly robust passing attack from offensive coordinator Des Kitchings. All three quarterbacks who attempted a pass recorded at least one touchdown and a QBR north of 200.
“I think structurally coming into it, being that they're a 4-4 defense, they're going to have more hats around the box, and we knew that they were probably going to try and sell out to stop the run,” Elliott said, “[Our] staff did a good job with the plan of being prepared to come out and throw the ball … then later in the game we were able to settle in with the run. And I think that made the run game even more effective.”
On the ground, Virginia continued the deep distribution of carries exhibited in their season opening win over NC State. Nine toted the rock over the course of the night to generally positive results across the board. As the night wore on and Norfolk State continued to tire out, the offensive line, replenished with fresh subs, started to serve up less “pancake” blocks in favor of folding the Spartan’s run defense like an omelet.
The 59-3 final left little in doubt about what kind of teams met on the field. Whether the throttling they received was worth the 420 thousand dollar paycheck, will be up to the Spartans to decide.
Now, the Cavaliers embark upon eight straight weeks of football before their bye week. Each game tests their ability to withstand the physical and mental tolls the game has to offer.
“So I'm excited about the pieces you know that we have now,” Elliott said. “It's just our job as coaches to figure out how to put them all together and keep them humble, keep them hungry, keep them focused, keep them working, keep them as a team. That's the hard part.”
Next, Virginia will travel to Charlotte Saturday for a neutral site showdown with regional rival West Virginia. The Mountaineers escaped with a sweat-beading win in their season opener with Coastal Carolina.
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