Virginia’s offense lined up in shotgun formation. Fifth-year quarterback Beau Pribula stood on the right hash mark, ready to receive the snap with just over two minutes remaining in the third quarter. The Cavaliers (4-2, 2-1 ACC), down 7-17, looked ahead at a first-and-10. Syracuse had held Virginia scoreless since the first quarter, making the distance between Pribula and the end zone he so desperately needed to find seem much longer than the 42 yards that actually separated them.
Pribula took the snap.
The Orange (2-3, 0-3 ACC) sent pressure. The Cavalier signal-caller rolled right. His eyes turned downfield. Then Pribula did what he has done so few times this season — he aired the ball out. Third-year wide receiver Da’Shawn Martin had beaten his man. Pass caught — touchdown Virginia. But there was one problem.
Buried in the sea of flashing lights, pyrotechnics and booming loudspeakers was a little yellow spec with more control over the flow of the game than most anything else on that field. Just a drive ago, with Virginia on defense, three would-have-been Virginia third down stops were taken away by that little yellow spec. The Cavalier fans were not very fond of that spec.
As it simultaneously caught the glance of every individual who chose to wait out the mid-game rain, that spec sent Scott Stadium — and everyone inside of it — screeching to a halt. The once-booming loudspeakers fell silent as an official turned on his microphone.
The penalty flag was for a defensive holding. Virginia elected to decline. The Cavalier touchdown stood. Scott Stadium erupted — not for the last time that night, as Virginia would go on to defeat Syracuse 28-25. Martin’s heroics were crucial.
“We knew they were going to come down, commit to the run, and we could go over the top,” fourth-year running back Jekail Middlebrook said. “And [Martin] made one hell of a catch.”
Per Middlebrook, it was Martin’s grab that shifted momentum to the home sideline.
That momentum did not always favor the Cavaliers. Following an opening drive Virginia touchdown, the Orange fired back with two of their own. Those Syracuse scores did two things. First, each one sent an anthropomorphic orange mascot loose to run laps in Scott Stadium’s diamond-clad end zone. Second, and more importantly, they were an eerie reminder to the Cavaliers of last week’s affair with Florida State — in which Virginia struck first before being outscored 38-0 in the matchup’s remaining 54 minutes.
What happened this week?
“The guys just made a decision,” Coach Tony Elliott said. “They just decided that they wanted to go win a football game, and they focused on what they could control.”
Saturday was different from what transpired a week ago. Following a stretch of three Orange field goal attempts — only one of which made it through the uprights — the Cavaliers managed to break free. Courtesy of Martin, Virginia found the end zone. And then found it again. And then again.
“It looked like guys stopped waiting for somebody else to go make a play,” Elliott said. “They said, ‘I will be the guy that’s going to step up and make a play.’ The leadership of the team finally made a decision and said, ‘hey, this is what we’re doing,’ and they went out there and played confident football and executed.”
Making plays was exactly what the Cavaliers did. Following Martin’s score came two touchdown rushes from Middlebrook. Both came off direct snaps, a play that Elliott and company have regularly integrated into the playbook over the past year and a half.
“There’s a lot of different things that defenders have to make sure they’re keying in on,” Elliott said. “And if you can make their eyes delay for a second or make them key in on something while you’re moving around, then I think you have a shot to make it work.”
The run’s star had a simpler take.
“That play works,” Middlebrook said.
But Virginia’s offense was not the only one making plays.
The Syracuse passing game quickly capitalized on a Cavalier secondary understaffed from the outset, missing third-year cornerback Omillio Agard. Following a transfer from Wisconsin, Agard quickly became a keystone member of the Virginia defense — but did not appear in Saturday’s contest due to injury. Safe to say, Agard was missed.
It was of no help to the Cavaliers that sparkplug and fourth-year safety Brandyn Hillman went down with an injury just minutes into the third quarter.
With no Agard and about five-eighths of Hillman, the Cavalier secondary allowed a season-high 267 passing yards.
But Virginia was not alone in its fight against the injury bug.
With junior quarterback Amari Odom sidelined, senior quarterback Malachi Nelson made the start for Syracuse. And though such a term could once never have been applied to a college athlete, Nelson is the epitome of a journeyman. Following stops at Southern California, Boise State and the University of Texas at El Paso, the California native chose to spend year four with the Orange.
Saturday marked Nelson’s first start — and his first completion — for his new program. It didn’t look like it.
In addition to his 200-plus passing yards, the senior threw for a score and helmed a Syracuse offense that imposed its will upon the Cavaliers through much of the first half.
And yet, as Virginia closes the book on a game that saw them lose the offensive battle by almost 150 yards, all that matters to Elliott is the mark in the win column.
“Bottom line, I’m not going to apologize for winning a game in the ACC,” Elliott said. “At the end of the day, our guys were down 10 points at half, and they found a way to come back and win an ACC game. So we’re going to enjoy this.”
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