Two weeks after a 51-7 loss at Wake Forest, the most lopsided defeat of the Tony Elliott era, Virginia came out of its final bye week with its season on the line. The Cavaliers had lost three straight and sat at 4-5. Cal arrived in much the same spot: 3-6 under first-year head coach Tosh Lupoi and riding a three-game losing streak of its own. DraftKings opened Virginia as a 12.5-point favorite, and the line closed at 11.5.
In front of a sparse Saturday afternoon crowd at Scott Stadium, Virginia played
a first half that was far from pretty. The offense scored nine points, the ’Hoos piled up six penalties for 79 yards, and Cal still could not take advantage. Virginia led 16-7 at the break thanks largely to its defense, then shut the Golden Bears out in the second half to pull away.
The Cavaliers snap their three-game skid and move to 5-5 (3-4 ACC), one win from bowl eligibility. Cal falls to 3-7 (2-5) with its fourth straight loss.
Here are five takeaways from Saturday’s win.
Virginia’s defense played lights out, and the takeaways decided the game
Cal finished with just 201 yards of total offense, 42 of them on the ground on 25 carries (1.7 yards per carry). Its quarterbacks completed 19 of 35 passes for 159 yards, and Virginia picked off three of them, returning two for touchdowns.
The first came at the biggest moment of the game. Late in the second quarter, with Virginia up 9-0, Cal drove to the Virginia 4 and faced fourth-and-goal. Instead of kicking, the Golden Bears ran a fake field goal out of one of the strangest formations you will ever see. Cal lined up five offensive linemen off to the side and left one man to block, so tight end Mason Mini was under pressure the moment the ball was snapped. His throw was off the mark, and Brandyn Hillman picked it off in the end zone and went 100 yards the other way. It was the longest pick-six in UVA history, and instead of a two-point game, it was 16-0.
The second belonged to Kam Robinson. With four seconds left in the third quarter, Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele never saw him sitting underneath and threw it right to him. Robinson took it 33 yards to make it 26-7 and celebrated with the fans on the Hill. It was his second straight year with a pick-six against Cal, after his 35-yarder sealed Virginia’s 31-21 win in Berkeley last November. Apparently the Golden Bears still have not learned to look for No. 5. He also led the team with 12 tackles. Montino Williams added the third interception in the fourth quarter, the first of his career, on a batted ball that set up a Will Bettridge field goal.
Earlier this season, I lamented the lack of a pass rush, and in particular the defense’s inability to actually bring the quarterback down. On Saturday, the pass rush finally showed up. Virginia sacked Cal four times for 35 yards: Cazeem Moore had 1.5, Matthew Fobbs-White and Nnanna Anyanwu one each and Fisher Camac a half. That does not count the steady pressure that kept Sagapolutele scrambling and throwing the ball away, and the sacks left him with -21 rushing yards. The rush saved its best for the fourth quarter, when back-to-back sacks by Anyanwu and Moore left Cal facing fourth-and-32.
Cal went 6-of-14 on third down, 0-of-1 on fourth and did not score after halftime, the third straight game it has been held scoreless in the second half. Its only touchdown came on a drive that started at its own 40 and was kept alive by a Virginia roughing-the-passer penalty, a theme we will get to later. Of Virginia’s 36 points, the defense scored 14 itself and set up three more with Williams’ interception.
The bye week got Virginia healthy, and the returners made an impact
Injuries have hounded Virginia all season, and they have not been limited to depth players. The ’Hoos lost their top cornerback and their projected No. 1 receiver for the year, and at Wake Forest they were without three safeties at once. Two weeks ago, Virginia went to Winston-Salem with 11 players listed as out, and it showed. On Saturday, several of those players were back, and they were a big part of the turnaround.
Hillman had not played since hurting his ankle against Syracuse on Oct. 10, Virginia’s last win before Saturday. In his first game back, he made the play of the day. Ethan Minter, out since taking a hit at SMU, returned with four tackles. Myles Brown, listed as day to day, had five tackles and a pass breakup. Jekail Middlebrook missed Wake Forest with a knee injury and picked up a fourth-down conversion and 50 yards from scrimmage on 11 touches. Kameron Courtney, who had missed three games, was back, catching one pass for 11 yards and carrying once on a jet sweep.
The injury list is still long: Virginia listed 14 players as out on Saturday. Leading tackler Maddox Marcellus and receiver Rico Flores Jr. are both done for the season, and Landon Danley (a long-term injury suffered at Wake Forest) and Corey Costner did not play either. The offensive line was reshuffled, too. Regular center Drake Metcalf was not in the starting lineup, so Noah Josey slid over from left guard to center and Ben York made his first career start at left guard. Isaiah Robinson and Justin Rowe also made their first career starts.
Still, Virginia looked nothing like the team that got run over in Winston-Salem. In hindsight, that loss looks a little more forgivable, too: earlier Saturday, Wake Forest went to Dallas and led SMU 42-0 at halftime on the way to a 49-7 win. That is the same SMU team that beat Virginia 23-13 in October. And Elliott still has never lost coming off a bye week. Virginia is now 8-0 in games immediately after an open date since he took over in 2022, including the 59-3 win over Norfolk State in September.
The offense took a step forward with Pribula’s legs and a committee backfield
It was not perfect, but this was the best Virginia’s offense has looked in weeks. The Cavaliers gained 424 yards, their most since the Delaware game in September, converted 7 of 16 third downs (their most conversions in an ACC game this season) and went 3-for-3 on fourth down. A coaching staff that preaches time of possession should be happy, too, as Virginia held the ball for 34:48. Maybe most encouraging, Cal did not record a sack against a line that had given up 28 in its first nine games.
Beau Pribula was efficient, if not spectacular, through the air. He went 16-of-24 for 146 yards and a 12-yard touchdown to Da’Shawn Martin on a crossing route, Martin’s seventh touchdown of the season and a big one with Flores out. Pribula did his best work on the ground, though. Outside of the opener against NC State, when he ran for 110 yards, he has struggled all season to make the right read on the zone read. On Saturday, he made it again and again, pulling it for 18 yards on a fourth-and-1 and for 43 on a third-and-1 in the third quarter. He finished with 67 yards on seven carries. Elliott said during the bye week that “any quarterback that’s getting hit, and he’s getting hit early in the game” will struggle to be efficient. With a clean pocket, Pribula looked much more comfortable.
Eli Holstein took over in the fourth quarter with a three-possession lead and went 5-of-9 for 77 yards, including a strike to Isaiah Robinson, who dragged a defender for 20 yards, and a deep ball to true freshman Jack Rhodes, who adjusted and came down with it at the 1. His three drives produced 10 points: a punt, a field goal and a touchdown. In my opinion, Holstein continues to look like the more decisive passer of the two, and he averaged 8.6 yards per attempt to Pribula’s 6.1, even if his came with the game already in hand.
The backfield was a true committee. Before his injury, Middlebrook had taken over as the bell cow, with 24 carries against Duke. On Saturday, no running back had more than eight carries. Solomon Beebe was the most explosive, running six times for 58 yards, including a 23-yarder on which he bounced off a couple of tacklers. Xavier Brown ran eight times for 27 yards, Middlebrook six for 27 and Xay Davis six for 20, plus a 1-yard touchdown on a direct snap. As a team, Virginia ran for 201 yards at 5.6 per carry while holding Cal to 1.7.
Special teams were a strength again
Bettridge went 3-for-3 on field goals and made every extra point Cal did not block. He came into Saturday 8-of-11 on the season and leaves 11-of-14.
Daniel Sparks punted only three times, but he made them count. The broadcast featured him as the No. 1 punter on Mel Kiper Jr.’s draft board, and he entered the game leading FBS at 50.8 yards per punt. He averaged 47.7 on Saturday, put two inside the 20 and, early in the fourth quarter, pinned Cal at its own 6 with a 50-yarder.
The bigger change was the coverage. Virginia entered allowing 17.7 yards per punt return, the most in the ACC, and Elliott said during the bye that the team had to cover better. Cal returned one punt for 1 yard. After weeks of watching returners eat into Sparks’ booming punts, it was nice to see the coverage team finally keep up with him.
It was not a flawless day. Cal blocked the extra point after Virginia’s opening touchdown, and Sagapolutele’s 32-yard quick kick took a big bounce and was downed at the Virginia 2. But on balance, this was Virginia’s best special teams performance in weeks.
Penalties could have been a much bigger story in a closer game
If there was one ugly part of Saturday, it was the yellow laundry. The ’Hoos were flagged eight times for 99 yards. Cal, which came in averaging more penalty yards per game than any team in FBS (84.2, per Fox Sports), was flagged just four times for 33. The broadcast noted Virginia came in as the second-least-penalized team in the ACC, behind only North Carolina, at about five per game. For one afternoon, the teams traded places.
Six of those penalties, for 79 yards, came in the first half, and almost every one cost something. A hands-to-the-face call on Makilan Thomas wiped out a 6-yard Xavier Brown run and made it first-and-25, and given how this offense has played, that was the end of the drive. Another on Rhodes pushed back the drive that ended in Virginia’s first field goal and likely cost it a shot at a touchdown. On Cal’s next possession, pass interference calls on Christian Ellis and Justin Ross set the Golden Bears up with first-and-goal, and it took Hillman’s pick-six to bail the defense out. An unnecessary roughness on the ensuing kickoff gave Cal the ball at its own 40, and a late roughing-the-passer flag on Fobbs-White kept that drive alive for Cal’s only touchdown with 14 seconds left in the half.
The offense left points on the field, too. Virginia gained 424 yards but scored just 22 offensive points, with two offensive touchdowns and three field goals. On the drive that ended in the first field goal, Martin got behind the defense with no one within 10 yards of him, but Pribula’s throw forced him to dive for a 30-yard gain on what should have been a walk-in touchdown. Virginia came into the game 16th of 17 ACC teams in red-zone offense, and as one commenter joked during the game, nobody plays for the field goal better than this team.
And let’s be honest about who Virginia was playing. Cal had lost 41-7 to Wake Forest and 59-20 at SMU, came in ranked 137th of 138 FBS teams in rushing and has now been shut out after halftime in three straight games. Lupoi demoted his offensive play-caller at halftime of a loss to UNLV in October, and general manager Ron Rivera, the former Panthers and Washington head coach, spent Saturday on the sideline with a headset on. For much of the first half, the story was simply that Cal made more mistakes than Virginia did, with its receivers dropping pass after pass. As much as I would like it, Virginia cannot count on North Carolina or Virginia Tech to hand it 14 free points.
Bonus: Virginia continues to be a different team at home
During the game, the broadcast showed Virginia’s season splits: 4-1 at home with an average scoring margin of +24.2 and a yardage margin of +152.4 per game, and 0-4 away from Scott Stadium (including the neutral-site loss to West Virginia in Charlotte) with margins of -24.0 points and -175.9 yards. After Saturday, Virginia is 5-1 at home with its average margin up to about +25, and it has won 11 of its last 13 games at Scott Stadium dating to last season.
That has been great for the fans who have shown up at Scott Stadium, who have seen the ’Hoos play their best ball right in front of them. It is less encouraging for what comes next. If the split holds, Virginia’s best shot at a sixth win is at home against North Carolina, because the season ends in Blacksburg, where Virginia has not won since 1998.
What’s next
Virginia hosts North Carolina on Saturday, Nov. 21, at 12:30 p.m. A win makes the Cavaliers bowl-eligible. They close the regular season at Virginia Tech on Nov. 28.
The preseason goal of a return trip to the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte was already off the table before kickoff, but as Elliott said during the bye, beating Virginia Tech and reaching a bowl game are still within reach. Saturday was a much-needed first step. Bring the same defense, keep the pocket clean and get the penalties back to normal, and Virginia has a real chance to go bowling. Do it in Blacksburg, too, and this season will be remembered a lot more fondly than it looked two weeks ago.
