Tony Muskett threw 2 interceptions for Virginia, but also rushed for 2 touchdowns. ~ Photo courtesy Virginia Athletics Media Relations
Another season ended in familiar fashion in Blacksburg as the Virginia football team dropped its season finale to rival Virginia Tech in the Commonwealth Clash on Saturday, 37-17.
Both teams entered the matchup at 5-6 in search of one more win to become bowl eligible. Just like the previous seven times the Hokies entered fighting to extend their season since 2012, Virginia Tech won to improve to 8-0 in those games. Meanwhile, UVA saw their 26-year drought in Blacksburg extended as the Cavaliers still chase their first win at Lane Stadium since 1998.
"It's definitely emotional," Cavalier tight end Tyler Neville said. "I just spent 15 minutes in the locker room crying. It's tough, this is not the way I envisioned my college career ending."
The Hokies raced out to a 20-3 lead going into halftime as the Virginia offense continued to sputter despite a quarterback change to Tony Muskett. After Virginia Tech opened the second half with another score behind third-string quarterback William "Pop" Watson, the Hoos finally found a groove offensively and scored back-to-back touchdowns to pull within two scores at 30-17.
The rally ended right there. After getting a much-needed stop to get the ball back in the fourth quarter, the Virginia offense saw its newfound momentum halted with a three and out. Virginia Tech responded on the next series with Bhayshul Tuten ripping off a 58-yard touchdown run to seal the game. Tuten was nearly run down by four-time ACC Defensive Back of the Week Jonas Sanker, who crumbled to the end zone as his college career was near minutes away from ending.
"If I'm being honest with you, just banged up and just fighting," Sanker said postgame. "I don’t want to quit. I have to stay out there."
The loss dropped Virginia to 5-7 on the season and out of the bowl picture for the third straight season.
"Obviously five wins this season, that's not what we had in mind preseason," Muskett said.
Here are three takeaways from Virginia's season-ending loss to Virginia Tech.
A QB Change Provided No Change On Offense
The move some Virginia fans had been clamoring for finally came to fruition when the news broke a few hours before kickoff that Tony Muskett would make his first start of the season at quarterback. Tony Elliott made the move after weeks of backing starter Anthony Colandrea despite the sophomore throwing for only 2 touchdowns and 7 interceptions over his last five games.
Elliott said the decision to switch to Muskett was made on Sunday night going into Monday after reviewing Colandrea's last four games and hoping Muskett would provide a spark.
A week after Elliott stuck with Colandrea following 20-straight scoreless drives, Muskett got the chance to lead the Cavaliers and finally answer what fans wondered for weeks: would the veteran’s quicker processing improve the offense?
The answer maybe a little yes, but mostly no as UVA landed below 25 points for the eighth time this year and the seventh time in the final eight games.
Virginia also failed to score a touchdown in the first half for the fourth time in its last five games, while being outscored 102-16 in the first half during that five-game stretch. The Cavaliers could only muster 84 total yards in the first half and barely improved upon their season-low 2.6 yards per play by accounting for a 3.1 average there.
Muskett, for his part, threw 2 interceptions on overthrows and finished the game with an 83.2 passer rating, lower than three of Colandrea’s last four starts. His final line: 19-36 passing, 178 yards, 0 TDs, 2 INTs, 5 sacks taken plus 18 carries for 62 yards and 2 TDs.
"I thought he battled, I thought he left it all on the field," Elliott said of Muskett. "I thought he was scrapping, he ran the ball, converted some first downs for us."
Muskett could not be held solely accountable for the Hoos' offensive woes, of course, with questionable play-calling from offensive coordinator Des Kitchings coming under fire. On the first offensive play of the game by UVA, Kitchings dialed up a flea flicker where Muskett was immediately sacked by one of the nation’s top edge threats in Antwan Powell-Ryland. On a Virginia field goal drive in the second quarter, Muskett tossed a tight end shovel pass to Tyler Neville which went nowhere.
Standout wide receiver Malachi Fields was not targeted in the game until the final two minutes and finished the game with only 2 catches for 20 yards.
Elliott said postgame it was too early to evaluate Kitchings' performance as a play caller, adding he will look further into the tape just like he had after the SMU game.
"I'll look at it because in the heat of the moment you see one thing and then when you go watch the tape you see other things," Elliott said. "Just know that every week I evaluate it based off my experience as a play caller and in that situation I'm looking for do I deem that a bad call and then also are you putting players in position to have angles and to have numbers."
Virginia took on new life offensively in the second half, scoring touchdowns on consecutive drives for only the fourth time this season. Muskett looked in control at times mixing his passes with a steady ground game. Muskett's running plays looked like the most effective offense for the Cavaliers at times.
"He's a competitor, he's a great teammate and it's not over till that final bell rings," Neville said of Muskett.
Muskett even got Virginia back with shouting distance down 30-17 with a glimmer of hope before Bhayshul Tuten ran away with any chance of a comeback.
"All I wanted to do was win this game," Muskett said. "If I could just take back some plays that I would love to have back. Not that I regret. I played my absolute hardest."
The offensive spark in the second half was promising, but came way too late in the game and in the season. Many will wonder how the season would have looked had Elliott made the call to start Muskett sooner with plenty of chances after blowout losses to UNC or Notre Dame.
"We just came to life offensively too late," Elliott said.
UVA Fails To Seize Momentum
The doom and gloom did not settle in fully until later for Virginia fans. In fact, there was an early chance to seize momentum in the hostile Lane Stadium.
As Virginia Tech drove down the field on its first drive, receiver Jaylin Lane took a handoff and raced to the edge before being met by Chico Bennett Jr. and Trey McDonald. The ball squirted out and the Cavaliers recovered the ball and began to celebrate before the officials called Lane down on the play. Upon replay, Lane clearly looked like he was still in the air as the ball popped out, but before any replay could happen the Hokies had already handed the ball off to Lane again and the potential fumble was a distant memory.
VT finished the drive off four plays later with a Tuten touchdown, but many were still caught up on what happened to the fumble.
"I was right there in the refs ear like 'Hey can we look at that, are they looking at it up top?' and he said they looked at it up top and they look at every play and they let it go," Elliott said on the play postgame.
While the booth never initiated a replay, Elliott also never threw his flag to initiate a review of his own and potentially cost his team a chance at early momentum.
The Commonwealth Conundrum Lives On
Tony Elliott spoke a different tune heading into this year’s edition of the Commonwealth Clash after suffering a 55-17 loss in his first go-round last year in Charlottesville. The results largely stayed the same, though.
The last five Virginia head coaches have all lost their first two games to rivals Virginia Tech, but only Mike London (68 points) had a larger combined losing margin than Elliott (58). After two games against the Hoos' in-state rivals, Elliott feels the program has a better mindset in those games but still lags behind in other areas, especially the trenches.
"Last year we didn't have the right mindset to play that game down in Charlottesville at all," Elliott said. "I felt like this year we had the right mindset. I think that obviously their D-Line is really good and I think that posed us a problem with where we are up front on the offensive line."
Virginia has now lost 23 of its last 25 games against the Hokies, including 12 straight in Blacksburg. The 26-year drought in Lane Stadium now extends to another generation of Cavaliers still searching for their first win in the town since 1998.
"We wanted this one bad," Muskett said. "Coach Elliott focused on it pretty heavily, what this means for the program, to the state. We wanted this one bad."
After a promising 4-1 start, the program's best since 2019, Virginia crumbled down the stretch under the weight of a difficult schedule. The Hoos faced five top 25 teams. Despite picking up the program's second top-25 road win in two years at Pittsburgh (the other was at UNC in 2023), UVA still fell short of bowl eligibility.
"A lot of it is things that we can control that we got to go to work and I got to coach better, the staff has to coach better and we've got to continue to improve our football team," Elliott said.
One of the main areas Elliott targeted for improvement was depth. Elliott said all positions will be looked at for possible additions in the transfer portal as Virginia prepares to lose a large senior class, including at quarterback with Muskett having exhausted his eligibility. One consistent theme from a dejected Virginia locker room on Saturday night in Blacksburg was hope that these lessons learned will be passed on to next year’s team and beyond.
"Ton of things these guys can learn and apply it to the future and I think they will," Virginia defensive end Kam Butler said. "I think this program is going to be even better next year."
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