Column: UVa's win at Miami could prove a season changer
It’s the plight of UVa fans everywhere that only the Wahoos could make the past two short weeks feel very, very long. And truth be told, if Andres Borregales doesn’t bang a 33-yard field-goal attempt off the left upright in the closing seconds last Thursday night in Miami Gardens, the quasi-long week heading to Louisville next Saturday afternoon would’ve felt longer.
Much longer.
But, as is the way with these kinds of things, that attempt did indeed clang off that upright and with it, Virginia (3-2, 1-2 ACC) left South Florida headed home with a win later that evening instead of another kick in the stomach.
It was unlike most any other UVa game this season, what with Brennan Armstrong looking a little less Heisman-like, (25 for 44 passing for 268 yards with a touchdown and an interception), with the running game being a much bigger part of the offensive production, and with the defense making a number of key plays to keep the Cavaliers in a position to threaten.
It should be noted that Miami was without its starting quarterback as well as its backup, leaving “true” freshman Tyler Van Dyke—a former four-star Rivals250 prospect in the class of 2020 who saw limited action last fall—to make his first career start.
Then again, UVa fans likely saw that and expected the worst. That usually happens, right? Whatever they expected, it was likely far worse than the 15-for-29, 203-yard evening he had on Thursday. He scored twice, once through the air and once on the ground, and put his team in a spot to win it late. Except it didn’t.
But that’s where the football gods chose a different path. The question now for the Cavaliers is: To what end?
Look, every season requires a recalibration at some point. In 2019, after Bryce Perkins and Co. beat FSU only to stumble early against Old Dominion the following week, it was back to back losses at Notre Dame and at Miami that signaled the shift. The Hoos bounced back and blew out Duke and then rattled off four wins in the final five games of the regular season on the way to a Coastal crown. Last fall, the tweaking of the knobs came much earlier, in a disappointing 38-21 loss to NC State in the season’s third game. Granted, it was the second in a four-game losing streak for Bronco Mendenhall’s bunch but it did a good job of setting the record straight on what the COVID-impacted slate would look like going forward.
It felt like Carolina’s 59-39 bludgeoning of the Cavaliers was primed to be this season’s turning point. Again in Week 3 of the season, it was the whiplash between the good vibes of an Illinois rout to the doldrums of a winning streak over the Heels snapped—and how it happened—that left such a bruise.
The 37-17 home loss to Wake Forest six days later did nothing to salve the wound.
No, only that Borregales banger of a different sort could do that. In one instant, fans went from pending doom to unexpected elation. Realistically, there have been very few times over the years when Wahoos fans have found themselves on this end of a heartbreaker.
The question now becomes: What more does 2021 have in store?
UVa heads to the Derby City this coming weekend to face a Louisville team that just suffered a heartbreak of its own. Win there and the Hoos would be 4-2 with an even 2-2 record in the league when they return home to host Duke for Homecomings. The matchup with the Cardinals will begin a pivotal three-game stretch where the story of Virginia’s season will largely be told. Beat UL, Duke, and then Georgia Tech and no matter what happens in Provo the day before Halloween, the Cavaliers will be in an intriguing spot. That is less the case if they go 2-1 and especially untrue if the fair any worse. But suddenly Notre Dame seems beatable. Pitt the following weekend less so. Virginia Tech? Who bloody knows.
What is for sure, though, is that for those glorious few minutes Thursday night Virginia fans finally got a chance to see what happens when certain doom rapidly renders instead into instant euphoria. It might not have made all of the screaming for the previous few hours any less warranted but it sure did make going to bed that night—and the subsequent few days—must easier. Albeit, many of you were probably more hoarse for it.
Now, did it change the complexion of UVa’s season?
That’s a question for which only time will provide an answer.
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