The Result: Virginia got blown out in Blacksburg again, losing to the rival Hokies 37-17 on Saturday night. The loss is UVa’s fourth straight in the rivalry, and will extend their Lane Stadium losing streak to at least 28 years (they play in Blacksburg next in 2026). UVa finishes the season 5-7 and 3-5 in ACC play, and miss bowl eligibility for the third-straight year.

The Turning Point: Tech took control of the game on their first drive, but if there’s a play that killed off hope, it came late in the first half with UVa trailing 10-3. Virginia had Tech in 2nd and 1 with 1:57 to go, and Pop Watson found a coverage bust, hitting Jaylin Lane for a 66-yard touchdown that extended the lead to 17-3. Tech would go on to add three more points before half, and the game was virtually done when the teams went into their respective locker rooms.

The Stat That Tells the Story: The Hokies threw for 254 yards on just 14 completions, averaging 18.1 yards per completion. Virginia allowed a third-string quarterback to throw for 254 yards and the aforementioned big-play touchdown broke the game open.

Wahoo of the Week: We’ll go with Tony Muskett, who was far from perfect, but was UVa’s most-productive offensive player, throwing for 178 and having a surprisingly good rushing game, going for 62 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.

Offense:

Virginia’s offensive ineptitude was the story of the latter half of their season, and despite a quarterback change, the Hoos continued to struggle to move the ball consistently and score points. UVa went into halftime with three points, which was somehow an improvement on back-to-back first-half shutouts in the weeks that followed. UVa got going in the second half with two touchdown drives, but didn’t do much else in the game.

UVa finished the game with 274 yards, 178 through the air and 96 on the ground. They went 5-for-13 on third down, which isn’t good, but is far from their worst efforts. The Cavaliers went 3-for-3 in the red zone, scoring a pair of Muskett TD runs and settling for a field goal in the second quarter, their first points of the game. UVa also lost the turnover battle 2-0, with Muskett sailing a pair of passes for interceptions. Neither had a particularly profound impact on the game, if we’re being honest.

Muskett was up-and-down, and looked like a guy that hadn’t played a ton of football lately. He made mostly good decisions, but was inaccurate on a few throws and made plays here and there. His running was a big part of the game plan with UVa’s running backs banged up and for a time, that was the only offense that seemed to be working. In the passing game, Suderian Harrison had the best game of his career, catching five passes for 54 yards. Malachi Fields was quiet in his final UVa game, catching just two passes for 20 yards on five targets. UVa got Trell Harris back from injury, and while they tried to get him involved early, he was often covered well by Dorian Strong, and had just two catches for 20 yards on six targets.

UVa was down to Noah Vaughn and Chris Tyree in the backfield, and neither were particularly effective. Tyree rushed eight times for 18 yards, and Vaughn had six carries for 16 yards.

It was more of the same from UVa’s offense, mostly. They hit their stride for a little while in the second half, but only once the game was very lopsided, and never got closer than 13 points. Sadly, this was not the worst UVa offense we’ve seen this year, which tells you how bad things have been.

Grade: D-

Defense:

Virginia’s offense has caught a lot of grief, but now its time for the defense to get theirs. UVa’s defense looked lost against Virginia Tech’s offense early in the game, and dug their way into a big hole. We mentioned the big pass plays, but Tech dominated UVa on the ground, too. The Hokies rushed 40 times for 202 yards, including 124 yards and two scores from Bhayshul Tuten on just 18 carries, including a 58-yard score in the 4th quarter.

Tech was 6-for-13 on third downs in the win, and never had to attempt a fourth down. They rushed for 5.1 yards per carry, and won the time-of-possession battle. UVa didn’t force a turnover, and had just two sacks and four TFL’s in the loss. The Hokies made five official trips to the red zone, though one was a kneel down at the end of the game. On their four legitimate red zone trips, UVa’s defense allowed two touchdowns and two field goals.

In watching the game, it seemed the defense was not particularly prepared for what Virginia Tech did offensively. Often, the Hokies would exploit matchup issues or have easy runs available to them. They also hit a few big pass plays, with defenders out of position. UVa also had a terrible missed tackle at the line of scrimmage that sprung Tuten for his 58-yard touchdown run.

As for individual standouts, Kam Robinson and Jonas Sanker led the Hoos with nine tackles each, and Sanker, in his final game with Virginia, had a team-high five solo stops. Trey McDonald added seven tackles and a TFL.

Virginia’s defense is luckly that the offense has been so bad this year, because they’ve taken a bit of a step back down the stretch, too. Virginia’s defense had two really strong performances this year, both following their bye weeks (BC and Pitt). Other than that, they were pretty average most of the time and worse at times, too.

Grade: F

Special Teams:

Not much to report here. Will Bettridge made his one kick of the night, a 37-yard field goal to get the Hoos on the board. Daniel Sparks had no issues with punts or kickoffs, which is frankly somewhat surprising given the fact that UVa always seems to have a critical error against Tech. UVa did have one onside kick attempt, but the Hokies recovered. There wasn’t a ton of action in the return game, either; Tyree had 35 kick return yards on the night. Virginia Tech didn’t have any big special teams plays, either.

Virginia’s special teams were far less a problem this season than in the last two years, but didn’t really find a way to make a big difference on Saturday, or throughout the season.

Grade: C

Coaching Staff:

Tony Elliott said this week that he had changed the tenor of how he talked about this rivalry game with his team, and it was mentioned several times on the broadcast that he had to “educate” his players on this game, as many of them hadn’t played in it, at least in Blacksburg. Well, whatever was done during the week didn’t translate to the field on Saturday night.

Virginia Tech took command of the game from the start, and UVa seemed to be on the back foot after allowing a touchdown on the opening drive. The players tried to play hard and give UVa a shot, but the Hokies seemed to want it more and made the plays. Attitude is one thing, execution can sometimes be another. In Saturday’s game, UVa got out-efforted and out-executed from the start.

For the second year in a row, UVa defensive coordinator John Rudzinski got worked by Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Tyler Bowen. Tech had a good plan for a redshirt freshman QB making his first start, and UVa seemed a step behind on everything, and never made Watson look uncomfortable. Virginia’s offense never really got going, but that’s what we’ve come to expect.

As far as decisions, Elliott opted to punt down 30-17 in the 4th quarter, on 4th and 6 from his own 23, with 8:53 to go. I guess he figured he had enough time to get a stop, score, get another stop, and score again, but it was certainly not a very aggressive decision, especially given the fact that the Hoos had maybe a 5% chance to win the game at that point. What do you have to lose?

Despite all that’s been said, UVa is still not quite ready for primetime in this rivalry game. Perhaps another 365 days of education is in order if the Cavaliers are going to make it a game in 2025.

Grade: F