UVa's PFF grades following regular season finale against Tech

According to the evaluators at PFF College, Virginia had the best offense of the Bronco Mendenhall era during the regular season—and also the worst defense of Mendenhall’s six seasons.

This surely comes as no surprise to anyone who has followed the Wahoos this year. UVa finished the regular season ranked third in the country in total offense—and 123rd in total defense. The Hoos scored 34.6 points per game—and gave up 31.8. The Cavaliers’ pass offense ranked second nationally—and the run defense 123rd. Their final record: 6-6.

The cumulative season grades from PFF College reflect that same drastic disparity between the two sides of the ball. Heading into a yet-to-be-determined bowl game, Virginia’s overall season grade on offense is sterling 87.9; on defense, a lowly 56.2.

The best full-season grade for a UVa offense under coordinator Robert Anae was last year’s 76.0 (following a 74.6 in 2018 and 75.3 in 2018). The lowest full-season for defensive coordinator Nick Howell’s unit was a 73.6 in 2016, the season that the new coaching staff first arrived.

Heading into this weekend’s conference championships and the subsequent postseason, UVa’s offensive grade ranks 19th in the country and third (behind Wake Forest and Pitt, the two division champions) in the ACC. The unit’s season grade hit its high point following the Wahoos’ Week 2 win against Illinois, when its 89.7 ranked fourth nationally. The low point for the offense came after the loss at BYU, when its cumulative grade sunk to 83.1.

The offense’s Dean’s list-level performance was led by quarterback Brennan Armstrong, who put up record-breaking numbers in his 11 starts. Armstrong’s 91.9 season grade ranks third nationally among quarterbacks who have taken at least 350 drop-backs this season. On Wednesday, he finished second behind Pitt’s Kenny Pickett in the voting for both ACC player of the year and the conference’s offensive player of the year.

Among receivers with at least 75 targets, ’football player’ Keytaon Thompson finished the regular season ranked second in the league and 13th nationally with an 85.5 season grade. Dontayvion Wicks was 37th overall and sixth in the ACC on that same list with a 78.8. Jelani Woods was one of just nine tight ends in the country (and the only one from the ACC) to be targeted 70 times; his 77.1 season grade ranked fifth among them.

On the offensive line, Olu Oluwatimi has been one of the best centers in the country this year. Among centers who have played at least 500 snaps, Oluwatimi graded out as best in the ACC in both overall performance (79.4) and as a run blocker (90.2). That run-blocking grade ranks third nationally; his overall grade 12th.

“I'm proud of the offensive steps we took. Everyone, not just me,” Armstrong said following Saturday night’s 29-24 loss to Virginia Tech. “I mean, shoot. We were soaring. It’s just, right now a sour taste with the game.”

That loss to Tech marked the third time this season that the UVa defense earned a PFF game grade below 50. The unit earned a 49.1 against the Hokies, better than only the 43.7 the defense received following the loss at BYU and the 38.3—worst of the Mendenhall era—after the loss at North Carolina.

Out of 130 FBS team, UVa’s 56.2 season grade on defense ranks 116th—but ahead of both Georgia Tech and Duke among ACC schools. (Those two teams combined to go 6-18 and win just two ACC games.) Virginia’s cumulative defensive grade peaked at 67.9 after the Hoos shut out William & Mary to open the season; it bottomed out at 53.2 after the Wahoos’ weaknesses were exposed in Chapel Hill.

A four-game winning streak helped the Hoos boost that cumulative grade to a 61.5 heading into the BYU trip. But the defense never cracked 60 for the season again while ending the year with four straight losses.

“Honestly, I just believe it was execution,” linebacker Elliott Brown said after the Virginia Tech loss. “The more you execute, the better that record will look. So I think that’s what we have to work on.”

Below is a grade card showing how the top 10 offensive and defensive players fared in the regular season finale against Tech as well as a cumulative grade through the full regular season for the offense and defense with comparisons to national ranking. (For more on how Pro Football Focus grades, we post an explanation at the bottom of this story).

Takeaways: According to PFF evaluators, Saturday’s game was the best of Billy Kemp’s career. Kemp finished with eight for 102 yards, marking the fifth time this fall that he caught at least eight passes and the second time he broke the 100-yard mark. … Saturday marked just the fourth time this year that Armstrong failed to score at least an 80 game grade. Armstrong’s grade got dinged by a second-quarter interception, his 10th of the season, which tied Wake’s Sam Hartman for most in the ACC. … Saturday marked the sixth time this season that Oluwatimi graded out as UVa’s best O-lineman, and the third time he graded as the Hoos’ best lineman in pass protection (77.5), where he narrowly out-performed left guard Ryan Nelson (75.4). … Right guard Chris Glaser graded out as UVa’s best run blocker on the O-line with a 76.5, his best game grade of the season in that aspect. … Maligned by drops all night against the Hokies, Wicks earned his worst overall grade (55.3) and worst grade in the pass game (55.4) of the season. … Thompson had his worst overall score since the UNC loss; like Armstrong, his grade also took a hit after a costly second-half fumble.

Takeaways: Buoyed by a team-best 72.4 in run defense, corner Darrius Bratton finished with his best game grade since re-entering the starting secondary against Georgia Tech. He was only targeted in coverage three times for one completion. … Anthony Johnson and Nick Grant had the Cavaliers’ two PBUs and graded out as UVa’s top two performers in pass coverage, with Grant (75.3) edging Johnson (75.0). … The defense matched its season high with four sacks against the Hokies. After finishing with half of those, Brown (72.2) graded out as UVa’s best pass rusher. … Safety Joey Blount (84.8) and inside linebacker Nick Jackson (83.0) were the Wahoos’ two best tacklers. It was the fourth time this season that Blount’s tackling grade surpassed 80, and the fifth time for Jackson, the team’s leading tackler this season. … Defensive back Coen King received a 46.2 overall game grade, his worst of the season. The Hokies completed both of the passes thrown in King’s direction, including the 61-yard touchdown that got Tech on the board in the first quarter.

As mentioned above, UVa ended the regular season ranked 19th nationally and third in the league with an 87.9 cumulative grade on offense. The Wahoos’ passing grade remained at No. 10 nationally for a second straight week. The season grades for the Virginia offense after 12 games::

Passing—87.6 (last week 88.0)

Running—88.9 (last week 88.5)

Pass blocking—71.8 (last week 72.8)

Receiving—80.5 (last week 80.3)

Run blocking—76.1 (last week 76.0)

Virginia ends the regular season near the bottom of the FBS rankings not only with that 56.2 overall defensive grade, but also in QB pressure (121st) and against the run (126th). That run-defense grade is a new low for the unit this season. The defense’s cumulative season grads after 12 games:

Coverage—73.5 (last week 73.2)

Tackling—71.6 (last week 71.1)

Pressure—64.3 (last week 64.1)

Run defense—39.0 (last week 42.7)

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An explanation from PFF on how the grading scale works:

On every play, a PFF analyst will grade each player on a scale of -2 to +2 according to what he did on the play.

At one end of the scale you have a catastrophic game-ending interception or pick-six from a quarterback, and at the other a perfect deep bomb into a tight window in a critical game situation, with the middle of that scale being 0-graded, or ‘expected’ plays that are neither positive nor negative.

Each game is also graded by a second PFF analyst independent of the first, and those grades are compared by a third, Senior Analyst, who rules on any differences between the two. These grades are verified by the Pro Coach Network, a group of former and current NFL coaches with over 700 combined years of NFL coaching experience, to get them as accurate as they can be.

From there, the grades are normalized to better account for game situation; this ranges from where a player lined up to the dropback depth of the quarterback or the length of time he had the ball in his hand and everything in between. They are finally converted to a 0-100 scale and appear in our Player Grades Tool.

Season-level grades aren’t simply an average of every game-grade a player compiles over a season, but rather factor in the duration at which a player performed at that level. Achieving a grade of 90.0 in a game once is impressive, doing it (12) times in a row is more impressive.

It is entirely possible that a player will have a season grade higher than any individual single-game grade he achieved, because playing well for an extended period of time is harder to do than for a short period, Similarly, playing badly for a long time is a greater problem than playing badly once, so the grade can also be compounded negatively.

Each week, grades are subject to change while we run through our extensive review process including All-22 tape runs and coaching audit, so you may notice discrepancies among grades published in earlier articles compared with those in the Player Grades tool until grade lock each week.