Virginia coach Tony Elliott challenged his struggling team during its bye week, telling the Cavaliers they still had a chance to change the trajectory of their season.
Elliott’s players were listening.
Xavier Brown caught a touchdown pass and ran for another score, and Virginia snapped a three-game losing streak with a 24-19 victory over No. 23 Pittsburgh on Saturday night that likely ended any chance the Panthers had of crashing the ACC Championship.
“Just super proud of how everyone responded in the program over the last two weeks,” Elliott said after the Cavaliers beat the Panthers for just the third time in 10 meetings since Pitt joined the ACC in 2013. “Lot of reflecting and looking in the mirror.”
And a fair amount of grit, too.
Virginia (5-4, 3-3 ACC) ran for 170 yards and its defense kept the Panthers (7-2, 3-2) in check, limiting Pitt to 292 yards, nearly 120 below what the Cavaliers had been giving up coming in.
“We believe we can win any game that we play,” Elliott said. “It’s good for these guys to come out and play well.”
Anthony Colandrea passed for 143 yards and ran for 40 more for Virginia. He threw a pair of interceptions but also connected with Brown for a perfectly executed 24-yard touchdown in the third quarter that put the Cavaliers up to stay.
The victory put Virginia within one win of becoming bowl-eligible. The Cavaliers haven’t attended a bowl game since making the Orange Bowl following the 2019 season.
Pitt lost quarterback Eli Holstein to an injury in the third quarter when Virginia’s Trey McDonald hit the redshirt freshman high and late while Holstein was trying to slide. McDonald was ejected for targeting.
Holstein — who completed just 10 of 23 passes for 121 yards — went to the locker room to be evaluated and did not return. Panthers coach Pat Narduzzi said Holstein appeared “fine” in the locker room after the game but did not elaborate.
The hit marked the second time in three games Holstein has left early following a blow to the head.
Nate Yarnell, who lost a training camp battle for the starting job to Holstein, struggled in relief. Yarnell completed only 4-of-12 passes for 44 yards with a touchdown and a pair of interceptions.
The first pick, by Virginia safety Jonas Sanker, set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Kobe Pace that put the Cavaliers up 21-13. The second, a heave down the middle of the field with less than two minutes to go, landed in the arms of Virginia’s Corey Thomas. The Cavaliers then ran out the clock to seal it.
Pitt was undone by 11 penalties for 75 yards, including a holding penalty on left tackle Ryan Baer that wiped out a successful two-point conversion following Gavin Barthlomew’s 4-yard touchdown catch that would have tied the game with 10:32 to go.
“It starts with me,” Narduzzi said. “I’ve got to do a better job getting our guys prepared.”
An odd sequence late left Narduzzi and most of the crowd at Acrisure Stadium incensed.
The Cavaliers had the ball on 4th and 1 at the Pitt 24 with just more than five minutes to go nursing a two-point lead. Virginia opted to go for it and Pitt appeared to stuff a sneak by Grady Brosterhous. But referee Nate Black called off the play, saying officials were not in proper position at the snap.
Virginia took advantage of the reprieve by converting on a play that actually counted, letting the Cavaliers bleed the clock some more before a 32-yard field goal by Will Bettridge that boosted their cushion to five.
“At the end, they got five downs,” Narduzzi said. “And haven’t seen that many times in my career.”
Asked if he was given an explanation, Narduzzi — whose criticism of the officials earlier in the season led to the program getting fined — shrugged.
“To be honest, I have no idea. It’s a great question,” he said. “I’m sure (the ACC) will answer that for us on Monday or Tuesday.”
The Cavaliers showed a physicality they’ve lacked at times, even running the ball effectively in the red zone, which had been an issue earlier in the season.
For Pitt, meanwhile, the offense seems to be regressing the deeper the Panthers get into conference play. The unit was out of sync all night thanks to a mishmash of procedure penalties, dropped passes and poor protection.
