Two weeks ago, a quarterback came to Scott Stadium and went 23 for 28 for 443 yards and four touchdowns….and UVa won. On Saturday, another quarterback came to Scott Stadium and ran for 197 yards and two TDs….and yet UVa still won. And in between, the Cavaliers had their bye week blown up by a postponement.
If there was any doubt about the weirdness of 2020 (there wasn’t), the above paragraph does a fine job of underlining the reality of the situation.
But what the above paragraph and recent results for UVa truly do is provide concrete evidence that this season—more than any other—all that matters is the result no matter how weird things look. And frankly, that probably doesn’t matter all that much either.
To be fair, that’s not to say the wins aren’t good for the program and certainly good for the players. They have been through more than most of us will ever know. But with student-athletes getting an additional year and with the wonkiness of schedules bending to COVID-19’s fickle will, there’s really no way to know what will happen next and no real reason to think it says much of anything other than “This is what happened.”
Sure, there will be coaches on the hot seat—perhaps even down in Blacksburg—but the long and short of it is that this year will (hopefully) be seen by most in the future as a blip.
On the field, nothing about this fall has been business as usual, right down to an experienced Cavalier defense faltering in ways few expected even before injuries ravaged the secondary.
Across the landscape of college football, that’s been the case too: There is no “normal.”
There is only chaos. And when the wheel stops spinning, you just hope you’re on the right side of things.
Case in point: Louisville took the field Saturday without numerous contributors, including two of its three best offensive players and the conventional wisdom was that UVa’s solid run D would be able to slow the Cards down. Some 317 rushing yards later, that obviously didn’t end up being the case.
Yet the Wahoos still won by two scores and held UL to just 17 points. Malik Cunningham put on a show, that’s for sure. But UVa also turned the Cardinals over three times. That included a pick-6 by Noah Taylor that went for 85 yards, the third-longest INT return in school history, and a key strip and recovery by Nick Grant in the fourth quarter that set UVa for another score on the way to the W.
“It was a tough, tough game, a tough victory, and very competitive and hard fought,” Bronco Mendenhall said. “I was proud of our team from beginning to end. There were things we can correct, there are things we did well, there are lessons to be learned just like there is every week. But I feel momentum. I see some consistency, moving and growing. I like how it’s shaping and how it’s framing up for the last part of the season. I’m really lucky to be the coach. I love my team. I’m really impressed with Brennan (Armstrong) and his leadership. The stage is set for the next game and that’s where our focus will be.”
Armstrong had a solid day overall, passing for 200 yards and a TD while also running for team-high 60 yards with a pair of scores.
With Keytaon Thompson unavailable, the Cavaliers had to be careful running him and what Armstrong got on the ground was of his own making.
“Yeah we really didn’t call too many quarterback runs tonight – I don’t remember calling any,” he said. “We saw a lot of our zone-reads we had pulls off of, but I told myself coming into the game not to be timid just because that won’t help me in any way. I really tried to focus on myself, just run and try to get down more often. Don’t be timid, come to the game like you normally would and I felt good, honestly.”
With the Hoos now at 3-4 overall with an identical ACC record thus far, things could be shifting. After hosting Abilene Christian this weekend, they go to Tallahassee the following week before returning for the home finale against Boston College. Though the Eagles have improved, all of those games are very winnable.
That could put the Cavaliers potentially at 6-4 heading down to Lane Stadium on December 12th.
But then again, the lesson of 2020 looms: Take nothing for granted and try not to be too rigid in your thinking.
“Man, it’s just really hard to have framed any of the games on what they might mean and what the context might be,” Mendenhall said. “But as the season unfolded, and is unfolding, after our UNC win last week, this became just short of essential for this team to have the season, but also a chance to demonstrate just how committed they are. And they’ve shown that through their protocols and the changes in our roster – but not as many as most teams and they want to play, and they’re showing that.
“I think they demonstrated that again tonight,” he added. “And we’re modifying, we’re changing as much as possible, but so is Louisville, right? They have the same challenges with guys being out. But this game became, I think for both teams, really important for maybe the results oriented-profession this is, of having the wins that we want to get.”
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