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I think, bigger than the loss, which felt inevitable, the way Virginia has been playing with fire the past few weeks, is the feeling from the outside looking in that the coaching staff is out of answers with what to do to get the offense rolling again. The ‘Hoos are averaging 21.8 points and 316.0 yards per game over their past five, after putting up 45.6 points and 539.6 yards per game in the first five. We won’t even go into how the defense scored two TDs in the OT win at Louisville, had the game-winning safety in the win over Washington State, had a game-sealing picksix in the win at Cal. Or how accounting for that, the offense is actually only responsible for 17.0 points per game over the past five. ICYMI UVA Football: What’s the word on the status of QB1 Chandler Morris? UVA Football: Daniel Kaelin gets trial-by-fire at quarterback in loss to Wake I hear, and get, the frustrations from fans, who wonder why Des Kitchings, the offensive coordinator, was calling a QB keeper Saturday night for a guy with a bum shoulder, then called another one for the backup QB three plays after the starter was walked into the locker room after taking two cheap shots and getting knocked out of the game. The swinging gate on third-and-goal at the 5, seriously? The third-and-7 run at midfield in the third quarter, also a head-scratcher. I bring all of that up to just observe – Kitchings was also the one dialing things up when the offense was rolling earlier in the year. I wouldn’t begin to think I actually know better than a guy who has done this for several college programs. All I’m qualified to say is, it ain’t workin’, and it ain’t been working for a while. Inside the Numbers O-line grades: Pro Football Focus graded the O line’s pass blocking at 67.0, which ranks fifth among the 10 games in 2025. The run blocking got a 55.7 grade, which ranks eighth. Pressure: Our eyes told us that Chandler Morris and Daniel Kaelin were under constant pressure. The PFF numbers tell another story. Morris, per PFF, was pressured on only one of his six dropbacks; Kaelin was pressured on 10 of his 31 dropbacks. Both of Wake’s sacks (both on Kaelin) came on standard four-man pressure. Four O-line starters went all 64 offensive snaps: Wilson, at center, tackles McKale Boley and Jack Witmer, and left guard Noah Josey. Right guard Drake Metcalf got 52 snaps, and backup Ethan Sipe got 14 (including two on six-man lines). The defense held the Wake offense to 203 total yards, the lowest for a UVA opponent this season, and the fourth time the D has held an opponent under 300 yards (Coastal Carolina, William & Mary, Cal). The seven pass breakups in the Wake game is, you know, a lot, but not a single-game high – the D has nine PBUs versus Coastal Carolina, and eight versus Louisville. The 47 PBUs on the season ranks sixth nationally this season. For reference, Virginia’s 37 PBUs in 2024 ranked 84th. The party line: A lot to still play for And I mean, this, technically, true. Virginia wasn’t going to get a CFP at-large bid if it won out in the regular season and lost in Charlotte, so as it stands, win the final two, and you’re likely to see this team in the ACC Championship Game with a chance to play its way in. “I talked to them in the locker room, and I told them that all of our goals that we that we started the season are still out there, right?” head coach Tony Elliott told reporters after the 16-9 loss to Wake Forest on Saturday night. “We never had a goal that said we want to go undefeated in the ACC, right? Our goal is to win the conference championship and to win the state championship. And we still have an opportunity ahead of us with the next two ballgames, so let’s not let this beat us twice. Yeah, we got a humble pie. I mean, coaches, players, all of us, we got it. We got it. We got to own it. We got to, you know, go back to work, figure out where we can get better and stay together, because we still got everything ahead of us.” ICYMI Wake Forest 16, ‘Hoos 9: The road to an ACC title-game spot hits a detour UVA Football: Loss to Wake Forest stings, but still a lot left to play for From a motivational standpoint, Elliott is spot-on here. Win the last two, and worst-case, you’re 10-2, and if the tiebreakers don’t work out to get us to Charlotte, we’re 10-2. The x’s and o’s part of this aside, “the biggest challenge for me and the staff is to make sure that we don’t allow this to beat us twice, right?” The last Virginia team to start a season 8-1, in 1990, let that first one – the 41-38 loss to Georgia Tech on another great-weather Saturday in Charlottesville – beat them three more times. And that was back long before there was a such thing as social media, back when there wasn’t a such thing as texting – and still, the pressure of the moment got to the most talented UVA Football roster we may ever see. What Elliott fears: “You know, we start to now fracture and listen to outside voices and do all that kind of stuff.” See above, for the outside voices. What Elliott wants to see: “We’re going to look at this film, and we’re going to realize, man, we had a lot of opportunities that we didn’t capitalize on, we didn’t take advantage of, and eventually, in the month of November, right, that’s what’s going to happen.” Saying the right things I picked up on postgame comments from two team leaders – offensive lineman Brady Wilson and linebacker James Jackson – that seem to reveal that the players are receptive to the message that Elliott has sent. “Go in tomorrow, watch the film, just put it behind you,” Wilson said after the tough loss. “We got a lot of ball left to play, the whole entire season left play right now, you know, it’s all in our it’s in our hands, you know, don’t let one game define us. I mean, before this game, we were on a seven-game win streak, you know. So just can’t let this game define who you are. Just focus on Duke next and then just one game at a time.” Jackson’s comment came in response to a question from a reporter about the team being able to bounce back from a loss, which it hasn’t had to do in a while. “I still remember that feeling in September, I think the team does as well, coming off a game that we feel like we should have won, and we prepared to win, but we didn’t achieve our goal as a team,” Jackson said, referencing the 35-31 loss in Week 2 at NC State, which, yeah, in many ways was everything but a win. ICYMI UVA Football | Red zone issues, what else is new, doom ‘Hoos in 35-31 loss at NC State Five observations | How UVA Football won the statsheet, still lost the game UVA Football Report Card | Grading out the offense in the Week 2 loss to NC State “I feel like we want to bounce back from that, and we have bounced back in the past, and, you know, what we do next is, we go back. That’s what we’re going to do as a team,” Jackson said. “I feel like all the guys are, OK, this happened, you know, you feel it, let it, let it sting. And it stings, it hurts. And we’re kind of fueled by that. That’s what happened in the past, you know, that’s what happened. Guys remember that. And we really felt that pain after a game we felt like we should have won, and after that happened, you know, we’re gonna have some success, and that’s what we want to continue to do.”
