NASHVILLE — Roughly 15 minutes before Virginia and 12th-ranked Tennessee kicked off Saturday afternoon, tens of thousands of fans clad in the Volunteers’ orange and white stood, turned their heads toward either end of Nissan Stadium and fell silent.
Tennessee
For still-mourning Virginia, a lopsided loss to Tennessee feels like a win
It was another step in the healing process for a Cavaliers team playing its first game since a shooting on the school grounds in November claimed the lives of Davis, Chandler and Perry and left another player, Mike Hollins, severely wounded.
That the Cavaliers lost, 49-13, on a sweltering afternoon became all but incidental as the rebuilding program continues to seek some semblance of normalcy following unimaginable loss.
“Just to see them get a chance to play football was the victory for me,” Virginia Coach Tony Elliott said. “Obviously we’ve got a lot of work to do. I know ultimately we’ll be judged by what the scoreboard says, but internally as a program, I couldn’t be more proud of a group of young men, an administration, a staff that fought. I mean, what we had to endure is unprecedented. Still it’s hard to quantify and put into words and wrap your head around it.”
The competitive portion of Virginia’s first game in 294 days concluded when the Volunteers scored touchdowns on consecutive possessions to open the third quarter.
The first came courtesy of quarterback Joe Milton III’s one-yard touchdown run with 10:52 left in the quarter. Running back Dylan Sampson, who finished with three rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown, added a two-yard score to give the Volunteers a 35-3 lead with 7:23 to play in the period.
The Cavaliers, who elected not to play their final two games last season in deference to the families of their slain teammates, did not reach the end zone until running back Perris Jones scored on a 17-yard run with 3:05 left in the third quarter.
By then, Tennessee’s superior athletes had more than recovered from gaffes they made in the first half that allowed the Cavaliers to remain in striking distance. Wide receiver Ramel Keyton, for instance, dropped a pass after he got wide open behind the Virginia secondary in the first quarter. Tennessee also lost a fumble on a punt return on the final play of the quarter.
Virginia, however, stalled offensively behind first-year quarterback Tony Muskett, a senior transfer from Monmouth. The Springfield, Va., native finished 9-for-17 passing for 94 yards while frequently under heavy duress and handling low snaps.
Muskett exited the game early in the fourth quarter after he took a sack and held his left shoulder in visible discomfort. Freshman Anthony Colandrea replaced Muskett, who will be evaluated further when the team gets back to Charlottesville.
A Virginia defense that mostly acquitted itself admirably in the first half wound up yielding 499 yards — more than in any game last season — including 115 yards on 12 carries to Tennessee tailback Jaylen Wright. Milton completed 21 of 30 attempts for 201 yards and two touchdowns before sitting out most of the fourth quarter.
Virginia yielded its most points since Oct. 31, 2021, when it lost on the road to BYU, 66-49. Saturday’s loss came in front of an announced crowd of 69,507, the largest attendance for an athletic event at Nissan Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans.
“You want to win every game regardless of the circumstances,” Virginia junior safety Jonas Sanker said. “But obviously taking a loss like this, the most important thing is not to be outcome-driven and just not letting one game determine your season.”
Amid the disheartening result, though, one of the more inspirational moments of the game unfolded when Hollins stepped onto the field early in the first quarter and carried for one yard. The negligible gain did little to diminish the uplifting return of the graduate running back whose recovery served as a beacon for a community in mourning.
Hollins was shot in the back and underwent several surgeries after a bullet barely missed his spinal cord. He improbably was able to participate in spring practice four months later, even scoring a touchdown in the spring game at Scott Stadium and patting the turf in the end zone to acknowledge Davis, Chandler and Perry, his closest friend on the team.
The Cavaliers are commemorating the lives of Davis, Chandler and Perry in several ways this season. Select players are wearing legacy patches stitched with their name, number and years spent at Virginia.
Senior defensive end Paul Akere, who shared the No. 1 with Davis last season, and wide receiver Suderian Harrison, who attended the same high school as Davis, are wearing Davis’s legacy patch this year.
Kicker Will Bettridge changed his number from 17 to 41 in honor of Perry, a high school teammate in Miami, and is wearing his legacy patch. Defensive end Chico Bennett Jr. shared the No. 15 with Chandler and is wearing his patch.
“Every day they’re reminded of what happened, and not everybody is done grieving or healing,” Elliott said of his players. “We’re still healing as an institution, as an athletic department, as a program. We’ve got families, individuals that are still grieving and still healing. The good thing is we were able to get to this point, and even though the outcome didn’t go the way that we wanted it to go, the guys can have confidence in knowing [they] can do it.”