Five Takeaways From Virginia Football’s 37-17 Loss to Virginia Tech

Virginia had its 2024 football season come to an end with a 37-17 loss to Virginia Tech on Saturday night in Blacksburg. Here are our five key takeaways from UVA’s defeat in the Commonwealth Clash.

Let’s get the increasingly lopsided numbers of this “rivalry” updated and out of the way right off the bat. With Saturday night’s result, Virginia Tech has won the last four meetings with Virginia and 19 of the last 20 Commonwealth Clash games. The Hokies have won the last 12 games against UVA in Blacksburg and the Cavaliers haven’t won at Lane Stadium since 1998. Virginia Tech now leads the all-time series with Virginia 62-38-5.

All things considered, Virginia played a second half that could have been worthy of this being a more competitive game. The Hokies won the second half 17-14 and outgained the Cavaliers 202-190, but absent a few crucial plays (the turnover on downs on UVA’s first drive, Muskett’s second interception, Kam Robinson’s missed tackle on Bhayshul Tuten’s 58-yard touchdown run), it almost felt like Virginia was right there. Almost.

Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, they completely dropped the ball in the first half on both sides. Virginia Tech sustained two long scoring drives right away and UVA barely possessed the ball in the first quarter. When Virginia finally got on the board, the Hokies immediately fired back with a 66-yard touchdown pass to Jaylin Lane. The score was 20-3 at halftime and it felt like the game was over.

We’ve seen different variations of the same story every year in the Commonwealth Clash. This time, Virginia’s defense, which almost singlehandedly won games for UVA against Boston College and Pittsburgh and played admirably well in losses to Louisville and Notre Dame, looked out of sorts and outmatched trying to defend against a redshirt freshman making his first career start at quarterback. You wouldn’t have guessed that was the case by just watching Pop Watson play on Saturday night, as he threw for 254 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 48 yards and another score. UVA couldn’t pressure Watson, contain him to the pocket, or keep track of his receivers. And once again, Virginia Tech seemed to be at least a level or two above Virginia in terms of physicality… what else is new.

Tony Elliott said it would be all hands on deck vs. Virginia Tech and that ended up being the case. The Cavaliers went with Tony Muskett at quarterback over Anthony Colandrea and had Chris Tyree operating at running back for the first time with Kobe Pace and Xavier Brown both out with injuries. The results were….. mixed. UVA ultimately showed some nice signs in the second half, stringing together back-to-back touchdown drives in the third quarter. But the problem is that the season is now over, so those “signs” don’t matter much now. More importantly, those positive signs were bereft of meaning because of how horrific the first half was.

By the time Muskett, Des Kitchings, and the UVA offense “figured it out” enough to get the ball moving down the field, it was too late. Muskett ran the ball effectively and made some nice throws, particularly to Suderian Harrison, but none of it was consistent enough to amount to making this a ball game. The biggest indictment on the Virginia offense was the lack of production from Malachi Fields, who had just two receptions for 20 yards on five targets in what could be his last game as a Cavalier.

The more pessimistic (or maybe realistic) segment of the UVA fanbase was all over this from the beginning. They didn’t buy Virginia’s 4-1 start for a second and they were right, as the Hoos lost six of their last seven games to finish at 5-7 overall. Even with a big win at Pittsburgh in week 11, the Cavaliers still fell short of bowl eligibility for a third season in a row. The home loss to North Carolina in week 9 was more disappointing versus expectations, but Virginia will continue to struggle to win six games as long as the final game of the season is an automatic loss.

In a game between two mediocre to below-average teams who both needed to win to reach bowl eligibility, the Hokies wanted it more and showed it on the field.

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