Virginia is in an increasingly precarious situation. The Cavaliers fell at SMU by a score of 23-13, in a game that sparked more questions than answers.
Coach Tony Elliott provided some answers postgame. Here are important notes from Virginia's head coach:
Why did Virginia abandon the run game?
The Cavaliers only ran the ball once after back-to-back three-and-outs to begin the third quarter. That one carry went for 11 yards. Why did Virginia ditch its core offensive philosophy?
"Just trying to stay fresh," Elliott said. "You ride a guy like that, and so [we wanted to mix] it up, next man up. But again, we also didn't get much rhythm. I think we only had what maybe like eight to nine possessions total, right? And again, that was part of our our strategy, which meant that if we were going to to be able to work it to to the level we wanted to, we were going to have to maximize every possession that we had, and I think we lost two there in the first part of the other third quarter."
That answer could be interpreted in different ways. However, most would agree that the decision to shift away from the run is still confusing given that the Cavaliers were in a close game for most of the afternoon.
What did Elliott tell Billy Koudelka after costly penalty?
Virginia and SMU were tied 10-10, and about to head into halftime — but defensive Billy Koudelka hit quarterback Kevin Jennings out of bounds. That was a 15-yard penalty which gave the Mustangs a chance at a field goal.
The Cavaliers went into halftime trailing 13-10.
"I don't know if that was was momentum changing," Elliott said. "I mean, it was three points that that we ended up having to chase in the second half, but the guys were fine. My message to Billy was, 'man, I love you. I know you weren't intentionally trying to to make a make a mistake, and your brothers in the locker room are going to pick you up, and we're going to find a way to go to go overcome it.'"
"So I don't think that was was the issue because the energy in the locker room was was really good at at halftime. In the second half, we just didn't make enough plays in all three phases like we were making those plays, in my opinion, in the first half."
What happened on Beau Pribula's redzone fumble?
Early in the game, Virginia had marched deep into Mustangs territory. The Cavaliers were going to punch first and take an early lead — that was, until quarterback Beau Pribula fumbled the ball as he tried to pull it back on an option play.
"That was a missed opportunity because right there we could have we could have went up by seven, but three at the at the worst right there," Elliott said. "But then again, they came back and they responded. So then they maximized all the rest of their their possessions throughout the first half so I'm not gonna say that's the [difference]. It's really plays that you don't see that end up kind of making the difference in the game."
Whatever the difference may be, SMU won it.
The Cavaliers have some deep rethinking to do ahead of their next game against Duke. It will be a short week, as the Blue Devils arrive for a Friday night clash at Scott Stadium.
"And we'll get back," Elliott said. "We'll get on the film. That's why I told the guys that man, ACC football is hard, right? Everybody's you know battling their their tails off, and and man, we ain't got time to feel sorry for ourselves. We got to own our mistakes and and collectively get better and and go back to work."
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