Since offensive coordinator Des Kitchings took over Virginia's offense ahead of the 2022 season, the Cavaliers have had an average offense more often than not.
In terms of points per game, Virginia's offense was putrid during its first three seasons under Kitchings.
- 2022: 17.0 (No. 14 in ACC, No. 126 nationally)
- 2023: 23.3 (No. 12 in ACC, No. 90 nationally)
- 2024: 22.7 (No. 16 in ACC, No. 105 nationally)
- 2025: 30.8 (No. 7 in ACC, No. 41 nationally)
- 2026: 30.0 (No. 11 in ACC, No. 58 nationally)
Things changed in 2025. With quarterback Chandler Morris leading the way, the Cavaliers offense flourished. Remember this. It is an outlier, and will be explained later.
Virginia entered the 2026 season with an offensive line graded No. 10 in the country (Phil Steele), and an offense infused with veteran talent. The Cavaliers also kept some key returning players from the ACC's seventh-best offense in 2025. It was expected that they would perform well.
Through seven games, Virginia now has the ACC's seventh-worst offense. And it continues to struggle. Over their past three Power Four games, the Cavaliers are averaging just 16 points per game. Keep in mind that while Virginia is averaging 30 points per game on the season, one was against an FCS opponent and another was against a Conference USA team.
Without those blowouts over Norfolk State and Delaware, the Cavaliers are averaging 21.8 points per game — on par with the other three mediocre offensive seasons in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Even with a few key injuries and a handful of drops and errors, those numbers are indefensible, and most aptly categorized as "not good." It's mainly Kitchings' fault.
Virginia's 23-13 loss at No. 24 SMU is the perfect case study.
In the first half against the Mustangs, running back Jekail Middlebrook recorded 71 total yards. He was the life force of the Cavaliers offense. Kitchings only schemed the ball to him three times in the second half (he ended up with a fourth touch on a progression from the quarterback).
In what conceivable universe is it a good idea to limit Middlebrook's usage when he was performing so well in a must-win? After Virginia fell into a 16-10 deficit in the third quarter, the Cavaliers ran the ball a grand total of one time with their running backs — and Xay Davis took it for 11 yards.
The craziest part is that the Cavaliers were missing two starting receivers (Rico Flores Jr. and Kam Courtney). That should mean a sizable increase in carries. Instead, Kitchings dropped his quarterback back or put him in positions to scramble around for a loss. Virginia should have ran the ball ad nauseum.
The Cavaliers managed to score just three points in the final two quarters. Entering that game, Virginia had run the ball more than any other team in the ACC. It didn't when it needed to Saturday.
Postgame, Coach Tony Elliott said Middlebrook's limited usage was because they "were trying to stay fresh ... and also didn't get much rhythm." It would be laughable, except for the sad fact that Virginia is now sinking into the abyss of ACC purgatory. The Cavaliers needed to beat SMU in order to keep pace in the ACC title race.
This was just one game. It was a winnable game against a strong opponent, and the loss tanks the season's future, but still — just one game.
The kicker is, Kitchings has made similar mind-boggling decisions before. A lot.
In 2023 and 2024, Virginia waffled between two starting quarterbacks, as Anthony Colandrea and Tony Muskett split starts. In the back end of 2024, though, there were rumblings of benching Colandrea after he had made several starts in a row. Elliott said that he and his staff would consider that carefully, saying "you make a change, then that’s your permanent change.”
Virginia started Muskett for the season finale anyway. Colandrea then entered the transfer portal. Elliott's response to that was “I was planning on [Colandrea] coming back and being the guy for us going forward."
It is certainly not all on Kitchings, but he did play a role in the quarterback inconsistencies and general struggles. From 2022 to 2024, every ACC team had a 6-6 season (or better) except for the Cavaliers.
But 2025 was different. Morris was dominating.
Before the season began, Morris met with Elliott and Kitchings and shared concepts he wanted to implement into the offense. Morris came from the Air Raid system in which a pass-heavy approach was the norm.
So when he became Virginia's starter, the Cavaliers turned outlet passes into wheel routes. They emphasized the direct snap play, consistent deep shots off play action, mesh concepts and often tried flea flicker plays.
That 2025 magic disappeared when Morris left and Beau Pribula became the starter. However, Kitchings still has all the plays he and Elliott schemed up with Morris and has not been using them nearly as often as he used to.
The direct snap play could be the signature play of this offense. Instead it sits in the playbook, underused until the past two games. The talent on this team has been squandered by the coach calling the plays. And it will continue to be this way as long as Kitchings is leading this offense.
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