Tag: Cavs

Virginia head coach Tony Elliott was upset with a player who was called for a penalty late in their game against U of L at the L&N Stadium in Louisville, Ky. on Nov. 9, 2023.

No. 10 Clemson vies to extend win streak in clash vs. Tony Elliott, Virginia

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Virginia coach Tony Elliott will return to Clemson on Saturday afternoon as a huge underdog against the 10th-ranked Tigers.

Clemson (5-1, 4-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) has won five straight games since a season-opening loss to then-No. 1 Georgia. The Tigers opened the week as a three-touchdown favorite against the visiting Cavaliers (4-2, 2-1).

Elliott played wide receiver at Clemson and coached at his alma mater under Dabo Swinney for 11 seasons from 2011-21, winning two national championships. He was Swinney’s offensive coordinator the last time Virginia visited Death Valley, in 2020.

“That’s going to be a little strange, for sure,” Swinney said of facing his longtime staff member. “Tony is just family to me. Not just somebody that I have worked with.”

Elliott was a team captain in his final season at Clemson in 2003, which was Swinney’s first year as an assistant coach for the Tigers.

“I’m sure there will be some cool moments for him coming in,” Swinney said. “Maybe a little weird moment here or there. Being in the visiting locker room and all that type of stuff on the other side of it. But at the end of the day, it’s about the game and not any circumstances. You don’t get distracted by any circumstances of the game. Just focus on the game and what you got to do to be ready to play.”

Elliott, now in his third year at Virginia, said he will have to put his emotions aside and make the visit to Clemson, S.C., a business trip.

“That’s one of the best relationships I have in all of my life,” Elliott said about Swinney, per the Daily Progress. “And it’s been awesome to see him start as a father figure and then to my position coach to mentor to colleague. That’s Coach Swinney. But we’re going down there and we want to beat him.”

It won’t be easy.

After going scoreless in the first quarter, Clemson rolled to a 49-14 win at Wake Forest last weekend. Cade Klubnik passed for 309 yards and three touchdowns, Phil Mafah ran for 108 yards and two scores, and Jake Briningstool caught seven passes for 104 yards and one TD.

The Tigers rank second in the ACC in scoring (41 points per game) and total offense (482.3 yards per game). Mafah is third in the league in rushing (604 yards), and Klubnik is third in touchdown passes (17) while throwing just two interceptions.

The Tigers will face a Virginia team that already has more wins than in either of Elliott’s first two seasons: 3-7 in 2022 and 3-9 in 2023.

The Cavaliers were two minutes away from being 5-1 last weekend before Louisville scored a late touchdown for a 24-20 victory in Charlottesville, Va. Anthony Colandrea passed for 279 yards and a touchdown and ran for a team-high 84 yards. Malachi Fields caught nine passes for 129 yards, his third 100-yard effort of the season.

Klubnik could be in for a big afternoon against a Virginia defense that ranks 15th in the 17-team ACC against the pass, allowing an average of 260.5 yards per game.

This will be the 50th meeting between the schools. Clemson leads the series 40-8-1 and has not lost to Virginia at home since 2001. The Tigers have won the last five matchups.

–Field Level Media

Oct 5, 2024; Louisville, Kentucky, USA; Louisville Cardinals quarterback Tyler Shough (9) looks to pass against Southern Methodist Mustangs defensive end Elijah Roberts (5) during the second half at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Rhodes-Imagn Images

Louisville seeks bounce-back performance vs. Virginia

Posted on | by Field Level Media

After falling out of the Top 25 with back-to-back seven-point losses, Louisville will visit a surging Virginia squad Saturday afternoon for an Atlantic Coast Conference contest in Charlottesville, Va.

Coach Jeff Brohm believes that better communication on defense is crucial if his Cardinals (3-2, 1-1) hope to keep the Cavaliers (4-1, 2-0) from running up and down the court, er, field.

“Just like when you’re playing defense in basketball, you have to talk,” Brohm said. “It’s going to be loud, so we have to be better at communicating.”

Louisville climbed to No. 15 in the Associated Press poll before losing 31-24 at then-No. 16 Notre Dame on Sept. 28 and 34-27 at home last weekend against SMU.

After falling behind 21-7 in the first quarter vs. the Fighting Irish, the Cardinals trailed by 11 at halftime against the Mustangs.

“I think it’s a hodgepodge of things that happen here and there that need to be cleaned up to make sure we don’t put ourselves in those situations,” Brohm said. “We all need to play better. We all need to coach better. It starts with me and goes all the way down.”

While Louisville’s rallies have fallen short, Virginia successfully engineered another comeback last weekend against Boston College. The Cavaliers scored 18 unanswered points in the fourth quarter for a 24-14 victory.

It was similar to Virginia’s ACC opener on Sept. 7 at Wake Forest, when the Cavaliers outscored the Demon Deacons 14-0 in the fourth quarter for a 31-30 win.

Picked to finish 16th in the 17-team ACC in the preseason after consecutive three-win campaigns, Virginia began this week as one of five unbeaten schools in league play.

“It’s a great feeling, obviously, to be 4-1,” defensive end Chico Bennett Jr. said. “But overall, we know what we’ve got to do, because Coach (Tony) Elliott always emphasizes reload, recalibrate and attack. And so that’s the mindset.”

Louisville has won the last two meetings to take a 7-5 lead in the series. The Cardinals outscored the Cavaliers 17-3 in the fourth quarter to pull out a 31-24 home win last November.

–Field Level Media

Nov 18, 2023; Charlottesville, Virginia, USA; Virginia Cavaliers head coach Tony Elliott yells at officials from the sidelines against the Duke Blue Devils during the second quarter at Scott Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Virginia vies to pick up steam in clash vs. Maryland

Posted on | by Field Level Media

After starting his Virginia career with consecutive three-win seasons, coach Tony Elliott and the Cavaliers look for a 3-0 start on Saturday night when old rival Maryland visits Charlottesville, Va.

Virginia (2-0) erased a 13-point, fourth-quarter deficit in a 31-30 win at Wake Forest in its Atlantic Coast Conference opener last Saturday. The Cavaliers claimed their first lead with 2:07 left on their version of the “tush push.”

The Terrapins (1-1) were on the wrong side of a comeback in their Big Ten opener Saturday as Michigan State scored the final 10 points for a 27-24 victory in College Park, Md.

Maryland, a member of the ACC from 1953 to 2013, has won the last three meetings with Virginia, including a 42-14 home victory last September. The Cavaliers scored the first 14 points before the Terps took over in that one.

At Wake Forest, Virginia fell behind 17-3 early and trailed 30-17 entering the fourth. Anthony Colandrea threw a touchdown to Trell Harris with 10:37 remaining. The Cavaliers then did their best Philadelphia Eagles impression, with Grady Brosterhous bulling ahead for the decisive 1-yard TD on a play dubbed the “Grady Bunch.”

“It’s a huge win for us, huge team win,” said receiver Malachi Fields, who has eclipsed 100 yards in both games. “We’re just going to keep continuing to grow together and be that team that’s able to finish in the fourth quarter.”

Maryland was not that team on Saturday. The Terrapins took a 24-17 lead against Michigan State on the first play of the fourth quarter on a touchdown pass from Billy Edwards Jr. to Dylan Wade.

The Spartans answered with a 77-yard TD strike from Aidan Chiles to Nick Marsh after a missed Maryland field goal, and Jonathan Kim converted the winning 37-yard field goal with one second left.

“The season is not a loss, it’s not a wipeout,” Edwards said. “We got a really tough game coming on the road down to Charlottesville … against UVA, and we got to get this stuff corrected and be ready for the rest of the season, for next week and so on. It’ll be tough, but we got it.”

–Field Level Media

Sep 3, 2022; Charlottesville, Virginia, USA; Virginia Cavaliers running back Mike Hollins (7) carries the ball during the first half against the Richmond Spiders at Scott Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Amber Searls-USA TODAY Sports

Emotional Virginia faces tall task in opener vs. No. 12 Tennessee

Posted on | by Field Level Media

Virginia plays its first game without three fallen teammates Saturday when it faces No. 12 Tennessee in both teams’ season opener in Nashville, Tenn.

Running back Mike Hollins was injured in the November 2022 shooting deaths of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry on the campus in Charlottesville, Va.

“I can only imagine the emotions that’ll be flowing through my body,” Hollins said of taking the field for the opener. “I literally have no words because the spring game, it hit me like a sack of rocks and I didn’t expect it, so I can only imagine. I’m ready, though. I’m ready for it.”

Virginia canceled its final two games last season following the tragedy and finished 3-7 in Tony Elliott’s first season as head coach, including 1-6 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Elliott named Monmouth transfer Tony Muskett as the Cavaliers’ starting quarterback. He passed for 5,687 yards and 51 touchdowns in 23 games with the Hawks from 2020-22. He won an offseason battle with Anthony Colandrea to replace Brennan Armstrong, who transferred to North Carolina State.

“Taking care of the football, finding completions in the pass game, getting us into a right check if necessary,” Virginia offensive coordinator Des Kitchings said of the decision to go with Muskett. “He checked the box on all those things.”

Hollins enters the season as a backup to last season’s leading rusher Perris Jones and Clemson transfer Kobe Pace.

Virginia has not posted a winning record or been to a bowl game since the 2019 season.

Tennessee, meanwhile, finished 11-2 last season and ranked No. 6 in the final Associated Press poll. The Volunteers capped the year with a 31-14 win against Clemson in the Orange Bowl.

The Volunteers are four-touchdown favorites at Nissan Stadium as quarterback Joe Milton III takes over full-time for Hendon Hooker, the 2022 Southeastern Conference Offensive Player of the Year and now a rookie with the Detroit Lions.

“I’m excited for him. He’s a guy that did it the right way when it didn’t go his way early on,” third-year head coach Josh Heupel said of Milton, who replaced the injured Hooker and completed 19 of 28 passes for 251 yards and three touchdowns in the Orange Bowl win.

“He looked at himself and saw how he needed to continue to improve to get better, trust in his coaches and the program and believe in the guys around him inside of the locker room.”

Since transferring from Michigan after the 2020 season, Milton has passed for 1,346 yards with 12 touchdowns and zero interceptions in 17 appearances (four starts) for the Vols.

Linebacker Aaron Beasley, Tennessee’s leading tackler last year and a preseason Bednarik Award candidate, said the team is entering the season with an aggressive mindset.

“Uber aggressive, play really fast … just attacking,” he said. “We blitz a lot, so just playing in the opponents’ backfield. Affecting the line of scrimmage, affecting the quarterback, really just uber aggressive.”

Heupel said there will be a moment of silence before kickoff, and the Volunteers will wear helmet decals to honor the deceased Virginia players.

The Volunteers have a 3-1 lead in the all-time series, but this is the first meeting between the schools since Tennessee defeated Virginia 23-22 in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 1990.

–Field Level Media