{"id":420129,"date":"2026-10-06T11:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T11:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/420129\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T11:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T11:22:14","slug":"upon-further-review-takeaways-from-virginias-loss-at-florida-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/420129\/","title":{"rendered":"Upon Further Review: Takeaways from Virginia\u2019s loss at Florida State"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (<a href=\"http:\/\/cvillerightnow.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CVILLE RIGHT NOW<\/a>) \u2013 For all the struggles Virginia had in its early years under Tony Elliott, containing mobile quarterbacks wasn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">John Rudzinski\u2019s defense didn\u2019t allow a single 100-yard rusher in his first 48 games as the Cavaliers\u2019 coordinator. Of the 59 rushing touchdowns UVA gave up in Elliott and Rudzinski\u2019s first three seasons at Virginia, just 15 of them were scored by opposing quarterbacks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But this year, keeping tabs on dual-threat QBs has been a major weakness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of the nine rushing touchdowns UVA (3-2, 1-1 ACC) has allowed so far in 2026, eight of them have been scored by quarterbacks, including five to Florida State\u2019s Ashton Daniels on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A defense that hadn\u2019t allowed an opposing QB to run for 100 yards since Virginia Tech\u2019s Braxton Burmeister did it in 2021 \u2013 the year before Elliott was hired \u2013 has had two quarterbacks do it in the first five games this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">West Virginia\u2019s Michael Hawkins Jr. ran for 123 yards and three touchdowns in UVA\u2019s first loss, a 38-27 defeat against the Mountaineers in Charlotte, N.C. on Sept. 19.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That was bad. Saturday was worse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Daniels ran for 136 yards and five scores in the Seminoles\u2019 38-7 undressing of the Cavaliers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe\u2019s a big, 225-pound guy who can run behind his pads,\u201d Elliott said of Daniels. \u201cAnd then, if you misfit a gap there, he shows he can take it the distance. We knew that his legs would potentially be a problem and we were hoping that we would be able to keep him in the pocket and not let him extend plays.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still ahead, UVA will face some other mobile ACC QBs who could give it issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Cal, Duke and North Carolina haven\u2019t relied heavily on their quarterbacks in the running game, the other four teams Virginia will have to play have.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Syracuse\u2019s Amari Odom ran for a touchdown against UConn on Saturday in his first power conference start.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SMU\u2019s Kevin Jennings has rushed for 12 touchdowns in his college career, including two this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wake Forest quarterback Gio Lopez leads the team with five rushing scores and Virginia Tech\u2019s Ethan Grunkmeyer is second on the Hokies with three.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Defending quarterbacks who can tuck it and go figures to be paramount on UVA\u2019s must-fix list this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Saturday\u2019s lopsided loss in Tallahassee exposed other issues, as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are three other takeaways.<\/p>\n<p>Too many missed tackles<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Conservatively, UVA missed at least two dozen tackles in the loss to FSU. Some of that contributed to the rushing success Daniels found, but Seminoles running back Ousmane Kromah and FSU\u2019s wide receivers also benefited from Virginia\u2019s inability to get ball carriers on the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve got to do a better job of wrapping when we tackle,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cThere were several explosive plays that came after we had contact on the ball carriers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Too many dropped passes<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the defense was missing tackles, the offense was dropping passes. Quarterback Beau Pribula wasn\u2019t his sharpest, finishing 14 for 32 for 168 yards. But that included at least five passes that probably should have been caught by his receivers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMaybe one of those drops would have been one of the two plays that swung the momentum in our favor to help us be on the other side of this,\u201d Elliott said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">UVA\u2019s skill players didn\u2019t help Pribula out in big spots. Rico Flores Jr. had a key contested third down catch he could not come down with in the second quarter and running back Jekail Middlebrook came open for a potential touchdown but couldn\u2019t haul in Pribula\u2019s throw on a wheel route.<\/p>\n<p>Where was the protection?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">UVA allowed 10 sacks of Pribula in the game, the most the Cavaliers have given up since North Carolina recorded 10 in a 41-14 win over Virginia in 2024. The Cavaliers lost 68 yards on sacks in the game and have now lost 137 yards on 19 sacks this season, both the highest marks in the ACC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All 10 came in the final three quarters. Florida State got its first two on second and third down of the Cavaliers\u2019 first possession of the second quarter. Later, in the fourth quarter, FSU sacked Pribula on three straight plays.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Virginia still has matchups with five of the top six defenders in the ACC in terms of sacks registered this year \u2013 North Carolina\u2019s Xavier Lewis (6), Virginia Tech\u2019s Aycen Stevens (5 \u00bd) and Cortez Harris (5), SMU\u2019s Marques White (4 \u00bd) and \u2013 this weekend \u2013 Syracuse\u2019s Keyshawn Johnson (3 \u00bd).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) \u2013 For all the struggles Virginia had in its early years under Tony&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-420129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}