Four Downs: Syracuse
October 31, 2021 | Football, #ForBoston Files
An old Big East rivalry yielded an old Big East game
The majority of the first half and third quarter of Boston College's game at Syracuse could easily have been classified as a rock fight. The Eagles moved the sticks but couldn't score touchdowns, and the Orange were largely held off the board save for two explosive plays. The runs from running back Sean Tucker and quarterback Garrett Shrader were enough to turn a 6--0 deficit into a 14-6 advantage, but neither team boasted a clear advantage to that point.
All of that changed with three minutes remaining in the frame. A narrative of a close, knuckle-down game turned into Syracuse's explosion when Courtney Jackson went 64 yards to the house with a punt return. It was the third touchdown in just under five minutes' worth of game time, and, at 21-6, it took BC's offense - and its quarterback rotation - out of sync. No other points were necessary, and the Orange defeated the Eagles for the first time since 2017 by that 15-point margin.
The game very clearly flipped the narrative on the BC season with four games remaining. After starting 4-0, the Eagles enter this week's short preparation with a .500 record, and while they can still claim bowl eligibility, the sense of urgency for a victory will become clearer as they enter the preparation for the annual Red Bandanna Game against Virginia Tech.
"Collectively, in this game, we missed two runs and missed two tackles that led to 14 points on plays that we were stopping," head coach Jeff Hafley said. "Then we hit a low point, and they returned [a punt] for a touchdown."
With the short week on the horizon prior to the Friday game, there is plenty to unpack in a limited amount of time. The Eagles only entered the red zone four times against the Orange, but they scored twice. Those two scores, unfortunately, were only field goals and essentially offered a mathematical difference in what amounted to a one-score game.Â
Dennis Grosel started at quarterback but rotated with true freshman Emmett Morehead, and while both offered positives, neither was able to produce a scoring drive. On several occasions, they each played under duress after the Orange adjusted to the rotation, although Syracuse was kept off-guard by BC's ability to alternate downfield throws and short, intermediate passes that opened up the running game.Â
The defense, meanwhile, stopped Syracuse cold on several occasions and forced a turnover as the Orange bore down on the BC goal line and red zone, but the busted plays enabled running back Sean Tucker, an electric presence in the Syracuse offense, to rush for 200 yards one week after Louisville gashed the unit for more than 300 yards.
In the end, BC lost for the fourth straight week, and the saltiness that comes along with a defeat only compounded as the season bore forward. Virginia Tech looms on a Friday night, and the Eagles, who opened the season undefeated and beat Missouri in overtime, are instead staring down the unrelenting, unforgiving road of an elite conference with brutal opponents.
Here's an inside look at the weekend at the Carrier Dome:
*****
First Down: Captain's Quarters
A week that began with a discussion about the quarterback position ended with Jeff Hafley's decision to play both Dennis Grosel and Emmett Morehead on Saturday, a choice that kept Syracuse off-balance throughout the first half by intermixing and matching styles of play. They finished a combined 15-for-32 passing for 180 yards, and while they didn't throw a touchdown, they also didn't throw an interception against the stout Orange defense.
"It wasn't a hard decision when we really watched the film hard," Hafley said. "When you go drive-by-drive and you look at it, if I could have said it was all the quarterback's fault [over the last three games], then I would have made a different decision. But when you look at it really hard, it [wasn't] the quarterback's fault, and we [weren't] playing well enough around him. That's why we decided to go with [both players]."
The rotation worked throughout the first half even though BC's offense stalled at various junctures. Grosel, who went first and started the game, opened the running game with shorter passes before Morehead connected a deep ball to Zay Flowers. It subsequently kept the running game churning forward before Grosel reentered the game and similarly went deep to Flowers. Morehead then came back and hit a couple of short outlet passes, giving Hafley a glimpse of the position's future while Grosel carried the late game water.
"Emmett hadn't played football since his junior year of high school," Hafley said, "and he played 13 or 14 games over his whole career. His senior year was canceled because of COVID, [and] he hadn't had many reps in training camp. So just [Grosel having] the experience in [late game] situations, we felt our best bet was to go with Dennis."
Switching quarterbacks is a difficult decision and can unravel an offense by threatening its flow, but BC handled the rotation by keeping an open mind to each player's ability. Bigger issues prevented the Eagles from registering touchdowns and enough points to beat Syracuse, but the outside-the-box thinking kept the Orange both on their toes and on edge. It enabled BC to move downfield before it ultimately stalled and failed to produce touchdowns.
"Nothing was really different with the two-QB set versus a one-QB set," Grosel said. "You have to be ready to go when you have to go, and you hope something works. I got the guys rolling, and Emmett came in and got the guys rolling. I thought we both had our ups and downs, [but] he's a [great] player coming in as a freshman. He's a baller, and he's going to win a lot of games for BC down the road. There's no doubt about that."
*****
Second Down: Point Well Taken
Rotating quarterback startled Syracuse, but the game ended with two major issues still standing in Boston College's way after the Eagles were plagued by an inability to consistently score touchdowns. They scored on each drive during which the quarterback went downfield to Zay Flowers, but only kicking field goals drew a line of demarcation right through how Syracuse won the game.
"We gave up two explosive runs, but a third of their yards were on mishits and missed tackles," Hafley said. "[Syracuse] is a really good offense. They're racking up points and yards against everybody, their back is a really good player, and the quarterback is a really good runner. I don't think they had a completion in the second half against us."
Syracuse finished with 340 yards on the ground, but 99 of them came on the touchdown runs by Sean Tucker and Garrett Shrader. Tucker added another 41-yard carry in the fourth quarter to bring the team's three-run total up to 140 yards, essentially leaving 200 yards on the field for the rest of the game. Combined with Shrader's 65 yards on 5-of-14 passing, 23 of which came on one play, it means the BC defense gave up less than 250 yards over the course of the rest of the game.
Removing the two explosive runs and turning the two field goal drives into touchdowns turns a 21-6 loss into a 14-7 win more reminiscent of last year's low-scoring result, and further removing the punt return for a touchdown - an odd outlier considering how consistent and strong BC's punt team has been, save for one hiccup against NC State - pitches a shutout and completely changes the narrative, though it's hardly a consolation prize considering that ifs and buts don't remove the loss from the record column.
"We gave up about 14 points on defense and are top-20 in the country in scoring defense," Hafley said. "I really don't care about yards. I care about the explosives and the misfits. I'm proud of the defense, and they fought back at the end. They gave up 14 points against a pretty good offense and [against] two really good guys who can run the ball. Now, we could have been better, and we need to be better, but we should be able to win games with that [performance]."
*****
HAF-time Hits
-I had to work on Friday night, so my wife, ever the resourceful one in the family, took our baby to stay with her parents for the night. It's a smart move in my opinion since it gets her help if she has a rough night of sleep, but it indirectly rewarded me with a free night in the house once I got home. I slept in on Saturday, which is to say that I made it to 7 a.m., and when I woke up, I felt like a new person. I was able to enjoy the Premier League without having to feed a baby, and even though Arsenal potted two early goals against Leicester, I sat in bed happier and more relaxed than I'd been in a while.
-If anyone's wondering what a 30-something guy does on Halloween weekend when he doesn't have anyone else in the house, I played video games when I got home. Real wild night of PGA golf. But true to form, I shot two balls into the water on the front nine of the course and leveled my scorecard with a quadruple bogey. At least video games are realistic, right?
-The only questionable decision I made was around my dinner option. It was late by the time I got out of my work obligation, so I hit a McDonald's drive thru and ordered two McRib sandwiches. I had a coupon to buy one, get one free, but eating two McRibs after 8:30 p.m. when you're in your mid-30s does NOT have the same effect as when you were 23 years old. My heartburn was screaming by the time I got home, and I promptly doused it with both two doses of Maalox and about half a bottle of Tums.
-Halloween hits differently when you have a kid. I was never a big fan of the holiday, largely because I had to help my dad clean the side of the house when it was vandalized by a couple of rambunctious youths when I was in high school (you can do the math on what happened), but being able to dress up the baby to meet up with some family and friends in the area is something I'm half-looking forward to doing. No word on if the "dad tax" will eventually make its way to my house when she's old enough to get candy.
-Call it life in a vaccinated world, but being able to get together strikes a completely different tone from last year's COVID holiday of "should we or shouldn't we" let kids trick-or-treat. There's still that overlying threat, but after all they lost over the past year, finding responsible ways to enjoy things is always welcome.
*****
Third Down: Time to talk injuries
Injuries are never an excuse for a team's individual defeat or an ongoing losing streak, but they do provide context into some of the issues belittling a season over a two-month or three-month timeframe. On Saturday, the defense played without Isaiah Graham-Mobley, its leading tackler, while left tackle Tyler Vrabel sustained another injury and was replaced by Jack Conley in the first half.
Losing Vrabel in particular disrupted some of the timing and sent the offense out of its rhythm at various moments. Morehead took four sacks during his abbreviated time on the field, and on more than one occasion, he was forced to throw a pass away while he was tackled to the turf. Part of that is on him and his freshman inexperience - he visibly, at times, needed to progress through his reads quicker, a common occurrence for a player with limited college experience - but another piece was on the offensive line.
Facing the 21-6 deficit following Courtney Jackson's punt return for a touchdown, Morehead and Patrick Garwo moved the BC offense from its own 25 yard line to midfield before the quarterback hit CJ Lewis for a 28-yard pass. It put BC on the verge of the red zone, which it gained three plays later after Garwo gained a first down on 4th-and-1. But after a misfired snap caused a 22-yard loss, Morehead was hurried by Cody Roscoe and sacked by Kingsley Jonathan to push a 1st-and-10 at the Syracuse 15 into a 4th-and-40 at the 45 yard line, well outside of field goal range.
"It's a huge loss when you lose your starting left tackle early in the game," Jeff Hafley said, "[but] we need to get better and figure out who are the best guys for that position. Jack came in and did a good job, [and] we rotated around a little bit late in the game. [But] we have to help these guys more, especially when we have to throw. When you're down two possessions and have to throw, it's difficult to block [defensive players] one-on-one, so we have to help them. We have to coach better, and we have to play better."
*****
Fourth Down: On Its Game
The injuries are mounting past the halfway point of the season, but the defense illustrated how to push forward after it lost Isaiah Graham-Mobley before Saturday's game. There were the explosive plays, but Syracuse's lone sustained scoring drive came to a halt on the BC 10-yard line because Vinny DePalma, his replacement, recovered a fumble forced by defensive lineman Marcus Valdez.
"We were in a field pressure," DePalma said. "Marcus made a great play coming off the edge, and it was one of those plays where you didn't know if it was an incomplete pass or a fumble. We drill all the time in practice to pick it up no matter what and let the rest sort out. We ran it down, and they called the fumble."
DePalma finished with a career-high 11 tackles, and true freshman linebacker Bryce Steele added seven tackles as the duo admirably replaced the middle soul of the defensive unit. Valdez, meanwhile, forced a fumble for the second time in his career as part of a defensive line that's been recovering from injury as a unit since the season started.
"We had some new guys in at linebacker with IGM not playing," Jeff Hafley said. "We played some two-high coverage that we played out of a one-high look to disguise it instead of starting two-high and rotating down. We do that a lot in the game where we mix up two-high and rotate back down. But without IGM and some of the new linebackers in the game, we just wanted our cleats in the ground."
"We have a next man up mentality," DePalma said. "We talk about it all the time, that everyone on the roster is responsible for doing [his] job. IGM is a great player and we certainly miss him, but if he's not out there, our defense and our coaches talk about that next man up mentality [and to] always be ready."
*****
Point After: Red Bandanna Week
BC now enters a short week before its Friday night game against Virginia Tech, a game commemorating Welles Crowther's sacrifice in saving lives on September 11. This will be the second time this season that the Eagles will wear the uniforms after playing UMass on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and marks the first time they will suit up in red bandanna gear for a second time in a season.
The game arrives at a critical juncture in the Eagles' bowl season. The fourth straight loss endured on Saturday dropped BC to .500 on the season with four games remaining, and the scramble for bowl eligibility and positioning is kicking into high gear for teams on the cusp of missing a postseason game. After this week, only three games remain, two of which are at home, with Georgia Tech, Florida State and Wake Forest on the horizon.
The Demon Deacons are arguably the toughest test after winning again on Saturday to extend their undefeated season to eight games, but the two Coastal Division teams are on the verge of scrambling to save their postseason lives after Virginia Tech defeated Georgia Tech, 26-17, on Saturday.
The win kept the Hokies afloat at 4-4 overall, and it further kept Virginia Tech afloat after Pittsburgh absorbed its first ACC loss to Miami. The win over the Yellow Jackets pulled the Hokies to within one win of tying the Panthers atop the division and tied the Hurricanes with a 2-2 league record. Virginia, the only other two-loss team, is already 4-2, but the Cavaliers' hypothetical lead still has to go through the Hokies in the last game of the season.
All of that changed with three minutes remaining in the frame. A narrative of a close, knuckle-down game turned into Syracuse's explosion when Courtney Jackson went 64 yards to the house with a punt return. It was the third touchdown in just under five minutes' worth of game time, and, at 21-6, it took BC's offense - and its quarterback rotation - out of sync. No other points were necessary, and the Orange defeated the Eagles for the first time since 2017 by that 15-point margin.
The game very clearly flipped the narrative on the BC season with four games remaining. After starting 4-0, the Eagles enter this week's short preparation with a .500 record, and while they can still claim bowl eligibility, the sense of urgency for a victory will become clearer as they enter the preparation for the annual Red Bandanna Game against Virginia Tech.
"Collectively, in this game, we missed two runs and missed two tackles that led to 14 points on plays that we were stopping," head coach Jeff Hafley said. "Then we hit a low point, and they returned [a punt] for a touchdown."
With the short week on the horizon prior to the Friday game, there is plenty to unpack in a limited amount of time. The Eagles only entered the red zone four times against the Orange, but they scored twice. Those two scores, unfortunately, were only field goals and essentially offered a mathematical difference in what amounted to a one-score game.Â
Dennis Grosel started at quarterback but rotated with true freshman Emmett Morehead, and while both offered positives, neither was able to produce a scoring drive. On several occasions, they each played under duress after the Orange adjusted to the rotation, although Syracuse was kept off-guard by BC's ability to alternate downfield throws and short, intermediate passes that opened up the running game.Â
The defense, meanwhile, stopped Syracuse cold on several occasions and forced a turnover as the Orange bore down on the BC goal line and red zone, but the busted plays enabled running back Sean Tucker, an electric presence in the Syracuse offense, to rush for 200 yards one week after Louisville gashed the unit for more than 300 yards.
In the end, BC lost for the fourth straight week, and the saltiness that comes along with a defeat only compounded as the season bore forward. Virginia Tech looms on a Friday night, and the Eagles, who opened the season undefeated and beat Missouri in overtime, are instead staring down the unrelenting, unforgiving road of an elite conference with brutal opponents.
Here's an inside look at the weekend at the Carrier Dome:
*****
First Down: Captain's Quarters
A week that began with a discussion about the quarterback position ended with Jeff Hafley's decision to play both Dennis Grosel and Emmett Morehead on Saturday, a choice that kept Syracuse off-balance throughout the first half by intermixing and matching styles of play. They finished a combined 15-for-32 passing for 180 yards, and while they didn't throw a touchdown, they also didn't throw an interception against the stout Orange defense.
"It wasn't a hard decision when we really watched the film hard," Hafley said. "When you go drive-by-drive and you look at it, if I could have said it was all the quarterback's fault [over the last three games], then I would have made a different decision. But when you look at it really hard, it [wasn't] the quarterback's fault, and we [weren't] playing well enough around him. That's why we decided to go with [both players]."
The rotation worked throughout the first half even though BC's offense stalled at various junctures. Grosel, who went first and started the game, opened the running game with shorter passes before Morehead connected a deep ball to Zay Flowers. It subsequently kept the running game churning forward before Grosel reentered the game and similarly went deep to Flowers. Morehead then came back and hit a couple of short outlet passes, giving Hafley a glimpse of the position's future while Grosel carried the late game water.
"Emmett hadn't played football since his junior year of high school," Hafley said, "and he played 13 or 14 games over his whole career. His senior year was canceled because of COVID, [and] he hadn't had many reps in training camp. So just [Grosel having] the experience in [late game] situations, we felt our best bet was to go with Dennis."
Switching quarterbacks is a difficult decision and can unravel an offense by threatening its flow, but BC handled the rotation by keeping an open mind to each player's ability. Bigger issues prevented the Eagles from registering touchdowns and enough points to beat Syracuse, but the outside-the-box thinking kept the Orange both on their toes and on edge. It enabled BC to move downfield before it ultimately stalled and failed to produce touchdowns.
"Nothing was really different with the two-QB set versus a one-QB set," Grosel said. "You have to be ready to go when you have to go, and you hope something works. I got the guys rolling, and Emmett came in and got the guys rolling. I thought we both had our ups and downs, [but] he's a [great] player coming in as a freshman. He's a baller, and he's going to win a lot of games for BC down the road. There's no doubt about that."
*****
Second Down: Point Well Taken
Rotating quarterback startled Syracuse, but the game ended with two major issues still standing in Boston College's way after the Eagles were plagued by an inability to consistently score touchdowns. They scored on each drive during which the quarterback went downfield to Zay Flowers, but only kicking field goals drew a line of demarcation right through how Syracuse won the game.
"We gave up two explosive runs, but a third of their yards were on mishits and missed tackles," Hafley said. "[Syracuse] is a really good offense. They're racking up points and yards against everybody, their back is a really good player, and the quarterback is a really good runner. I don't think they had a completion in the second half against us."
Syracuse finished with 340 yards on the ground, but 99 of them came on the touchdown runs by Sean Tucker and Garrett Shrader. Tucker added another 41-yard carry in the fourth quarter to bring the team's three-run total up to 140 yards, essentially leaving 200 yards on the field for the rest of the game. Combined with Shrader's 65 yards on 5-of-14 passing, 23 of which came on one play, it means the BC defense gave up less than 250 yards over the course of the rest of the game.
Removing the two explosive runs and turning the two field goal drives into touchdowns turns a 21-6 loss into a 14-7 win more reminiscent of last year's low-scoring result, and further removing the punt return for a touchdown - an odd outlier considering how consistent and strong BC's punt team has been, save for one hiccup against NC State - pitches a shutout and completely changes the narrative, though it's hardly a consolation prize considering that ifs and buts don't remove the loss from the record column.
"We gave up about 14 points on defense and are top-20 in the country in scoring defense," Hafley said. "I really don't care about yards. I care about the explosives and the misfits. I'm proud of the defense, and they fought back at the end. They gave up 14 points against a pretty good offense and [against] two really good guys who can run the ball. Now, we could have been better, and we need to be better, but we should be able to win games with that [performance]."
*****
HAF-time Hits
-I had to work on Friday night, so my wife, ever the resourceful one in the family, took our baby to stay with her parents for the night. It's a smart move in my opinion since it gets her help if she has a rough night of sleep, but it indirectly rewarded me with a free night in the house once I got home. I slept in on Saturday, which is to say that I made it to 7 a.m., and when I woke up, I felt like a new person. I was able to enjoy the Premier League without having to feed a baby, and even though Arsenal potted two early goals against Leicester, I sat in bed happier and more relaxed than I'd been in a while.
-If anyone's wondering what a 30-something guy does on Halloween weekend when he doesn't have anyone else in the house, I played video games when I got home. Real wild night of PGA golf. But true to form, I shot two balls into the water on the front nine of the course and leveled my scorecard with a quadruple bogey. At least video games are realistic, right?
-The only questionable decision I made was around my dinner option. It was late by the time I got out of my work obligation, so I hit a McDonald's drive thru and ordered two McRib sandwiches. I had a coupon to buy one, get one free, but eating two McRibs after 8:30 p.m. when you're in your mid-30s does NOT have the same effect as when you were 23 years old. My heartburn was screaming by the time I got home, and I promptly doused it with both two doses of Maalox and about half a bottle of Tums.
-Halloween hits differently when you have a kid. I was never a big fan of the holiday, largely because I had to help my dad clean the side of the house when it was vandalized by a couple of rambunctious youths when I was in high school (you can do the math on what happened), but being able to dress up the baby to meet up with some family and friends in the area is something I'm half-looking forward to doing. No word on if the "dad tax" will eventually make its way to my house when she's old enough to get candy.
-Call it life in a vaccinated world, but being able to get together strikes a completely different tone from last year's COVID holiday of "should we or shouldn't we" let kids trick-or-treat. There's still that overlying threat, but after all they lost over the past year, finding responsible ways to enjoy things is always welcome.
*****
Third Down: Time to talk injuries
Injuries are never an excuse for a team's individual defeat or an ongoing losing streak, but they do provide context into some of the issues belittling a season over a two-month or three-month timeframe. On Saturday, the defense played without Isaiah Graham-Mobley, its leading tackler, while left tackle Tyler Vrabel sustained another injury and was replaced by Jack Conley in the first half.
Losing Vrabel in particular disrupted some of the timing and sent the offense out of its rhythm at various moments. Morehead took four sacks during his abbreviated time on the field, and on more than one occasion, he was forced to throw a pass away while he was tackled to the turf. Part of that is on him and his freshman inexperience - he visibly, at times, needed to progress through his reads quicker, a common occurrence for a player with limited college experience - but another piece was on the offensive line.
Facing the 21-6 deficit following Courtney Jackson's punt return for a touchdown, Morehead and Patrick Garwo moved the BC offense from its own 25 yard line to midfield before the quarterback hit CJ Lewis for a 28-yard pass. It put BC on the verge of the red zone, which it gained three plays later after Garwo gained a first down on 4th-and-1. But after a misfired snap caused a 22-yard loss, Morehead was hurried by Cody Roscoe and sacked by Kingsley Jonathan to push a 1st-and-10 at the Syracuse 15 into a 4th-and-40 at the 45 yard line, well outside of field goal range.
"It's a huge loss when you lose your starting left tackle early in the game," Jeff Hafley said, "[but] we need to get better and figure out who are the best guys for that position. Jack came in and did a good job, [and] we rotated around a little bit late in the game. [But] we have to help these guys more, especially when we have to throw. When you're down two possessions and have to throw, it's difficult to block [defensive players] one-on-one, so we have to help them. We have to coach better, and we have to play better."
*****
Fourth Down: On Its Game
The injuries are mounting past the halfway point of the season, but the defense illustrated how to push forward after it lost Isaiah Graham-Mobley before Saturday's game. There were the explosive plays, but Syracuse's lone sustained scoring drive came to a halt on the BC 10-yard line because Vinny DePalma, his replacement, recovered a fumble forced by defensive lineman Marcus Valdez.
"We were in a field pressure," DePalma said. "Marcus made a great play coming off the edge, and it was one of those plays where you didn't know if it was an incomplete pass or a fumble. We drill all the time in practice to pick it up no matter what and let the rest sort out. We ran it down, and they called the fumble."
DePalma finished with a career-high 11 tackles, and true freshman linebacker Bryce Steele added seven tackles as the duo admirably replaced the middle soul of the defensive unit. Valdez, meanwhile, forced a fumble for the second time in his career as part of a defensive line that's been recovering from injury as a unit since the season started.
"We had some new guys in at linebacker with IGM not playing," Jeff Hafley said. "We played some two-high coverage that we played out of a one-high look to disguise it instead of starting two-high and rotating down. We do that a lot in the game where we mix up two-high and rotate back down. But without IGM and some of the new linebackers in the game, we just wanted our cleats in the ground."
"We have a next man up mentality," DePalma said. "We talk about it all the time, that everyone on the roster is responsible for doing [his] job. IGM is a great player and we certainly miss him, but if he's not out there, our defense and our coaches talk about that next man up mentality [and to] always be ready."
*****
Point After: Red Bandanna Week
BC now enters a short week before its Friday night game against Virginia Tech, a game commemorating Welles Crowther's sacrifice in saving lives on September 11. This will be the second time this season that the Eagles will wear the uniforms after playing UMass on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and marks the first time they will suit up in red bandanna gear for a second time in a season.
The game arrives at a critical juncture in the Eagles' bowl season. The fourth straight loss endured on Saturday dropped BC to .500 on the season with four games remaining, and the scramble for bowl eligibility and positioning is kicking into high gear for teams on the cusp of missing a postseason game. After this week, only three games remain, two of which are at home, with Georgia Tech, Florida State and Wake Forest on the horizon.
The Demon Deacons are arguably the toughest test after winning again on Saturday to extend their undefeated season to eight games, but the two Coastal Division teams are on the verge of scrambling to save their postseason lives after Virginia Tech defeated Georgia Tech, 26-17, on Saturday.
The win kept the Hokies afloat at 4-4 overall, and it further kept Virginia Tech afloat after Pittsburgh absorbed its first ACC loss to Miami. The win over the Yellow Jackets pulled the Hokies to within one win of tying the Panthers atop the division and tied the Hurricanes with a 2-2 league record. Virginia, the only other two-loss team, is already 4-2, but the Cavaliers' hypothetical lead still has to go through the Hokies in the last game of the season.
Players Mentioned
OL
/ Football
LB
/ Football
WR
/ Football
LB
/ Football
QB
/ Football
QB
/ Football
LB
/ Football
DE
/ Football
OL
/ FootballFootball: Grayson James Postgame Press Conference (Oct. 18, 2025)
Saturday, October 18
Football: Jordan McDonald Postgame Press Conference (Oct. 18, 2025)
Saturday, October 18
Football: Bill O'Brien Postgame Press Conference (Oct. 18, 2025)
Saturday, October 18
Field Hockey: MS Awareness Team Impact
Saturday, October 18
