4 reasons UVA beating Virginia Tech is absolutely epic rivalry revenge

The Virginia Cavaliers have done it. They’ve beaten Virginia Tech. They did it on Black Friday in Blacksburg, ______. And it was an extra vengeful rivalry win for a few reasons.

The Cavaliers were down 14-0 in the first half. At one point in that quarer, QB Bryce Perkins and freshman receiver Tavares Kelly took this ...

... and turned it into an incomplete pass, on a drop after an under-throw, and it seemed like things were aligning to be typically disappointing for UVA, again.

But that’s not how it happened. The Hoos chiseled away for a while, though they had a hard time breaking through. They were still down 24-14 early in the third.

But then they did something UVA football rarely does: They came through in a huge moment, getting a few stops and finally going up 28-24 with seven minutes left. They tacked on a field goal later and led by 7 with 2:41 left.

For another team, that might’ve been the end of the exciting part of the story. That team would’ve just won. But Virginia is not that team. The Hokies tied the drive on a drive that included three plays in a row where one of their players caught a 50/50 throw, another caught what appeared to be a throwaway by QB Ryan Willis, and then someone recovered a fumble in the end zone to knot the score at 31-all.

For a sense of how absurd the tying touchdown was, note that Virginia Tech (the team in maroon, you know) scored on a play that produced this still:

The game progressed to overtime. Virginia Tech had the first possession of OT and kicked a field goal on it. On the Hoos’ counter-possession, they _________.

The majority of the games haven’t been that close. Four have been one-score Tech victories, four have been two-score Tech victories, and six have been three-score Tech victories or more. The average margin of UVA defeat during this streak is an ultra-hopeless 18. UVA lost four of five before this run started, making it an even 18 of the last 19 for Tech.

The Hoos have had their moments in this series. It’s just that the most prominent of those happened during the McKinley, Truman, and first Bush administrations. In the last few decades, this has become maybe the most predictable rivalry in the country. In most years, the public doesn’t even think UVA has a chance.

According to the spreads database at Odds Shark, Virginia’s only been favored four times since 1995, and just once since 2003. (That was in 2014, when the Hoos were favored by 1.5 at Lane Stadium and lost by 4.) The Hokies have generally been anywhere between 3- and 23-point favorites, and they’ve still managed to go 14-8 against the spread.

So, UVA had the odds in its favor and ... didn’t blow it? As someone who’s watched both UVA football and men’s basketball in recent times, I’m amazed but happy for them.

The now-4-7 Hokies have played in a bowl game 25 years in a row. That’s not really the longest active streak in the country, but both Virginia Tech and the NCAA act like it is, because the NCAA vacated a Florida State bowl in the middle of the Noles’ 36-year run. Virginia Tech has gone out of its way to make sure everyone knows it has the real longest active streak:

Well, not anymore.

The bowl streak had complicated the end of Tech’s season. In September, the Hokies didn’t play a scheduled game against ECU after the Pirates decided not to travel amid Hurricane Florence. So Tech didn’t get to cash in a likely victory, and because the rest of its season turned out so badly, the Hokies settled in with a 4-6 record before Friday. Beating Virginia would have left them a win short of bowl eligibility, given the cancelation with ECU.

So the Hokies had scheduled a makeup game on Dec. 1 against Marshall, another team thad had a game canceled when Florence hit. But the Hokies were only going to play that game if they beat Virginia, because all they were after here was bowl eligibility.

(For additional humor, Marshall will reportedly collect on a $1.4 million insurance policy as Tech skips out. Two programs, UVA and Marshall, are huge winners. Perhaps the funniest possible outcome for the general public would have been Tech beating UVA and losing to Marshall, which would’ve been possible, but this will work for UVA fans too.

Virginia Tech is a dilapidated shell of itself. Two games ago, the Hokies gave up more yards per play to Pitt than any FBS team had against another had since at least 2005. Injuries, transfers, and dismissals have ravaged Bud Foster’s defense, so much so that the Pitt debacle was probably on the second-most embarrassing performance of the year after the time Georgia Tech destroyed the Hokies in Blacksburg without throwing a pass.

Quarterback Josh Jackson’s missed almost the entire season, and backup Ryan Willis has filled in admirably but not specially. The offense is better than the stunningly bad defense, but that says more about the state of the D than the O. Both units just played poorly in a 38-14 loss to Miami in the ACC Coastal Disappointment Bowl last weekend.

Meanwhile, Virginia’s pretty OK! The Hoos lost a chance at a dream season and Coastal title when they fell at home to Pitt a few weeks back, but they’re better than usual. UVA’s 55th in S&P+, which says it’s about 1.5 points better than No. 61 VT on a neutral field.

Normally, you’d expect a team with VT’s profile to be favored at home against a team with Virginia’s profile, but the computers can’t fully account for how much of an uncontrolled mudslide the Hokies’ season has become.

You’ll never get a better chance to either beat Virginia Tech or humiliate Virginia Tech. This is the sort of opportunity most teams on the losing end of rivalries never get.