
5. Virginia is all bark and no bite
After beating Duke last weekend, Colandrea spoke about the matchup with the Hokies and went on the record that they were going to win. Message sent in Charlottesville and message received in Blacksburg.
Colandrea wasn’t alone in giving Pry, his staff, and team bulletin board material after the Cavaliers beat the Blue Devils, and so did safety Jonas Sanker.
#UVA QB Anthony Colandrea on #Hokies game: "After this game versus Tech, after we beat Virginia Tech, this program is going to shoot up and everyone in the country is going to know about us."
— Mike Barber (@RTD_MikeBarber) November 19, 2023
#UVA safety Jonas Sanker on progress and #Hokies game: "Honestly, I think if we win this next one, or when we win this next one, I think it's just going to say so much more about the heart of this team and I think people are going to really see that this team has no quit."
— Mike Barber (@RTD_MikeBarber) November 19, 2023
You would think that after speaking as strongly as Colandrea and Sanker did that Virginia would come out ready to go and give Virginia Tech everything they could handle. Well, guess again.
As it turned out, the Cavaliers came out and laid an egg. Defensively they offered little resistance against the Hokies’ offense, offensively they we shut down by the Virginia Tech defense, and in the end, Tech put up 55 points, the most ever by one team in a game in the rivalry and heading into the offseason at 3-9 with a lot more questions than answers.
Virginia was hoping to take another step in their rebuild, instead for one afternoon, they took a giant step backward. I get it, kids are young and they should think before they speak, but facing a Virginia Tech team hungry and looking to become bowl-eligible, there was no need to speak what they were thinking at the time.
In the end, the Hokies won and are bowl-eligible with another month of practice before a bowl game in December before they start planning for 2024.