🙌 Malachi Fields just doing Malachi Fields things.#SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/nm1qxZT9Fw
— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) September 1, 2024
In UVA’s season-opening win over Richmond at Scott Stadium, Fields caught five passes for 100 yards, including a 41-yarder in which he laid out for the ball along the left sideline. Three days later, Elliott, a former Clemson offensive coordinator, was still marveling at Fields’ catch.
“I’ll say I haven’t seen a play like the one Malachi made, that diving play, since [Clemson’s] Mike Williams did it his freshman year against NC State,” Elliott said during his weekly press conference. “Unbelievable, full extension play. It’s wet. No gloves. That was a big-time play to be able to come down with that ball.”
The 100 yards receiving were a career high for Fields, but that mark didn’t last long. A week later, he caught a career-best 11 catches for 148 yards to help Virginia rally for a 31-30 win over ACC rival Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C. On the fourth-quarter drive that put the Hoos ahead, Fields twice snared fourth-down passes from quarterback Anthony Colandrea. Neither catch was easy, but Fields’ concentration never wavered.
“We practice it every day,” Fields said, “so I’m just trying to make it as routine as possible. You’ve got to go out there and execute. Don’t make it bigger than it is.”
Next up for Virginia (2-0) is a non-conference game with Maryland (1-1). The former ACC rivals will meet at 8 p.m. Saturday at Scott Stadium.
A year ago in College Park, Md., the Hoos scored the game’s first 14 points, only to see the Terrapins rally for a 42-14 win. It was 21-14 after three quarters, and UVA unraveled in the fourth.
“I remember we came out fast, started fast, and then we got comfortable,” Fields said. “We can’t do that this year, so we’ve just got to come out fast, finish through the middle eight”—the last four minutes of the second quarter and the first four of the third—”and finish in the fourth quarter and never get comfortable.”
Its dramatic victory over Wake moved Virginia to 2-0 for the first time since 2019. Now the Cavaliers must show they can “handle success,” Fields said. “So we’re just learning from the win, telling the guys we can’t get comfortable, we haven’t arrived anywhere yet. Yes, we’ve won, which we wanted to do, but we have to learn from that and build on that and never get comfortable. “
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