By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — One hundred and seventy media members cast ballots for the ACC preseason football poll, and collectively they picked Virginia to finish 16th out of the league’s 17 teams.
Five games into its third season under head coach Tony Elliott, UVA is 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the ACC. The Cavaliers aren’t worried, though, about proving prognosticators wrong. They’re focused on proving that their self-belief was justified.
“We know that we’re a really good football team and not a lot of people are going to believe in us,” sophomore quarterback Anthony Colandrea said Saturday afternoon after Virginia rallied to defeat Boston College 24-14 at Scott Stadium.
“Not a lot of people believed in us in that game or any game we play, and we know that everyone in our locker room believes that we can win any football game we’re in.”
In 2022, when the Wahoos’ season was halted after 10 games, they won three games, and they finished 3-9 last season. Many outside the program expected Virginia to struggle again this season, but “I told these guys, we’re not worried about that,” Elliott said. “We want to prove ourselves right.”
The Cavaliers found themselves trailing 14-0 early in the second quarter Saturday, exactly the slow start they wanted to avoid. But they’d erased a 14-point deficit in a comeback win at Wake Forest on Sept. 7, and they didn’t panic against the Eagles (4-2, 1-1). The Hoos scored 18 fourth-quarter points Saturday.
“They didn’t get down,” Elliott said of his players. “They didn’t start pointing fingers. They all looked at themselves in the mirror and said, hey, we’re going to figure out what it takes.”
Broadcast highlights from today’s win vs. Boston College!#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/Mg5545nPfa
— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) October 5, 2024
One of the Hoos’ many standouts was senior safety Jonas Sanker. He returned a fumble 40 yards for a touchdown with 6:02 to play, and Will Bettridge added the PAT to make it 24-14.
BC never threatened thereafter. The Eagles turned the ball over on downs on their next drive, and then UVA defensive back Kendren Smith, a graduate transfer from Penn, sealed the win by picking off a Thomas Castellanos pass with 3:04 remaining.
“As a program we grew up today,” Elliott told his players afterward. “We took a step. That was a complete team win, all three phases.”
Sanker attributed the…