By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
BLACKSBURG, Va. — On a bitterly cold night at Lane Stadium, UVA’s football season ended on a bitter note.
Virginia Tech has relinquished the Commonwealth Cup to UVA only twice this century—in 2003 and 2019—and the Hokies will retain possession for at least another year. Tech capped the opening drive of this ACC game with a touchdown and never was seriously threatened thereafter in its 37-17 victory late Saturday night.
The Cavaliers, who won three games in each of their first two seasons under head coach Tony Elliott, needed a victory Saturday night to become bowl-eligible. The loss dropped them to 5-7 overall and 3-5 in ACC.
Virginia was seeking its first win at Lane Stadium since 1998.
“We wanted this one bad,” Virginia quarterback Tony Muskett said. “Coach E focused on it pretty heavily, what this means to the program and to the state, so we wanted this one bad.”
So did Tech (6-6, 4-4), which became bowl-eligible on the final day of the regular season. No matter how much the Hokies might struggle against other teams, they always seem to raise their level of play against the Cavaliers, and so it was again Saturday night.
Tech’s top two quarterbacks were unavailable because of injuries, but redshirt freshman Pop Watson proved more than capable Saturday night. He completed 14 of 21 passes for 254 yards and one touchdown, with no interceptions, and carried 11 times for 48 yards.
“I think early on we had some opportunities maybe to get him to get him stopped before he started, but we weren’t able to get him on the ground,” Elliott said. “And then his confidence and the momentum builds throughout the course of the game. I thought they did a good job of moving the pocket on him and giving him some run-pass options. And I thought he did a good job of taking advantage of some of the things that we didn’t do well.”
Sophomore Anthony Colandrea started the first 11 games at quarterback for Virginia this season. After UVA’s loss to SMU last weekend, however, Elliott decided a change was needed to try to ignite a sluggish offense, and he turned to Muskett, his most experienced quarterback.
Muskett transferred to UVA from Monmouth, an FCS program, in January 2023. He went into last season as the Cavaliers’ starter but battled injuries that limited him to six games. In training camp this year, Colandrea won the starting job, but Muskett stayed ready and impressed in…