Happy Sunday everyone. I was putting together my game grades and found a few trends I thought were worth posting here. Mostly bad, of course. But certainly helps explain why UVa is 0-4.
SCHEDULE: UVa's 0-4 record has come against teams with a combined 14-2 mark (losses to ND and Florida). The rest of the schedule doesn't look great, either. UVa has BC and William & Mary before the bye. But after the bye, four of their six remaining opponents are 4-0 (UNC, Miami, Louisville, Duke) and three of those games are on the road. UVa plays two opponents currently with losing records: BC and VT, both 1-3. Right now, UVa's 12 opponents are a combined 38-10 (79.2% win percentage).
CLOSING GAMES: UVa has been outscored in the fourth quarter 50-11 this year, with their late TD vs NC State their first 4th-quarter TD of the season. Opponents are averaging 3.7 points per drive in the 4th quarter, when removing kneel-down situations. UVa also has 6 of their 7 turnovers lost in the 4th quarter, and all 7 have been in the second half. UVa has been charged with 108 penalty yards in the 4th quarter, 53% of their penalty yards for the season. 60 of those yards directly contributed to the game-winning score by the opponent in the final minute.
RED ZONE DEFENSE: UVa's defense has faced 19 red-zone drives from opponents this season. On those, the opponent has scored a TD on 16 of them. The three non-TD drives: NC State's game-winning field goal after the penalty moved it up, JMU FG made from the 20 yard line (counts as a RZ drive but they hadn't been in the RZ until getting to the 20 on 3rd down), and JMU taking a knee at the UVa 15 to end the game. So you could say that if an opponent has made the red zone this year with the intention of scoring a touchdown, they've done so 100% of the time. Last year UVa's defense was 7th nationally in Red Zone TD rate allowed (44.1). So far this year, 127th nationally (84.2%).
PASSING GAME IMPROVEMENT: Anthony Colandrea already has many 250+ yard passing performances (3) as Brennan Armstrong did last year in 10 starts (3). Colandrea is completing 61.8% of his passes this season vs 54.6% for Armstrong, while throwing for 9 yards per attempt vs 6.5 for Brennan in 2022. Malik Washington already has more receiving TDs (3) than anyone on the team had last year. His 459 receiving yards through 4 games would have been 2nd on the team last year (KT had 579).
SCHEDULE: UVa's 0-4 record has come against teams with a combined 14-2 mark (losses to ND and Florida). The rest of the schedule doesn't look great, either. UVa has BC and William & Mary before the bye. But after the bye, four of their six remaining opponents are 4-0 (UNC, Miami, Louisville, Duke) and three of those games are on the road. UVa plays two opponents currently with losing records: BC and VT, both 1-3. Right now, UVa's 12 opponents are a combined 38-10 (79.2% win percentage).
CLOSING GAMES: UVa has been outscored in the fourth quarter 50-11 this year, with their late TD vs NC State their first 4th-quarter TD of the season. Opponents are averaging 3.7 points per drive in the 4th quarter, when removing kneel-down situations. UVa also has 6 of their 7 turnovers lost in the 4th quarter, and all 7 have been in the second half. UVa has been charged with 108 penalty yards in the 4th quarter, 53% of their penalty yards for the season. 60 of those yards directly contributed to the game-winning score by the opponent in the final minute.
RED ZONE DEFENSE: UVa's defense has faced 19 red-zone drives from opponents this season. On those, the opponent has scored a TD on 16 of them. The three non-TD drives: NC State's game-winning field goal after the penalty moved it up, JMU FG made from the 20 yard line (counts as a RZ drive but they hadn't been in the RZ until getting to the 20 on 3rd down), and JMU taking a knee at the UVa 15 to end the game. So you could say that if an opponent has made the red zone this year with the intention of scoring a touchdown, they've done so 100% of the time. Last year UVa's defense was 7th nationally in Red Zone TD rate allowed (44.1). So far this year, 127th nationally (84.2%).
PASSING GAME IMPROVEMENT: Anthony Colandrea already has many 250+ yard passing performances (3) as Brennan Armstrong did last year in 10 starts (3). Colandrea is completing 61.8% of his passes this season vs 54.6% for Armstrong, while throwing for 9 yards per attempt vs 6.5 for Brennan in 2022. Malik Washington already has more receiving TDs (3) than anyone on the team had last year. His 459 receiving yards through 4 games would have been 2nd on the team last year (KT had 579).
