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The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly: Virginia Edition

What went right, what went wrong, and everything in between Vs the Hoos. Plus team grades.

By Jerry Steinberg
Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

The 'Canes got their starting QB and best player back today.

And Brad Kaaya played pretty well for the most part.

Things were looking and feeling good for the Hurricanes early on, but somehow, someway they ended up in a dog fight, and even surrendered the lead in the second half.

But Kaaya stayed poised, Mark Walton made some huge runs, Virginia made some costly mistakes, and they got the win.

And that's all that counts.   The ACC Coastal Crown remains a possible.

The particulars below:

The Good:

  • I like this...

  • I like this more (thoughts remain with Artie and his family)!

  • The first of many for the emerging star TE!

  • Speaking of stars, how about the play of late of Jermaine Grace? Shades of Sean Spence.
  • Nice to have the "real" Stacy Coley back the past few weeks.

  • Props to UVA DB Darious Latimore on the one-handed INT. Credit where credit is due.
  • Speaking of INTs, this certainly won't be the last for Johnson in his UM career.

  • Nice poise in the 4thQ drive that extended to a two score lead. Kaaya and the O did just enough.

The Bad:

  • Back to back false starts on the opening possession killed momentum.... we've seen this before.
  • Back to back weeks with intentional grounding in the end zone resulting in safeties.
  • Not good, and Kc McDermott really struggled to replace him too.

  • Defense on the perimeter.... (more on that in grades). Defense in general was just bad..

The Ugly:

  • You get it by now.

Team Grades -

Offense:

grades

Love seeing an occasional I formation.  James Coley should use it more.  The running game and offensive line play is still not quite where it needs to be yet, but I see some improvement.

Mark Walton really sparked the team in the second half.  Great to see him score and not have it called back.

Pretty good performance overall for this unit led by Kaaya, Coley, Njoku,  and Walton.

Defense:

grades

Counter, jet sweep, (speed option in previous weeks), bubble screens, etc etc.  this D still struggles mightily on the edge.  With the speed they have, it's unfathomable.  But it happens week in and week out.  They get burnt on the perimeter time and time again.

Tyriq McCord was very active, though he did get juked out of his shoes by Matt Johns on a scramble. Ufomba Kamalu also played well.  JJ's pick was set up by great coverage from Tracy Howard.

And they were with out Artie Burns.

Overall however this group is still a mess.

Special Teams:

grades

Sheldrick Redwine is starting to make a lot of nice hits in coverage lately.

Braxton Berrios on punt returns is interesting but Corn Elder should be back there for now.  He's the most explosive player when it comes to returns.

Bad miss for Michael Badgely in the 3rd Q from just 34 yards. He bounced back to hit two clutch ones though in the 4th.

Got the onside kick recovered...  just barely.

Coaching:

grades

Still far too many penalties, no blaming the refs for these either.

The defense as mentioned multiple times above, makes the same mistakes over and over.  It's time for a new philosophy with that unit.

The team is playing aggressive and hard though.   And two for two is a nice accomplishment for Coach Scott.

He beat a top 25 team on the road, and a UVA program that gave Al Golden fits the past few seasons, back to back weeks.

He'll be tested more next week.

A very good UNC team awaits.