Fired-up Virginia Tech dominates Virginia in all three phases to retain Commonwealth Cup

By Raza Umerani

Staff Writer

November 26, 2023

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The Commonwealth Cup is staying home in emphatic, historic style. 

Virginia Tech (6-6, 5-3 Atlantic Coast) asserted itself on offense, defense and special teams from start to finish, marooning Virginia (3-9, 2-6) 55-17 to win the Commonwealth Clash for the 18th time in the last 19 meetings and 22nd time in the last 24 meetings.

Tech’s 55 points marked a new high for either team in a series that dates back to 1895.

“I think we’ve got a lot of weapons,” Tech head coach Brent Pry said to reporters after the game. “We played complementary ball. Defense was getting the ball back to the offense, we scored in the kicking game multiple times. We were hitting it on all cylinders today.”

The rivalry game victory gets Tech to six wins, meaning the Hokies are going bowling for the 35th time in program history and first time in two years. 

“It's an awesome opportunity for us to stay together again, be together another month with this group [with] these coaches and these players,” Pry said. “And then to capitalize on some momentum going into the offseason and in recruiting. People see what we're doing right now, what we're about, the momentum we have, the improvements we're making. 

“We're still in a rebuild, but we're making strides. I think today was a testament to that, going bowling is a testament to that, particularly [considering] the way the season started.”

The Hokies amassed an even 500 yards of total offense — an immaculate balance of 252 on  the ground and 248 through the air — on a whopping 8.3 yards per play while holding UVa to just 286 yards of their own, most of which came with the game being well out of reach. 

The dominance started early and often as Tech scored on four of its first six drives while forcing six UVa punts to take a 24-0 lead into halftime. At the break, the Hokies had 294 yards of total offense.

The Wahoos had only 60.

Those first thirty minutes were highlighted by aggressive offense from the Hokies, who converted a fourth-and-two into a 44-yard touchdown toss from quarterback Kyron Drones to wide receiver Stephen Gosnell on their second drive courtesy of a picture-perfect playfake from the redshirt sophomore signal-caller.

“It was really the play-action fake,” Gosnell said. “They're trying to run fit on fourth and short, so that brought the safety up. I just had to climb right over top of him.”

After a second consecutive touchdown drive was punctuated by a 33-yard rushing touchdown from wide receiver Tucker Holloway on a double reverse, the Hokies found themselves in a position to put an early dagger in the Cavaliers. Up 17-0, facing a fourth-and-two on the plus-side of midfield, Pry initially sent his punting unit on the field. 

After a timeout, Tech’s offense took the field and was able to move the chains with a 15-yard completion from Drones to wide receiver Da’Quan Felton.

On the next play, running back Bhayshul Tuten took a toss and outraced the UVa defense for a 32-yard scoring sprint to make it 24-0.

“I got mad at myself for punting that ball,” Pry said. “I knew that’s not what we needed to do, whether we converted or not. That’s not how we’re going to go win the game. It wasn’t necessary to punt the ball right there. Let’s give it a shot.”

All the while, the Tech defense started the game forcing four consecutive UVa three-and-outs. Sticking it to their rival was already at the forefront of the defense’s mind, but comments from Cavaliers quarterback Anthony Colandrea about beating the Hokies from earlier in the week added even more fuel to their fire. 

“That riled us up,” Tech defensive lineman Cole Nelson said. “When you see a young man just talking about how they're gonna beat us. … He ain't ever played us before. He ain't ever played in this game before. He ain't ever played in this type of environment. We had to just go out there and show him what's up.”

Tech picked up where it left off in the second half, scoring on its first play of the third quarter: an 84-yard catch and run from Felton to make it 31-0.

UVa followed that up by finally stringing together a scoring possession, getting on the board with a field goal, inciting some LED light shows and less-than-authentic cheers from the Cavalier faithful. 

Legitimate or not, any remote positivity for UVa was immediately silenced as Tuten returned the ensuing kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown, punctuating it with a salute to the Hokies fans on the hill behind the north end zone which started from the 30-yard line.

“There was no doubt that I was scoring,” Tuten said. “I knew I wasn't getting caught. I looked up at the jumbotron around the thirty and I saw there was nobody close. I pointed up to the fans to salute them.”

After receiving just two touches for minus three yards in Tech’s previous game against NC State, Tuten poured in major contributions with 117 yards and a touchdown on just 16 carries alongside the kick return touchdown.

That marked Tuten’s second kick return for a touchdown this season after his 99-yarder at Florida State earlier in the year, becoming just the second player in program history with multiple games with such scores (David Wilson, 2010). The running back also became the first player in Tech history to score in multiple ways in multiple games.

“It seems like if you just keep feeding him the ball and good things happen,” Pry said. “He's hard to tackle, he's got great vision, he's tough and he's fast. He can do it returning kicks, he can do it catching the ball and running the ball out of the backfield. He's a special player.”

By then, the rest of the game was merely a formality — but that didn’t stop the Hokies from pouring it on. Drones and Felton hooked up on yet another touchdown later in the third quarter, as the receiver muscled through multiple Cavalier defenders for his second score of the game. 

Drones finished the game with 244 yards and three touchdowns on just 10 completions. Felton also had a day to remember with 133 yards and two of those touchdowns on three receptions.

Virginia was able to get in the endzone a couple of times with a pair of Colandrea touchdown tosses to wide receiver Malachi Fields. Star Cavalier receiver Malik Washington racked up a whopping 14 catches for 115 yards, breaking the all-time ACC record for receptions in a season with 109. 

But essentially all of the Wahoos’ offensive production came against Tech’s defensive reserves with the game being all but over.

“What we did a nice job of was knowing where [Washington] was,” Pry said. “Really, once he got the football, [we were] vicing him up, taking the air out of it, squeezing, leveraging. We worked hard on that.”

Tech tailback Malachi Thomas capped things off with a seven-yard scoring plunge late in the fourth quarter. 

Then, the clock struck triple zeroes, and the celebration was on. Hokies fans sprinted from the hill and stormed the field, mobbing Tech’s players as they hoisted the Commonwealth Cup for the 61st time in 104 meetings.

“That’s the most fun I’ve ever had playing football,” Gosnell said. “I don’t think I’ve had that level of dopamine in a while. … We got to be [bowl] eligible by whooping the s— out of them.”

After the conclusion of the game, the Hokies retook the field at Scott Stadium, Commonwealth Cup and plenty of cigars in hand, to take a team photo: a Tech-UVa tradition in every sport. 

A sudden activation of the field sprinklers interrupted that celebration. 

But it didn’t matter to Tech. Nothing was going to sully the feeling of winning the rivalry game and punching a ticket to bowl season.

“They can do that,” Gosnell said. “We'll take the dub and they can take the L.”