CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Tony Elliott wants his Virginia offense to focus on running the football. So much so, that when he heard his offensive coordinator, Des Kitchings, call three straight passes to open the second half of Saturday’s season-opening ACC win over North Carolina State, Elliott was gearing up to step in.

The head coach had signed off on the flea-flicker to open the half, but said the next two pass plays his offensive coordinator “kind of snuck that on” him.

“I was about to say, ‘Alright Des, Run the ball next play,” Elliott said following the 34-8 win. “I think it was just things that they saw at the half. We knew we had some good safe play action stuff that we felt like we could protect, and it was set up through the run game in the first half.”

Virginia ran 33 offensive plays in the first half and 30 of those were runs. Understandably, one of North Carolina State’s halftime adjustments was to walk its safeties closer to the line of scrimmage, in particular, to try to contain UVA quarterback Beau Pribula, who gained 80 of his 110 rushing yards in the first half.

That left openings for the Cavaliers to attack in the secondary, which they wasted no time doing. The flea-flicker, where Pribula handed off to running back Jekail Middlebrook, who pitched the ball back to Pribula, got things going. With the defense crashing hard once Pribula handed the ball off, Ty’Liric Coleman was able to get free and make a 20-yard reception.

On the next snap, Pribula connected with Kam Courtney for an 8-yard gain. And before Elliott could tell Kitchings to get back to the running game, Pribula hit a wide open Da’Shawn Martin for a 47-yard touchdown and 24-0 lead.

That series showed that Virginia has the ability to be explosive and advantageous with its throw game. But the story for most of the contest was the veteran offensive line controlling the line of scrimmage and helping Pribula and a quintet of running backs churn out yards on the ground. In all, the Cavaliers amassed 258 rushing yards on 57 carries, averaging 4.5 yards per run.

Now, Elliott said, the challenge is to be able to do that game after game.

“To be dominant you have to be consistent at it and do it week in and week out. But it’s a good place to start,” Elliott said. “It’s one game against a very, very good opponent, so I like where we started. But not ready to say that’s who we are yet. That’s who we desire to be.”

And, while pounding the rock is the identity Elliott is after, he’d like to see less of that work being done by the team’s starting quarterback. Pribula, a transfer from Missouri where he ran the ball 95 times in 10 games, carried 15 times on Saturday, with most of those coming on called QB runs. Elliott said, to keep Pribula healthy, he’d like to feature the running backs more.

He’d also like to see Pribula avoid some of the hits at the ends of runs that he took Saturday.

“We’re going to have to have a talk,” Elliott said. “He runs like a running back. And I love that. And there’s certain times, but every time I don’t want him to. Whenever he can avoid a hit, I want him to avoid a hit.”

For his part, Pribula didn’t mind the workload – or the punishment.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to win the football game,” Pribula said.

Here’s a look at three other takeaways from Saturday’s victory.

 

Corners proved themselves

One of the major areas the team wanted to upgrade in the offseason was the cornerback position. To that end, UVA went out and added a pair of Big Ten transfers in Wisconsin’s Omillio Agard and Rutgers’

Henderson started 31 games in three years, first at Marshall for two seasons, then with the Scarlet Knights. Agard played in 11 games, making three starts. With their addition, Donovan Platt moved to the nickel back position and Jam Jackson became the third corner.

Agard and Henderson earned rave reviews from the coaches during camp, but that was working against a receiving corps that is one of the few weak points on this year’s UVA roster. Saturday was the duo’s first real test – and they passed with flying colors. Defensive coordinator John Rudzinski felt comfortable trusting the transfer cornerbacks in man-to-man coverage for much of the game, allowing him to get creative with second-level blitzes from the linebacker and safety positions.

 

Running back depth is real

Lots of team talk about how many capable running backs they have during fall camp. Then, when the season starts, meaningful carries only go to two, maybe three, players. But Virginia handed the ball off to five running backs in the first half against North Carolina State.

Middle Tennessee transfer Jekail Middlebrook, as expected, was the featured back. He started the game and got the carries on the first drive. The second drive, Middlebrook split the workload with Xay Davis. Veteran Xavier Brown, coming off knee surgery, got the ball on the team’s third drive, and scored the season’s first touchdown on a 1-yard run.

In the second quarter, Noah Vaughn and Peyton Lewis each got series, before UVA went back to the top three. When it was all said and done, Vaughn and Lewis had six carries each, Davis had seven and Middlebrook had 15.

 

Receiver remains a question mark

Wide receiver was the offensive position with the most question marks going into the opener and the State game did little to change that. The expected top target, UCLA transfer Rico Flores Jr., was injured during the week in practice and missed the game. Coleman played in his place and had two catches for 31 yards. Martin, a transfer from Kent State who had been dinged up during camp, had the unit’s big play on the 47-yard touchdown catch.

Veteran slot receiver Kam Courtney was targeted the most, three times, by Pribula and finished with three catches for 12 yards.

Kitchings’ offense features a lot of passes to the running backs, and Pribula threw a pair of balls to Brown, including a 45-yard touchdown, Saturday. UVA also played a lot of two-tight end personnel. And, of course, with the early lead and the success the Cavaliers had running the ball and playing defense, there was no need to air it out Saturday.

Still, if there’s a group that still has something to prove after the State win, it’s the wide receivers.