NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

A year ago, Virginia and Florida State played a game that sent the two programs in opposite directions. The Cavaliers’ 46-38 double-overtime upset of No. 8 Florida State ended with fans on the field at Scott Stadium and launched a run to a program-record 11 wins and an ACC Championship Game appearance. The Seminoles came into that night 3-0. They won two more games the rest of the year and finished 5-7.

Saturday in Tallahassee, the roles flipped. Virginia arrived 3-1 and a slight favorite (2.5 points at the open), with Beau Pribula having completed 76.7 percent of his passes, fourth in the country. Florida State arrived 2-2, less than three weeks removed from firing its athletic director, with Mike Norvell the betting favorite to be the first Power Four head coach fired this season.

For a quarter, it went to script. Fisher Camac and Donavon Platt got home on Florida State’s first two drives, the Seminoles punted on each of their first three possessions, and Pribula found Da’Shawn Martin wide open on a crosser for a 13-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead. Then Florida State scored the next 38 points.

Here are my five takeaways from the loss.

This loss could define UVA’s season the way last year’s defined FSU’s

Last September’s game was the hinge for both programs. Florida State left Charlottesville and lost its next four, starting 0-4 in ACC play for the first time in program history. Virginia left with a newfound belief that carried it to Charlotte in December.

Saturday has every chance of being that same hinge, in reverse.

This was supposed to be the launchpad year for Virginia as it built on the success of 2025. In the preseason, the schedule was rated the fourth-easiest in the Power Four, with SMU the only ranked opponent on it and no Miami, Clemson or Louisville. The 2027 slate brings Notre Dame, Louisville, Pitt, SMU and Virginia Tech to Scott Stadium and sends the Cavaliers to Miami, North Carolina and Georgia Tech. After the 2025 and 2026 seasons offered manageable schedules, 2027 is leagues tougher, with the potential for six or seven ranked opponents.

The West Virginia loss had already all but ended Virginia’s at-large playoff hopes. Afterward, Tony Elliott reminded his team that all of its goals were still ahead of it, including an ACC title. After the loss to Florida State and a 1-1 start in league play, there is no margin for error left. If this team is going to turn one great season into sustained success, it has to look drastically improved in the next seven games.

Virginia was badly outcoached by a staff fighting for its jobs

Consider where Florida State was coming into Saturday. The Seminoles fired athletic director Michael Alford on Sept. 14. Norvell was 3-14 in ACC play since the start of 2024 with a buyout north of $47 million. He was the betting favorite to be the first Power Four coach fired this season.

That staff made the adjustments Saturday, and Virginia’s did not.

Virginia outgained Florida State 101-38 in the first quarter. In the second, it was 218 yards to minus-12. The Seminoles started getting physical with Virginia’s receivers at the line, sent pressure the Cavaliers never solved, and Virginia kept calling the same plays. Jekail Middlebrook was a rare bright spot, yet he carried the ball just 10 times for 65 yards, 6.5 a carry.

The in-game decisions did not help. Late in the first half, Anthony Britton’s sack pushed Florida State out of field goal range and set up second-and-31. On the next snap, Ashton Daniels scrambled for 10 yards, but a Florida State tackle was flagged for holding Fisher Camac. Accepting the penalty would have made it second-and-41. Virginia declined it and took third-and-21 instead, trading 20 yards of field position for one down. Ousmane Kromah then broke three or four tackles to get the Seminoles back into range, and Gabe Panikowski’s 44-yard field goal with 1:03 left made it 17-7 at the half.

The worst moment came early in the third quarter. Down 17-7 and facing fourth-and-1, Virginia lined up in shotgun and handed off on a dive rather than simply sneaking it. It was stuffed, and Florida State scored on the ensuing possession. Virginia finished 3-for-15 on third down and 0-for-4 on fourth.

The most concerning part is that this is now a pattern. Against West Virginia, Virginia led 14-7 and was outscored 31-13 the rest of the way. Against Florida State, it led 7-0 and was outscored 38-0. In both Power Four games where Virginia faced even a modicum of adversity, it folded.

Virginia’s tackling was some of the worst I’ve ever seen

The game turned on one play. With Virginia up 7-0 and the defense a stop away from another punt, Kromah broke what looked like four or five tackles to extend a drive that began deep in Florida State’s own territory. A screen pass went for nearly 50 yards to the Virginia 5-yard line a few plays later, and Daniels walked in on a read-option keeper to tie it.

From there, Virginia could not bring anyone down on first contact. Florida State ran 46 times for 281 yards, 6.1 a carry. Defenders bit on nearly every run fake and over-pursued on scrambles that should have been losses. On one play, a Seminole got up off the turf after a flea flicker while Virginia defenders stood around him.

Daniels ran 17 times for 136 yards and five touchdowns. Five rushing touchdowns is a Florida State single-game record for any player at any position, breaking the mark of four shared by Greg Allen, Dalvin Cook, Cam Akers and Antone Smith. Daniels, a Stanford and Auburn transfer, had three rushing touchdowns in Florida State’s first four games combined. His fourth was an 81-yarder in the third quarter.

The early defense looked good. Virginia held Florida State to 38 yards in the first quarter, and Corey Costner’s interception off a bobbled ball stopped a two-minute drive before halftime, giving Virginia fans brief hope for a second-half comeback. But a defense that looked fast against NC State and Delaware looked slow and tired by the second quarter.

The offensive line gave up 10 sacks

Virginia’s offensive line came into the season lauded as a strength. Against NC State, it paved the way for 57 rushes and a school-record 23-play drive.

Saturday, Florida State sacked Pribula 10 times, one short of the ACC single-game record of 11. The Seminoles had seven sacks in their first four games combined. Nine different Seminoles got at least a share of one, led by Rylan Kennedy’s two sacks and three tackles for loss, and Florida State finished with 12 tackles for loss.

It was not just the blitz. Drake Metcalf was driven back on consecutive snaps in the second quarter, and on one three-man rush Makilan Thomas was pushed straight into his quarterback. Late in the game, Virginia gave up three straight sacks, several of them to rushers who were never touched. Pribula finished with 15 rushes for minus-62 yards, most of it sack yardage.

The run blocking was not the issue. Virginia’s running backs carried 24 times for 100 yards, about 4.2 a carry. The problem was protection against an athletic, aggressive front, and that is worth remembering: this unit also allowed five sacks against Delaware. That is 15 in two weeks. If UVA was going to do something special this season, it was going to be on the backs of a veteran offensive line, and after five games it has become clear that it can’t hold up in pass protection against athletic defensive lines.

Beau Pribula has not solved Power Four defenses, and Eli Holstein deserves a look

Pribula finished 14-of-32 for 168 yards and a touchdown, 5.3 yards per attempt. The pressure was relentless, but the misses were not all on line. He missed an open Martin on first down late in the first half, sailed an open Rico Flores, put a wheel route for a would-be touchdown off Middlebrook’s hands, and airmailed a wide-open Xavier Brown in the end zone on a late drive that ended on downs.

The split this season is stark. Against Norfolk State and Delaware, Pribula is 36-of-42 for 441 yards and seven touchdowns, 10.5 yards per attempt. Against NC State, West Virginia and Florida State, he is 44-of-76 for 520 yards and five touchdowns, 6.8 yards per attempt. This is not a new pattern: in seven games against Power Four opponents at Missouri last season, he threw six touchdowns and seven interceptions.

To be fair, his best Power Four game came in ideal conditions. Against NC State, he ran for 110 yards and completed 9-of-11, mostly off play action, behind a line that was winning every snap. He is not going to look like that behind a line that gives up 10 sacks.

But Virginia needs a quarterback who can win from the pocket when the run game is not dictating terms. Meanwhile, the program Pribula left moved on just fine: Missouri’s Austin Simmons, an Ole Miss transfer, threw for 340 yards in a 45-17 rout of No. 8 Florida.

With this game turning into a blowout, many fans began calling for backup Eli Holstein to get a shot. The Pitt transfer has real ACC experience, having gone 7-3 as a starter in 2024, and he threw for 153 yards and a 74-yard touchdown in relief against Delaware. Pribula is in his final year of eligibility; Holstein has two, which makes him the likely starter in 2027. Yet he did not attempt a pass Saturday, even at 38-7. If the season begins to go off the rails, Virginia needs to see what it has in its quarterback of the future. And if Virginia wants to turn its season around, I’d argue Holstein deserves at least a series.

Bonus: The drops killed every bit of momentum

I lost count of Virginia’s drops, but it felt like one came in nearly every big moment. Rico Flores Jr., the projected No. 1 receiver, could not come down with a jump ball on third-and-13 and finished with one catch for 13 yards. On a day when the offense had so few chances, the receivers could not afford to give any back.

Bonus: Daniel Sparks is the best player on the team

Sparks punted seven times for 397 yards, a 56.7-yard average, with a long of 73 and four inside the 20, including one that died at the 3-yard line. That broke the school single-game record for punting average, 53.0, which Sparks set himself against Washington State last season. The Ray Guy Award preseason watch list member was the only Cavalier who played up to his standard for four quarters. That he got seven chances to prove it says everything else about the afternoon.

What’s next

Virginia returns to Scott Stadium to host Syracuse on Oct. 10 before a trip to SMU on Oct. 17 and a Friday rematch with Duke on Oct. 23.

A year ago, Florida State never recovered from its loss to Virginia. Whether Saturday does the same to the Cavaliers will be decided in the next three weeks, and it starts with Elliott’s staff finding answers it did not have in Tallahassee.

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos