CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. (AP) — Harrison Waylee rushed for 151 yards and three touchdowns, including a school-record 97-yarder, as Virginia rolled up a program-record 700 yards offense and blew out visiting William & Mary 55-16 on Saturday.
Of Virginia’s 700 yards, 379 came on the ground. UVA totaled 691 yards against Davidson in 1968 for the previous record.
“I told the senior leadership point blank. I said, ‘Look, we’re going to find out a lot about our football team this week,’” coach Tony Elliott said after improving to 4-0 against FCS opponents. “‘How mature are we? Are we going to be able to show up and play to a standard, or are we going to show up and play to an opponent?’ I felt like they came out ready to go in all three phases.”
UVA quarterback Chandler Morris went 13 of 19 for 149 yards and a 3-yard touchdown pass to backup tight end John Rogers with six minutes to play in the second quarter.
That score put the Cavaliers ahead 35-7 and was the last one Morris would throw. Virginia played the second half almost entirely with backups.
William & Mary quarterback Noah Brannock threw for 111 yards and ran for another 35 and a touchdown. But Mike London’s team went 2 for 13 on third down, and missed on two fourth-down conversion tries.
“They did everything they needed to do,” said London of the Virginia team he coached from 2010-2015. ‘We made some errors and things like that that obviously cost you. We weren’t hitting on all cylinders.”
The Tribe scored their first points on a 79-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Hughes to Deven Thompson in the second quarter.
They nearly had another long score in the third, but Noah Brannock’s 39-yard pass into the end zone was dropped by a wide-open Isaiah Lemmond.
William & Mary punter Carter Boyd pinned Virginia at its own 3-yard line on the next snap. But on the following play, Waylee, a transfer from Wyoming, picked his way through the right side of the offensive line, then burst up the Tribe’s sideline untouched for the record-setting run and TD.
A day to remember
Elliott opened his postgame press conference by noting that the last time Virginia put up 55 points in a game was in 2020 against Abilene Christian, a game that saw both former wide receiver Lavel Davis and former linebacker D’Sean Perry score touchdowns.
Saturday was “UVA Strong Day,” at Virginia, the day the program honors Davis, Perry and Devin Chandler, the three football players shot to death on campus in 2022.
“It’s been a very challenging week for a lot of folks within the program, especially the folks that were here back in November ’22,” Elliott said. “Everybody wanted to have a day like today in remembrance of Lavel, Devin and D’Sean.”
Unlikely record-setter
Virginia’s third quarterback of the game, freshman Cole Greer, ran 12 yards on a keeper late in the fourth quarter, putting the Cavaliers over 700. A pair of kneel-downs dropped UVA to exactly 700.
Taking care of business
Virginia has now beaten in-state foe William & Mary seven consecutive times. It hasn’t lost to an FCS opponent since being stunned by Richmond in the 2016 season opener, the debut game for former coach Bronco Mendenhall.
The takeaway
After back-to-back tight games, a two-point loss at Furman and a one-point home win over Maine, William & Mary could not compete in this FBS matchup. The Tribe went three-and-out on seven of its first 10 possessions.
Virginia got what it wanted out of its FCS game — a decisive victory that saw it dominate the line of scrimmage, run the ball and get to play plenty of reserves. It came in front of a sparse crowd of 38,512 at Scott Stadium.
Up next
William & Mary hosts Charleston Southern in the Chanticleers’ home opener next Saturday.
Virginia hosts Stanford in the Cavaliers’ ACC opener next Saturday night.
