Winners and Losers From Virginia’s Latest Duke Heartbreaker

Heading into the game's waning minutes, Virginia had a slim lead against Duke. Then disaster ensued.

The Cavaliers offense went ice-cold, and its defense did not have one more sturdy drive in it. Running back Nate Sheppard threw a game-winning touchdown pass (from 28 yards away), to a wide open receiver in the endzone.

Loser: Beau Pribula and the Cavaliers’ 2026 season

For the second game in a row, Virginia’s starting quarterback did not record a passing touchdown. He hasn’t thrown multiple touchdown passes (over 160 yards) in a game since September. This cold streak has officially tanked the Cavaliers’ season. At 4-4, their ACC title hopes are officially at less than 1%.

Beyond that, this team now has to go 2-2 down the stretch to even reach a bowl game. Can Virginia find two wins against the likes of Wake Forest, Cal, North Carolina and Virginia Tech? The answer is probably no, or at best, a very unconfident “maybe?”

Winner: Virginia’s defense, particularly its discipline

Missed tackles have tanked this defense in several games throughout the 2026 season. They weren’t found Friday. Virginia wrapped up — and also earned some consequential tackles for loss. A Kam Robinson interception was the cherry on top of a good outing by John Rudzinski’s defense. This defense deserved more points from its offense.

Yes, the game-winning passing touchdown from a running back was brutal. However, the defense only allowed two touchdowns all evening.

Loser: Des Kitchings

To his credit, Kitchings committed to the run game this week and found success. However, the play calling was once again questionable on key third downs, and generally vanilla. The Cavaliers had very little success in the passing game, with once-successful mesh and seam concepts nowhere to be found.

The real kicker is that in the final seconds of the first half, Virginia leaned on the run instead of the pass. The Cavaliers could have pushed the ball downfield and taken a few shots into the endzone. As is turned out, settling for a field goal proved costly.

Postgame, Coach Tony Elliott said the Cavaliers were "not trying to do anything risky."

Elliott asked about the job security of his coordinators, to which he replied with this:

"I evaluate everybody, and my job evaluating the coordinators is [to see if] the calls look to give the positions to make a play, right? So I'm looking for numbers and angles from that standpoint. Obviously, I haven't reviewed this film, right? So I review this film and take a take a look at it, goes from there, and then are the are the guys where they're supposed to be? Are they being coached, and are they translating the information to be where they're they're supposed to be?"

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