Benkert leads rally as Georgia Tech stumbles
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Kurt Benkert knew the game was in his hands, even as a steady rain kept falling and the clock ticked down, leaving less than three minutes to play.
On a day when the Virginia quarterback struggled at times with his accuracy and his receivers struggled hanging on to the ball, everything came together in the end. It culminated in Benkert’s 27-yard touchdown pass with 1:22 remaining to give the Cavaliers a 40-36 victory against Georgia Tech and bowl eligibility for the first time since 2011.
They improved to 6-3 overall and 3-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“It was beautiful,” Benkert said of the 64-yard march in five plays. “It was a lot of fun to be a part of, just guys looking at you in the eyes and knowing that you’re ready to go and vice versa and just believing, truly believing, that we could do it and we could pull it off.”
The victory came after Georgia Tech (4-4, 3-3) had covered 90 yards in nine plays and went ahead on a 33-yard touchdown pass with 3:10 remaining, and it left Cavaliers coach Bronco Mendenhall hoarse. He made certain, though, he had enough of a voice left to share his admiration for the way his team bounced back.
“I’m not sure there’s anything that feels better than this right now,” he said.
The Cavaliers entered the game having lost two straight, both in lopsided fashion.
“They decided that they wanted to be different and play different than they had the last two weeks,” Mendenhall said.
On the final drive, after a short kickoff set the Cavaliers up at their 36, Benkert hit Olamide Zaccheaus for 19 yards on a first play. Benkert ran for 5 yards, then hit Jordan Ellis with a pass for 5 more. An 8-yard connection with Doni Dowling followed, and then the touchdown to Levrone, who was in one-on-one coverage.
“We’ve been on the opposite end of that way too many times since I’ve been here,” said Benkert, a transfer from East Carolina, “and just to have that opportunity, to come over the hump of six wins and to do it in that fashion, I don’t think you could have put together a better storybook ending for that game.”
Unless, of course, you were in the other locker room. Georgia Tech scored on the first two plays from scrimmage in the second half, opening a 28-13 lead and stunning those who braved the cold rain, but then allowed Benkert and the Cavaliers to begin mounting their comeback immediately.
“It was a killer; we let them drive down the field and score,” Yellow Jackets coach Paul Johnson said.
When Georgia Tech went ahead late, quarterback TaQuon Marshall twice kept the drive alive by running the ball on third down, the second time to get to Virginia’s 33. On the next play, he found Ricky Jeune on a slant route, and the wide receiver took it untouched into the end zone.
A 2-point conversion run by Marshall made it 36-33, preventing Virginia from winning with a field goal, but the Cavaliers didn’t need one as Benkert completed all four of his passes on the winning drive.
His touchdown pass to Levrone was his third of the day and the second for the tandem. Levrone also caught a 34-yarder, and Doni Dowling caught a 28-yarder.