Virginia QB Perkins will keep UF busy
Virginia quarterback Bryce Perkins has made a significant impact on the Cavaliers’ offense over the last two seasons. The Florida Gators will have their hands full facing him in the Orange Bowl.
Virginia offensive coordinator Robert Anae lauded his ability to create. Linebacker Charles Snowden called him the Cavaliers’ X factor.
And make no mistake: Quarterback Bryce Perkins plans to make an impact one final time for Virginia on Monday when the 24thranked Cavaliers face the No. 9
Florida Gators in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium.
The senior, able to make plays with his feet as well as through the air, has played a pivotal role in Virginia going 17-9 over the past two seasons with one more marquee
game left to play.
“The ability to come in and galvanize a team and put a program on track to exceed expectations, he has done that,” Anae said. “That will be his legacy.”
He’s already put his mark on Virginia’s record books despite being just a two-year starter after transferring from Arizona Western Community College.
Perkins holds the school record for most rushing yards by a quarterback (1,668), has seven of the program’s 19 100-yard rushing games by a quarterback, and has rushed for at least 100 yards and thrown for at least 200 in the same game on four occasions (it was done once before Perkins arrived).
“Whenever any kind of play breaks down, there’s no one open, someone misses a block, Bryce can change a play with just one move,” Snowden said.
This season alone, Perkins has 3,215 passing yards and 18 touchdowns through the air while rushing for a team-high 745 yards with 11 scores on the ground.
The only other Power 5 quarterback with at least 3,000 passing yards, 700 rushing yards, 10 passing touchdowns and 10 rushing touchdowns? Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts.
“Florida hasn’t faced anyone like this,” Virginia wide receiver Hasise Dubois said.
The Gators, two-touchdown favorites for Monday’s game, know they will have their hands full.
With the possible exception of LSU’s Joe Burrow, Florida has not faced a quarterback as multifaceted as Perkins this season. Burrow, this season’s Heisman Trophy winner, is clearly the more polished passer and has an agile nature to his game.
But Perkins’ ability to elude defenders and make plays with his feet when everything breaks down is something UF defenders are homing in on as they prep for Monday.
“It’s always important to watch out for the quarterback when you play a dude like that because out of nowhere he just tucks the ball and runs,” UF cornerback Marco Wilson said. “We’ve been practicing a lot. The scout team quarterback has been running all over the place trying to make it realistic for the game. But it’s a challenge when you get a quarterback like that, so we’ve got to be ready for that.”
The Gators have done a solid job defending the run this year. UF is holding opponents to an average of just 107 yards on the ground per game, the 12th-lowest total in the country. Florida has given up more than 140 rushing yards in a game just twice this year, to Auburn and LSU.
Florida is also fifth in the country in sacks (46) and 14th in tackles for loss (97).
“Any time you’ve got a running quarterback, if you hit him a couple times, it’s definitely going to change him,” said Florida linebacker Jonathan Greenard, who leads the team with 14.5 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks. “They understand that he’s going to feel our presence a lot more. However, we definitely just have to make sure that we still contain him at the end of the day. Even if we get one sack on him, we’ve still got to stay the same and be persistent on our pass rush. Overall it’s going to be a tough challenge and we’ve got our work cut out for us, but overall we still know what we’ve got to do.”
Perkins knows what he has to do, too.
He’s trying to close his college career on a high note and lead Virginia to just its second-ever 10-win season. The other one was in 1989. He’s trying to lead Virginia to consecutive bowl wins for the first time since the 2002 and 2003 seasons.
And he’s trying, one last time, to help Virginia football reach new heights as it closes out one of its most successful seasons in program history.
“For us to get it right aligns with all our goals,” Perkins said. “It sets us up to be one of the best teams in UVA history, just being mentioned with the other great 10-win team. It’s a testament to our hard work throughout the summer, our hard work and transition from last year to this year, and the culture and the players who built and kind of set the platform when they first got here.”