Ashton Daniels broke off a career-long 81-yard touchdown run, one of the five rushing touchdowns that set a Florida State program record. That was the signature play of a 38-7 loss in Tallahassee, and it was not an outlier within the afternoon. SI.com graded Virginia's linebackers F and its defensive line D-, and PFF put the team's tackling grade for the game at 35.4. Florida State finished with 464 total yards to Virginia's 205, and the Cavaliers failed to convert on fourth down.
The men who have to fix it are the same men who were out there.
Virginia hosts Syracuse on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on ACC Network, and the quarterback walking into Scott Stadium is Amari Odom, who in his first career start threw for 335 yards and accounted for six touchdowns and ran in the game-winning two-point conversion in overtime against UConn. He is not Daniels. He also does the one thing that broke Virginia last week. He leaves the pocket and he finishes runs. If Odom is slipping first contact in the first quarter, the problem is the defense, not the opponent.
The model gives Virginia an 89% chance to win this one, and an outside preview had Virginia by 31-16, so this is not a night to feel nervous about the result. It is a night to watch the tackling. Virginia's odds of reaching the ACC Championship Game sit near 5% right now; the two branches on Saturday are roughly 5.7% with a win and 1% with a loss. That asymmetry is the honest stake here. Winning barely moves anything, losing closes the door.
There is cover available on the other side, too. Syracuse led UConn 34-14 and then gave up 302 yards and four touchdowns over the final 30 minutes plus overtime, with Fran Brown noting opponent rushing yards jumped from 14 in the first half to 167 in the second and that his defensive backs "had rust." Beau Pribula should be able to breathe, though the line in front of him still has a question at left guard. Noah Josey, the All-ACC left guard, left in the second quarter with an ankle injury after about 20 snaps, and Ben York replaced him for the rest of the game. No update on his availability has followed, so watch who lines up next to center on the first snap. York at left guard means Virginia is still patching its most experienced unit.
Tony Elliott did not point at anyone afterward. He said "Everybody's got ownership in it, starting with me," listed missed tackles, missed plays and dropped balls, and acknowledged the staff discussed benching Pribula before keeping him in. That is a coach taking the week on himself rather than announcing changes, which means the answer has to show up in how the defense plays, not in a depth chart. A team coming off an 11-win season that gets run over by one quarterback does not get to argue about it. It gets to tackle somebody on Homecoming night.
Full week view at /2026/6/virginia, with the numbers explained at /methodology.