Virginia Football: 3 Takeaways from the Cavs loss to Pitt

2. Darrin Hall has returned

Okay, so Darrin Hall hasn’t exactly been hurt or suspended all year long, but still. Last season we saw virtually zero Qadree Ollison and a lot of Darrin Hall. This season, Ollison has returned to Freshman form and looked to be in for his second 1,000-yard rushing season. Ollison had 126 carries for 795 yards which is a stellar 6.3 yards per carry while Hall had 70 carries for 429 yards for 6.1 yards per carry in his own right.

Ollison has out-touched Hall for most of the season but tonight was Hall’s night to shine. Narduzzi saw that the weakness of the Virginia defense was off the edges, so he sent the speedy Darrin Hall off the edge plenty of times all game long. Had Pitt stuck with Ollison for most of the game and tried to attack up the middle then the takeaways tonight would’ve been how strong the Wahoo run defense was tonight. Instead, they took to the outside and gave Hall 19 chances to beat Virginia and he Sherpa’d the Pittsburgh Panthers to a victory with 229 yards and three touchdowns.

I doubt this means that Hall takes over at number one on the depth chart because Ollison has played very productive all season long. I do see Hall’s touches going up in the next few weeks, especially when the matches are favorable against Wake and Virginia Tech. The real issue for Pittsburgh’s offense is the passing game – or lack thereof rather – that they are getting from Kenny Pickett who went 7-of-14 for 61 yards tonight.