When Will Bettridge checked his phone after breaking the University of Virginia football program’s all-time scoring record, the first message he saw came from the man whose mark he had just passed.
That man was Connor Hughes, the former Cavalier kicker whose record Bettridge topped last weekend at Scott Stadium. Bettridge remembered the note clearly Tuesday at the Hardie Center.
“He was like, ‘I’m so happy for you. Congrats. You did a lot to get here,’ ” Bettridge recalled Tuesday at the Hardie Center.
Hughes had owned the program record since 2005, when he finished his UVA career with 332 points. That moved him past Gene Mayer, who had held the mark for 90 years with 293 points from 1912-15. Hughes also knew that Wali Lundy, one of his teammates, had gone beyond Mayer as well, finishing with 312 career points.
For Hughes, the milestone was never something he expected to last forever.
He said he understood that the record would eventually fall, and that mindset has made it easier to cheer on Bettridge now.
He knew all along that his record would fall one day, Hughes said, and “that allows me to celebrate with Will and celebrate with the team and be excited about it.”
Bettridge and Hughes have been connected since Bettridge arrived at Virginia as a freshman in 2022. Their relationship deepened after the tragic shooting on Grounds that fall, when three Virginia football players were killed, including Bettridge’s close friend D’Sean Perry, who also graduated from Gulliver Prep in Miami.
“Obviously it was a tough time, and Connor was really there for me,” said Bettridge, who wears jersey No. 41 in memory of Perry. “So it was good to get that relationship with him and kind of build to what it is now.”
Hughes now works with Athletes in Action, a global Christian ministry, and has been in that role since 2016. Through the job, he meets with and counsels student-athletes and coaches at Virginia. Another former Cavalier, Vincent Croce, works for the university’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter and serves as the football team’s chaplain, which means Hughes is less involved with that program than he once was.
Still, he sees the collaboration as a strength.
“Vince is doing a great job here, and I felt like he was covering football great,” Hughes said. “But it really is a cool partnership between FCA and AIA here. We share notes and meet and do a lot of things together.”
Long before Virginia, Hughes was a kid in Williamsburg who spent his early years playing soccer. Football entered the picture when he was a ninth-grader at Lafayette High School, after senior Kase Luzar encouraged him to try kicking.
“He was like, ‘You're really good at soccer, why don't you come kick?’ ” Hughes said.
He didn’t know much about football, but he gave it a shot, tried out for Lafayette’s coaches and nearly drilled a 50-yard field goal on his first attempt. That was enough to win the job.
By the end of his high school career, Hughes had piled up 331 points, a national record for a high school kicker. He also started at quarterback as a senior and helped Lafayette win the Group AA, Division 4 state championship.
His impact in that title run was all over the field. In the state semifinals, his 49-yard field goal delivered a 3-0 win over Liberty. Then in the championship game, he ran for 167 yards in Lafayette’s 41-28 victory over Pulaski County.
Hughes arrived at Virginia in 2002 as a recruited walk-on, and Luzar was among his teammates. He took over the kicking duties after the ninth game of his freshman season and kept the job the rest of the way, earning a scholarship after his first year.
During Hughes’ first two seasons, Matt Schaub was Virginia’s quarterback and also handled holding duties on kicks. Schaub later said on a Wahoo Central Podcast that Hughes was one of the most dependable pieces on the roster.
Outside of tight end Heath Miller, Schaub said on a Wahoo Central Podcast, “Connor was probably the ultimate security valve to have, because you knew you didn't have to force the ball. If you crossed the 40-yard line, you got three points, and if it wasn't there, you could throw it away and you knew you were getting points out of the drive with Connor ... He was a huge part of our arsenal.”
Across 42 games as a Cavalier, Hughes made 134 of 138 extra points and 66 of 79 field goals. One of the most memorable nights of his career came on Sept. 27, 2003, when Virginia hosted Wake Forest before 60,884 fans at Scott Stadium.
That night, Hughes drilled a 53-yard field goal to tie the game in the final two minutes, then came back with a 38-yarder to win it as UVA rallied for a 27-24 victory.
“That was special,” Hughes said of the 53-yarder.
After the game, Groh had his own line for the kicker.
“This is a kicker who’s got real guts,” Groh said after the game.
Hughes also delivered another late-game moment in 2005, when he hit a 19-yard field goal as time expired to beat Syracuse 27-24 at the Carrier Dome. The Orange were still in the Big East then.
His freshman season ended with a clean sweep in Charlotte, N.C., where Virginia beat No. 15 West Virginia 48-22 in the inaugural Continental Tire Bowl at Bank of America Stadium. Hughes went 6 for 6 on extra points and 2 for 2 on field goals in that game.
“It was such a great game,” Hughes said, “because West Virginia came in with all this hype.”
Virginia and West Virginia have not met in football since then, but that changes Saturday. At 7:30 p.m. on ACC Network, the No. 25 Cavaliers, 2-0, face the Mountaineers, 2-0, in the Duke’s Mayo Classic at Bank of America Stadium.
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