Friday’s Final Thoughts: Virginia At Oregon

Here are Friday's final thoughts on Virginia football.
Eli Hanback and the Hoos are ready to take on Oregon. ~ Kris Wright

No countdown clock. No home tailgates. No “Bronco Mendenhall” debut hype. All that anticipation gave way to disappointment last week. Can the Virginia football team put the loss to Richmond in the rear view mirror and get started on improvement? It’s time for Friday’s Final Thoughts.

The Sabre panel picks are in (go vote in the poll!) and only one person, Ahmad Hawkins, have UVA winning at Oregon. Average score: Oregon 47.4, Virginia 28.8. That 18.6 spread is lower than most odds makers have it – the Ducks are favored by 24 points or more.

Virginia really struggled with play action last week on defense so I’m really concerned about misdirection runs for big yardage for Oregon.

Olamide Zaccheaus and Keeon Johnson both looked comfortable in the new offense in the season opener and it showed in their production. Each had 5 catches and 1 touchdown. Doni Dowling looked good in the first half too before he left with an injury – his status is unknown for this week but he’s not on the depth chart. Andre Levrone should see more action this week, though. He missed a big portion of preseason practice with an injury and was limited in week one.

Punter Nicholas Conte had a great day against Richmond, averaging 46.7 yards per kick on 3 punts. He nailed high kicks with good hang time too.

One thing I didn’t notice against Richmond – who actually handled the long snapper duties? UVA was breaking in a new starter there in the season opener. I pulled up the replay for the answer: Richard Burney, a tight end, started as the long snapper.

Tight end Evan Butts made his only catch on scramble play. QB Kurt Benkert ran out of the pocket to the right, Butts drifted with him, and the catch gained 8 yards. You know what it looked like? The good ol’ play action with a tight end drag route that always seems to work. Maybe UVA can build that look into the system?

I thought Tim Harris had one of the best games of his career last week. Broke up two deep passes. Set the edge well when needed. 2.5 tackles.

Here’s a good story to read about how Bronco Mendenhall helped Oregon ‘Win The Day’ after BYU and Oregon met in a bowl game. Here’s hoping the process helps transform Virginia too.

Hmm … how about some basketball schedules ACC?

The UVA women’s soccer team has yet to allow a goal this season in seven games.

I thought Micah Kiser played really well last week. He had 14 tackles and two forced fumbles. It’s easy to lose sight of a good performance when that side of the ball struggled as a group, but Kiser held up his end of the bargain.

I don’t mind watching games on streaming internet feeds, but rewatching them is difficult because of rewinding and pausing.

I might have to watch some of this week’s game standing up if I’m going to stay awake.

Last week, I mentioned that I didn’t like the numbers on the helmets. Still don’t. In fact, the standard home look is really bad for marketing and branding the program … at least for still photographs. It may not be as big of an issue for TV or highlights, but who does this guy play for …

Jack Powers starts a play for the Virginia football team.

That could be Auburn, Illinois, Syracuse, or any number of orange and blue teams. There’s not a single V-Sabre or Virginia indicator anywhere in that photo of Jack Powers.

While on the topic of uniforms, here’s what Oregon is wearing Saturday night if you didn’t see it: