No, Virginia didn’t win Saturday but I was hoping for progress and there was some of that. While the grades may only show subtle hints of it, the Cavaliers did take a baby step forward in a lot of areas at Oregon.

Offensively, the running game was much improved – though it will be tested against a stout UConn defense – and the passing numbers might have been better had the quarterback not sailed several throws and UVA’s receivers not contracted a case of the dropsies.

Defensively, the club did not regress but they didn’t really move forward either. Oregon averaged 6.9 yards per carry compared to Richmond’s 4.56 and the Ducks surpassed the Spiders’ 9.6 yards per attempt by a point up to 10.7. Fans can take some solace in the fact that this game was played 2,800 miles from Charlottesville in the Pacific Time zone against a quality offense. That doesn’t justify getting beat, but it certainly looked like a bigger potential blowout at 7 p.m. last Saturday night than what actually occurred.

So what did we learn? There’s still work to do but if over the next three to four weeks we can see similar type improvements in different aspects of the Virginia team, that will make this a very positive first half of the season.

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