The road has not been kind to the Virginia football team so far in 2022. Both of UVA’s losses have come away from home and both were painful for different reasons. The Illinois trip resulted in a 24-3 thumping and that’s never fun. The Syracuse game came down to the wire with the Hoos losing in the final two minutes.
The Cavaliers get an immediate chance to turn their fortunes around outside of Charlottesville with another road test this week. They travel to face Duke on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.
Beyond the road woes for Virginia, the early-season storylines remain the focus this week. Can the offense get better as the passing attack, sustaining drives, and scoring points have been challenging in parts of the last three games? Can the defense keep up its improvement and continue to keep teams out of the end zone? Can special teams stop making game-changing plays?
Those are the sorts of things that have populated the message boards this week. Here are a few threads about the game.
- Does anybody else have a bad feeling about Duke? ~ Roanoke90
- I think having Kemp back is huge. ~ Pezhoo
- Wicks……need the experts to weigh in. ~ yabadabadrew
- We have to have faith the offense gets it together! Hopefully at Duke. ~ RRCAV
- Recruiting is looking scary for 2023. ~ HooCola
- BTTS? Tell me we’re not wearing all-white tomorrow: we’ve done it twice already & lost both games. Askin’ for a friend. ~ Blaze01
- Last year we started the season 4-2 thanks to missed field goals by Miami and Louisville at the end of the game. The one at Miami was well within the kicker’s range. How optimistic and how different would the mood on the board be if Syracuse had missed the late field goal and we had run out the clock? ~ Wahoo1186
One of the other storylines for this week, in particular, has been the fact that both coaches are in their first year with the teams. Tony Elliott took over the Virginia job from Bronco Mendenhall, while Mike Elko followed David Cutcliffe at Duke. Elliott said that Elko was on his mental list of possible defensive coordinators as he’s weighed job opportunities in the past so there’s mutual respect there.
From a fan perspective, the interesting part comes down to wins though. And Mendenhall never lost to Cutcliffe. The Wahoos have won seven straight in the series. Virginia fans saw that as restoring the natural order of things in the ACC, but the Blue Devils enter this game with a 3-1 record and hungry to stop that streak.
So what do you think the outcome will be in Durham? Vote in the poll and then check out our weekly photo picks below.
Who Will Win Saturday's Game?
- Virginia (74%, 60 Votes)
- Duke (26%, 21 Votes)
Total Voters: 81
Loading ...Fan(s) Of The Week
Loving the Hoos.
Student Fan(s) Of The Week
Wahoowa!
Feature Photo Of The Week
John Paul Flores leads the way on a play for Virginia.
