Virginia Football Faces Schedule Full Of Tests

Virginia and the ACC announced the 2023 football schedule on Monday, which revealed the order of games for the second season of the Tony Elliott era. The Cavaliers received a Friday night home game and a Thursday night road game as part of the breakdown. They also learned that their bye week falls right in the middle of the 12-game season.

Elliott said there are parts of the schedule layout that he likes, but he acknowledged the challenge that awaits the Hoos.

“Overall, I thought it was favorable considering where the open date is and then how the games are placed on the schedule,” Elliott said Wednesday. “Hopefully, we’ll get a couple of night games at home and then we won’t have to play too many night games on the road because that’s where it gets tough when you have to play night games on the road and then you travel, especially if you’re traveling way up north or you’re traveling way down south, that’s where it starts to take the toll.”

UVA will be at the mercy of the TV choices when it comes to game times and unfortunately Elliott’s latter thoughts could come into play in both directions. Virginia travels to the ACC’s northern most and southern most schools this season.

The Hoos’ first ACC road game is at Boston College on Sept. 30. There are only two other head-to-head games in the conference that day with Clemson at Syracuse and Pittsburgh at Virginia Tech. The non-conference games that Saturday are Notre Dame at Duke and Bowling Green at Georgia Tech. Louisville plays at NC State on Friday, Sept. 29, while Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, and Wake Forest have an open date.

Later in the season, Virginia travels to Miami on Saturday, Oct. 28. There are many more conference matchups that day. The slate includes Clemson at NC State, Duke at Louisville, FSU at Wake, and UNC at GT. The only two non-con games that Saturday are Connecticut at Boston College and Pitt at Notre Dame. Cuse plays at VT on Thursday, Oct. 26.

While those two road trips to the outer parts of the conference are compelling, there are other interesting pieces to the schedule too.

• The ACC opener for the Hoos comes against NC State on Friday night, Sept. 22. That game will mark the return of UVA’s record-setting quarterback Brennan Armstrong, who transferred to NCSU this offseason.
• That’s not the only familiar face on the schedule as former offensive coordinator Robert Anae is now also at NC State, while former Cavalier head coach Mike London is at William & Mary. Former Hoo receiver Fontel Mines coaches that position at Virginia Tech.
• Virginia plays only one home game in October (William & Mary on Oct. 7) and has no conference home games in that month.
• The Cavaliers play three home games in November with only a Thursday night game at Louisville (Nov. 9) away from Charlottesville.
• Virginia plays JMU for the first time since 1983 and that game will mark the 500th game played at Scott Stadium.
• UVA faces Maryland for the first time since 2013 when the Terrapins were still in the ACC. The two programs played every year from 1957-2013.
• Virginia opens the season with a neutral site game for the first time since 1989 when it played Notre Dame at the Meadowlands. The Hoos open with Tennessee at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, home of the Music City Bowl.

That season opener was a piece of the schedule already known to Virginia and on paper it looks like a big undertaking. Tennessee finished last season 11-2, a strong record that was capped off with a 31-14 win against perennial ACC power Clemson in the Orange Bowl.

Elliott said that game will be an obvious test for the team and program to start the season, but that there are many tests on the schedule in general.

“I like the open date in the middle, but man it’s a grind all the way through,” Elliott said. “We come out the gate and we’re going to be tested. That was a question that I got when I first got here about that [Tennessee] game and I’m like ‘Hey, you’ve got to play it.’ If you’re going to test and measure where your program is, then you need to measure it against what is perceived to be one of the better programs in the country. So we’ve got a test, then we’ve got another test at home, then a test on the road. Every game is going to be a test. When you look at it, where the open dates sits, then we’ve got a Friday night and a Thursday night game where you’ll get an extra day of rest so I like the structure with the open date. I think there’s some balance in it, but there’s going to be some stretches where we’re going to be tested from a program standpoint.”