Ryan Weigand will look for a strong outing in back-to-back weeks. |
In last week’s loss to Wyoming, Virginia’s special teams units easily stood out as the most productive in the contest. After all, the only points came from a Chris Gould field goal and punter Ryan Weigand spent the afternoon booming kicks through the thin air. Back on the East Coast, Duke struggled with much of its special teams’ effort. With two offenses still waiting to get on track, the spotlight could be on special teams this weekend.
If so, that bodes well for UVa. The Cavaliers traditionally have produced strong results on kickoff returns and they are above average in the kickoff and punt coverage areas. With Weigand’s showing last week (51.6 yards per kick on 9 attempts), it looks like the punting game is on track too. Gould, meanwhile, said in the preseason that he was more comfortable beyond 40 yards this season and his 42-yarder in Wyoming looked solid.
What about Duke? The Blue Devils had one extremely good play against Connecticut, but spent the rest of the afternoon battling field position issues. The big play came early in the second quarter when Jabari Marshall returned a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown that gave Duke a 14-8 lead. It was the Devils last score of the day and the rest of the game went mostly downhill.
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