With a season-opening loss at UCLA in its carry-on luggage back from California, the Virginia football team tried to regroup and refine some of its miscues with Notre Dame on tap this Saturday. The Cavaliers struggled in numerous areas during the 34-16 loss, but they believe film study and practice this week will result in lessons learned and not a lost cause.

“The challenge is always getting better for us as a football team,” UVa coach Mike London said. “First of all, looking at this now we have a game tape. We have opportunities to correct things, correct the mistakes that were made. We have opportunities to talk about the things that can put you in positions to be positive on plays and those things that cost us during the course of this game. … The expectation is to improve the way we play. Minimize our errors that we made, but know that Notre Dame is a really good football team and we’re going to have to play [better].”

Growing pains were expected after Eli Harold, Max Valles, Henry Coley, Daquan Romero, and Anthony Harris departed and that was on display Saturday. Defensively, the Hoos did not break down UCLA’s protection very often. They did not pressure Josh Rosen much and finished with only one sack. They created no turnovers and were inconsistent against the run.

Whether it was mental errors as safety Kelvin Rainey suggested Monday, turnovers as linebacker Zach Bradshaw stated, or technique breakdowns mentioned by Wil Wahee, Virginia’s players said they think that they can clean up the issues. The Wahoos certainly will be challenged by Notre Dame, which cruised to a 38-3 win against Texas. Quarterback Malik Zaire completed 19 of 22 passes for 313 yards and three touchdowns in the win, while receiver Will Fuller posted 142 receiving yards with two touchdowns. Fuller tallied 15 touchdowns a year ago.

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