In the 2017 season opener, the Cavaliers won 28-10 over a William & Mary club that ended the season with a disappointing 2-9 record. In my report I called Virginia’s opening day victory over the Tribe “a serviceable start. Not great, not championship caliber, but serviceable.” Undoubtedly, it was an improvement over the previous season’s 37-20 thrashing in a loss to the Richmond Spiders.

Fast forward to Saturday’s 42-13 performance over a Richmond squad that is far better than the Tribe team of last season and the Cavaliers, while they did not dominate in an overwhelming fashion, certainly produced the optics of a game where the visitors were clearly out-matched (see charts below in the “One More Thing” section).

This type of statistical dominance did not occur in Bronco Mendenhall’s first season and it did not happen a year ago. So it’s progress. As we look at the grades and trends, there are hopeful signs but plenty of room for improvement. That’s something Mendenhall and the players indicated Monday as well.

Let’s look at the grades.

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