The Virginia football program under the direction of Bronco Mendenhall continues to reach new milestones by securing its first winning season since 2011.

The Hoos’ 45-24 win over Liberty on Saturday showed the next step in the re-engineering of Virginia football is continuing and is maybe a shade ahead of schedule. That’s exciting.

Fans will get a chance to see how far the team has come as two stiff challenges await to close out the regular season. Georgia Tech will be difficult for a cornucopia of reasons. One, it’s on the road where the Hoos are 1-2 this season. Second, Virginia has handled Georgia Tech’s triple-option under Bronco Mendenhall well but with several new starters and replacements in the game, many who may have limited experience with the triple option in the past and who are still learning their run fits, it will be challenging. How Virginia handles this adversity on the road and playing without key players will tell us more about the progress.

Obviously, the final challenge is in Blacksburg next Friday. The Hokies have experienced their own issues this season and their struggles continued Saturday night against Pittsburgh. They may come into the season finale with a losing record and no shot at a bowl game. The only salvation to a losing season and the end of their bowl streak (if they don’t reschedule a December game), would be salvaging the hold on the Commonwealth Cup and sending the rivals packing with a loss.

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