The Virginia football team lost its second straight game to a ranked opponent when now No. 6 Notre Dame rolled into Scott Stadium on Saturday and left with a 28-3 win. That bookended a bye week that followed a 66-49 loss at BYU, which has since climbed to No. 14 in the Associated Press poll.

Certainly, those two scores are odd stacked back-to-back. The first showed how shaky the UVA defense can be. The second showed how much the offense can struggle without quarterback Brennan Armstrong. The Cavaliers’ record-setting QB injured his ribs in the game at BYU and sat out against the Irish, which thrust true freshman Jay Woolfolk into the starter role. He became the first true freshman to start for UVA at quarterback since 1977. Combined, those two results show just how far there is still to go with the program and just how small the margin of error is for this season’s team.

That sets the stage for a return to ACC play. That’s where the Hoos tried to quickly turn their focus with a road game at No. 20 Pittsburgh up next. A win for either team gives them control of the Coastal Division title race entering the final week of the season. Before diving into that, let’s look at a few quick field-level observations from Scott Stadium on Saturday.

Wicks Joins The 1K Club

First, let’s start with some good news that got completely overshadowed Saturday night. With Armstrong’s absence, most attention focused on his health and Woolfolk’s performance. That’s understandable. Still, receiver Dontayvion Wicks hit a personal milestone as he reached 1,000 yards receiving on the season. He had just 2 catches for 32 yards but that was enough to push him up to 44 catches for 1,004 yards this season. Wicks has been on pace for the 1K club for weeks so maybe the fact that everyone knew or at least expected that he would make it to the mark let it slip by mostly unmentioned Saturday. It didn’t even make Virginia’s postgame notes!

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