The cliché goes, “in football, you realize the most improvement from week one to week two.” If that is true, Virginia’s 24-3 loss to the Illini on Saturday is a bad sign. Of the eight offensive and defensive units, only the defensive line showed improvement in this week’s edition of Greg’s Grades.

For Illinois, the local sports writers considered this a signature win, the Illini’s first home win over a non-conference Power 5 team since 9/17/2011, a 17-14 victory over Arizona State. (Coincidentally, that’s the same year UVA last had a non-conference Power 5 road win as well.) Sticking it to the Virginia team that delivered their worst loss of 2021 was a tasty bonus.

The biggest takeaway from this game, other than the obvious: the significant amount of work that needs to be done, especially on offense and in the kicking game, for the Hoos to be ready for prime time. Losing a game when your defense gives up just 17 points and supplies the offense with three plus-territory turnovers and it manages to score three points, is a fair reason for apprehension for the moment.

What about the grades? Let’s take a look.

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