For the first time in six seasons the Virginia football team lost its season opener. The 36-point loss was the program’s worst season-opening loss since a 52-7 thumping by the Southern California Trojans in 2008. How did the grades turn out?

The Tennessee Volunteers got a dominant performance from their defensive line, shutting down any hope of the visitors having a chance to get their new starting quarterback and their offense off to a good start. The Volunteers held Virginia to 201 yards of total offense, the third lowest total since the Pittsburgh game in 2022 (144 yards) and the 2017 Military Bowl where Navy held the Hoos to 175 total yards. Virginia held the potent Vol offense in check with four straight stops, but from there the Tennessee offense emerged.

With that brief introduction, let’s look at the notes and numbers. Check out more of Greg’s Grades in the archives.

Overview

Offense: Clearly the offensive line is not ready for prime time. The Tennessee front four may have spent as much time in UVA’s back field as Tony Muskett and Anthony Colandrea combined. Nine (23%) of Virginia’ rushes were stuffed for losses or no gain and the Hoos went 0-3 on power chances (third down or fourth down with 2 yards or less to go for a first down). In the key stat of rushing success rate (Per Football Insiders, this is calculated by dividing the number of successful running plays by the total number of running plays. A rush is considered successful if it gains 45% or more on first down, 60% of yards to go on second down, or 100% of yards to go on third or fourth down), Virginia managed a 17% total. That’s bad.

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