Since coming to Charlottesville in 2010, coach Mike London has maintained a consistent attitude toward building a stronger program: you have to play the best to be the best. Saturday, London’s mantra will be put to the test against No. 2 Oregon.
The first top-five team the Cavaliers (1-0, 0-0 ACC) will play during the London era, the Ducks (1-0, 0-0 Pac-12) tout a four-year BCS appearance streak to complement their breakneck-paced offense and overabundance of uniforms. Few outside of the Virginia program believe the team has much of a shot — Las Vegas odds opened with Oregon as a 23.5-point favorite — but the players and coaches relish the opportunity to play against the highest level of competition.
“Being an underdog, man, that’s what you love to be,” senior offensive tackle Morgan Moses said. “We talk about that dream schedule — for us to have a dream schedule, we have to play dream teams. We’re going to have to go out there and play.”
Riding high off of an electrifying defensive performance in the 19-16 victory against Brigham Young last Saturday, the Cavaliers believe the experience with the Cougars’ uptempo offense helped them prepare for Oregon’s impressive pace. During the last five seasons, the Ducks have averaged 2.83 plays per minute of possession, second in the nation behind only Houston. Virginia will use two rotating scout team offenses in practice this week in an attempt to simulate the rapid pace of play and endurance of the Oregon offense.
“We will be needing two huddles this week,” sophomore cornerback Maurice Canady said. “BYU, it was a good break-in for us as a defense. Their pace wasn’t slow, but it wasn’t the fastest.”
Oregon cruised in its opening matchup against Nicholls State, trouncing the Colonels 66-3 and tallying 772 yards of total offense — the most in the nation — in just 19:46 of possession. For a Virginia offense that scored touchdowns on just two drives Saturday — both of which began with excellent field position — limiting mistakes and making the most of every possession will be a focus.
“Every time we have the ball, we have to try and put some points on the board,” junior receiver Darius Jennings said. “Oregon’s going to score points. That’s just their type of offense.”
Though certainly impressive, the Ducks’ gaudy numbers invited skepticism from a few Cavaliers who believe their own defense can do better.
“You’ve got to look at competition as well,” Canady said. “It’s very impressive, but we’ll see when they get here.”
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Marcus Mariota and junior running back De’Anthony Thomas anchor the Oregon offense, and both are legitimate Heisman Trophy candidates. Mariota threw for 234 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 113 yards and two touchdowns against Nicholls State, while Thomas added 128 yards and two touchdowns of his own. The prospect of guarding both weapons is daunting for any defense.
“When you have the element of the spread or the pistol where you have a talented running back in it, you have to assign a guy to the running back, but you also have to assign a guy to the quarterback,” London said. “Like Georgia Tech’s offense, [we] can have a guy assigned to that guy, but he’s athletic enough to make you miss … then you’ve got problems.”
Mark Helfrich became Oregon’s head coach in January after Chip Kelly departed to become the head coach of the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles. But as the former offensive coordinator, Helfrich can be expected to maintain a similar team identity to the one instilled during Kelly’s tenure.
“I think it’s a culture they’ve been around that there is an expectation of how they play, how their offense plays,” London said. “You really don’t see a huge difference in the play-calling part of it. But you see a lot of philosophy about quick plays … Get the ball in space. Those are the things that we have to be mindful of with the who and the what that’s on the field.”
For a team known nationally for its prodigious offense, Oregon was also formidable on defense last year, boasting a NCAA-high turnover margin of 22 and a top-25 ranking in scoring defense at 21.6 points per game. With third-team All-American junior cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu and preseason first-team All-Pac-12 junior cornerback Terrance Mitchell returning for the Ducks, sophomore quarterback David Watford could be in for a long day under center.
“Of course, you look at a team like that and you could say their defense is probably overlooked,” Moses said. “Obviously their defense is playing good, it just happens that their offense is so explosive a lot of people pay attention to that.”
Saturday will mark the first time the Ducks have ever visited an ACC stadium, and the trip should garner them further exposure on the East Coast. The game, which will be nationally televised on ABC or ESPN2 depending on regional listings, should also provide excellent exposure for a Virginia program that has enjoyed recent recruiting success.
“It’s just another chance to put us on the map,” Moses said. “I think my first year when we played USC down in California and we took it to those guys, the outcome was a little different than we expected, but it just shows that we bring big time schools in Charlottesville or we go out there [and] we can play with the best.”
To keep up with the best this week, however, the Cavaliers will have to keep up with the fastest — a reality weighing heavily on the minds of London and his players.
“They can run — their whole team can run,” London said. “I’ve said it before, and I mean this, the guy that goes to get the tee after the kickoff is really fast, and their whole team is fast. We’ll have to be ready for that.”
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