Friday’s clash with No. 8 Florida State marks the first time in the Coach Tony Elliott era that a top-10 opponent is coming to Scott Stadium.
“This is why you play college football, to play in games like this,” Elliott said.
The stakes are very clear — if the Cavaliers beat the Seminoles on primetime national television, it will have a very strong chance of being ranked for the first time since 2019, and Elliott will capture the signature win of his tenure. The pressure is on, but inside the locker room, the Cavaliers are treating this like any other game.
“You gotta block out the noise,” Elliott said. “Everybody's going to be excited. It's a prime time game. There's all these things associated with it, but it's still about the preparation, right?”
However, even with Elliott’s mindset, it is impossible to deny the fact that Friday marks an opportunity of gargantuan proportions. The future could very well feature a top-25 number as Virginia’s prefix.
And, considering Florida State is the only ranked opponent currently on the rest of the Cavaliers’ schedule — and one of just two games in which Virginia is currently listed as the underdog — a win could pave the way for a not-so-impossible chance of competing for an ACC Championship appearance. But this game is not just about the future. It is also about the past — specifically, fond history with the Seminoles.
That history began on one of the greatest days in the history of Virginia football — Nov. 2, 1995. On that program-changing night, the unranked Cavaliers conquered No. 2 Florida State 33-28 — handing the Seminoles their first ever ACC loss.
“This week we got to simplify our lives because there's a lot of significance around this game,” Elliott said. “From the connection to the past and then you got a top ranked team coming in on a Friday night, national TV.”
Since that fateful game, the Cavaliers have bested a top-10 opponent just twice this century. One of those wins was, coincidentally, also against Florida State back in 2005, when the Seminoles were ranked No. 4 and the Cavaliers was led by Coach Al Groh.
But what about the second top-10 win in the 21st century? That win was helmed not by award-winning coaches George Welsh, Groh or even Mike London. No, it came under the leadership of Elliott himself versus North Carolina in 2023.
And he might just be up for the task again.
While one may think the No. 8 team in the country should be heavily favored to win any given game, Florida State is a mere 7.5-point favorite to win Friday. In fact, ESPN gives the Cavaliers a 39.6 percent chance of victory — a number much higher than what Virginia would have had in previous seasons.
There are several reasons Virginia is capable of pulling off a historic upset — after all, Elliott and company have a few advantages.
For starters, there may not be any quarterback who has consistently struggled against Virginia’s defense over the years quite like Tommy Castellanos. During his previous two seasons at Boston College, he coughed up five turnovers in two matchups against the Cavaliers. However, Castellanos has since added several games of experience to his resume and now plays in a far superior program than his previous one. Elliott noted that Castellanos has evolved at his new school.
“So the biggest difference is you just see he looks very comfortable and playing with a ton of confidence,” Elliott said. “And when he's able to do that, he's as good as anybody in the country.”
But aside from Castellanos, there is another factor going Virginia’s way — this is a night game at Scott Stadium. Whether or not it provides an intimidating atmosphere for opponents remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain — it is an infinitely more ideal setting for the Cavaliers than the infamous confines of Doak S. Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Fla.
“I anticipate there'll be a good crowd,” Elliott said.
The question is — how full will the stadium be? After all, the Cavaliers have had at least 19,000 empty seats in each of their first three home games. But Elliott has more important things on his mind.
“At the end of the day, we can't focus on [attendance],” Elliott said. “We got to focus on the product that we put on the field.”
That product includes an offense that is currently fifth-best nationally in total yards. It includes the ACC’s best offense in terms of sacks allowed, time of possession and fewest turnovers lost plus the ACC’s top third down defense and more. But the product includes one element that is not on the stat sheet — hope.
Thirty years after one historic upset — and 20 years after a second — this Florida State game is a dream, a destiny and a duel fit for primetime at 7 p.m. on a pivotal Friday night in Charlottesville. This is the big one. And Virginia knows it.
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