For a team pegged at the outset of the 2012 season to steamroll opponents with a dynamic, versatile running game, Virginia has relied immensely on the aerial attack in the season’s first five contests. Through five games, the Cavaliers have attempted 193 passes while rushing only 165 times, a difference of 28 plays.
The Virginia football team is making a quarterback change. Coach Mike London hinted on his weekly radio show Monday night, the Cavaliers will give sophomore Philip Sims snaps with the first team this week in preparation for his first start Saturday against Duke — provided he recovers from a lower leg injury suffered in last week’s 44-38 loss to Louisiana Tech. The move follows another dicey performance from incumbent starter junior Michael Rocco against the Bulldogs.
Saturday’s 44-38 loss to Louisiana Tech featured the best and worst of an offense which has been too erratic to give the team’s inexperienced defense a fighting chance. With one of the top offenses in the country visiting Charlottesville in Louisiana Tech—the only team in the nation to score 50 or more points in each of its games—the Cavalier attack needed to be sharp throughout. Instead, the offense alternated between eye-opening stretches of execution and head-scratching periods of futility.
The Virginia football team returns to Scott Stadium Saturday for a showdown against offensively dominant Lousiana Tech.
During Virginia’s abysmal 56-20 defeat to Georgia Tech Sept. 15, many fans witnessed a phenomenon they had likely never seen before.
The Virginia football team travels to Fort Worth this Saturday in hopes of upsetting No. 17 TCU in front of a national audience.
The Virginia football team’s defense spent an exhausting week preparing for the intricacies of Georgia Tech’s triple-option offense in the lead up to Saturday’s 56-20 loss in Atlanta.
Like all good television, the NFL has its fair share of action and drama. But after the past two weeks, pencil this season in to sweep the Daytime Emmy Awards for the most dramatic soap opera on television. Yes, we’ve been treated to phenomenal performances in the first two weeks.
Fueled by the dazzling play of Quarterback Tevin Washington and a vaunted triple-option offense, Georgia Tech throttled Virginia 56-20 Saturday to hand the Cavaliers their first defeat of the season. A week after surviving a 17-16 heart-thumping contest against Penn State, Virginia (2-1, 0-1 ACC) sputtered badly in its first game outside the friendly confines of Scott Stadium.
The Virginia football team opens its ACC slate in Atlanta against rival Georgia Tech Saturday hoping for a more complete performance than the shaky 17-16 victory the team scraped last week against Penn State. In their two victories this season, the Cavaliers (2-0, 0-0 ACC) have cruised past coach Mike London’s former team, Richmond, and escaped by the narrowest of margins against Penn State courtesy of a last-second miss by Nittany Lion kicker Sam Ficken.
Before he became known simply as “The Kid,” sophomore tight end Jake McGee had a decision to make.
Nobody got his money’s worth from this highly hyped Penn State showdown. What we got instead is far more valuable: a genuine human drama that reinforced everything we truly love about college football.
The Virginia football team needed the perfect storm to overcome a laundry list of mistakes against Penn State Saturday. Two game-changing catches by sophomore tight end Jake McGee and four missed field goals by Nittany Lions sophomore kicker Sam Ficken provided the necessary jolt to lift Virginia to a heart-throbbing albeit far from flawless 17-16 victory.
After securing a comfortable 43-19 victory against Richmond, Virginia head coach Mike London and his players are ready for the team’s matchup Saturday with traditional Big Ten powerhouse Penn State at Scott Stadium. Although riddled with minor miscues, the performance of the Cavaliers (1-0, 0-0 ACC) highlighted to the rest of the ACC that London’s physically imposing squad could be priming for more success after an 8-5 campaign in 2011. “Coach London has done an excellent job of putting together his style of team,” Penn State coach Bill O’Brien said.
Last Saturday, two unranked teams squared off to begin their 2012 campaigns. In a sport that values high stakes and compelling action, the game offered only lukewarm excitement and held virtually no national championship significance, with the visitor rallying for a 24-14 win. Because it was Penn State’s first game, however, this otherwise unremarkable tilt garnered extensive national media attention.
The NFL season kicks off again Tuesday as the Dallas Cowboys head to East Rutherford, N.J. to take on the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants. It’s been seven months to the day, and let me tell you — pro football hasn’t come back a day too soon.
In Saturday’s primetime clash between the ACC and SEC, No. 14 Clemson gave its conference a much-needed boost and downed Auburn, 26-19.
Though the vast majority of the 50,081 fans who flocked to Scott Stadium donned orange for Virginia’s first home football game of the season, the color gray most defined the Cavaliers’ 43-19 win against Richmond Saturday.
London and junior quarterback Michael Rocco engineered a near-flawless first half to earn a second season-opening win in three years against a first-year Richmond head coach, 43-19. This time, Rocco led the way with 311 yards and a touchdown against his uncle, Richmond coach Danny Rocco, to help London become the first Virginia coach since Rice Warren in 1913 to win his first three season-openers at the University.
As we barrel toward opening day of the 2012 season, two countervailing forces shape expectations for the Virginia football team: optimism stemming from the Cavaliers’ first bowl appearance since 2007 and anxiety about the significant roster turnover.
