UVA Football coach Tony Elliott says his team’s 35-31 loss at NC State in Week 2 last season proved beneficial because it gave the staff and players a barometer.
The most salient lesson was for the defense, which was a sieve in the loss in Raleigh – giving up 416 yards, 226 on the ground, with Hollywood Smothers, now at Texas, running for 141 yards on 17 attempts.
The defense would mature as the season played out, ranking third overall in the ACC in total defense (310.1 yards per game) and sixth in rushing defense (114.5 yards per game).
I lost count of how many times I thought, said out loud and wrote, Wish we could play that one over.
Well, here’s the chance, to right the wrong.
UVA offense vs. NC State defense
The strength of the Pack on D is in its secondary, with solid guys at corner – Brian Nelson (637 snaps, 34 catches/50 targets in 2025) and Jackson Vick (632 snaps, 36 catches/60 targets in 2025) – and depth and talent at safety, in starters King Mack (493 snaps, 61 tackles at Penn State in 2025) and Ronnie Royal III (442 snaps, 46 tackles at State in 2025), and backups Tristan Teasdell (369 snaps, 25 tackles in 2025) and Brody Barnhardt (209 snaps, 23 tackles in 2025).
They’re thin up front, though, with only three guys among their top 11 guys on the D line having logged more than 200 snaps last season, and the depth chart is even lighter at linebacker – the four guys on the two-deep combined for less than 500 snaps in 2025.
What that suggests to me in terms of game-planning: go the boring route.
Run early, run often, push down on the front seven.
The forecast for tomorrow is a high in the upper 80s, with a real-feel into the mid-90s.
Bear down on that front seven in the first half, and in the second half, you can do what you want.
UVA defense vs. the NC State offense
The State O is also thin up front – of the nine guys on the projected two-deep, there’s a freshman, a junior with zero college snaps, another junior with 14 college snaps, and a fifth-year with 117 career snaps.
They won’t run like they did on us last year.
Get CJ Bailey (3,105 yards and 25 TDs, against nine INTs, with a 68.8 percent completion rate, in 2025) into second-and-longs and third-and-mediums, put pressure on him to limit his options, and let the talented secondary do its thing.
Game Details
NC State at Virginia
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN (Wes Durham, Max Browne, Madison Fitzpatrick)
Line: Virginia -4.5
Over/under: 53.5
Projected final score: Virginia 28, NC State 24
Pregame Coverage
- UVA Football: Depth chart for Week 0 season opener with NC State
- UVA Football: I’m not too confident about Kam Robinson being out there on Saturday
- UVA Football: Solomon Beebe ‘suspended indefinitely’ in wake of arrest
- UVA Football: Rico Flores Jr. listed as ‘out’ on updated pregame injury list
- UVA Football: The home opener with NC State on Saturday is officially sold out
- NC State coach Dave Doeren isn’t going to release a depth chart for the season opener: OK
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Chris Graham
