It’s hard to know much definitive going into a Week 3 game, given how coaches generally schedule in the early season.
Even Virginia’s 34-8 evisceration of NC State in the so-called Week 0, was that impressive, because some folks down Carolina way thought State was a fringe ACC contender, or was it what I thought it was going in – a deep and talented UVA team going up against a thin roster with a couple of big names?
We won’t know for a few weeks yet.
West Virginia doesn’t have a Power 4 win yet – the ‘Neers beat Coastal Carolina by a deceptively close 31-24 final score in Week 1, and pummeled its FCS opponent in Week 2, UT-Martin, 52-7.
You can look at team stats and rankings mid-Octoberish to get a sense of how effective a particular group is on offense or defense, but, not there yet.
I can imagine that there’s a lot that WVU wants to do on offense that it hasn’t shown yet, because it hasn’t had to.
We know that the defense, under D coordinator Zac Alley, goes multiple, and will try to disguise a lot, to confuse the QB and O line on checks and blocking assignments at the line.
Alley spent a year as the linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator at Oklahoma, under Brent Venables, who used to clash daily with Tony Elliott when they were both coordinators on Dabo Swinney’s staff at Clemson.
Offense
- Play-calling: 111 run/27 pass (80.4 percent run/19.6 percent pass)
- QB Michael Hawkins Jr. has 206 sack-adjusted rushing yards, all on designed runs (7.6 yards/attempt). Accounting for the 71-yard long run, and he still gets 5.2 yards per attempt. Through the air, just 21 attempts through two games – 9-of-10 for 47 yards under 10 yards from scrimmage, 7-of-11 for 240 yards on intermediate and deep balls. Nice balance there, all the way around.
- TB Cam Cook: 194 rushing yards, 4.8 yards/attempt. Accounting for the 72-yard long run, the average goes down to 3.1 yards/attempt. Basically, the dive option.
- WR DJ Epps: 5 catches/5 targets, 148 yards, 29.6 yards/catch. Last year at Troy: 47 catches/72 targets, 512 yards, 10.9 yards/catch.
- O line: all five starters on the line have 108 snaps through two games. There seems to be depth: five backups have at least 15 snaps this season.
Defense
- Base D: 4-2-5
- D line depth: four guys with at least five QB pressures this season (Zeke Durham-Campbell: 6 QB pressures/2 sacks, 5 tackles; Nate Gabriel: 6 QB pressures/1 sack, 4 tackles; Corey McIntyre Jr.: 5 QB pressures/1 sack, 3 tackles; Harper Holloman: 5 QB pressures, 5 tackles)
- Secondary: this is the weak link – the unit has allowed 42 catches on 60 targets for 508 yards (1 yards/catch), with a 105.4 NFL passer rating against.
Special teams
- PK Jack Cassidy: 2-of-2 FGs (both 30-39); career: two makes from 50+
- P Bryan Hansen: 41.6 yards/punt
Game Week: UVA vs. West Virginia
- First look: West Virginia is 2-0 early, but not exactly against tough tests
- WVU assistant coach Noel Devine arrested on felony strangulation charge
- UVA Football: D tackle Jason Hammond needs surgery on left elbow
Game Details
- Virginia (2-0) vs. West Virginia (2-0)
- Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET
- Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte
- TV: ACCN (Wes Durham, Max Browne, Madison Fitzpatrick)
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Chris Graham
