Vegas has the UVA Football team as a 20.5-point favorite over Delaware, which, gotta note here, beat Coastal Carolina by eight, and led Vanderbilt at the half down in Nashville.
Coastal, you may have read, lost to West Virginia by seven.
Vandy beat NC State on the dumbest last-second mistake ever – congratulations, Joe Piscarcik, you’re off the hook.
Just based on the transitive property, this one feels like it should be closer than three touchdowns.
Getting to know: Delaware
The offense is basically 60:40 pass:run in terms of the play-calling.
The QB is a guy in his fourth year in the system, Nick Minicucci – 2026: 60.0 percent completion rate, 271.3 passing yards per game; 2025: 63.0 percent completion rate, 3,703 yards, 23 TDs/7 INTs.
His top target is a 6’0” wideout named Sean Wilson – 2026: 18 catches/24 targets, 16.0 yards/catch, two drops; 2025: 68 catches/97 targets, 12.9 yards/catch, one drop.
The guy on the other side is a sixth-year, Da’Wain Lofton – 2026: 13 catches/18 targets, 19.8 yards/catch.
Lofton, way back in 2022, had 22 catches at Virginia Tech, in Year 1 of the Brent Pry regime.
The leading rusher is a guy in his fifth year, all at Delaware, by name of Jo Silver – 2026: 156 yards, 4.7 yards/attempt; 2025: 652 yards, 5.5 yards/attempt.
The five starters on the O line all have at least 194 snaps among the 212 offensive snaps on the ledger for the season to this point.
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The defense, which uses a 3-3-5 base, has done a so-so job against the run, limiting Vandy to 123 sack-adjusted yards on the ground (3.5 yards/attempt), though Coastal had 164 sack-adjusted rushing yards (5.3 yards per).
Defenders to watch:
- LB Blake Matthews: 11 QB pressures/4 sacks, 8 tackles, 70.3 PFF grade
- DE Noah Matthews: 11 QB pressures/3 sacks, 6 tackles, 67.6 PFF grade
- LB Gavin Moul: 19 tackles, three QB pressures, 63.6 PFF grade
- CB Jamarion Kolagbodi: 6 catches/15 targets in coverage, 2 PBUs, 51.0 NFL passer rating against, 65.3 PFF grade
- S KT Seay: 7 catches/13 targets, 2 PBUs, 114.7 NFL passer rating against
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On special teams, the placekicker, Tucker Smack, is 2-for-4 on field-goal tries on the season, with a long of 40.
The punter, Josh Cupitt, averages 41.5 yards per punt.
Bryson Graves is a guy to watch in the return game – averaging 11.2 yards on his five punt returns, and 19.5 yards on his four kick returns.
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Chris Graham
