The UVA Football team opens its 2025 road schedule with a nonconference game at NC State.
You read that right.
UVA and NC State are still both in the ACC.
This one is a nonconference game.
It makes sense somewhere.
Check back with me here during the game for live updates, and particularly, the analysis and in-game stats.
Details
Time: Saturday, noon ET
Series: NC State leads, 37-22-1
Last meeting: NC State, 24-21 (2023)
TV: ESPN2
SiriusXM Radio: SiriusXM 111 / SiriusXM 193 / SiriusXM 381
SiriusXM App: SiriusXM 955 / SiriusXM 971
Line: NC State -2.5
Over/under: 53.5
Projected final score: NC State 28, Virginia 25
Pregame coverage
- UVA Football podcast | Preview of ‘Hoos vs. NC State in Week 2 matchup
- UVA Football vs. NC State | Five things to watch for in the Week 2 matchup
- UVA Football Week 2 | What ‘Hoos fans need to know about NC State
- Chandler Morris update | UVA Football QB a full go for Saturday at NC State
- UVA Football Week 2 | Notes, press conference quotes, depth chart for NC State
First quarter
First UVA drive: ‘Hoos pick up two third downs, then a fourth down.
The fourth-down pickup was a 39-yard TD run by J’Mari Taylor on fourth-and-1.
Chandler Morris: 5-of-7, 41 yards on the drive.
UVA 7, NC State 0, 10:37/1st
***
Video: J’Mari Taylor TD
🔊 [sound on] 🔊
You were saying?
📺 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/f6VkxK4DKH
— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) September 6, 2025
First NC State drive: That was too easy.
State went 75 yards in five plays, with CJ Bailey going 30 yards on a keeper for the TD.
UVA 7, NC State 7, 8:26/1st
***
Second UVA drive: More moving the sticks on third down leading to a score.
Twelve plays, 75 yards, another J’Mari Taylor TD, this one from nine yards.
Virginia is 5-of-6 on third downs, and 1-of-1 on fourth downs.
Morris: 10-of-14, 79 yards.
***
UVA 14, NC State 7, 3:41/1st
End 1: NC State is driving again, but the quarter ends with UVA up 14-7.
The defense isn’t getting any pressure on CJ Bailey, who is playing seven-on-seven ball back there.
Bailey: 6-of-6, 75 yards.
Defense approach is to send four at Bailey on pass plays.
Will need to mix things up.
Second quarter
NC State finishes off its second drive with a TD: CJ Bailey to Noah Rogers for the 28-yard pass TD.
No pressure on Bailey on the front end.
UVA 14, NC State 14, 14:23/2nd
***
First punt of the game: Virginia stalls with an incomplete pass on a third-and-6 at the UVA 42. Morris missed Cam Ross on a slant.
Morris: 12-of-19, 93 yards, five completions of 10+ yards, one drop (Kam Courtney).
***
D gets first stop: three-and-out. State had a third-and-1, decided to do a play-action, and the front got penetration and stopped Bailey at the line.
***
Another scoring march: Long drive ends inside the 10 with a short field goal by Will Bettridge.
Very conservative on the play-calling in the red zone. Virginia had a second-and-3 at the State 12, and ran it into the middle of the line twice.
UVA 17, NC State 14, 4:08/2nd
***
D gets three-and-out: State wants a PI on Jordan Robinson, but no call.
Cam Ross with a 48-yard return on the punt, setting up the offense at the State 27 with 3:04 to go.
***
Great clock management there: Virginia scores on a 3-yard TD pass from Morris to Sage Ennis with 17 seconds left in the half.
Seven plays, 27 yards, ate up basically the rest of the clock with the running game.
Textbook.
UVA 24, NC State 14, 00:17/2nd
***
SAGE ENNIS, FIRST CAREER TD‼️
📺 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/YwzPuE52lT
— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) September 6, 2025
First half recap
Virginia scored on its first two drives, finally got stops on NC State in the second quarter, and got some separation from a Cam Ross long punt return and a grind-it-out concluding drive to go into the locker room up 24-14.
Big advantage in plays from scrimmage on the hot day in Raleigh: 45 offensive snaps for UVA, 21 for State.
Virginia ran the ball 21 times; none of those were the QB, Chandler Morris, who didn’t have to scramble, and wasn’t used on design runs.
J’Mari Taylor had 73 yards and two TDs on 12 carries.
Morris: 17-of-24, 131 yards, one TD.
Mostly short stuff: 13-of-17, 78 yards inside of 10 yards of the line of scrimmage.
Intermediate: 4-of-6, 53 yards.
20+: 0-of-1.
Virginia was 10-of-13 on third downs, 1-of-1 on fourth downs.
The D was better in the second quarter: State had one first down and 40 yards of offense in the second.
CJ Bailey: 9-of-11, 102 yards, one TD passing, with a 30-yard rushing TD.
Third quarter
First State drive ends with score: Hollywood Smothers 14-yard run, right up the A gap, caps an eight-play, 75-yard drive.
Too easy.
Bailey is getting no pressure on his dropbacks.
UVA 24, NC State 21, 10:46/3rd
***
UVA drive stalls: Morris missed Dakota Twitty on a third-down play. Ross and Twitty had run a pick play. Morris, under pressure, was late on the pass.
***
State takes the lead: Bailey, on a scramble, caps a five-play, 80-yard drive with a 12-yard TD.
The UVA D was in man coverage, and once Bailey got outside the pocket, there was nobody.
NC State 28, UVA 24, 6:39/3rd
***
Another long run by J’Mari Taylor: Taylor broke a third-and-1 for 66 yards and a TD.
Taylor: 15 carries, 148 yards, three TDs.
UVA 31, NC State 28, 5:11/3rd
***
🗣️ J’MARI TAYLOR IS HIM!!
This 66-yard run marks his third rushing TD of the day and ties his career long.
📺 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/4dH8INoQdB
— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) September 6, 2025
***
This is getting ridiculous: Rudzinski hasn’t changed a thing, and the game plan hasn’t worked yet.
Smothers scored on a 9-yard run.
Three possessions in the third quarter for State, three TDs, 230 yards of total offense.
NC State 35, UVA 31, 00:45/3rd
***
Fourth quarter
That could be ballgame: UVA stopped on third down in plus territory, and for some reason, Tony Elliott sent Bettridge out for a 47-yard field-goal try.
The kick hit the upright.
Still State 35, UVA 31, 13:20/4th
***
Big stop by the D: Three-and-out, with a good run stop on first, a missed connection on a pass from Bailey on second, and an intermediate incompletion on third.
State got away from what it had been doing, is what we saw there.
Not sure why.
Sometimes you outsmart yourself.
***
Play stands: Fourth-and-1 at the NC State 8, Taylor was stopped for no gain.
So, now, one field goal, one field goal miss, one drive stalled inside the 10.
It’s hard to win games that way.
Still State 35, UVA 31, 6:37/4th
***
Dave “Brass Balls” Doeren goes for fourth-and-1 at his own 29, and gets it. Which forces Virginia into scramble mode defensively, because the clock is inside three minutes.
Still ends up having to punt, but Virginia had to burn two timeouts.
***
Two-minute drill: First down at the UVA 33 after a quick completion to Ross takes us to the two-minute warning.
Morris drives UVA to the State 12. On first down, the play call was wheel route to Taylor. OLB Cian Stone dropped back in coverage, Morris misread the coverage, Stone picked the ball off in the end zone.
Ballgame.
Last three red zone trips: one field goal, one turnover on downs, one INT.
Virginia outgained State 514-416, and lost.
Quick recap
Red zone issues – stop me if you’ve heard this one before – were the difference for Virginia in a 35-31 loss at NC State on Saturday in Raleigh.
UVA (1-1) outgained State, 514-416, and held the Pack to 24 total yards in the fourth quarter.
But two fourth-quarter Virginia drives into the State red zone came up empty, on a failed fourth-and-1 run stuffed out at the Pack 8, and an INT into the end zone, the first turnover of the game for either side, after Chandler Morris had driven the ‘Hoos to the Pack 12.
Morris was 30-of-43 for 257 yards through the air, and gained 56 yards on three designed runs, all in the second half.
J’Mari Taylor had 150 yards and three TDs on 17 carries on the ground.
State (2-0), trailing 24-14 at the half, scored on each of its three possessions in the third quarter, in which it put up 230 yards of offense, to take a 35-31 lead going into the final 15 minutes.
CJ Bailey accounted for three TDs, two on the ground, and was 17-of-23 for 200 yards through the air.
This is a gut-punch of a loss.
Des Kitchings, the UVA offensive coordinator, largely called a good game, but conservative calls ahead of the short field goal in the second quarter and the fourth-and-1 play in the fourth quarter would prove costly.
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Chris Graham
