A busy Saturday in Charlotte for UVA sports fans begins at noon with the UVA Basketball team facing Dayton, before the UVA Football team faces Duke in the ACC Championship Game.
I like the question from one of the reporters at Tony Elliott’s Friday presser at Bank of America Stadium – to the effect that, has he thanked Ryan Odom for showing his confidence in the football program to the point that he scheduled a neutral-site game in Charlotte the day of the title game, just to give folks something else to do ahead of the primetime game?
“I’ll tell you what, man, it’s been fun getting to know Coach,” said Elliott, who was announced on Thursday as the runaway choice as the 2025 ACC Football Coach of the Year. “We text a lot. He’s very, very supportive of what we’re doing. I had a chance to watch him the other night for the first time. Man, they’re fun to watch. Hopefully what they’re going to bring is some of that run and gun to help us get off to a fast start in the game, and maybe we can play a little basketball on grass offensively.”
Good answer.
Now that we’re all on the same page, Elliott’s team is a 3.5-point favorite in the game with Duke, who Virginia defeated on Nov. 15, 34-17.
ICYMI
- UVA Football: Morris, Taylor, D key ‘Hoos to convincing 34-17 win at Duke
- UVA Football: The Virginia defense made Darian Mensah look average
- Greg’s Grades: How UVA Football graded out in its Week 12 win at Duke
That one was a dominant performance from a team that was coming off a dispiriting 16-9 loss to Wake Forest from a week earlier, at the tail end of a stretch of nailbiter wins – a 30-27 win in OT at Louisville, a 22-20 win at home over Washington State, a 17-16 win at North Carolina in OT.
UVA went into the first Duke game as a road underdog, but never trailed, and led 31-3 early in the fourth quarter, ahead of Duke putting up a couple of scores to make the result look a little better.
That game was to stay alive in the ACC race; this one is to punch a ticket to the College Football Playoff, not just for Virginia individually, but for the league.
A Duke win almost certainly keeps the ACC from getting even a single bid to the playoff, because Duke, with five losses, isn’t even ranked in this week’s CFP Top 25, with three Group of 5 programs – #20 Tulane, #24 North Texas and #25 JMU – fighting amongst themselves for the fifth conference champ spot.
ICYMI
Conceivably, and again, almost certainly, both the winner of the Tulane-North Texas American title game, and JMU, if it wins the Sun Belt, would be ranked ahead of Duke, and would thus get the fourth and fifth conference champ spots.
No pressure, Coach Elliott, boys, but, you lose, and the ACC may not be a Power 4 anymore.
“Those are the things I talked to the guys about, but not from the perspective of pressure, from the perspective of the reason why we started Game 1 as the most important game on the schedule was so that, when you get to a moment like this, you’re not trying to change who you are, you’re just trying to be who you are, but a little bit better,” Elliott said.
This Virginia team has been playing with a chip on its shoulder since being picked 14th in the ACC in the preseason, then losing early, in Week 2, at NC State, before piling up wins – seven in a row, before the loss to Wake on Nov. 8.
Nobody on the outside believed, even among the fan base – everybody kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, beginning with the FSU game in September.
Inside the bubble, it’s been just the opposite.
“This has been an extremely fun team to be around, because they show up every single day,” Elliott said. “I’ve been around teams where you’ve got to pull teeth a little bit to get them going – Tuesday, all right, it’s a workday. Now these guys, they just show up. Every time I walk in the team room before a team meeting, then the guys just erupt with joy. They’re excited to have this opportunity.”
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Chris Graham
