Week 7 is in the books with yet another blowout of Duke, and now it’s time to take a quick look back at the takeaways from around the league last week and evaluate both the coming week and remaining road ahead:

Quick Hit Thoughts Of The Week

We keep it real here, so we’ll acknowledge a few things on a couple early possessions that we feel we need to talk about first before getting into the laundry list of helmet stickers.

I’ll try not to worry too much about settling for a FG on the first UVA drive. But UVA’s defense was incredibly lucky not to give up 7 points on Duke’s first drive. The Devil’s moved the ball well and dropped a TD pass before blowing a chip shot FG.

On our 2nd offensive drive, there were two near turnovers we avoided, one a Brennan fumble off a blindside hit that we were lucky to see Henry cover, and then a near interception by Jeremiah Lewis before Kemp grabbed the popup for a first down.

After that, though, Duke’s spirit was quickly broken on UVA’s elite corner route to Wicks. Duke’s offense saw one nice Durant run on the next drive before it promptly started breaking down.

A couple more breaks on UVA’s next drive, as Duke roughed the punter to extend our drive and Malachi Fields fumbled a reception but out of bounds. Thompson did the rest as a runner, breaking tackles to get to the 1 before punching it in on the next play.

UVA would also recover an Armstrong fumble in the backfield on a later 1st half drive as well, before Wicks fumbled after a reception but covered it up himself. More 50/50 balls going our way.

Brennan spread the ball around to 7 different receivers. It says so much about how great his season has been that his 364 passing yards and 2 PaTD feels pedestrian. Great to see him look good on a couple long runs, one designed for a first down and another couple as scrambles, one for a TD and a later one for another 1st down.

Also good to see Darrington rush the ball well, his best game as a Hoo, in place of the injured Mike Hollins. Quiet day for Taulapapa, however, after a solid showing against Louisville. Hopefully we’ll have all three back soon.

Defense held Mateo Durant under 100 yards for the first time in five games, the only time he’s had that quiet a day against a P5 opponent. QB Gunnar Holmberg also had his worst day as a Blue Devil, 20/34 for only 134 yards and 2 INTs.

Virginia’s defense, which had struggled to generate TOs all season long, got four total Saturday, doubling its season total in one afternoon. Only one sack but 7 tackles for loss and 5 passes defended.

Healthwise good to see Wicks back in good shape and Blount as well. Didn’t see any major Hoo injuries during the game, we’ll see if there was anything nagging that gets announced during the week.

Fun fourth quarter to see some of the young guys. Woolfolk didn’t complete any passes but did draw a PI call in the end zone which led to a Ronnie Walker rushing TD, and he looked good as a runner as well. Big day by West Weeks as he cements himself in the linebacker rotation and is following a similar trajectory to Nick Jackson’s 2019 arc. Josh Ahern and Jahmeer Carter also continue to improve in the Front 7, while Jonas Sanker looked nice in the secondary.

Good to see the rain not bother us too much on either side of the ball.

Talk about us as a Coastal contender is still premature, I think. I need to see Pitt lose a game first, and I’d also like to see us at least get by GT next week before we have three weeks without an ACC game. If we can emerge from the ND game healthy and within 1 game of Pitt, we can talk.

All that said, the momentum does feel very real, doesn’t it. The ACC is a mess and UVA has found ways to win since consecutive 20-point losses. We talked in the preseason that the front 7 may have growing pains thanks to the turnover at linebacker, but with 7 games completed the growth is evident. I still worry about the DBs with Fentrell Cypress out for a bit; he was really starting to come on. But the safeties look much better and Bratton’s playing better as well. As always, health will be a big deal there.

The offense is obviously what it is at this point. Even some minor reshuffling along the OL hasn’t been too huge a deal. There are enough weapons that we can survive, game to game, with a player or two being out, as we’ve done with Wicks being out most of the Louisville game, Hollins and Taulapapa missing a game apiece, and Woods banged up. Oh, and there’s the very real likelihood we’ll see Lavel Davis return for the Notre Dame game in a couple weeks.

Aside from Pitt who’s rolling, the teams remaining on our schedule have looked more mortal of late, with GT’s upset of UNC further in the rearview mirror, BYU tumbling from the Top 25 after consecutive losses, and both ND and VT showing some cracks on offense. It should be an exciting home stretch of games.

Let’s pack Scott for the GT contest as we hopefully break a rock to clinch bowl eligibility for the fourth straight (normal) season.

VirginiaSportsTV Highlights

First Year Playing Tracker

Offense

Defense

No huge changes to what we already knew. Fields and J-Rod on offense and J. Jackson, Long, Sanker, and Weeks on defense are the rotation guys for this year. We did see four other freshmen play: Furnish, Josey, Woolfolk, and Green got some garbage time blowout, but at this point it still looks as if the strategy for these four is to stay beneath their 4-game redshirt limit.

Depth Chart Moves

Hoos Depth Chart posted for this week's GT matchup: pic.twitter.com/CU2K65A1mk

— Hoos Place (@HoosPlace) October 18, 2021

Offensive side looks about the same. Potentially some question as to Glaser’s health after a curious comment made by Bronco during Monday’s presser, in which case I’d bet Bissinger slides over before Josey gets promoted, but who knows, Josey’s reportedly really impressed. Also in the Monday presser was Bronco admitting that the QB2 is really Jay Woolfolk at this point.

Defensively does see some shifting on DL where unfortunately Adeeb Atariwa was ruled out of the rest of the season for injury. Faumui moves from NT to DE, with Redmond promoted to the 2nd string. At LB Stewart is still listed as a starter, though we may see Ahern get that role this week. No change on STs, still listing Duenkel as the PK despite Farrell having handled that job solidly the last three weeks.

Coastal Power Rankings

1. Pittsburgh (Prev: 1) – 5-1 (2-0) – Only three of Pitt’s six games have been against power conference opponents. With that said, all three of those have been on the road, including this week’s relative domination of Virginia Tech, 28-7. If they can handle business this coming week against Clemson, whose defense certainly looks the part even if the offense doesn’t, the Panthers will likely cruise to the Coastal title with little drama, already with effectively a two-game lead on the field.

2. Virginia (Prev: 3) – 5-2 (3-2) – Virginia’s two big losses at UNC and to still-undefeated Wake feel ages ago. Three straight wins at least look on paper like the Hoos are trending in the right direction, though there have been some breaks to go their way in the process. They still have to play some of the better teams in the Coastal, so we’re only putting them here in pencil until we can see that the defensive improvement is sustainable.

3. Virginia Tech (Prev: 2) – 3-3 (1-1) – The Hokies defense is doing the best it can, holding Pitt to just 28 points a game after the Panthers hung 52 in Atlanta, the lowest Pitt output of the season. But the offense is regressing with QB Braxton Burmeister banged up and no real backup available. Maybe most concerning, five of their first six games were in Blacksburg and they’ve already used their bye week. Four of their final five are on the road, but they remain at home versus Syracuse this weekend.

4. Georgia Tech (Prev: 4) – 3-3 (2-2) – The Jackets got their bye week at a good time, looking to build off a tough win over Duke to score an upset at Virginia. With season-ending games against Notre Dame and UGA on deck, the Jackets know their path to bowl eligibility requires standout play in their remaining ACC games, and after UVA they get a winnable path with VT, BC, and Miami the remaining opponents.

5. North Carolina (Prev: 5) – 4-3 (3-3) – A week after an embarrassing upset at the hands of FSU, the Tar Heels once again bounced back to .500 in league play with a narrow win over similarly-desperate Miami. Sam Howell continues to carry the team as best he can but the big plays are missing, and their OL continues to give up sacks. The Heel defense is feast or famine, generating three INTs but also giving up three long Miami drives of 75 yards or more.

6. Miami (Prev: 7) – 2-4 (0-2) – Miami was in the red zone with a last-minute chance to upset UNC before Canes QB Tyler Van Dyke threw his 3rd interception of the day. Once upon a time this UNC-Miami game was supposed to be the best of the year in the Coastal, but instead it was a battle to see whose season had become the greater disappointment. Tyler Van Dyke occasionally looks the part of the Miami QB of the future, but he’s still in over his head this season. I still think Miami steals a win or two down the stretch this year, but first they have to face the ACC’s two ranked teams in NC State and Pitt.

7. Duke (Prev: 6) – 3-4 (0-3) – There have been moments this season where it looked like Duke might not be a bottom feeder. Yes, Northwestern and Kansas are bad P5 teams but wins are wins for the Blue Devils. They fought hard in a close loss to the same GT team that recently crushed UNC. They looked okay in the early going against UVA, but as soon as a few bad bounces went against them, they folded entirely. They head into their bye week looking for any hope whatsoever, when at this point it feels like we’re just running out the clock on Cutcliffe’s tenure.

Non-UVA Games to Watch this Weekend

Virginia has the evening kickoff on ACCN this Saturday (7:30 pm), so you’ve got a full day to catch up on all the ACC action as a warmup (if you’re not going to the game, that is). 12 ACC clubs are in action (UNC and Duke are on bye), so plenty of opportunity for further shakeups in the conference hierarchy. Not much in the way of high profile ranked-clashes this week, but could mean an opportunity to check out our two upcoming non-conference opponents:

Wednesday

#14 Coastal Carolina (-3.5) at Appalachian State – 7:30 PM Eastern – ESPN2: Seems odd for me to be recommending this game, but frankly it’s got some intrigue, airing tonight. Coastal Carolina has a very real shot at crashing the CFP party if it can not only go undefeated but win games convincingly. App State looked the part of spoiler, nearly upsetting Miami and winning its four other games in a 4-1 start, though a lot of the shine was lost in a surprise blowout loss to Louisiana. Still, they’ve got a puncher’s chance to end CC’s Cinderella dream.

Saturday

Syracuse (+3) at Virginia Tech – 12:30 PM Eastern – ESPN3/RSN: The Hokies still plan to do some damage in the ACC, their loss to Pitt last week aside. They play six league games the rest of the way and are arguably playing for Fuente’s job. The Orange are a winnable game for the Hokies, one of their last remaining home contests, but Cuse has lost its three league games by only a combined 9 points, and could turn the corner any week now.

BYU (-1) at Washington State – 3:30 PM Eastern – Fox Sports 1: The Hoos travel to Provo next week to take on the Cougars, and this is a great opportunity to see if BYU can regain momentum after consecutive losses to Boise State and Baylor. With that said, WSU just fired a chunk of its coaching staff on Monday, so it’s possible a BYU win may be more formality than actual litmus test.

Clemson (+3.5) at #23 Pitt – 3:30 PM Eastern – ESPN: The Hoos, a 3-2 in the ACC, have an outside shot still at a Coastal title, but in addition to winning out, will need someone to hand Pitt a conference loss. Clemson heads to Heinz Field a surprising underdog, but still will pose arguably Pitt’s toughest test to date.

#18 NC State (-3.5) at Miami – 7:30 PM Eastern – ESPN2: At first glance this should be an easy win for NC State, who’s being looked at along with Wake Forest as a prime contender for the ACC title. But if Miami can show some fight, and Tyler Van Dyke can get his first ACC win, it’ll signal Miami may at least do some damage in the Coastal over the next month and a half.

Southern Cal (+7) at #13 Notre Dame – 7:30 PM Eastern – NBC: Notre Dame had a bye week to figure out its offense and QB controversy issues. With three weeks before they visit Charlottesville, this’ll be a good game to flip to during our commercial breaks to see how good they’re looking against USC’s admittedly mediocre defense.

The Remaining Schedule

Sat, Oct 23 – Georgia Tech: Win confidence 6 – The bye week does give me some pause, as it’s given the Jackets that extra week to get healthy and install an effective gameplan. The Jackets usually play UVA close, the last three meetings all being decided by 5 points of fewer (we didn’t play last season). UVA’s improving defense should do okay against a Jacket’s offense whose passing game is still a work in progress with Jeff Sims under center, though the ground game could cause issues. GT’s defense gave 27 to Duke and 52 to Pitt its last two outings, so they’ll need major improvement to contain Brennan Armstrong.

Sat, Oct 30 – at Brigham Young: Win confidence 4.5 – The Cougars dropped out of the Top 25 this week as they took their second straight loss, this time at Baylor. BYU couldn’t get any running game going, so while QB Jaren Hall moved the ball, they struggled to score much before garbage time. At the same time, Baylor’s ground game did whatever it wanted en route to 303 rushing yards. Long story short, there’s hope UVA can win the Lines of Scrimmage in this one, making this far more of a tossup than it looked a couple weeks ago.

BYE WEEK

Sat, Nov 13 – #13 Notre Dame: Win confidence 5.5 – After surviving in Blacksburg last week, the Irish took their bye week on Saturday. For right now, we’ll have to see what their QB situation looks like against USC this weekend, but I’m letting myself believe. Should be a great environment as UVA goes for the upset.

Sat, Nov 20 – #23 at Pittsburgh: Win confidence 4 – I know others will downplay Pitt’s success due to their easy strength of schedule so far, but I liked how they played on the road. They aren’t just winning, they’re winning decisively. UVA should have a shot here, but Pitt will likely be in a position to clinch its Division crown in this game, making this a high pressure contest for all involved. Should be a fun one, though.

Sat, Nov 27- Virginia Tech: Win confidence 5.5 – If they didn’t have “Virginia Tech” on their jersey, I’d call this one a much higher percentage win for UVA. Maybe Burmeister can get healthy by this point so their offense can bounce back, and who’s to say how healthy UVA’s defense looks by that point as well. But we know UVA struggles in this game even when on paper it should be the favorite, so we’ll stay guarded in our optimism for now.

Predicted final record: 7-5 (5-3)