Match preview: Virginia Football vs Richmond - 71Bait

Virginia opens the 2022 football season and the Tony Elliott era against Richmond on Saturday.

Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics

A new season of Virginia football is finally upon us. A long offseason that began with the retirement of Bronco Mendenhall and the hiring of Tony Elliott ends this Saturday when UVA host Richmond at Scott Stadium. It will be easy to get caught up in all of the day’s distractions as Tony Elliott makes his debut as head coach, but there is still a game to play and the Cavaliers will look to open a new chapter in the program’s history with one Victory over the spiders.

game details

Who: Virginia Cavaliers vs. Richmond Spiders

When: Saturday 3 September at 12:30 p.m

Where: Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia

How to see: ACC regional sports networks

all-time streak: Virginia leads 29-3-2

Last meeting: Virginia defeated Richmond 42-13 in 2018

Opponent Breakdown: Richmond

To get a good understanding of the Richmond offense facing Virginia’s defense on Saturday, look at the VMI offense from a few seasons ago. The Spiders are led by two transfers — quarterback Reece Udinski and wide receiver Jakob Herres — who both started their careers at VMI, and Richmond’s offense is being coached by new offensive coordinator Billy Cosh, also from VMI.

Udinski, who moved to Maryland last season but played sparingly, passed for 7,877 yards during his career at VMI while Herres caught 226 passes for 3,006 yards. Udinski and Herres lead all active FCS players in each of these three stat categories.

The Spiders also have two capable running backs in Aaron Dykes and Savon Smith, who will likely split carries from the backfield like last season. It’s difficult to plan a team without a feature film, but the UVA defense can count on the Spiders looking to get the ball into the hands of Herres, Dykes and Smith as often as possible. The Cavaliers’ efforts to improve their tackling from last season will be tested early on.

On the other side of the ball, Richmond’s defense is led by linebacker Tristan Wheeler, a three-time All-CAA selection with 256 career tackles. Wheeler and the Spiders should have strong running defenses, which could pose a challenge for the Cavaliers as they try to establish a running game for the first time in several seasons.

It will be interesting to see if Virginia’s offensive line can dominate enough up front to get the ground game going, and if not how long Des Kitchings and the UVA offense will have patience before they decide Armstrong and letting go of the wide receivers in an airstrike. Either way, Virginia should have enough firepower to easily win this game.

Scroll to Next

Remarks

Virginia has won five straight season openers, the longest streak for the program since the Cavaliers won six straight seasons from 1927–32. UVA’s last loss in a season opener was in 2016 against Richmond.
Tony Elliott will make his head coaching debut Saturday, becoming the 41st head coach in Virginia football program history.
The last UVA head coach to record a .500 in his first season with the Cavaliers was Art Guepe, who coached the Hoos to a 4-4-1 record in 1946. The last head coach to set a record in his freshman season in Virginia was Earl Abell in 1929. Tony Elliott will be looking to buck that trend in his first season at the helm of UVA’s football program.
Virginia brings back 89% of his total offense yardage from last season. The Cavaliers had the third-best overall offensive yards in college football in 2021, averaging 515.3 yards per game.
This is the fifth time since 2010 that Virginia and Richmond have met to open the college football season.
UVA has won 21 of its last 26 season openers at home and holds an all-time season opener record of 84-39-9.

Hear from head coach Tony Elliott and quarterback Brennan Armstrong in the following videos before the game against Richmond:

Match preview: Virginia Football vs Richmond – 71Bait

Leave a Comment Cancel reply