For the third time in four seasons, Tony Elliott guided his team to a season-opening win last Saturday. And this time, it was the biggest winning margin of Elliott’s tenure as the Hoos rolled past Coastal Carolina, 48-7.
Now comes the hard part. Despite starting the season with a win the last three years, UVA ultimately landed with a losing record in the end. Even 2024’s team that started the season 4-1 stumbled to a 5-7 finish. Handling success will be part of the theme as the team heads to NC State for a non-conference game on Saturday at noon.
“It’s very hard. It’s probably the hardest part, is handling success, and that was the message that I had with the team,” Elliott said. “Obviously, got off to a good start. Got the result that they wanted. Now they gotta make sure that they flush it and start back over and reinvest in the process. And this is a different team. ... This team’s gonna have to kind of figure out their identity. But that was a message to the group that, man, we got the result that we wanted. Now let’s recommit to the process, go back to work. And I told them, I said, congratulations, you get to go do it all over again. And that’s the real challenge.”
With the Hoos in search of a break-through year, starting with a win ramped up the importance of this Saturday’s contest. NCSU projects to be the best of the three remaining non-conference opponents and it is the only non-conference game on the road this season. That offers the opportunity to build momentum if Virginia can get the game into the win column.
Fans discussed on the message board in two threads here and here how big this game is for Elliott’s Wahoos in terms of the opportunity. One begins with: “This is the biggest game of the CTE era and it’s not particularly close. ... If you win, lots of the skeptics (like me) out there can start thinking about buying into the hype. Not saying they buy in, but they start paying attention.” The other opens: “Saturday is the biggest game in the Tony Elliott era. Saturday was the first data point I’ve seen to make me *truly* think that I might be wrong about Elliott & Co.”
Other responses included “Totally agree! I’ve said it too, this is the biggest game of the season!”, “It is. But I hope people can temper expectations.”, “Hard disagree. This season is a sliding scale as wins (or losses) mount.”, and “I think it's a great barometer game, but I'm not sold on the idea that it is a massive stakes game or one that transforms our season outlook with a W or L.”
At the very least, Saturday’s game is a chance to play a long-time ACC partner even if it is a non-conference game. The Hoos have faced the Wolfpack just five times since 2008 (28-14 NC State win in 2011, 33-6 UVA win in 2012, 35-21 NC State win in 2018, 38-21 NC State win in 2020, and 24-21 NC State win in 2023). With few trips to NCSU available (Saturday is the first road game at State since 2018), this thread started with a fan making the Raleigh trip for the first time.
Fan(s) Of The Week
Go Hoos!
Student Fan(s) Of The Week
Rocking the hill at Scott Stadium.
Feature Photo Of The Week
Elijah Slibeck and the Hoos celebrated a big win to open the season.
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