After months of waiting, it’s time for kickoff! The Virginia football team is on deck this week for its season opener as NC State comes to town. Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. game is garnering a lot of attention as one of the main attractions in Week 0. The Sabre social sweep dives in.
It’s a rematch of last season’s closely contested game in early September, which the Wolfpack won 35-31. That was a non-conference game, though, and didn’t impact the standings. It’s a different deal this time around. This contest serves as the ACC opener for both teams too. UVA last opened against a conference opponent in 2019 at Pittsburgh (pandemic year excluded).
With that in mind, much of the preseason chatter has focused on how important that makes this game. Both teams avoid Miami, the preseason media favorite to win the league, and Clemson, a team that has been a contender at the top of the conference in many years, while NCSU avoids SMU, No. 2 in the preseason poll, as well. So the thought is a victory here could create a reasonable path toward the ACC Championship Game for either team.
There are a lot of previews out in the YouTube media world about Virginia and the matchup at hand.
First up, The Sabre’s own contributor Preston Willett joined the “Basketball Conference: The ACC Football Podcast” show for an interview. Host Joey Weaver welcomed Willett to the show for a long season preview on the Hoos.
Next, the Gramlich & Mac Lain show tackled the UVA-NCSU matchup. Kelly Gramlich and Eric Mac Lain both played sports in the ACC and they break down ACC Football coverage weekly as analysts on the ACC Network. Taylor Tannebaum joined for this episode as well. The ACC Huddle pregame show, featuring Mac Lain, Tannebaum, Jimbo Fisher, and Eddie Royal, will be in Charlottesville on Saturday.
The Cover 3 Podcast, the official college football podcast of CBS Sports with Chip Patterson, Bud Elliott, Tom Fornelli, and Danny Kanel, also provided a preview of this conference showdown. The episode is titled “Who Wins & Why?” Also, from On3’s Andy & Ari show, the hosts Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman took a look at the matchup, calling it a “very fun” early game. And finally, The Ruffino & Joe Show hosted by Blake Ruffino and Joe DeLeone have an episode titled “UVA vs NC State Preview - Why UVA will win”.
From NC State land, there’s some chatter from 99.9 The Fan about a potential 10-win season and a “massive opportunity” in two videos. The Locked On Wolfpack podcast asks “Can UVA replicate a special year?” and “Can NC State match their experience?” Plus, Pack Power welcomed UVA beat reporter Jacquie Franciulli on to preview the game as well.
On the QB Spotlight channel, hosted by former Millsaps College quarterback Steven Hamner, there’s a lot of discussion about the UNC-TCU and UVA-NC State games through the lens of the quarterbacks. For the Hoos and Wolfpack, that means some talk about Beau Pribula and C.J. Bailey.
Thomas Jones Featured In Docuseries
On the Ceremony YouTube channel, which describes itself as “premiering the best in global stories, documentaries and culture across, Sports, True Crime”, there’s a new series available. It’s called “Your Body Is A Business” that features Virginia running back Thomas Q. Jones, who played in the NFL for 12 years with more than 10,000 rushing yards and has since gone on to an acting career.
This first episode gives a detailed look at Jones’ journey from the coal mining town of Big Stone Gap to UVA and the NFL.
On Virginia Basketball
While football is in the spotlight this week with the season opener on deck, it’s just a few weeks before the Virginia basketball team is on the court for a preseason game. The Hoos face Vanderbilt in Charleston, S.C. on Sunday, Sept. 27 in an outdoor special event at Credit One Stadium.
UVA has appeared on plenty of preseason top 25 lists thanks to having a large group of returning contributors led by Thijs De Ridder, Sam Lewis, Johann Grünloh, and Chance Mallory. Ryan Odom appeared in an interview with CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish this week. Check out that interview.
The Virginia Effect
UVA’s swimming success was featured in the sweep last week after Kate Douglass and Sara Curtis set world records at recent meets. As noted in the article, if there’s a world stage and a Virginia swimmer is on it, then there’s always a chance of some magic. That’s just how remarkable the program has become under Todd DeSorbo.
Over the last several days, the waterlife_med Instagram account has shared a series of posts showing “The Virginia Effect” in swimming, including those recent record swims from Douglass and Curtis.
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