The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - ACC Football Kick-Off Starts Today In Charlotte; Jerry Ratcliffe Heading To ACC Kickoff Tuesday

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: ACC Football Kick-Off Starts Today In Charlotte Jerry Ratcliffe Heading To ACC Kickoff Tuesday Top Storylines From 2024 ACC Football Season Virginia Football Preseason Predictions Positives For Wahoos; Concerns For Wahoos UVA Football Training Camp About To Start UVA Hoops 2024-25 Non-Conference Schedule What Stood Out About UVA Hoops Schedule? Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller were live on The Jerry & Jerry Show! The Jerry & Jerry Show airs live Tuesday from 10:15 am – 11:15 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Jerry & Jerry Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Good morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show. It's a special edition of the Jerry and Jerry Show. As our Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, the star of the program, Jerry Hootie Ratcliffe, is heading to Charlotte tomorrow for ACC kickoff, the football season right around the corner, and that's got the fan base talking. We'll talk all the storylines today on the Jerry and Jerry Show. Trading camp is days away.

We got an ACC basketball non-conference schedule released, and maybe some preseason rankings to talk about, including a magazine of pretty significant recognition and proportions, having the University of Virginia a little higher than some would expect. All those storylines and more on the special Monday edition of the Jerry and Jerry Show. Join us in the conversation. Ask us questions. We'll relay them live on air. Judah Wittkower behind the camera.

If we can go to the studio camera to welcome the studio, the star of the show, Hootie Ratcliffe to the program. My friend, ACC football kickoff. You leave tomorrow to Charlotte. So we're here on a Monday morning. That's quite exciting. How are you doing? I'm doing well, and I hope you are.

I'm doing well. Yeah, it's always exciting. How are you doing? I'm doing well, and I hope you are. I'm doing well. Yeah, it's always exciting. This is sort of the unofficial beginning of football season, really, for ACC fans. It used to be a couple of days. Now it's expanded to four days with 17 teams in the league, and they've had to spread them out there's just so much so many players and coaches and schools to talk about um but it should be fun it's it's like a big reunion down there with all the media and there'll be some new media obviously that cover these uh other three teams so it'll be nice to meet some of those people. And it just should be kind of exciting. Football is back.

Football is back, baby. Basketball's got some news, which we'll get to as well. The non-conference schedule getting released. Before we get to hoops, we'll talk pigskin. Give us a snapshot for the laymen and the fans what kickoff, ACC football kickoff looks like. What the schedule looks like, what the commitments look like, what you get out of it as an award-winning journalist. Well, you know, they bring in, they have, I guess there will be four schools,

I guess it's four schools for three days. Maybe it's five schools for three days. Maybe it's five schools for three days. I'm not sure. And two today. But, yeah, I think that's how it is. So each school's head coach is there, and each school will bring three or four players. The way they do it is they have a huge auditorium set up with a stage.

Usually the ACC network or ESPN or somebody is in the back of the room doing some interviews. They kind of stagger things around for the various media there's a radio row there outside of that room and they're bringing in players and coaches constantly each school's head coach and their players will come up on stage and they'll go through a brief like 15 minutes of Q&A from people in that audience. But as a sports writer, I think most of us enjoy the other portion of that because after they get off the stage and get over their stage fright or whatever, with all the cameras and stuff pointing at them, we go into a big breakout room where that's the only school in the room. And you get to talk to the players individually and the coach as long as you want

during at least a 30-minute session. And that's usually when you get to the meat of everything that you're interested in. And they do that with each school over those few days. And it works out pretty well. You usually get a lot of knowledge. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, etc. They have a big party each night usually outdoors at the downtown hotel. I guess they call it Uptown in Charlotte.

And you know the coaches some of the players some ADs conference officials a lot of TV people, used to be some bowl people. I don't know if they'll still be there or not. But it's a good way to kind of break the ice and get to know some of the people on a less formal basis.

Football is certainly the driver of a conference, football and basketball. And after the dog days of summer here, we got some content to cover. How has the advent of technology, social media, Zoom, all this ubiquitous technology, which gets content out there faster, how has it impacted events like ACC football kickoff? Quite a bit. I'm sure that not only is it televised live by the ACC network, ESPN is there doing interviews as well. And, again, there's a radio row

with lots of radio stations doing live interviews a lot of people use Twitter or X to point out any news or any revelations going on that try to break the news first instead of waiting for a news cycle to show up. And I imagine there's some of that on Facebook as well. It's gotten to be where there's probably more independent news agencies,

if you want to call them that, like myself, as opposed to the traditional newspapers, there's not as many of those around anymore. They're way outnumbered by independent sites or sites sponsored by rivals or 247 or or on three. So all of that has been a huge dynamic in the transition to the modern media that we see now. Social media, I mean, I'm on your Twitter account every day. I'm on Jerry Ratcliffe every day. I have your account bookmarked. I look forward, I get notified when you tweet.

I look forward to that. I want to highlight this as well. Your account is booming. It seems to me like you're picking up a couple hundred followers every single month, and you do a great job of engaging with them and having conversation with them. I would think that you're spending as much time on Twitter than you are on just about any platform out there, Hootie. I am. I am. I'm on there a lot. I check Twitter

probably 15 or 20 times a day just to make sure if there's any breaking news we're not aware of that we are on top of it. We gained about 100 followers or maybe a little bit more than that each month. We're up to

17,000. You're up to 17,000. You're just under 18,000 followers on Twitter. Yeah, we're close to 18. That's legit. That is legit. And, you know, a lot of people don't like to interact with their Twitter followers, but I do. I like to know what's on their minds, particularly the ones that are there for UVA news. And, you know, it's good to get a pulse on how they feel about things. And they'll usually let you know pretty easily whether they

like something or don't like something. And it's like anything else. Some people expect you to be a homer. Some people expect you to be a fair journalist who sees things from all sides and is critical when there's reason to be critical. Praise when there's reason to praise. So it's a mixed bag. But yeah, we have a heavy presence on Twitter and hope that continues to grow. We'll talk football here. He's got Lindy's in front of him right now, maybe my favorite preseason publication. And the Virginia football team picked higher than perhaps others are suggesting by Lindy's. Yeah, I've written for Lindy's for probably at least 35 years, so maybe even longer than that.

But they are. They're one of the oldest preseason football magazines, and they have an online presence that they're around year-round for football and basketball. But they have a pretty nice staff that does a lot of their national stuff, including Dennis Dodge, who's one of the premier college football writers in the country, who sort of heads up their coverage.

But I was a little surprised when I saw their preseason rankings of the ACC, and they actually have Virginia in 11th out of 17 teams which I think a lot of people would be a little surprised I'm surprised by that I was yeah uh ahead of Cal Boston College Pitt Wake Forest Duke and Stanford so uh if if they can finish as high as 11th in the league, I think that they've done a pretty good job. Absolutely. I would think Virginia fans would be pretty happy with that. Roger Voisinet watching the program.

Roger, a local luminary in the Charlottesville and Central Virginia market. We appreciate your props, Roger Voisinet, on the program. So much to follow with this football team. We've obviously talked quarterback play. We've obviously talked what could be a strength defense. We've talked Coach Elliott and his staff, what they need to do to push the team in the right direction. We've talked job security.

The microscope's got to start in the trenches with the offensive line. No question about it. And, you know, some people think it's a good thing some people aren't aren't exactly sold on it but you know uh you look at the guys coming back mikhail boley noah josie brian stevens um ty furnish ugana n Nana, Blakestein, I'm not sure. He may be injured. I'm not sure if he's the one.

Sack of Wood apparently got a – we thought he was probably through, but he has got an exemption, I think, from the NCAA, and is back for a fifth or sixth year at tight end so um there's a lot of experience on that offensive line it's just a matter of how far that they have come since last year they got a lot of experience under their belt last season they weren't the best offensive line around, obviously, because the quarterbacks were scrambling their tails off to try to stay safe. And injured. And injured. And they were terrible in the offensive rushing department.

Virginia finished 105th in the country out of 130 teams, and that's just not going to get it. If they're going to finish 11th in the ACC this year, they're going to have to be much better than that. So, yeah, I agree. I think the magnifying glass is on the offensive line, and I think that's the biggest key to their success or failure is whether this offensive line can succeed.

Are you in the camp that returning all the starters from a unit that significantly underachieved is a cause for concern? Are you in the camp that returning all the starters from last year's team allows continuity with the unit and allows the unit to potentially improve versus what they showed last year? I think they should be improved. I'm expecting them to do better. I think continuity and experience is a big thing,

even if they didn't perform up to standard last year. I think the fact that they gained that experience and they've had another year to become bigger, stronger, faster, and study their shortcomings and work with the last year they were under a new offensive line coach who's still here, and I think he made some strides with these guys. And they brought in a couple of transfers that may help. But I expect them to be better on the offensive line. I don't know how much better, but I think they'll be better than they were a year ago.

How about quarterback play? He got Musket down at ACC kickoff. We're not trying to look into that. Maybe Musket is brought to talk to the media because he's a fifth year. He's experienced. He's been around the block. He's nuanced. Calandria, the rising second year with the upside, the gunslinger mentality here.

Quarterback play is probably the point of conversation that drives the most fan interest because of the position. We highlight that offensive line play the most crucial, but the quarterback play is something the fans are talking about on social media. Oh, there's no question about it. I mean, that's the way modern football is now. If you don't have a really good quarterback, you're almost out of the game. And that's on every level. And, you know, Tony Elliott has the luxury of having two guys with experience. And both were fairly successful last year, considering the circumstances.

Most of these people, most of the teams in the country seem to be scrambling around for a transfer quarterback almost every year now. So, you know, he has two guys back with experience. They've both proven that they can play and move the offense. So I would think that would be a strong point for Virginia this season. And even if Musket ends up being the the starter and should he go down for any reason you know you've got a guy behind him who's done great things i mean nobody expected calandria to come in and throw for the kind of numbers he did last season as a true freshman and produced so much excitement for Virginia fans in the time he was there, even though he made a lot of freshman mistakes.

And, again, you know, the gunslinger mentality got him into some trouble. But that's something you don't want to take away from him because eventually it it'll help you more than it'll hurt you but all the great quarterbacks well not all of them but most of them through the years college nfl have thrown a lot of interceptions because they make plays they make their playmakers yeah and, you know, that's what it takes. How does Tony Musket handle this question? Who's going to be the starting quarterback for the football team?

Well, that's one of the – I mean, because that's got to happen. That's something I want to find out tomorrow for sure. Should you be the starting quarterback? Are you the starting quarterback? How do you think the position is going to play out? Yeah, I'm very intrigued by the dynamics of this. There's a rumor out there that Musket is way ahead in the race, but I don't know that that's

accurate. There's a rumor out there that Musket is way ahead? Yeah, and I just don't know that that's accurate but anyways um i i think it's going to be a a good competition throughout training camp i i would be surprised muskets way ahead because they they were fairly i mean last year it was neck and neck right uh and calandria has only gotten better. I'm sure Muscat's improved as well. But I'm really intrigued by how they're going to handle this in training camp.

If they're going to name a starter early, have that solidified, let people rally around that guy, or if it's going to be an open competition until the bitter end of training camp. Time will tell, guys. Musket's there. Tony Elliott's there. How does Elliott handle the job security questions?

Those will come up. I'm sure they'll come up at some point. He's always pretty candid with the media. He's been a very transparent coach. I think he understands that there's a lot of pressure on him to produce. It's his third year. And if they lay an egg, it's going to fall back on him. That's part of the business, but he's a very confident, positive guy.

I think he believes that they're going to be better this year, and they should be. They have a lot of returning starters on both sides of the football. And there was a lot of freshmen that played last year out of a recruiting class that didn't get much respect. They had seven, eight guys that played a lot of snaps, particularly on defense. So, you know, I think they have probably more depth than they've had in a while and, frankly, more experience at most of the positions than they've had in a while. So, usually that translates into good things. We'll see, but I

think they have the potential, and we talked about this before, but I think if they get off to a good start, something really good could happen. I think it's crucial that they – there's two huge games early, Maryland-Wake Forest and then Maryland here. I think they have to win at least one of those games, if not both of them. I mean, there's a very good chance, Hootie, that you go Richmond, Wake Forest, Maryland, Coastal Carolina, then you're heading into a Boston College game that's winnable at home. Yeah.

There's a chance, I'm not trying to put the cart before the horse here, that if the cards play out, you could be four and one. And that would be great. I mean, and if you look at it, Wake Forest has picked 15th by Lindy's in the league. UVA's picked 11th. Boston College has picked 13th. Right.

Maryland has picked 14th in the Big Ten. And Coastal Carolina has picked fifth in their division in their conference. And that's a road game in Conway. Right, down near Myrtle Beach. Right. Richmond Spiders to open the season. It's not like they're going up against Murderer's Road to begin the season. Right, so you could potentially,

and we're not trying to put the cart before the horse here, guys. 4-1, hedging a little risk here. Don't want to say 5-0, but, you know, it's not murderer's row, as he said. Then you've got Louisville in the middle of October. And that's here. Here in Charlottesville. And if Virginia has a 4-1 record, something along those lines, you may anticipate some big-time television coverage for that Louisville matchup.

Yeah, I mean, Louisville was in the ACC championship game last year. Nobody expected that. And Virginia should have beat them at Louisville last year. They had them beat. Unfortunately, Paris Jones suffered that horrible injury out there during the game. But still, Virginia had that game won and they just kind of gave it away like they did so many games last year.

So I would think they would have a shot here at home against the Cardinals. Cardinals, then the schedule changes. And Hootie's highlighted this. The back portion of the schedule, Clemson, North Carolina, Pitt, Notre Dame, SMU, don't sleep on the Mustangs in Virginia Tech here. So as you say, you've got to make hay early in the year. Clemson in Death Valley.

North Carolina, the South's oldest rivalry. Pitt Panthers in Pittsburgh. Notre Dame in South Bend. SMU, a lot of people have SMU picked 2, 3, 4 on that slot in the preseason polls. What's Lindy got them? They have them seventh. Seventh, wow, that seems low. I think that

might be a little low um they have a really good quarterback who's i think he broke his leg in the in the bowl game or late in the season last year but he put up some huge numbers uh they've got some good people that have transferred in so they're they're i think they're legit. They may find it tough adapting to a new conference against all new opponents, but we'll see. They have a good coach. They've had a winning tradition the last few years out there, so they're going to be formidable. I think SMU, guys, is going to surprise a boatload of people.

A program that has reason to make a mark and really set a brand for itself in the ACC and nationally here. I would think Coach Elliott's going to get that question, first five, six games of the season, how do you make sure that these kids are clicking on all cylinders through week six? Yeah, it's going to be key to get off to a really good start. I think it helps that you open the season against Richmond rather than playing Tennessee on what was supposed to be a neutral field, which we knew better than that.

Yeah. But, I mean, look what happened at that game last year. Musket got injured early in the game, and you had to throw a true freshman in there against a fierce defense that the likes of which he had never seen before so I you know starting the season against and it's no shade on Richmond but Virginia should win that game and that should give them some confidence going into a couple of crucial games that I think that they really have to win. At Wake Forest, it's never really easy going to Wake Forest and winning,

but it's almost like a must-win early. And then Maryland comes here. They shocked Maryland for a little while last year before Calandria started throwing interceptions. Some ticks, yeah. But Taguio Viola is gone, Shocked Maryland for a little while last year before Calandria started throwing interceptions. Some picks, yeah. But Taguio Viola is gone, and I don't think Maryland's offense will be nearly as lethal as it was last year. The defense could be a strength. It could be.

How do you see the defense potentially leading this team? If we have quarterback play that's consistent, if the offensive line figures out a way to create some holes from Kobe Pace, the special teams is much improved. I know that's a lot of ifs. There's a lot of experience returning defensively and some stars returning defensively. Yeah, no question about it. I mean, you talked to John Rudzinski, and I think he's still burning over the way the season ended last year

with his defense just getting shredded. I think that left a lasting impression upon him, and I think he's not going to let his players forget it. But he's the first guy to admit that we've got a very experienced front seven. You've got some guys on there with five, six, seven years of football. Yeah, we're talking 22- and 23-year-old men. Yeah, absolutely. And Corey Thomas coming in, transfer is legit. And, you know, you've got a guy like Cam Robinson who had an outstanding freshman campaign.

Some other freshmen that got some playing experience. They got a lot of snaps out of freshmen last year, probably as much as anybody in the country did out of freshmen, out of necessity because they were banged up. A lot of the starters were banged up, and they had to play people that maybe weren't really ready, but they gained some valuable experience to give them some depth on that side of the ball.

Jonas Sanker is considered one of the top safeties in America, local guy. Covenant school. Covenant school, terrific player. A product of seven-on-seven football. Yeah, I know. I mean, you don't see much of that anymore. But he's an amazing story in himself. But I think that side of the ball should be tons better than it was a year ago,

and it has to be. It has. I was just going to say, that side of the ball could in a lot of ways. Yeah, I mean, you look at their numbers last year, and it was so atypical of a Virginia defense. They were 116th in the country in scoring defense, giving up almost 34 points a game. You just can't do that. 114th in rushing defense and 101 in total defense. So they can't survive with those kind of numbers. Kevin Yancey in Waynesboro says this.

The Virginia's going to go 4-8 this season. Count on it. I responded to him in the chat. Would 4-8 be considered a success for the fan base? And then I guess the follow-up to that question is if part of the fan base sees 4-8 as a success, what's that say about the program? Well, that's true. I don't know.

I mean, it would be an improvement, obviously, one more win than they've had the past two seasons. I would be interested to hear what the Virginia fans out there think about that. If 4-8, if they would consider that a successful season or not. Certainly it's an improvement over the past two years. 4-8 could very well be Richmond, Wake Forest, Coastal Carolina, and Boston College. Could be.

Could be. Could be. And it seems like in most years, Virginia usually wins a game that it shouldn't win and loses at least one game that it shouldn't lose. So who knows? They've got Carolina here. Carolina traditionally doesn't play well here. Pitt, a little shaky maybe. At Pittsburgh.

At Pittsburgh, which Virginia traditionally hasn't played well up there at their stadium. And then, you know, who knows? You might get lucky against somebody like SMU if you're playing well, if you continue to improve. So I think, to me, I don't think 4-8 is a successful season. It's an improvement. But I think they've got to win at least five games

to have a successful season. This is from Greenwood, Virginia. Mr. Higgins watching the program. Mr. Higgins, we love when you watch the show. He is a huge Tony Elliott fan and said Coach Elliott's going to shut everyone up this year, bet the farm on it. He delivered after a mass murder with his players. Just wait and see. Put your seatbelt on, boys.

And he said he worked Highlands hard last year. That tells me everything I need to know about Coach Elliott. Huge fan of Coach Elliott, Mr. Higgins. I have a lot of respect for Tony Elliott. He's a good man. I think he's a good coach. I think he has a nice track record as offensive coordinator. I know things maybe got a little sour toward the end of his tenure at Clemson. Some of the fans weren't really happy

with some of the way the offenses turned out. But, you know, you have to admire what he did that first year. Mr. Higgins is right about handling that tragedy, which no other head football coach in America has ever had to deal with, as far as I know. He did a good job handling that and bringing his program through that. Again, last year, three wins was disappointing, and they certainly should have won more than that.

There's no question about it. We've talked so many times about losing six games by a total of 17 points, and a lot of that was self-implosion. They just made mistakes time after time after time and it bit them. And if they can eliminate those kind of silly mistakes and penalties, turnovers, needless turnovers this time around, and if they can get a running game going, that's going to be a huge part of this team. They don't have to be dominant, but they have to be able to run the ball when they need to run the ball.

They did that at times last year, but again, turnovers cost them so many times. And special teams was disastrous. They have to correct that and turn that around and make that a strength and not a negative. This comes in for you. Who's your pick to win the conference, and who's your pick to play in the conference championship? Well, I have to go with Florida State and Clemson right now,

and I know that seems cliche, but Florida State went undefeated in the regular season last year lost their quarterback at the end uh they have a new quarterback uh and i never can pronounce this kid's name dj we'll call him dj we'll just call him dj was the tony elliott's quarterback at Clemson, and then they pulled him for the bowl game and put in the freshman, Cabe Klubnick, and he's had a rocky career down there. So it's interesting that those two guys are going to square off against each other early in the season.

That may decide who's the top team in the league down in Tallahassee. So that's going to be a huge game early on. But, you know, Florida State, they lost a lot of starters, several to the NFL, but they did a really good job of replenishing things through the portal. I think they have five or six transfers that they gained from Alabama. Marvin Jones, Jr., whose dad was an All-American at Florida State, from Georgia, defensive end. They've got a ton of talent in that program still. Clemson's going to have a really tough defense,

but a lot of pressure, a lot of question marks about Klubnick if he can take this team to the next level or not. Interesting thing about Clemson, and this says something about how rabid the fan base is, Coach Sweeney, some outlets are saying his seat a little warm, which is crazy to me. It is to us. Yeah, because four and eight might be a success. Exactly. That's the pressures of big time football. When you

have a program that won a couple of national championships and played for others and were in the playoffs every year, and then all of a sudden that runs dry, fans' patience runs out, particularly at that level of football. There's been people fired for less than what he's experienced down in Death Valley. And so, yeah, I'm sure his seat is a little hot, and it's going to be interesting to see how he handles that. A lot of people are high on Miami because they did a pretty good job through the transfer portal.

They've got a lot of talent offensively, but they just never seem to be able to get it done. And so who knows if they'll be able to live up to expectations or not. And then outside of that, NC State, they're always on the verge of doing something but they've never really played in the ACC championship game they've never made it to a New Year's Day ball so I don't know if they can get over that hump or not Louisville I don't know if they can sustain the success that they had a year ago the Hokies I, may be a little underrated. They were picked sixth just ahead of

SMU. They've got a ton of people back, and Drones is, I think he's going to present problems for a lot of people with his skill, and they have a lot of players back, and they seem to have figured some things out late last season, although they still just finished 7-6. So still a question mark as to whether they can take their program to the next level. ACC kickoff starts today, guys. Hootie Ratcliffe going down tomorrow to Charlotte. We'll cover the kickoff on the Tuesday edition of the Jerry and Jerry Show, Tuesday, 10-15, our normal day and slot time.

For those that are asking, this is a special edition because he is going to be at kickoff tomorrow. We've got to get to basketball. One last football question for you. Of the three new editions, which program is expected, in your opinion, to do the best? Without question, it's SMU. Again, they have a good coach. They've been winning lately. I think they're 18-9 in their last three seasons.

SMU is going to surprise some people. Yeah, they have a quarterback that I think threw for well over 3,000 yards last season and was very steady. They had a good recruiting class. They had a good number of quality transfers to come in, and they're hungry. They're excited about being in the ACC. They want to make some noise. I guess they're probably going being in the ACC. They want to make some noise. And I guess they're probably, you know, going into uncharted waters. They don't know what to expect in this league.

But I think they'll be competitive, and certainly in their first year in the league, and a stepping stone to what they could become one of the top teams in the league in a very short period of time. Stanford's picked at the bottom of the league. I don't think they're going to be very good, although they had one of the top recruiting classes in the country last year. Cal has picked I think 10th

no 12th in the league so I think those two may have some rough sailing early on we got some basketball news to give you guys as well on the Jerry and Jerry show the non-conference schedule released for the Virginia basketball team

you have Memphis we have Villanova St. John's Baylor Tennessee schedule released for the Virginia basketball team. You have Memphis. We have Villanova. St. John's. Baylor. Tennessee. Florida. I mean, this is a non-conference schedule that's got some pretty tough competition.

Yeah, I think so. Villanova and Baltimore will be an interesting, I think it's a doubleheader, Virginia Tech's playing somebody. I can't remember who it is. And that's on the 15th of November. That's early. It's very early. And, you know, Nova, even though Jay Wright's long gone, they've been pretty good. They're a quality program, and it's pretty cool that it's at a neutral site.

I think the last time they played was in Philadelphia. Third game of the season, guys, Villanova. Yeah, that's very early to be tested. You know, Virginia usually scrimmages somebody like Villanova early. In the past of scrimmage, UConn? Yeah, this past season they did. And, you know, and then St. John's with Rick Pitino was there in his second year. They weren't exactly what he thought they would be last year,

although I think they came on strong. They were pretty scrappy at the end of the year. Yeah. After he really kind of threw his team under the bus. Yeah, they responded. He wanted to start all over with new players again. Yeah, they did. They responded, and they were a tough out late in the season.

That's what you would expect from a Rick Pitino team. But, you know, Tony Bennett's had his number. I'll never forget one of the shortest press conferences, post-game press conferences I've ever attended out in Louisville when Tony just kept finding ways to beat him no matter what the circumstance was. And Rick Pitino showed up for the press conference. He said he was definitely disappointed. And he said, let's face it, Virginia is my kryptonite.

And they have been ever since, not only when he was there, but all the coaches that have succeeded him, which are numerous. So we'll see if Virginia still is kryptonite, even though he's at a different school. And then they'll play, I guess that's in a tournament, and then they'll play either Baylor or Tennessee the next night or two nights later. I'm not sure if it's back-to-back games or not, but Baylor certainly has been awesome for several years now,

and so has Tennessee. That's going to be a real challenge, a real test. And then you've got Memphis returning the home-and-home. They'll be here in Charlottesville. Penny Hardaway. After Penny Hardaway's team just pounded Virginia out in Memphis last year with what looked like an NBA team. I thought they would end up being a potential Final Four team or at least an Elite Eight team, but they kind of faded throughout the season and lost

some games. I didn't think there were any chance they would lose, but I'm sure they've reloaded. The basketball team, guys, has got a schedule that I think is going to test it early with Villanova, and it's going to test it in December with Memphis. We'll follow this team closely and watch out for Florida in that ACC-SEC challenge. Tennessee also on the schedule.

Any closing thoughts on the basketball team? I think it's good that they're playing some tough teams early. I think it makes your team better, gets them ready for ACC play. Tony likes to face a number of different style teams. So whatever's thrown at his team in the conference, they've probably seen it before or at least something akin to it. So I like the fact that they're challenging themselves early. And I think it probably helps their net rankings, RPI, whatever you want to

call it, but I'm in favor of that. I think there's less, maybe a few less cupcakes, rent-a-victims than normals, so I like that aspect of it too. Basketball guys will always follow the basketball team. Two basketball fans, Hootie and I. The kickoff starts today. Hootie's heading down tomorrow. So football absolutely in the news cycle from here on out. The show returns to its traditional Tuesday at 10, 15 a.m. slot next week

with all the ACC kickoff coverage. JerryRatcliffe.com, what can we expect, Hootie? Lots of Virginia stuff, obviously. We'll be talking to Tony Elliott and some of the players tomorrow. We'll have some other updates, notes and stuff from tidbits, golden nuggets, as you will. I love the golden nuggets. From some of the other coaches and players. We'll follow what the ACC commissioner says today, if there's any news or anything interesting out of his talk with media.

Certainly, we'll keep track of everything else. Viewers and listeners, jerryracliff.com for anything UVA related. Get ready for football training camp days away. We're about five weeks and change from kickoff against the Richmond spiders in Scott stadium for the award-winning Virginia sports hall of favor, Jerry Hootie Radcliffe, Judah Wickhower behind the camera, the elders glue the MVP of the team. My name is Jerry Miller.

And thank you kindly for watching a special edition of the Jerry and Jerry show. you kindly for watching a special edition of the jerry and jerry show Thank you.