The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Hoos Top Coastal Carolina, UVA Now 3-1, 1-0; UVA 0 Turnovers, 525 Total Yds, 384 Rush Yds

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: Hoos Top Coastal Carolina, UVA Now 3-1, 1-0 UVA 0 Turnovers, 525 Total Yds, 384 Rush Yds Inside The Numbers: Great, Good, Bag & Ugly Xavier Brown 9 Carries, 171 Yds, 19.0 AVG Anthony Colandrea 13 of 20, 131 Yds, 2 TDs BC at UVA (10/5); UVA Is 1-7 vs BC All-Time Around The ACC: What Stood Out In Week 4? ACC Teams & Games To Watch In Week 5 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 Tuesday morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show. So much to cover on this week's episode. Virginia football guys improves the 3-1 overall, 1-0 in conference play. They head to Coastal Carolina and they beat up a football team that looked outmatched and overwhelmed in just about every facet of the football game, if not every facet of football. Virginia piles up rushing yards, passing yards, and total offense. Anthony Calandria takes care of the football, the running game as good as we've seen it in years. Mr. Fields, the wide receiver, looks like a pro more and more every single day.

And Virginia finds itself with a matchup against Boston College on the 5th of October, right after their bye week, with a chance to go 4-1 on the season and 2-0 in conference play and perhaps enter the receiving votes portion of the polls of merit. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera, if we can go to the studio camera and then welcome the star of our program, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, Jerry Hootie-Rackliff, quite a win for these Cavaliers, Hootie. It really was. You know, considering that they were just a little bit over a field goal favorite and on the road in a place where that team had won 13 of its last 14 non-conference games

and biggest crowd ever, everybody in the city down there was jacked. Yeah, it was a dominating performance, and that's what this football team needed, I think, was to come out and just steamroll somebody, and certainly they did that. They lived up beyond anybody's expectations, and I don't even think that they realized that they could run the ball so successfully against Coastal uh 6.6 yards per rush for the entire backfield and

what a outstanding I mean you if you can do that you can uh you're not gonna win a lot of games yeah you're not gonna lose a football game if you're averaging six yards a carry but uh you're right about malachi he's uh he was outstanding had four catches for two touchdowns and uh xavier was outstanding uh everything that had gone wrong against maryland and and even some of the things that had gone wrong against Wake Forest went right down in Conway. They won the middle eight. They were able to run the ball.

They were good on third down. They came into the game as one of the worst third down teams in the country, and they converted nine of 18. They had 25 first downs they uh were outstanding in the red zone which they had struggled in uh turnover wise they were ranked near the bottom of the country and they certainly reversed that uh early which shows you how much that can do for you when you're forcing turnovers. And it adds up to points most of the time. So, yeah, it sets up a big game with Boston College.

I don't know if BC is open this week or not. But if you look at the top of the ACC standings right now, it's Louisville, Boston College, and Virginia. And Virginia plays Boston College and Louisville in its next two games here in Charlottesville. We're going to know a lot more about Virginia football as they come out of the bye week with Boston College and the Louisville Cardinals on the docket. Boston College is 7-1 all-time against Virginia. So the Cavs struggle against the Eagles, but, you know, that's a record you may be able to toss,

especially with a home game in Scott Stadium, especially with a homecoming atmosphere, especially with a football team that's playing with a lot of confidence. I want to highlight two items that I saw that stood out to me. Zero turnovers for Virginia football and a commitment to the run 384 rushing guards it's been years since we've seen some kind of uh this kind of rushing output from Virginia Anthony Calandria as a result 13 of 20 20 passes for Calandria had to be more of a game manager in this situation as opposed to a game winner against Coastal Carolina? Yeah, it takes a lot of the pressure off your quarterback. He doesn't feel like he has to win the game by himself,

and that puts a lot of pressure on one guy, especially if he's getting a lot of focus from the defense. And a young guy. Yeah, but when you're spreading it around and you've got a running game that works, you can pretty much do anything you want on offense. That showed in spades the other day and the fact that

Virginia could run it, they could throw it when they wanted to instead of when they had to. They didn't have a lot of third and longs to put pressure on your quarterback and allow the defense to just pin their ears back and go after him. It allows you to be the aggressor instead of vice versa. And so, absolutely, a running game is vital to really good football teams. And I covered that the last time they had that many yards rushing against San Diego, excuse me, San Jose State back in 1998. They had, I think, 446 rushing yards that day.

And I distinctly remember Thomas Jones having a field day that day. And that might have been the game where he, one of his two games where he came within two or three yards of breaking that single-game rushing record, and had he known or Al Groh known at the time, that record would have been obliterated. This football team, guys, heads into a bye week with a lot of confidence. I want to offer this

to Hootie and the viewers and listeners in Wahoo Nation. At the beginning of the season, if you had said that Virginia would be 3-1 overall, and 1-0 in conference play, heading into the bye week, how many people would have taken that? Put your hands

in the air. I certainly would have. Oh, no question about it. I would have. And I kind of expected them to. I didn't know if they would beat Wake Forest or Maryland, but I felt like they would win one of those games. I felt Richmond was kind of a given. And I kind of believed that they would handle Coastal.

I didn't think it would be that easy. Shellacking. But I thought they'd be able to find a way to win. I just think Virginia's got more personnel, more talent on its roster right now than Coastal does. And so I'm not surprised they're 3-1. Now, if they can take it to 4-1 or 5-1, now that would, I can't say I'd be shocked,

but I would definitely be a little surprised if they can do that. Boston College is a really good football team. Yes. The Eagles guys may be one of the best teams in this conference, and certainly through the first four games, they've shown that they're one of the best teams in the ACC. They're 3-1. They're 1-0 in conference play.

The one loss they had was against Missouri at Missouri. We're talking one of the best football teams in the nation, Missouri, in a very rowdy environment. I watched most of that game. And Boston College probably should have won that contest. Boston College, to answer your question, has Western Kentucky, 12 o'clock kick, Chestnut Hill, high noon on Saturday. Louisville at Notre Dame in South Bend, 3.30, national television. I think they beat Notre Dame last year. They did.

That's going to be a hell of a matchup right there. Stanford and Clemson's another big time contest, seven o'clock ESPN. A lot of big time football games coming up on Saturday as we start getting into the meat and potatoes of the schedule. We'll talk about that as the show matures. Let's talk Calandria. I'll give you his line. I love the game manager. I mean, and don't get me wrong, when he got out of the pocket and he turned on the afterburners, you clearly saw an athlete that was a quarterback. He was outrunning people. He was able to cut. He was able to get upfield. He finds fields and a couple of touchdowns that were pretty. And let's also cut to the chase. Calandria, who finished 13 of 20 for 131 and two touchdowns,

could have probably added to the stat line if it wasn't for the backup quarterback getting some goal line plunges, two touchdowns of his own. I want to give some commentary for you, Hootie, on 13 of 20, a buck 31 and two touches for the second-year gunslinger. Yeah, and as you said, Brosterhaus took a few carries in there, and then Tony Musket played a lot to clean up the game.

So his stats could have been higher. And had they needed to, I'm sure they would have thrown the ball a little bit more, but he didn't need to. And that's a luxury for the offensive coordinator to not have to put all that pressure on his quarterback to throw the ball to win. And, you know, like we saw against Maryland the week before, and even at Wake Forest, they were behind

and they were forced to throw the ball to try to catch up. So it was a situation where they could dictate to the defense rather than vice versa. And I'm sure Anthony Calandria was – he's not a guy who's worried about his stats anyway. He just wants to win. And, you know, your quarterback doesn't have to throw the ball 40 times to win a football game

if the rest of your offense is clicking on all cylinders. I mean, we can make a legitimate argument that this football team is not set up to throw the ball 40 times. Yeah, I would say so. If they're throwing the ball 40 times, it's not a good situation for them to be in. Yeah. I mean, you see a lot of the really great quarterbacks in the NFL. The ones who are surrounded by talent, they don't have to do that.

Sometimes their stats are just pretty mundane, but it's effective because they're winning and other facets of their offense is working properly. How about this, ladies and gentlemen? Xavier Brown, nine carries, a buck 71 on the ground, 19 yards per carry. How about Kobe Pace, 15 touches, 57 on the ground, 3.8 per carry, one touchdown. Calandria gets nine carries. Jack Greasy, nine carries.

Noah Vaughn gets nine carries. Jack Greasy nine carries. Noah Vaughn nine carries. Are we looking at a running back by committee or has Xavier Brown said I'm the alpha dog in the back field. This is my running back room. Well I'm not going to speak for Des Kitchens or Tony Elliott because I imagine they're probably going to continue to start Kobe Pace and see what happens. But I've been singing Xavier Brown's praises for weeks on this show that I think he's their best running back. And I think he proved it the other day. I'm sorry.

They really started clicking when he had the ball in his hands. And that 74-yard run he had was a thing of beauty. He has that kind of burst in him that he's a little bit different. We haven't seen Noah Vaughn that much, so we don't know exactly what he's all about. And Noah Vaughn has been billed as the most complete package of the tailbacks. Yes, he has. And he hadn't been around long enough for us to see all of his talent yet he he had a

few touches i think he said nine carries against coastal and i think uh he made his debut the week before against maryland with a couple of touches but we're yet to see what he's all about but i still think xavier brown is is the guy on this. And he used to be a kid that would just use his speed and try to get out on the edge and turn the corner. But he's a guy now who can run between the tackles. And to me, that's what a true running back is all about. If he can run it between the tackles and pick up yardage, that's a big deal. He doesn't have to be a one-dimensional back to where he has to try

to outrun everybody on the outside pickup yardage. How about Will Bettridge, three for three on field goals, a 47-yard kick, which I believe ties his career long, then a 45er, a 22, consistency from the place kicker. He's pretty solid, and that's a great thing for this team to have because these next two games could boil down to a kick. A lot of ACC games come down to a couple of points at the end, and we saw that so many times last year.

And I expect things to be pretty similar as we progress through the season this year. So it's almost vital to have a reliable kicker who can go out to that kind of range. His range between, I think, between 35 and 45 and even anything under 50, he's been really consistent on. Close to automatic. Yeah. And so that's a nice luxury to have a guy that you know that if something stalls out that he's going to come through and add three points on the board. We talked last week the importance of winning the third quarter. Virginia 10, Coastal Carolina 7 in the third quarter,

a trend that changed from what happened against Wake Forest and Maryland. Yeah, and that was big because they had momentum going into the locker room. They received the second half kickoff, and that essentially won the football game. I think they scored two field goals right before the half on their last two possessions of the half and then came out and scored on that possession to start the second half. And that essentially locked up the football game,

and they could just kind of do what they wanted to from that point on. Now, we've been talking the good, and there's so much good that goes around in a 43-24 win. Antonio Clary's got a pick. He's got a team leading eight tackles. The secondary looked much improved. A lot we got to cover from a Virginia defense standpoint, which looked very good. But before we get off the defense, I want to highlight one point of concern I had for the offense. Chris Tyree continues to be a non-factor. He had, and i'll get out of your way four targets three catches

very limited very limited um yardage and then in the return game and you highlighted this point last time we don't know what is being said to him but from a return standpoint tyree looks like he is automatic fair catch on most returns. Yeah, it seems that way. And, you know, a lot of these kicks are not returnable because the punters are doing a pretty good job with their hang time. So a lot of times he really doesn't have much of an opportunity. He almost broke a kickoff return against Maryland. He was like one guy away from taking it to the house, I think.

Because if he gets clear field ahead of him, nobody's going to catch him. But it is a – I know Tony Elliott and Kitching say they're not concerned and that he's getting more comfortable in the offense. And I just didn't expect it to take this long I don't understand I'm a little baffled by the whole thing honestly we know the kid has talent and he's getting touches but they're not throwing the ball deep to him except with that one exception where the 65 yard touchdown was called back because of a holding penalty but they're throwing short passes to him and I don't know if they're trying to slowly build his confidence

which I didn't think there was a problem there I don't know it's inexplicable to me I don't know what's going on there. I guess unless you're not inside the program, you're probably not going to know exactly what's going on. Love to see Tyree get involved. Curious to see how Xavier Brown is going to be utilized moving forward with his running game. They have three tailbacks, maybe four if you throw Greasy in the mix, that really have some upside guys and really complement each other very well. Boston College coming out of the bye week. The Eagles at Scott Stadium. The line not released because we're

a week and change away. We still have to get through week five here. How do you think Vegas sets that line with UVA hosting Boston College? I'm pretty sure BC will be favored. It's going to be the best football team Virginia will have played at that point. They're solid. I mean, we've mentioned it before, but Bill O'Brien, who used to be on Bill Belichick's staff, was on Nick Saban's staff, was head coach of the Houston Texans. The guy can, I think he was at Penn State for a while as an assistant. Definitely was, yeah. This guy's a winner, and he knows what good football is, and he knows how to coach.

And I'm sure he put together a pretty solid coaching staff. And it wasn't like he was inheriting a bankrupt program bc started out slow last year if memory serves and then i think there was some pressure on their coach he was kind of on the hot seat but he i think he turned things around and i believe he left of his own volition, if I'm not mistaken. I can't remember where he, I think he might have gone to the NFL. I'm not sure, or maybe a coordinator somewhere, but I can't even remember the guy's name now. He was there only for a couple of years,

but he had some talent in that program, and they have a good quarterback. They're usually a pretty big physical football team, and that's something that's going to challenge Virginia. I think they're probably closest to Maryland in personnel of the teams Virginia has faced thus far, and it's going to be a challenge to take those guys on because it's going to be a physical contest.

Bill O'Brien, the head coach at Penn State. That's right, he was the head coach for a little while. When UVA beat the Nittie Lions 17-16 at Scott Stadium in 2012, Boston College, I agree with you, most likely will be favored coming out of the bye week. It may be closer than anticipation. Going into the bye, what's Virginia working on? Injuries seem not to be an issue.

The offense seems to be improved. Your defense is secondary, especially at the safety positions, very strong. Tight ends seem to have a lot of upside for Virginia. I mean, it looks like to me Fields is a guy that's going to play on Sundays for a long period of time. He's got that possession wide receiver frame, and he's got a little giddy up to him when he can get the legs moving. What are they working on going into the bye? I would imagine probably just getting better at what they do well. They self-scout like most programs do and they'll probably be looking to see what has worked and what hasn't worked

and it's out with the bad and more emphasis on what they've been doing well. Who knows, they might add a couple of twists for the BC game to give them something that they haven't seen before in Virginia. But I think a lot of it will be focused on just doing what they do well and getting people back. J.R. Wilson, I believe they expect him to be back by the B.C. game. That will give them yet another threat at wide receiver.

Big target, guy who's capable of making big plays. They have depth at that position. They really do. There's tons of receivers in this program, and they're all playing pretty well right now. Yeah. Mikael Boley should be good to go by then. I think he was close.

He was probably medically cleared to play last week, but I don't think he's had the reps in practice to be in game shape. So I expect those two guys to be back. I think they're fairly healthy after that Coastal game. They had some guys that were banged up in the game, but I think a couple of them came back to play before the game was over. And so I think with an extra week to mend, they should be a pretty healthy football team for that game. But I expect them to be focusing on just the fundamentals and what they do well and just try to get better at that

and maybe try to find a way to incorporate Tyree more into the mix. It was a Saturday that saw North Carolina get spanked by JMU. Unbelievable. Saturday that saw Mack Brown perhaps retire in the locker room and then un-retire in front of the media. He tells his players in the locker room, if I'm not the guy to lead this team, I'll step down right now. And then he says yesterday that he regrets making those comments. He has no plans to retire. It was

a Saturday that saw Virginia Tech take it on the chin. It was a Saturday that I think Virginia fans, first time in a while, North Carolina loses, and the Hokies fall to Rutgers, and Virginia wins big. Yeah, I'm sure Virginia fans were pretty happy with all of that, and Clemson dominated NC State, which I thought they would. I still think Clemson's the best team in the conference. I think so, too. Miami's pretty good, and a lot of that is because of their quarterback, Cam Ward, who's got a great arm.

But I still think the best team is Clemson. We may end up seeing Clemson and Miami play for it all, I don't know, in Charlotte in early December. But, yeah, it was an interesting weekend. Mack Brown's got problems. That defense, he changed defensive coordinators. They're still terrible on defense. They've been terrible on defense for years.

Yeah, they have been. And I think this is his third defensive coordinator, at least his second. I know Gene Chizik, the former Auburn coach, was brought in, and he couldn't get it done, and now they have a new guy. He's, I mean, to give up 70 points, I know JMU's got a good football team, but to be down, give up 53 points in the first half at home, you've got problems. And those problems ain't going away.

It's like Florida State, you know, people running the ball at will on them. Florida State barely beat California. Yeah, you can't go out and get new players. So you've got problems and you've got to fix it somehow. Florida State almost fell. Should have lost. Should have lost. Florida State almost fell to 0-4. I don't think Cal's that bad a football team.

I know some people were down on them, but I don't think they're that bad. I think they have some talent. The team that's leading, the program that's leading the charge to break up the Atlantic Coast Conference in demanding a better revenue share agreement with the TV deal

is borderline the doormat, the, what do you call it, the cellar dweller of the conference. Absolutely. Think about that. There's irony there. It truly is. After going 13-1 last year, 13-0 in a regular season,

it's hard to imagine that you start out like this. It's unbelievable. And I can only imagine what the stands are at Doak Walker's. Is it Doak Walker's? Yeah. Yeah. I can't imagine what the fans must look like.

That stadium must look like right now. I'm assuming it's probably about half empty, but wow. Who would have guessed that? Nobody. Nobody. Bill O'Brien, Vanessa Parkell in Earliesville. She says Coach O'Brien

was the head coach at Penn State when the program was under sanctions. She's a diehard Penn State fan, a Penn State alum. We appreciate you, Vanessa, watching the program. We've got viewers and listeners that are watching in Georgia, North Carolina, all across the Commonwealth, Richmond and southwestern Virginia, northern Virginia, and, of course, across here in central Virginia, folks in Pennsylvania and Tennessee, Roger Voisinet giving Hootie Ratcliffe some props. He's a Charlottesville legend, much like the star of our show, Jerry Ratcliffe.

We will get to some of the other games that happened. You mentioned North Carolina, not only problems on defense, but a carousel at quarterback. Yeah. I mean, when their starter went down. Broken leg in week one. Yeah. I mean, that's a blow. And I don't know their personnel that well, but it's when your starting quarterback goes down, it's tough. I'm not sure everybody has the luxury of having two proven starters like Virginia does. So it puts your whole program in a bind if you're having problems at quarterback. If you don't have a guy who's a good trigger man these days, you're pretty much lost. And that's a game that we thought that Virginia might be able to win in the back end of the schedule.

And right now, it looks like Virginia would be favored in that contest, no matter what happens in Chapel Hill between now and then. I can't believe I'm saying this, but the Vegas line at the beginning of the season was Virginia 3.5 wins in 2024. Over-under was set at 3.5. Virginia's at 3 right now. They got Boston College coming out of the bye for homecoming. That's the 5th of October.

Then they followed up against Louisville and Clemson. That's a brutal three-game stretch against arguably the three best teams in the conference. Boston College, Louisville, Clemson. You probably throw Miami in there. Then family weekend in Scott Stadium, 26th of October, right before Halloween. You travel to Pitt. Pitt's a good football team. They are. Travel to Notre Dame. Got SMU, not You traveled to Pitt. Pitt's a good football team. They are.

Traveled to Notre Dame, got SMU, not a team to overlook, and then Virginia Tech to close. Last week, the ESPN Power Poll had Virginia predicted to be an underdog on every single game left on the schedule. Has that Power Poll changed going into the box? I would think right now that they would have to be favored against North Carolina. I would say for the rest of those games, they probably will be the underdog unless they upset somebody in their next two games. If they upset BC or upset Louisville,

and I'm sure there'll be underdogs in both those games, then that could change. in their next two games. If they upset BC or upset Louisville, and I'm sure there'll be underdogs in both those games, then that could change. That could give people something to think about. If they upset Boston College on homecoming, do they enter the top 25, or at the very least are they in receiving votes of the top 25? I would think they would be getting some votes.

I don't think – I would be hard to imagine them breaking into the top 25 at that point. But I think they would be in the others receiving votes category, and that would be reasonable. That would make sense. They would certainly have to be considered among the top 35 teams in the country at that point. I would think. I would think. And, you know, not to look in the rear view, but that loss to Maryland, goodness gracious,

a game that could have gone Virginia's way. Could have, yeah. They shot themselves in the foot a lot in that game. And had they not messed up so much in the first half they could have had a commanding lead at halftime and and perhaps found a way to hold on but uh i think maryland was the better football team overall but uh sometimes the best team doesn't win exactly right uh who's the best undefeated team in the conference right now? You have the Pitt Panthers at 4-0. You got Miami at 4-0. Duke 4-0. A sneaky 4-0 for the Duke Blue

Devils. Louisville 3-0. Clemson, folks, is 2-1. But you got to remember, the one loss for the Clemson Tigers, the Georgia Bulldogs, who are currently the top-ranked team in the coach's poll right now. So maybe we throw Clemson in the mix. So we still have the are currently the top-ranked team in the coaches' poll right now. So maybe we throw Clemson in the mix. So we still have the Tigers as the clear-cut one. How close is Miami and the rest? Well, I think Miami is the best undefeated team in the conference right now. Pitt is usually a pretty solid football team.

I thought the win over West Virginia was a really good win for them. They're tough to beat at home, that's for sure. And Virginia has struggled at that stadium over the years. I think they've only won once up there. I think I'll grow one up there one year. And I'm not a believer in Duke. They haven't beaten anybody at this point. And I think once their schedule toughens up, we'll see believer in Duke. They haven't beaten anybody at this point, and I think once their schedule toughens up, we'll see the real Duke.

Louisville is, again, I think Louisville is sneaky good. We don't know how good they are. Last year, people couldn't get a real gauge on them, and then they just kept getting better and better and ended up playing Clemson for the ACC title. But they have a lot of talent, and they have a good coach. So I wouldn't be surprised if they give Notre Dame a hard time when they play. Multiple people are asking on the feed, who's the best team in the Commonwealth?

In the Commonwealth? Wow. I mean, you know the folks that are asking that question. Who they're rooting for and who their fans are, right? Well, I'm sure, yeah. Certainly, on paper, it looks like it's JMU right now. They're receiving votes of both polls. I was at Pro Renata with the family, eating some pizza,

drinking some beer, watching the UVA game, because it was on one of those funky channels. So we went out and watched it. We tried to survive and make it to bedtime with a 6-year-old and a 22-month-old. Sometimes survival. Lots of luck on that one. Sometimes survival, Hootie, is stuff them with pepperoni pizza

while Mom and Dad drink a cold pop. And a JMU fan walked by, and she was wearing purple head to toe. I said, wow, what a win. She goes, you like that, don't you? And then just walked by the table. And it was like peacocking all the way through. I mean, 70 points, good Lord. I mean, who scores 70 points?

Right. Not many people. A brand-new head coach. Yeah, that's what's amazing. They haven't skipped a beat. And they're solid. There's no question about it. I only saw a little bit of that game.

Did you do a double-take when you saw the score? I did. I did. I tweeted it immediately and my Twitter followers went nuts when they saw that too because a lot of them hadn't been aware of the score. And they called off the dogs 25 in the first quarter, 28 in the second quarter, and then in periods three and four, only seven and ten. They called off the dogs in the second half because they were up, and I'm going to have to do some quick math here. These are high numbers. So I'm doing it on the fly. They were up 53 to 21 at halftime hoodie. Oh yeah. Yeah. Uh, 53 at halftime. It's a staggering number.

I mean, particularly in chapel Hill for getting the six that's it's mind boggling. I never thought I would see that happen. No matter who, I wouldn't expect Alabama or Ohio State to come in here and put up those kind of numbers on Carolina. But that, I mean, that's a glorious win for JMU, no question about it. Rob Neal, a JMU graduate who travels with the football team, watches our content. Rob, we appreciate you tremendously. He's got some commentary here. He said the Carolina quarterback was actually good, but the poor dude got railed every play, put backing one play, and he dropped the snap and put the starter back in. He could barely get up by the end. Duke's admitted to just playing pre-vent defense all second half to burn clock, knowing we would keep scoring on offense.

P.S. I believe I said Hoos would beat the beat the Beach Chickens by 20 before the season. Yeah, he did. I remember him saying that. Hoos, the Beach Chickens. Obviously, the Chanticleers are not...

I learned that from Scott Ratcliffe while listening to your podcast. I was saying it wrong. I was too. I did some research on them, and he did his own research. And the Chanticleers apparently was out of a play or a book by Saul Shea and once upon a time, I can't remember the name of the book, but yeah, it's Chanticleers.

It's not Chanticleers. Brian Yagle, St. Ann's Belfield Academy graduate, one of the best baseball players in Central Virginia history. We named him the player of the year at the Daily Progress with the sports section. He says this, I have never seen a stadium empty that quickly in Chapel Hill this weekend. Yeah, I mean

Carolina over the years has struggled at times with the attendance and when things have turned sour in that program. And certainly that, I can't imagine what. And guys, they were 3-0 coming into that game. Yeah, I can't imagine what that place might have looked like in the second half or even before halftime. I'll tell you another place that looked pretty desolate in the second half was Coastal Carolina.

Yeah, their fans were gone. They're gone. Yeah. The largest crowd in stadium history. Yeah, 22,000 plus, a stadium that seeded 20,000. They had 10% above max capacity. And at the end of the second half, it was only orange and blue left. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, when you're getting blown out, most people, only the diehards are going to hang around. And even some of them have a limit on what they're going to take. Exactly. So, Hootie, games to watch. We've still got basketball to get to. A big-time commitment for Tony Bennett's team with Chance Mallory committing to the team. This was big-time news for Wahoo

Nation, the St. Ann's Belfield product. We'll talk about Mallory here, the point guard, in a matter of moments, but I want to highlight some of the games that are coming up on the 28th of September, this coming Saturday. Obviously, you've got Western Kentucky and Boston College. That's the game to follow because Virginia plays Boston College coming out of the bye week on the 5th of October. Holy Cross and Syracuse, eh. Northern Illinois, NC State, eh.

This is a big one. Louisville, Notre Dame, I'll put that on your radar over there. You've got North Carolina, Duke, a little rivalry game. Stanford and Clemson and Florida State, SMU. Where do you want to go with any of those contests? Who's SMU? SMU's got Florida State. In Dallas, 8 o'clock.

I think the Seminoles are in for another whooping. Hell yeah. SMU is going to want to make a statement and what a better way to do it than to knock off a team, even though they're having a... SMU 3-1 of the season.

This is their first ACC conference game. Yeah, it's going to be a big deal. And make a statement by whacking Florida State. It's going to get national news whether Florida State's any good or not. So it's a day that I'm sure all Pony fans have been looking forward to ever since they got admitted into the conference. So that could be a route. It really could because SMU likes to run the football, and Florida State can't stop the runs.

I would love if that was a route. There's nothing more that I would enjoy than watching Florida State get pounded this year. I think most ACC fans I've talked to and gotten a lot of messages from around the league, they would be delighted to see Florida State not win another game. I feel the same. After the way they've conducted themselves. Held the conference hostage. State not win another game. I feel the same. After the way they've conducted themselves. Held the conference hostage. Yeah, it's embarrassing.

And I think people aren't going to forget that anytime soon. I wonder if coaches and players think about that the same way as the fan bases do. Wanting to stick it to them every chance they get. How good is Stanford? Stanford's got a matchup in Death Valley. I don't think Stanford's very good, actually. But I think they're better than people projected them to be. Two and one, one and oh in conference play.

Yeah. So it'll be interesting to see what happens there. Duke and Carolina, I would have previously thought Carolina would win that game, even though it's a good rivalry game. But after the way they played last week, I still don't think Duke is that good. But if Carolina is going to play like that, they could lose to Duke. I wouldn't have thought that prior to last weekend. This is going to be all about pride for Carolina right now.

Mack Brown may be coaching for his job here. I'm sure he is. If he loses this game. If they lose to Duke, he's probably gone. Yeah, mid-season fire potential. He could be forced to step down before the season's over. I don't know. They might not want to do that to him.

It's going to be interesting because there was a quiet movement last year to get rid of him, and he got his supporters to squelch that movement. He won't have anybody in his corner this time around if they lose to Duke. Especially after the shellacking against JMU. The big-time matchup, ladies and gentlemen, conference in the ACC is Louisville and Notre Dame. This is going to be on national television. Smack dab in one of the best time slots, 3.30. It's in South Bend, 15 Louisville against 16 Notre Dame. The fighting Irish is 6 and a half point favorite.

The over under at 48 and a half. Does Louisville stand a chance? I think they do. The last time they played, Louisville won. I'm pretty sure of that. And it wasn't a fluke. Louisville handled them pretty well, if I recall. But I haven't seen Louisville play this year,

so I'm not too familiar with their personnel. I think their quarterback is back. Their personnel is relatively new. Yeah, they have so many people transferring in and out of that program, it's hard to keep up with. It's almost like a revolving door out there. But Jeff Brum is a good coach and has a good, solid coaching staff, and they take that talent and they find ways to win. Notre Dame is certainly more stable in terms of their rosters. But I think Louisville has the talent to play with those guys, if not beat them.

It'll be harder in South Bend. But after Northern Illinois beat Notre Dame in South Bend, I would certainly think Louisville can give them a game. I wouldn't be surprised if there's an upset there. The Virginia Tech Hokies also on the bye week. 2-2 overall, Virginia Tech. I stand corrected. I stand corrected.

Virginia Tech's got Miami on Friday night. I'm looking at the schedule now. I stand corrected. Hokies at Miami, 7.30 kick, Coral Gables. That's also a big-time matchup. Virginia Tech is 2-2 overall, no conference games yet. This is a big one for the Hokies, a Virginia Tech team that lost in surprise fashion at lane 26-23,

upset city over there. What do you make of this Virginia Tech football team? I'm kind of shocked that they're 2-2, and I imagine most of their fan base is as well. I can't see them beating Miami on the road unless something magically happens. This is a statement game for Miami too. Yeah. Miami hasn't played the toughest schedule in the world,

but they've been impressive. They haven't toyed around with people. If they're supposed to hammer somebody, they have. I think Miami wins this game, and if they get off to a fast start, it could get ugly, I think. So I expect the Hokies to come out of this two and three. Miami Hurricanes, ladies and gentlemen, representing the Atlantic Coast Conference quite well in both polls. In the AP Top 25, Miami is the seventh-ranked team in the coaches' poll.

Miami is the ninth-ranked team. The Hurricanes, at this point, leading the charge for the ACC in both polls. Clemson 17 in the AP Top 25. Clemson 15 in the coaches poll. Louisville is also getting some love as well. We've got to save some room for basketball. How about Chance Mallory? Some breaking news on jerryracliff.com. Commits to Tony Bennett and calls it a dream to play for coach Bennett. That was a huge get by Tony Bennett and his staff I mean this kid is the real deal. He's he's so good. I watched a lot of video of him and Read about him and he's he's just fantastic Originally they thought he was going to commit around Halloween on his father Joe's birthday,

but he fast-tracked everything, and I guess he figured out, well, I know where I want to go. I want to get this over with. I can't blame him. I can't either. I mean, if you know where you want to play, just go ahead and pull the trigger. Especially with the social media era we're in, where I follow this kid on social media. He's getting peppered with people asking.

I'm sure. I mean, I would see it as a part-time job just managing, and you know this firsthand with your Twitter following, just managing the responses and the DMs and the replies. Yeah, it takes a few hours a day just to handle requests, responses, questions, et cetera, comments and all. Yeah, it is. I can't imagine what he went through in that regard.

But, you know, this kid's a player. He could have gone to some really good programs. For a while, I thought that that might be the thing that he might be one of the kids that you know, I grew up in Charlottesville. It's time for me to

look for something different. You know, a lot of kids will do that. They don't want to play for their hometown team, and they'll go away just to get another experience. But I asked him specifically, you know, about playing for Virginia, how tough a decision it was. He said it was one of the toughest decisions of his young life, which certainly makes sense. But he said he's had a good relationship with Tony Bennett for years,

which makes sense because of all the connections between UVA and St. Ann's Balefield and Damon Altizer, who is a UVA guy. And Tony Bennett's son played there, and Jason Wilford's son plays as a teammate of chances. So he said, for me, it was a dream come true to play for Tony Bennett because he has so much respect for how Tony coaches and how he develops players, not just as players but as men. So a great choice for him and a great day for Wahoo Nation to celebrate a local kid. And, you know, Virginia hasn't gotten a lot of kids from the state of Virginia.

I was going to bring that to you. And so I think that, you know, depending on how his career goes, that could help lure more native kids, Virginia natives, to the Virginia program. Who does he remind you of? Cavalier of yesteryear? Nobody, really. I haven't seen anybody quite like him. Maybe in the fact, in his transition, maybe the Stokes brothers or Ricky and Bobby or Othell Wilson to some degree. He gets up the court so fast, but he can shoot to three. He finishes at the rim despite being 5'9". Yeah, you took the words right out of my mouth.

He has, and when you're undersized and you play basketball, you have to learn unorthodox ways to finish. Angles. Angles, spin, floaters, teardrops. This dude has that. He has the whole game. He really does. And he's going to bring a lot of excitement to jpj

during his career and you know uh we we haven't confirmed this yet maybe we can get somebody from the program on the show sometime in the next couple of weeks that's some foreshadowing there's there's some rumors that tony's a little more open-minded about opening up his offense a little bit i don't know if that's an influence from kyle guys joining the program or just something tony has decided to do but uh it certainly got chance mallory's attention and uh he feels like that he can be, when he gets here a year from now, he believes he can be a guy that can be great in transition.

I'm curious of the parallel here, and you're the Hall of Famer. I'm just a guy that's trying to keep tempo. Kimora Johnson, point guard for the women's team, St. Ann's Belfield, fantastic rookie year in the John Paul Jones Arena. 5'7 sophomore, against St. Ann's ties, gets the fan base involved, can play up-tempo, really the total package is a point guard. Do we see any kind of parallel there with Chance?

Just a couple inches taller, really the Camora Johnson St. Ann's product all around. That's a good point. I hadn't thought about that, but yeah, I mean that, that has created a lot of excitement in the women's program and they needed cause the buzz needs to return to men's basketball and I'm, and I'm still, I'm still... There's a few teams. The men's basketball team is the team of any sport

I'm most passionate about. You've probably got the Washington Commanders who looked phenomenal last night on Monday Night Football. Their quarterback, Daniels, the highest completion percentage in NFL rookie history.

90% plus completion last night. He looked magnificent, like he was walking on water. He's solid. Oh my God. The Heisman trophy winner. Yeah. Um, he got my vote. He he's got, it's, it's this men's basketball team. And then probably in that two hole, the men's, the football program at UVA and the commanders here, I'm a diehard basketball fan. Here's the point I'm going with. I will always be die die hard basketball but there's a little bit of the buzz that's been silent with the program with some of the fan base well I think you know because they haven't been successful in the postseason since the

national championship it it's taken a little luster off of things some of the people would like to see them open up the offense a little bit more because they feel like that with the slower style that it allows inferior teams to hang around and maybe pull off an upset. And so perhaps if they do choose to open up things, it will eliminate some of that to where you're letting a team that has no business making it a tight game or pulling off an upset even be in the game with ten minutes to go or eight minutes to go. ago instead of being within closing distance and getting lucky with a couple of shots and all of a sudden making you sweat it to the end or lose a game you shouldn't lose. So I'm anxious to see how that goes. Maybe we'll get a hint of that at the blue-white scrimmage.

We really won't have a chance to talk to Tony, I don't think, until ACC tip-off media day in Charlotte, which is coming up in a couple weeks. So that's something to keep your eye on if you're a Virginia fan. This basketball team, guys, is one the fan base is eager to pull for. And get ready for this. Virginia basketball's got its first scrimmage of the season. What's that?

The blue and white scrimmage on the 5th of October. I think the weekend of the BC game. Weekend of the BC game. 6 o'clock tip-off, John Paul Jones Arena. It opens the season. Guys, it's so close. Campbell, John Paul Jones Arena, the opens the season. Guys, it's so close. Campbell, John Paul Jones Arena, the 6th of November. You're in that time of year where metrics on jerryrackliff.com go through the

roof. Reach out to my man, Jerry Rackliff, to partner on his website. His web traffic is booming. Also at that time of year where Virginia Sports Hall of Famers like Hootie are scrambling, running everywhere. It's about to start, Hootie. November is always the worst month for sports writers because you've got football and basketball raging at the same time and interest in both. If the football team is playing well, It's like you're working two jobs instead of one. But, yeah, it certainly will be booming. And we're not saying that there's no interest in Virginia basketball. Oh, yeah.

Because there's still a waiting list for season tickets. So don't at me about that. Right. It's still the number one show. Yeah, no question about it. And incredible interest. I mean, when Chance Mallory committed, it almost blew up our website. There was so much traffic on it.

Was that a top-viewed story? Oh, yeah. Not even close? Not even close. I mean, it was like on a little scale if you're doing like this. He's talking about the analytics. Yeah. It was like going from the desert to the mountaintop in terms of if you're looking at the metric scale.

But, yeah, the interest in UVA basketball continues to be off the charts, no matter what the situation is, that's for sure. Virginia basketball in the month of November, Campbell to open the season. In November, it's going to play Villanova on a neutral site, Tennessee in the Bahamas, Baylor or St. John's in the Bahamas. I mean, you've got some heavy hitters. And then the first week of December, you have Florida on the schedule. This is a schedule that I cannot wait to see play out.

Yeah, it's some really strong opponents. Memphis in December. Now Penny Hardaway and the Memphis Tigers are in some serious NCAA scrutiny. Why don't we leave it at that? But they've got some serious competition on the schedule. Oh, no question about it. And who will forget that game at Memphis last year when Virginia just simply got manhandled.

It looked like an NBA team playing a college team. But, yeah, that's a strong non-conference schedule leading up to conference play later on. But this team, it'll be interesting. This team might be able to handle it. I guess everybody has chemistry issues with the rosters changing like they are in college basketball these days. So you can't say that it's just Virginia that's going to have to build their chemistry in these games because I'm sure those other programs are going through the same thing, trying to get all these guys on the same page in the preseason. But I think Virginia has a good roster to handle a schedule like that

if this team can come together. Stephanie Wells-Rhodes on YouTube. Chance is going to have so much support, having been raised here along with his parents. She says, we were so excited to hear this news. Her husband, Larry, grew up with Chance's mom and dad, so it's super cool. Everyone in their house is extremely excited to see Chance play in a Virginia uniform. My kids, I think, went to school with Chance's parents as well. So, yeah, it's a very popular family in Charlottesville.

What is in the hopper on JerryRackliff.com? Well, I'm actually, I think I'm scheduled to have a sit-down interview with Chance later today, so we'll have a blowout on that. Hopefully, if that interview comes off today, we'll be looking at the football team, obviously. The rest of the conference. The Olympic sports. We'll be keeping an eye on other

basketball recruits as well because some other guys have been visiting and it's getting close to commitment time for some of those guys as well so we'll be trying to cover all the bases jerry rackliff.com for everything and anything virginia sports related jerry rackliff.com i visit his website two to three times a day i follow him very closely on twitter the virginia sports hall of famer the star of the jerry and jerry show which you can find on any podcast and social media platform. Judah Wittkower, keeping the network online,

the glue of the show and the network. Mr. MVP, Judah Wittkower. My name is Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show. Yes, I'm working. Yes, I'm done.