The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Key Takeaways From 2026 ACC Football Kickoff; Does ACC Media Respect UVA Following 11-Win Year?

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: Key Takeaways From 2026 ACC Football Kickoff Does ACC Media Respect UVA Following 11-Win Year? Can Portal Influx Lead UVA To Another Historic Season? Will Superstar Kam Robinson Be Back By Week 0? Why Was Beau Pribula Picked To Start At QB? ACC Notebook: Teams To Beat, VT Upside/Downside How Does Ryan Odom’s Team Look In Season 2? 50 Stories Per Month For Only $8 At JerryRatcliffe.com 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.

Welcome to the Jerry and Jerry Show, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on what is the most watched and listened to a UVA sports talk show out there. So much to cover on the broadcast today, where we encourage you, the viewer, and listener to chime in on the discussion. Ask questions. Dictate the pace and tempo of the show. We want to celebrate and champion your perspective and questions on the show.

Folks, we are weeks away from ACC kickoff. We are weeks away. from the 2026 season. And we are weeks away from a Tony Elliott campaign that is looking to follow the most significant outing and UVA football history. An 11-win campaign in 2025 has all of us in Wahoo Nation on the edge of our seats. We're excited for what's in store. And the transfer portal has this roster absolutely beaming with talent.

We'll break that down with Jerry Rackleaf, the Virginia Sports Hall. a favor. We'll talk Bo Prebula. Was he the right choice for starting quarterback? How about defensive star Cam Robertson? What's the likelihood of him returning for not just week one, but we're calling it Week Zero, Training

Camp, ladies and gentlemen. All those topics and storylines on the Jerry and Jerry show. Do us the favor of hammering the like button, sharing the show. We work very hard for you, and that's the only thing we ask and return that you like and share the show, whatever platform you're watching on. watching upon, and this show airs on 27 of them.

Ladies and gentlemen, Judah Wickhauer is behind the camera, the Elmer's glue of the team. Without further ado, Judah, studio camera and a two-shot as we welcome and roll out the red carpet for a household name Jerry Hoody, Rackliff, my friend, good Tuesday morning. Good to see you again. I hope you had a good vacation. I had a great vacation. You and Judah? Yeah. We did.

Judah went to Vermont. He went to Maine. I think it's Vermont. I get those two very confused. That's two of the states I've never been to. I've never been to either state over there. He went to Maine. Jerry, I enjoyed some time at the beach, but I'm very excited to sit across from my friend Jerry Racklep today.

We start with scatter shooting. Where would you like to begin? Well, I got stuck going to Charlotte. There you go, ACC Kickoff. It's not my favorite town. You're not a fan of Charlotte? I didn't know that. It's just gotten too big, and I don't think it was ready for the growth.

And it's just hard to get around downtown. But, yeah, I mean, there's good people and stuff to do, but I can navigate the major cities in the country better than I can, Charlotte, for some reason. I don't know why. Maybe it's just me. But, yeah, ACC kickoff, another one of those under our belt. And, yeah, it was interesting. they took Mikhail Bowley and

Bo Pribula and Cam Robinson down there along with Tony Elliott to talk with media and all those guys were very upbeat and positive about the coming season and they should be because I think Virginia is poised to

follow up with another strong season after a record 11 wins last year. All of us are wondering can they duplicate a double-digit win season, Hootie? I think it's possible. I mean, we didn't see it coming last year when a lot of people thought they were going to finish. And I still can't believe that they were voted 14th in the conference last year in the preseason.

Those of us who covered Virginia knew that was ridiculous that they were going to win at least seven games. But I don't think anybody envisioned a double-digit total. if they were being totally honest with themselves. But this year, you know, last year I thought seven or eight games was very likely in terms of wins. And this year I think eight or nine is very likely. And if you win the close games, the 50-50 games like they did most of last year, who knows, they might be able to cross. crack another double-digit figure.

That would be significant. That would be. The administration is making a push to sell out Scott Stadium, Jerry Rackleff? Yeah, I mean, it's been a long time. It's been back since Southern Cal came to town when they were, I think, number two in the nation. And that was during their heyday when they, Pete Carroll had all the, was collecting all the West Coast town. and running rip shot over everybody, but what was that, 2006 or nine? Your memory's better than mine.

Somewhere in there. I think it was six, but, and they had, I mean, if you go back and look, and again, it's hard to sometimes trust the numbers that UVA comes up with when it comes to attendance or at least it used to be because I know the guy that was responsible for that. Sometimes he would just throw a number out there, guess, based

on how many fans were sitting on the hill, mostly students. But the 10 largest crowds in UVA history came right in that era under the Al Groh era when they were before

the program took a downturn and that crowd for Southern Cowell was I think it was close to 65,000. I was at that game. I was at that game. Yeah, I was too. And I guess you can squeeze

65,000 people in there. As long as the Fire Marshal is not watching, if he's not in attendance. The Southern Cal game, I've been going to Virginia football games since I was knee-high to my dad, and I've never seen more people at Scott Stadium than Southern Cal. Notre Dame, maybe a close.

close second. The Southern Cow game, it was shoulder to shoulder. There was no seats. The hill was completely crowded. The concourses, people were completely standing. And the concourses, not only were people standing, but they were like five or six, seven rows deep of standing. That's pretty good. Yeah. You could see the stadium bear and I could from the press box, because we could, our vision is limited there. We can't even see much on our side of the field. but that was a special day for sure and Virginia got routed which wasn't a shot because Southern Cowell was beating the daylights

out of everybody back then but when you take on one of the top teams in the nation you better have something to answer it with and there just wasn't enough talent on the Virginia roster to handle those guys But whether they can sell it out for NC State is a big question mark. They have wisely, I think, reduced some ticket prices and made it affordable for people to come and bring their families to this game, which is something that I know you and I've been talking about

for two or three years on this show and certainly on my website, even beyond that. but they might be able to do it. I mean, they are coming off an 11-win season. There's enthusiasm about the program. They should have another good team. NC State is one of their oldest rivals. NC State's got a quarterback

that is on the short list for best gunslinger in the country. He's good. I mean, I think he and Hollywood Saunders, the running back were the difference last year. they just kept coming up with big play in clutch moments after big play. And it kind of came down to whoever had the ball last, and Chandler Morris just was one pass away from winning that game. But it should be another good game.

Virginia's lost six in a row to NC State somehow. I don't know how that's happened because for a while they were just inventing new ways to lose to the Wolfpack. I'll never forget the one here at Scott Stadium where the quarterback was penalized for having his helmet off after, was it after a score? And the score didn't, I can't remember the details of that, but it was something that really hurt Virginia.

And then they had some special team snafus in that game and just essentially gave it away. And they should have won that game. There's at least two of those out of six that they should have won. They've got to stop losing of these guys. Viewers and listeners, put your thoughts on the feed. We'll relay them live on air. This is one that's already come in the mix.

Why was Beau Previelad named the starting quarterback, and how much has he separated himself from the Pittsburgh kid? I think a couple of reasons. I think he has, he's coming off a season where he was a starter. on a good Missouri team in the SEC. He played toe-to-to-to with some top 25 programs last year. He's got a little bit of more experience on Holstein. He is way more mobile.

He's really fast. He might be the fastest quarterback Virginia has had. Well, not real. You got Bryce Perkins in that mix, but other than Bryce Perkins. Bryce Perkins, Marcus Higgins. We'll give some love. Marcus Higgins, yeah. He's in that class of runner in terms of speed.

And I don't know that he's going to make a lot of 40 or 50, 60-yard runs like Bryce Perkins was able to do. Bryce Perkins was kind of like a running back playing quarterback. Bow Perrival is a quarterback who can run. And I don't know that he has the arm that Chandler Morris had, but I think his overall package is pretty good. I think he's probably a good decision maker. We haven't seen a lot of that, so we don't know.

But he's fast and he can run. I think in an offense where they're going to depend a lot, lean heavily on the run, I think we'll see him perhaps run a lot more, run a lot more than Chandler Morris did, just by design. Comments come in. No shade on Holstein. And these days, you need two good quarterbacks because it's almost impossible to go through a season without. somebody getting hurt at least for a game or two.

Well, he's the future, too. And he is the future. Comments continue to come in here. Viewers and listeners, hammer the like button. Let us know if you have a question. This question's come in to Jerry Rackleff. It's no surprise. This one's from Richmond.

We have a lot of viewers and listeners from Richmond. Yes, we do. We love them. We love them. Kimberly watches the program all the time, I believe. She's watching on a law firm. Is that correct, Kimberly? She says, we all expected Bo Pribula to be the starting quarterback.

But can Jerry Rackleff put into perspective what separates the two? Is it not much or is it a large gap? I don't think it's a large gap. I think had they not had prebule, I think they would have been perfectly happy to start Holstein. They're different in that Holstein is a bigger, more classic prototype pocket passer kind of guy. a bigger frame, not as fast, perhaps a better passer. We don't know that, but certainly was recruited by Alabama and Nick Saven to be a drop-back passer. And he had some really good moments at Pitt, but he also had some really good moments at Pitt,

but he also had some tough moments that led to him losing his starting job up there. Maybe some bad decisions, some poor throws. But I don't think there's a big chasm between those two guys. I think it boils down to Privyl has a little more experience and is a faster guy who can run and probably serves Deskitchens. offense a little bit better than Holstein. Well, once, I mean, it's telling, it's telling that he went, we knew once he went to the ACC kickoff that he would be the starting quarterback.

We also knew Tony Elliott, I think Tony Elliott referenced this to you, that the decision was made a while ago. He told the group of us, yeah. Yeah, and he wasn't going to make an announcement to the kickoff. Yeah. He, Prubilas, just got a lot more game experience. Yeah, he does. and he, you know, he played some at Penn State.

James Franklin at kickoff mentioned Prebula. Yeah. Put that in perspective for them. Yeah, I mean, he had nothing but good things to say about Prevula and says he'll be rooting for him every week except one this season. And that's understandable. But he thought a lot of the guy. But he, you know, Prebule was stuck behind a three-year starter.

at Penn State and that's the reason he left Penn State was the guy who is now in Pittsburgh Steelers training camp. I forget his name, but he decided he was going to come back last year

and that's what prodded privula to look around and he ended up at Missouri. But at Penn State they ran some two quarterback plays package. He was a package. quarterback there. He wasn't really

the starting guy, but he was a package guy. They had a package for him. He would run some wildcat. He played some when the other guy was injured. He played some mop-up duty. He played some

other stuff. But yeah, he has a little bit more playing experience. And again, started, would have started the whole season that Missouri had he not gotten hurt, banged up a little bit, and then chose to sit out the bowl game because he knew he was leaving.

But, yeah, I think he gets a nod for that as well. Cam Robinson makes the trip. Yeah. To the ACC kickoff. Yeah. Cam's a lot of fun. Oh, my gosh. One of the best guys.

Let's first talk. quality, let's talk, quality of life, mental health, his spirits before we get to football. How's he doing? I think he's doing great now. He told us down there that his darkest days were the first three months. There were some dark days. He was injured and he felt like he was kind of spinning his wills and not really making much progress. And I guess I've never had a knee problem, knock on wood, considering all the

wearing tariff put on these things over the years but uh um you know he's he was struggling and um you know that's understandable because that was during the winter when you can't get out much and um it's kind of a depressing time of year anyway but uh you know he he he was rehabbing and and not making a lot of progress and feeling sorry for himself and um he he he was rehabbing and he was rehabbing and not making a lot of progress and he went to Tony Elliott and then I guess they talked about it and Tony Elliott really inspired him because he began Tony began sending him Bible verses and giving him other inspirational chats and messages and completely turned Cam's mental approach around and And once he did that and was reinvigorated and more dedicated to the process and started seeing some results, he became on fire with getting back.

And the day he spoke to us down in Charlotte, it marked exactly eight months from the day he was injured against Duke back in November. you know, it's an 8 to 12 month recovery for an injury like a torn ACL. And so some people, it takes 12 or even longer. He is being measured right now against some of his old numbers in terms of leaping ability and, I guess, running ability, etc. he said he was just now getting to the point where he's starting to make cuts and that that will tell his doctors a lot about where he is in his recovery that's crucial to be able to play his position to be able to make cuts or any position

in football but particularly as a linebacker who and the kind of linebacker he is who can line up anywhere and play all over the field, sideline and sideline. But he is in great spirits now and was joking around a lot, referred to himself as goofy a few times, and he's got a good sense of humor. But whether he makes it back for week zero, I don't know. They will closely monitor him when training camp begins. and I don't see them taking any risks with him at all. If he's not ready to go.

I mean, this guy's a pro player. He's definitely a pro player. And you don't want to jeopardize that by bringing him back before he's, you know, if he can be 100%, you want him at his best when he can help you and make a difference. I mean, he won some games last year. He won the Washington State game. with that safety with three minutes to go. He intercepted a pass that locked up to the wind at Cal.

There was several other games where he had major impacts. He returned two interceptions for touchdowns. I think he recovered a fumble and returned it for a touchdown, if I recall. He's just a difference maker. He's an incredible linebacker, and we wish him well. But, you know, I don't know that they'll make a decision on whether he's ready or not until game week. Cam Robinson would be such a difference maker. Vicki Musselman watched the program, viewers and listeners of so many different jurisdictions and hometowns watching the program right now.

We'd love to see him there. I'm of the mindset. You know, can't rush a guy that's a pro process. to the field, but we all realize the importance of Cam Robinson for this football team. How's the ACC media looking at Virginia football? Is there a level of across landscape respect? Is there any kind of intimidation? Do they see this 11-win season as flukish as one that was an anomaly?

Yeah, we'll find out here in the next couple of days because I think I think I'll the preseason poll stuff is votes and stuff are due in by tomorrow. You do it online now. We used to do it on site and they would give it to you before you left. That's the best way.

Back when it was a one or two day event. Yeah. Now it's spread out over three or four days. So I don't know that we'll get a true indication until those polls come out. But the media, has changed so much, Jerry,

over the past five years that who knows? I mean, there's, I was talking to a few of the guys that have been to this event over the years. And we, everybody used to know everybody now.

I don't think most of the people know each other down there. They're coming from websites and places that you've probably never heard of before. I'd never heard of most of them before. And I don't know how deeply in tune they are to the ACC and maybe they are to just one team.

But it's almost impossible to predict what they're thinking now. But from the national perspective, I think Virginia is getting pretty decent respect. they've been voted mostly in the upper echel onto the ACC by most of the polls I've seen, anywhere from six or seventh on up to a little higher. Nationally, I think they're picked somewhere in the 30s and 40s. That surprised me. But again, it's hard.

harder to gauge what teams are now because of the portal and there's so much transfer roster change everywhere that it's hard to put a finger on who's really good and you may not know who's really good until midway through the season because it's just impossible to follow teams like you used to because you used to be familiar with rosters. You knew who was coming back. You knew what pretty much everybody had or didn't have. Now you don't know. It's a guessing game.

Unless you're sitting in your mom's basement and study this stuff for eight hours a day, I don't think there's any way you can accurately predict those things anymore. Comments continue to come in. Tony Elliott spoke at kickoff and said the expectation is the running game could be even better. Yeah. That's a scary proposition. I specifically asked him about that. I was curious about that.

And I said, as good as the running game was last year, and it was good, would he like to take it to another level? And he said, absolutely. And there's no reason that they shouldn't, because they've got one of the most experienced, if not the most experienced, offensive lines in the country. And I know, and just listening to this. some of the radio people from the kickoff talking about teams, and they were saying it, I think Clemson and SMU's offensive lines

or the elite lines in the conference. I think they haven't given Virginia any credit at all. I think Virginia is just as good, if not better, than those offensive lines. You've got some really studs on that front. And I can't remember Virginia ever being this deep at running back. They've got six guys who have shown that they can run the ball, three returning from last year's team and three transfers who were successful elsewhere. And you've got backs, a variety of backs from all shapes and sizes and speeds, may be highlighted by

Peyton Lewis who I think we sit on the show a few weeks ago that Virginia hasn't had a lot of backs that are as big as he is who are as fast as he is you might have to go back to Barry Word

who was an an ACC track guy and Peyton Lewis was a track track guy Thomas Jones was fast and pretty big, but he wasn't as big as Lewis, and I think Barry Ward might have been, if I recall,

just trying to remember his frame. But you don't have a lot of guys who are that big and that fast in most backfield. So who will start in that position? It's going to be interesting because they've got a plethora of, people who could play that spot, including Xavier Brown, who before he got hurt was obviously one of the fastest guys on the team. Easily. Quick, too.

Difference maker. Yeah. And the Middlebrook guy from Middle Tennessee State was impressive in the spring. You've got Zay Davis back from last year and Noah Vaughn. I believe. So, you know, they've got guys. And then you add privyula to that mix, a guy who can run from a quarterback spot, and you have to respect that if you're a defense.

This could be, as Tony said, he said, let's not just be good. Let's be dominant. Yeah, yeah. The confidence was like irradiating through your story. as I was editing your story. I'm like, this guy is speaking with confidence and conviction. Yeah. And there's no reason they shouldn't be dominant.

Right, right. And if you, we've talked about this endlessly on the show over the years, but if you can control the line of scrimmage offensively, and you can run the ball, then you can control the game. Offensive and defensive line, most important position in football. A lot of people get seduced by the fast talk on wide, receivers or the gunsling and quarterbacks or the shifty and powerful running backs or the safety that can, you know, knock your teeth out. But if you can't, I have time to throw the football or

there's no hole to run. What's Al Gros say? All running backs run the same and there's no holes in front of them? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And he was absolutely right. Yeah. And they got talent on the offensive line here. Yeah. This has come in from Colorado, Colorado on the program right now. Can can Jerry Rackcliffe offer insight into how he voted the teams in his preseason ballot? I haven't voted. Okay, okay. I'm going to vote tonight. Okay.

I've kind of procrastinate on my votes, but I don't know. I haven't put a lot of thought into it. I've thought a little bit about it, but I want to study a little bit more this afternoon before I put in my vote, and I'll do that tonight to be. beat the deadline tomorrow. But I don't know. I think Miami is obvious number one. They've got a lot of guys coming back from that national championship game a year ago

and have added to that talent pool. They've got it going pretty well down there in South Florida. And I think they're going to be the team to beat. And I think SMU right now, I think looks like. like they're number two on paper, mostly because they have a Heisman candidate quarterback, who's a senior and was getting rave reviews from Nick Sabin two years ago. That's how good this guy is.

I think Virginia is in there with Louisville and maybe Virginia, and maybe Virginia Tech, maybe Clemson for that third spot. Don't know. We'll have to look a little closer at it, but a lot of people are still up in the air on Clemson. They can't figure out whether they're going to be. I wouldn't sleep on Clemson. Back to the old Clemson or if they're still going to struggle.

And they certainly have the talent. Oh, my gosh. They have one of the more talented rosters in the ACC. And a head coach that's feeling a hell of a lot of pressure. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that guy's a winning coach. He is. No question about it.

I also wouldn't sleep on Virginia Tech. Viewers and listeners watching this program, I think we're going to see a resurgence under James Franklin. Well, he should. It should with the transfer class he had. And there's no question. He's a good coach. It's going to be interesting to see how they approach turning things around down there.

And if it's a quick fix or not, I don't know. In Louisville, you can't look past them either. They might have some questions at quarterback. They have a former Ohio State guy in there, so we don't know how good he is. but they do have Isaac Brown back, who I still think is the best running back in the league. And he was hurt most of last season. And all the running backs were beat up last season from early on, which impacted them.

They still had a good season. But that's a team to keep your eye on as well, I think. Comments continue to come in. This one is Virginia Tech related. Why does he expect the Hokies to be much better? Just for what we just said, I think he did well in the transfer portal. He brought a lot of the Penn State. I don't know how many, but he brought a lot of Penn State people in,

not only through the portal, but some of the committed recruits flipped to Virginia Tech. And Penn State usually recruits pretty well. Yeah. And, of course, he's won everywhere he's been. He's a star coach. He won at Vanderbilt. Yeah. He won at Vanderbilt when it was a little harder to do than it is now.

Before Vanderbilt was Diego Prada. Yeah. And, you know, he learned a lot from Fridgin at Maryland, I think, when they were having their better years up there. and, you know, he did everything at Penn State except when against top 10, top 5 competition. I think his record was atrocious against the elite teams that he faced. But overall, I mean, Penn State was a pretty consistent winner. And Virginia Tech's pouring money into the program.

Yeah, and, you know, that seems. to be, you know, that was something that was impacting their program negatively for the last few years. And certainly they have addressed that issue with lots of money and they have a new leadership in terms of AD and they're kind of starting anew. And sometimes it's tough to turn things around in one season, but we'll see. They certainly have. I think everything that they need to get the job done. It's just a matter whether they can put all the pieces together. Viewers and listeners, comments continue to come in, put your comments on the feed.

We'll relay them live on air. You know, a Virginia Tech, I'm a diehard UVA fan, diehard UVA fan. Virginia Tech as a diehard UVA fan is probably right there as one of my most hated teams. But a Virginia Tech, UVA, two teams both strong. leading into that last game of the season, adds something to the calendar. It does, yeah. It's been a really long time since that's been the case. Oh, yeah.

No question about it. A long time, real long time. Both teams were good. Yeah. And, you know, Frank Beamer used to tell me, and I've been friends with Frank Beamer for 40 years, but he used to tell me there's room for two really good teams in this state. And that was back then.

Things haven't changed much. So there's no reason you can't have two really good football teams in the state of Virginia. It happens in other states, so it can certainly happen here, especially with the high school talent pool that you have in this state and some really good high school coaches that know how to build, know how to develop talent. Virginia has always produced a lot of good prospects over the years, and that hasn't changed. Comments, put them in the feed, guys.

I'm excited we're, what are we? A month away, five weeks away? August 29th. So let's see. I'm going to bust out the trusty calendar here. One, two, three, four. Goodness gracious, hoody. We're five weeks away.

Yeah. Five and change. Yeah. Training camps just right around the corner. We're meeting with Virginia's assistant coaches this Friday and I think

that's when they either start training camp today or certainly soon thereafter. So it's here. Unbelievable. Which player are you most excited for? You personally.

Wow. Probably, there's probably a handful. I really want to see how good Peyton Lewis is. I think if he's as good as advertised, he could be a dynamic player. We'll see. I don't know. I haven't seen him play that much. I didn't see Tennessee play that much last year.

I'm anxious to see Pribula in person. of just in the spring game, which he didn't play much in, to see just how good he is under fire. And I'm excited about Rico Florey's receiver to see if I had some conversations with him in the spring. And he seems like a guy who could be a difference maker if he can live up to expectations. I think it's going to be fun watching these offensive linemen because I think these guys are brutes. I think they might be just unbelievable. Defensively, obviously, Cam Robinson is somebody that's exciting to watch play. A couple of the transfers, guys from Michigan that came in with good reputations.

one of those was let's see Brandon Hillman yeah I couldn't remember his name off the tip of my tongue but I think he's going to be a guy that's going to be on everybody's tip of everybody's tongues because I think he's a player came from Michigan, a defensive back

and I just those are just a handful of the guys that I'm just kind of anxious to see how good they are if they're as good as advertised. I'm, Peyton Lewis, I can't wait to see. I can't wait to see Bo Peribula, because I think Bo Perubula has a lot to prove.

I think Bo Peribula has the upside to get, you know, to be an NFL draft pick. I think he's playing for draft position. He underachieve this past season at Missouri, despite showing flashes. but that underachievement likely due to portal transition and injury. We're still going to have portal transition here at UVA, but he appears healthy. I think this guy on paper is on paper.

I'm strictly on paper. It's as good a quarterback as Virginia's had in a really long time. That doesn't mean statistically or performance-wise. I mean height, strong, arm strength, experience. athletic, outside the pocket, runability, passability, leadership. I'm excited to see what Previelikan does. As a guy that loves the comeback story,

Cam Robinson, I mean, the guy is the heart and soul of the defense. Oh, without question. If he comes back at 100% early in the season, and I don't want him to be rushed at all, but if he comes back, we saw what he did coming back last year from injury. I mean, we were talking ACC, defensive player of the year and he played in abbreviated campaign. If Cam Robinson even does close to what he did last year, this team's going to be really,

really good. We've got to pick what Miami is your top dog. Two slot, maybe wide open. You'd throw in a little Clemson, little SMU, maybe a little UVA. Yeah, could be. Right? Yeah, I mean, SMU should be strong. And, you know, they're so far out there that, you know,

You know, you don't see much about them. You don't read much about them, but that's football country. I mean, those people take it seriously. And they've got the money as well, as we've spoken about. And they do have a dynamic quarterback, not to mention other parts to go with it. But, you can't go to sleep on Virginia right now. Again, if they did as good a job in the portal as they've been, did the year before and there's indications that they might have it's got to be proven because you

got to get them to put together but you know talking to the coaches and last spring that they were far ahead of what they were a year ago oh this seems way better and so um if that's the case and they come in to fall accelerated to what they were a year ago they that they could do well because if they can get by NC State in that first game, they ought to jump out to a 4-0 start. And viewers of listeners that like superstars, the NC State Wolfpack starting quarterback, a lot of people are saying maybe one of the best quarterbacks in college football. He's good.

No question. A lot of folks are saying that this guy could be, you know, first second round draft pick. Yeah, I mean, there were a lot of teams. in the country after him, you know, trying to tempt him to leave with NIL money, and he could have probably named his price. I mean, look at what the Duke guy got at Miami. Yeah. And Miami bought him out of, what, a $13 million contract.

Yeah. And to go to South Florida. So to buy him out and then to pay him more to clearly go to Miami after Duke won the ACC, that shows you how good C.J. Bailey is and how much money C.J. Bailey is. and how much money C.J. Bailey is making that he stayed in Raleigh. Yeah. Six foot six, 210 pounds. This kid's a sophomore.

He can run it. He can throw it. 25 touchdowns and nine picks last season. Yeah. 3,000 through the air, and Hootie's exactly right. You're talking a guy that had 16 touchdowns on the ground as well. Rising Jr., not sophomore last year, rising junior, C.J. Bailey. And they've built that whole offense around him.

100%. And Virginia opens with this guy. Yeah. at home. That would not be who I would want to open with. I would want to open with him here. But I'd rather open in Scott Stadium than Brazil. I would too.

I still think that's to Virginia's advantage. 100%. If they can take advantage of the situation. The only way that's not to Virginia's advantage, if the scuttlebutt is true, there was no contract to penalize the third party for failing to put the game together in Brazil. Yeah, we're still not clear on that. still unsure. You would think if there was a contract that the athletic department would go out on record and say, here's the contract. One would think. We have it. The fact that silence has happened, it says a thousand words to me. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a good thing. Not a good thing. Jerry Radcliffe, ACC kickoff. Any other news and notes that we're missing that we should cover from kickoff? I don't think so. I mean, one of the other things I asked Tony about was

And I saw this poll a few weeks ago, and I think I mentioned it in a scatter shooting, but I followed up with him. It's the first chance we've had to talk to him, and I told him, I said, do you realize that Virginia has the most overall snaps, collective play snaps on its roster in the entire country. And he said, top to bottom or offensive line? I said, top to bottom. And he just gave me a fist bump, and he said, yes.

And he wasn't aware of that. And Virginia is, and it's not even close. 39,000 snaps and change. The closest to them is, 4,000 snaps behind, and that's Texas Tech. And the closest team in the ACC to them is 10,000 snaps less, and that's SMU. And Virginia Tech is 11,000 snaps less. But, you know, I said, you know, just talk about the experience.

because this roster is experienced. Last year's roster was really experienced, and that experience in depth made the difference last year and winning six games or 11 games. And he said, well, you know, it showed at times in those close games that they didn't panic because they knew to trust the process. And they had been there, they had done that,

they had seen it. Some of these guys had played on national championship teams or in national championship games. That experience just meant a lot. And he said, I'm hoping that the experience that we have on this roster will help keep us from getting into those close games to where we won't have to be sweating out a safety with three minutes left to go against Washington. State or a interception against Cal with three minutes to go to ice the game and stuff like that. So I think the experience factor is something that probably some of the voters in the poll probably aren't aware of either. I am excited to see what happens. I'm excited for the first week.

I crossed my fingers that fans will be big time in attendance at Scott Stadium against NCC. state because the team is going to need it. NC state's a tough team, as you've identified, to open with. I think if the cookie crumbles a certain way, Virginia is looking at a potential, you know, second place finish, and anything can happen in this wild west we call college football. Double-digit win is a goal of mine, and I don't think it's an unreasonable goal for Wahoo fans, a double-digit win season. And I'm looking at the schedule.

I'm calling it up in front of me here. hooty. They got the wolf pack as we, as we've identified at the first week of the season. You know, after NC State, you got Norfolk State, that's Michael Vic, West Virginia and Charlotte, you got Delaware at home, you're at Florida State this time, Syracuse, SMU on the road, Duke at home, at Wake, Cal at home, UNC at home, and at Virginia Tech. Some of the away games on this roster, even the new. neutral site games are formidable. Yeah.

But I don't see necessarily a game on this roster that you would point to and say, Virginia has a no shot at winning. No. And if it would be, I think it would be SMU and Dallas. Yeah. Yeah. I was looking at ESPN's projections the other day, and they're projecting a nine and three. They had Virginia as an underdog at Florida State, which I'm not.

certain about. We know that Florida State reshaped its roster some through the portal. And Mike Norville is calling his own place because he's trying to save his own skin.

And they're desperate. But the other two losses that ESPN had our release of Virginia being not favored in were at SMU and at Virginia Tech. So if they can negotiate a couple of those, who knows? They could make a lot of noise, no question. Plans, before we get to some basketball info to close the program,

but plans for coverage for football for the remainder of July and August at Jerry Ratcliffe.com. Well, we'll be in full force. The whole team, I think, will be at covering our media days, if you want to call it that, with the Virginia's coaching staff on Friday. We'll be getting a lot of information from those splendid coaches over there. A lot of fun guys to talk to, interesting guys to talk to. And then we'll be all over training camp, our entire team,

and leading all the way up to kickoff on the 29th. So we won't leave a stone unturned as far as Virginia football goes, and we'll be looking at their opponents as well. And so if you want to know about Virginia football, you should jump on our site because we're going to have every detail that you can imagine. And I think we're also going to closely monitor what's going on nationally with the Save College Athletics Act or whatever you want to call it.

It's getting down to the nitty-gritty. There's going to be a vote on that soon. And the SEC this past week at the SEC Media Days, they were almost. threatening to pull out and form their own organization and play by their own rules and expand if they want to because this save act or whatever it is for college football has a clause in it that teams cannot expand over 19 or 18 or 19 teams. The ACC's already. The ACC's already. 18 for basketball. If the SEC,

a lot of people are saying the SEC, that might push them into hitting the panic button and they may go ahead and do all this and get it over with way before the 2030 date that everybody was projecting. So hold on

to your hats. It's good for content creators. It's good for publishers. We could wake up tomorrow. and Virginia and North Carolina could be at the SEC for all we know. So we'll be following that closely as well. I hate to say this. I hate to say this,

but it would be extremely difficult for Virginia, for UVA athletics to turn down the SEC. You can't turn down that kind of money. And that kind of... Security of safety and foundation. Security and safety. The travel is less. Yeah.

They have more. in common with the SEC than the Big Ten because they used to be once upon a time there used to be a 30-some team league called the Southern Conference that people may not know about back up until the

50s, early 50s and it was mostly the ACC and the SEC together along with some other schools so there's a lot of shared history between Virginia and a lot of SEC schools. But yeah,

if something like that has to happen, I think that would be the smart move on Virginia's part without question. Close the show with some basketball. We could do that. Ryan Odom in his second season? Yeah, if you missed our series that we had recently on, we did a profile on all six new Virginia players. I thought some really good stuff

talking to those players individually and to some of the coaches about those players and what they're all about and to some of their teammates about those players. I thought it was a really solid series by Scott German and Scott Rackleff and yours truly. and I still have a piece on the test of Ritter that I'm going to write probably today just on how much he's elevated his game since last March,

which really wasn't that long ago, but he has pushed himself really hard to improve every facet of his game, particularly the parts that people try to. tried to dwell on last year. That maybe wasn't a strength of his, and he's tried to make them strengths. So, again, I think this team's in really good shape, particularly adding the German kid late in the process. I mean, he's a 24-year-old man.

He's been playing pro basketball for two years. And so this is a really strong basketball team that we're looking at here. I can't wait. I can't wait for basketball. Yeah. I mean, this should be another really fun football basketball season. We hope you're along for the ride on Jerry Rackleck.com. $8 a month, folks.

Price of a cup of coffee gets you roughly 50 pieces of content per month, ladies and gentlemen. $8 a month for 50 stories a month at Jerry Rackleck. Jackcliff.com. Fingers crossed on paper, on paper is only worth, it's not worth much, but on paper, football and basketball, both teams are primed with more talent than last year's 11-win football season and last year's 30-win basketball season. And jerry rackliff.com is the source of the source for everything UVA sports related. Jerry Rackleaf, Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, Judah Wickower, fresh from Maine. Fresh from Maine.

How was the weather up in Maine there, Judah? Muggy. I thought you went up there to get away from the Muggy. You know what was interesting? He doesn't have a mic in front of him. If you get a mic, we'd love to feature on your show. What's interesting is, you know those days when the Canadian wildfires made the air quality out here? Oh, yeah.

Extremely dangerous. Yeah, it was nasty around here. My wife has asthma. It was very difficult for her to go outside. You were in New York and you were in Maine So you guys were getting a lot of it We were there for that Here in Charleston for that

Oh for that part Yeah for that part Here was what was interesting And I don't want to speak for Judo He mentioned this yesterday The air quality in Maine With the Canadian wildfires Was better

Than it was here in Charleston Really? Yeah I first heard about the How did that happen? I don't know Air quality issues On Reddit And I was like wow

It's not that bad here Yeah Unbelievable right Isn't that wild? It was crazy. I remember walking out my door that morning, and I just looked at the, you know, it was like. A fire in your backyard. Yeah, somebody burning something around here because it was, that's what it looked like.

It looks smoky outside. You know, what the heck's going on? It's hazy, smoky, and it didn't take long to figure it out what it was. I didn't think the wildfires could get down to this part of the country, but I was wrong. you're an absolute pleasure to co-host a show with. It's fun. It's fun. We just sit around and talk like we would if we were at Riverside. At the Aberdeen Barn. Have a beer and a juicy steak.

That's right. Prime Rib at the Aberdeen Barn with my friend Jerry Rackcliffe, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. I'll mention this again. It's $8 a month at Jerry Rackleaf.com. $8. And you're getting 50 pieces of content, 50 stories a month. Scott German, Jerry Rackleff, Scott Rackleff. The collective experience for these award-winning writers is a century plus, ladies and gentlemen. It's the best source for anything UVA related. Judah Wickehowers, the Elmer's glue of the team. My name is Jerry Miller.

It's truly my pleasure to do this and sit across the table from Jerry Rackleff. Thank you kindly for joining us on the program. The I Love Sevo Show is up at 1230. So long, everybody. See you next week. That's like Donna Hoots. Thank you, brother. Same to you.

Judah.