The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Louisville Steals Win; Will Hoos Earn Bowl Invite?; Special Teams & Coaching Calls Cost Wahoos

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: Louisville Steals Win; Will Hoos Earn Bowl Invite? Special Teams & Coaching Calls Cost Wahoos Hoos’ 6 Remaining Opponents 27-10 Overall Jonas Sanker – ACC Defensive Back Of Week UVA at Clemson, 12 PM Saturday, CW Network Can Virginia Upset The Clemson Tigers? Around The ACC: News, Notes & Tidbits Best & Worst Of ACC Football So Far In 2024? 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. Thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show. It's good to be back here in the saddle across from the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, Jerry Ratcliffe, the namesake of jerryratcliffe.com. Last week, I was out of town with the family, spending some R&R with the better half and our two sons. But we're back, and we have a lot to discuss on today's talk show. Virginia football, a loss to Louisville that stings.

And in college football, especially big-time college football, there are no moral victories. And yes, Virginia was the better team on Saturday in a Scott Stadium that was maybe 40% full. Yes, they showed flashes of brilliance, flashes of excellence, flashes of ball control. Yes, Anthony Calandria looked absolutely dazzling out of the pocket, running the football, and at times even throwing the football. But all that was overshadowed by coaching errors and by special teams blunders. We'll talk about that today on the Jerry and Jerry show. I'm going to ask Hootie Ratcliffe this question. The opponents on Virginia's schedule have a combined 27 and 10 record. 27 and 10 overall with four of those opponents ranked in the top 25. Virginia needs

two more wins to get bowl eligible. Where are those victories going to come from? And then I'm going to ask a very straightforward question. If Virginia finishes this season with five wins, with four wins, it has four right now, five or less, what is the future of a coaching staff that clearly is in a precarious position? Judah Wickhauer behind the camera, the Elmer's glue of the network, Judah's studio camera, and then the star of our talk show, a man that needs very little introduction, still I'm going to do it anyway, a many, many, many, many, many time award winning writer, a Virginia Sports Hall of Favor, and the namesake of JerryRackliff.com, a man I'm proud to call a friend. He was in the stadium on Saturday. Hootie Rackliff,

good Tuesday morning. It's nice to see you, my friend. Great to see you. I'm glad you and our glue guy both had great vacations. Absolutely. I was stuck here laboring, but that's okay. That's what I do. Hootie Ratcliffe on Saturday was in the midst of football in a Louisville Cardinal game that should have, could have gone Virginia's way. Open-ended, where do you want to start, Hootie Ratcliffe? Well, I think you have to look at the mistakes. I mean, this is the second year in a row they had Louisville on the ropes and probably outplayed Louisville for the most part. Outplayed Louisville. And, I mean, Louisville is a nice team. Their running back, Isaac Brown, is the best running back I've seen all year.

He's a freshman. He looks like a pro. In fact, he was so good that I was riding in a shuttle van back to the parking lot after the game with some Louisville personnel, and they were already worried about keeping him in the program next year. They know that people at bigger programs are going to be coming after the guy, so that's how good he is um but i you know i think they they shot themselves in the foot several times just just like last year when they lost

all those close games and we thought that they might have grown up a little bit and gotten over that sort of thing but um i think some of these were coaching errors. And it's one thing if the players are making mistakes, but if the coaches are putting them in position to make mistakes, you have to question that. And I thought one of the things that hurt them I think was in the end of the first half when they drove it was a 19 play drive Jerry all the way from the Virginia 25 down to the Louisville three yard line and Virginia's not a great red zone team there They were ranked like 103rd or something like that going into the game.

Probably worse now because they didn't do very well in the red zone again. And instead of taking the surefire three-point field goal in a 10-7 halftime lead, Tony Elliott elected to go for it on fourth down, and that is strictly the head coach's decision to whether to do that or not. And they got nothing out of it. A great play, like I said, a 19-play drive. It ate up over eight minutes of the clock and got nothing for it.

And, you know, that field goal there would have probably had some impact on how things went the rest of the game. 100% in the second half. No question. Yeah. And then the decision to have, I don't know what Keith Gaithers, the special teams coach, was thinking either. Tony Elliott tried to explain it after the game,

but to me it just didn't seem rational to me that to change Daniel Sparks' punting style for this one game only to a rugby-style kicking, I mean, the rest of the game he booted the ball just fine, including, I think, a 64-yarder at one point that really backed Louisville up. And they said that Louisville was good at, you know, breaking down punt coverage and all that stuff and found ways to get to the punter, but they didn't even have to.

He had one punt that was low with a rugby-style kick that went 21 yards earlier in the game, and then just barely missed hitting his own guy. And then later in the game, same thing, rugby-style kick, hit one of his own shield guys in the back and gave Louisville the ball at the 14-yard line and it took one play to get in. Brown was in before he could blink. That was a

back-breaking play. Jonas Sanker played a brilliant game on defense, but he made a bad decision in trying to run the ball out from five yards deep in his own end zone that put him in that hole to begin with. He only got it out to the 14. And I don't know why somebody didn't stop him. If the ball is five yards deep, there's just no reason to run it out. He got an earful when he came to the sidelines.

But that's too late. Too late. They should have had somebody there saying no, no. The other back return man should have stopped him. He did one other time in the game. So I just think these blunders may end up costing them a bowl game. I mean, there's not – you look at the rest of the schedule, as you mentioned a while ago,

there's only one game that they'll probably be favored in, and that's North Carolina, and that's no given because even as bad as the Tar Heels have been, they're still scoring a lot of points. So you can't mark that off as a surefire win. Stephanie Wells-Rhodes watching the program. She says, I genuinely felt sorry for the team on Saturday. They played really well and it was very exciting. They deserved that win. I felt sorry for the team on Saturday as well, Stephanie. I felt sorry for the team on Saturday, and I rarely feel that feeling. Just who I am.

I'm not a pity guy. Right. Stadium, 40% full on a picture-perfect college football Saturday. 78 degrees. 78 degrees. Could not have asked for a better day for college football. You had a Louisville football team in Charlottesville that was pretty damn good. You're playing for first place.

You were receiving votes in one of the polls, Virginia was. They had an opportunity to, if they beat Louisville, probably in the top 25 for the first time in a really long time. You have a chance to build momentum, get closer to bowl eligibility. You have a chance to get five wins, start five and one. You don't have a fan base that's behind you. You have some questionable coaching calls. Special teams become an issue yet again. A lot of these guys are playing their tails off. I think the quarterback still makes, at times, some sketchy decisions, but this guy is bleeding for this football team.

Calandri is bleeding for the team. I think the best football player on the entire roster is Jonas Sanker, the Covenant graduate. Yes. Two-time ACC defensive back of the week. He won it last week. This week he had 11 tackles. He could be an All-American.

He could be an All-American. We may be looking at a professional football player, depending on if the NFL scouts say he's a bit slight or a bit light in the britches. I was going to ask you that question. That's right up your alley. And I don't use words like this, Hootie, often, but this has got to fall on Tony Elliott here, this loss.

The fourth down, let's go for it, at the end of the first quarter in a 7-7 game, when you're not, it's not fourth and inches, it was fourth and yards. It's not the Grady brunch. Yeah, they were on the three-yard line. On the three-yard line. Yeah.

Even Mark Rick at the halftime show, the college football hall of famer said, that was a terrible call. Exact words is what Mark Rick said. And he doesn't get pointed like that because he's a coach. Yeah. He said that was a terrible call. Where do you want to go with any of this? Well, I would have to agree with him. And a lot of the Virginia fans were not real happy with the play calling in most of the game to begin with, and I could see why. I thought Des Kitchens was a little bit off this week. And for all the good calls he's made in the past,

I just didn't think he had a good game. And I don't know, where do we go from here? I just didn't think he had a good game. I don't know, where do we go from here? You just can't, there's nothing you can do. You can't go back and change these games as much as you want to. It's just, you would think halfway through the season they wouldn't be putting themselves in positions like this, particularly after so many games like this a year ago. It's just hard to explain.

I don't have a lot of answers for it. To be honest, I just thought they did a poor job. Wahoo 89 watching in Tennessee. The offensive line was horrible. We should have had four more downs to play with on the final drive with the pass interference no call. The lack of fans is inexcusable. 40% full stadium, let's call it.

24,000, that might be putting it generously. The talk on press row was what, in the 22,000 number? We were told by someone before, well, before halftime, that there was actually closer to 22,000 people there. And the stadium emptied as the game went on. Yeah, I mean, a lot of people stuck around. And the people who were there at the end were really loud. I'll give them credit for that.

The fans that they do have, the ones that show up, are really good fans. And they stuck with them for most of the game. I didn't see a lot of people leaving. The students were on fall break, so they weren't there to begin with. But they've got a problem. If you can't draw, I mean, even if it was 32, that's still a horrible crowd for a game so meaningful. Like you said, the chance to go 5-1 for the first time since 2017. You're playing

for a share of first place. In a wide open ACC. What else would you want if you're a football fan? You're having a chance to beat a good football team and I don't know if it's marketing. I don't know if it's marketing I don't know if it's just apathy I don't know what it's going to take to get people in the stadium they seem to feel like they can just throw money at the program

and that's going to solve the problem but with a giant scoreboard which some of us in the press box were talking it was so loud at times with the music they play on that scoreboard we could we were sitting right beside each other and we couldn't even hear each other talk um and i mean it does it really have to be that loud i mean if people in the stands are that way and they can't even talk to somebody beside of them. Well, I think it's piping in artificial noise to try to create some kind of environment. Probably.

I know a lot of colleges do that. And, you know, it's a shame you have to resort to that method to do it, to create artificial noise. But, yeah, I don't know what the answer is. resort to that method to do it, to create artificial noise. But, yeah, I don't know what the answer is. Lower ticket prices maybe? I think that's it. Free tickets? Yeah. I don't know.

They don't seem to want to do that. I noticed that Maryland had a – they're playing Southern Cal this weekend in College Park, and I think even they must be having some issues selling tickets to that game, at least early on, because they had a flash sale for a day or two where they were having like 40% off ticket prices. I don't know why you can't do that, and I think Virginia did that for Louisville. Somebody said that they had like a one-day flash sale or something, but I don't think it was very well advertised or marketed.

I think it just went out maybe to ticket holders. I'm not sure, but they've got problems over there, and I don't know what the answer is. I don't even know if there is an answer. Virginia and its decision makers, from my standpoint, have been following this football team my entire life. My dad went to UVA, as you know. I went to UVA. My brother went to UVA. When they went to the blue-collar, die-hard generational fans and said, if you want to keep your season tickets. Well, that was a massive mistake that I've talked about ever since I told them when they

were doing it. It was a big mistake. They did that to my parents. And they did it anyway. Did it to my parents. And my parents said, we've been making this drive from Williamsburg for decades to watch a football team that wins four or five games a year at best. And my dad's an alum, and he did all right.

He's retired now. And for them to say, give us thousands of dollars if you want to keep the seats and sit next to the people that you've always sat next to. My mom was going to the game. It wasn't about the football. It was about to sit next to the fans that she sat next to for years where they would talk about stuff for six or seven times a year

when the football product wasn't great. Yeah, they have a little community. It was a community. Yeah. It was her friends. And then she and he felt shaken down. And that's when they gave up their tickets. Along with many, many other people.

Said it wasn't worth it for them to make that trip, four hours round trip, fine parking. It was an entire day affair. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. It was something that people looked forward to. And it was generations of people who did that. And for years I would get e-mails and phone calls and complaints about that when I was at the newspaper, and I still hear from some of those same people.

And they're just not going to forget that they felt betrayed, that they had displayed loyalty for decades, like you said. They had formed little communities in the stadium. It was more than just football, and they had all that taken away from them for dollar bills. And I talked to somebody in the administration then, and I told them, I said, you're making a big mistake, and they realized it was a big mistake, and they told the VAF at the time that it was a big mistake,

and the VAF told them they were going to do it anyway. And they've been paying for it ever since, and I don't know if you can ever reverse that or not. I mean, they've waited way too long, if they have, to try to do something to appeal to those people to come back. They're in a, it's a quandary. And I don't know if there's an answer. I really don't. I don't know what it would be. They felt betrayed. Absolutely.'t know what it would be.

They felt betrayed. Yeah, absolutely. My dad has not been to a home football game since then. Yeah, and thousands of other people were in the same boat. And he bleeds orange and blue. Yeah. Has not been to a home football game since then. Stephanie says, my father said they are getting ready to do the same thing with basketball and we have never recovered from what they did to us at football we were going to virginia football games for decades and when they did that he said i'm done

yeah john blair on linkedin jerry and jerry sorry sorry for the long post, but if Tony Elliott goes 5-7, next year's home schedule is NC State, Coastal Carolina, William & Mary, Washington State, Florida State, Stanford, Wake, and Virginia Tech. Would Scott Stadium draw $35,000 for any game next season except for maybe Virginia Tech? How can an athletic department survive with ticket revenue that low? That's a good question. Well, they're losing a million dollars approximately, a million dollars every home game, and that's

just in ticket revenue, not to mention concessions, et cetera, which is, I'm sure, another healthy payday, but I don't know. I don't know what the answer is to that. I'm not a financial genius by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd like to hear from some of our viewers out there what it would take for them to consider coming back to Scott Stadium. Why are they staying away other than the team is struggling? What would get you back?

I'd like to hear what people say. Why aren't they coming? Is it just wins and losses, or is there more to it than that? Brian Yago watching the program. Brian Yago, Farm Bureau Insurance, played baseball at high point university baseball at st ann's bellfield school our central virginia baseball player of the year when we're at the daily progress remember that brian yagle a stud he's watching the program he leaves this

comment and viewers and listeners are commenting left and right here good i'd love to hear from he says most passionate fans come from outside the city and likely Albemarle County. Most of them work in the city or Albemarle commuting into town five days a week. They do not want to do a six trip per week as the TV experience increases and it's cheaper. It's on UVA to enhance game day experience and affordability. 100%. Perfect commentary right there. UVA is not only competing against inflation, credit card debt, just paying our electric bills and our water bills. They're competing against the fact that you can go to Best Buy right now

and get a 65-inch TV for like $850. Yes. And that 65 inch TV is crystal clear picture. We can put it in front of our couch. We can open the fridge and get cold pops that cost us $2 at the grocery store instead of $10 at the concession stand. True. And we can take the remote and we can rewind and fast forward through commercials and see replays. And we can pause it when we need to hit the head. And we don't need to feel like we're shaking down when it comes to buying tickets for a product that's mediocre. Don't have to look for a parking spot. Don't have to find a parking spot. The whole experience on your couch at home takes three hours, where if you go to the game, it may take six.

What is Virginia going to do here? I don't know. Somebody asked me about concessions. I don't know because I don't go to the concession stand, but I've heard some people say this past weekend they didn't have a very good experience doing that. My wife and I go to the concession stand. I don't know how much the stuff costs, and I don't know what the quality of the food is. I can let you know.

I do know. Yeah, my wife and I go with our two boys quality of the food is. I can let you know. You would know. I do know. Yeah. Yeah. My wife and I go with our two boys, a six-year-old and a two-year-old. I'll get some daddy juice, a cold beer, some mommy juice, a cold beer, hot dog for the boys, one of those personal pizzas. Maybe two, of course, two waters for the boys. You're looking at $60, $65.

Wow. Before the tickets. I mean, it's turned into an experience for a family of four with two little kids, Hootie, that is easily $110, $120, and those aren't for great seats. And what you can do with a 40% full stadium is maybe you could kind of, in the second half, climb down to bleacher seats that

are a little bit better than when you first started yeah I wouldn't I wouldn't some ushers even give you grief for that oh I know I know they do which how explain that to me they always have I don't know that they've always been told to do that for some reason. I don't know what the issue is there. I'd like to hear somebody from UVA who knows give us an explanation for that and for a lot of these things because, you know, if you're trying to keep up with the Joneses, I mean, you're not Tennessee. You're not Clemson. You need to do whatever you can to put fannies in the seats. And if you don't, it's just going to explode on you. It's going to blow up in your face. And if it hasn't already, and I just,

I'm baffled by the whole thing. I have been for years, and it seems like Virginia's sitting there on their hands, doing nothing about it except building a big, giant scoreboard that makes too much noise. Olivia Branch, the queen of Keswick, watching the program. She's fantastic. Saw Olivia last Tuesday night out at Keswick. Living great as always. I'm going to read her comment, then you offer maybe a snapshot of what you and one of the greatest athletes in Virginia history did at Keswick Hall.

Olivia says this, UVA has always had fair weather fans. The program and players deserve way better than this. Well, there is some truth to that. There's no question about it. I've been covering this football program for 43 years, and I've covered North Carolina. I've covered Duke. I've been covering this football program for 43 years and I've covered North Carolina, I've covered Duke, I've covered NC State, I've covered Virginia Tech, I covered Wake Forest before I ever got here. And some of those programs had some of the same issues, but they have tried to find ways to market and do better and put

panties in the seats and in some cases it's been very successful I don't know exactly what they've done but I've noticed what Olivia said over over more than four decades of covering this program that there's a lot of truth to that. They have a core base of fans that are awesome, and they show up rain or shine. They scream their brains out. They root for their team. They don't give up on them. They don't leave unless it's just a blowout.

And that's a great fan base, but there's just not enough of them. The rest of them are, you know, they're kind of frontrunners. If you're doing great, we're on board, maybe. And if not, they just don't show up. And I don't know. There were some times during the George Walsh era and the early Al Groh years where that wasn't the case. They were having really good crowds, but they were having really good success on the field.

They really haven't had that kind of success since. I'm sure that's part of it. People don't want to had that kind of success since. I'm sure that's part of it. People don't want to pay that kind of money and go watch a team shoot itself in the foot every week, which they've done a lot in the last couple of decades, really. So, again, I'm baffled. I don't know what the answer is. What is this? You're not going to, you know,

George Wells is not going to come walking in the door anytime soon and put this football program back on the map. So either you support them or you don't. And I don't know how you talk the ones that don't into coming to your stadium unless you give them something that they can't refuse. Give them a sneak peek into Ralph Sampson, Jerry Hootie-Rackliff. Yeah, last Tuesday night we had a great time out at Kesswick Hall. They invited Ralph and I out for a speaker series that they do for club members only,

and it was very well attended, some great people in the audience. And we just talked about Ralph's career and my time covering him here, and we told a lot of stories and shared a lot of experiences, and it was very well received. We had a great time. It was a great evening and a great crowd at a great venue. If you haven't been out to Keswick Hall, you ought to go out there. The place is fantastic.

It's fantastic. It's having guys right here at Keswick. Marigold Restaurant is absolutely dynamic. It's delicious, guys, right here in Keswick. Marigold Restaurant is absolutely dynamic. It's delicious. Absolutely. I'm going to go have dinner there sometime here in the next few days, I think. That's very nice to hear. Very nice to hear. I've got a very straightforward question. Tony Elliott and the position he is in right now as head coach of this program, How do you characterize it? Well, I think he's okay

at this point, but as we said earlier in the year, the way the schedule was constructed, they had to make hay in the first half of the season. We're at the halfway point now. They're 4-2, and I think most Virginia fans

would have been pretty satisfied with that. A lot of people thought they wouldn't win four games this year. I predicted that they would win between 5 and 7. If everything went right, 7. If they didn't, maybe 5. I'll stick to that. 7 seems really very challenging at this point. I would think right now it looks like the cap might be five. And what's the fifth? Carolina?

I think Carolina is the... Must win. It's the must win. And I don't know if there's another win in that second half of the schedule or not. As you mentioned, and I wrote about, four of those teams, four of the remaining six teams are nationally ranked. And one of those other teams that's not ranked is Virginia Tech. And you're playing them in Blacksburg, where Virginia hasn't won since 1998. Some people were thinking early on that SMU might be a possibility,

but the Mustangs are roaring. They're in contention for an ACC championship game spot. SMU is 5-1, 2-0 in conference play, folks. SMU is no cupcake. Yeah. And SMU has got something to prove every time it plays. They're number 21 in the nation, and look at their remaining schedule. Stanford, Duke, Pitt, BC, UVA, and Cal. I mean, they very well could run the table. They very well could, and they could be in Charlotte

come December come early December for the championship game, probably against Clemson would be my guess, who Virginia plays this week. Tigers are 5-1, 4-0 in the ACC. They're two games ahead in the win column of Miami, SMU, and Pitt for that championship spot. And look at their remaining schedule. Virginia, Louisville, Virginia Tech, Pitt.

They only have four conference games left. I don't see them losing any of those games. Neither do I. And then South Carolina and the Citadel. I mean, Clemson could run the schedule. They very well could. 21-and-a-half point favorites against the Hoos on Saturday. High noon kickoff in Death Valley.

Yeah, absolutely. This football team, guys, is in the proverbial crossroads here. And Clemson's not even talking much about ACC championship. They're talking about getting into the national playoffs. Yeah, into the playoffs. The college football playoffs for Clemson, they don't make it into the college football playoffs. Yeah, into the playoffs. College football playoffs for Clemson. They don't make it into the college football playoffs. Clemson could win

an ACC championship and if they don't make it into the college football playoffs... If they win, they're a lock for the college football playoffs. If Clemson does not make it into the college football playoffs, Debu Sweetie is in some serious trouble.

And I think Clemson and Hootie Ratcliffe has been all over this from day one, is by far the best football team in this conference. I don't think anybody else can beat them in this conference. I really don't. I'm almost certain that Miami and Pitt cannot.

SMU might be able to give them a run for their money, but in the long run, if they're playing in Charlotte in a 70,000-seat NFL stadium, there's going to be about 60,000 Tiger fans and 10,000 SMU fans. So you can see where that's going. Olivia Branch said that Jerry and Jerry show gave us the idea for the Ralph and Jerry show over at Keswick, and it was absolutely fantastic. Well, thank you, Olivia.

We did our best, and I think it was well-received. The people in the audience seemed to really enjoy it. Sounds like there's going to be a number two. Who knows? You never know. But, I mean, you could have ten shows with Ralph Samson in case he had so many stories and experiences. We even talked a little bit about him playing against the Russians,

which was kind of fun. You know what would be awesome, Olivia, is Jerry Ratcliffe hosting a speaker series once a month over at Keswick with a UVA alum of note just telling stories of what they did in the orange and blue that would be something special well that would be fun you would love that certainly that would be wonderful um comments coming in fast and furious for you there's another pointed one is he's the coach next year? Multiple people asking that.

I think if they win five games, I think his job is safe. I really do. That's progress. It might not be the progress that some people would like to see, but it's a heck of a lot better than a three-win season, and it's a sign that he's moving things forward inch by inch not in leaps and bounds but the recruiting has picked up a little bit they're some of the commitments they have if assuming they can hold on to them or look like some potentially good football players. A little more in road in the state of Virginia.

I don't know if you might have to take a look at his staff a little bit and see if there's a place where they can strengthen some situations. Right now, I think a lot of people are complaining about some things. Special teams doesn't look like it's big boy football caliber. It really doesn't. And they need to do something about that. You can't afford to blow a game on special teams, and they certainly did that the other day. And it happened all last year.

It did. And they're better. I'll give them credit for that. Last year they were in the hundreds in almost every category. This year they're middle of the pack in the 60s, I think. So some progress has been made, but you still can't afford to blow a game, a key game like this. Because of special teams. Because of mistakes

in special teams. You just can't do that. If it was an SEC school, some heads would be rolling, I think. So, you know, I think if he wins five games, he's safe.

If they don't win five games, I don't know. That opens a door for some of the movers and shakers who may not be very happy with the progress of things. I mean, who knows? Those people who have influence, and if they're not happy, sometimes things can go sideways in a hurry. Olivia Branch says a repeat is already in the works with Hootie at Keswick. That's how well it was received. That's a nice surprise.

Literally in the comments section, a repeat is already in the works right now with Hootie. Phillip Dow, Hootie, they need to look at what West Virginia and Virginia Tech are doing. Their stadiums are always packed. What's the difference there? Well, I think generally that, and I hear this, I assume it's true, that their fans are more rabid football fans. That they live and die for Saturdays. And the general population of Virginia alumni is not. A lot of

Virginia fans have other things to do. They're not die-hard football fans. Some are. The ones that show up are. I salute them. But the general population of Virginia fans is not SEC country, brother. they don't live and die with college football some of them have better things to do and I think that's

a huge part of the difference always has been probably always will be and I remember John Oliver told me once upon a time when he was trying to figure it out he said if you look at it a lot of these kids John Oliver told me once upon a time when he was trying to figure it out, he said if you look at it, he said a lot of these kids were so academically inclined,

and there's nothing wrong with that, in high school that they didn't play sports, they weren't interested in sports. When they came to Virginia, they might have dabbled in it a little bit, if at all, and then once they moved on, they still weren't huge sports fans. And so that's part of the equation as well, I believe. And it doesn't mean because you're great at academics you can't be a sports fan. I'm not saying that. But a lot of the people that come here just are not into sports, and they just would rather find something else to do with their time, and that's perfectly fine.

But that's just the difference, I think, in the general fan bases of Virginia, West Virginia, and Virginia Tech. I think Hokies fans and Mountaineer fans in general do bleed their school colors and they live and die with those teams on

the weekends. 100% right. Michael Murphy, UVA is not going to be able to compete unless they up the NIL game. Look at what Syracuse is paying their quarterback. Virginia is not doing any of that with their players. I will, and he then says, Hootie Ratcliffe is the absolute best, and he has a very bold prediction that Clemson, that Virginia is going to beat Clemson in Death Valley. My fingers are crossed, my friend. I appreciate your optimism. 21-and-a-half-point underdogs.

I don't see Clemson losing in Death Valley to Virginia. And I'm not trying to raid on anyone's parade here. I don't see anybody beating Clemson. In Death Valley. Unless it's South Carolina, and I don't even know where that game is. But South Carolina is a pretty good football team, the best team remaining on Clemson's schedule. But, yeah, I don't see that happening.

And it would be great if it did. I would love to see that myself. Rich Jones asked some of those same comments. We appreciate Mike and Rich watching the program. They want to know about NIL and if the new complex is helping. I think it's helping. I think it's helping the players who are already here. I think it's a much more efficient building,

and every time I talk to the players about it, they love it. I don't know what kind of impact it's having on recruiting at this point. I think a lot of the kids are impressed when they come here, from what I've been told. The reality is, is big-time college football, that's the normal. Yeah, it is. It is. And if you don't have that, you're, you know, some people aren't even going to look at you. The NIL I think is a much bigger issue. This is where I'm confused about where Virginia is. They passed that state bill back in, what was it, the spring?

Our good friend Sean Moore was there. I think Ralph Sampson was there for that signing. It was this spring. Yeah. And it allowed essentially for schools to pay their athletes, right? And I don't know what kind of impact that has had on Virginia's NIL. It's so hard to get information about that. I do know that Virginia's coaches, they don't mind seeing players get paid. However, they're not going to get in bidding wars for players. I think a lot of these other schools aren't ashamed or afraid to do that. I think that's having an impact

on Virginia because they're not getting into bidding wars for some of these players and they're losing out on a lot of talent that would probably come here if the money was equal. And somebody told me back when they signed that bill that if it allowed Virginia to be in the position that if they wanted to be the New York Yankees of college sports, they could be because the money is there it's the philosophy of I don't know who alumni Board of Visitors president ad not really the coaches maybe collectively I don't know but as one person over there put it to me, we don't want to be at the front of the bus, but we don't want to be at the back of the bus either.

So what does that say? And, you know, it makes me wonder a little bit about even in basketball this year. They were in it for in the final three, four, five for, I don't know, ten guys in the top 100 and so far they've gotten one and there's only two left that I even know about that they're recruiting.

Some of them went to lesser programs and I can't help but think it's because of the NIL, that they're getting paid. And even if Tony Bennett wants to open up his offense, I don't think that's enough. If they can go somewhere else that's opening up their offense and get paid bukus more money. And, you know, it's just a bizarre situation in terms of where we are in college athletics right now

and what you believe in and what you don't believe in. Speaking of bizarre, this comment from Mr. Blair, there are other issues, but I think there's a feeling among some in the program that the program has been mismanaged in terms of reseeding and coaching. Former athletic director Craig Littlepage literally forced Al Groh to hire an offensive coordinator in 2009. Mike Lennon was retained after going 18-31 in his first four seasons. Bronco Mendenhall's departure remains one of the most mysterious situations in major college football history. There's never been any real explanation with why

Bronco left. Now it looks like Elliott will be retained even if he has three straight losing seasons. What is a fan to think about this, John Blair asks. Then from Tennessee, similar, does Elliott let Kitchens go if we only win five games? Does he make other changes? And how much heat should be on Carla Williams? Wahoo 89 asks. I have not been impressed with her as the athletic director, he says. Why is UVA so afraid to spend money to make it easier on fans?

Questions galore on today's program, Hootie. Well, I know probably a lot more than I'm entitled to say about some of those things that happened with Al Groh and Mike London. I wouldn't put it all on Craig Littlepage, but there was a lot of tampering going on, and I know that both of those coaches were told to fire certain people on their staff and to hire people that the administration picked, which I don't think is ever a good idea. No. Especially because the administration at that point in time were basketball guys. I'm not pinning all this on Craig. John Oliver was

involved and they were trying to in their minds help the coaches but I don't think it's ever a real help when you're trying to name assistant coaches and force them on somebody because you don't know whether it's a fit. I know that one of the offensive coordinators they brought in for Al Groh

was a terrible fit, and he changed the offense during the season from a pro offense to a spread offense, and Virginia didn't have the personnel to do that. And it got so frustrating for Al that by the time they played Southern Mississippi that year in Hattiesburg, and I knew this, I was very close to Al, and he told me at the beginning of the week he was scrapping this new spread offense he didn't care what anybody thought and he was going back to his old stuff and they should have beaten southern miss

a better southern miss team on the road that week except for a hundred yard kickoff return that killed him but um i know mike lond London was extremely frustrated because he had to fire people like Jim Reed and some other people and had some coaches brought in and it just derailed what he was trying to do but it's been a mess and the true story about Bronco Mendenhall,

if you've read my pieces over the years, even before I went out on my own on my website, this was when I was still at the newspaper. Actually, I was gone from the newspaper at that point. But the reason Bronco Mendenhall left was that he was told to replace his defensive coordinator, Nick Howell. And I can't say that I blame them for wanting him to make a change there because I don't think Nick Howell has done a very good job. And he was fired at Vanderbilt.

He's back with Bronco in New Mexico now. But Bronco just didn't have the stomach to do that. That staff was the closest-knit staff I've ever covered at any school in my career. And they were like brothers instead of just assistant coaches. They were fellow Mormons. Yes. And people outside their religion don't understand how tight that is. Yeah.

And Bronco, I think at first had agreed to do it. Had he been able to get somebody like Anthony Poindexter to come back in, I think that was even set up to try to get Anthony to come back in as defensive coordinator. And then overnight, Bronco just changed his mind and said he just couldn't do it. He couldn't do it. And so rather than submit to that, he just decided to resign. I mean, I think football was wearing on him at that point already

because of all the pressures and things were starting to change and the COVID had an impact on the program but the bottom line was he didn't want to fire his guy and when he was told he was going to have to fire his guy he just couldn't pull the trigger and decided to hang it up and then come back a year or two later after he refreshed, which is essentially what he's done. Who's to blame for that? Administration all the way, pretty much. But what are you going to do? The position we're in as fans.

Yeah. Lots of cover. Jonas Sanker, two-time ACC defensive back of the week. Fabulous player. Fabulous kid. Yeah, fabulous guy. Yeah. You're looking at the best football player on the roster, guys.

A guy so talented he's now returning kicks for Virginia football. Is he a pro, Hootie? I think he is. I know his size isn't ideal for what they're looking for in a safety. But I think sometimes it's more than just the measurables. There's some things about players that you just can't measure. He has skill. He has heart.

He has drive. He has determination. He's very coachable. He's smart. I've had a lot of NFL people tell me that they like to get UVA kids because they know they're smart. If they have the athletic ability, then sometimes their intelligence can make up for some of the other things they don't have.

And I think he's going to make it. Again, I know his size is not ideal, but I think he can overcome that. Clemson on Saturday, 21-and-a-half-point favorites as of now, 12 o'clock kick on the dreaded CW network. The Tigers are pretty good. I mean, they've scored 40 points at least four times in six games this season. They've held their third last weekend, routing Wake Forest 49-14. It was the third straight opponent that they've held at 14 points or less.

Dabo has it going again down there. I don't know that this team is of the same caliber of some of his previous national playoff teams, but I think this team will probably be in the playoffs. Their only blemish was a poor second half against Georgia, which a lot of people could have that. We've seen what Georgia can do. And I found it interesting just looking at their ticket prices. The game's not a sellout,

but tickets range from $15 to $18 in the upper decks to in the lower bowl, $63 to $780. $780 in the lower bowl? Can you imagine that? Oh, my goodness. And those tickets are going to sell. Some of them will, for sure. Yeah.

Goodness. One of the things that caught my eye when I was looking at some of this stuff was that, when's the last time you heard this in your lifetime? Duke is a three-point favorite over Florida State this weekend. It shows you how far Florida State's fallen. Wow. Yeah. That blows me away far Florida State's fallen. Wow. Yeah. That blows me away.

Blows my mind. A little karma for the Seminoles. Yeah, absolutely. And Clemson is somewhat of a culprit in that same line of thinking. I mean, they haven't been as disruptive in trying to get out of the conference as Florida State, but they're right along with the Seminoles and causing some chaos that's been unnecessary. You got any keys to victory for Virginia against Clemson?

Well, they're going to have to play flawless football. Yeah. And, I mean, they didn't turn the ball over this past weekend. They had very few penalties, although a couple of those penalties killed them, including I thought they had the game wrapped up with 825 to play when they had just scored and taken a 20-17 lead. I think Ethan Minner intercepted a pass, I think, at the Virginia 3. I think they were third down and something, and it looked like they had made the first down,

and then the play was called back for an ineligible receiver downfield, and things blew up from there and they had to punt the ball away not a rugby punt but a regular punt which made the Louisville punt returner back way up Sanker nailed him for a huge loss back at the I think, the Louisville 33. And the defense couldn't stop Louisville, and they drove down for the winning touchdown. But, yeah, you can't make any mistakes against a team like Clemson, especially down there where it's loud and it's rowdy.

And you are the enemy when you walk in that stadium and the fans let you know it. I mean, they will abuse you. I've been on the sidelines and heard some of the stuff that they say to opposing players, and it's not a treat. But, you know, I don't know. They have to play a perfect football game, and I don't know if have to play a perfect football game and I don't know if they're capable of doing that

Jerry Ratcliffe, what do you have on the hopper on jerryratcliffe.com well we'll be at Tony Elliott's press conference this afternoon and we'll have a full report from that talk to a couple players we'll be keeping our eye on basketball

recruiting. There's only one or two guys that Virginia seems to be still in the mix with, but it's coming up quickly on November early signing period. Chance Mallory is the only guy in the fold right now. And I've been negligent. And having not done my story on him, I had a great interview with him. I wanted to get that done this week. And I think Virginia fans will eat that up because this kid is special. But we'll have it all. Jerry Ratcliffe, guys.

JerryRatcliffe.com. I'm on the website literally every day. I follow him on Twitter. The content is fresh. The content is insightful. If you follow Virginia football like all of us do, that's the place to go for Virginia football content. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera. Fresh haircut.

He's got the fall button-down plaid he's wearing over there. GQ? Looks like you'll be on GQ covering that. The guy's getting some props over there from folks in the comments section as well. This is the Jerry and Jerry Show. It airs wherever you get your social media or podcasting content. It's an hour of content on Virginia athletics.

For Hootie, for Judah, my name is Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us. So long, everybody. Thank you.