The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - UVA Football Picked 14th Out Of 17 ACC Teams; Buy Or Sell: Are Wahoos 4th Worst Team In ACC?

Episode Date: August 5, 2025

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: UVA Football Picked 14th Out Of 17 ACC Teams Buy Or Sell: Are Wahoos 4th Worst Team In ACC? UVA 4th Easiest Schedule In Nation (Pro Football Focus) Virginia Teams With Costco To Sell Football Tix Will Xavier Brown Be An “X Factor” This Year? UVA OC Says Wide Receiver Will Be Strength UVA Basketball To Host Villanova In Exhibition UVA Recruiting: Hoos Chasing Nation’s Top Talent 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. Good Tuesday morning. Thank you kindly for joining us. My name is Jerry Miller. An absolute pleasure to connect with you guys on the I Love Seaville Network, a network that is all about content that is local to Charlottesville, Elmore County, Central Virginia, the University of Virginia, and beyond. A lot we're going to cover on today's program,

including a significant contribution. to the world-class University of Virginia swimming team. We'll talk about that contribution. Breaking news in about 30 to 45 seconds with the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, Jerry Rackleaf. We have a lot of football to talk about, ladies and gentlemen, the Coastal Carolina Shanticleers have the University of Virginia circled on their calendar with permanent marker.

And the Shanna Clears are going to hit Scott Stadium for a week one opener that is paramount for Tony Elliott and his football program. It's no secret that this football team has headwinds and is fighting turmoil. Picked 14th out of 17 teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference that's fourth from the bottom at the ACC kickoff. Ladies and gentlemen, will Tony Elliott and Virginia surpass the 14th preseason pick? We'll talk about that with Jerry Racklep today. We'll talk Ryan Odom pursuing talent on the hardwood.

We're talking some of the top recruit in the course. country on a Virginia shortlist. That topic on the show. So much to cover. We'll give some props and accolades to Judah Wickhauer behind the camera. Judah, thank you very much for keeping us online. If you can go to the studio camera and welcome Jerry Rackleff, the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer to the show. Before we start scatter shooting, Olivia Branch, I think, is watching the program. Fantastic gift for you and I and Judah. A little bit of merch from Keswick Hall. Yeah, that was a great surprise this morning to walk in the studio and Caswick had dropped off some brand new Caswick club hats, golf hats, and to add to our collection. And that was a really pleasant surprise to start the day.

Rob McNapar. Thank you, Olivia, and Rob and all the people out there. We thank you, Olivia, and we thank you Rob McNamara for dropping off the hats for us. Scatter shooting with the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer, where would you like to begin? Well, gosh, we could go in so many directions. There's so much going on. It's crazy here early in August, but I guess football dominates the new cycle at the moment because training camp is well underway.

We've been over for interviews three or four times already in the past week. And yesterday we spent some time with John Raczynski, the defensive coordinator and some of the players. And I found it refreshing a couple of practices recently that I've been to at the end of the day. Tony Elliott was reading his players the Riot Act. There was some shouting and intensity going on after a practice. and some wind sprints to celebrate the end of the day. So it was, to me, I, I like to see that kind of intensity in a coach and a coaching staff because I think that's, it's a sport that demands that, particularly when you're not getting

everything you want out of your players. And he's making it clear in camp that he's not going to accept some, the mistakes from the past that has kept Virginia from turning the corner. And he's just not having that this time around. Tony Elliott, his ACC team, his Virginia football team, picked 14th out of 17 teams in the ACC. Open-ended question. Fourteenth out of ACA out of 17 is fourth from the bottom. You're buying or selling this 14th preseason pick? I'm selling. I think that I don't think the people that voted did their homework on that. And I can't say that I blame them because normally when you're voting on things like that,

you don't pay that much of attention to the bottom half of whatever league you're looking at. And they're going off past results. And, you know, there's so many new players, such an influx of new faces in every program in the conference, not alone, not just the conference, but everywhere in the country, that it's so difficult to keep up with rosters. And so I think the people that don't cover Virginia and don't have a working knowledge of what has transpired here in the last several months wouldn't know that they've done a complete flip of the way they used to do business, and who knows how long that will continue

because we don't know what lies ahead in terms of NIL and transfer portals and all that. There's so many proposals on the table. We don't know which one's going to end up having the most impact. But this is not the same Virginia football program as the past three or four. five years. They realized, I think, the first year of NIO, they stuck their toe in the water. The second year of NIL, when it really became serious, I think they put one foot in the water. This year, they're all in. They've dived into the pool, and it's a dramatic change in philosophy. 32 transfer players, a very expensive roster.

We've heard estimates between $20 and $30 million. Insane. Insane. I think that's closer to 32 than 20. Yeah, I would agree. There's been no pushback on that. And you talk to any coach there about, and they'll tell you, it's like day and night, the first three years,

compared to this year in terms of a talent acquisition, playable depth, and talent. So I think if Virginia finishes 14th, something seriously wrong, and I don't think it's going to have. I mean, they tied for 10th last year with a much more challenging schedule and much less talent than they have this time around. So much to cover on this program. If you're watching the show, the ACC insiders, stakeholders, journalists picked UVA 14th out of 17 teams in the preseason crystal ball predictions.

I'm with Hootie, I sell. I understand the pick 14 out of 17. The last three years haven't gone well. They've got the worst record of any team in power football. UVA does. Absolutely. But as Hootie's highlighted, this is not. the football team of the last three years because of the commitment to paying players to come

to Charlottesville. And you have a quarterback that's got talent. Des Kitchens is straight up saying this might be the best wide receiving core, you know, one of the best wide receiving cores in the conference, that he's got depth everywhere. The offensive lines got playable depth. I read your scatter shooting column on Jerry Ratcliffe.com, a former quarterback for Bronco Menon Hall, Kurt Benkirt, said that depth was our issue. We had NFL guys on some NFL guys as first stringers, but once we got to the second and third string, you didn't have any depth and that's

why we suffered. That's why we posted losses. This is a very different team here. And goodness gracious, hoody, with money and with depth and with three straight seasons of suffering come extremely high expectations. And I think that 14th, if I was a best, betting man, I would absolutely bet that this team's going to finish much higher than fourth from the bottom. Yeah. If there's a bet out there, which you can make on that, I think I would jump on that myself. Absolutely. Now, let me throw this to you here. Kitching's comment about the wide receiving core, what did you make of that? Put it in perspective, and then what did you make of it? Well, you know, they lost a really great receiver in Malachi Fields who transferred to Notre Dame,

one of the best in UVA history. Yeah, really, really good receiver, homegrown kid, and it was tough to see him go, but we wish him well. But they did well in the transfer portal. They brought in some guys. They brought back several good receivers. And so he's got seven, eight, nine deep guys that he can have a six-man rotation easily, at all the receiver spots.

And so, again, playable depth everywhere, including wide receiver. And maybe for once in a long time that I talked to one of the offensive lineman, Drake Metcalfe yesterday, who transferred in near two seasons ago from Stanford, then, central Florida and was raring to go spring before last and he suffered an Achilles injury and has

just not been able to come back from it but he was so excited about the depth and the quality of players on the offensive line but you know in the past if somebody got sick or somebody got injured or was playing hurt with nagging injuries a lot of times they had to send a guy out there that just wasn't ready to play or was playing out of position. That's no longer the case on the offensive line or anywhere else. But he talked a lot about keeping Chandler Morris clean. And these offensive linemen are taking that task seriously. And if you look at some of the guys they brought in from the portal on the offensive line, one of the things I noticed is most of these guys gave up little or no quarterback sacks where they came from. So I think

that's the number one goal this year is to keep Morris safe and clean and allow him to find those receivers so they can attack all over the field. Comments coming in already. We'll get to the comments. Viewers and listeners, let us know your thoughts by putting your comments in the chat box or the comment section of any of the social media platforms you're watching a pod. We're live streaming to every social media and podcasting platform possible. And in some cases like Facebook and Twitter, we're live on 15 Facebook pages and 15 Twitter accounts. I have a few more questions for

the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer. You highlight this. commentary on jerry rackliff.com, first time in two training camps that there's a clear-cut starter at quarterback and Chandler Morris. Previous two training camps, Tony Musket and Anthony Calandria, who in a lot of ways could be, could not be more opposite in quarterbacks. Calandria, a gunslinger, cocky, brash, talented, willing to put his team on the back, on his back. Tony Musket, a game manager, more of a pocket passer, a guy that looks to distribute the ball and get a lot of people involved. We're fighting for the starting role.

Musket, the elder statesman, Calandria, the gunslinger from Florida. We saw both over the last two years. Tony Elliott and Des Kitchens are hoping it's Chandler Morris the entire season, and they've straight up committed to the young man. Yeah, and it makes perfect sense, considering Chandler Morris's background, he's coach's son, his dad was an offensive coordinator with Tony Elliott at Clemson before moving on to other programs.

Chandler Morris was born to be a quarterback. He was. He's been and played at the TCU and Oklahoma and North Texas State. He's been in various systems, different coordinators,

picked up Virginia's offense quickly. I talked to Taylor Lamb, the quarterback's coach about him. I'll be doing a story about that this week. this kid has all the throws he's got great football IQ he's confident and I think he's displayed a lot of leadership

and I think that was one of the things that Tony Elliott wanted to accomplish by naming him the starter early on so the rest of the offense could rally around him and he could display his leadership to these players because it's going to take a lot of that to bring all these new faces all onto the same page in training camp and having respect for your quarterback is one of the main objectives of any camp

and certainly he's earned that and I think it was a good move and you know Danny Kalin the kid from Nebraska has four years of eligibility remaining so he's your future he's the future and so he can sit there and in and learn and hopefully they don't have to use him that Morris can stay healthy and uh and we'll have this other kid around for four years and uh he's apparently a pretty darn good one this is a great question uh this question's coming from the folks that watch in the allentown area of pennsylvania good people up there how's the offense going to look different this year versus the offense we've seen over the last couple seasons i don't think there's

going to be a lot of variance in terms of scheme, that sort of thing. There'll be some wrinkles, a few new wrinkles and things, but I think it's basically the same offense. It's just more talent and more depth. And that's really all you need. I don't think there's anything wrong with the scheme. It's just they haven't had the depth to carry out what it takes over a 12 game schedule. And sometimes just didn't have enough really, really good players, to be perfectly honest. And, you know, the depth problem goes way back. I remember a really good friend of mine who's been a defensive coordinator at many Georgia and Florida and been on the Dallas Cowboy staff. And he's presently a coordinator.

at a big 12 school and he was on an ACC staff back during the London era and I was just talking to him and I said tell me a little bit about what you see in Virginia and he says you know Virginia has some really good players

a lot of their first team guys can play for just about anybody in the ACC but after that there's just a huge drop-off. They don't have any talent behind those guys, no depth. So if they get injuries and things, they're in a very awkward position, and they don't have

any answers for it. And that's been a problem for years and years, as we've seen, through London, through Bronco, through Elliot. That's not a problem this year. Thanks to their hard work

in the transfer portal and bringing in some quality players with experience and I've said it ad nauseum, but they have depth at every position on the field. Comments continue to come in. I have some for Jerry Rackleff first. You mentioned Xavier Brown as an X-Factor. You offer some commentary on Jerry Rackleff.com about Xavier Brown. We both love Xavier Brown.

His role in this offense, he wants the football. Yeah, he does. And I think last year he felt like he didn't get it. enough, and I think some of the offensive coaches agreed that they probably underused him because he's also got pretty good hands. He can catch the ball out of the backfield, but he's got good speed. I think he'll probably get more touches this year if he can stay healthy, and that's always the big challenge is staying healthy through a football season.

but this year they've got some other guys in that running back's room with experience too they came from outside Jamari Taylor from North Carolina Central the kid from Wyoming and Noah Vaugh who looks like he could possibly make some contributions he's got some talent possibly some other guys but

I think this is Xavier's breakout year if he's going to if he's going to do it if he's going to do it this is the time to do it and what better time

because again this offensive line looks like they're serious about dominating the line of scrimmage. Is that the unit you're most excited about? Yeah I think so

I mean modern well not just college football but high school football pro football about how many points you can score now and it's almost like if you don't score five or six touchdowns you don't have a chance to win and that's why the quarterback position has become so so important in modern day football it used to be you could get by with a mediocre quarterback as

long as you had star running backs and stuff like that but if you don't have a guy in the trigger man position now you're almost lost and so Yeah, I'm excited to see what this offense can do because it looks like it has a lot of potential to put some points on the board. And that's one thing that's held Virginia back for the past several years. They just couldn't produce enough points, particularly down in the red zone. That's one of the things I heard Tony Elliott scream at his team about at the end of practice yesterday. How many times last year did we see Virginia football in the red zone and settle for field goals? Happen all the time.

It was one of the – I remember doing the show with you. all throughout last season. Countless times we pointed to red zone production and an inability to punch it into pay dirt. Instead, settle for field rules. And a lot of that is because they couldn't establish a run. Couldn't establish the run. I mean, there were times they were inside the five-yard line

and they just couldn't move the football. 100%. A lot of that is the wide receiving or the offensive line, the unit, the big guys up front. Highlight the viewers and listeners that are watching the program. Keith Smith, welcome to the broadcast. Bill McChesney, Philip Dow, Vanessa Parkhill, Bob Yarborough, Bob Shata. Thank you for watching the program.

Colleen Tyler, Holly Foster, Johnny Ornallis, thank you for watching the program. Tom Powell, Ray Cadell. Thank you for watching the program. The comments continue to come in. This comment is coming in from Northern Virginia. Chandler Morris, who does he remind you of from quarterbacks of yesteryear at the University of Virginia? I think it's too early to tell. I haven't seen enough of him to make that kind of comparison yet.

Size-wise, he's about the same size as Calandria from a year ago. He doesn't. I mean, what's he about, 5'10? Yeah. 5'10 and shoes? Yeah. And maybe 511, but I don't think that's going to hold him back in terms of being able to see downfield.

But I can't really think. think of another quarterback that I could compare him to right now. He's got a really strong arm. He can make all the throws. He's not quite as athletic as Calandria in terms of, you know, or some of the other quarterbacks they've had recently that can run with the ball and would be the major ball carrier for the football team. We're not going to see that.

So I think we're going to have to wait and see. I'm not sure there's been a quarterback in recent times that you could compare him to. He's just a little bit different. And I think he's going to throw the heck out of it. Is he a game manager or is he a gunslinger? I think he's a game manager. So we're looking like a point guard on the field? Yeah.

But, you know, it's not to say that he doesn't have some flash to his game. He can make all the throws. Don't make that mistake because he can pick a defense apart. And he can, I mean, he threw for almost 4,000 yards last year. And I think the fourth most touchdowns of any quarterback in college football, including two or three guys that got drafted. So this. guy's got game.

Jeremy Wilson watching in Eastern Tennessee. What happened to Jack Greasy? He's not on the depth chart. I've noticed that myself the other day. I don't know if he, did he graduate? I'm not sure. I don't know.

His name hasn't come up in camp or anything, so I can't answer that question. I was wondering the same thing, I think last night. I was looking over the depth chart, well, two nights ago when I wrote the Xavier Brown story and I noticed that he wasn't in the running back room

so I don't know if he graduated or there wasn't any announcement about him quitting football so maybe he ran out of eligibility. I'll have to check on that. This is a good comment that's come in. This one's from Richmond, Virginia. When the team needed to move the chains

it often looked for Malachi Fields. and always had a guy on offense that it could rely on. Who's the guy this year for Virginia? Well, that's yet to be determined, but I think they have a lot of candidates. You know, I think Sedarian Harrison could be that guy, Andre Green, who transferred here from North Carolina a season ago. Who's shown flashes.

He's had a really good summer and off to a good camp. It's got good size. Cam Courtney, I think, is more probably of a slot guy. Jamal Edrin, Edoring, transferred in. Jane Thomas, Trill Harris, who's been around the program. I think any of those guys could end up feeling that role. But I think somebody will have to step up and establish themselves as the go-to guy as we go-to guy as we go through training camp.

Chad Wood watching the program, one of Crozet and Western Amarles finest. Chad, we can't wait for game day. We can't wait for the season to start. We know you feel the same. Chad, Wood, you know this football team inside and out. What's your take on Virginia picked to finish 14th out of 17 teams in the ACC? Curious of your take on that, Chad Wood. Kevin Yancey throwing shade on Virginia football,

and he's highlighting the defense and the concerns on the defensive side of the ball with Virginia. Kevin Yancey's in Waynesboro. You want to offer some commentary on the defense, is it much improved from last year? Well, it should be. I mean, I think they have one of the better linebacking corps in the ACC, and they have a lot of experience. up front and I was talking to Chris Slate and Rugginski in the past week about pass rush they're very encouraged about they're going to be able to have a story

in fact about that on the site this today talking about how they hope that to be able to put a lot more pressure on the quarterback this year as one of the very weak spots on the defense last season they just couldn't pressure the quarterback they were next to last in the and sacks, and I think a hundred and third in the nation, which is pretty poor. They have a lot more guys, the kid from UNLV, 6-7, KMAC, I think he had seven and a half sacks last season, three in the bowl game against Cal. Some other kids that have established themselves.

in camp already is in spring practice as decent pass rushers. Secondary, they brought in a slew of defensive backs after spring practice. And so they're getting acclimated into the system. They got talent there. They got depth there. Yeah, I mean, you've got so much depth in the secondary. It's crazy. And so they shouldn't be giving up the kind of explosive plays that,

that hurt them so bad in critical moments of games last season. And if they can cover those guys just a little bit longer and give the pass rush time to do its work, I think the defense will be straightened out. I don't see that as a weak point at all. I don't see it as a weak point either, but time will tell. Chad Wood's got comments on the prediction of 14th out of 17 teams in the ACC. he says that's definitely too low, 14th, much improved roster UVA.

We won't be the top of the league, but definitely won't be in the bottom. I'm inclined to agree with that assessment. I see a middle-of-the-packed team here. Chad Wood also says, if we finish that low with this schedule, we will have another coaching search. Let's talk about the schedule. Pro football focus, one of the media platforms that covers college football and professional football, has UVA with the fourth easiest schedule in the next. nation. Yeah, I think Wake Forest is one of the teams that has a week schedule in Cal, which

to Virginia's benefit, they play both. Yeah, Wake Forest, the easiest schedule in the country. Texas Tech, the second easiest, according to pro football focus, Indiana, the third easiest, UVA, the fourth easiest, BYU, the fifth easiest, SMU, the sixth easiest, Kansas, the seventh easiest, North Carolina the ninth easiest. Houston, the 10th easiest. Yeah, and you know, you look at that and Virginia doesn't play any teams that finished in the top three or four in the league last year. They don't play Clemson. They don't play Miami. They don't play SMU. Florida State is still a big question mark, even though they've been predicted to finish fairly high in the ACC

they're coming off a disastrous season there are two toughest games at the moment it looks like at Louisville and at North Carolina both games in October so

certainly there's a lot of 50-50 games on this schedule but you know it's not a daunting schedule like last year when they were they took on

what was Clemson, SMU um um was I don't know I can remember if they played Miami or not last year

but um Notre Dame I mean it was a really back-handed schedule that most would have killed most teams let alone a team

that was struggling to reach 500 A lot to follow on this team. The fourth easiest schedule is, I'm curious to see how it plays out. I understand the strategy with the fourth easiest schedule because you need to post victories here in a make-or-break year for the coaching staff. I also question what that's going to do to fan engagement. I ask the viewer and listeners which home game is going to entice the fan base to Phil Scott Stadium.

Coastal Carolina is the opener. William and Mary in week three. Stanford at home on the 20th to September. Florida State coming off one of the worst years in football history. I think that's probably your winner right there. There's your is that your marquee home one? You got

Washington State on homecoming. No one knows a lick about Washington State in Charlottesville or the UVA fan base. I think they had a complete coaching changeover, but I don't know much about them either. Wake Forest and then Virginia Tech to close the season. I

asked the question because we now have the University of Virginia partnering with Costco to sell tickets. Yeah, I just saw a little ditty about that. I don't know much about it, but... I saw it in there at Costco. That's probably a good idea. I think it's a great idea. Yeah, anything that can get your name out there in front of the public

when they're shopping is a good idea to try to sell some tickets. if I gave you an over under on average attendance for the season and we'll use the number that's reported by the University of Virginia not the actual number what would you put the benchmark for an over under a prop bet at wow I mean you put it at 30,000 fans average attendance I'd say probably like 32 yeah 33 somewhere in there and if we're 32 that seems to be what it's been mostly near that number of the past

two or three years. And that's announced attendance, not actual attendance. Right. If you had to maybe tickets sold, I'm not sure, but not the actual people walk in the gate. If you had to put a bet on an over-under of 32,000 fans in Scott Stadium on average, where's your money? Wow. I don't know. That's a good question. I don't know if I can answer it because

there's been a lot of apathy surrounding the football program. I would think if you're a Virginia football fan, you'd be more excited this preseason than any of the previous ones of late. I agree.

Because of the influx of talent and just the possibilities of winning six, seven games, maybe more if the cards fall your way or you know, Chandler Morris has a dynamite year or something spectacular happens, I think if they can go down and beat NC State in that second game of the season, I think that could give

this program a lift and incredible momentum for the month of September, because after that they've got William and Mary, Stanford, and Florida State, all three in a row at home. and that would be a chance certainly to go into the Florida State game undefeated on a Friday night and again we don't know what Florida State we know what the projections are but they were projected pretty high last year

and ended up going to what two and two and they were terrible something like that the team quit on the coach I, you know, my crystal ball says Florida State's going to be a really good team this year. They should be. Yeah, because they got talent on the roster. Yeah.

And they have a lot to prove. Right. And a coach is fighting for his job. Absolutely. If he doesn't win. He's fired. He's gone. He's got as much heat on him as Tony Elliott, if not more, with the expectations around Florida State's program.

Absolutely. Chad Wood says there's no way in heck he'd take the over on $32,000 from an average attendant. I wonder the same. Vanessa Park Hill and Earleysville says she thinks they were selling the tickets in Costco last year as well, and she hopes this year is better.

And Kevin Yancey says the first game with Alabama, Florida State will tell their entire season. Yeah, well, that's usually a good indicator. There's a lot of big ACC, SEC, or ACC openers this season,

including Clemson, LSU, a lot of people think that of Clemson, when that wins that game, that they could very well end up being in the national championship game at the end of the year. Yeah. Because, I mean, who's going to beat them in the A.C. Nobody. Probably nobody. Do you say the ACC's down this year?

No, I think the ACC is actually better than it has been in the last couple of years. But I think Clemson's loaded for bearer. And that first game against the LSU is also going to be very telling, just like the Florida State Alabama game is. And a lot of pressure on the Alabama coach, too. If he loses to Florida State in the opener, he's going to hear volumes from the Crimson Tide fans, that's for sure. Florida State in week one.

That's a hell of a matchup right there. The Clemson LSU trash talk is already happening. Yes. Brian Kelly is, what did he call Clemson? Death Valley Jr.? Yes. Unbelievable. Why Brian Kelly would do that.

I actually appreciate Brian Kelly's moxie to doing that. He's got some, that's for sure. I'm not sure you want to hack off the Clemson fans because they can be pretty brutal. Absolutely. I've heard their wrath. I've been that on the field at the old-out Clemson game before, and they can get pretty loud and pretty rowdy. And they're already fighting over the rights of the Death Valley moniker,

which Clemson actually owns. They had that nickname of their stadium, I think, 10 or 11 years before LSU did. But it's funny, you know, both Death Valley's, both tigers. But that's going to be a huge game to kick. off the season. Other huge games in the ACC to kick off the season. Folks, I woke up, was it yesterday or the day before, and it was 57, 60 degrees at my house.

It was crisp in the air. I thought I was going to a college football game. It was early August. Yeah, I thought I had that same feeling. I'm like college football's in the air. You got Virginia Tech and South Carolina week one. That's a Sunday matchup. Notre Dame in Miami, a Sunday matchup.

TCU and North Carolina, a Monday, September 1 matchup. Of course, Florida State, Alabama, and of course, LSU and Clemson. Let's not forget the monumental matchup of the Coastal Carolina's Shanticle clears in the University of Virginia in week one. Comments come again quickly. Texas, Ohio State, absolutely Kevin Yancey. That's a big one. Week one is absolutely loaded.

Philip Dowen, Scottsville says, My bet is on 30,000 average attendance for Scott Stadium and this season. what are your thoughts viewers and listeners put them in the feed i'll relay them live on air this comment's come in why no talk on special teams can rackliff offer some insight onto what's happening with that unit i really can't uh we really haven't delved into that yet we'll be talking to uh coaches more as we go through camp in the next uh few days so uh really haven't talked about special teams with them yet but we will get around to that. They do have their punter and kicker back,

so I would think with those guys back and a lot more really good athletes on the team to compose those special teams and some pretty talented guys as kick returners, I would think this would just off the top of my head. I would say this is probably the best. special teams they've had here in quite some time. Hootie, you're really bullish on this Virginia football team.

I think they have opportunity to do something really good. I don't know that I wouldn't go as far as to go out and say they're going to win seven or eight games because, again, there's so many 50-50 games on the schedule. But if they don't beat themselves, and I think that's one of the real. reasons Tony Elliott has been so intense with these guys so far as he doesn't want he doesn't want that to happen you know having three dumb penalties in the fourth quarter against NC State like they did a couple of years ago and and stuff like that this needlessly beat you you beat yourself but you know they should beat coastal Carolina the NC State's a toss-up game they

should be William and Mary. Projections are they should beat Stanford. Florida State, probably going to be an underdog in that one. Definitely be an underdog at Louisville. Washington State should win. They should win. It's homecoming. Yeah.

At Carolina is probably they're going to be underdogs. At Cal should win. Probably at least a 50-50 game. Yeah, the only reason we're saying 50-50 game is maybe because of the cross-country travel. Yeah, and cows better, they lost a lot of close games last year. I think they were they were something like one and two and five or something. And single digit games. Single digit games. Wake Forest should win. Wake Forest, you would think they would win that game. Ad Duke is going to be tough. Underdog and at Duke and Virginia Tech has a history. We've got to say

you're going to probably lose that. If you ever going to beat Virginia Tech this is the year to do it. Yeah. You're here and. And Tech is down. Tech's not tech. Tech is not Frank Beamer Tech. I don't even recognize Virginia Tech. No. They've still been better than Virginia, but that could change. So you have them

based on your back of the napkin math there, at seven wins, I think. Coastal. I think seven wins is possible. Again, if they don't beat themselves and they don't do dumb things in the fourth quarter that

erases a win. when they should pull it out. Coastal 1, NC State 2, William Mary 3, Stanford 4. Potential will start 4 and O going into the Florida State game. Washington State 5, Cal 6 wins, Wake 4, 7 wins. Then if you're at 7 wins going to Duke and Virginia Tech, who's to say you can't get 8 or 9? It's conceivable.

I don't want to get people's hopes up too high, but it's not impossible, not with the kind of roster they've assembled. And again, it all goes back to can these coaches prove that they can win close games because they haven't been great at that. They've beaten themselves too much in the fourth quarter. They've been terrible in the red zone. They've been terrible at creating turnovers. They've been terrible at –

putting the pass rush on opposing teams. They haven't been able to run the ball. All those things should be corrected this year with the personnel that they have. It's going to come down to coaching, and whether these guys can get it done in the fourth quarter of, because a lot of ACC games come down to one-score games and the final minutes of games. And so they've got to prove that they can win. Absolutely. And I want to see this coaching staff.

improve its game planning and its coachability at halftime. The third quarter was a debacle for Virginia last year. And that third quarter performance is oftentimes to what the coaches are doing in the locker room with these guys. And it did not go well for Virginia this past season. We'll close football talk with anything else that we're missing that's in your notebook that we should cover, then head over to basketball.

because goodness gracious, does Ryan Odom have some shortlist talent he's going after? I did notice it was too late to get it on the site. But it'll be on later today. But Virginia has agreed to play Arkansas State here in 27. They take the place of that Indiana game that was canceled. So I think that's some smart scheduling there. I think when you're trying to rebuild, It happened in Arkansas State on the calendar is a good thing.

Yes. It's a very good thing. Basketball, goodness. Ryan Odom, his strategy for recruitment is not backing down at all. He's going after some of the nation's best talent. He's going after the top center in the country right now. What's he, 21 and all of America from a recruiting standpoint in his class? Yeah, the number 21 overall prospect.

and Arafan Diani, seven-footer from Guinea, originally, plays at Iowa United Prep, one of these schools like, you know, they have a national high school program. And he's the number one center prospect in the nation. He's seven-foot, big-bodied, really good score. for a big guy and Houston apparently is favored to landing but in this day and time

when you've got the NIL money in your pocket anything can happen you can't really say that you're out of it so they're in you know you're right and that Ryan Odom is not afraid to mix it up with the big boys I mean they're right in there

with Kentucky, Kansas, Houston, Yukon, Oregon, Louisville, Purdue, and trying to land this guy and going after a lot of other prospects in the top 50, top 75 in the country. And so hats off to him and his staff for being aggressive and going after these blue chippers. Do you like the strategy?

I do. I don't, I don't, I don't, You know, and I did notice that Duke and North Carolina are not on the list of some of these players. I think one of the things that's hurt Virginia in the past several years is they go after some of the same players that Duke and Carolina is going after, and you're not going to win many of those recruiting battles. And so I think it's good to maybe go out and go put yourself up against some of these other national programs because you have as much to offer as some of them do. So I like the strategy. You can't get them if you don't go after them.

And so I think it's smart to throw your hat in a ring and see what happens. You might finish second or third, but at least you're going after the talent. And if you don't get them, maybe you'll get the next guy. How do you characterize the mix of European prospects and American recruits with what Odom's trying to do? I think this year might have been a little... European heavy?

European heavy just because he needed players. Yeah, he was late in the game. He had to rebuild the entire roster. Find players that fit his system because I'm not sure some of the guys that left here would have been able to play in it. But, you know, the two big front court guys, according to our pal Nick, who has some, excuse me, some expertise in tracking international players, he has run low and DeRitter ranked in the

top five of the Europeans coming to play college basketball in America next year and two of the guys in front of them in the top five are in the NBA. They chose not to go to college. So you've got two of the top three or four European players coming into your program in the same front court. And so but I think it's a little extraordinary to have as many Europeans and internationals as he has this year. I don't think that will be the case every year. I think

he'd rather build from the high school recruiting class. But it, you know, it's where we are in college basketball now. It's not really college basketball anymore. It's pro basketball and a pro football. And you've got to go where the talent is.

And if you don't, if you can't find it in the high school ranks or through your own American portal, then international is the way to go. Totally. It's good to have a coach who has the connections. Connections and the ability to go after those guys because some coaches don't have that. I totally 100% agree with that. 100% agree with what you just said.

Michael Guthrie watched the program. He says, in regards to football, he's guessing the transfers that have come to the football have the experience that perhaps will keep the mistakes to a minimum this season with Virginia football. Yeah. I mean, these guys have been around. They've played some football. I was looking at the roster, and there's so many guys that have played five, six, seven years of college football. They've been around. This is not their first rodeo. I mean, Antonio Clary, we talked about it last week. Is it a seventh year of college football? There's a few seven-year guys. Unbelievable. We're talking to grown-ass men here. Yeah. Chandler Morris is a few days younger than Jaden Daniels. Yeah. The quarterback of the Washington Commanders.

Yeah, there's a lot of older guys on these rosters, and they're more mature. They've got, like you said, they're grown-ass men. They're big bodies. They're men. Drake Matt Cap yesterday, he played at Stanford. He played at Central Florida, and now he's here. And a lot of these guys have been in several programs. They've been exposed to just about everything that you can be.

supposed to in college football. So they've been around the block and they've got experience. And I doubt that they will make a lot of mistakes or they wouldn't have recruited them here in the first place because they were going to have for guys who on film

have been impressive. They weren't going to just sign anybody just to sign them. Well, the tidbit, if you guys leave with the tidbit from this program, Hootie in the beginning of the show said, the, I don't want to call it rumor mill, but the grumblings or the chatter around the football program suggests this football roster is a $20 to $30 million roster. Yeah.

I mean, I think, viewers and listeners, think about that, a $20 to $30 million football roster. Yeah, I was telling my friend Joe Bach, who has recently moved here from upstate New York. He played, it's the only man, I think, in the history of football, who's played in five or six professional football leagues. He played until he was 46 or 47 years old. I was telling him, he played here under Dick Bestwick, but I was telling him about that, and it blew his mind. I mean, he just couldn't fathom spending close to $30 million on a college football roster.

But again, it's isn't college football anymore, or it's pro football. there's folks that are choosing to stay in college because they're making so much money ladies and gentlemen and some of these guys won't play pro football and they can make some decent money while getting more degrees I mean that's what Antonio Clary is doing I mean he's got an undergraduate degree

he's already got a master's degrees working on another degree he's probably making some good money for a seventh year I would think so yeah I mean I can't blame them I can't blame the guys no smart yeah Jeremy Wilson says hooty when does the complete basketball schedule get released? It should be coming up pretty soon, I think.

I think it's usually out in late September or early October or maybe early September. But I don't think it'll be, I think it's coming out pretty soon. This question comes in for Hootie. What do you make of the Villanova exhibition? I think it's great that they've decided to, open this up to the public I thought it was I never understood the secret

scrimmages I mean I know coaches like to use those as a sort of an extended practice against somebody that's a quality team to you know to test and see what combinations might work

better against a good team etc expose your team to some different styles that they might see in the ACC later in the season, but I think it's better just to open it up to the public and let them see for themselves. And it's another revenue stream for the basketball program

to bring in an arena full of fans for a game like that. Why I especially like it is we as a fan base, heck, even us that follow the programs, follow the program for content creation, we don't really know the roster. And having an exhibition gives you a name on a jersey or a face on a program or a roster so you can start building that relationship as fans or followers of the team. Yeah, you get to see them. And just the blue-white scrimmage or whatever it was,

they'd play a very abbreviated game and didn't really stress maybe some faces of the game. but I guess an opponent like Villanova, they'll be giving everything they got, trying to win and trying to impress Odom and his staff and to get playing time, to win playing time. So this is going to be a serious scrimmage, and fans will get a good look at what some of these guys can do up close and personal.

How about we close with the news that broke at the beginning of the show with the swimming donation? Yeah, I mean, goodness, gracious. Todd de Sorboe, you got to hand it to this guy. He is building a dynasty powerhouse over at UVA. And the women's swimming program has done stuff that seems unparalleled. It's stuff that you used to read about with maybe Stanford or Texas or, or some of those schools, we're expected to dominate women swimming every year.

And now it looks like he's got the men's program headed in the same direction, bringing in the nation's best recruiting class. Maybe one of the best men's recruiting classes in the history of the sport. He's already done that with the women. So, wow. I mean, whatever the pain in that guy, it's not enough. Unbelievable. Yeah.

It's an Olympic team at the collegiate level. It certainly was. I mean, look at just what they've done in the World Games or whatever it is that they were just coming out of two big swimming nat, international swimming events. Yeah. It's the UVA swimmers. Medals after medals after medals. I think I read something where they've broken like, I don't know how many world records in the past three years.

UVA swimmers. some mind-boggling it's absolutely mind-boggling Jerry rackliff's institutional memory for UVA athletics and his coverage of this program is also mind-boggling the man is a Virginia Sports Hall of Famer and the website is jerry rackliff.com we're on it every day I read it every morning it's jerry rackliff.com the content's going to pick up oh absolutely we goodness you got so much we have a another meeting with I think

Coach Elliott on tomorrow, and then I think their first scrimmage is Saturday. I have a really good in-depth interview with Taylor Lamb about Chandler Morris, and a really in-depth interview with Terry Heffernan, the offensive line coach, about what a big difference there is on the offensive line, which I think is the key to the whole team coming up this week. along with all the other good stuff that heads our way. Jerry Rackleff, guys, at Jerryrackliff.com. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera.

Thank you to Judah Wickhauer for keeping the ship headed in the right direction. This is the Jerry and Jerry show. It airs on Tuesdays on every social media platform known of mankind. Visit jerry rackliff.com. Follow hooty on Twitter. The I Love Seville Show, ladies and gentlemen, is up at 1230 p.m. Wherever you get your social media or podcasting content. Thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry.

show so long thank you sir same to you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.