The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - UVA Football Stuns Louisville On The Road In OT; Breakdown Virginia's Win Against Louisville

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: UVA Football Stuns Louisville On The Road In OT Breakdown Virginia’s Win Against Louisville Hoos Are 5-1 Overall, 3-0 ACC, #19 Nationally Heal O-Line, Keep Morris Safe, Rely On Run Game UVA Heads Into Bye Eyeing ACC Championship How Does The Rest Of The Schedule Shakeout? Clemson, UNC & FSU Are 1-5 Combined In ACC ACC Notebook: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller were live on The Jerry & Jerry Show! The Jerry & Jerry Show airs live Tuesday from 10:15 am – 11:15 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Jerry & Jerry Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Welcome to the Jerry and Jerry Show, guys. My name is Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on a Tuesday morning in downtown Charlestville. We're a couple of miles away from Scott Stadium, a couple of miles away from the John Paul Jones Arena, and a couple miles away from Thomas Jefferson's University. And what a time to be affiliated with the University of Virginia's athletic department. This football program is the talk and toast to Charlottes,

Charlottesville and the talk and toast of Wahoo Nation. Tony Elliott's got a football team at five and one overall and unblemished in Atlantic Coast Conference play. The 19th ranked football team in the country heading into a bye week. And you got people talking, me including that the rest of the schedule is playing out in a way where, goodness gracious, they may run the table and play for an ACC championship. We'll talk all those storylines on the Jerry and Jerry show. We'll break down the win against Louisville, a win that was done in cardiac calf fashion in overtime in Kentucky. We'll talk on today's program what Virginia needs to focus on in the bi-week, and maybe it's healing that offensive line and figuring out a way to keep Chandler Morris safe and relying

on that running game as much as possible. And we'll take a look at the Atlantic Coast Conference from the good, the bat, and the ugly standpoint. And goodness gracious, Clemson, UNC, and Florida State, a combined one in five record in Atlantic Coast Conference play. Who would have thought that? Judah Whitcower is behind the camera. We'll get to the star of the show, Jerry Hooty Rackliff, the namesake of Jerry Rackliff.com. And go over at Jerry Rackliff.com and look at the beautifully

upfitted and tweaked and redesigned website. Looks great, Hootie. Thank you. We'll give all the credit to Coleman Kitchen, who redesigned the look, and he did a terrific job, and we're very proud of what he has done. Well, it's clean.

It's got great use of white space. It was always very good. You made something that was very good, even better. It's Jerry Racklip.com. We start the program the same way every day, scatter shooting with the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. Well, you know, I probably need to apologize to whoever it was back in August who said that they thought Virginia would get eight wins.

We were saying, show me where are you going to get eight wins? I personally thought at this point of the season that there was a good chance, they'd be three and three. We all did. Yeah. But, I mean, they've, they've surpassed my expectations for sure. And it just goes to show what a great job they've done in acquiring talent and knowing what to do with it once they got it.

And you've got to give them credit, bringing 32 new players in some of them didn't even get here until during the summer or in training camp. And we thought that was going to be one of their biggest challenges was getting all those guys on the same page. And they've done a brilliant job and melding these guys into almost an unstoppable force on offense. They are dynamic on offense. I mean, a quarterback that this is a crazy statement, here. Is Chandler Morris on the list at the halfway point of the season for the Heisman trophy? He's on some lists.

Isn't that crazy to say? Maybe at the bottom of the list, but he's still on it. Unbelievable. That's quite an honor to be in the top 10 of the Heisman list when, you know, there's 130-some FBS programs. And if you're an FCS quarterback, you can qualify for that list. too. So, yeah, that's quite a distinction for him. And he's earned it. He's been brilliant and gutsy. He's been everything that you want in a quarterback, really, and not just on the field, but as a leader and a role model. So hats off to him. He's lived up to his reputation. He said he came here to win a championship. He wasn't fooling around. You go into the byeweek,

and one overall. You go into the bye week at 3 and O in Atlantic Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference play. You go into the buy week at top the ACC standings. You go into the buy week with a clear cut path to a birth in the ACC championship. You go into a buy week with the 19th national ranking of 19 in the nation. I mean this is a storybook for six games of the year. Yeah, they could actually rise this week without even playing a game. So depending on what happens to the other teams in front of them.

And then Washington State coming into town, a team that, if I'm not mistaken, has given up 59 points in each of its last two games. So that bodes well for a Virginia offense that wants to get back into becoming a rolling ball of butcher knives, which is what they were the first five games of the season. Is it the Cougars of Washington State? Yes. Coming out of the buy week for Homecoming at Scouts Stadium. We'll get to that matchup.

We'll get to what needs to be done with this Virginia football roster at this time of rest, this time of reprieve. We'll take a look at the good, the bat, and the ugly of the Atlantic Coast Conference, including Virginia Tech. Good night. Blacksburg is getting just absolutely bulldozed with despair.

uh in depression right now but first we got to talk louisville and overtime win chandler morris not the hero in this one uh played a good game yeah uh still played a good game how about that defense hoody uh the defense really stepped up and uh i thought what was great was that john rizinski and his staff made some terrific halftime adjustments into taking away most of what was killing them in the first half, which was wide receiver Chris Bell, who had like nine or ten catches in the first half alone, and they just couldn't seem to stop him.

And I think he ended up with only like three catches in the second half. One of them was a brilliant one-handed catch for a touchdown, but they basically took him away with, I think, some double coverage and the turning up the heat with pass rush, and they really got to Miller Moss in that second half put a tremendous amount of pressure on him, forced him into making some bad decisions. And you got to give them credit.

They were terrific. Comments already come in in for Hootie Rackleff. We'll get to those in a matter of moments. Before we get to those comments, I have some of my own for Hootie. winning at Louisville no easy task no history would suggest that they were an underdog in this contest put into perspective the significance of of beating a team like louisville and kentucky followed by a win against florida state at home and into the best two weeks that you've seen

for virginia football and how long wow uh easily since 2019 and i'd have to go back and look at that schedule to see if there were two games in a row where they did something I mean are we talking the most significant two-week stretch since the team had a number one national ranking? Possibly. And that's kind of where I want to go down here. As fans, we shouldn't be spoiled here. Is this the most significant two-week stretch that Virginia has had in a generation or two? It could be. I'd have to go back and look at it year by year, but I'm, In 95 and 98, they had two great football teams. I would have to go back and look and examine the schedule to try to find back-to-back weeks

where they pulled something like this off. I don't know if they've ever gone back-to-back weeks and knocked off to equality undefeated opponents. Right. Because Louisville was at receiving votes. Yeah, they were. They were on avert. They probably should have been ranked, actually.

And, you know, they had huge sticks. They were counting on beating Virginia and getting into the top 25 and extending their record to 5-0. They had won their last seven straight home games. They had pretty much owned Virginia in Louisville over the years. Even George Welsh didn't win there. I think he lost a 16 to 15 game back in the day before they came to Charlottesville the next year

and he pummeled him then I believe but that's a tough place to win they've beaten some really good teams there over the years and that's a solid operation. Jeff Brom does a terrific job. In fact, a friend of mine, who was a defensive coordinator at Louisville back when they hired Bronco. Jeff Brom was actually a guy that they were strongly considering hiring at the time as Virginia's head coach.

He had already been here for one interview and was scheduled to come here for a second before Bronco accepted. So had cards turned differently, he could have been Virginia's head coach instead of being at Louisville. But he runs a solid program. He's got a good coaching staff. They recruit well.

They use the portal well. They have a lot of NIL support. Great fan base, nice stadium. Beating them on their turf is, is maybe more impressive than beating Florida State here. And in some aspects, I thought Louisville was better than Florida State. So going out there and winning that game took a lot of guts and some good coaching. And even though Chandler Morris didn't turn out to be the hero,

he certainly was heroic in getting Virginia down to the two-yard line. from where they scored that winning touchdown in overtime. Eastern Tennessee's Jeremy Wilson setting the same thing. I mean, he says if it wasn't for that run by Morris in overtime, we might have had gone for a field goal. Morse set up to winning touchdown. He says Chandler Morris's Drew Breeze made over in his opinion. I mean, that's high praise.

Drew Breeze is a Hall of Famer. Yeah. That's one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Yeah, it's tough to make that comparison. but his game is somewhat reminiscent of that. We'll have to wait and see what he accomplishes later on. But yeah, that was a gutsy run. And again, he gave up his body.

He's not the kind of guy that likes to slide. He got hit hard by three Louisville guys at the same time. You get hit too much, in my opinion. Yeah. I mean, he... This team goes as Chandler Morris goes. I literally turned that into one of the headlines for today's show. No question about it.

It's keep Chandler Morris safe. Yeah. That's a good, very good point. It's more, and like the thing is, it's like we saw this with Calandria. We see this with gunslingers, with men of boxy, if you may. Their confidence is their biggest strength, but it's also an aspect of their personality that can put them in peril. Yes. And Morris believes that on every time the ball snapped to him, he could make a winning play.

And some winning plays are throwing the ball away and not getting hit. True. And I... It's hard for a quarterback to learn, I think. Right. Especially a guy like Chandler Morris. Yeah. Because that's who he is.

You know, I would think that he's being hammered with this in the by week by Coach Elliott, Des Kitchens, and the staff. if something happens to you we are not a top 20 football team we're a very different team and that's not to say the backup doesn't have upside but he doesn't have present upside he's future upside yeah he just doesn't have the experience

right those not throwing shade on him but it just I mean this is Chandler Morris's sixth year and he's been in some outstanding football programs and he's the kind of guy that can make you go because he knows he's seen it all he's done I don't know that he's done it all but he's done a lot and he's he has just some built-in

instincts I mean he has a great clock in his head for when to get out of the pocket or when to make some change a play or whatever he just has so much knowledge and knows how to to use it. And I mean, he's, you couldn't ask for a better quarterback to be running this program right now. That guy reads coverage pre-snap better than anyone. He's terrific at that. He's, he's, this is nuanced football. You're obviously an incredibly, an incredibly nuanced man when it comes to sports, in particular football. What he's able to do prior to the snap and reading coverage and what's coming, you see it with how he sets up the pocket, how he's taking the snap and almost sliding to one side or adjusting his feet to one side to give himself that extra

second because he understands that someone's coming off the left end or the right end or off the middle. And that extra second allows a play to develop or a route to develop a little bit longer. I'm just intrigued by watching what the game of chess he's playing before he gets to football. Yeah, he has a gift for that And I'm sure a lot of it's by being a coach's son Especially an offensive coach's son I'll never forget Watching film with Al Groh back in the day

And I don't know if he got this from Parcells Or just something that he got just on his own But he said some quarterbacks, particularly in college They just don't see the things that you just pointed out it's like they have a piece of wax paper in front of them and they just

they don't see it they're probably never going to see it but he he sees everything and has the football IQ to analyze it quickly and he knows where you're vulnerable

he can not only sees the past coverage but he can see what's coming from the blitz where the defense might be vulnerable if there's more guys on the defensive front or more guys backed off the line of scrimmage and he makes great reads not only just passing

but also on some of those runs like the three touchdown runs he made against Florida State a couple of those were reeds and he's just the total package. He really is. He's a total package. Another guy who appears to be the total package, we know he's the total package. He's back and he's healthy.

Cam Robinson's last three games, Hoody, and viewers and listeners know this. We have very smart viewership and listenership. Yes, we do. Cam Robinson missed some games to start the season. He's played three. He played Stanford, limited time against Stanford. they unleashed the beast against Florida State and boy oh boy did he look good against Louisville

how about these last three games and limited time against Stanford seven tackles fumble recovery Florida State the dude has 10 tackles and a sack against the Seminoles and goodness gracious against Louisville

10 tackles a pick return for a touchdown right I mean this guy's incredible I mean It just goes to show what they were missing. It makes you wonder if he'd have been healthy for the NC State game if he might not have made a couple of plays in that that would have turned that game around too.

But he's a difference maker. They knew that when they got him. They wanted to build the whole defense around him coming out of high school down in the Tidewater area. And it's a reason they were celebrating when he picked Virginia over Florida State in the recruitment in Tennessee. And he's lived up to all those expectations. And it's a shame that he was left off the preseason all-ACC team.

I think there were eight linebackers named ahead of him. And I think it pissed him off to the point where he wants to prove those people wrong. And so far, he's doing it. He's certainly doing it. Cam Robinson is a special, special athlete, one that I feel confident could, could play on Sundays in the National Football League. Chad Wood watching the program, Chad, are you

an assistant coach with the Western Amarro football team? I think I saw that on your Facebook page. He was a part of the prolific single-wing attack led by Brian Laskineck. Steve Isaac's the head coach. That was when I was working under you and for you at the sports department

for the local newspaper, I believe now that he is a assistant coach, life is full circle, on the football team that he starred for. Yeah. Which is pretty cool. He says, I love Chandler Morris's heart, but goodness gracious, run out of bounds or slide. And he also said that Mitchell Melton has been playing great football as well.

He has. He's been named ACC player of the week, two weeks running now. and big Ohio state transfer he disrupts from his position and one impressive thing about him Jerry is he's playing with a massive club on his hand yeah yeah and uh that has to limit some of the things you can do yeah at his position and he's overcome that I just imagine what he's going to be like when he gets that thing off arm we were kidding with him a couple weeks ago when we talked to him, we said, well, I guess you could look at it as you're using that as a weapon. And I remember the great Rosie Brown, who is from Charlottesville,

and was named to the NFL's 75th anniversary team. It's got a street named after him. Yeah, that's how great he was. And I interviewed him one time, and I wish I could remember the entire story. It's been a long time ago. but he played with a rap around his forearm and hand. And he used that as a weapon rather effectively in the NFL. He'd club people.

Yes, he'd knock them silly. He would literally club people. To Chad's point, Mitchell Melton is playing like a man possessed, and this guy is humongous. Six-four, nearly 270 pounds for the Ohio State transfer against the Louisville Cardinal, five tackles, two sacks for Mitchell Melton, force fumble for Mitchell Melton. This guy is an absolute animal, and the Atlantic Coast Conference is recognizing him.

How about the tailbacks, Hootie? How about this running game? I would love to see this football team in the biweek, come out of the byweek, and say we have one of the deepest stables of running backs in the running backs in the conference, we are going to further reinforce our identity as a run-first football team. And I think they will. I think we'll see that because no of on is supposed to be healthy. They thought he might be ready for this game, but I guess he wasn't quite there yet.

But certainly by the time they get to Washington State, that's another two weeks of healing. He'll be ready to play. And they do have maybe the deepest stable. running backs in the conference with him and Jamari Taylor and Xavier Brown and Harrison Whaley from Wyoming who came into the season with the most rushing yards of any active player in FBS football but we knew it was going to be a little harder to run the ball against Louisville than it was most of the teams they've played and and it was although Taylor did have some really nice runs

including a 26-yard run but that Louisville front is big and physical and tough to move but Virginia's offensive line even though they suffered two more injuries in that game with tight-in Dakota Twitty getting hurt on I think the first possession

and then McHale Bowley, their excellent left tackle, getting injured. Who had NFL scouts in attendance watching him? Yeah, I don't doubt that. Yeah, that was the report. Teams, four or five NFL teams in attendance in part to watch bully, who struggled with injuries. I mean, he struggled with ankle injuries. Yeah.

He's struggled with injury. He's got big time upside. Offensive line plays. Offensive line health. not play, but offensive line health is starting to concern me a little bit. Yeah, and I think they'll get a lot of these guys back, but going back to Bowley, I mean, he's a guy that they felt like was going to be sort of a franchise-type player for them at left tackle.

His father played in the NFL, and he just was a big kid, and they threw him into the fire as a true freshman, which he probably wasn't ready to play. Well, he wasn't ready to play, and he was confused and, you know, a little down after his first year, but, you know, he's gotten better every year, stronger, more physical. He's the kind of guy that if he can continue to play on this level, he could be a high-round draft choice and left tackles in the NFL are a precious commodity because if you have a good one like a first round draft choice those guys can play for 10 12 13 years at that position and it's I mean to Brickshaw Ferguson's perfect example absolutely he would be the guy that I would

point to in that respect who interestingly now is a nurse yeah which props to him Trying to get him on the show. Yeah. I mean, it's not often you see a left tackle from the National Football League. And was it the Jets, the New York Jets for most of his career? His old career. Transitioned to nursing. What a story.

Yeah, I think his mom was a nurse, and I think he wanted to give back some. And obviously money is not the motivator, but I think he's just a good person at heart. But he was thrown in as a freshman. like Bowley and started early and Al Groh recognized the fact that he was going to be a pro. A great at that position and a pro. And certainly

he hit the nail on the head with that one. Yeah, and Groh, that's when Groh was producing NFL offensive line talent on the regular, including tight end talent on the regular. I believe he even converted Patrick Estes from tight end to an offensive lineman who played for your San Francisco 49ers. Yes, that's true.

Now, Patrick Estes is the athletics director at the Covenant School. That's right. In Charlestville. Yeah. And I'll tell you what, when a 6'5-250-pound jack bald guy walks into the gym, people take notice, hoody. Yeah. He owns the room immediately. He owns the room.

Patrick Estes. I hope he hears that. He's doing a hell of a job as the AD. James Madison watching the program. I love this guy James Madison. James, where are you watching the show, James Madison? He's rocking UVA gear in his Facebook profile picture. He says, I thought the patchwork offensive line did a great job considering, all things considering.

He also says, I know it was hot on them because it was hot on us watching it. Could you guys comment on the patchwork offensive line? Could you just comment on the unit? We're doing that. Comment on the unit a little more. Yeah, talking to Dez Kitchens earlier in the week, they knew it was going to be pretty hot out there. It was 82, which meant it was probably closer to 90 on the turf. So, again, their conditioning, I think, is paying off for them.

But, yeah, Terry Heffernan continues to be magical as the offensive line coach and plugging guys in. He didn't think he was going to have that problem this year because of all the depth they brought in, but they got hit hard at right tackle and training camp and into the season. now they're getting hit in different spots along the line with Brady Wilson at center and Mikel Bowley at left tackle they're having to mix and match and move guys play them sort of out of position he trains I think he cross trains those guys to where they can play multiple spots so and Drake Metcalf has been a miracle in the fact that

he's been able to slide up and down that line but yeah, hats off to them. And I think that's probably the biggest benefactor for Virginia of the by week is I think they're going to get a bunch of these offensive linemen back, some of them that were

hurt early on and haven't played. So the by week came at the most perfect time for this football team. Yeah. I mean, the absolute perfect time for the by week. Barrett Stevens watching the program on YouTube.

Interesting. He's interested to see if Antonio Clary can start to impact the secondary, the second half of the year. Getting everyone healthy will make or break how we finish the season. Clary, who is in, what, his seventh year of college football, working on, I think, a third degree, a second master's. Yeah, how about that? He's already got an undergraduate degree. He already has one master's working on a second master's Clary. He's a playmaker.

He's a difference maker. The key with Clary is can he stay healthy? Yeah, he's an impressive kid. And one thing, with that seven years of experience, he's really football savvy. I mean, he's the kind of guy that can get people lined up if they're not in the right spot and can use that football knowledge he's acquired to help make the defense better. And he is a difference maker as a player. And, you know, he's had that knee entry last year that held him out for so long even into this season

and had the targeting call, I guess, in the Florida State game that set him back a little bit. But we talked to him, I guess, a little over a week ago, and he was telling us a lot of stuff. I mean, he has aspirations of playing in the NFL. Yeah. Somebody asked him and said, why do you keep coming back from all these injuries and playing for seven years? And he said, because I love football, he says, I'm going to play until the wheels fall off. And you've got to appreciate that kind of enthusiasm for a player. And you're exactly right.

He's just a terrific kid. James Madison is watching in Mineral, Virginia. I asked him where he's watching. Mineral Virginia is the Lion's Den. Stamped on the map by the late, great Mark Fisher. The only... Nice football program out there. Oh, my goodness.

I'll tell you what, you sent me to cover many of Louisiana County football team. That's when Ron Trey Houchins was a star running back. Doug Strayley was the athletics director and Mark Fisher was the head coach. Never in my wildest dreams as someone who was in his early to mid-20s that I ever anticipate driving. 50 miles into the wilderness to pull up to a stadium that had 10,000 people around it, walk into the jungle, which is what they called the lions then, the jungle, only to see an actual real-life lion in a cage, pushed around a football field by cheerleaders

with a fire-breathing lion on the side of the field, like a machine lion. The football sky drops, you know, what's it called when you're jumping out of an airplane? What are those guys called? Free fall. Free fall. What are the Paratroopers dropping the football at the 50-yard line about jumping out of an airplane.

Craziest scene ever. The wildest scene ever was when the cheerleaders were pushing Bubba the actual real live line around the football field. And Baba decided to use the restroom. 10,000 people went,

oh. I was trying to turn that into the lead of my story somehow. But I chose not to do that, Hoody. I chose not to do it. True story. That's probably would have been edited out. I think I would have. I don't know.

With Steve Overhauser on the desk, it probably would have slid it. Good point. No shade on Steve. Wild times, those times, were they not? That was fun. Didn't we go somewhere and cover a state championship with them? Down in Lynchburg or something? We did cover a state championship.

All those, I think you drove. That's, I think, when you had the Ford Explorer then. Yeah, yeah, probably right. Yeah, those were crazy times. comments are coming in faster than I can keep up. This is from Cliff Daisy, who's watching on the eastern shore. He says, good morning from a warm eastern shore. He's still an absolute wonder that UVA has been able to do this.

So what UVA has been able to do to this point of the season. I think we all are, Cliff. I certainly appreciate your feelings there. What if Cliff's out on his boat this morning? Let us know, Cliff. Let us know. Here's a crazy story. Here's a crazy narrative or crazy talk. and I'm not even sure it's crazy.

There's some chatter that they couldn't run the rest of the schedule without losing. Well, let's look at that. Yeah. I was just looking at the ESPN's projections here. And I don't know what they do to go to come up with these. I don't know what kind of machine they put this in. But certainly they're going to be favored to beat Washington State. There's no question about that.

Their percentages of beating North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Chapel Bill, their chances went up from 83% the week before to 87%. Who would have guessed that before the season? Because Carolina used to be a tough place to win. Their chances of beating Cal at Cal jumped from 67. percent to 72 percent. I watched that Cal Duke game and Cal jumped all

over Duke early and looked like they were going to blow Duke out and Duke came back and won the game dominated. 86% chance of beating Wake Forest there was 90%. That went down a little bit after Wake went into

Blacksburg and dominated the Hokies. The only game they're projected to lose in the second half is Duke. Duke has a 59% chance of winning that game. It used to be 51% the week before. And then this is going to please and shock people.

82% of chance of beating the Hokies, which jumped up from 78%. So if they go 5 and 1 the second half of the season, that's a 10-and-2 record. And you're probably in the ACC championship game, and who knows. Yeah, 10 and two record, only one loss in conference play, and most likely in the ACC championship game. And at that point, it's like any given Sunday, anything can happen. Yeah, and I'm guessing it would probably be Miami in that game.

Georgia Tech certainly a possibility, among others, and Duke. But there's only been one 10-win team in UVA football history in 120, 30 years. And that was the 89 team that set up the run to the number one ranking the following year. But that 89 team was a hell of a football team. But it's hard to believe in all the good teams that Virginia's had. They've only had one-10 win season in all those years. Absolutely unbelievable. And here's another crazy thing to consider.

Coming out of the by week, they play Washington State where they should be a fairly, you know... Prohibitive favorite. Heavy favorite, yeah. Yeah. You win that game, you're bowl eligible. That's right. And they've been bowl eligible.

They haven't been to a bowl since 19. They were bowl eligible the following two years, but COVID got in the way. But, yeah, being bowl eligible barely halfway through the season, It's pretty remarkable. Pretty remarkable. It reinforces the job security for Tony Elliott and his staff.

No, without question. He may get an extension. Reenforces the job security for the athletic director, Carla Williams, who prior to the season was embattled. I can safely say that, right? Yeah, I think that would be fair to say. Embattled. Now her security seems extremely secure.

Her job security status seems severely. safe. And it creates the momentum needed going into the basketball season with a brand new head coach, especially as the athletic department is rolling out this new, this new licensing plan for season tickets at the John Paul Jones Arena, where they're basically going to be asking the fan base thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep season tickets. Yeah. And it couldn't have been written better so far at this start for Virginia. That's true. And her hiring of Ryan Odom and Chris Pollard for baseball were

solid hires as well. So yeah, she, I think she has solidified her position as well. So Virginia's athletic program is in terrific shape right now, which was important because this was a this was, they were kind of at a crossroads. roads. And, you know, you had a football program that had been struggling. You had a turnover in basketball after a legend retired, and another legend moved on to the SEC and baseball. And so

last year was not a good year for Virginia athletics, and a lot of people were asking a lot of questions. But right now, this looks like it could be a banner year for Virginia athletics and in the three, I don't, certainly the two major sports, and a lot of people consider baseball, the third major sport over there. This week's schedule has got a couple of interesting matchups to the point you made earlier in the show where Virginia can climb the ladder without even playing, in particular a Virginia Tech, a Georgia Tech matchup. Ooh.

Is that in Atlanta? That's in Atlanta. I'm not going to ever say this that I'm going to root for Virginia Tech. I'm not ever going to say that. But should the rambling wreck lose, that's beneficial for Virginia, and it's

pushed for an ACC championship. Clear-cut best teams got to be what, the hurricanes, right? At this point. Yeah, I think so. I mean, I watched the Florida State game with Miami this past weekend. And Miami owned them until the game was essentially over.

And then Miami took its foot off the gas a little bit. And Florida State, in desperation mode, just started flinging it everywhere and let Castellanos do his thing. And Miami didn't respond very well to it. So I'm sure Cristobal, Mario Cristobal, ball was quite upset with the way they handled the fourth quarter in that game. But, yeah, I think there's clear-cut the number one team in the conference right now. The Duke Blue Devils, ladies and gentlemen, they are on a buy this week as well. They then come out of the by week, the Duke Blue Devils, and I'm looking at the schedule here,

they come out of the buy week on the 18th of October against Georgia Tech. in Durham. That's a huge game. That's a huge game. That's going to eliminate one of those two teams most likely from, uh, from contention. And I'll tell you, Duke's schedule to close the year is not an easy task here. They got Georgia Tech and Durham out of the by, which is the 18th of October, travel to Death Valley to face Clemson. I mean, I know Clemson is down. It's still Clemson and Death Valley. That's right. Then out of conference at Yukon. Virginia in Durham, North Carolina and Chapel Hill. That's a toss-up for those rivals.

And then they finish with Wake Forest. Wake Forest is... Sneaky. I was just going to say that's sneaky good, right? That's what I was going to say. Wake Forest should not be overlooked. I just follow your leader. I would not overlook the Deacon's.

No, I mean, they've had some pretty impressive showing so far, and they're better than I thought they've. I thought they were going to be in dire straits this season with the coaching change and all that. But they've been a lot better than I expected. And they certainly walked into Blacksburg and came out with a nice win. Because even though tech's struggling, it's, you know, it's not easy to go into Blacksburg and win. Yeah, it's still lean. Offer some commentary on the Hokies.

I mean, goodness gracious. I don't want to say how the mighty have fallen because the mighty have been on a dissent for some time now certainly since Beamer Ball became a thing of the past and we started seeing it toward the tail end of the Frank Beamer term Yeah They're almost unrecognizable now It's not Beamer Ball without question

I mean those were the heydays Just like the George Welsh heydays And it's hard to follow that and keep it going Fuentes did a little bit at the beginning kind of like Al Groh did at the beginning following George and then things happen and you see a decline and they just haven't been a very good football team over the past several years. They've struggled to be 500 and I think part of it is and this has impacted Virginia too.

I think Virginia and Virginia Tech have struggled to to recruit well in their own home state. They've gotten some marginal players, occasionally a good player, but they don't collect the great talent in the state like they did during the Beamer era, just like Virginia did during part of Georgia's era. And if you look back at most of the tech and UVA really good football teams,

there were a lot of Virginians on those rosters. Yeah, they own the Commonwealth. They own the Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach area, most notably. Virginia Tech built a living on that. And I don't know that they've made great choices in their head coaching hires either. So I think that's been part of the problem. And they're paying for it. They're paying for it.

I mean, think about the compounded problems in Blacksburg. And the money. I was going to bring that up. They've been terrible head coached hires since Frank Beamer. They have not kept up with the Atlantic Coast Conference in this arsenal or arms race of money. They're not just millions behind. We're talking a couple hundred million behind. is what Whit Bapcock, the athletic director of Virginia Tech, told the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors, were hundreds of millions behind.

They are not owning recruiting in the Commonwealth anymore. The brand doesn't carry the same weight. I mean, if it was up to me, and I don't know why he would take this job, you, in Hootie's terminology, take multiple Brinks trucks, you drive them down the eastern seaboard to South Carolina, and you try to get Shane Beamer to take. the job. I don't know why he would take that job. I don't either. Outside of growing up there.

Yeah. I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of sentimental tugs at him, but he's been in some good programs as an assistant coach along the way before he became the head coach of South Carolina. and I'm sure he recognizes what he has there in Columbia. And I don't know, I haven't followed them closely after the early part of the season, so I don't know what their record is right now. I'll find that. Yeah, but unless he's not succeeding there,

I can't see any reason why he would leave on his own. I don't care how much Virginia Tech would offer him to come home and rescue the program. And I'm not sure that Frank would want him to do that either because you're leaving a potentially really strong situation within him. I mean, I've been to that South Carolina Stadium and it can rock. It's awesome. They have a great fan base.

Great fan base. And tons of money, support, et cetera. he's been their most successful coach. Absolutely. I mean, look, who was, Lou Holtz was there, Steve Sparrier was there. Three and two overall, one and two in conference play. Yeah.

So unless they're unhappy with him, I can't see why he would even contemplate making such a move. I just don't think that's a smart thing to do. South Eastern Conference has nine teams ranked in the top 25. Nine. Unbelievable. Old Miss, Texas A&M, Crimson Tide, Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, Georgia, LSU, Vandy, and Tennessee. It's a different world.

It's nine teams, unbelievable. If you haven't, if you've never been to a really good SEC program's home game and you're a football fan, you owe it to yourself to go take that in and experience it because it's, it's a different world. That's all I can say. Chad Wood says James Franklin is facing some headwinds at Penn State. Was it? Penn State just lost to UCLA. Yeah, UCLA's awful. Yeah, crazy that UCLA beat Penn State,

just an institutional brand. They rolled it up on them, too. It wasn't just a close win. An interim offensive coordinator, the former quarterback of UCLA calling the place. Wild time for college football. This is a tweet that you put out on your Twitter account. Jerry Rackleff on Twitter, guys, does a phenomenal job on Twitter.

Hootie, you got Clemson, North Carolina, and Florida State, the bottom of the conference, and the Tigers, heels, and Seminoles are combined one in five in ACC play. And one of those, that one win came against one of the other teams. Clemson, UNC. Yeah. So Florida State won't stay there. They're too good to be at the bottom. They'll rise.

I don't know to what point, but they're a better football team than that. But Clemson, and I think Clemson will probably get some things straightened out. Chapel Hill is a different question. That looks like a disaster, and we're hearing things about the locker rooms divided, that the coaching staff is not communicating. I mean, I don't know what Bill Belichick was thinking. All the fans left at halftime of the Clemson game. I saw a little bit of that,

and so the stadium looked like it was almost empty. To me, that's one of the biggest puzzles. And I guess I've listened to some talk radio around the country, and there's a lot of people that think that, A lot of it goes back to Bill Belichick was great at evaluating pro talent for his pro team. But he's not great at recruiting, that he's not great at... Inspiring amateurs that need the rah, rah, rah to play at this level. Yeah.

These aren't professional athletes. And not great at recognizing and finding good college talent. to play college football. Right. It's a different, again, a different world than the NFL where he was dealing with grown men and finding professionals and evaluating talent from other NFL clubs. There are drafts at New England with him

and as general manager was not great for the most part. So if all those things are going on, on that we hear is it going on, then that program's just not going to turn it around. There's no way. Bill McChesney, if UNC loses to UVA, Bill will be Bella chucked. Bill McChesney leaves that comment. We've dubbed him the mayor of McIntyre. I don't think there is a press conference today, so we can go to the full 1115, right? Yeah, good, good. No press conference. I didn't want you to have to take a helicopter to Tony Elliott's presser. It's a buy-week, so no presser.

Normally, we're all fair at 11 because the press conference is at 1130, and Hootie's got to scoot over to that presser. Comments continue to come in. This is an interesting one from Charlotte, North Carolina area. What does Hootie think the close of the schedule and the season will look like with the teams that may contend for an ACC championship? I'm sorry, I was... What do you think the teams will look like that could contend for an ACC championship?

Oh, well, I think Miami certainly is there. Georgia Tech, that Georgia Tech do game looms as huge. I think one of those teams going to be eliminated right there. But both of them are in contention right now along with Virginia. SMU, you can't discount them at this point. I don't know that they've played a meaningful conference game yet, have they? I'll check. Not that I recall.

Let's see. Who else am I thinking about? Florida State's going to make a run, but I think that they've dug a hole. They've dug a hole that's going to be really tough to get out of. Cal is dangerous, but they have an 18-year-old quarterback that's a gunslinger himself, and he's showing at times that he's 18 years old. So it's going to be tough for them to get into that upper echelon. I don't think I'm forgetting anybody.

No, I don't think you are. The ponies of SMU, any ACCC game of merit, they've only played one is Syracuse, which they, Syracuse is a team that's not the same Syracuse with their quarterback out. The backup quarterback doesn't carry the same weight that the starter, who I think, was it

ripped up his knee? I think so. Yeah, ripped up his knee. SMU's got Stanford this weekend. Of course, you can't completely I guess you can't completely dismiss Louisville either. They could fight their way back into contention, I think. Yeah, Louisville's

got the one loss, obviously, against UVA. Part of me is not going to discount Clemson either. Clemson's one and two in conference play. And there's still a lot of talent on that Clemson roster. But I mean, if you're a Virginia fan, you're in the driver's seat here. And as Houdy said, that Georgia Tech, Duke matchup in a couple of weeks may eliminate one of those two. Probably. At least it's going to put somebody in a hole. You're going to put somebody in the hole for sure. This is a crazy story for you here. Tony Elliott must be the front runner for ACC coach of the year right now. I think hands down he would be right now.

No question about it. I don't know who else off the top of my head that it could be unless it's Georgia Tech head coach, maybe. Brent Key or the guy at Duke, Manny. The former Miami Horde of it. Is that Diaz? Yeah, Diaz. the former Miami head coach.

Is Chandler Morris on the short list of player of the year in the conference? I would think so right now. Probably him and Beck from Miami. Yeah. I don't know if the running backs, any of the running backs are in contention for that right now because none of them are having the kind of year

that would unseed a great quarterback effort. I would say as of right now I'd say those two would be the front runners the Duke quarterback who came in from Tulane as somebody

will have to be considered too because he's putting up some crazy numbers that guy can he's impressive he can fling it I would say those three right now

are the three guys that I would consider at this point crazy time right now you have a team that is got a head coach on a short list for coach of the year. You got a team that's got a quarterback on the short list for player of the year. You got a team that's got a clear path to the ACC championship. You got a team that if it's got a clear path to the

ACC championship, could have a path to the college football playoff. Who would have ever thought that? And the beginning of the season, everyone was scratching their head where six wins are going to come from. Me leading that charge. Where are the six wins going to come from? A team that going into the year had the least amount of victories in all of power football over the last three years. This shows you what money can do to a roster where 40% plus of the roster is completely brand new. Yeah. Indiana did it last year. Texas Tech has done it this year. Arizona or Arizona State last year were prime examples of that. Vanderbilt.

I'm assuming they've spent a lot of money to turn that program completely around over the last two years. Virginia has done an incredible job with that, and I think we might have mentioned this last week, but when they got that huge donation dropped out of pennies from heaven, so millions from heaven, by the anonymous donor by the anonymous donor whoever that is thank goodness for you yeah i mean somebody should give you a medal whoever you are yeah but uh man uh talking to those coaches about being in that war room and there's all the recruiting lists up there pecking orders and all this stuff and they came in and said erase all that we're starting over and we're going after, we're going big game hunting.

And they've certainly brought in incredible talent. And they've done a good job of scouting out some of these guys too. I mean, Jemari Taylor, North Carolina Central, Daniel Rickert, Tennessee Tech, Army, Morgan State. Even Chandler Morris? Chandler, yeah. North Texas. Yeah. I mean.

How didn't Chandler Morris? How did Chandler Morris come to us? How did Chandler Morris not a starting quarterback at a power football team over the last three or four years? I don't know. It's just shocking to me. Yeah, to me too. I mean, he was there at TCU and he was the starting quarterback. They lost his job because injury. Yeah, he was injured and they went on to play in the national championship game. And had he not been injured, he probably would have been their quarterback in that game. I'm assuming. and probably would have still be there, I would guess. Well, I'm maybe be gone by now. I'm not sure. But, yeah, for him to wind up here is, that's an interesting story.

Interesting story. Closing to all, Tudy Rackleff. Time flies. Time does fly. And thank you guys for tuning in. We really appreciate your support. your listenership, viewership. Yeah, I mean, it should be fun just catching up this week.

Seeing what we're probably not going to have any access to the player. Well, I know we're not going to have any access to the players or coaches this week because of the by week. I'm sure they'll use this week not only to get well, but to self-scout and to, kind of reevaluate, take some things out that haven't worked well and focus on the things that do work well, maybe add a couple of twists for the stretch run. So it'll be an interesting week for Virginia football, gearing up for what could be a historic finish for Virginia football. And who would have ever thought that?

Nobody thought we'd be talking about that or writing those stories. And just around the corner is basketball guys. Virginia basketball media day is Friday. And so we're on the cusp of a team that looks pretty loaded with talent. Yeah, if they're not a pre-season top 25 team, somebody's missing the boat, I think. If the football season goes, and we'll close on this, if the football season goes, if it's an advantage, page is close to the year, and it's an ACC championship appearance, let's just say. You may be looking at the start of what could be one of the top athletic years in the nation across an entire

department. Yeah, it really could be, because they're always strong in spring sports. Exactly. And basketball's loaded, at least on paper it's loaded. And the women's swimming program is a dynasty, and the men are building toward that. Right. so wow yeah this could be a banner year for Virginia athletics for sure bingo exactly i mean men soccer's top 20 i mean you know women's soccer is what number one yeah i think i think maybe all their fall sports are ranked i believe field hockey's number two and i'm the only reason i know this is because i'm on your website i'm under olympic sports and you put their ranking in the headline yeah we got men soccer at 16 you got women's soccer at 16 you got women's soccer

are at one. You've got field hockey at two. Volleyball, I'm not sure if they're ranked or not up. I can't say that I have a lot of volleyball knowledge. I don't have much volleyball knowledge either. Cross country is always good. There's volleyball coverage on jerry rackliff.com. Jerry rackliff.com is the website that you guys want to check out. jerry rackliff.com.

Judah Wickower is the... Oh, he's the glue man. The MVP. He's the MVP, if there ever was one. Judah Wickhauer behind the camera is our director. My name is Jerry Miller. The show is archive wherever you get your content, your podcasting content, your social media. The I Love Seville Show, guys, is up at 1230.

So long and thank you kindly for joining us. Nice to do, Doc. Same to you, brother. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.