The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Virginia Stuns Pittsburgh In The Steel City; Inside The Numbers: What Did UVA Do Well?

Episode Date: November 12, 2024

The Jerry & Jerry Show headlines: Virginia Stuns Pittsburgh In The Steel City Inside The Numbers: What Did UVA Do Well? UVA Football: 2 Road W’s vs Top 20 Since 2002 Does Pitt Win Mean A 4th Year For Tony Elliott? UVA at Notre Dame (-23), 3:30 PM Sat, NBC Can Hoos Upset Fighting Irish In South Bend? UVA Hoops (2-0), Hoos v Villanova, 5PM Friday Ron Sanchez Era Underway: Thoughts On Team Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Jerry Ratcliffe & Jerry Miller were live on The Jerry & Jerry Show! The Jerry & Jerry Show airs live Tuesday from 10:15 am – 11:15 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Jerry & Jerry Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Tuesday morning, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show, a program that features the Virginia Sports Hall of Famer Jerry Hootie Ratcliffe, the namesake of jerryratcliffe.com. Fantastic time to be a Wahoo. You got success across the board, at least in this specific week. The football team beats Pittsburgh guys in the Steel City, an upset of significant proportions that most likely has dashed the hopes of Pittsburgh and their quest for an ACC championship. This was

a football team that was surging. Yes, back-to-back losses, but frankly, a very good football team that Virginia beat on the road. Tony Elliott, on his resume, has got two road victories, and there's only been two Virginia football road victories against top 20 opponents since 2002, and both of them belong to Coach Elliott, who beat North Carolina last year, the 10th-ranked team in the country at the time. So much to cover on the program, including Ron Sanchez, the interim head coach who is fighting, who is coaching his tail off

to get that interim tag removed. He is now 2-0 on the season into the toughest matchup so far, Friday at 5 o'clock against Villanova. We'll talk Day-Day Aims. We'll talk IMAC. We'll talk two first years that look absolutely dominant right now in a football and a basketball team, guys. That has some upside, but some questions, certainly.

Judah Wickhauer, if you can go to the studio camera and then a two-shot and welcome Jerry Hootie-Rackliff to the program. How about that Pittsburgh victory, Hootie-Rackliff? That was a stunner. And you've got to give a lot of credit to Tony Elliott and his staff for putting together a really good game plan, giving some new looks, some tweaks, a little trickery, trickeration. And, you know, it struck me that, you know, Tony Elliott is now,

Virginia is now 4-0 under Tony Elliott when they're coming off a bye week. Coming out of a bye week, yep. Beating Boston College this year, beating a ranked Pitt team this year, beating, as you mentioned, North Carolina last year. So I think they picked up some stuff from that SMU game that helped them out and applied that to their game plan. And they just, they really played a terrific football game. And they finally solved the third quarter curse that they had,

broke the game wide open in the third quarter for a change, and held on at the end. It was a remarkable win, and I'm pretty certain that that saves his job. I was just going to ask you. Yeah. He's got five and four. How many Virginia fans out there, if you said

they were going to have a five-win season, you would have taken that? Probably a large portion of the fan base. There's three games left. There's Notre Dame. There's SMU. There's Virginia Tech. Very straightforward for you. That win against Pittsburgh keeps Tony

Elliott around for a fourth year, in your opinion. I'm pretty certain it does. I think had they finished on a seven-game losing streak, all cards were off the table. I think there was some quiet talk about possibly pulling the trigger if they had gone winless the second half of the season. And I think he's safe now.

I think they've shown improvement. They've shown that they can win on the road, that they can beat a ranked team. It's unfortunate that the schedule set up the way it did and the fact that it's one of the toughest finishes in the country, particularly in the ACC. Well, particularly with SMU as good as we, you said SMU was going to be good. Yeah. I didn't know they might be playing for the championship. That's what I'm saying. But I knew they were probably a top four caliber team, and at least in the conference.

But I didn't envision them playing for the title their first year. And it looks like right now they're in the driver's seat. They're in the driver's seat. We'll talk about the ACC championship. We'll talk about Miami losing. We'll talk about Virginia Tech fizzling. We'll talk about the Notre Dame matchup. On Monday, yesterday, the line opened at 23.5.

The Fighting Irish favored to win in South Bend. That line has dropped half a point to 23 even. We got a wide receiver, the fastest guy in the roster, heading back to South Bend, which we'll talk about. In fact, he was pretty standout against Pittsburgh. Yes, he made a huge play. Huge play. We'll talk open-ended for you before we get into the specifics. What struck you from the win against Pittsburgh? I think the fact that they

did get some outstanding plays by some people that we knew that they were capable. They just hadn't done it up to this point. That 25-yard reception he had on third and 15 was a key play in that drive, scoring drive. They got some really good effort from the defense. The offensive line and running game stepped up. Pitt was number seven in the country in stopping the run, and Virginia dominated the line of scrimmage most of the night. Kobe Pace and Xavier Brown and Anthony Calandria really ran the ball well against Pitt. The Panthers were scoring in just bukus of points,

and they shut them down pretty good. You've got to give John Rudzinski and his staff a lot of credit. They put a lot of pressure on the passer, knocked out their quarterback, really came up big in some key moments. It was something to celebrate for the Wahaihos. No question about it. Xavier Brown, 15 carries, 68 yards, four and a half a touch, one touchdown. Xavier Brown, a factor in the receiving game as well. Yeah. I mean, maybe your most dynamic

offensive player at this point of the season. I think so. And again, I've been singing his praises all season. Dude, since about week two, week three, you said this is the guy that needs to get more touches. Yeah, and I think they're figuring it out now. But there were some really nice plays in there in the run game and the passing game that he really stood out and again I think you got to give him a lot more touches down the stretch.

Notre Dame 23 point favorite that discussion in moments Calandria before we get to the fighting Irish stat line not the prettiest still and and the guy's a winner, and he shows that he's a winner. He moves the ball. He was a key component in the second half, in particular in the third quarter. Breakdown, what you saw from Calandria in that victory against Pittsburgh. You know, he's a guy that sacrifices his body, plays with abandon, and he's not afraid to take off and run with it

and he picked up a lot of key yardage in certain key situations in that game and played pretty flawless football he I really like that little fake quarterback draw down the goal line that where he threw the touchdown pass over the top, a little pop pass is what we used to call it. He just made big play after big play and just came up with positive yardage in so many key situations and was a real leader, I thought, out there.

You could just tell seeing him on the sidelines and things. He was just so fired up and so determined to win that football game. The team goes as Calandria goes. No question. He's the clear cut. Mack Brown said this best, the head of the snake. You saw that against Pittsburgh. The fans saw it. I watched it.

It's an intangible that's difficult to describe. Maybe some call it moxie. Maybe some call it confidence. Almost cockiness. But his energy dictates the team. It's almost like a family unit. A lot of times it's the mom, it's the wife. The team goes as the mom, the wife goes a lot of times in the family unit. Calandria embodies that.

And that's what you want in your leader. A lot of confidence, like you said, borderline cockiness, but extreme confidence that you can go out and get it done. Never gives up. Makes big plays when it counts. Just a fiery individual, and I can see why the players rally around him. And that's another reason why a couple weeks ago

when people were trying to start a quarterback controversy that I said that they need to keep him at quarterback because he's got to learn how to play through those moments and become a better quarterback. So the next time he faces that kind of adversity, he'll be better suited to handle it. Notre Dame, toughest matchup of the season? Yeah, I think so. Clemson's still a pretty good football team, even though they stepped on their own foot

a couple of weeks ago. But Notre Dame's playing well. They had their one hiccup early in the season when they lost at home to Northern Illinois. They've been on fire since then, and they've just been demolishing everything in their sight, everything in their way the last several weeks. And as evidenced this past weekend when they just hammered Florida State.

What was it, 52-3 or something like that? An absolute beatdown, a beatdown that caused the head coach to fire a good portion of his staff. Yeah, yeah. And who would have ever thought we would see Florida State 1-9? That's the most unbelievable thing in college football this season to me. But Notre Dame is a really good football team. They're not going to let up on anybody because they're probably in the top 10 this week.

They're 7 in the coaches poll and they're 8 in the AP poll. And so they're not going to want to let go of that. They're fighting for a spot in the college football playoffs. I don't know who else they have the rest of the season after Virginia, but they're not going to overlook Virginia. There's no, you know, some people might think that they will, but there's no way they're going to do that. We'll talk more on the Notre Dame matchup.

That's going to be on as Notre Dame plays. It's national television. We're talking broadcast television, NBC, 3.30 p.m. This is an incredible opportunity to get the Virginia brand in front of a lot of households and a lot of communities and a lot of states that don't watch Virginia football and don't know the Virginia brand. So we'll talk keys to the game here in a matter of moments. I've got a lot of questions coming in here for you. Fan base is fired up. This one right here is coming in from what looks like on the heat map

somewhere in southwestern Virginia. Please ask Ratcliffe if he's confident that Elliott has saved his job. There's three games remaining where they will be significant underdogs. If they lose the final three, does he not think part of the fan base is going to be up in arms with the coaching staff? I'm sure that some of the fan base will be. Some of the fan base is never satisfied. And I'm not making light of that.

But, I mean, what did people expect this season? They're in a rebuild, a major rebuild. A lot of people, what was the Vegas line? Three and a half. Three and a half. They've easily surpassed that. I guess a pretty tough schedule. Very tough.

Yeah. Very tough. Yeah, the likelihood of them winning any of the last three games are not very good. They're going up against a traditional powerhouse, an upcoming potential powerhouse. They've breathed life back into the SMU program after 40 years of wandering in the desert, so to speak. 50 years, maybe. I guess 40 years.

And since they got the death penalty, Eric Dickerson was particularly the guy that got the death penalty. Yeah. And he kind of chuckles about that. Was he driving around in it? Was it a gold Corvette or a Camaro? Yeah. I think it was a Corvette. I don't know what he was thinking. Craig James was the other running back they had in those days.

Really great football player, too. And then you go to Blacksburg, and even though the Hokies are struggling, I can never pick Virginia to beat Virginia Tech until they beat Virginia Tech. And, I mean, last year was one of the most disappointing losses that I can remember. Last year was, as someone that's watched Virginia football extremely closely since the early 80s,

the Virginia Tech shellacking in Scott Stadium was about as low as a point for me as a Cavalier fan, second to maybe the UMBC loss. Yeah, and I think a lot of Cavalier fans share that disappointment that you had. There was no reason for a beatdown like that on your home field. And then they came out and rubbed their noses in it, coming back out of the locker room and taking photos in the middle of the field, Scott Stadium. Best thing that happened in that game was the sprinklers that went out.

Yeah, the UVA guy that turned on the sprinklers and was forced to write a letter of apology, which I don't think he should have had to do that. But, I mean, if you're a Virginia football player, that's got to stick in your mind. And you would think that they would at least go down to Blacksburg and be competitive. That's a potentially winnable game. Even though Tech is struggling, they've played mostly close games. The Clemson game wasn't very close, but the majority of their losses could have gone the other way.

But I think his job is safe. I'm pretty certain of that. You can never be totally certain because, you know, if they get their doors blown off for three games in a row and having another embarrassment against the Hokies, maybe things change. Doors blown off for three games in a row and having another embarrassment against the Hokies, maybe things change. But I think had they not beaten Pitt and ended with a seven-game losing streak,

I think that question would be a lot more valid. But I think that game may have saved him and given him another year. This one is all over the feed, and we'll take a succinct question from Richmond on your page from Jay Holdren. Athletic director Carla Williams seems to be interviewing for jobs. Is she gone? Well, that rumor is out there, and I know where it came from. I know pretty sure who the source was for that,

and that would be a person who knows who said that she's interviewing for other jobs. There hasn't been any validation of that, although the source is pretty strong. Her contract runs out May 31st, and like the Tony Bennett contract, at least at this point, there hasn't been any movement from either side on a new contract, although that could change. There's a long time between now and May 31st. But here's some rumblings from some of the heavy hitters that they're not satisfied with some of the things that have happened in the program.

And then here's in the program. And then here are exactly the opposite. The opposite, yeah. And they point to the non-revenue sports. There are some people that are staunch supporters of Carla and believe that she's a great thing that's happened to Virginia's athletic program. So we don't know. I don't know if anybody outside of a certain circle knows exactly what's going on there, and they're going to be tight-lipped about it. Sometimes getting news out of UVA is like trying to get news out of the Kremlin.

And this man would know. I have more than 40 years of experience butting heads with people over there. But if they don't want you to know something, it's awfully hard to find it out. You've got to find somebody with loose lips. Let me ask you this question. Very pointed question. If she's interviewing for other jobs,

why would she be doing it? Why would she be doing that? You're an athletic director in the Atlantic Coast Conference. That's a good question. And I don't know. I don't know if there's a particular movement to looking for a change or looking for somebody who might have a stronger presence in football. Is that why? That would be the only reason I would see. I mean, it could be. I mean, that was one of her. She came from Georgia.

That was one of the reasons she was hired was to, she had a background working with football. Right. And they wanted an AD because I know two of the other finalists, and one of them had a good, strong relationship in football, with football elsewhere, and one of them had a good, strong relationship in football, with football, elsewhere, and one of them didn't, which I think cost him the job, although there were some heavy hitters pushing him to be the new AD. But that was her job, was to come in and fix Virginia football,

and it's obvious right now that it's not fixed and that doesn't say that it won't be in the future but at the moment it's struggling the the there's a lot of apathy around the program there's a perception out there in the football world that Virginia doesn't give a flip about football they They've tried to destroy that line of thought by building the Hardy Football Operations Center. But, you know, people aren't coming to games, and they're losing more than a million dollars a game because of that in a time where you really can't afford to be losing money.

I noticed that yesterday they finally decided to come out and offer 50% off of tickets for the SMU game. Which is the last home game of the year. My question is, why did you wait that long why didn't you do that at the beginning of the year and put fannies in the seats at any cost and get some support for this football team and make scott stadium a true home field advantage like it used to be um there's going to be uh it's going to be interesting to follow this storyline and see how much validity there is to those rumors that she's interviewing for other jobs. I'd like to find out if that's true or not. I don't know that we'll find that out because I'm certain she won't address that question. And I don't know if anybody else will or not.

Comments are coming in left and right here. Greenwood, Virginia's finest, Kevin Higgins. Tickets for SMU are selling online right now for $12.50. That's right. $12.50. And they're not selling, he says. Kevin Higgins says he thinks Carla Williams is absolutely gone. And she's gone because football is losing over a

million dollars a game. And the men's basketball team is questionable right now. This is coming in on the feed. All this seems very coincidental with Tony Bennett's retirement. Is he the heir apparent to the athletic director position? It's a good question. I know some of the writers have talked about that, that if she would leave, who would be the next AD? And certainly Tony Bennett said he would like to hang around and still be part of the athletic program in some capacity. He said that in his retirement press conference. Yeah.

And this is purely a body language read. Okay. I'm just looking at body language. When he made that comment, Carla Williams was sitting next to him to his right or left as we watched it on. I saw that. She bristled her body language when he made that comment. Yes. And it's strictly a body language read.

I'm not doing anything besides body language reading. Right. And so, or maybe she was just taken by surprise. I don't know. But certainly that's been talked about. And a guy we had on this show early on, Wally Walker, is also someone who could step into that role. I don't know if he would want it or not, but he certainly has the athletic background and the administrative background,

having been GM of the Portland Trailblazers, and somebody who moved cross-country just to try to help enhance the athletic program here, and something he takes very seriously. So, you know, should there be a change, I would think that one of those two guys, if not both of them, would be heavily involved in particularly a job search, if not being a candidate themselves to become the AD. And I'm not saying she's gone. I don't have that knowledge. I'm just talking about the rumors that are out there. And again, knowing that the source is pretty strong.

So I don't know. It's going to be very interesting to follow this story over the next several months if it takes that long. I think with all the talk out there, Virginia needs to... That's my follow-up. Yeah. Get ahead of it. Yeah, and they haven't done a very good job of doing that in recent years.

When there's storylines out there, like the Tony Bennett thing, which lingered for weeks and opened the door for incredible speculation. This is going to build like wildfire, I think, the longer it lingers out there without UVA making some sort of a statement one way or the other. And if she is looking for another job, sometimes that takes time. But I wouldn't think she would have difficulty finding another job if that's what her desires are. But it would be nice to see UVA, like you said, get ahead of this. How does a potential, we're just hypotheticals here for the sake of a talk show.

How does, John Blair, thank you for watching. How does a hybrid Wally Walker Tony Bennett position look like? That could be a possibility. We were talking about that the other night too.

Should that happen, should she leave and find another job and Tony not having any administrative Should that happen, should she leave and find another job, and Tony not having any administrative experience outside of being a coach, which there are certain administrative duties there. There's a lot of... Not running an entire athletic program. Right. But Wally Walker could come in as an AD and have Tony as a deputy AD and let him learn

the ropes and then eventually take over that position. Which would be, I think, a very popular choice amongst Virginia supporters. I think, you know, I'm just talking out loud here. Jeremy Hood, Jeremy, Ronica watching the program. We are talking, I mean, God, this is going, it's going wildfire here, Carla Williams stuff. That's what we're talking about, Jeremy. I will say this, and it's great to see you on the feed, Jeremy. I love seeing you around town. Tony Bennett gets in position number one as AD or as a deputy AD under Wally Walker, if that does happen.

Alumni will open their checkbooks. You would think so. I mean, certainly Wally carries a lot of clout and is a very intelligent man. And Tony Bennett is, I mean, who's more popular in Virginia athletic history than Tony Bennett? There's not many. Right. If any. If any.

So, yeah, I mean. Who would be more popular that's alive today in Virginia UVA athletic history? I mean, maybe do you put Ralph on that list yeah but it's in a different light different and it's in a different it's an era of yesteryear and Barry Parkhill is you know I've heard so many stories over the years that when Barry Parkhill would go on a fundraising trip and to see a CEO of a company in California or New York or Chicago and the CEO would be a Virginia alum from that era and those guys would be giddy, almost childlike, knowing that the great Barry Parkhill was walking

into their office and they're going to play golf with him or have dinner with him or whatever. But it would be the same impact if not more. And that's powerful. That's extremely powerful. Multiple folks asking, Jeremy, I'm going to relay this to him. He's touched on this briefly. What could be possibly behind this move in this rumor mill? Is it

the struggle of football? The revenue loss of football? I would think that would have to be the source of any discontent or any controversy that they're losing tons of money every week.

And there hasn't been any fixes. There are not even any quick fixes. They've tried to slap a few cosmetic things on. Like someone once said, it's like putting lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig. Not only are they losing money at the gate, but they're losing tons of money at concessions and other things. They go along with it,

which could make it not losing a million dollars a week or a home game, but maybe as much as $2 million. And you can make a fair argument that apathy is near all-time high with the football program. Yeah, and there's been some suggestions on how to, and this goes way back, and how to appease the people that felt betrayed. And there's thousands of them that used to come to games, and we've talked about it at length on this show. In the past, when they reseated the football stadium and uprooted a lot of traditional fans, loyal fans,

and I know for a fact there was a suggestion at a meeting. I can't remember exactly when it was, but that they start by writing letters to those people that they uprooted and apologized. My parents. Yeah, amongst thousands of people. And that idea was, they turned up their nose at that idea. And I think that was a major mistake because it was a major mistake to begin with and not to apologize. And I don't know if an apology would get those people backing up, but it certainly would be a start or at least a motion in the right direction, a gesture in the right direction. My dad, my brother, and I went to UVA, diehard sports fans. My mom didn't go to UVA. She liked

sports because my dad and my brother do. She went to the football games, took two hours to travel from Williamsburg and back because of those that sat in the section around her but she got to know and called friends that was it and then when they said you have to pay thousands of dollars or you can't stay in the section of friends my parents said no and then she missed seeing her friends I was told last night that came up during dinner last night when some of us were talking pregame um there was one guy i was told he used to buy 40 or 50 uh 40 or 50 season tickets a year and give them out to people i guess friends company uh employees etc and when they uh uprooted him um i mean, that's just an extreme example. But certainly he said, you know, he stopped buying tickets.

And he said, if I need a ticket to a game, I'll buy one. But I don't know. Would a letter of apology mean anything to your family, you think? Huge step. Just as an example. Huge step. I mean, they raised us by saying when you do something wrong, you say, I'm sorry. Yeah. I mean, that's the goal. That's being a good person.

Right. And, you know, write it to those fans. And a lot of those were old fans. Some of them are probably not with us anymore. But if not, write it to them. Write it to their children. And you might get some of those people back. And at least you would have a better taste in your mouth for what transpired and has never been forgiven. This question's come in the feed.

Tony Bennett retired in large part, and he referenced this in the press conference, to name, image, and likeness a transfer portal in a new era of college basketball. Would he be the right choice for an athletic director, considering we're heading into those directions? Interesting comment. Well, he said he would like to help solve the be a solution to the problem um i just don't think he wanted to deal with it as far as a coach is concerned anymore but that doesn't mean he doesn't have ideas on how to get a uniform grip on things. Somebody's going to have to because this can't continue down this path.

It's going to destroy college athletics if it just continues to burn out of control. I mean, it is a wildfire right now, and it's being abused, and it's ruining college football and basketball and the Olympic sports as well. And one of his concerns, and I've heard a lot of coaches say this, they're worried about the Olympic sports. I know some Olympic sports coaches who are questioning why they're even doing this anymore because they feel like that their programs aren't going to be funded down the road,

that there's not going to be enough money, and that the rich are going to get richer and it's going to leave a lot of these people out in the cold because they can't keep up with them. They won't be able to recruit. There's one prominent coach that I know very well in the non-revenue side of UVA, a guy who's got national championship, who said the conversation with recruits when they come there is not about playing with the team, but what do you guys do NIL-wise? Yeah, and when they asked Tony Bennett that, he kind of writes them off his list immediately because that's not what he was about.

Yeah. I mean, you're coming here for the wrong reasons. And I think that's what drove him out of the business. I think he lost a lot of recruits that he normally would have gotten had there not been an NIL or had there been a reasonable NIL. But it's out of control around the country. And I know it's not just the old coaches that are opposed to this. A lot of the young coaches don't like it either.

The NCAA used to be all about being as balanced a playing field as you could provide, and it's certainly as unbalanced now as it's ever been. It's insane. Where does it all end? Interesting reporting from Chris Graham in regards to the ACC huddle and the post-game coverage after the Pittsburgh victory when Tony Elliott was interviewed by the ACC huddle. I know what you're referring to.

Mark Rick asking Tony Elliott about the transfer portal and how do you build a roster. And he highlighted we can do it through folks who have graduated who want to come to UVA for a master's degree or an additional degree. But he said it's extremely difficult to do it with undergraduate transfers because they get behind very quickly from a credits standpoint. If they can even get in. If they can even get in. Right. And you know this better than anyone. Mark Rick wanted that job for Virginia. Oh, yeah. He interviewed for the job. I know that for a fact.

Florida State beat writer Steve Ellis, God rest his soul, and I were sharing information on that. There's no question that he interviewed for the job. I've been told that Virginia offered, and then some other people said he didn't offer, but I'm pretty sure they tried to offer it to him because they knew he was headed to Georgia for an interview and and you know he he obviously got was if you get at that time and place,

if you're offered by Georgia and offered by Virginia, it's a no-brainer. But I think he's been somebody that they looked at on a couple of occasions to try to come here because at that time, he was the Florida State offensive coordinator in a very hot commodity. And, you know, his name has come up again since then. But, yeah, getting back to that point, if you have to rebuild through the transfer portal by getting graduate students only, that shrinks your recruiting pool yet again. Because, and he's right, a lot of those underclassmen, their transfers won't credit or the school kind of frowns upon some of those transcripts.

The guys who've already graduated have proven that they can get through a rigorous academic routine. I mean, take the tight end, the kid from Harvard. Yeah, and they've gone with quite a few Ivy League guys in the past couple years. But, again, can you survive doing that? I mean, that's... The sample size is too small. It's very small, and you better be right on these guys. You can't afford to have a miss or two.

I don't want to suggest that they go crazy with the transfer portal like Florida State has done because I think that's one of the reasons why they've unraveled. You've got guys that haven't played together and they're in the majority of your team. Do you want to get that? Do you want to? I mean, stop and look at Virginia's roster, Jerry.

I don't have one in front of me, but I was counting the other day. It was like 27, 28 first or second team guys that are most likely gone at the end of this year eligibility-wise. Someone said there's as many as 40 on the entire roster that are going to be gone. That's a lot of people to replace. And can you do it by just getting grad students through the transport portal? It's going to be an incredible demand to be able to do that and do it well. This from Greenwood and Mr. Higgins. This is going to sound nuts, I know,

but if Tony Bennett becomes athletic director, look for others to follow like Saban. Watch Saban's testimony to Congress about NIL. It was sad what he had to say. The only people that can fix this are those types of leaders, the Bennetts and Sabans of the world. They got into coaching to help these kids have a successful life. I think that's the core of their coaching hearts.

This money system has got to go. That's a great observation, and I totally agree. I think maybe you could form some sort of a committee with some of these guys like Tony Bennett and Nick Saban and Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Jim Boeheim, I'm sure there's others out there who probably have some pretty good ideas on how to fix things. And people should listen because these guys have been at the top of their profession and they how it works, and they know what's out of whack. And I don't know if Congress can fix this. I don't know if they even want to fix it. I don't know if...

The NCAA certainly is powerless. Right. They've got to do something, and I think that would be a great way to do it. I know Mike Krzyzewski said for years that college basketball needed a czar to try to straighten it out. I think college athletics need a committee of czars to try to straighten it out before it gets totally off the rails. Wahoo 89 on YouTube. We appreciate you watching in Tennessee. Viewers and listeners, we've got basketball to talk about.

Before we talk basketball, we've got to get back to what's in front of us, 23-point favorite Notre Dame. Could there be an upset against the fighting Irish in South Bend? You never say never because they did lose at home to Northern Illinois, but this particular Notre Dame team at this point in time is a different animal than it was early in the season. You see a lot of upsets like that occur early when teams might not be watching or taking things seriously from a lesser opponent. But I would think the Irish are pretty focused right now on getting one of those 12 college football playoff spots, and they know one more slip up and they can kiss that dream goodbye.

So I expect Notre Dame is going to be severely focused on this team. I don't think they'll take Virginia lightly at all. The prospects of going into South Bend and pulling off an upset at this time of year is close to zero. I mean, yeah, they played well at Pitt. I think if they can just go in there and be competitive and play a good game,

which they kind of did the last time they went to South Bend. I was up there for that game. They had some chances and probably blew it down the stretch, but the chances of winning up there are pretty slim. Let's face it, we're talking about a traditional powerhouse here. Absolutely. What would have to happen?

They need to win the turnover battle for sure, come out of the second half and win the third quarter, which they did against Pittsburgh. Frankly speaking, they're going to have to get a lucky break, if not two or three lucky breaks here. Well, they would probably have to control the line of scrimmage as well and be able to establish a running game like they did at Pitt and then use some trickeration just like they did at Pitt and throw a few wrinkles in

like that fake quarterback draw, pop pass. That was a brilliant call. That was a great play. That was a brilliant call by Dave's Kitchen. It was a great play. They made some really nice calls in that game offensively. But there's going to be a lot of pressure on the defense

to slow down a Notre Dame team that's pretty good. Their quarterback is Riley Leonard. It used to be the Duke quarterback, so they're familiar with him. But this is a pretty darn good football team they're going to be playing this week. This might be the best Notre Dame team that Virginia has played in all the times they've faced Notre Dame over the years. This Notre Dame team, guys. At least since 89 when they were defending national champions.

Absolutely. 2-0 Virginia basketball we've got to talk about. You're there. You're on press row. You're watching the games. I love what Hootie and Scott Ratcliffe did on Hootie's Twitter account with the live broadcast from press Row postgame against Campbell. Talk to us about the basketball team being 2-0.

Well, you know, they did what they were supposed to do last night. You've got to rent a victim coming to town, and you demolish them, and that's exactly what they did. They took no prisoners. They played a pretty strong offensive game, a very strong defensive game. Ron Sanchez said after the game that he feels like this team has the potential to be a really good defensive team. A lot of these guys are just, they haven't quite gotten the pack line down pat yet, but they're working hard on it.

They work hard on defense every day, just like they did when Tony Bennett was there. And, you know, I like this team. I think they have a lot of guys who can score, which is completely different than a year ago when they were one of the least efficient offensive teams around. I mean, they had five guys, I think, that made threes last night, and there's two or three more guys on the team who are capable that didn't make them.

And they've got depth, playable depth. I mean, he can bring in a big team. He can bring in a big team. He can bring in a small ball team. There's a lot to like about this basketball team. I think they're going to be fun to watch. It's a big step for them this Friday playing Villanova. It's not the Villanova of old when Jay Wright was there, but it's still a really solid basketball program.

So they're going to have to raise their level of play to get through that. I'm really high on this team as well. 2-0 to start the season, very small sample size. A couple things that stood out to me, Day-Day Ames looks like the point guard of the team here. I mean, he was dynamite. You have Kofi who looks absolutely not like a first-year at all. Not at all.

11 points at 11 boards last night. TJ Power has scored three points in each of the first two games, and this guy is a potential superstar. Yes. So if TJ Power can be that stretch four and start, the shots that he's taking are barely missing. They're rattling in and out. I mean, he's a whiskers hair away from, from a serious output here. The starting lineup to me looks like what's the starting lineup to

you look like? Maybe once we get to that Tennessee matchup, the top 10, top 15 team in the country, probably what day-day aims, McNeely day-day aims at the one McNeely in the country. Probably what? Day-Day Ames, McNeely. Day-Day Ames at the one, McNeely at the two. And could you conceivably do a front court that's TJ, Saunders, and Buchanan? You could. Or you could go play Coffey and Saunders at the same time. Saunders is stuck. With Buchanan.

Yeah. And you could slip TJ in there at times too. But I think the point guard thing is going to be interesting to watch. Last night, Andrew Rohde was scheduled. They had already put his name out as the starter at point guard. And he came up with a back injury, and it was a game-time decision to scratch him and go with Day-Day, and certainly Day-Day answered the bell.

He played, I thought, a fantastic game. He was five of eight shooting. He hit two out of three three-pointers, no turnovers, three assists. A couple of blocks, three boards. Yeah. He gets up the floor quick. He's a quicker guy than Rhodey. Can create off the dribble.

Yeah, he can attack the basket, and he's aggressive. And I think that's the kind of point guard I like, an aggressive point guard who can attack the basket, who can score, who can shoot. And afterward, you know, Ron Sanchez was still singing the praises of Rhodey because this is a pretty young basketball team if you look at it. There's not many guys on there with experience outside of McNeely. He likes Rhodey because he's a calming factor for some of these guys

who are looking for a little leadership and a little experience, a little settling down of emotions. Or if a thing goes wrong, they need somebody that can help keep them together. And Rhodey certainly brings that to the table uh he's a good all-around player he just struggles to shoot the ball and i think at that point uh that could come back and bite him because it goes back to the same thing last year when there were guys that defenses realized that certain guys on the floor couldn't hurt them so they backed off of them let them shoot and ganged up on McNeely and

and uh and other guys who could score so I I think that's the one detriment to giving rodeo the start as opposed to Ames who can make you pay. There you go. This basketball team, the schedule heats up. 5 o'clock, interesting tip-off time for the Virginia Cavaliers on Friday against Villanova on TNT, Hootie. It's a doubleheader in Baltimore. Virginia Tech plays somebody in the other game.

I can't remember. Maybe Georgetown? I don't remember who it is. Yeah, 5 o'clock, that's a strange starting time for a college basketball game. Cocktail hour. Yeah, very much so. It's 5 o'clock somewhere. There you go, Hootie Rackham.

It's 5 o'clock somewhere right there. Then they've got Tennessee. Tennessee, since Rick Barnes has been there, is one of the top programs in the country year in, year out. And they're loaded again this year. That'll be definitely a step up in competition, no question. And Ron Sanchez is like Tony in the fact that, you know, if you lose one of these games,

you don't want to lose, but certainly they're using this as learning experiences that will help them be prepared for the ACC wars when those come. Jeremy, who's going to be in Baltimore on Friday, he says Penn State. Penn State, yeah. Virginia Tech is playing. Jeremy, thank you very much. Christian Bliss, what's going on with Bliss? I think he has a foot injury, and he's just not ready to play yet.

He's a hell of a point guard, we think. I don't know how serious it is, but they haven't really talked much about it. But certainly you don't want to blame him if he's not 100%, and he's not. This question's come in. Do you see Kofi in the starting lineup? It'll be he or Saunders. I like Saunders a lot. Well, Kofi told us after that opening game against Campbell,

he says, you haven't seen the real Saunders yet. And we saw a little bit of that last night. I mean, that guy's unstoppable. That guy's a bear. Not only can he score inside, but he could be stretch four as well or stretch three or whatever you want to call him. He can go out and hit three. He can go in and power it up, pins it out.

My favorite thing about Saunders, I mean, I love it. Kofi's kind of cutting the same mold. I was going to say, Saunders, what really impresses me about Saunders, not only is a bruiser, but he's got touch. He goes to the stripe and shoots 90% plus at the free throw line. I mean, you don't see that a lot with guys with that kind of physicality or bruiser mentality. 90% plus could be a huge asset for this team.

Yeah, and that's another thing that this is a better free throw shooting team too. They made 11 of 12 last night. And that's key because some of those big guys are going to get fouled a lot. 11 of 12 last night. That's key because some of those big guys are going to get fouled a lot. They're going to get sent to the line a lot. Saunders was 4 of 4. This team is pretty darn loaded.

I know it's been two games here, but this team has got depth. They do. They've got so much depth. You've got Buchanan and Saunders and Kofi and Power in the front court. You got Anthony Robinson, who saw his first action last night. So a lot of depth at the front court. McNeely and Sharma and Murray in the backcourt along with uh,

Rhodey. So, um, just so much playable depth there. It's, again, you can go big, you can go small or,

and you can mix it up if you'd like. Um, I just think this team has a lot of potential, a lot of potential, And you can mix it up if you'd like. I just think this team has a lot of potential. A lot of potential. A lot of potential, guys. If they lose a game like to Villanova or Tennessee, I wouldn't be distraught because, again, it's just an early season game and you're out there trying to see what your team is made of

and preparing for what really counts, and that's the ACC schedule. Roger Voisinay, thank you for watching the program. We love when Roger watches the show. Items in the hopper at jerryratcliffe.com. Well, certainly we'll be talking a lot about the Notre Dame game this week and a little bit about Pitt. Looking forward to the Villanova game this week. We've got a guy who's covering soccer for us,

and they're on fire right now. They knocked off number one seeded Pitt the other day. They'll be playing Wake Forest this week in the semifinals. Just lots of stuff going on this time of year. There's almost too much stuff going on this time of year. Almost too much stuff going on. And we'll be keeping a watchful eye out on all other things, such as we were talking about earlier today, which, again, it's going to be interesting to see how that develops or doesn't develop.

Jerry Ratcliffe, the namesake of jerryratcliffe.com. Beautiful time of year. I love it right before Thanksgiving. I know it's busy for you, but you can turn on the television or get online and watch pretty much meaningful action with all the fall sports and winter sports. And I'm a huge basketball fan. And Ron Sanchez has got a loaded team. We hope it materializes into victories. Judah Wickhauer the man behind the camera if you could see the man behind the camera he's got a handful of screens in front of him

he's got seven cameras he's got four microphones a sound board, three televisions three Apple TVs three external hard drives I mean the maestro over here. Yeah, when we have guests on and sometimes he has to Skype them in,

I tell him, don't worry, you're in good hands. There's a wizard on the other side of the screen. Judah does not rattle, ladies and gentlemen. Judah Wicarra, thank you very much, my friend. Jerry Ratcliffe for everything UVA related, jerryratcliffe.com. I'll say it again, jerryratcliffe.com. The show archive, wherever you get your social media or podcasting content.

We'll follow football as it heads to the final hour and basketball as it starts the first and second hour of the season. Thank you kindly for joining us on the Jerry and Jerry Show. So long, everybody. show so long everybody