Scattershooting: We lost Viggy; ACC goes to 18; Baseball in? Plus Golden Nuggets

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Scattershooting around the ACC, while mourning the loss of perhaps the most underrated running back in UVA football history …

So far, 2025 has been tough for this columnist and many fans of UVA and the ACC, with the losses of former UVA assistant football coach Danny Wilmer, noted sportswriter/author/friend John Feinstein and former Greensboro sportswriter and ACC Football Tour legend Larry Keech.

Now, we have lost another former Wahoo in Tommy Vigorito, first-team All-ACC in 1979, who had 10 100-yard rushing games and was a fifth-round NFL Draft pick in 1981. In fact, despite playing for generally losing teams, Vigorito at Virginia (see attached video of him playing for the Miami Dolphins) remains sixth on the Cavaliers’ all-time rushing list behind Thomas Jones, Tiki Barber, Terry Kirby, John Papit and Wali Lundy.

Vigorito died recently at age 65, as announced by his New Jersey high school, DePaul Catholic. He was a high school Parade All-American there in Passaic, N.J. He overachieved for his size (5-foot-10, 193 pounds) and his no-fear attitude, particularly on kick returns for Virginia and the Dolphins. His NFL career was shortened when he suffered a torn ACL in the 1983 season opener for Miami, in a day where knee surgeries weren’t nearly as successful as today. He returned in 1985, but that was pretty much the end of his career.

I had the pleasure of meeting Vigorito in October of 2022 at a Virginia Football Alumni Club gathering in town. His former teammate, Joe Bock, introduced me and even though Vigorito was struggling with memory, he wanted to talk to me and he clearly remembered his football career.

“Viggy was the toughest running back I ever saw,” Bock said that night.

That’s quite a statement coming from Bock, who played at Virginia, in the NFL, AFL, Canadian football, and a couple of other pro leagues.

“Viggy never once complained about all those carries, the physical punishment. He was one tough cookie.”

Vigorito was a workhorse, and took a lot of physical beatings as a result. When he left Virginia in 1980, he ranked No. 2 all-time on the Cavaliers’ career rushing list behind only Papit, who had set the mark from 1947-50. He had 648 career carries, still the fifth-most ever by a UVA back.

“I took a lot of beatings,” Vigorito said that night. “I had a lot of concussions that I didn’t know about. Now they have doctors on the sidelines and after he examines you, tells you whether you can play or not.

“I was young and stupid,” Vigorito cracked about the physical play.

He went on to play for Don Shula’s Dolphins, and Viggy had clear memories of those Miami days, including the Dolphins’ marathon overtime playoff win over San Diego, an all-time classic, and the other being an 87-yard, game-winning kickoff return against the Steelers on Thursday Night Football.

“It was a [Miami] record, but somebody broke it about four years ago,” Vigorito said.

Bock said there was a great quote from former Dolphins great Bob Kuenchenberg in Sports Illustrated about Vigorito. Kuenchenberg was a guard for Miami for 14 seasons.

“Kuenchenberg was quoted as saying, ‘Vigorito has the quickest white feet I’ve ever seen,’” Bock laughed.

Still, with all of his accomplishments, Vigorito said his favorite moments from UVA had nothing to do with statistics.

“I think the guys I played with that are here this weekend are my warmest memories,” Vigorito said. “I’ve talked with several of them tonight. Guys I haven’t seen for years.”

RIP Viggy. You’ll be missed.

RIP Tommy Vigorito🙏🏻🕯️

The #Dolphins‘ shifty, speedy punt returner and reserve running back of the early-1980s

As a rookie in just his second NFL game, Tommy’s 87-yard punt return touchdown on TNF at the Orange Bowl set a club record that would last 26 years.#GoFins pic.twitter.com/By3JJ47YHq

— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163) May 14, 2025

ACC gets it right with 18 games

We wrote before the 2019-20 season that it was a colossal mistake by the ACC to increase its conference basketball schedule from 18 to 20 games. History proved us right.

At the time, the league’s basketball coaches were all opposed to increasing the schedule to 20 games, but then-commish John Swofford, a guy who I like, was hell bent on giving the ACC Network and ESPN more inventory with all the added games. Swofford made the deal behind the coaches backs. The coaches didn’t find out about it until everyone else did.

Expanding the conference schedule to 20 games meant less opportunities to play high-profile opponents in the nonconference portion of the schedule to help ACC teams resumes for RPI or NET rankings.

ACC teams have suffered since. The league has had no more than five teams in the NCAA tournament since 2021 (when seven made it). This past season, only four ACC teams were in the NCAA field as opposed to the SEC, which had 14 of its 16 teams participating.

Under the new scheduling system, schools like UNC-Duke, Virginia-Virginia Tech can play twice a season, but some rivalries will lose the two-game sets. For instance, for the first time since 1919, UNC and NC State will not play home-and-home.

Thank goodness the ACC finally came to its senses.

UVA Baseball in NCAA?

Virginia’s sweep of Miami helped the Cavaliers’ chances, but winning this weekend’s series in Blacksburg would seem to secure Virginia a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

Baseball America has UVA as the third-seeded team in the four-team Auburn Regional, while D1 Baseball has the Wahoos as No. 3 in the Morgantown (W.Va) regional. Both of those publications have Virginia as one of their “last 4 in,” group. Meanwhile, Virginia Tech is in Baseball America’s “next four out,” which comes after “first four out.” The Hokies are not mentioned in D1 Baseball’s projections.

Football over-under is 6

According to CircaSports (Las Vegas), the over-under win total for Virginia football this fall is 6 wins.

It’s Tony Elliott’s fourth season and fans are expecting at least 6 wins in a “bowl-or-bust” campaign. Elliott’s first three seasons resulted in records of 3-7 (2022), 3-9 (2023) and 5-7 (2024). The 11 wins are the fewest over that three-year span in major college football.

While another betting service established UVA’s over-under at 6.5 wins, Circa’s is 6 when it evaluated the whole ACC: Notre Dame 10; Clemson 9.5; Miami 9; Louisville 8.5; SMU 8.5; Georgia Tech 7.5; North Carolina 7.5; Florida State 7; Duke 6.5; Pitt 6.5; Virginia Tech 6.5; NC State 6; Virginia 6; Boston College 5.5; Cal 5.5; Syracuse 5.5; Wake Forest 4.5; Stanford 3.

The good news is Virginia plays NC State, Stanford, Cal and Wake Forest. That’s four opponents with over-unders at 6 or less, plus two games against teams with over-unders of 6.5 in Duke and Virginia Tech, along with nonconference games against Coastal Carolina, William & Mary and Washington State.

Hootie’s Golden Nuggets …

• I like Fran Fraschilla’s plan to fix college basketball, at least in terms of eligibility and transfers: Five years of eligibility within a five-year window (no redshirts or medical waivers); a one-time transfer exception with immediate eligibility, with the stipulation that a second transfer would require athletes to sit out a season unless their head coach departs the program.
• In the 247Sports final rankings for the class of 2025, Virginia’s Chance Mallory finished No. 54 and Silas Barksdale No. 86.
• Here’s the record of each current ACC football team vs. Notre Dame since the league’s agreement to play five games against the conference each year, a deal that began in 2014: Clemson 4-2, Stanford 4-6, Louisville 2-3, Duke 1-3, Florida State 1-4, NC State 1-2, Miami 1-1, Virginia Tech 1-3, Syracuse 0-5, Boston College 0-5, Georgia Tech 0-4, Pitt 0-4, North Carolina 0-5, Wake Forest 0-4, Virginia 0-4.
• Someone recently posted that if your school is located more than 10 miles from a Waffle House, you don’t belong in the ACC. Amen, brother, Amen. Here’s the list and distance of each ACC school from the nearest Waffle House: Georgia Tech 0.5 miles; FSU 1.1 miles; Virginia Tech 1.2 miles; Clemson 1.3 miles; NC State 1.7 miles; Duke 2.4 miles; Miami 2.4 miles; SMU 2.5 miles; Louisville 3.6 miles; Virginia 4.0 miles; Wake Forest 5.0 miles; North Carolina 7.2 miles. Now, for the other guys: Pitt 23.5 miles, Syracuse 122 miles, Boston College 292 miles; Stanford 729 miles; Cal 758 miles. Nuff said.
• From my pal Derby Bill in Richmond: The U.S. passed a huge sports betting milestone in March. Americans have wagered $500 billion-plus since the Supreme Court cleared the way for legal sports betting seven years ago. 63 percent of this total came in the last three years.
• Former Virginia star quarterback Bryce Perkins is the frontrunner for the United Football League’s MVP.
• Georgia Tech will retire baseball coach Danny Hall’s number after the season. Hall, who is retiring with more than 1,200 career wins, is in his 32nd season.
• Now that Clemson and Notre Dame have agreed to a 12-year schedule with each other in football, Miami is wanting more games with the Fighting Irish. The Hurricanes are set to meet the Irish six times over the next 10 seasons, but Miami wants even more.
• Speaking of Miami, the Hurricanes raised the bar on buying QBs, giving former Georgia QB Carson Beck a reported $4.3-million NIL deal. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin couldn’t help but comment on a podcast when he learned of the deal: “Miami gave him $4.3 million? Did they watch his game with us?” Kiffin said with a chuckle. “I was trying not to go there, but you set me up,” Kiffin said to podcast host Channing Crowder, a former Miami Dolphin. In that Miami-Ole Miss game, Beck was 20 of 31 passing for 186 yards and a touchdown in a 28-10 loss to the Rebels.
• UNC coach Bill Belichick on recruiting: “The big thing is just the volume of players. It’s just the volume. We’ve just finished with the ‘25 class, we’re recruiting the ‘26 class and we’re starting with the ‘27 class, even a couple of ‘28’s. We had the transfer portal in January and another transfer portal in April. When you add up all those players — you know, in the NFL, you have free agency, but it’s much fewer players and you have one draft class. But there’s the ‘25-’26-’27 draft classes and they don’t all run together, but there is activity on them simultaneously. Then you have a few kids reclassifying — he was a ‘26, now he’s a ‘25, that was a ‘27, now he’s a ‘26 — and it’s just the volume of it. There’s more names and moving parts.”
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