Tale Of The Tape: Virginia-Pitt
Posted on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019, 9:24 pm
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The wait is almost over, Wahoo fans. The 2019 Virginia football season — the 130th in program history — kicks off at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh Saturday night, as the Cavaliers look to set the tone in a huge ACC Coastal Division clash.
Pitt (7-7, 6-2 ACC in 2018) is the defending division champ and has had Virginia’s number since joining the league in 2013, winning five of the six meetings as conference foes and each of the last four.
The complete statistical comparison between the schools (with last year’s stats) appears below.
Coastal preseason favorite UVA (8-5, 4-4 last season) has dropped its last three road openers, with the last such victory coming at Temple in 2004. The ‘Hoos lost at No. 13 UCLA, 34-16, in the last season opener away from home in 2015.
It’ll be the first time starting a season away from Scott Stadium in Bronco Mendenhall’s four years at the helm, and the first time during his tenure opening up with a non-FCS opponent (Richmond 2016, William & Mary 2017, Richmond 2018).
Saturday’s contest will also mark the first time UVA has opened against an ACC opponent since facing Duke in 2003.
Last season against the Panthers, the ‘Hoos had a chance to wrap up the Coastal on a soggy night in Charlottesville and held a 10-7 halftime edge thanks to a Terrell Jana 42-yard touchdown catch and a 29-yard boot from Brian Delaney just before the halftime horn.
Darrin Hall scored the second of his three touchdowns on the night to put the Panthers on top to stay at the end of the third quarter. Pitt closed with 10 unanswered points, including the big blow — a 75-yard Hall scamper to the house just after Delaney trimmed it to 14-13 with 9:51 remaining.
The Panthers no longer have the services of Hall or Qadree Ollison, another 1,000-yard back who’s now trying to make an NFL roster, and will turn to A.J. Davis and Todd Sibley Jr. to anchor the new committee approach.
UVA is facing a similar predicament at running back, as Mendenhall is electing to go with 5-foot-9, 200-pound sophomore Wayne Taulapapa to start, with additional snaps divvied up amongst juniors PK Kier and Lamont Atkins.
The UVA defense is ready to make a statement and show exactly how dominant they can be, but the Panthers will always provide a tough, intense, physical matchup.
Are you ready for some UVA football?
Tale Of The Tape
The Coaches
UVA — Bronco Mendenhall
4th season at Virginia (16-22); 15th season overall (115-65); Record vs. Pitt: 0-3
Pitt — Pat Narduzzi
5th season at Pitt and overall (28-24); Record vs. UVA: 4-0
The Depth Chart
Click to enlarge
Broadcast Information
TV: ACC Network
Announcers: Adam Amin (play-by-play), Tim Hasselbeck (analyst), Katie George (sideline)
Radio: Virginia Sports Network
Announcers: Dave Koehn (play-by-play), Tony Covington (analyst), Ahmad Hawkins (sideline)
Satellite Radio:
Sirius Channel — 381
XM Channel — 193
Internet Channel — 969
Kickoff Forecast
Partly sunny, 80 degrees
Precipitation — 11%
Wind — 6 mph
Humidity — 42%
