Welcome to “The Tale Of The Tape”, a look at how the Wahoos and their opponent each week stack up against each other statistically.This will be a regular feature here on JerryRatcliffe.Com on game day, but as is the case in every first game of the season, the previous year’s stats don’t really mean that much other than the stats of key returning players. But they do offer a hint into how tough an opponent is on either offense or defense, as while the players may change, the offensive and defensive schemes do not. Because of the width of the […]

Virginia fans had to wait 40 minutes for the season opener against Richmond, but Bryce Perkins made the delay worth the wait as his running and passing sparked an offensive explosion in the Wahoos 42-13 rout of the visiting Richmond Spiders. The Cavalier running game – led by Perkins – was the star of the show. Last year in each of its 13 games, the most yards running the team produced was 182 yards against Duke. Against Richmond, UVA had 196 yards rushing in the FIRST HALF and finished the game with just over 300 yards. The margin of victory […]

This is the first weekly ACC Power Poll that ranks all the conference football teams regardless of division. I have been doing this for years, so why stop now, right? The first week is always the hardest and the ACC is top-heavy with a few really good teams, then closely bunched for the most part in terms of talent and coaching. But here goes, our first week’s preseason rankings. It will be interesting to see how ACC teams fare in some of the opening weekend games: The Rankings(Rank, School, Record, Comment) 1. Clemson, 0-0. The Tigers, bolstered by perhaps the […]

Bryce Perkins’ play has even excited his head coach When the great American poet Warren Zevon composed the tune “Excitable Boy,” he clearly didn’t have Bronco Mendenhall in mind. The Virginia third year football coach admittedly rarely loses composure. It takes a lot to get him going. Even when assistant coaches and players are going bonkers after another big Bryce Perkins play, Mendenhall keeps his cool. “You know, I’m an excitable guy so there may be a corner of my mouth that comes up,” Mendenhall said tongue-in-cheek at Monday’s press conference when Perkins’ big-play ability came up. “It’s just fun […]

Jordan Ellis is described as the “most consistent, hardest working, most productive, least talkative” player on the team If University of Virginia senior running back Jordan Ellis happens to have a breakout season in 2018, Cavalier fans should be forever grateful to recently departed linebacker Micah Kiser. Kiser, now with the Los Angeles Rams, once talked Ellis out of the possibility of transferring a while back, telling him his time would come. The 5-foot-10, 225-pounder from Peachtree Ridge HS in Suwannee, Ga., has come a long way since first donning the orange and blue in 2015, and he is ready […]

It has been awhile since Scott Stadium was filled to capacity The official capacity for David A. Harrison, III Field at Scott Stadium is listed as 61,500. Ten years ago today, the largest crowd in stadium history (64,947) saw Virginia get trounced by Southern Cal, 52-7. Only three times since Bronco Mendenhall has walked the sidelines has the home attendance reached the 40,000 mark, and not once over the 50,000-fan plateau. Mendenhall, along with first-year Athletics Director Carla Williams, would like nothing more than to see that number continue to rise, but they both realize that the team must continue […]

The date Aug. 8, 2016, sends chills down the spine of every member of the Bruce and Lynette Perkins family out in Arizona. That’s the day when youngest son, Bryce, went down during an Arizona State football practice, nearly ending in heartbreak. Shawn Griswold, now Virginia’s director of football development and performance, was in the same role for the Sun Devils that day and described the scenario as the most freakish injury he’s ever witnessed. “I was actually standing in the back of the end zone just by chance,” Griswold recalled Thursday. “Bryce pulled the ball and ran it and […]

Eli Hanback said “I am the old guy” as he tries to help younger players learn UVA’s defensive plays With fall practice wrapping up last week, minor injuries kept Virginia defensive ends Richard Burney and Mandy Alonso sidelined for almost all of camp, leaving several younger players to fill the void on what was already a question mark of a defensive line. As a result, true freshmen Jordan Redmond and Aaron Faumui were taking the bulk of the snaps in preparation for the 2018 season. Making the most of the opportunity, the two have impressed their teammates and coaches along […]

Like father (right, from 1977), like son… Sometime Friday, Tony and Marie Blount will make the trek from Peachtree City (about a half hour south of Atlanta) to Charlottesville to watch Virginia football. There’s a big reason for their excitement: Joey Blount, who was listed No. 1 at free safety on the Cavaliers’ depth chart heading into Saturday’s season opener against Richmond. Tony, an All-ACC defensive back for Dick Bestwick’s 1979 Wahoos, can hardly contain his excitement. “My son is playing for my school, and being able to watch him has been unbelievable,” Tony Blount said this week. “I’ve been […]

At top right, Bryce Perkins in his youth leading the Phoenix All-Star team to a national championship in Orlando, FL. Below, from left, Bryce, his Dad Bruce, his Mom Lynette, and his brother Paul Frozen in time is a photograph hanging in the Perkins’ household in Queen Creek, Arizona. It’s a picture that captured 10-year-old Bryce Perkins hurdling over a stunned would-be tackler on a kickoff return. Big brother, Paul Perkins, a star running back at UCLA and now in the backfield of the New York Giants, called the moment “poetry in motion.” “That was one of the most fascinating […]

Virginia will have to keep an eye out for not 1, not 2, but 3 talented Richmond wide receivers The Virginia secondary will have its hands full Saturday when Richmond’s three-headed monster of receiving talent arrives at Scott Stadium. Spider wideouts Dejon Brissett, Tyler Wilkins and Cortrelle Simpson combined for nearly 2,800 yards (over 250 per game) and 20 touchdowns a season ago, each finishing in the top four of the receiving list in the CAA. Coach Bronco Mendenhall knows his defense must concentrate on all three threats this weekend. “I think the simple key is the more you focus […]

Carla Williams hopes to bring more former UVA players back to campus and reconnect them with the program One of Carla Williams’ goals for the Virginia football team is to reconnect the Cavaliers’ past with the present by bringing former Wahoos back to meet and inspire the current team. Williams, UVa’s director of athletics, stated that goal when she met with state sportswriters back in May. Apparently that project has gone well over the past few months. “I think there has been a significant uptick because there has been a significant emphasis,” Virginia coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “Carla has done […]

Bryce Hall said UVA is “a completely different team” from the one that lost to Richmond in 2016 It was right around this time two years ago: The town had just been painted orange, and excitement was building around ‘Hooville and beyond in anticipation of the start of the Bronco Mendenhall era. Then a bunch of Spiders came and spoiled the party. In Mendenhall’s Virginia debut at Scott Stadium on September 3, 2016, Richmond came in and handed it to the Cavaliers. The Spiders dominated in just about every category, capitalized on UVa’s mistakes, and quite frankly made it look […]

Bronco Mendenhall said of former Broad Run standout Chuck Davis, “he just catches the ball” If there was any major surprise on Virginia’s two-deep chart at Monday’s opening game week press conference, it had to be Chuck Davis. The sophomore, who played in high school at Broad Run in Ashburn, only appeared in one game last season for Virginia (at Boise State) and didn’t have a single statistic credited to him. Didn’t touch the football. On Monday, however, Davis was listed as one of UVa’s two options as starting punt return man, and as a backup slot receiver behind Olamide […]

Former Ohio State defensive end Dylan Thompson is now officially a Wahoo. The massive graduate senior arrived in Charlottesville late this week and has joined the team, only a week from Virginia’s opener next Saturday against Richmond. Thompson has apparently tied up all academic loose ends in Columbus and is eligible to play for the Cavaliers. Just over a week ago, UVa coach Bronco Mendenhall was not optimistic about Thompson joining the team. “I would say it’s unlikely at this point,” Mendenhall told reporters, referring to Thompson becoming eligible due to coursework at Ohio State. “Until he arrives he’s not […]