Depending on how tonight’s game goes, we all might owe Virginia offensive coordinator Robert Anae a big apology. Cavalier fans were all over Anae last season, and this columnist took his fair amount of jabs at Anae as well over an offense that struggled to score and had no running game. Sometimes it was simply predictable and unimaginative. Well, that wasn’t the case last week when Virginia pummeled FCS Richmond and amassed 500 yards of offense while dominating with a strong running game. Anae said earlier this week that new quarterback Bryce Perkins was pennies from heaven. “That’s what Bronco […]

It all came down to one controversial play at the end, but Bryce Perkins’ long pass with no time left on the clock was knocked down at the very back of the Indiana end zone, allowing the Hoosiers to hold on and beat Virginia 20-16. Virginia had gotten one last chance to score the go-ahead touchdown when they received an Indiana punt at their own 9 with 3:23 to go. They drove to the Indiana 31 with only 16 seconds left and faced a 4th and 5. Then things got a little wild. Perkins rolled to his right and attempted […]

Hootie’s ACC Power Poll, Week 2. Rank, school, overall record/ACC record, previous rank, comment: 1. Clemson, 1-0/0-0 (1): Tigers are one of the nation’s elite programs and intend to stay that way with a reunion in College Station, Texas, with an old friend, former Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher, who now coaches the Aggies. Look for Clemson to dominate in the trenches. 2. Virginia Tech, 1-0/1-0 (6): Huge jump in the rankings for the Hokies after they embarrassed Florida State and ruined Willie Taggert’s debut in Tallahassee. Bud Foster never ceases to amaze me. This week, they’ll ruin Jimmye Laycock’s […]

Our Jerry Ratcliffe has personally known every Virginia athletic director dating back to Gene Corrigan, followed by Dick Schultz, Jim Copeland, Terry Holland, and Craig Littlepage. Jerry’s first one-on-one sit down with new UVa AD Carla Williams, took place this week. In Part 1, which you can read by clicking here, football was the main topic of conversation. Today’s Part 2 of the Q&A session hits a variety of topics: Jerry: Carla, you’ve inherited a Top 25 athletic program. How do you enhance that position? Carla: I think we need to sustain it. A strain on the budget impacts everyone. […]

Welcome to our second week of Tale Of The Tape, comparing the individual and team statistics for Virginia and Indiana in preparation for Saturday night’s game. Of all the statistics on this chart, the one that may be the most interesting is in the upper right corner which gives the expected weather conditions. It’s supposed to rain in Bloomington, and not just a sprinkle. A heavy rain could negate Indiana’s passing attack, and since the Hoosiers have already lost their top two running backs coming into the game, that could be an advantage for the Wahoos. To see the complete […]

Malcolm Cook has been a model of hard work as he’s fought through injuries to get back on the field for the Wahoos Malcolm Cook loves a good challenge. To say he has immensely persevered throughout his momentous six years with the University of Virginia football program would be putting it mildly. The 6-foot-1, 240-pound senior linebacker from Richmond — by way of Fork Union Military Academy — only appeared in a total of six games from 2013 heading into last season, and then missed four more contests in 2017. Cook, however, remained focused and positive, and has endured countless […]

Jordan Ellis broke all of his previous career highs for rushing yards and average Saturday night against Richmond In Bronco Mendenhall’s view, Jordan Ellis is Virginia football. “He embodies what a Virginia football player should be,” Mendenhall said this week. Fans saw a little of what Mendenhall was talking about in the Cavaliers’ lopsided win over Richmond in Saturday night’s season opener. Ellis rushed for 146 yards and two touchdowns, which garnered him ACC Running Back of the Week honors on Tuesday. Ellis was the workhorse for the Cavaliers in the win, toting the ball on 20 of UVa’s 48 […]

When Indiana hosts Virginia this Saturday night in Bloomington, the Hoosiers will be without its two leading rushers from a year ago. Cole Gest, a redshirt sophomore, who was IU’s starter in its 38-28 win over Florida International over the weekend, torn an ACL during the game and will miss the rest of the season. Indiana coach Tom Allen reported the news at his weekly press conference on Monday and did not provide an update on the “indefinite suspension” of running back Morgan Ellison, who led the Hoosiers in rushing in 2017 with 704 yards and six touchdowns. Ellison was […]

Malcolm Cook (left) and Jordan Mack Most Virginia football fans probably best remember linebacker Jordan Mack as a young pup delivering a tractor-trailer-sized smash to Duke quarterback Daniel Jones in the end zone in October of 2016, resulting in a key Cavalier touchdown. That helped the ‘Hoos win their first ACC road game in a long time. Mack added to his legacy a year ago, finishing his sophomore campaign with the fifth-most tackles (114) in the conference. Now with Micah Kiser playing in the NFL, Mack has taken the reigns as one of the leaders of the UVa linebacking corps, […]

Bronco Mendenhall addressed a number of topics during Monday’s press conference…even the state of Montana During Virginia’s surprising 5-1 start last season, Cavalier players were kicking themselves for losing a home game to Indiana. That loss stuck in their collective craws. In that game, UVa was prepared to stop the Hoosiers’ starting quarterback Richard Lagow, who had torn up Ohio State in a near-upset two weeks before. In fact, Lagow struggled so badly against the Cavaliers (3-for-10, 24 yards and an interception), that he was pulled and replaced by dual-threat QB Peyton Ramsey. Ramsey turned out to be the difference […]

Jordan Ellis high steps into the end zone on his way to his second touchdown of the evening The new-look Virginia offense was on full display Saturday night at Scott Stadium, as junior quarterback Bryce Perkins dazzled in his Wahoo debut. Before an announced home crowd of 40,524, Perkins rushed for 108 yards and two touchdowns and threw for 185 and two more scores as the Cavaliers opened the 2018 season with a 42-13 win over Richmond. Senior captain Jordan Ellis set a career high with 146 yards on 20 carries and added a pair of touchdowns of his own […]

Cavaliers on the bench are already signalling “touchdown” as Bryce Perkins gets to the edge on a first-half run Before the game, Bryce Perkins’ Mom said “Bryce is a playmaker. He’ll get it done.” Mom was right All year long, we heard about what a special player Bryce Perkins was going to be. Saturday night we found out. Name your own adjective: electric, exciting, elusive, f-a-s-t. Perkins was all of that and more. His debut was spectacular as he rushed for 108 yards, passed for 185, and had a hand in four touchdowns to lead Virginia to a season-opening, 42-13 […]

Receiver Hasise Duboise (8) leads ball-carrier Joe Reed through the Richmond defense Virginia’s passing game didn’t blow anyone away in Saturday night’s 42-13 win over Richmond, but it did offer some exciting moments that could have been a hint of things to come. The highlight was a 38-yard scoring hookup between new Cavaliers quarterback Bryce Perkins and senior slot receiver Olamide Zaccheaus, who remains on a tear. That play put UVa ahead 21-10 as the Wahoos began to pull away toward the lopsided finale. For the evening, Zaccheaus hauled in six passes for 101 yards and a score, and recorded […]

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 […]