Virginia learned a valuable lesson when it stepped up into the big leagues of college football on Saturday. It’s almost impossible to win at this level without a decent running game.

The five-game winning streak for No. 18 Virginia came to an end at Notre Dame Stadium Saturday as the Cavaliers fell, 35-20, to the 10th-ranked Fighting Irish (3-1).

Regardless of the outcome of Saturday afternoon’s game in the shadow of the Golden Dome, beneath the blessings of Touchdown Jesus, Bronco Mendenhall’s Virginia football team gets a taste of the big time. Heck, it’s a mouthful.

No. 18 Virginia faces its toughest challenge of the season Saturday afternoon when the undefeated Cavaliers will play in front of a national-TV audience and a raucous, packed house at Notre Dame Stadium against the 10th-ranked Fighting Irish.

For all the fans outside of Charlottesville that can’t listen to the “Jerry Ratcliffe Show,” good news is here. We’re growing.

Wahoo Nation, one of your own needs help, and we are helping spread the word. Zac Yarbrough, who played for Al Groh’s Virginia teams from 2001 through 2004, is fighting cancer, and his great wife, Kelli, is asking for assistance.

Thomas Jones ran his way into our hearts as Virginia’s all-time leading rusher in the late 1990s. Now, he’s making hearts flutter as a leading man in Hollywood.

Sacking opposing quarterbacks was an issue for the Virginia defense in 2018 and as a result, there was a heavy emphasis on a more effective pass rush in the offseason.

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly is impressed with Virginia’s defense and there are plenty of reasons why.

What do Jerry Ratcliffe and Lee Shifflett have in common? It sure isn’t cooking. Shifflett owns and operates Riverside Lunch, the best burgers in Charlottesville. Ratcliffe can’t cook a lick, so it must be something else.

There’s not a college football fan on the planet who doesn’t know about Notre Dame from the time they’re a kid. That is the history, the tradition, the mystique that Virginia coach Bronco Mendenhall will take on this Saturday when the No. 18 Cavaliers make their first-ever football trip to South Bend to take on the 10th-ranked Irish. Mendenhall is unfazed by the challenge.

Having been pegged by several preseason football publications as the best returning lockdown cornerback in the country, Virginia senior Bryce Hall is an easy target for opposing receivers’ attempts to trash talk.

Virginia senior defensive lineman Eli Hanback talks about how meaningful Saturday’s matchup at Notre Dame will be for the Cavalier program.

There’s an old Gene Autry song that fits the narrative of Bryce Perkins’ running style. It’s called, “Don’t Fence Me In.”

UVA quarterback Bryce Perkins talks with the media Monday about the team’s slow start and a fourth-quarter bad snap that had Cavalier Nation holding its collective breath.

The Virginia football team moved up three spots to No. 18 in the latest AP Top 25 poll.

The Walter Camp Football Foundation has announced that UVA junior linebacker Charles Snowden been named its National Defensive Player of the Week, for games played through Sept. 21.

UVA linebacker Zane Zandier recalls his first career interception, which he ran back 22 yards for a touchdown against Old Dominion.

UVA running back Wayne Taulapapa chats about how big plays by the Cavalier defense and special teams helped fuel the rally against Old Dominion.