Tale Of The Tape: Liberty at Virginia
Posted on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2019, 6:02 am
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Virginia will attempt to continue its two-game winning streak this afternoon when the 7-3 Cavaliers take on visiting non-conference Liberty, which is attempting to become bowl-eligible.
The Cavaliers are 17-point favorites over the 6-4 Flames, who have lost two of their last three games and have struggled on the road for the past two seasons (3-8 away from Lynchburg).
The key for today’s game, which could be a high-scoring contest unless the weather dictates otherwise, will be how UVA’s hobbled secondary fares against the nation’s No. 9-ranked passer in Liberty senior Stephen “Buckshot” Calvert. He has passed for 2,941 yards this season and has a 23-3 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Meanwhile, the Cavaliers’ secondary has been depleted by injuries and has only one original starter — free safety Joey Blount — remaining. UVA gave up gobs of yardage to North Carolina’s passing attack three weeks ago, and to Georgia Tech’s air game two weeks ago prior to a bye week leading up to today. Tech is one of the worst passing teams in the country but had little difficulty moving the ball via the pass against the patchwork UVA secondary.
Coach Bronco Mendenhall’s focus during the bye week was to accelerate the on-the-job training of his team’s inexperienced starters in the defensive backfield, juniors Chris Moore (strong safety), De’Vante Cross (corner) and Nick Grant (corner).
Most likely, the Wahoos will play a lot of nickel against Calvert & Company, coached by former Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze, in his first year at the helm of the Flames.
Should Liberty move the ball at will and post a lot of points, the Cavaliers should be able to answer. UVA has put up 38 and 33 points in its last two games in which senior quarterback Bryce Perkins has been nothing short of spectacular, posting more than 800 yards of total offense.
In fact, Perkins is one of only two players in the nation (Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts is the other) to pass for 2,400-plus yards and rush for 450-plus yards so far this season. Perkins leads the ACC and ranks 14th nationally in total offense with 2,932 yards (he broke UVA’s record last season with 3,603).
Tale Of The Tape
The Coaches
UVA — Bronco Mendenhall
4th season at Virginia (23-25); 15th season overall (122-68); Record vs. LU: 1-0
LU — Hugh Freeze
1st season at LU (6-4); 9th season overall (48-36); Record vs. UVA: 0-0
Coastal Division Standings
Broadcast Information
TV: ACC Network Extra/Regional Sports Networks (NBC Sports Washington)
Announcers: Evan Lepler (play-by-play), Dave Archer (analyst), Abby Labar (sideline)
Radio: Virginia Sports Network
Announcers: Dave Koehn (play-by-play), Tony Covington (analyst), Jay James (sideline)
Satellite Radio:
Sirius Channel — 135
XM Channel — 193
Internet Channel — 955
Kickoff Forecast
Mostly Cloudy, 44 degrees
Precipitation — 11%
Wind — 6 mph
Humidity — 71%
(Courtesy AccuWeather)
