Tale Of The Tape: No. 18 Virginia at No. 10 Notre Dame
Posted on Friday, Sep. 27, 2019, 10:48 pm
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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.
Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. and the game will be televised by NBC. Wahoo senior quarterback Bryce Perkins leads UVA (4-0, 2-0 ACC) into battle in arguably the biggest game thus far of the Bronco Mendenhall era.
The 2-1 Irish are fresh off their first and only loss of the season at No. 3 Georgia last week, and they will no doubt be hungry to get back into the win column in front of the home crowd.
Senior QB Ian Book has a strong, accurate arm, can hurt you with his feet, and has a talented group of receivers and running backs to help move the offense down the field.
It’s only the third meeting between the schools, with Notre Dame claiming each of the previous meetings — with “Rocket” Ismael, Tony Rice and the crew in the Kickoff Classic in the Meadowlands in 1989, and in Mike London’s final season in an early-season nail-biter at Scott Stadium.
The Irish struggled a bit in the early going at Louisville in the opener, then bounced back with a 66-14 win over New Mexico before falling between the hedges last week under the lights.
After enjoying a perfect three-game homestretch, the ‘Hoos will now hit the highway for four of their next five, with none bigger than Saturday’s tilt, the only top-20 matchup in the country this week.
Virginia has hung around in its last four meetings against AP top-10 teams, giving Miami in 2017 and Florida State in 2014 a fight in its last two such contests away from Charlottesville.
Tale Of The Tape
The Coaches
UVA — Bronco Mendenhall
4th season at Virginia (20-22); 15th season overall (119-65); Record vs. ND: 0-3
ND — Brian Kelly
10th season at Notre Dame (83-36); 29th season overall (254-93-2); Record vs. UVA: 1-0
The Depth Chart
Broadcast Information
TV: NBC
Announcers: Mike Tirico (play-by-play), Doug Flutie (analyst), Chris Simms (field analyst), Kathryn Tappen (sideline)
Radio: Virginia Sports Network
Announcers: Dave Koehn (play-by-play), Tony Covington (analyst), Ahmad Hawkins (sideline)
Satellite Radio:
Sirius Channel — 113
XM Channel — 203
Internet Channel — 966
Kickoff Forecast
Conditions, 70 degrees
Precipitation — 40%
Wind — 9 mph
Humidity — 79%
