By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia’s football team will be in California sometime Thursday in early preparation for its game with the Golden Bears on Saturday (3:45 p.m., ESPN2). The Cavaliers (7-1, 4-0 ACC) are 4.5-point favorites over Cal (5-3, 2-2).

Flying cross-country for the game isn’t as easy as it looks. There are tons of logistics at play, starting after last weekend’s game in Chapel Hill.

Because the starting time was on a six-day hold by the television people, which impacted chartering a plane, bus companies, hotel reservations and the like.

Virginia’s equipment truck, the size of a moving van, had to drive back from Chapel Hill after Saturday’s game, didn’t get back in Charlottesville until Saturday night, then had to turn around and depart for Berkeley, California, on Sunday around 4 p.m., drive cross-country.

Meanwhile, because Tony Elliott allows his players to pick the uniform combinations, Virginia had to stick with the same road uniforms two weeks in a row. UVA’s white helmets were packed on the equipment truck as soon as the Carolina game ended.

With white jerseys and white pants getting messy from playing on UNC’s grass field, those unis had to be brought back to Charlottesville and thoroughly soaked and washed clean Saturday night.

“So all that stuff left on Sunday,” Elliott explained the process. “Now, when we get off the practice field Wednesday, we’re going to have to pack our shoulder pads and then Thursday, we’ve got to pack all the other auxiliary equipment and put it in bags and get it to the airport to put on the plane.”

With that in mind, players have to lighten their personal luggage, meaning, “everybody’s going to be wearing the same clothes for a couple of days because of the weight requirements on the plane,” the coach said.

While it’s a bit of a hassle, traveling to California — especially for first-timers — is an exciting sidebar to the game.

“I was asking a couple guys around the building had they ever been to California and there’s a lot of folks, players and staff, that have never been to the state of California,” Elliott said. “So it’s actually pretty cool that you get a chance to travel that far.

“I don’t want to do it every week, right? I don’t want to do it too much, but we can kinda muscle up.”

Elliott wanted his players to get out to Cal a day early just to get acclimated to the time change, although the 3:45 start was a good break. Sometimes teams from the East are forced to play games beginning at 9 p.m. Pacific time, which is midnight Eastern. Talk about messing with your body clock.

The coach said his staff did a thorough job in gaining information from both other college and NFL programs about the East-to-West trip, what day is best to travel, how to get acclimated to the time change, meal schedules and other pertinent information that could impact any aspect of preparation.

“We took all that information, evaluated it and then also looked at where our team is right now to help us finalize our plan to travel out west,” Elliott said.

This Week’s ACC Schedule

Friday
North Carolina at Syracuse, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Saturday
Miami at SMU, Noon (ESPN)
Duke at Clemson, Noon (ACCN)
Louisville at Virginia Tech, 3 p.m. (The CW)
Notre Dame at Boston College, 3:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Pitt at Stanford, 3:30 p.m. (ACCN)
Virginia at California, 3:45 p.m. (ESPN2)
Georgia Tech at NC State, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
Wake Forest at Florida State, 7:30 p.m. (ACCN)

UVA Offensive Season Stats

California Offensive Season Stats