With July now having arrived, the offseason is in full swing not only on college campuses around the county but on websites like this one.

As such, one of the best things to do during the summer is to look ahead and for the two revenue sports, we’re going to do just that.

We started last week with a look at what Tony Bennett and the hoops program have ahead in the coming weeks and months in advance of what will be an especially intriguing season.

Today we turn our attention to the football program, where Tony Elliott and Co. have a lot of heavy lifting to do to get the Cavaliers back to the postseason following a dreadful 2-8 campaign in Yeah 1.

Here are four offseason questions facing the Wahoos this summer:

1. How will the new members of the coaching staff fare this fall?

Regardless of how fans feel about the departures of Marques Hagans and Garett Tujague, one thing is clear: this is truly Elliott’s staff now. And that’s not to say that last year’s wasn’t per se. He didn’t have to hire Hagans and Tujague, and they didn’t have to stay. But retaining those two, along with linebackers coach Clint Sintim who remains, did create a bridge of sorts between the Bronco Mendenhall and Elliott eras.

With Hagans at Penn State and Tujague at NC State, the connection to the previous regime seems to be mostly gone. Elliott has brought in coaches that he wants to work with, in the hopes that they can help him turn the program into a consistent winner. He added offensive line coach Terry Heffernan to that staff from Stanford. He also promoted Adam Mims to receiver coach, with the two of them having a long-standing relationship. Elliott also brought in Louisiana Monroe OL coach Maverick Morris in a grad assistant role to help Heffernan with the offensive line.

The faces are different but, like Mendenhall, Elliott is, for the most part, going with guys that he trusts. Most of the coaches on staff are people that he had connections with prior to his time at Virginia with a few exceptions, Heffernan being one. Whether that trust leads to cohesion and on-field success remains to be seen. But both Mims and Heffernan are stepping into critical roles for this year’s team. The offensive line is in the process of a multi-year rebuild, and the wide receiver room feels brand new after a lot of departures.

Both of those position groups will also be key to UVa’s success or failure this fall, so it will be interesting to see how both Heffernan and Mims get on when fall camp starts.

2. How much will the new facility impact recruiting and the program overall?

A few weeks ago, the final steel beam was mounted on UVa’s incoming football operations facility, which is expected to be completed in just under a year’s time. By the 2024 football season, the facility, which sits on the former turf practice field next to the McCue Center, should be the home for a program that desperately needed a new building. McCue has been the home to UVa football for three decades and despite a number of facelift efforts over the years to help modernize the building, there was only so much that could be done in that particular space.

The new digs should not only provide UVa football with more resources and some nicer amenities, but it also demonstrates a commitment to football excellence from the university. The new building will cost more than $80 million to complete, and although funding was a challenge, the project is finally close to completion and the vision of many coaches, athletic directors and donors will be realized.

Outside of the obvious impact the facility will have on the current players, how much easier will it be to sell prospective players on the vision for the program with a shiny new building? And as the NIL era gets going, are these facilities the game changers that they once were, when there are other ways to entice student athletes to pick a certain school?

It will take several recruiting cycles before we’re really able to see the impact of the facility, and as Elliott said at the groundbreaking ceremony, the facility is only as powerful as the people in it.

3. What happens if this season, like the last one, falls below expectations?

It may be hard for fans to believe a year later, but expectations for the 2022 football season were relatively high.

UVa’s over/under for wins was 7.5 according to Vegas, and that was despite a coaching change with a first-time head coach taking over. A lot of those positive vibes were brought on by the returning firepower on offense, with a record-setting quarterback returning along with some potential pros at receiver.

Once the 2022 season began, though, it became clear that any predictions for a big first season for Elliott would fall short of reality. UVa’s offense was hard to watch, and while it’s easy for fans to think that they may have been too optimistic about plugging Mendenhall’s players into Elliott’s schemes and having success, the prognosticators in the desert were equally wrong.

The 2022 season ended in tragedy, and obviously, the program still has a lot of healing and growing to do as the guys put the pads on again this fall. But even before that, the vibe in the fanbase was off and it was easy to be discouraged about the product on the field.

And looking ahead, UVa has to replace a lot of key players and also contend with a difficult schedule. Predictions this year are not nearly as optimistic, at least from Vegas and the fanbase. If UVa has a losing season where the Hoos struggle against a tough schedule but improve, I think everyone would understand given the circumstances. But what happens if, say, the offense bottoms out again and the Cavaliers don’t seem to be gathering any momentum? At that point, is it fair to say Elliott would have quite a bit of pressure on him heading into 2024?

4. Where does the UVa/Virginia Tech rebuild race stand heading into the fall?

While UVa has had some on-field growing pains under a new coaching staff, so too has its arch-rival. Tech limped to a 3-8 record in the first season under Brent Pry, losing seven games in a row before defeating Liberty in their season finale. UVa and Tech didn’t play last fall after the tragedy in Charlottesville, so we didn’t get to see how the two teams measured up against one another.

Both programs have work to do heading into the 2023 season. UVa is hoping that another year in its schemes will help and some key transfer additions will push them towards a more successful campaign. In Blacksburg, the Hokies are in a similar spot, though their roster will look more like last year’s than Virginia’s will. Tech appears to have picked up some recruiting momentum of late, but that doesn’t mean the Hokies are heading for a big on-field improvement this fall.

This season will tell us quite a bit about where these two programs stand.

On paper, both have pretty challenging non-conference slates and the Hokies have what looks like a challenging ACC slate. The two programs will square off in Scott Stadium to end the regular season and while that game itself will take on extra-large importance for both Elliott and Pry, the other 11 games may tell us even more about where these two programs, and the rivalry, are heading.