Week 3 is now in the rear view and what a week it was. The Cavaliers are now up to No. 21 in the Associated Press Top 25 after picking up a 31-24 win over Florida State this past weekend in front of the largest crowd to see a game at Scott Stadium in the Bronco Mendenhall era.
Now the Wahoos have to shift gears from that emotional high to this Saturday night’s matchup against the Monarchs of Old Dominion (7 p.m., ESPN2). In what will be the first ever meeting between the two schools, the Cavaliers (3-0, 2-0 ACC) must handle a dual-threat quarterback and a defense that likes to cause havoc in the backfield (sound familiar?).
As is our custom, we’re going to break down a few things we know, pose two questions we still have, and give you one prediction as the Wahoos head deeper into game week.
Three Things We Know
1. Virginia has to turn the page after an emotional win.
When the Hoos beat FSU this past weekend, it provided an epic ending to a crazy game. But there’s an inherent challenge in going from that kind of matchup and the way it ended to this one against ODU, a 1-1 team that most recently saw its upset bid in Blacksburg come up short late. So how will the Cavaliers respond when they have to go from beating the mighty Seminoles to hosting the Monarchs for the first time ever?
“Yeah I’m not sure letdown is the right word, but there is an emotional effect, yeah,” Mendenhall said when asked if he was worried about the shift. “I think the staff and the team and maybe the community are tired today, which how can you not be? But we value the process and we know exactly what the process has to look like, what work has to be done today, what it has to look like for us to know if we’re on track or not, and for certain metrics to be hit.
“There isn’t a way around that,” he added. “So the volume of work and the level of work that has to be done today happens whether you play late and win late or play early and win early. That still has to happen on Monday. So just a stark reality. I work really hard with my team and usually on the sideline to be even, not so up, not so down. Because for every one of those there is a recovery process. I think the team matter of fact knows that Monday is Monday. This is the next game. We’ve already moved on and have to. So that’s the reality, and tomorrow will be a difficult practice. Very hard, challenging, as Tuesdays are. Tomorrow will be no exception.”
2. The Wahoos will be without Brennan Armstrong for a bit.
One of the few changes to this week’s depth chart is the removal of Armstrong’s name from the quarterback portion, thereby implying even before Mendenhall took to the mic at JPJ that redshirt sophomore signal caller wasn’t likely to be available anytime soon. Mendenhall didn’t have many details on the situation.
“I don’t,” he said when asked if there was a status update. “Day by day is basically where we are.”
To this point, Mendenhall has said that Armstrong was injured during the W&M game and that they’re not sure how long it will be. He was on the sideline Saturday night with what appeared to be a walking boot on his left foot.
With Armstrong unavailable for at least this week and seemingly longer, UVa is in a bit of a tight spot. Mendenhall said that Lindell Stone will serve as the backup with RJ Harvey providing depth behind him. “Yeah, we’re three deep and I like both those players,” he added.
3. Dejon Brissett is back and is expected to have a bigger role.
One thing that was interesting Saturday night was that on the key two-point conversion late in the fourth quarter, among those lined up was Brissett, the grad transfer wideout from Richmond. Dinged up heading into fall camp, Brissett was finally cleared heading into the FSU game which was good timing for UVa since fellow wideout Dontayvion Wicks suffered a concussion.
“Before he got hurt we really were impressed and still are,” Mendenhall said of the 6-foot-1, 195-pound Brissett. “So, glad that he’s back. We lost Wicks to a concussion last week. Just so happened that Dejon was coming back and that just matched perfectly. So it’ll be better when they’re both back at the same time, but, yeah, Brissett now is available, and I think it shows the confidence we have in him for the situation we put him in.
“I would expect more touches,” he added, “more inclusion in the script, and usage for him going forward. So the timing is really good for us. And hopefully Wicks will come back soon also.”
