59 mins. ago
By week 0 standards, it was a pretty fun Saturday on the soft opening of college football season. It's the final week 0 we'll ever see, with the NCAA moving to eliminate schedule oddity starting next year. So what did we learn? Let's dive in.
Bill Belichick kicked off the college football season with an ugly, gutty win over TCU in Ireland. It was easily the best win so far of his college career, doing it with mostly underclassmen on his young roster. Through all the noise and the drama, Belichick did what he's done so many times — win.
That win was much more about the hapless TCU team that North Carolina played though. TCU's new pro-style offense looked good to start, but North Carolina overwhelmed them physically in the second half. Harvard transfer Jaden Craig couldn't get anything going through the air after receiving plenty of hype this offseason.
TCU was missing their top receiver, but it sure looks like the Horned Frogs are in for a long, long season in the Big 12.
From the jump in Charlottesville on Saturday afternoon, NC State was simply overmatched. It was a physical beatdown coming from the Cavaliers, as Beau Pribula operated Tony Elliott's power run game from the quarterback position to perfection. Pribula also hit a couple of passes down the field to step on the throat of the Wolfpack.
#carolina #pribula
Bill Belichick kicked off the college football season with an ugly, gutty win over TCU in Ireland. It was easily the best win so far of his college career, doing it with mostly underclassmen on his young roster. Through all the noise and the drama, Belichick did what he's done so many times — win.
That win was much more about the hapless TCU team that North Carolina played though. TCU's new pro-style offense looked good to start, but North Carolina overwhelmed them physically in the second half. Harvard transfer Jaden Craig couldn't get anything going through the air after receiving plenty of hype this offseason.
TCU was missing their top receiver, but it sure looks like the Horned Frogs are in for a long, long season in the Big 12.
From the jump in Charlottesville on Saturday afternoon, NC State was simply overmatched. It was a physical beatdown coming from the Cavaliers, as Beau Pribula operated Tony Elliott's power run game from the quarterback position to perfection. Pribula also hit a couple of passes down the field to step on the throat of the Wolfpack.
#carolina #pribula
6 hours ago
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Transfer quarterback Beau Pribula dazzled in his Virginia debut as the Cavaliers drilled visiting North Carolina State 34-8 in the season and ACC opener for both squads on Saturday at Scott Stadium.
Pribula, who started his career at Penn State and played last season at Missouri, threw for 155 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another 110 yards, becoming the first Virginia quarterback to run for 100 yards in a game since Brennan Armstrong in 2022.
Behind a balanced offense and stifling defense, the Cavaliers jumped out to a 17-0 lead headed into halftime.
Virginia, playing without star linebacker Kam Robinson (knee), had no trouble containing CJ Bailey and the Wolfpack. It opened the game with a pair of three-and-outs and then intercepted a tipped pass on NC State's third possession.
The Wolfpack never threatened. Bailey finished 12 for 23 for 84 yards and an interception. He also lost a red-zone fumble.
#cavaliers
Pribula, who started his career at Penn State and played last season at Missouri, threw for 155 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another 110 yards, becoming the first Virginia quarterback to run for 100 yards in a game since Brennan Armstrong in 2022.
Behind a balanced offense and stifling defense, the Cavaliers jumped out to a 17-0 lead headed into halftime.
Virginia, playing without star linebacker Kam Robinson (knee), had no trouble containing CJ Bailey and the Wolfpack. It opened the game with a pair of three-and-outs and then intercepted a tipped pass on NC State's third possession.
The Wolfpack never threatened. Bailey finished 12 for 23 for 84 yards and an interception. He also lost a red-zone fumble.
#cavaliers
1 day ago
What are the early indicators, for better or worse? These are a few.
1.) Can NC State's defense be more consistently disruptive on passing plays? State's defense was really, really bad on passing downs last season—its havoc rate stunk, it was bad on a per-play basis, from an EPA basis, from pretty much every basis. Whole thing was ugly.
Virginia doesn't have a skill position group that's scaring anybody, and as long as Beau Pribula is the starting quarterback—which I don't think will last long—then the ceiling there is pretty low. But if he has four seconds to make a decision every time he drops back, he's going to look like Joe Montana. The battle between UVA's offensive line and State's defense might be the only thing that really matters in this game.
2.) Is CJ Bailey ready to be the kind of quarterback who can carry a team to a big win? The pressure is on now. Everybody knows what kind of player Bailey is, and what he can be—and he's being paid to deliver. Is he ready to handle it? He's working with a brand new bunch of receivers, and he is going to have to improvise for State to have success offensively. There will be breakdowns and misunderstandings and he will need to fix a few things in the moment to keep the ball moving. It's Week 0 and maybe the biggest game of his career so far.
3.) How good are Harvey Dyson and Popo Aguirre? NC State is counting on both to be important; I think it's fair to say both are high-floor guys, but can they be good enough to make the defense substantially better? Aguirre has the most work ahead of him on that one, and if he ends up a clear difference-maker, that changes the expectations for the defense. The margins for success on this defense are extremely small—if either of these guys has an off day, if either gets hurt, it's extremely bad news.
#basis #aguirre #better
1.) Can NC State's defense be more consistently disruptive on passing plays? State's defense was really, really bad on passing downs last season—its havoc rate stunk, it was bad on a per-play basis, from an EPA basis, from pretty much every basis. Whole thing was ugly.
Virginia doesn't have a skill position group that's scaring anybody, and as long as Beau Pribula is the starting quarterback—which I don't think will last long—then the ceiling there is pretty low. But if he has four seconds to make a decision every time he drops back, he's going to look like Joe Montana. The battle between UVA's offensive line and State's defense might be the only thing that really matters in this game.
2.) Is CJ Bailey ready to be the kind of quarterback who can carry a team to a big win? The pressure is on now. Everybody knows what kind of player Bailey is, and what he can be—and he's being paid to deliver. Is he ready to handle it? He's working with a brand new bunch of receivers, and he is going to have to improvise for State to have success offensively. There will be breakdowns and misunderstandings and he will need to fix a few things in the moment to keep the ball moving. It's Week 0 and maybe the biggest game of his career so far.
3.) How good are Harvey Dyson and Popo Aguirre? NC State is counting on both to be important; I think it's fair to say both are high-floor guys, but can they be good enough to make the defense substantially better? Aguirre has the most work ahead of him on that one, and if he ends up a clear difference-maker, that changes the expectations for the defense. The margins for success on this defense are extremely small—if either of these guys has an off day, if either gets hurt, it's extremely bad news.
#basis #aguirre #better
4 days ago
Coming off a breakthrough 11-3 season, Virginia finds itself in the rather unusual position of returning an offensive line basically intact and having to replace just about everything around it. There are worse places to start when it comes to rebuilding an offense, though.
The o-line returns a couple of guys who were third-team All-ACC honorees last season, including left tackle McKale Boley and also adds in a couple of veterans who were supposed to be impact transfers last season before getting hurt. The starting five listed on UVA's depth chart for this week includes two seventh-year players, two sixth-year players, and one young fifth-year guy. Sign of the times, huh.
This should be the clear strength of Virginia's offense, which is good given that it is going to need time for new quarterback Beau Pribula to acclimate to his new surroundings. Pribula wasn't very good at Missouri last season (11-9 TD-INT, 7.2 YPA), as evidenced by the fact that he is no longer at Missouri, and he along with a largely new receiving corps leaves plenty of uncertainty for the Cavaliers to sort through. UVA hedged a bit in bringing ex-Pitt starter Eli Holstein in as well—which could end up looking like a shrewd move, depending.
UVA hit on several big running plays in Raleigh last season and averaged over 8.0 yards per carry for the game as a result, but gone is 1,000-yard rusher J'Mari Taylor (he ran for 150 against State), and in his place to begin 2026 is Jekail Middlebrook, who ran for 752 yards at Middle Tennessee last season.
I'm sure Virginia would love to dictate terms up front and take as much pressure off of its passing game as possible. It's tough to guess at the ceiling of that passing game or how cohesive it will look in the first game of the season, but if the Cavs end up pushing NC State's defensive front around, they can work around a lot of issues.
#last #line #offense
The o-line returns a couple of guys who were third-team All-ACC honorees last season, including left tackle McKale Boley and also adds in a couple of veterans who were supposed to be impact transfers last season before getting hurt. The starting five listed on UVA's depth chart for this week includes two seventh-year players, two sixth-year players, and one young fifth-year guy. Sign of the times, huh.
This should be the clear strength of Virginia's offense, which is good given that it is going to need time for new quarterback Beau Pribula to acclimate to his new surroundings. Pribula wasn't very good at Missouri last season (11-9 TD-INT, 7.2 YPA), as evidenced by the fact that he is no longer at Missouri, and he along with a largely new receiving corps leaves plenty of uncertainty for the Cavaliers to sort through. UVA hedged a bit in bringing ex-Pitt starter Eli Holstein in as well—which could end up looking like a shrewd move, depending.
UVA hit on several big running plays in Raleigh last season and averaged over 8.0 yards per carry for the game as a result, but gone is 1,000-yard rusher J'Mari Taylor (he ran for 150 against State), and in his place to begin 2026 is Jekail Middlebrook, who ran for 752 yards at Middle Tennessee last season.
I'm sure Virginia would love to dictate terms up front and take as much pressure off of its passing game as possible. It's tough to guess at the ceiling of that passing game or how cohesive it will look in the first game of the season, but if the Cavs end up pushing NC State's defensive front around, they can work around a lot of issues.
#last #line #offense
