3 Takeaways From UVA Football Week 1 (Win vs. William & Mary)

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Things started slow on Saturday night but they sure picked up as time wore on. Virginia scored 40 points in the final three quarters to beat William & Mary 43-0 in their 2021 season opener. Here are a few takeaways from the victory!

Crowd? Legit.

Fans had to wait a long time before being allowed back in Scott Stadium for live college football. That ended on Saturday night in a big way as 42,892 fans — including myself, a couple of Olympians, the UVA men’s basketball team & recent UVA football alums — were in attendance. In postgame comments, head coach Bronco Mendenhall and junior linebacker Nick Jackson both took note of the fan presence, particularly the 4th side.

“The 4th Side is a crucial part of Scott Stadium. Just to have them back, was exciting. They were juiced up, amped up, and it felt good to have them back,” Jackson said via NBC29.

By comparison, the turnout was a little short of 2019’s home opener vs. William & Mary (45,250) though that wasn’t being played with lingering COVID-19 concerns. The 2021 turnout was better than 2017, however, when 38,828 showed up for Virginia’s home opener vs. the Tribe.

“I saw something that I hadn’t seen maybe in my whole time here,” Mendenhall said, “where as soon as they opened the gates our student section [was] racing to get their seats up at the front.”

Weapons on Weapons on Weapons

When the Wahoos are on offense this season, you better have your program handy because Bronco is constantly shuffling skill players. Of course, he’s doing so because they all deserve to be on the field — a great problem to have. Six different UVA football players either scored a rushing touchdown or ran for 30+ yards on Saturday night, and five guys collected 30+ receiving yards. Even crazier, Jelani Woods — who got the most attention as a UVA offensive weapon — was held to just one catch for five yards and left the game with an injury.

Dear O-Line…You’re My Favorite Part

Both lines played great on Saturday, controlling the line of scrimmage throughout. It will be exciting to see how they both play against a Power-5 team this weekend because then it will be apples to apples in terms of athletes. That said, when you have a good O-line, you can execute your game plan. When you have an elite O-line, you can do whatever you want. We’ll probably end up somewhere in the middle, but man, with some protection it looks like Brennan Armstrong can make all the throws confidently (see one below). On the ground, the Wahoos averaged 6.4 yards per attempt (32 carries, 206 yards). By comparison, last year’s squad averaged just 3.5 yards per attempt in their only game against an FCS school.

-Next up will be Illinois on September 11th from Scott Stadium at 11am.