I can’t ever sleep well the night before gamedays. Last year stayed in an Airbnb for the Florida game and was nervous as heck. Same for Bammer. Maybe got 3-4 hours of sleep but lost my voice before halftime both games
Haven't tried on mobile but discovered yesterday is different on PC. Can't right click and copy image and then paste. Now you have to right click, copy image address, and then paste for the GIF to play. If you do the former it only posts a still image.
I can’t ever sleep well the night before gamedays. Last year stayed in an Airbnb for the Florida game and was nervous as heck. Same for Bammer. Maybe got 3-4 hours of sleep but lost my voice before halftime both games
Oh, that was me, in FL, they ticketed me for not having a pair of jorts on while boating, and in AL, they ticketed me for kissing outside the family......
Haven't tried on mobile but discovered yesterday is different on PC. Can't right click and copy image and then paste. Now you have to right click, copy image address, and then paste for the GIF to play. If you do the former it only posts a still image.
I've been to Yellowstone, Teton, Glacier The Badlands, Zion and Bryce Canyon.
Glacier is by far my favorite place. I wish I could live out there. Have some friends in Banff right now and it looks every bit as gorgeous.
However, the animals around Yellowstone are unmatched experiences. I saw bison herds, grizzly bears, black bears, elk and wolves.
I expected very little out of Zion and Bryce and both exceeded my expectations. Bryce was super cool.
The Badlands almost feels like you're on a different planet. My favorite part of that was going back at night where it's a dark area of the world and being mesmerized by the Milky Way and the meteor showers.
I'm not sure any player who is extremely religious and doesn't have thick skin is going to feel comfortable at any big-time college football program, tbh. We had a kid that transferred out not too long ago under Butch because he didn't like being cussed at.
From the Tennessee talking Quarterbacks (Pat Ryan, Jeff Francis, & Erik Ainge) –
On the Big Orange Hotline on Monday night Pat & Jeff joined Bob Kesling for the show’s season debut to talk about the team and the coming season and specifically the Virginia game. Here are some of the highlights:
Pat Ryan thinks this year’s receivers could be better than last year. He said he thought Squirrel was maybe at least as good as Hyatt. He caught himself before he said he thought Squirrel might be faster than Jalin. He was also big on Bru McCoy. He said Bru was a guy you could throw it to 10 times in a row and he didn’t think anyone could stop him.
One of the things Ainge has been doing on his radio show is counting down position groups leading up to the season. A little over a week ago he was at practice with Joey Kent and Dale Jones and he said Joey was really high on our receivers.
Jeff said one of the concerns some people have had with Joe Milton is the speed of his decision making. Ainge says that he thinks Milton is going to be great this year and in addition to what he has witnessed in practice he pointed to Heupel’s remark about Milton not throwing a pick during the entirety of training camp. Ainge said you can’t do that unless you’re making good decisions and on time.
In the scouting portion of the show, John Freeman, the voice of the Cavaliers, joined the show to talk about his team. He said camp has gone really well for Virginia and this is the second year for Tony Elliott and noted, “You guys know it”, the second year for a head coach is always a lot easier than the first year. He said they’re excited coming out of camp and they’re definitely going to be an improved team this year. He said everyone is looking at what was a 3 and 7 team coming back and with a new quarterback but he thought we’d see a much better Virginia team on Saturday in Nashville. (Note: The UVA offense is ranked #123 in returning production for this year).
He said their new QB was overlooked in recruiting coming out of high school because of Covid. He was prolific as a QB in high school but his recruitment was at the height of Covid. He ended up as the best player on the Monmouth team. Being a Virginia kid it was a no-brainer for Elliott to go get him. Freeman said he’s been at practice and what they’re asking Tony Muskett to do is manage the game. He said from what he’s seen on film and in practice, Muskett has a little mobility and is definitely a playmaker.
This was Tim Banks on Muskett’s film a few days ago, “Showed some athleticism, really good touch on the deep balls. I can see why those guys went and got him, and I can see why those guys named him the starter.”
Muskett appeared in 23 games from 2020-22 at Monmouth, recording 5,687 passing yards, 51 passing touchdowns, 16 interceptions, 149 rushing yards and five rushing touchdowns.
Freeman said their offensive line is much improved from last year. Bob had asked him about that because they only return one guy from the 5 starters last year. Freeman said these guys had added or shed weight as appropriate and were now a better fit for the type of offense they want to run. He thinks their left tackle is a future NFL player. The kid’s dad had a career playing LB in the NFL (9 years including a win in super bowl XLVI with the Giants) and in high school this kid, McKale Boley, played soccer through his junior year. Not that often an offensive lineman has a soccer background. He comes from Mississippi, is a true sophomore this year, and wasn’t highly recruited at all. His only other offers were Colorado, FIU, South Alabama, and Tulane. He committed to UVA in Jan ’22, so after ESD, and enrolled in June ’22. He’s a smart kid, academic all-ACC.
The only returner on their OL is their center. He’s a redshirt sophomore (2021 class) out of Georgia. This kid’s only other offers according to 247 were Appy State and East Carolina.
Virginia is running back by committee. Their starter last year was a walk-on. The kid weighs 179 lbs and squats over 600 lbs, according to Freeman. The kid, Perris Jones, is back this year. He’s actually RB2 as the starter this year is a grad transfer from Clemson, Kobe Pace. Pace had a good year with Clemson in 2021 but fell down the depth chart last year. Jones numbers last year I didn’t think were all that good. jmo.
Jeff points out that Tennessee generally puts up a lot of points and asks Freeman what fans should look for from the Virginia defense. Freeman says last year their defense was better than their offense and they didn’t allow many points (24.0 ppg). He said they didn’t win a lot of games last year mostly because they just didn’t score a whole lot of points.
Freeman says they know Tennessee has had some transition and injuries on the offensive line and Virginia fans are looking at it as being somewhere that maybe they have an advantage, the fact that almost their entire defensive line is back. Their #1 edge guy (they call bandit) is a guy (Chico Bennett Jr) they think is a first or second round draft pick but he had a freak knee injury in practice about a week and a half ago so they don’t know if he’ll play or not. The kid was kneeling after practice and when he stood up his knee locked up. They’re high on Kam Butler who is the DE on the other side. (From all that I have heard and read their starting DTs are supposed to be the real strength of their DL). Last year the UVA run defense was ranked #71 in the nation in yards/game against their schedule; our run defense was ranked #21 against our schedule. Against FBS teams with a winning record our run defense ranked #18, Virginia's run defense against FBS teams with a winning record ranked #80. Maybe something to keep in mind. jmo.
Ainge says without Cooper based on what he’s seen at the practices he’s been to he’d give our offensive line a grade of B. Brian Rice said from what he’s hearing from around the program they don’t expect Cooper back before A&M. From the beginning based on the rumor the injury was a hernia, and from the sports medicine research I did, it was on average 4 weeks if no cutting and 12 weeks if cutting was involved. From listening to Heupel, Hubbs, and Cooper, I’ve pretty much assumed no Cooper this year but he has I think 3 to play 2 so he should be back eventually. Meanwhile he said he’ll be on the sideline coaching. With the SEC travel rosters are limited to 70 players but players out for the season don’t count against the 70 so I'm expecting Cooper to travel with us. jmo. The best thing is I don’t think we’ll lose Cooper’s leadership this year. In just the last few days I’ve heard Heupel, Halzle, Milton, and Cooper all express their confidence in our offensive line for this year.
At LB they lost their leader from last year but, according to Freeman, have a former starter that has had injuries issues in the past back and healthy and in the rotation they have a true freshman, Kam Robinson, they are really high on and is expected to play day one. 247 rated the kid a 90 and he had an offer from us among others, Penn State, FSU, South Carolina, Pitt, etc.
Pat asks if Tony Elliott brought the Clemson offense to Virginia. Freeman says he brought everything in terms of mentality. He said what they want to do on offense is to control the clock, manage the game, don’t have turnovers, win games that are close by running the ball down the other team’s throat. lmao. He then admits it’s easier said than done. He thinks the clock rule change after first downs helps them. Basically, he says, they want to be a possession oriented offense.
Pat tells Freeman it’s good that he has his defense back this year (#63 in returning production, ours is #44) because if you can't stop anybody you can’t play that style of offense.
Freeman ends his portion of the show by talking about his time in Nashville where he lived and worked until he took the job with Virginia in 2021. He said he listened to the Vol Network and had a lot of Tennessee fans around him. They paid tribute to the victims of the tragedy of last year.
Jeff and Pat summarized after Freeman signs off and basically both former Big Orange QBs implied Virginia gonna learn. jmo.
