– Last Updated on July 25, 2018 10:36 am
2018 Football Preview – ACC – Cavaliers
Looking for 2018 Virginia Cavaliers predictions? The Cavaliers will look to make it back-to-back years of making consecutive bowl games. That hasn’t been done since 2002 to 2005 when they actually went bowling for four consecutive years.
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2018-19 College Football Preview – Virginia Cavaliers
Head Coach: Bronco Mendenhall
2017 Record: 6-7
Virginia Cavaliers Odds to win the 2018 FBS Championship: 500/1
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It was a mixed bag for Bronco Mendenhall’s team last year. On one hand, they won six games, but from two the previous year. Which, on paper, is great. It’s how they finished that left a lot to be desired.
They started off the year 5-1, but they lost their last six of their last seven games with the clincher being a 49-7 rout by Navy. Ending on that dreadful note kind of put a damper on the season.
2018 Virginia Cavaliers Predictions: Team Strengths
Opportunity: Statistically, this was a good defense last year. This was a unit that ranked 7th against the pass and 40th in total defense. The good news is that most of the defensive squad is back this year.
Unfortunately, there are a couple of key members that won’t be back, but we’ll get to that in a moment.
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However, this is a team that brings back a lot of experience and production. Junior Jordan Mack and senior Chris Peace, who led the team with sacks last year with 7.5, will be leaned on as the key members for the front seven.
Sophomore Brenton Nelson played a lot as a freshman last year and he along with senior Juan Thornhill will look to man the secondary.
All in all, this should still be a solid defense that can be leaned on to make that key stop to potentially win a game here and there.
Rushing Attack: Virginia will have to replace their senior quarterback, which we’ll get to in a moment, but there is room for optimism as Virginia has brought in dual-threat quarterback Bryce Perkins.
Perkins might not be as good of a passer, but he should give this Cavalier team a jolt in the rushing department which could potentially give Virginia that ball-control type offense Mendenhall likes to employ.
With Perkins at quarterback, senior Jordan Ellis could benefit the most and breakthrough and gain over 1,000 yards this year.
It was a tough slog towards the end last year where the Cavaliers weren’t able to generate much on the offensive side of the ball as the rush became stagnant.
The Cavaliers were 5-0 when Ellis carried the ball over twenty times. When he didn’t, the Cavaliers lost every game. The key will be how effective will Virginia run the ball.
If they can control the pace of the game and control the clock, they’ll have a good shot at winning those particular games.
2018 Virginia Cavaliers Predictions: Team Weaknesses
New Hearts: As we talked about earlier, this is a good defense. And a massive reason was because of their three seniors on each unit.
Led by seniors Micah Kiser, Quin Blanding, and Andrew Brown. They were a major part on all three levels of defense last year, but they won’t be there this year.
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Kiser led the team in tackles with 145 and Quin Blanding was second on the team with 137. These were two major impact players and replacing them won’t be easy.
As we know now, Kiser ended up getting drafted by the Rams and Blanding latched on with the Redskins as an UDFA. For a team like Virginia you just don’t easily replace NFL talent like that.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Cavaliers have to replace senior quarterback Kurt Benkert.
Benkert was a solid performer completing 58% of his passes and throwing for 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions. The Cavaliers also lost their two most productive wide receivers.
Andre Levrone caught 34 passes for 689 yards and seven touchdowns. Doni Dowling caught 50 passes for 647 yards and five touchdowns.
Virginia Cavaliers Prediction: 5-7
This is a team that is on the fringe. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Virginia get to a bowl game again, but they have no margin for error. They get an easy win in Richmond, but they have a rough patch of games.
Realistically, I can see them going 3-2, but I’ve got them at 2-3 heading into their bye week. The good news is they get Miami at home, they’ll have to win that one.
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They’ll have to beat Duke and North Carolina; the game against Pittsburgh is a toss up at home. It’ll be huge for both and that game could potentially decide whether or not who goes bowling.
They’ll beat Liberty and if they aren’t bowl eligible yet, they’ll have to pull off an upset on the road against either Georgia Tech or Virginia Tech.
It isn’t out of the question for them to win six or even seven games. If you were to tell me that they’ll be in a bowl game, yeah, I could see it.
With that said, I think they come up short this year. I’ve got them winning five games. It seems like there is a lot of roster turnover and while their schedule isn’t absurdly hard, it is tricky.
2018 Virginia Cavaliers Football Schedule
- 9/1/18 RICH
- 9/8/18 @IND
- 9/15/18 OHIO
- 9/22/18 LOU
- 9/29/18 @NCST
- 10/13/18 MIA
- 10/20/18 @DUKE
- 10/27/18 UNC
- 11/2/18 PITT
- 11/10/18 LIB
- 11/17/18 @GT
- 11/23/18 @VT
What do you think about our 2018 Virginia Cavaliers predictions? Please leave us a comment below telling us how you think they’ll do in 2018!
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