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This is already Virginia’s year. A basketball school won its first college basketball national championship. When 2019 is remembered in Charlottesville, it will be recalled with great fondness. The wins over Purdue, Auburn and Texas Tech were all “Where were you when?” moments for anyone who calls himself or herself a Hoo. Half a century after the moon landing, Virginia fans experienced their own sequence of immortal occasions.
Nothing will change that.
However, can the football team build on what the basketball team accomplished? It isn’t often that Virginia has fielded a team which can realistically aspire to win the ACC Coastal Division championship. This team can.
The table is set.
The circumstances are in place.
Nothing is guaranteed, but everything in the ACC Coastal Division is possible for Bronco Mendenhall and his team this year.
You will note that I specifically said, “in the ACC Coastal Division,” not the ACC as a whole.
Beating Clemson is not possible in any realistic sense. Technically? Sure. Realistically or profoundly? No.
Yet, in the ACC we have now, Virginia could legitimately be the second-best team. That is a legitimate aspiration for the Cavs to have.
No joke. This isn’t April 1. This is late July, and one month before the start of a college football season, Virginia can dream big and not be viewed as delusional. This is real.
Virginia gets Virginia Tech at home in a year when “The Streak” feels more fragile than before.
Virginia plays Miami:
- After a bye week.
- When the Hurricanes are on a short week of preparation.
Virginia plays Florida State in September, when the Seminoles are more likely to struggle before they (possibly) figure out their new offense under Kendal Briles and find their footing in the second half of the season (an old Florida State tradition from the Bobby Bowden days).
The Notre Dame game in late September might be a loss, but it might also prepare UVA for the Miami game, which could decide the Coastal champion.
Virginia plays Florida State at home and Louisville away. No Clemson, no Syracuse, no North Carolina State, in the cross-division schedule.
The table is set. Will Bryce Perkins and the rest of the Hoos eat?
We don’t know… but for the first time in a long time, Virginia really could win the Coastal.
Virginia is the one Coastal team which hasn’t won the Coastal. In the past six seasons, four first-time Coastal champions have been crowned: Duke, North Carolina, Miami two years ago, and Pittsburgh last year.
Louisville, Syracuse, and N.C. State haven’t won the Atlantic, but with Clemson there, those three schools aren’t about to entertain realistic aspirations of climbing to the top of their division.
Virginia, on the other hand, can.
The Year of Virginia is already immortal. Will it become even better in three months? It’s a realistic possibility.
The Hoos have the task of turning possibility into reality.
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