Virginia’s stumble at SMU has pushed the Cavaliers further from the ACC race, but Friday night’s meeting with Duke still gives them a shot to steady things at home.
UVA is 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the ACC after the loss, and the path back to the conference championship picture has gotten much thinner. At this point, the more realistic goals are simpler: get to bowl eligibility and try to finish the year with another win over Virginia Tech.
The Cavaliers now turn to an ACC Championship Game rematch with Duke, and oddsmakers see it as a tight one. Virginia opened as a 2.5-point favorite at FanDuel Sportsbook for next Friday night’s game, with the over/under set at 46.5.
That’s a sharp contrast from where these teams stood less than a year ago. Both Virginia and Duke played in the ACC Championship last December, but each has already taken a pair of conference losses this season. The league remains volatile, but neither side is in a position where a return trip looks easy.
For Virginia, the bigger concern is the offense. Beau Pribula has not been able to affect the game on the ground, and the rushing attack has all but vanished. The decision to lean away from the run against SMU stood out, and Tony Elliott explained the thinking afterward.
"Just trying to stay fresh," Elliott said. "You ride a guy like that, and so [we wanted to mix] it up, next man up.
But again, we also didn't get much rhythm. I think we only had what maybe like eight to nine possessions total, right?
And again, that was part of our our strategy, which meant that if we were going to to be able to work it to to the level we wanted to, we were going to have to maximize every possession that we had, and I think we lost two there in the first part of the other third quarter."
Duke comes in with its own blemishes after opening 4-0 and then dropping consecutive games to Georgia Tech and North Carolina. Even so, the Blue Devils still have a dangerous backfield with Nate Sheppard, and Manny Diaz’s defense remains built to attack and force mistakes.
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