Virginia and North Carolina State ended last season with losing records, but one of them will be off to a 2-0 start this year.
The teams will meet Saturday afternoon in Raleigh, N.C., in what officially will be called a non-conference game between two Atlantic Coast Conference teams.
There’s good momentum flowing for both teams after the first week of the season.
North Carolina State topped visiting rival East Carolina 24-17 on Aug. 28, so the Wolfpack have a couple of extra days of preparation compared to Virginia, which drilled visiting Coastal Carolina 48-7 on Saturday night.
“We’re just trying to keep the ball rolling,” said Virginia receiver Cam Ross, who made a touchdown catch, racked up 124 receiving yards in the opener and returned a kickoff for a touchdown.
Some of the Cavaliers’ efficiency might depend on the status of quarterback Chandler Morris, who was stellar in his Virginia debut before exiting with an injury to his left shoulder. He threw for two touchdowns.
“My expectation is he’ll play his tail off (against North Carolina State),” Virginia coach Tony Elliott said, noting the quarterback was on the practice field by Monday.
With Virginia comfortably ahead of its first game, Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren said it was difficult to gain a full scope of what the Cavaliers might do in terms of schemes.
“In their case, there’s a lot of new players,” he said. “So getting used to who they are and what they’re doing with the guys they have and the game they played, they got up pretty fast on (Coastal Carolina).”
Doeren said he was impressed with what he saw from Virginia in Week 1.
“Defensively, you can tell they’ve put a lot of time into the portal,” he said. “They got a lot of experienced players, some returners and some new.”
North Carolina State had five true freshmen make collegiate debuts last week.
“I’m excited to see their growth from Week 1 to Week 2,” Doeren said. “There’s a lot of nerves in those games for those guys, more than we probably realize as coaches. We need these guys to come on, because the talent is there in some of these young players.”
Doeren said Wolfpack receiver Noah Rogers, who left the East Carolina game following a hard hit, is cleared to play this week. He made two catches for 19 yards last week.
–Field Level Media
