Virginia football finished the 2022 season with a disappointing 3-7 record. Their only wins came against Richmond, Old Dominion and Georgia Tech. The Cavaliers did have a few single digit losses, but this team struggled mightily in 2022.
DraftKings Sportsbook puts the Virginia win total at 3.5, with the under juiced to -145. Virginia also sits at +30000 to win the ACC, which ranks dead last. With that said, let’s dive into our 2023 Virginia football season preview.
2023 Virginia Football Predictions & Season Preview
2023 Virginia Football Season Preview: Coaching Staff
Former Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott now enters his second season as head coach after a 3-7 record last year. Elliott inherited a poor situation for a school with rigorous ission and transfer standards. Des Kitchings returns as offensive coordinator after previously coaching running backs for the Atlanta Falcons in 2021. On defense, John Rudzinski comes back after previously coordinating Air Force’s defense from 2018 to 2021. There is legitimate concern regarding the feasibility of winning at Virginia during the transfer portal era. It is possible that Elliott and his staff are simply put at a disadvantage by the university that cannot be overcome.
2023 Virginia Football Season Preview: Offense
Quarterback
Virginia lost longtime starter Brennan Armstrong this offseason. To replace him, they will turn to some combination of Monmouth transfer Tony Muskett and incumbent Jay Woolfolk. Muskett was first team All-Big South twice in his career. He has 5,687 career ing yards and decent mobility. Last year, he rushed for 203 yards in just eight games, due to a knee injury. In 2022, he completed 64.1% of his es for 9.0 yards per attempt, 17 touchdowns and eight interceptions. The biggest question for Muskett is the jump from FCS to the power five. Behind him, Woolfolk is 5-foot-11, 200 pounds. He has 22 career completions on 43 attempts (51.2%) for 245 yards (5.7 yards per attempt), no touchdowns and a pair of interceptions. Woolfolk does have solid mobility behind his 104 rushing yards on 26 attempts. While Armstrong had a down year in 2022, there are few circumstances where the current situation provides an the offense.
Running Back
Problematically, Armstrong led the team with 371 rushing yards last year. Behind him, Virginia returns their top three rushers in Perris Jones, Mike Hollins and Xavier Brown, which does not say much. With that said, it is likely that Clemson transfer Kobe Pace leads this group. Pace is 5-foot-10, 205 pounds, and has 152 career rushing attempts for 783 yards and nine touchdowns. He also has 23 catches for another 192 yards. Efficiency wise, Pace averaged 3.22 yards after and forced a missed tackle on 21% of his attempts. Jones is 5-foot-7, 180 pounds, and rushed 81 times for 364 yards, while catching six es last year. He averaged 3.11 yards after and forced a missed tackle on 24.7% of his attempts. Hollins is 5-foot-9, 208 pounds, and rushed 53 times for 215 yards, while catching eight es. He averaged 2.82 yards after and forced a missed tackle on 18.9% of his attempts. Finally, Brown is 5-foot-9, 186 pounds, and rushed 50 times for 210 yards, while catching nine es. He averaged 2.8 yards after and forced a missed tackle on 26% of his attempts. Pace is by far the highest recruit in this backfield in recent memory. He will be an upgrade, but whether Virginia can block remains to be seen.
(function (d, w, c) {(w[c] = w[c] || []).push(function() {try {w.yaCounter92258009 = new Ya.Metrika2({id:92258009,clickmap:true,trackLinks:true,accurateTrackBounce:true});} catch(e) { }});var n = d.getElementsByTagName("script")[0],s = d.createElement("script"),f = function () { n.parentNode.insertBefore(s, n); };s.type = "text/javascript";s.async = true;s.src = "https://mc.yandex.ru/metrika/tag.js";if (w.opera == "[object Opera]") {d.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", f, false);} else { f(); }})(document, window, "yandex_metrika_callbacks2");