Five numbers to know ahead of UVA football’s matchup with William & Mary

The Virginia Cavaliers are back at home this weekend to face the William & Mary Tribe while looking to rebound after a week two heartbreaker in Raleigh. Ahead of Saturday’s game, here are five stats to know as the ’Hoos look for win number two of 2025.

UVA’s ability to keep the chains moving has been lightning in a bottle so far. The offense’s 59.5% conversion rate on third down ranks atop the ACC and 12th in the country. This is a bit of a perspective stat in terms of how great you decide to feel about it — converting on third down repeatedly is great and certainly an improvement from last season already. Still, the best offenses do their work early on first and second down. That said, UVA is succeeding at moving the ball. Results are results.

The sure-handedness of the receiving corps, mixed with J’Mari Taylor’s reliability, played a huge part in the offense’s 13-of-19 third-down effort a week ago. If all goes to plan on Saturday and the Cavaliers can impose their will in both the air and ground game, the volume of third-down opportunities will be considerably lower. Given the athletic advantage UVA should have at each of the skill positions, a second straight game of 19 third down chances would be awfully shocking to say the least.

Through two games, both against FCS opponents, the Tribe have allowed five sacks on quarterback Tyler Hughes.

Tony Elliott has made quick work of FCS teams throughout his time with the ’Hoos. Meaning Saturday should serve as a ‘get right’ game for the team as a whole, but particularly for the pass rush.

So far, it’s been a struggle to get to the quarterback for John Rudzinski’s defense. The ’Hoos have just one combined sack on the year, coming from Fisher Camac and Maddox Marcellus against Coastal Carolina. The defense failed to bring CJ Bailey down a week ago, despite multiple chances with free rushers off the edges that all could have easily resulted in two or three drive-altering plays.

The additions of Camac and Mitchell Melton were reasons to feel great about this team’s chances to put pressure on the backfield. So far, the improvement has yet to impact the stat sheet, but perhaps a game against an FCS opponent can be the spark to ignite the defensive line and do just that.

The number of seconds the Cavalier offense has racked up in possession time. Heading into week three, UVA ranks the best in the conference in the category, totaling 65 minutes and 58 seconds with an average of 33 minutes per game.

The ’Hoos have shown the capability to build and sustain drives in ways not seen since Tony Elliott and Des Kitchings stepped foot in Charlottesville. It was almost hard to truly believe what was happening as J’Mari Taylor continued to break off long runs a week ago, given how troublesome recent years have been in building any momentum in the run game. The ’Hoos are abiding by — and executing — whatever the football version of ‘hit the ball where it’s pitched’ is so far in 2025 by constantly taking the 4-8 yard gains when they have them to string together methodical drives.

The ’Hoos have been stout along the offensive line and have yet to allow a single sack to start the year. While the group did not face a comparable test in week one, and likely won’t against the Tribe either, things look to be in as good a shape upfront as they have been in four years.

While the counterpoint of this stat likely falls somewhere along the lines of ‘they’ve only played one real game,’ given the first was against a far inferior Chanticleer team, UVA’s line has shown its continuity despite injuries to key players in the preseason and Wallace Unamba going down in the opener. If there were ever a time the sacks were going to pile up, would anyone really have been surprised if it was on the road against an ACC team? Probably not. With Ethan Sipe and Jack Witmer vaulting into more important roles, Chandler Morris still had plenty of time to get the ball away, which is huge for confidence and playable depth going forward.

It’s near certain the offense will continue to need that depth upfront, especially once the week-to-week grind of conference play ramps up. The unit has answered the bell so far and looks to keep Chandler Morris’ jersey clean for yet another week.

Saturday will be the fourth time Mike London — a former cop — returns to UVA as head coach of the Tribe. The three prior matchups have seen the ’Hoos win by an average of 30 points, despite London’s team keeping things moderately close in a 27-13 game back in 2023.

London will take the visiting sideline on Saturday alongside four other familiar faces to Cavalier fans, with former defensive standouts Keenan Carter, Ras-I Dowling, and Daryl Blackstock all serving as defensive assistants, in addition to ex-running back Perry Jones, who coaches the Tribe tailbacks.

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