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Sept. 17, 2012

Virginia at No. 17 TCU
Date/Time Sat., Sept. 22, 2012 | 12 p.m.
Location Fort Worth, Texas | Amon G. Carter Stadium (45,000)
Television ESPN
Radio Virginia Sports Radio Network | Satellite Radio Sirius 91 | XM 91
Multimedia Gametracker | ESPN3 | Cavaliers Live
Twitter @UVa_Football | @CoachMikeLondon | @VirginiaSports
Game Notes Virginia | TCU | ACC
Additional Information Tickets (Sold Out) | Facebook | 2012 Fact Book | Gameday Central |
Coach London Weekly Press Conference Transcript

Virginia Makes First Trip to the Lone Star State in 17 Years
• Virginia heads to Fort Worth on Saturday for its third-ever appearance in the state of Texas and first since the 1995 season. The Cavaliers will clash with the TCU Horned Frogs, ranked No. 17 in the Associated Press and No. 16 in the USA Today coaches polls, Saturday inside Amon G. Carter Stadium. The game will be televised live on ESPN.
• UVa head coach Mike London is 3-3 all-time against teams ranked in the Associated Press poll and 1-2 when that game is played on the road. The lone win came last season at then-No. 23 Florida State (14-13), a victory that made UVa the first team in college football history to have road wins at Miami (Fla.) and FSU in the same season.
• The last time UVa played in Texas was Oct. 21, 1995 in Austin when facing the Texas Longhorns. Current UVa safeties coach and special teams coordinator Anthony Poindexter was a freshman on that 1995 UVa team and had six tackles, while UVa head coach Mike London’s younger brother, Paul, had nine tackles for the UVa defense in the last trip to the state of Texas. That 1995 Virginia football team had 30 players on its roster that later went on to play in the NFL, including Ronde and Tiki Barber, James Farrior, Jamie Sharper and of course Poindexter.
• UVa’s only other contest in the state of Texas was a 1977 meeting in Austin with the Longhorns.

Series vs. TCU, Big 12
• The series is tied, 1-1, between the Horned Frogs and Virginia. The Cavaliers won the first meeting of the series in the 1994 Independence Bowl, 20-10. TCU won the second meeting, 30-14, during the Horned Frogs first trip ever to the Commonwealth of Virginia in 2009.
• Saturday will be the third meeting between UVa and TCU and the third different conference the Horned Frogs have been affiliated with at the time of the contest. In 1994 TCU was co-champions of the Southwest Conference, while in 2009 the Horned Frogs were champions of the Mountain West Conference and made a BCS appearance in the Fiesta Bowl.
• UVa is 16-15-1 all-time against current members of the Big 12 Conference, however 12 wins, 10 losses and the tie all came against West Virginia prior to the Mountaineers’ matriculation into the league. The records against other current members of the Big 12 are as follows: Kansas (2-0), Oklahoma (0-1), Texas (1-2), Texas Tech (0-1).
• In fact, UVa is only 1-1 when the opponent is an active member of the Big 12 at the time of the game.
• The win was at Scott Stadium versus Texas, 37-13, during the first season of Big 12 football in 1996. The lone loss came at the hands of Texas Tech (31-28) during the high-octane 2007 Gator Bowl.
• Saturday marks the first contest for UVa head coach Mike London against a Big 12 Conference opponent.

Virginia History Against the Big 12 Precursor: Big Eight and Southwest Conferences
• Looking back into the history of the Big 12 – UVa has a small history versus the league’s predecessors, the Big Eight and Southwest Conferences. UVa went 2-2 when facing a Big Eight Conference team (2-0 vs Kansas, 0-1 vs Missouri and 0-1 vs Oklahoma). UVa also was 0-2 when facing Texas as a member of the Southwest Conference, while the only win UVa has against TCU also serves as the Cavaliers’ lone win when playing a Southwest Conference school.
Texas connections on UVa Roster
• Two student-athletes on the UVa roster came to Charlottesville via Texas.
• Freshman CB Kelvin Rainey is from Houston and attended the same high school (Stratford) as Indianapolis Colts QB Andrew Luck. Rainey’s older brother, Derrick, currently plays at Arizona.
• Sophomore FB Zachary Swanson is from Katy, which is located roughly 30 miles west of Houston.

Last Meeting: 2009 (TCU 30, UVa 14)
• TCU made its first trip to the Commonwealth of Virginia (Sept. 12, 2009) and left with a 30-14 triumph that set the Horned Frogs on their way to the school’s first BCS Bowl bid, the 2010 Fiesta Bowl.
• TCU, ranked No. 16 at the time in the Associated Press poll, scored the first 30 points of the game and Andy Dalton threw for 177 yards and one TD as the Horned Frogs’ defense limited UVa to 177 yards of total offense.
• Seven current Cavaliers played in the 2009 game, including WR Tim Smith and LB Steve Greer making starts. The start was the first career start for Smith and for Greer it was his first start against FBS opponent, after starting the season-opening game in 2009 versus William & Mary. Smith collected his first career touchdown, a 26-yard catch from Jameel Sewell.
• Greer was third on the team with eight tackles against the Horned Frogs.
Perry Jones made his collegiate debut against TCU, returning two kickoff returns in the fourth quarter, including a 25-yard return.
Ausar Walcott made one tackle on special teams. Will Hill, Matt Mihalik and Colter Phillips also played in game against TCU.
UVa Struggles AT Georgia Tech
• The 56 points UVa surrendered served as the most points by an opponent since Illinois put up 63 points in the 1999 Micronpc.com Bowl.

• UVa gave up 594 yards of total offense, the most the Cavaliers have allowed since giving up 627 yards to Georgia Tech in a Bobby Dodd Stadium visit in 2000.
• With 297 yards of total offense, UVa failed to reach 300 yards of total offense for the second-straight game. The last time UVa failed to reach 300 yards of total offense in consecutive games was in the 2009 season when the year ended with the last seven games not reaching 300 yards of total offense.
• UVa gave up 276 rushing yards in the first half, which is more than any opponent had in a game against the Cavaliers in all of 2011 – topping Auburn’s 273 in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
• The Yellow Jackets finished with 461 rushing yards, the most UVa has given up since its 2010 trip to Bobby Dodd Stadium when Georgia Tech rushed for 477 yards.

• Coming into the game UVa had given up only eight plays of 20 yards or more; against Georgia Tech they gave up eight.
• UVa failed to rush for a TD for the second-consecutive game, marking the first time since the 2011 NC State/Miami games where the Cavaliers didn’t rush for a score in back-to-back games. It is only the third time in the Mike London era where the Cavaliers went back-to-back games not rushing for a TD (2010 – VMI & Florida State).

Rushing Game Drought
•UVa has rushed for 314 yards and four TDs and is rushing for 3.3 yards per carry.
• Compare that to UVa three games into the 2011 season when the Cavaliers had rushed for 572 yards and eight TDs and posted 4.7 yards per carry.
• UVa rushed 26 more times in 2011 when compared to 2012 after three games.

UVa Rushing Game Looks to get Going
• The Virginia rushing attack is down thus far in 2012, averaging 104.7 yards per game – which ranks No. 107 nationally and No. 8 in the ACC.
• Those numbers are a stark difference to 2011 when UVa averaged 165.3 rushing yards per game. That number was the second-highest amount put up by the Cavaliers in the past 12 seasons. During that time only the 2004 team (242.8) had a higher rushing average than the 2011 squad.

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