Virginia Heads to UConn on Saturday for an Afternoon Tilt

Sept. 12, 2016

Hoos Fly West Coast to East Coast
– Virginia returns to the road on Saturday when they travel to East Hartford, Conn., to face UConn in non-conference action.
– UVA will have traveled over 6,000 miles in over an eight-day span by the time of kickoff against the Huskies after playing at then-No. 24 Oregon on Sept. 10.
– The 2016 season marks the first time since 2003 that UVA has played back-to-back road non-conference games. In 2003 UVA played at South Carolina (L, 7-31) on Sept. 6 and a week later on Sept. 13 the Cavaliers traveled to Western Michigan (W, 59-16).
– UVA plays two non-conference road games for the first time in one season since 2007 when the Cavaliers traveled to Wyoming (L, 3-23) and Middle Tennessee (W, 23-21).

Virginia vs. UConn, AAC
– Virginia and UConn are meeting for the third time in series history. The series is tied, 1-1, after the programs met in 2007 and 2008. UVA hosted UConn at Scott Stadium in 2007 and UConn hosted UVA at Rentschler Field in 2008. The home team won each time.
– Saturday is UVA’s first all-time game against an AAC school while that program is an active member of the conference that began in 2013.
– UVA is 17-34 all-time against current members of the American Athletic Conference, this includes 38 games against Navy, a team UVA hasn’t played since 1994. UVA has faced AAC member East Carolina (1-2), Navy (11-27), Temple (2-0), Tulane (2-4) and UConn (1-1).

Five Top Storylines
– UVA running back Albert Reid owns two career 100-yard rushing games, both coming in UVA’s last three contests. Reid rushed for a career-high 126 yards last Saturday at No. 24 Oregon and 103 yards against Virginia Tech in the 2015 season finale.
– Virginia is playing in Connecticut for only the second time in the last 72 years. Prior to the 2008 meeting at UConn, UVA had not visited Connecticut since playing at Yale in 1944.
– UConn head coach Bob Diaco‘s first career game as a head coach came in 2014 as UConn faced Bronco Mendenhall‘s BYU squad. Mendenhall led BYU to a 35-10 win at Rentschler Field.
– Anthony Poindexter, one of UVA’s most loved alums, is the defensive coordinator for the Cavaliers. Poindexter earned first-team All-America honors at safety his junior and senior seasons. He also was named the 1998 ACC Defensive Player of the Year.
– Saturday marks the first time UVA has played an active member of the American Athletic Conference, since the AAC began operations in 2013.

More on UVA vs. UConn
– In 2007 Chris Gould kicked a 19-yard field goal with 3:20 to play and Virginia knocked Connecticut from the ranks of the unbeaten with a 17-16 victory.
– The Cavaliers trailed 16-14 and had struggled on offense all day before driving 79 yards for the go-ahead field goal.
– The Huskies got consecutive 11-yard runs from quarterback Tyler Lorenzen after Gould’s field goal to reach Virginia’s 44, but UConn lost 21 yards when a snap in the shotgun zipped passed Lorenzen, a false start penalty that made it second-and-31 and then fumbled on the next snap.
– The last meeting UConn used 206 rushing yards from Donald Brown in a 45-10 triumph. It was the first career start for UVA quarterback Marc Verica, who is No. 6 all-time in program history with 4,992 career passing yards.

UVA Making second trip to state of Connecticut in 72 years
– Virginia is making its second-ever visit to East Hartford, Conn., to face UConn and its second trip to the state since 1944.
– Virginia has played seven games in the state of Connecticut – the first six vs. Yale, with the last coming in 1944 (6-6 tie).
– UVA has gone 2-4-1 in its seven trips to the state of Connecticut.
– UVA’s last win in the state of Connecticut was a 19-14 win over Yale in 1940. A Yale assistant in that 1940 game was future U.S. President Gerald Ford, who was employed as an assistant football coach whle he was attending Yale Law School.

Virginia – UConn Connections
– UConn head coach Bob Diaco spent three seasons on Al Groh’s UVA staff from 2006-2008 as the linebackers coach and worked with special teams. Diaco was on UVA’s sideline for both the 2007 and 2008 meetings against UConn.
– UConn co-defensive coordinator Anthony Poindexter is one of UVA’s most beloved football alums. Regarded as one of the fiercest hitters in the game during his collegiate career (1994-98), Poindexter earned first-team All-America honors at safety his junior and senior seasons. He also was chosen the 1998 ACC Defensive Player of the Year and is one of only three players in school history to earn first-team All-ACC recognition three times.
– As a freshman, Poindexter helped make perhaps the biggest single defensive play in school history when he and teammate Adrian Burnim stopped Florida State tailback Warrick Dunn inches from the goal line on the game’s last play to preserve a 33-28 win over the second-ranked Seminoles. With the victory, Virginia ended FSU’s four-year, 29-game conference winning streak since joining the league in 1992.
– UConn’s other co-defensive coordinator Vincent Brown spent four seasons as an assistant coach at Virginia under Mike London. Brown spent three years with the linebackers (2010-12) and 2013 working with the defensive line.
– UConn’s quarterbacks coach Wayne Lineburg is a 1996 Virginia alum and is a former Cavalier quarterback. Lineburg was a graduate assistant on George Welsh’s 1998 and 1999 Virginia staffs. He then joined Al Groh’s UVA staff as the wide receivers coach in 2007 and 2008, before moving to running backs in 2009.

Mendenhall vs. Diaco
– UConn head coach Bob Diaco’s first career game as a college football head coach came in 2014 against current UVA head coach Bronco Mendenhall and his BYU Cougars.
– Diaco is facing a Mendenhall-coached team for the third season in a row. Mendenhall’s BYU team beat UConn 35-10 in East Hartford in 2014 and again, 30-13, in Provo in 2015.

UConn Comes to Charlottesville in 2017
– UConn will return the trip to Charlottesville on Sept. 16, 2017.
– It will be just the second time the Huskies have come to Charlottesville and first since 2007.