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Football
UVA Hosts UConn on Saturday for Youth Day
Sept. 11, 2017
| Virginia vs. UConn – #UConnvsUVA |
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| Date/Time | Sat., Sept. 16, 2017 | 12 p.m. |
| Location | Charlottesville, Va. | Scott Stadium (61,500) |
| Television | ESPN2 |
| Radio | Virginia Sports Radio Network | Satellite Radio — Sirius 112 | XM 193 |
| Multimedia | | WatchESPN |
| @UVA_Football | @UVACoachBronco | @VirginiaSports | |
| Game Notes | Virginia | UConn | ACC | UVA Depth Chart |
| Additional Information |
Tickets | Facebook | Instagram | |
Youth Day at Scott Stadium
– UVA welcomes UConn to Scott Stadium on Saturday for Youth Day.
– There will be over 100 prizes raffled off throughout the game for youth in attendance, including official Nike gear.
– Two teams from the Jefferson District Youth Football League will play a pregame scrimmage.
– Cavman’s Crew All-Star members receive a free game ticket as well as a companion voucher for a $23 ticket for this game. All-Star registration is $15 per child and also includes the official 2017-18 Cavman’s Crew t-shirt! To register for Cavman’s Crew, click here.
– Cavman’s Crew All-Star members who use their voucher to attend the game will be granted access to the field for postgame to play catch, kick a field goal and get a picture with Cavman.
– All youth football teams and cheerleading squads 8th grade and under can receive complimentary admission to the game by registering their team in advance with the Athletic Ticket Office. All guests of the players and coaches can purchase discounted tickets for Youth Day.
– Virginia is playing its third straight home football game to open the 2017 season. It is only the fourth time in the past 30 campaigns that UVA has three home games to open a season. During the past 30 seasons UVA also opened up with three home games in 1988, 2012 and 2014.
Virginia vs. UConn, AAC
– Virginia and UConn are meeting for the fourth time in series history. UConn leads the all-time series, 2-1, after the programs met in 2007, 2008 and 2016. UVA hosted UConn at Scott Stadium in 2007 and UConn hosted UVA at Rentschler Field in 2008 and 2016. The home team won each time.
– Saturday is UVA’s second all-time game against an AAC school while that program is an active member of the conference, which began in 2013. This is the first game an AAC affiliated team has visited Scott Stadium. UConn has been the school both times.
– UVA is 17-35 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 (1-2).
Five Top Storylines
– Saturday marks the first time an active member of the American Athletic Conference has come to Scott Stadium. The AAC began operations in 2013.
– UVA has gone back-to-back games without turning the ball over for the first time since 2009 (North Carolina, Indiana).
– FS Quin Blanding recorded 12 tackles against Indiana. Of Blanding’s 38 career games, he has 20 contests in which he has reached double digits in tackles. For his career, Blanding is averaging 10.1 tackles per game.
– QB Kurt Benkert’s 39 completions against Indiana last week ties him with Matt Schaub (2003, Florida State) for fourth-most single-game pass completions in program history.
– Benkert ranks No. 3 in the ACC in passing yards (521) and passing touchdowns (4). His 33 completions per game ranks No. 4 in the nation and No. 2 in the ACC.
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 past Lorenzen, a false start penalty that made it second-and-31 and then fumbled on the next snap.
– The 2008 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.
– Randy Edsall is familiar with UVA after facing the Cavaliers twice during his first stint with UConn and three times while he was the head coach at Maryland (2011-12-13).
– This is the fourth season in a row Bronco Mendenhall has faced UConn. While at BYU, Mendenhall beat the Huskies in 2014 at UConn (35-10). In 2015, Mendenhall and BYU defeated (30-13) the Huskies in Provo. The third game of Mendenhall’s UVA tenure was at UConn last season, a 13-10 setback.
Evan Butts Has a Career Day
– Tight end Evan Butts had a career-high six receptions for a career-high 54 yards against Indiana.
– Butts’ six receptions was the most by a UVA tight end since Jake McGee made eight at Maryland in 2013.
– With eight receptions in 2017 already, Butts has more catches than he had in all of 2016 (seven).
Dowling Honors Tim Harris
– WR Doni Dowling moved from No. 7 to No. 5 prior to the Indiana game to honor CB Tim Harris. Wearing No. 5 since his arrival on Grounds in 2013, Harris had a season-ending injury in the opener against William & Mary.
– Dowling and Harris have been lifelong friends, as well as teammates at Richmond’s Varina High School.
Blanding and Kiser Anchor the Defense
– FS Quin Blanding (12.0) and ILB Micah Kiser (10.5) currently rank No. 1 and No. 2 in the ACC in tackles. This is nothing new for the duo as they finished No. 1 and No. 2 in the ACC in tackles in 2015 and 2016.
– In 2016 Kiser (11.2) led the ACC in tackles and finished No. 4 nationally. Blanding (10.0) finished No. 2 in the ACC in tackles for the third year in a row and No. 9 nationally.
– Kiser (9.75) and Blanding (9.58) also finished No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in the ACC in tackles in 2015.
– Since the ACC started tracking tackle leaders in 1990, no previous tandem of tacklers has led the league in tackles for two consecutive seasons until Kiser and Blanding.
– Blanding, who also finished No. 2 in the ACC in tackles in 2014 (10.25), is the first player in ACC history to finish second in tackles for three straight seasons.
– The only ACC player since 1990 to lead the league in tackles for three consecutive seasons is Boston College’s Luke Kuechly (2009-11), now of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers.
Blanding and Kiser get help on Defense
– Despite ranking No. 1 and No. 2 in the ACC in tackles, FS Quin Blanding and ILB Micah Kiser have yet to lead UVA in tackles through the first two games.
– OLB Malcolm Cook made a career-high 13 stops against William & Mary and ILB Jordan Mack made a career-high 16 tackles against Indiana.
Blanding Doubles Up the Tackles
– UVA’s Quin Blanding has 20 double-digit tackles games over 38 collegiate games.
– Blanding has had six double-digit tackle games in each of his first three seasons.
– Blanding has 382 career tackles, 10.1 per game.
Zaccheaus Gives Benkert a big offensive weapon
– Junior Olamide Zaccheaus needs 72 receiving yards to become the 37th Cavalier all-time with 1,000 career receiving yards.
– Zaccheaus also needs 11 receptions to reach 100 for his career. He would become the 21st Cavalier to reach that mark in program history.
– Zaccheaus’ 12 receptions against Indiana on Sept. 9 are the sixth most in a single game in UVA history.
– Olamide is Nigerian for “the blessing has come.”