UVA and Ohio Meet Saturday in Nashville

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Virginia and Ohio Meet in the “Music City”
• The University of Virginia and Ohio University have moved its contest to Nashville, Tenn., due to Hurricane Florence. 
• The game will be played at Vanderbilt Stadium, where UVA has played six times against Vanderbilt, most recently in 1975.
• Saturday is UVA’s first regular season neutral-site game since UVA played Notre Dame in the 1989 Kickoff Classic at the Meadowlands in New Jersey.
• Ohio and Virginia are meeting for the second time in series history. 

Virginia vs. Ohio
• Virginia leads the all-time series with Ohio, 1-0.
• The Cavaliers won the only previous meeting with the Bobcats, 41-7, in 1993 at Scott Stadium.
• Former UVA quarterback Symmion Willis set a then-school record with five touchdown passes against the Bobcats, playing into the third quarter before giving way to Mike Groh. 
• The Cavalier defense held the Bobcats to an average of 2.8 yards per play as Ohio managed just 198 yards of total offense on 70 plays.
• Former UVA Cavalier and former two-time Super Bowl Champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers, James Farrior, earned Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Week honors after posting a team-high 18 tackles in the win.

Five Top Storylines
• Virginia is playing a Mid-American Conference team for the fourth time in six seasons and for the 15th time overall in Charlottesville. UVA owns a 12-2-1 all-time record against teams from the MAC. 
• When UVA first met Ohio in 1993, it broke a streak of 44 years between meetings with a team from the Mid-American Conference (Miami of Ohio, 1949).
• QB Bryce Perkins rushed for 123 yards at Indiana last Saturday to become the first UVA quarterback since Bill Dudley in 1941 to rush for 100+ multiple times in the same season. Perkins’ 123 rushing yards ranks No. 7 on UVA’s single-game list for quarterback rushing. Perkins joins Dudley (4) and Bob Davis (2) as the only UVA quarterbacks to have at least two career games with 100+ yards rushing.
• Virginia blocked a PAT (Juan Thornhill) and a field goal attempt (Charles Snowden) at Indiana last time out. It was the first time UVA blocked two kicks in the same game since the 2008 Richmond game when Matt Conrath and Nick Jenkins each blocked field goals.
• HB Olamide Zaccheaus has168 career receptions. He needs 43 catches to break Billy McMullen’s UVA record of 210. With 32 receptions, Zaccheaus will become only the second player in program history to reach 200 career receptions.

Virginia – Ohio Connections
• Virginia has three players that hail from the state of Ohio. QB Brennan Armstrong (Shelby), Chris Glaser (Solon) and C.J. Stalker (West Chester) all call Ohio home.
• Former Ohio head football coach Brian Burke was the head coach of the Bobcats from 1979-84. Prior to becoming the head coach at Ohio, Burke spent the 1977-78 seasons at Virginia as the offensive coordinator on two Dick Bestwick-coached teams. Under Burke at Ohio, a young graduate assistant got his first college coaching gig – current Michigan State head coach, Mark Dantonio.
• Ohio associate head coach and defensive coordinator, Jimmy Burrow, was the defensive backs coach at Washington State and coached against student-athlete Bronco Mendenhall in 1986, Mendenhall’s junior season at Oregon State. Ohio co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, Ron Collins, was a senior strong safety on that 1986 Washington State team that played against Bronco’s Oregon State team.
• Ohio defensive line coach, Pete Germano, coached for five years at Fresno State and faced Bronco Mendenhall’s 2015 BYU team in Provo. Eight current members of UVA’s coaching staff were on that 2015 BYU staff. BYU won the game, 52-10.

UVA vs. the Mid-American Conference
• Virginia is 12-2-1 all-time against teams that currently represent the Mid-American Conference. 
• UVA is 2-0 vs. Akron, 0-1 against Ball State, 2-0 vs. Buffalo, 2-0 vs. Central Michigan, 1-0 vs. Eastern Michigan, 1-0 vs. Kent State, 1-0-1 vs. Miami (Ohio), 1-0 vs. Ohio and 2-1 vs. Western Michigan. 
• The Cavaliers have never faced the MAC’s Bowling Green, Northern Illinois or Toledo.  
• When UVA first played Ohio in 1993 the Cavaliers had only previously played Miami (Ohio) from the MAC. Those two contests with Miami (Ohio) were played at Scott Stadium in 1948 and 1949. 

Virginia vs. The State of Ohio
• Saturday’s game against Ohio will be UVA’s eighth all-time game against a school from the state of Ohio.
• UVA is 5-1-1 all-time against schools from the state of Ohio.
• UVA lost at Ohio State in 1933 (75-0), tied Miami of Ohio in 1948 (14-14) and beat the RedHawks in 1949 (21-18). 
• After the 1949 meeting with Miami (Ohio), UVA went 44 years before facing another team from the state of Ohio, when Ohio University came to Scott Stadium in 1993. UVA beat the Bobcats, 41-7.
• Akron came to Scott Stadium in 2002 and 2004, both were UVA wins. UVA beat Akron 48-28 in 2002 and shutout Akron, 51-0, in 2004.
• Kent State came to Scott Stadium in 2014 and lost, 45-13.

Ohio vs. Commonwealth of Virginia
• The Commonwealth is no stranger to the Ohio Bobcats.
• Ohio University has faced five of Virginia’s 10 DI football programs and holds an all-time record of 5-6.
• Ohio has faced Hampton (1-0), Richmond (2-1), Virginia (0-1), Virginia Tech (0-4) and VMI (2-0).
• Saturday is Ohio’s sixth all-time game in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
• The Bobcats have played three times at Virginia Tech, once at Virginia and once at Richmond. They also faced Richmond in the 1968 Tangerine Bowl in Florida.

Mendenhall vs. the MAC
• UVA head coach Bronco Mendenhall is facing a MAC team for only the second time in his career. He is 
currently 1-0 against the MAC after picking up his first career win at UVA in 2016 vs. Central Michigan, 49-35.

Perkins Created more UVA Firsts at Indiana
• QB Bryce Perkins rushed for 123 yards at Indiana to become the first UVA quarterback to rush for 100+ yards in multiple game in a season since Bill Dudley did it four times in 1941.
• Perkins is also the first Cavalier in program history to rush for 100+ yards in each of his first two career games. Perkins also rushed for 108 yards in his UVA debut against Richmond on Sept. 1. 
• The only Cavalier to become relatively close to the feat was Gary Helman who rushed for 100+ yards in two of his first three career games in 1969. He rushed for only 40 yards in his collegiate debut against Clemson, but followed up in career game No. 2 with 158 rushing yards against Duke. Then Helman rushed for 148 yards in career game No. 3 against William & Mary.

Cavaliers Strong on Third Down Through Three Games
• Through two games, Virginia has done well when its faces a third down situation of 10 yards or less. UVA is 9-of-12 (.750) on third downs where it needs 10 yards or fewer for a first down.
• Overall, UVA is 16-of-31 (51.6 percent) on third downs, which is No. 3 in the ACC and No. 24 nationally.

Perkins One of the Nation’s top Rushing QBs
• QB Bryce Perkins is No. 2 in the nation in quarterback rushing (231) among QBs that don’t play in a triple-option offense. He is No. 4 in the national among all quarterbacks in rushing.
• Syracuse’s Eric Dungey (244) is slightly ahead of Perkins among QBs that don’t play in a triple-option.
• Navy’s Malcolm Perry (274) and Georgia Southern’s Shai Werts (246), both triple-option quarterbacks, rank No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation among quarterback rushing.