It’s been a while since there was one of these. Kris Wright of TheSabre.com and I did and exchange of Q&A to prepare for Saturday’s game. You can find my answers to his questions over at their site.

If you looked at the Virginia schedule, you would notice a surprising 8 home games this year. The reason according to Kris is that while UVa was supposed to give a return game to Penn State this year, they bumped them (or possibly bought the game out) in favor of doing starting a home-and-home with Oregon. And any school that blows off Penn State can’t be all bad.

1. Like Pitt you have faced a patsy (blown them out), a top-10 team (blown out) and a somewhere-in-the-middle of the 1-A level major conference team (get by with a 3-point win). What do you know? What do you think you know? What don’t you know about this Virginia team, at this point?

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Both their own, and Pitt’s.

Yesterday I was asking about whether Virginia was going to use Watford a little more as a mobile QB. I’m not the only one.

Ever since spring drills, we’ve heard how fast afoot Watford is when he breaks into the open, that he’s a blur. But so far, the Cavaliers’ potentially best weapon has been more of a secret weapon. Not by design.

UVa offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild has been encouraging Watford to take off. On Monday, Watford said he is overthinking the situation instead of relying on instinct.

“I was just watching film with my coach about that (running the ball),” Watford told sportswriters. “Coach told me to trust my speed just like in high school when I used to split defenders, make people miss, and just run. Now, I’m trying to find holes and lanes instead of just running. Coach said, ‘Just run. You’re fast for a reason.’”
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In Fairchild’s offense, Watford has had to learn to read the defensive end’s eyes, his body language, which they have repped continuously since training camp. Now, it’s time to just do it.

Virginia wants to run the ball. Whether it’s running backs or the QB, they will look to do so. Pitt has handled running backs mostly. It’s the QBs that have been the problem.

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