After suffering a lopsided loss at Illinois last week, Virginia hopes that returning home to face another Commonwealth opponent will be the recipe to restore success, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Standing in the way of the Cavaliers is an Old Dominion Monarchs squad that will come into this game hungry and confident having already knocked off Virginia Tech earlier this season. UVA looks to avoid suffering the same fate as the Hokies and get the season back on track. 

Read on for a full preview of Virginia vs. Old Dominion, including details on how to watch, stat comparisons, keys to the game, and of course, a score prediction for the game. 

Who: Old Dominion Monarchs (1-1, 0-0 Sun Belt) at Virginia Cavaliers (1-1, 0-0 ACC)

When: Saturday, September 17th at 2pm

Where: Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia

How to watch on TV/Live Stream: ACC Network/fuboTV (Start your free trial)

All-time series: Virginia leads 1-0

Last meeting: Virginia defeated Old Dominion 28-17 in 2019. 

Virginia Cavaliers vs. Old Dominion Monarchs

2022: 1-1 (0-0 Sun Belt) | Wins: vs. Virginia Tech | Losses: at East Carolina

There were plenty of wild games in week one of the college football season and Old Dominion's upset win at home against Virginia Tech was no exception. The Hokies smothered the Monarchs' offense for most of the night, but - thanks to Virginia Tech's own offensive woes and a special teams miscue on an errant snap on a field goal that resulted in an ODU touchdown - Old Dominion stayed in the game. Quarterback Hayden Wolff shook off his early struggles and led the Monarchs on a long drive in the final three minutes of the game and found Ali Jennings on a 38-yard completion to the Virginia Tech 1-yard line. That set up the game-winning touchdown run from tailback Blake Watson and the Monarchs sealed the win with their fourth interception of Hokies quarterback Grant Wells. 

Ali Jennings and Blake Watson make up a formidable one-two punch at the skill positions for the Monarchs. At 6'2", Jennings is a real threat down the field as seen at the end of the win over Virginia Tech. So far this season, Jennings has hauled in 13 passes for 322 yards and three touchdowns, continuing his momentum from last season in which he eclipsed the 1,000-yard receiving mark with 1,066 yards on 62 receptions. Blake Watson is a smaller running back at 5'9" but he packs a punch at 195 pounds and runs with power. Watson totaled 1,112 rushing yards and eight touchdowns in just 11 games last season.

After a sluggish start to the Virginia Tech game, quarterback Hayden Wolff has played better over the last six quarters, completing exactly 50% of his passes for 440 yards and three touchdowns through two games. John Rudzinski's UVA defense will need to be ready for a test because Old Dominion has the playmakers on the offensive end to make this one interesting. 

That is also true for the flip side of the ball, as the ODU defense also boats a few athletes who UVA offensive coordinator Des Kitchings describes as "ACC-caliber guys." 

Sophomore linebacker Jason Henderson is a tackling machine in the middle of the defense. He has 31 tackles already this season, more than twice the amount of tackles as ODU's next leading tackler. Kitchings also mentioned senior defensive end Marcus Haynes, an imposing physical force at 6'4", 240 pounds. Haynes could pose a serious issue for a UVA offensive line that struggled mightily against Illinois. ODU has been running a four-man defensive front, but after seeing the success the Illini had with five pass rushers, it wouldn't be surprising to see the Monarchs implement that strategy as well. 

Senior defensive back Tre Hawkins is lockdown at the corner position. It will be interesting to see if ODU chooses to have Hawkins guard Dontayvion Wicks, who is off to a very slow start this season after breaking UVA's single-season receiving record in 2021, or Lavel Davis Jr., which might be the better option for the Monarchs since Hawkins, who is 6'3", can try to contend with the 6'7" Davis on jump balls. The UVA wide receiving corps and offensive unit as whole is looking for a massive bounce back performance after last week's dud in Champaign.

On paper, Virginia has a distinct advantage in this matchup. But it's hard to argue against the Monarchs having an edge in confidence coming into this game. Old Dominion has already beaten one Power Five opponent from Virginia this season and the Monarchs have no reason to believe they can't do it again, especially against a UVA team still reeling from its 24-3 loss at Illinois last week. Tony Elliott told his team that the Monarchs will sense the "blood in the water" and that the Cavaliers need to be ready to face an ODU team that expects come in and win the game. 

How does the UVA offense bounce back?

Old Dominion's defense held up fairly well in the win over Virginia Tech, less so in the loss at East Carolina last week. But now, the Monarchs have a model to work with after seeing the film of the Illinois defense completely shutting down the UVA offense last week. Virginia totaled just 222 yards of total offense and the Hoos were an abysmal 1/16 on third-down conversions (0/15 if you neglect a late penalty that gave UVA its only third-down conversion of the game). The Cavaliers need a better performance from their offensive line, but they desperately need Brennan Armstrong and his receivers to be on the same page this week, especially on quick passing plays. 

Can Virginia handle adversity and pressure?

Last week, we said that UVA's game at Illinois would reveal a lot about the toughness of this team. The result of that experiment was perhaps even more alarming than the score. The UVA offense became entirely disheartened on the sideline well before the game ended, something that was noted by Tony Elliott in this week's press conference. Des Kitchings said that Keytaon Thompson was the only one who kept his head up and tried to rally the rest of the offense. If ODU is able to land some punches early in the game, there is a real concern about how the Cavaliers will respond after they displayed a lack of mental toughness at Illinois. 

The Virginia offense wakes up from its one-week slumber and puts some points on the board. ODU gets a couple licks in, but the Cavalier defense puts another solid performance together and UVA gets back in the win column. 

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Matt Newton is the managing editor and publisher of Cavaliers Now. Follow him on Twitter @mattynewtss