Virginia knows to be ready for Richmond on Saturday night in the season opener for both teams Chris Graham here Augusta Free Press now the UVA football team does not need to be reminded that Richmond and FCS playoff team a year ago is not going to roll over in the season opener uh you know the DNA of the Richmond program and the UVA program I guess actually could say uh even though it's it was uh what eight years ago uh Richmond did upset Virginia in the season opener back in 2016 of course the guys on the team now now not even the coaching staffs were there then but still it's something that I'm sure is being reminded to both groups uh going into the game if you didn't need that reminder though if you were the Virginia kids just in case consider NY State a preseason pick to be a uh Darkhorse candidate to win the ACC this year also ranked in the top 25 in their preseason they had a 34th quarter lead last night over FCS team Western Carolina before pulling away late to win 38-21 out in Boulder Colorado Colorado with an ESPN audience tuning in with Deion Sanders second year as his head the head coach out there at the now Big 12 school had to survive the last second Hail Mary to beat North Dakota State 3126 Hail Mary pass was caught the 4 yard line As Time expired and then there's the former UVA football coach Bronco mhal new job out at New Mexico had a 3114 lead early in the third quarter over Montana stayed an FCS team lost 3531 it happed happens is what we're trying to say here Richmond like Western Carolina like North Dakota State like Montana State isn't coming in just to get a big paycheck something that'll help pay for the football program for the rest of the year and here's what Tony yiot had to say in this press conference on Tuesday my assessment is we've got a really really good football team coming in here that's not going to believe the hype that an FCS team is not supposed to be the power four team they're coming in here expecting to win they're going to be very well coached they're going to battle for four quarters we got to play our best football right out of the gate because this is a very capable experienced football team that's very well coached they're not going to back down so Tony Elliott who himself has FCS coaching experience uh there with the wisdom now the Richmond head coach Russ hughman has two quarterbacks who got a lot of snaps in 2023 he hasn't said who's going to get the start between Kyle Wickersham who threw for 145 yards 72.6% completion rate 10 touchdowns last year and his sophore Camden Coleman 1161 yards 6 66.7% completion rate 12 TDS last year both both the guys I would expect to get snaps uh and probably uh just kind of riding the hot hand kind of thing for hughman there uh wickerham is the guy more likely to move the change of his feet he had 402 net yards rushing last year second on the team and that's probably the guy to worry more about Richmond needs to find a new uh starting running back after the loss of Savon Smith 708 yards four touchdowns on the ground last year the most promising back on the roster that I foresee maybe taking over the uh the bulk of the the running game there the Wagner transfer Zack Palmer Smith he had 699 yards as a sophomore at Wagner last year now defensively Richard Richmond ranked in the upper quartile NFC sent team defense in 2023 allowing 338.15 yards a game at ranked 19th in FC has 122 teams at that level so in short Richmond is not going to be a pushover for Eva Richmond uh played Virginia tough uh there was a 347 win and early in the uh the Tony OT area back in 2022 uh that game was closer than the score indicated uh Elliots 2 and0 against FCS teams also a really tight win over wayam Mary last year that final score was also not indicative of the of how close the game was it was 2813 final but it was a close game going into the latter half of the fourth quarter so the Cavaliers haven't exactly knock the doors off uh from the teams uh a level down and we know that it's going to be a dog fight tomorrow night to kick off at 6:00 uh AFP will be in the Press Box at Scott Stadium I'll be there representing Augusta Free Press um if you have any questions any comments any mailbag items for me please feel free to email me at Chris Augusta freepress.com