Jay Ballard 
Virginia celebrates in the endzone.
Virginia (4-2) will travel to Death Valley, South Carolina to take on the Clemson Tigers (5-1) for a noon kick off this Saturday. Virginia opened as a 21.5 point underdog, with an over under of 57.5. Virginia is coming off of a 24-20 home loss to the Louisville Cardinals, where they gave up the go ahead touchdown pass with 1:55 to play. Clemson is coming off of a 49-14 road victory at Wake Forest. This marks the return of Virginia head coach, Tony Elliot to his alma mater, and the place where he spent most of his coaching career prior to taking over at Virginia.
THE ONE: traveling to Clemson will represent the biggest task that the Wahoos have faced to this point in the season. Clemson has reeled all five consecutive wins since a season opening loss to the Georgia Bulldogs. In those five wins, Clemson has out scored their opponents 243-96.
THE TWO: The the total number of interceptions (2) that Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnic has to go with his 17 TD passes. Also, an effective runner, Klubnic has 198 yards and four rushing Touchdowns on 35 attempts. The Virginia defense will have to do a much better job of preventing the big play if they want to keep this one close.
THE THREE: if Virginia is going to make this a ball game in the fourth quarter, they are going to have to rely on the three headed rushing monster of running backs, Kobe Pace, Xavier Brown and Quarterback Anthony Colandrea. Clemson gives up 200 rushing yards per game. While 200 yards/game still ranks 30th nationally against the run, shortening this ball game and limiting the number of possessions of the high powered Clemson offense is going to be Virginia’s only real path to victory.
DING, DING, DING: Wouldn’t it be a great story for this Virginia team to go in and win this game for the returning Coach Elliott? Talk about a win that would potentially change the trajectory of the program and silence the naysayers. While coach Swinney and Coach Elliott remain close to this day, don’t expect this game to remain close. Clemson simply has too many weapons on offense and too many playmakers on defense for this version of Virginia to expect to go on the road and win this game. Final Score Prediction: Clemson 41 Virginia 20.
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