Stanford coach Frank Reich returns to the scene of one of his greatest achievements when his Cardinal face Virginia for the first time on Saturday night in Charlottesville, Va.
Reich was the quarterback at Maryland for his last visit on Nov. 24, 1984, when he guided the Terrapins to a 45-34 victory over the Cavaliers to clinch the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season championship.
This time, the first-year coach will try to lead Stanford (1-2, 1-0 ACC) to a second straight league win after defeating Boston College 30-20 last weekend in Palo Alto, Calif.
Virginia (2-1, 0-0), which lost a non-league game against ACC foe NC State on Sept. 6, officially opens its conference slate Saturday following a record-setting 55-16 win against FCS William & Mary last weekend.
“Impressive, well-coached team,” Reich said of the Cavaliers, who put up a school-record 700 yards of total offense against the Tribe. “In their first three games this year, they’ve been putting up a lot of points on offense, particularly running it well, obviously a talented quarterback as well and a few talented receivers.”
Virginia’s Chandler Morris has completed 69.7 percent of his passes for 670 yards with four touchdowns against one interception. He is one of four Cavaliers with more than 100 yards rushing, led by J’Mari Taylor (213 yards, six TDs) and Harrison Waylee (169 yards, four TDs).
“Our second goal as a team is on the table, and that’s to win the conference opener,” Cavaliers coach Tony Elliott said of his team’s approach this week. “The first one (was) to win the season opener. The second is to win the conference opener. And that’s what we’re going to focus on.”
“We’re going to go back to work, and based off what I saw last week, I think these guys have the maturity.”
Virginia faces a Stanford offense that features Micah Ford, who rushed for 157 yards and a touchdown against Boston College to earn ACC Running Back of the Week honors. He has 291 yards on the ground with two scores this season.
Cardinal quarterback Ben Gulbranson has completed 53.6 percent of his passes for 437 yards with one touchdown and three picks.