Virginia (2-4) remains in Charlottesville for the second straight contest as Eastern Michigan University (1-6) comes to town for the first ever meeting between the two schools. This game will be the last non-conference opponent the Hoos will see in 2010 especially now that a 7-win season and bowl eligibility is now almost certainly out of the question.
EMU’s coach Ron English is 1-18 in his two seasons in Ypsilanti, and a major rebuilding effort is starting to pay dividends as they are coming off a tough-fought road-win last week against Ball State.
Mike London heard the clamoring of Virginia fans (and loud booing from the jackasses that boo college kids) for one of the backup quarterbacks to start in place of struggling fifth-year senior Marc Verica, but several times this week he reaffirmed his commitment to Verica as the field general of this team. Both Ross Metheny and Michael Rocco struggled with their command of the offense, the quarterback/center exchange, and both threw ill-advised red-zone interceptions last week in mop-up duty against the Tarheels.
Expect all three QB’s to play Saturday, but Verica’s grasp of the offense is far ahead of the backups at this point, and London does not seem ready to shut down Verica’s career at this point in his senior season in order to play for the future. If Verica could simply eliminate the costly interceptions from his game, Virginia might have had a chance to be better than 2-4, but there is plenty of blame to be spread around! Marc has thrown for 3,479 yards and 14 touchdowns in his career, 1,286 yards and 6 TDs this year, and he has thrown six picks. Verica has been sacked at least once in all 16 of his career starts.
Eastern Michigan hails from the Mid-American Conference, and has three players from Virginia, including one from Charlottesville (linebacker Steve Brown attended St. Anne’s–Belfield). EMU is led by sophomore quarterback Alex Gillett, who is coming off a 189 net-rushing yard performance against Ball State. Gillett also was 10-of-18 passes for 225 yards and three touchdowns in EMU’s come-from-behind and impressive overtime win. Roanoke’s Dwayne Priest is a talented tailback that could give Virginia fits if he starts strong. Defensively, EMU has only made two interceptions on the season, and their corners and safeties should be ripe for the picking for Virginia’s quarterbacks. Watch out for Tim Fort who leads the Eagles with 62 tackles including four for a loss, two pass break-ups, and two forced fumbles.
Look for the Hoos to attempt to pound big-back Keith Payne all day long interspersed with the shifty Perry Jones at the running back position.
I’d love to see Ras-I Dowling return to glory from his injury-plagued season. Steve Greer also has struggled so far in 2010. He led Virginia in tackles a season ago, and this year he has 23 tackles which puts him at ninth statistically.
Prediction, Virginia wins big 55-17. Big days for both Payne and Jones. And Kris Burd, too. Go Hoos!
