Memory Lane: Top Season Openers of All-time

With UVA’s 2009 season-opener less than a week away, we thought we’d look back on the most significant season openers in UVA football history. Please note that this is most significant, not best openers, so some of them are losses (damn you Mercury Hayes!). And because I hate top 10 lists, I won’t rank them for you. Sorry.

1888: In the first official game in UVA history, Virginia defeated Pantops Academy, 20-0. After UVA thumped Pantops, 44-0, the following year, they stopped playing.

1913: Although Virginia had been playing at Lambeth field since 1901, grandstand seating for 8,000 people wasn’t completed until 1913. Virginia defeated Vanderbilt, 34-0, in the dedication game.

1931: Virginia opened its current home, Scott Stadium, before 22,000 people, defeating Roanoke, 18-0.

1982: In George Welsh’s first game as Cavalier Head Coach, Virginia travelled to Annapolis to face his former team and alma mater, Navy. The Midshipmen won 20-16 that day, but he got them back the following season, a 27-16 triumph at Scott Stadium.

1990: Expectations were already high for the Cavaliers, who entered the season ranked 15th in the country. Expectations only ramped up after a 59-10 thrashing of Kansas on the Jayhawks’ home field. It would be the first of seven straight wins for the Hoos that would lead to the only #1 ranking in UVA football history.

1995: In a showdown of ranked teams at the Big House (and the same day I moved into Emmett First Right for my first year), Virginia dominated the Maize and Blue for most of the game, and took a 17-0 lead into the fourth quarter. But the Wolverines came all the way back, capped off by a 15-yard touchdown pass to Mercury Hayes, who (allegedly) snuck one foot inside the chalk, on the final play of the game. It was a fitting introduction for me into UVA football.

1998: After losing at home to Auburn the previous year, the No. 16 Cavaliers marched into Jordan-Hare Stadium and smothered the 25th-rated Tigers, 19-0. Virginia held Auburn to 18 yards rushing, and handed the Tigers their first home-opening shutout in 50 years.

2001: In Al Groh’s first game as Head Coach, Virginia lost, 26-17 at No. 22 Wisconsin. In a harbinger of coaching head-scratchers to come, Virginia scored a late touchdown, and Groh elected not to go for two, which left the Cavs down two scores with less than six minutes to play.

2004: Playing at the Link in Philadelphia, the game was never close. Wali Lundy scored three times, but this game was significant more than anything else for the opening kickoff, which highly-touted LB Ahmad Brooks returned for 40 yards. Unfortunately, it was yet another tease in a UVA career that never quite lived up to expecations.

2008: Before a Scott Stadium record crowd of 64,947, Virginia hosted No. 3 USC. It was never close. The Trojans, behind Mark Sanchez, racked up 558 yards of total offense, and cruised to a 52-7 win.