The blessing of Week 0
After a long offseason, the courtrooms are taking a backseat once again to what we all care about — actual football games!
By: Dr. B
Week 0 at Scott Stadium reminded Dr. B…all is right in the world.
I say it every year, but this year, I really mean it…that was a long off-season.
Do you remember when the college football off-season, roughly January through August, was “normal”? When the time consisted of staying up to date on all the recruiting news that led to National Signing Day in February? On that magical day, our phones were on constant update mode to track where prized recruits were headed.
College basketball entertained us for a few months, and for those who chose other winter sports like wrestling and ice hockey, we could get our fix of college sports just enough to last until spring ball started. We were then glued to the ESPN family of networks in April, when annual spring games took place, and we could get a glimpse of what our teams would look like in the fall. Come mid-May, the college football preview magazines hit the racks, and we could read up on how our team stacked up against the others. Summer brought news of how the new recruiting class was shaping up in training camp and before we knew it, the season was right around the corner. Oh, the glory of it all.
That glory has seemed to be so far away lately. Special days like National Signing Day and Spring Games have been watered down to the point of practical non-existence, and the build-up to the season has shifted from the field to the courtroom. This past off-season was particularly brutal, as NIL and eligibility fights dominated the long pre-season months. Don’t get me started on the transfer portal, as that is a subject for another day. The game on the field has clearly taken a back seat in the offseason, and if I hear one more thing about the saga of Lane Kiffin, I’m going to lose it.
And then, like a savior swooping down in the middle of the night, a blessing occurred that silenced the foolishness of the last six months…it crept in quietly but made itself known to a degree that surprised traditionalists like me. Week Zero arrived with little fanfare, yet its unexpected glory was felt from Palo Alto to Charlottesville. In the span of a glorious afternoon and evening, a slate largely void of major matchups brought the glory of college football back in full force.
Only one ranked team, USC, played on Week Zero, but it didn’t matter. The games included some dandies…William and Mary rallied over a ranked Villanova in the final two minutes and won it on a walk-off field goal to produce a dandy of a game worth noting. Stanford squandered a 16-point lead against Hawaii yet rallied late to upend the Rainbow Warriors in coach Tavita Pritchard’s debut. These games and others offered a reset and a reminder of what our sport is all about.
For the first time, I got to experience Week Zero in-person. I live in the heart of ACC country in the town of Charlottesville, Virginia, home of the University of Virginia Cavaliers, and their season opener against North Carolina State that was originally scheduled to take place in Rio de Janeiro, was wisely moved out of Brazil about a month ago to the grounds of Thomas Jefferson’s university. My family and I have season tickets, and it’s always fun attending UVA games, as it’s super easy to get to from my house (door to seat in about 32 minutes), and as an avid supporter of the SEC and a particular team that dons Crimson and White, coupled with the fact that I did not attend UVA and I have absolutely no rooting interest in the home team, makes fall afternoons at UVA football games stress-free and a lot of fun. There is college football purity in my UVA Saturdays that I love.
Virginia is an interesting place. It’s an incredible university in an ideal college town. It’s known more as a basketball school, and it has an athletic program that has seen incredible success in the smaller sports. Multiple national titles in tennis, swimming and diving, soccer, and lacrosse have been earned in recent years. Football glory, for the most part, has been elusive, and fan support has been marginal at best. Scott Stadium, the home to the ‘Hoos, as they are called, sits in the middle of a gorgeous campus and by SEC standards, it’s small (listed capacity is 61,500, which puts it alongside Kentucky, Mississippi State, and Missouri in the SEC). Rarely does the stadium reach capacity or anything close to it. Typically, a bowl game has been the goal for UVA football.
However, the Cavaliers under former Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliot turned a corner last season by reaching the ACC title game only to fall short in overtime to Duke. A win would have propelled UVA into the college football playoffs, yet the impact of such a great season has Wahoo (their nickname) fans optimistic for 2026.
Last Saturday, that optimism was on full display as the game was the school’s first sellout since 2008. A perfect late summer day created a special backdrop to experience Week Zero glory. Fans donning UVA’s Orange and White, as well as a healthy contingent who traveled from Raleigh, took full advantage of the glorious weather.
Beau Pribula and the Cavaliers showed they might just contend once again in the ACC (Photo: WDBJ)
UVA came in as a slight favorite, and the result was said to determine which team would reside in the middle of the ACC while the winner could move into the upper echelon. A usually subdued tailgating scene outside Scott had new energy. Students had started classes, so their presence was felt throughout the stadium.
Even pre-game hype was at a new level. UVA has a gentleman named Jamal whose job is to hype up the fans during timeouts, and he was in classic form, claiming the university now had the nation’s best student section. Even if that might not be 100% true, the students bought into it, and that is all that really mattered. Quick note…it was announced in the third quarter that UVA had set a record that day for the largest student attendance in school history…not bad for a Week Zero tilt at a basketball school.
Our seats are located in the upper deck, and it is usually pretty lonely up there, as my section rarely is even close to full. Yet on this Week Zero gameday, my section was packed. The energy, enthusiasm, and excitement for a traditional middle-of-the-road ACC team was on a new level, and it was exciting, refreshing, and fun. The game was a blowout, as UVA’s offense, behind a line of all graduate students that included two guys who are playing their seventh year (yes, seventh) of college football and former Missouri quarterback Beau Pribula, looked solid on their way to a 34-8 rout of the Wolfpack.
To say that this diehard SEC homer needed a day like last Saturday at Scott Stadium to be reminded that all is indeed well in the college football world is an understatement. On this afternoon in the heart of Virginia, there was no talk of the foolishness of the offseason. The good old boys, completely donned in UVA gear, sitting in front of me waving their orange towels every chance they got, could have cared less about the Kiffin/LSU saga. Their beloved Cavaliers ruled the day as they took another step towards ACC staying power. The pure joy, which was rampant throughout the stadium, was palpable. That is exactly what was needed to put aside a forgettable offseason.
Thank you, UVA and Week Zero…because of you, a college football traditionalist can breathe once again.
Dr. B has lived and taught throughout the South, attending The University of Alabama and earning a Ph.D. from The University of Georgia. He has come to know and love the people and rich traditions of the SEC and its rabid fan bases.
Started in the 2020 season, “The Deep South’s Oldest Column” is a periodical feature from B&S contributor Dr. B, where he will examine an SEC or college football topic from a cultural perspective. There will be examinations of the conference we love and why we love it. Stories of the role models who passed on the love of football in the South. Fun will be poked at other conferences - and often at ourselves. There will be introspection, life lessons, tales of big wins, crushing losses, history, tear-jerkers, joy...and the ties that bind us together.
