Beau Pribula threw for two touchdowns and was the leading rusher in his Virginia debut as the Cavaliers opened the season with a 34-8 win over North Carolina State on Saturday in Charlottesville, Va.
Xavier Brown scored two first-half touchdowns and Will Bettridge booted two field goals of more than 40 yards.
Pribula, who played last year for Missouri, was 9-for-11 for 155 yards in the air and gained 110 yards on the ground on 15 carries.
NC State never got untracked in the Atlantic Coast Conference game, which was originally scheduled to be played in Brazil before organizational and logistical concerns prompted an early-June announcement that it would be relocated.
Despite veteran quarterback CJ Bailey at the helm, the Wolfpack struggled to move the ball. NC State totaled 168 yards of offense.
Bailey was 12-for-23 for 84 yards with an interception.
NC State scored on Will Wilson’s 1-yard run with 4:59 to play in the third quarter and added a two-point conversion to make it 24-8.
Virginia responded with a 23-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that consumed more than 12 minutes, with Xay Davis scoring from 1 yard out.
By halftime, Pribula threw for a touchdown and ran for 80 yards. Bailey completed only six of his 14 first-half passes and was intercepted once.
NC State reached the red zone in the second quarter, but Bailey fumbled on a run.
The scoring began with Bettridge’s 47-yard field goal in the first quarter.
Brown ran in from 1 yard out less than three minutes later, following Brandyn Hillman’s interception of Bailey, which set up the Cavaliers at the NC State 27.
The Cavaliers extended the lead to 17-0 on Pribula’s 45-yard touchdown pass to Brown in the second quarter. Pribula’s 47-yard touchdown pass to Da’Shawn Martin just three plays into the third quarter extended Virginia’s lead to 24-0.