After getting drilled in its first true road game of the season, Virginia looks to remain unbeaten at home on Saturday night when Syracuse visits Charlottesville, Va., for an Atlantic Coast Conference game.
The Cavaliers (3-2, 1-1 ACC) are 3-0 at Scott Stadium this season with their losses coming to West Virginia on a neutral field last month in Charlotte, N.C., and to Florida State in lopsided fashion (38-7) last weekend in Tallahassee, Fla.
Missed tackles and dropped passes hurt Virginia, which was outgained 464-205 by the Seminoles — including 281-37 on the ground. Beau Pribula completed only 43.8% of his passes after connecting on 76.7% of his attempts in the first four games. He was sacked 10 times.
“We’re not going to point fingers,” Cavaliers coach Tony Elliott said. “We’re not going to lay blame anywhere other than the things that we didn’t control that we said we were going to try and control. And we’re going to go back to work and have a great week of practice and show back up Saturday and see if we can get this bad taste out of our mouth.”
Virginia is 9-1 at home since the start of last season.
Syracuse, meanwhile, has lost nine consecutive ACC games since a 34-21 win at Clemson on Sept. 20, 2025.
The Orange (2-2, 0-2) are coming off their first road win of the season, a 42-41 victory in overtime in a non-conference clash at Connecticut last weekend.
Third-year head coach Fran Brown has never faced Virginia, as these teams last met in 2022 when Syracuse won 22-20 at home.
“Really excited about the opportunity,” Brown said. “I think they are tough, they run the ball extremely well, they have a bunch of really good running backs and a tough quarterback. … We got our hands full this week but excited for the opportunity to go down there and get a chance to go play them.”
Syracuse quarterback Amari Odom shined in his first start of the season against UConn, tying a school record with five touchdown passes and also rushing for a score.
Umari Hatcher caught 12 passes for 152 yards and three touchdowns and Tylik Hill rushed for 140 yards on 28 carries against the Huskies.