Virginia Cavaliers at SMU Mustangs

·Oct 17, 2026·11:00 AM CT·CW·Dallas, TX

By JR·2 min read

Virginia(4-2)

24SMU(4-1)

11:00 AM

TLDR: Virginia needed almost 3 quarters to wake up against a Syracuse team on its third-string quarterback. Now it goes to Dallas to face a No. 24 SMU team coming off a bye, and the Mustangs won't wait that long.

SAT 10/17, SAT OCT 17, 11:00 AM CT · Week 7

Virginia

(4-2)

WLWLW

24SMU

(4-1)

WWLWW

Kickoff 55°17 mph

Virginia (4-2) travels to No. 24 SMU (4-1) in a game between 2 teams sitting at 2-1 in the ACC. SMU comes off a bye with record-setting quarterback Kevin Jennings, and it won at Florida State, the same place Virginia lost by 31. The Cavaliers just came back from 10 down to beat a Syracuse team on its third-string quarterback. Their best chance is SMU's habit of turning the ball over and missing kicks. No line has been posted yet.

Virginia Cavaliers

Pribula sparked the second-half comeback against Syracuse
Won the last 2 home games by a combined 73 points
Lost 7-38 at Florida State, the only road test
WR depth thin: Ward out, Newton-Short's hamstring lingering
Trailed a third-string QB until late in the third quarter

SMU Mustangs

Off a bye with 2 weeks to prepare
Jennings set school records for yards and straight completions
Defense had 5 sacks against Boston College

The quarterback matchup is where this one starts. SMU has Kevin Jennings, a senior in his third straight year as the starter. This season he passed Ben Hicks for the school's all-time record in offensive yards and broke the program mark with 21 straight completions. Virginia has Beau Pribula, who woke the offense up against Syracuse with a 43-yard touchdown to Da'Shawn Martin after the Cavaliers trailed 17-7 at the half and stayed down 10 late into the third quarter. Rhett Lashlee is in his 5th season running SMU. Tony Elliott's team is 4-2 and 2-1 in the ACC. Both teams are 2-1 in the conference, so the loser falls behind in the league race.

Virginia is thin at receiver. T. Ward has been out with an undisclosed injury since before the Florida State game. D. Newton-Short has been dealing with a hamstring problem all season and has gone into recent weeks listed questionable. That means more of the passing game falls on targets like Martin. SMU has its own holes: RB L. Rhodes is done for the year with a torn ACL, and DL I. Singleton IV is out for the season too. Even so, the SMU defense posted 5 sacks against Boston College. Nobody has posted a number on this game yet.

Look at the schedule and SMU has the better spot. The Mustangs had a bye on October 10, so they'll get 2 weeks to prepare. Virginia comes in off a draining homecoming game in the rain and then has to travel to Texas. The two teams also share an opponent. SMU won 27-24 at Florida State in its opener. Virginia went to Tallahassee and lost 7-38. That's one game each, but it's hard to ignore.

Things aren't perfect in Dallas, though. SMU turned it over 3 times in a 41-31 loss at Louisville, where Keyjuan Brown ran for 162 yards. The Boston College win was ugly in its own way: in the rain, the Mustangs gained less than half their usual yardage, and the defense had to win that one. Missed field goals and extra points have also kept showing up, even after the program spent the offseason trying to fix its kicking. Against a Virginia team that is happy to keep games close and ugly, all that sloppiness is the opening for an upset.

Virginia's season comes down to one split. The Cavaliers beat Norfolk State 59-3 and Delaware 42-3, then lost by 11 to West Virginia and by 31 at Florida State. The Syracuse escape was their best win over an FBS opponent, and they still trailed most of the night against a backup quarterback. Saturday, October 17 at Gerald J. Ford Stadium is their first real chance to show they can win a road game against a ranked team. The early forecast says 55 and clear with wind around 17 mph, but that's a week-out projection and it can change before kickoff.

Virginia Cavaliers at SMU Mustangs

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