ACC Football Power Rankings 2017: Week 2 edition

The Virginia Cavaliers did enough to get a victory over the William and Mary Tribe, starting the 2017 season 1-0. The game had a much different feel than their season-opening loss to the Richmond Spiders in 2016, for obvious reasons. Head coach Bronco Mendenhall got off to an 0-3 start last year but this season a notch in the win column puts some optimism in the air for the Virginia football program.

They’ll move up in this week’s power rankings for now after their 28-10 victory. The Virginia Cavaliers defense held William & Mary to 168 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown on 41 carries in the game.

They held the Tribe scoreless in the first half and held them to just 72 passing yards in the game. They played shutdown defense, only allowing 12 first downs in the contest.

On offense, quarterback Kurt Benkert showed off his arm with 262 passing yards and three passing touchdowns on 27-for-39 passing (69.2 percent).

The Cavaliers still have work to do in the running game (32 carries, 92 rushing yards, one rushing touchdown), but they played a clean game and did enough to win convincingly over an inferior opponent.

The competition level rises next week when Virginia hosts the Indiana Hoosiers. The Hoosiers played a close first half against the Ohio State Buckeyes before things got out of hand in the second half. The Cavaliers face Indiana for the first time since 2011, back when they won 34-31. They are 2-0 all-time against the Hoosiers, so we’ll see how things play out this week.