Tribe football opens season Saturday at UVA
Tribe has high hopes for 2009 season W&M opens the season Saturday against Virginia in Charlottesville. courtesy of Tribe athletics
The William & Mary football team opens what could be a memorable season Saturday when it travels to Charlottesville to face the University of Virginia at Scott Stadium. Kickoff is at 6 p.m., and the game will be televised on ESPN360.com.
Coming off a 7-4 season in which they barely missed the playoffs, the Tribe is ranked 14th in preseason polls released by the Sports Network and Football Championship Subdivision coaches (formerly I-AA). Virginia, a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, is unranked after finishing 5-7 last season.
Coach Jimmye Laycock, in his 30th season at W&M, will be seeking the 190th victory of his career. Laycock is the fourth-longest tenured coach in NCAA Division I football. Counting his career as player and coach, Laycock has been involved in just under 35 percent of all of the football games William & Mary has played in the 116-year history of the program.
Led by All-American running back Jonathan Grimes and quarterback R.J. Archer, William & Mary will have a typically potent offense. Grimes, the 2008 Colonial Athletic Association rookie of the year, ranked 12th nationally after averaging 162 all-purpose yards a game. The Tribe returns 16 letter-winners, six of them All-CAA.
Archer, who started 22 games as a receiver over two years, has just one career start at quarterback. But in that game against Villanova, he passed for 301 yards and one touchdown and ran for two more.
Saturday’s game is the 33rd all-time meeting between the two schools. Virginia leads the series, 26-5-1. Tribe fans can also listen to game coverage through the Tribe Athletics Web site.
