Around the Corner 8/29: Top basketball recruit on Grounds, Bryce Perkins shows out in preseason, and field hockey gets a win

Good morning everybody and welcome back to week numero dos of Around the Corner and — most importantly — the first football game week of the year. With the Virginia Cavaliers set to kickoff the Tony Elliott era this Saturday in Charlottesville at noon. That also marks the first week in our fall editorial calendar here at STL, so be sure to stay tuned to the site for continued preseason football content as we lead into Saturday.

For one quick note, we recorded our football season preview podcast on Thursday so listen in for our full predictions and thoughts on UVA’s schedule this season down below. You can also listen to us on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Notable news

Now to get into what you all have been clamoring since the last ATC on Friday, it was a solid weekend for UVA’s fall sports with a couple wins from the field hockey and women’s soccer programs.

No. 12 Virginia Picks Up a 4-1 Road Win at No. 17 Delaware — Virginia Sports

After losing to #11 Penn State on the road on Friday by a final score of 3-2, the UVA field hockey team got back on track yesterday with its first win of the season.

After Delaware got on the board first in the second quarter, UVA freshman Daniela Mendez-Trendler scored her first career goal and tied things up before UVA scored twice more early in the third quarter and then again just over a minute into the fourth to pull away and take an impressive three-goal win on the road against a ranked opponent.

Said HC Michele Madison:

“It’s great to get our first win here on the road taking on a competitive Delaware team. Once we established our passing game, it led to scoring situations. We had nice action in front of the goal. It was a solid defense by the back line again with Jans Croon, Madeline Orsi, Emily Field and Lindsay Dickinson to handle a huge counterattack offense by Delaware. It’s always good for the team when everyone can get minutes.”

Hopkins’ Hat Trick Helps No. 8 UVA Down FDU — Virginia Sports

Meanwhile, UVA women’s soccer stayed undefeated on Sunday with a 5-0 win over Fairleigh Dickinson as Haley Hopkins scored three goals in the first 15 minutes of play and the ‘Hoos never looked back, now improving to 4-0 on the young season.

Said HC Steve Swanson:

“We certainly started the game well and it was nice to see some goals go in, but as the game wore on we were not able to keep a consistently high tempo in terms of our ball movement which led to transition moments for them (FDU). I do think there are some good takeaways from this game on both sides of the ball. We are obviously still growing as a team, so taking the lessons away from games like these are very important for our growth.”

Rams QB2? Bryce Perkins Evaluates His Future After Highlight-Filled Preseason — Rams Digest

After an impressive showing throughout preseason play for the Los Angeles Rams, former Wahoo quarterback Bryce Perkins now awaits his fate with the NFL’s final roster cuts happening this week. His play seems to have garnered him a spot on the LA roster with some even pondering if he deserves the backup quarterback position.

From the Rams Digest story:

“It was another opportunity for Bryce to come out here and shine ... do a great job for our team,” McVay said. “He is a fun guy to watch. Both (Perkins and McCutcheon) have done a great job. You’d be hard-pressed to think that they haven’t done what they could to earn that. Love both those guys.”

For Perkins, this is only the start of his development. And even if he doesn’t remain with the Rams, he gave other teams that could use quarterback depth a solid look at what he can do and, hopefully, secured an NFL role in the process.

“The work is done now, but like you said, the chips fall where they’re gonna fall and we’ll see what happens,” Perkins said.

Social media dive

Diving into social media, one of UVA men’s basketball’s top remaining targets in the class of 2023, Davin Cosby Jr., was on Grounds this weekend for an official visit. A 6’5” shooting guard out of Raleigh, Cosby is down to seven schools including UVA, Alabama, LSU, NC State, Tennessee, Wake Forest, and Auburn.

In UVA football news, three walk-ons were recently awarded scholarships in pretty creative and fun ways via Tony Elliott.

Student perspective

Ah yes, the first Monday of classes which opens the first full week of school of the semester. Not the best of times but, hey, at least everybody is getting into the groove of things.

And, most importantly, we’ve got football to look forward to come the end of this week. I will voice the complaints of my fellow students — and as one who will be up earlier than most in order to cover the game — by saying that noon kickoffs aren’t particularly popular among the student body. Yeah ,yeah networks and all that control it, I know.

Still, I wouldn’t expect a huge turnout from the students on Saturday against Richmond. It’s a shame because this is a pretty exciting time for the football program as a whole. Hopefully I’m proven wrong in five days time and the student section is packed. But don’t count on it.

On a different note, this week will be a special kind of hell for those of us who take unfavorably to hot temperatures. The highs in Charlottesville this week all sit between 85 and 90 degrees. Not super fun to walk to class in that heat.

I’m now noticing a slightly more pessimistic tone in today’s Around the Corner. Apologies for that. Guess that’s just the Mondays.

Regardless, football is almost back!!! I’m hyped and you should be too. I think this is gonna be a pretty darn successful year for the ‘Hoos and that they have a real opportunity to surprise people. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

With that, I’ll catch you all tomorrow.