CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Norfolk State travels to Charlottesville on Friday night for the first meeting in history between the Spartans and No. 25 Virginia, a 7 p.m. kickoff at Scott Stadium carried on ACC Network Extra.

It is Norfolk State's second consecutive game against an FBS opponent and second straight away from William "Dick" Price Stadium. For head coach Michael Vick, it is a return to a stadium he last played in as a Virginia Tech freshman in 1999.
About the Spartans
Norfolk State (1-1) comes off a 31-10 loss at Old Dominion, a game that never fully got away but never quite turned either.

The Spartans lost a fumble at the goal line on their opening drive and trailed 17-0 late in the second quarter before Josiah Davis intercepted a pass in Old Dominion territory to set up a three-yard Deljay Bailey touchdown run. Marco Peery's 37-yard field goal on the opening drive of the third quarter cut the deficit to 17-10, but the Monarchs answered with a 76-yard scoring drive and then converted a strip-sack into a short field.

Bailey finished 14-of-20 for 94 yards. Jalyn Daniels led the ground game with 84 yards. Norfolk State was held to 220 total yards, less than half the 457 the Spartans produced in their 56-0 season-opening win over Winston-Salem State.

Old Dominion head coach Ricky Rahne offered a notable assessment afterward: it would not shock him, he said, if Norfolk State wins its league.

Vick framed the night as a step rather than a setback, calling it a game that would build character and keep the program moving toward what it ultimately wants to be.

The turnaround is short. Friday's kickoff comes six days after the Old Dominion game, against an opponent that has had 13.
What Coach Vick Is Saying
On the Old Dominion loss:
"I thought we hung in there. I thought we played hard. I thought we played good, disciplined football. There were times that we put ourselves in a bad situation. But what I take away from it is that there's room for improvement. It wasn't about covering the spread. It was two good football teams lining up and giving each other the best they had."

On what the first three weeks are telling him:
"You don't get a preseason in college football, so you've got to find ways to make up for that and get better. We used game one as a test. Game two was a test, game three will be a test, and then coming into weeks four, five and six, we'll know where we're at and what we can do."

On facing Virginia:
"It's an honor to be able to go up against a UVA team, a team that I had a chance to play against. I know how good they are and I know how good they can be. I have so much respect for Coach Elliott and those guys and what they've built — it's a very veteran football team. Go out there, play aggressive, leave it all out on the field and come away healthy."

On what he sees from the Cavaliers:
"Their quarterback is a good quarterback. He can throw it, he can run it, and they set it up really well for him. They're physical up front and they have very capable receivers on the outside. On the defensive side of the ball, they're very sound, very strong. They really took it to NC State — they forced turnovers and they created points off those turnovers. And they have one of the best kickers and punters in all of college football."

On quarterback Deljay Bailey, who absorbed several hits at Old Dominion:
"This weekend we're going to play our game. We're going to cut it loose, be aggressive and not take our foot off the gas. When you start trying to protect people, that's when something happens."
About the Cavaliers
Virginia (1-0) is ranked No. 25 in both the Associated Press Top 25 and the AFCA Coaches Poll, coming off the best season in program history and an opener that looked the part.

The Cavaliers hosted NC State on Aug. 29 in a Week 0 game and won 34-8 in front of 62,779, Scott Stadium's first sellout since 2008. Virginia rushed for 258 yards, its most in an ACC game since 2020, and enters this week with the third-highest pass efficiency rating in the country at 260.18, behind only Indiana and Louisiana Tech.

Beau Pribula, a fifth-year transfer from Penn State by way of Missouri, made his Virginia debut under center. Xavier Brown scored twice, including a 45-yard run early in the second quarter that pushed the lead to 17-0, and Will Bettridge connected from 47 yards. Linebacker Caleb Hardy opened the game with a third-down sack that forced a three-and-out.

Tony Elliott is in his fifth season in Charlottesville, coming off the program's first appearance in the ACC Championship Game. Virginia turned over a significant portion of the roster in the offseason, adding 43 new players — 29 transfers and 14 true freshmen — and returns an experienced core around them.

Two trends stand out. The Virginia defense has forced a turnover in 11 of its last 12 games, totaling 20 takeaways over that stretch, including an interception and a fumble recovery against NC State. And the Cavaliers have won seven of their last eight at Scott Stadium.

Virginia was idle on Sept. 5 in the earliest bye week in program history. Elliott is 6-0 in games immediately following an open date.

Bettridge, meanwhile, sits six points from becoming Virginia's all-time leading scorer, with 327 career points.
Series History
Friday marks the first meeting between Norfolk State and Virginia in either program's history — two Commonwealth institutions separated by 163 miles of I-64 that have never lined up against each other.

The programs have been playing football concurrently for 88 years. Norfolk State's first contest came in 1938; Virginia officially recognizes 1888 as its first season.

Virginia has now played eight of the 10 Division I programs located in the Commonwealth. Only Hampton remains, and the Cavaliers are scheduled to meet the Pirates in 2029.

The rosters reflect the shared ground. Of the two teams' combined players, 87 are Virginia natives — 51 on Norfolk State's roster and 36 on Virginia's.
Familiar Faces
Vick at Scott Stadium. Michael Vick's last appearance on this field came on Oct. 2, 1999, when he was a redshirt freshman quarterback for Virginia Tech. Vick completed seven of nine passes for 222 yards and a touchdown — a 60-yard strike to Andre Davis — and added 40 rushing yards in a 31-7 Hokies win. The crowd of 51,800 was a Scott Stadium record at the time. Friday, he walks back in as a head coach.

Vick's own recollection of that afternoon matches the box score almost exactly:

"My favorite UVA memory was playing against them my first year at Virginia Tech, playing on an injured ankle. I wasn't the player that I became at the time, so I would say they slept on me. I think I was 7-for-9 for 220-some yards and had a really good day on a hurt ankle. I learned a lot about myself in that time — that I could play hurt and I could play efficient. And I did it against a team that I grew up idolizing. My cousin Aaron Brooks had just left that team and did some remarkable things for the University of Virginia."

He called Friday "a full circle moment," and said he intends to take it in from the visiting sideline the way he once did from the field.

The 757 on Virginia's roster. Four Cavaliers come out of Hampton Roads:
 

Player	Pos.	Class	Hometown / High School
Brandyn Hillman	S	4th Yr.	Portsmouth, Va. / Churchland
Anthony Britton	DT	4th Yr.	Norfolk, Va. / Lake Taylor
CJ Spence	WR	2nd Yr.	Chesapeake, Va. / Kempsville
Jayden Covil	CB	1st Yr.	Chesapeake, Va. / Oscar Smith

Hillman, a Churchland product who transferred in from Michigan, is the most established of the group.

Two Cavaliers in the Spartans' meeting rooms. Norfolk State has a pair of former Virginia standouts on Michael Vick's offensive staff.

Offensive line coach Elton Brown is one of the most decorated linemen in Cavaliers history — a consensus All-American who won the Jacobs Blocking Trophy as the conference's top blocker in both 2003 and 2004 before a five-year NFL career.

Wide receivers coach Tim Smith played at Virginia from 2009 to 2013 and finished with 1,591 career receiving yards, a figure that ranked ninth in program history when he left. He became the 32nd Cavalier to reach 1,000 career receiving yards, in 2012 against Wake Forest.

Smith's name sits in two of Virginia's more unusual record-book entries, both involving a running mate. In 2011 at Maryland he caught five passes for 101 yards, and he and Kris Burd (112) became the first Cavaliers duo to each top 100 receiving yards in the same game since Terrence Wilkins and Kevin Coffey did it against Virginia Tech in 1998. Two years later, Smith's career day — 10 catches for 151 yards against Georgia Tech — paired with Darius Jennings' 13 receptions to make them the first UVA receiving tandem ever to reach 10 catches apiece in one game.

He was a return man late in his career as well, handling punts over the final eight games of 2013 and breaking a 45-yarder at Miami that stood as Virginia's longest punt return since 2007.

Vick pointed to Brown unprompted this week when asked what Virginia means to him, saying Brown constantly reminds the staff how those teams worked.

There are no shared players in either direction. No Norfolk State transfers appear on Virginia's roster, and no former Cavaliers are on the Spartans' side.
How to Follow
- Video: ACC Network Extra (streaming via ESPN)
- Radio: WNSB Hot 91.1 FM; Virginia Sports Radio Network carries the home broadcast
- Live Stats: StatBroadcast, linked from the Norfolk State football schedule page
- Social: Follow Norfolk State Athletics for in-game updates and postgame reaction
Buy Tickets Now!
Friday is a road game, so tickets are sold through Virginia's athletic ticket office at UVAtix.com rather than the NSU Ticket Office.

Virginia has designated the game a Fan-First contest, with Family Four Packs available in Choice, Select and Value sections starting at $18 per ticket.

Parking: Free parking opens at John Paul Jones Arena at 8 a.m. Friday, with Fontaine and North Grounds lots opening at 5 p.m. Shuttles from John Paul Jones Arena begin at 4 p.m.; shuttles from Fontaine and North Grounds begin at 5 p.m. Paid garage parking is available at Central Grounds ($30, opens 3 p.m.) and Crispell ($25, opens 5 p.m.). All free lots have accessible parking and shuttle service.
Up Next
Norfolk State returns home Saturday, Sept. 19 to host Hampton in the Battle of the Bay at 4 p.m., paired with Greek Night — the Spartans' first game at Dick Price Stadium since the season opener.