Game time set for unexpected battle between Duke football, Virginia

A game time has been set for the matchup between the Duke football team and the Virginia Cavaliers.

Duke and Virginia were not supposed to play this early in the season, but a coronavirus outbreak in the Virginia Tech football program postponed the Cavaliers and Hokies season opener scheduled for September 19.

The ACC quickly and efficiently adjusted its schedule, and the Duke Blue Devils will now serve as the opponent for Virginia on September 26, instead of making the trip to Charlottesville on November 14 as regularly scheduled.

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In what was supposed to be a bye week for the Blue Devils, they will now kickoff at 4:00pm EST on the ACC Network at Scott Stadium, the conference announced on Monday afternoon.

The matchup between Duke and Virginia will mark the second year in a row the two programs will meet in Scott Stadium as the Cavaliers rolled the Blue Devils, 48-14, last season, and the series has been dominated recently by Bronco Mendenhall’s team, winning the last five matchups between the schools, although Mendenhall has only been the head coach in the last four meetings.

However, Duke should have a little advantage against Virginia in 2020 since the Blue Devils will already have two games under their belts with their Week One game against Notre Dame and Week Two versus Boston College.

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David Cutcliffe’s team already dropped its first game of the season to the Fighting Irish, but Duke battled Notre Dame longer than anyone would have imagined, ultimately falling 27-13.

Duke will return back to a fan-less Wallace Wade Stadium to face the Boston College Eagles on Saturday, September 19 at 12:00pm EST, and the game can be seen on various regional sports networks.

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Like Notre Dame, Virginia is planning to have a limited capacity crowd at its home games this season, and that small crowd will be itching to see their Cavaliers on the field as the rest of the ACC will already have been playing for two weeks prior.

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