CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Notre Dame hasn’t won a true road game in its last five tries, a streak dating back to an October 2013 win over Air Force in Colorado Springs. That’s a reality that’s less harsh than it seems, though, seeing as the Irish have won neutral-site games against Purdue, Syracuse, Navy and LSU away from South Bend during that span.
But Saturday’s game against Virginia at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville remains an important hurdle to clear, for the team as a whole and more specifically quarterback Malik Zaire, who will make his first career start in a truly hostile environment.
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“There's only one game that comes to mind in my time here that we just, we were flat on the road,” coach Brian Kelly said. “We've lost some tough games on the road. But it's a mature team. There's great leadership. They recognize what it's going to take, and we'll prepare them accordingly in the fashion that we have. But I can really only recall one time where we didn't play up to the level that we were capable of playing.”
The game Kelly likely referred to is last year’s USC game, which ended in a pathetic 49-14 loss to a historic rival. The more applicable game heading into Virginia would be Notre Dame’s 2013 loss at Pitt, in which Stephon Tuitt was ejected for targeting in the first half and Tommy Rees threw a pair of back-breaking interceptions in a difficult-to-swallow loss.
Virginia’s profile under Mike London has been of decent-to-good defenses and bad offenses. If Saturday’s 34-16 loss to UCLA is any indication, this team doesn’t have good anything — true freshman quarterback Josh Rosen sliced through Virignia’s defense, and the Hoos’ offense averaged less than five yards per play.
Under London, Virginia has made one bowl game in the last five years (the 2011 Chick-Fil-A Bowl) and as recently as 2013 had double-digit losses. But for a veteran Notre Dame team, past experience serves as a reminder that no team should be taken lightly on the road (remember when Purdue almost beat the Irish in 2013 with a quarterback who was moved to safety later that season?).
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“It’s a different team, it's a different mindset, it's a different year,” safety and captain Matthias Farley said. “I think you ask every guy on the team, no one is focusing on anything in the past. We are focusing on one day at a time, one step at a time and moving forward.”
Notre Dame’s first big test of the season will come a week from Saturday, when Georgia Tech’s powerful triple option offense rolls into South Bend against an Irish team that’s struggled to defend it recently. That’ll be Notre Dame’s first chance at a resume-building win.
But for that game to matter, Notre Dame will have to get out Charlottesville unscathed.