FACTS & STATS: Site: Scott Stadium (61,500) -- Charlottesville, Virginia. Television: ESPNU. Home Record: UConn 3-0, Virginia 3-0. Away Record: UConn 2-0, Virginia 2-1. Neutral Record: UConn 0-0, Virginia 0-0. Conference Record: UConn 1-0, Virginia 3-0. Series Record: First-ever meeting.

GAME NOTES: A couple of programs searching for their sixth wins of the 2007 campaign collide in Charlottesville this weekend, as the Virginia Cavaliers play host to the Connecticut Huskies in non-conference action at Scott Stadium. Since losing the season opener to Wyoming by a score of 23-3 on the road, the Cavs have managed to find their way to five consecutive victories. While several of them have been close calls, none have been tougher than the squad's 23-21 decision against Middle Tennessee last Saturday night. That contest went down to the wire, with a 34-yard field goal with eight seconds remaining proving to be the difference. As for the Huskies, who took last week off, they've tallied five wins in as many tries so far this season. The Big East program has played just one league game thus far, taking out Pittsburgh on the road, and then tackled Akron in the most recent affair with a 44-10 thrashing at home on September 29th. These two squads have never met on the gridiron prior to this meeting.

Leaning heavily on the running game, the Huskies are producing 181 ypg on the ground after five games and have tallied 12 touchdowns with that approach. Donald Brown, who is averaging close to four and a half yards per carry, has handled more than a third of the attempts, resulting in five touchdowns. However, not to be overlooked is Lou Allen who also has five rushing scores, but has carried the ball just 35 times. The emergence of Brown as a scoring threat is good news for UConn, considering Brown is listed as questionable for this contest with a sprained ankle. Tyler Lorenzen doesn't make great plays in the pocket, but he also doesn't make too many mistakes, leading to just six touchdown passes and three picks on 136 attempts. Nevertheless, with 36.6 ppg the Huskies are fifth in the Big East Conference and 22nd in the nation.

Defense has been the name of the game for the Huskies to this point, holding every opponent to 17 points or less. However, a closer look inside the numbers shows that UConn played Duke and Maine in the first two games of the season and then barely survived against Temple at home. UConn's first five opponents this season have managed a grand total of just six collective victories, which says a lot about the team's strength of schedule. And yet it is still hard to overlook the fact that the Huskies have the top overall defense in the Big East, giving up just 250.6 ypg, and the top scoring defense, one that is allowing a mere 11 ppg to rank fourth in the nation. Although he has made a grand total of just 15 tackles over five games, Julius Williams has been a one- man wrecking crew for the unit, ranking first on the team in sacks with five, while Danny Lansanah is tops with eight and a half tackles for loss. Not to be ignored is Robert Vaughn who already has four interceptions for a team that is sixth in the nation in turnover margin with a plus-1.8 per game.

After missing a critical point-after attempt early in the fourth quarter which eventually allowed Middle Tennessee to cling to a one-point lead late in their meeting on Saturday night, Chris Gould atoned for his mistake by knocking through a 34-yard field goal with eight seconds to play to give the Cavaliers the two-point triumph on the road. Jameel Sewell converted 22-of-37 passes for 223 yards and a score for the visitors, while Andrew Pearman contributed two rushing scores. Take away the season opener versus Wyoming in which the Cavs scored a scant three points, and the offense for the squad has been rather decent. Sewell is hitting his targets at 57.8 percent, leading to six touchdowns and three picks, but he could still stand to increase his yardage output (135.3 ypg) in order to take some of the pressure off Cedric Peerman (585 yards, five touchdowns) and Andrew Pearman (101 yards, two TDs). With Sewell's minor contribution passing the ball, Virginia currently has the 108th ranked offense in the country with a mere 307.3 ypg.

Limiting the Blue Raiders to just 3.3 yards per rushing attempt meant Virginia was keeping the home team from running away with a hard-fought victory. The Cavs held tight on third-down plays, limiting Middle Tennessee to only 6-of-17 on such attempts as Jermaine Dias and Jon Copper both recorded a game-high nine tackles for the Cavaliers. Chris Long made five stops for the squad, two of which came behind the line of scrimmage, and one against the quarterback, but he didn't stop there because he also recorded a blocked kick along the way. Long is an absolute beast when it comes to working his way up the field, already with seven sacks to rank second in the ACC and tied for fourth in the country with 1.17 sacks per contest. With 8.5 TFLs Long is slightly ahead of teammate Jeffrey Fitzgerald (eight TFLs) in that department, giving opponents a lot to think about when they design their blocking schemes for the weekend.

Getting the additional time off to nurse wounds and prepare a game plan should work in favor of the Huskies this time around. Virginia might have some trouble getting back into a rhythm after barely getting by Middle Tennessee, but the Cavs will still make it interesting.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Connecticut 24, Virginia 17