AFP Podcasts

It’s a busy week for UVA sports fans. The UVA Football team has #12 SMU coming to town, and the UVA Basketball team is in the Bahamas getting ready for two games against Top 25 opponents.

AFP editor Chris Graham covers the big topics of the week.

Preview: A lot has to go right for UVA Football to pull upset of #12 SMU

The UVA Football program is one win away from going bowling for the first time since the 2019 Orange Bowl.

#12 SMU is one win away from a berth in the ACC Championship Game in its first season in the league.

Both have a lot to play for on Saturday (noon ET, ESPN2).

Injury report: ‘Hoos in, ‘Hoos out for UVA Football for this week’s game with #12 SMU

UVA Football coach Tony Elliott confirmed on Tuesday that middle linebacker James Jackson will not be available for this weekend’s game with #12 SMU.

“He was nursing a foot, and then gave us everything he had and about 22 plays in, he couldn’t deal with the pain anymore,” Elliott said.

UVA Football: Tony Elliott is trying to convince himself to stick with Anthony Colandrea

You can hear UVA Football coach Tony Elliott struggling with the call that he has to make with Anthony Colandrea, his sophomore starting quarterback, who has been struggling mightily, going back several weeks now.

Report Card: How did UVA Football do this year with the transfer portal?

Whatever happens over the next two weekends, UVA Football coach Tony Elliott is going to have a lot of work to do, and pretty much right away, to piece together a working roster for 2025.

How much is UVA Football getting for WVU games in Charlotte in 2026, 2032?

I got a flood of questions from readers about the upcoming two-game series between UVA Football and WVU, with game dates announced for 2026 and 2032, and the games being played in Charlotte.

Jones pleads guilty to Nov. 13, 2022, murders of three UVA Football players

The University of Virginia student who shot and killed three UVA Football players and wounded two others in a Nov. 13, 2022, mass shooting on Grounds has pleaded guilty to charges connected to the case, avoiding a trial that had been set to begin in January.

UVA Basketball: #11 Tennessee is up next for the ‘Hoos, down in the Bahamas

I couldn’t pull the trigger on scheduling myself to go to the Bahamas with UVA Basketball, which I’m now regretting, with light snow in the forecast for the Valley on Thursday and Friday.

President-elect Donald Trump isn’t done raiding Fox News for his Cabinet, which is what we expected from the failed TV game show host elected to a second term in the White House.

It’s not quite the end of the world as we know it, but apologies if it feels like it sometimes.

On this week’s politics podcast, we dive head-first into:

Joey Logano was the big winner on Sunday at Phoenix, bringing home his third NASCAR Cup Series championship, a month after leaving the track at Charlotte thinking he had been eliminated from the 2024 playoff race.

It was a remarkable turnaround for Logano, and an end to the 2024 NASCAR season that had begun nine long months ago in Daytona.

Chris Graham and Rod Mullins recap Logano’s victory and the highlights of the 2024 season on this week’s podcast.

Also on this week’s show:

• How will 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports approach 2025 without team charters as their antitrust lawsuit plays out?

The road to “Full Gear” continued last night when AEW made its debut in Manchester, New Hampshire, at the Southern New Hampshire University Arena for Wednesday Night “Dynamite.” 

Last night, wrestling fans relived the “Wednesday Night Wars.” WWE’s “NXT” aired head-to-head against “Dynamite,” on The CW Network from the famed 2300 Arena, invoking shades of ECW.

Tony Khan needed to swing for the fences to compete with “NXT” in the ratings. Thankfully, he hit a homerun.

Is Tony Khan finally getting the hang of booking pro wrestling?

The question arises after taking in this week’s AEW “Dynamite,” which featured a payoff in a five-years-and-running tag-team feud between The Young Bucks and Private Party, Adam Cole’s return from more than a year out with a broken ankle and, finally, the debut of Bobby Lashley.

Chris Graham and Ray Petree dive into the deep end of the AEW pool here.

Other topics of interest include:

• Orange Cassidy challenging AEW world champ Jon Moxley. How should AEW approach this one, and the match that we know is coming after, between Moxley and Darby Allin?

Tyler Reddick and Joey Logano have already punched their tickets into the NASCAR Championship 4 finale.

Two spots are still up for grabs as the NASCAR Cup Series returns to Martinsville for the Round of 8 playoff finale on Sunday.

Rod Mullins of Dickenson Media joins us to preview what we can expect from Martinsville.

Mullins also reports on changes on the team of 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, and the latest on the lawsuit challenging the NASCAR charter system.

Former Waynesboro mayor Bobby Henderson is back, this time running for the At-Large seat on Waynesboro City Council.

Henderson joined AFP editor Chris Graham to talk about his decision to get back into the political ring after a two-year hiatus.

The focus for Henderson, a military veteran, retired Virginia State Police trooper and lifelong Republican, is on restoring the voice of voters in the city, which has been under the thumb of a MAGA majority led by the vice mayor, Jim Wood, the past two years.

Terry Short Jr. is running for a third term on Waynesboro City Council, this time running for the Ward B seat on the body.

Short talks with AFP editor Chris Graham about the 2024 race.

Short is one of three independents running for seats against a slate of Republicans hand-picked the sitting vice mayor, Jim Wood, the chairman of the Waynesboro Republican Committee.

Wood is the guy who was in national headlines last year for his homophobic slur of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Short was outspoken in his criticism of Wood, who stands to become mayor if the GOP slate is successful in next week’s voting.

That is, if we get the vote certified. Wood’s two appointees to the Waynesboro Electoral Board have filed a lawsuit saying they will not vote to certify the local vote absent a court order, raising issue in the suit with state election law.

We cover those topics and others, including housing affordability, education and economic opportunity, in this interview.

Lorie Strother, a candidate for the Ward A seat on Waynesboro City Council, sits down for an interview with AFP editor Chris Graham to discuss the 2024 election.

The biggest issue facing the city involves the lack of affordable housing, which plays into the growth in the homeless population.

Strother, who was homeless herself as a teen, shares her perspective on what the city needs to do to address the housing and homelessness issues.

She also discusses her nine-year tenure on the Waynesboro Economic Development Authority, and what the city needs to do to continue to grow the local job base.

I hate that I feel the need to start this story about Ron Sanchez being formally rolled out as the interim head coach at UVA Basketball by addressing an interwebs rumor, but this is the world we live in.