The line is in on UVA Football's season-opening game against the Richmond Spiders on Saturday.

According to 5Dimes.eu, Virginia is a 13-point favorite over the Spiders. The over-under is set at 55.5. According to the ESPN Football Power Index, UVA has an 87.1-percent chance of winning the contest.

The last time the Wahoos and Spiders’ met, the opening game of the 2016 season, Richmond defeated UVA in their first game with Bronco Mendenhall as Virginia’s head coach, 37-20.

That was the start of 2-10 campaign and in Mendenhall’s words, “a graphic starting point.”

“It was probably the first and maybe the most impactful precalibration in becoming the head coach at UVA on exactly where we were was the start of that season,” said Mendenhall. “I’m not going to diminish the fact that it was against Richmond. Really it could have been any team. Me then seeing our team's demeanor in Scott Stadium, how exactly we were prepared or had been prepared to play a game, and maybe some of the existing influences that I wasn't aware of.

“And so we worked diligently just step by step to recreate the culture of the love to play the game, love to prepare to play the game, and claiming our home space at a higher level. It's still a work in progress, but I remember just the graphic starting point and precalibration of, oh, this is where we are. That's what I remember most about maybe that game or that time period.”

Virginia rebounded in Mendenhall’s second season, winning six games and getting bowl eligible, making Mendenhall one of just two active coaches to inherit at least two programs with a losing record and get them bowl eligible in the first two seasons, joining Nick Saban and Mark Dantonio.

In his third season as the Wahoos’ head coach, Mendenhall, who is 9-1 against FCS opponents in his career, isn’t taking the Spiders for granted.

"So I've coached against a number of FCS programs in my career, and coached at Northern Arizona myself,” said Mendenhall. “We never felt when I was coaching at Northern Arizona at the FCS level much difference between ones. It was just the depth. When you play a first game especially, anyone is especially vulnerable and there is always uncertainty. There are new teams, new schemes that have been made in the offseason, and you're never certain.

“The amount of in-game coaching in game one, that's part of game one, and so I think possibly that's why -- and I haven't done the research on this. You could follow up. Seems to me like games one and two there are maybe more upset-ish type of games, and a game that happens you say, Holy cow, did you hear about so and so. That shouldn't happen. The simple uncertainties that come with game one and two I think add to that.”

Kickoff in Saturday’s game is set for 6:00 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN’s ACC Network Extra.