Virginia
Virginia tackle Jonathan Leech picked up a lot of reps this spring. ~ Photo By Kris Wright/TheSabre.com

One of the big storylines early in the Tony Elliott era surrounds the offensive line. The Virginia football team lost all five starters and a sixth part-time starter at the end of the 2022 season, leaving just 12 linemen listed on the roster this spring. Obviously, that’s thin.

Once it was clear that Olu Oluwatimi, Ryan Swoboda, Bobby Haskins, Joe Bissinger, Chris Glaser and Ryan Nelson would not return to the Hoos - only Glaser had fully exhausted his eligibility due to the pandemic year freeze - that sent Elliott and offensive line coach Garett Tujague on an immediate restocking mission. The winter recruiting blitz produced and eight new linemen will join the program for 2022.

That didn’t solve the numbers equation for this spring, though. The Cavaliers spent a lot of time shifting and adapting to a small rotation. Some players were taking nearly every snap in practice and some bounced around to essentially every spot on the line.

By the time the 15th practice rolled around for the Virginia Blue-White Spring Game, only eight players remained available. Sophomores made up the majority of that list with Ty Furnish (6’4”, 270), Jestus Johnson III (6’3”, 330), Joey Kagel (6’2”, 267), Luke Johnson (6’5”, 315), Grant Lanham (6’4”, 316), Noah Josey (6’5”, 323), and Charlie Patterson (6’7”, 272) all in that class. Junior Jonathan Leech (6’4”, 280) was the only upperclassman available for Saturday’s scrimmage.

Senior Derek Devine (6’6”, 286), who emerged as the leader of the group early in the spring, sat out as an extra cautious approach with a foot injury, while junior Zachary Teter (6’5”, 315) was not available as the only other upperclassman still in the fold this spring. Sophomores Logan Taylor (6’7”, 332) and Colby McGhee (6’3”, 288) missed the game too.

Elliott said the group’s resiliency was noticed. Leech, in particular, drew praise at different times this spring from both Elliott and Tujague. Others piled up snaps in a lot of roles, which could speed up their development. The competition this fall should be interesting with no returning starters in the mix.

“I tell you what, I’m proud of Leech,” Elliott said before the Spring Game. “Leech has really, really progressed and he progressed quickly. It looks like he’s back to having fun and he’s enjoying it. Charlie was really, really making progress and then he hurts his ankle so he misses a couple, but pleased with him. Then Josey has had to play all positions and having to play all positions does nothing but accelerate so we feel really good with where he is. Jestus had to play a lot of snaps too playing guard, center, and tackle so it was tough on them, but you think long-term, it definitely helps them.”

Offense’s Strides

With the offensive line shuffle ongoing, the coaches didn’t let up on expectations. They didn’t help the O-Line much with extra blockers in the passing game. They pushed for the practice tempo they wanted. They challenged the players with some diverse concepts, while focusing on getting the baseline plays locked into focus.

That put the Virginia offense in a situation where it trailed the defense in execution at times, but it also created some toughness and the mindset the coaching staff is looking for from the team.

“The offense has made some progress. They’ve kind of settled in,” Elliott said two days before the Spring Game. “We’ve had a little bit more consistency with the personnel in practice offensively with the exception of the offensive line. And again for the offense, there’s a little bit more details. Defensively, you kind of get those guys lined up, you coach ‘em up a little on technique, and you say go get the ball. A lot of what they do is based off of energy, emotion, and passion whereas offensive football it’s all 11 at the same time with a lot of details. [Offensive coordinator Des Kitchings] really stressed them from a formation standpoint, multiple formations, putting in different types of procedures in terms of you’ve got the huddle, then you’ve got no huddle, then you’ve got tempo, then you’ve got your four-minute type of offense. So a lot of details offensively, but I though they did a good job the second half of spring of really responding.”

Among the things in the spotlight this spring for the offense: rediscover the traditional running game. The coaches mentioned it and emphasized it so much publicly, in fact, that questions started to pop up about the scheme plans for the Hoos. The offense, of course, put up some strong numbers in the passing game last season when it ranked No.2 nationally at 392.6 yards per game. The Cavaliers scored 34.6 points per game to rank 21st nationally.

Fans and outside observers wondered if an over-correction may be underway or if a baby and the bathwater situation was afoot. In other words, was seeking balance somehow going to be unbalanced?

That led to some public clarification from both Elliott and Kitchings. The coaches want Virginia to score points, not just grind it out and play field position. If that comes quickly, that’s OK. Over the course of a long season, however, the hope is for the Hoos to be able to both run and pass the ball effectively when needed.

“We want to score in one play if we can as an offense,” Kitchings said with a smile. “It’s not that we’re crafting an offense to kind of grind it out. We’re crafting a team to be physical. Like I’ve said before, win the down. How can we win the down? First down, we want to gain four or more and we want to be able to do that running or throwing the football so we win that down. We want to win second down so we want to gain at least half on second down. If it’s 2nd-and-8 and we decide to run the ball, we want to make it at least 3rd-and-4 or if we throw the ball. That’s what we’re talking about with the balanced part of it. If we can score in one, two, or three plays, yes, let’s score. We’re not trying to not score the football.”

“There’s going to be some times that you’ve got to carry your brother, but we don’t want to have a mindset of where we compensate, we want to complement,” Elliott said. “Again, we’re going to be aggressive and attack on offense and we want to score every single drive, but part of a balanced attack is being able to control the game and there’s going to be some times in the game where we’re going to need the defense to get a stop for us on offense and play complementary football to give us a chance to go score and vice versa, the defense is going to need us to put together a drive so that they can get a rest and special teams have to come in and do their job so they assist the offense and defense and put them in the best field position.”

More On The Virginia Defense

The offense is not alone in undergoing changes and creating curiosity. The Virginia defense has a new scheme too with former Air Force coordinator John Rudzinski installing his system at UVA. The buzz words around that this spring have been multiple, simple, and aggressive but also cautious.

One of the main tenets is preventing any throws over the top of the defense. That’s where that cautious label pops up. The Falcons only had 20 interceptions in the past three years combined. The other part of the equation there comes from being sound against the run and aggressive, physical tacklers.

The basics for Rudzinski’s plan seem simple enough. It’s a 3-4 base, but one of those 4 linebackers is a “Bandit” that can play as either a defensive end or an outside linebacker. The system often evolves into more of a 4-2-5 with that Bandit spot and a third safety is usually on the field as a hybrid linebacker type too.

Still, there’s a little bit of an adapt and deliver vibe coming out in descriptions of the Rudzinski defense at Virginia.

“I think that he’s got so much to his scheme that he can do a little bit of everything, whatever’s required,” Elliott said. “If he needs to protect the guys and help them in terms of making people earn it, he can, but he also showed sometimes where he was aggressive getting into some five-man fronts, some six-man fronts and blitzing and bringing pressure so he’s got a lot of bullets in his arsenal.”

Final Four

The recruiting part of the calendar is picking up steam. On Wednesday, Virginia made the final four for 2023 defensive end/athlete James Heard Jr. out of St. Joseph’s Prep in Philadephia. The Hoos are in the mix with Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Heard’s Hudl highlights are available here.