Virginia football coach Tony Elliott has had his offense preparing for its first road game this weekend at Illinois running plays with loud music, specifically, the Illinois fight song, blaring over the speakers during practice.
The idea: to get the offensive line, in particular, ready to make its calls in what could be a tough environment.
“I wanted them to hear something different to try and get them used to, so it’s not the first time they strike up the band is the first time they hear it, so they’re kind of used to it. Now it’s not even a distraction. They probably won’t even pay attention and hear it once they get up there,” Elliott said.
Elliott may be overpreparing the offense, but that’s OK.
Illinois had 37,832 fans on hand for its home opener two weeks ago, a 38-6 win over Wyoming.
The capacity at Memorial Stadium is 60,670, so, pretty much Scott Stadium, with a Scott Stadium-like turnout.
Even so, sure, they’ll be screaming their heads off when Virginia has the ball, theoretically, so, might as well be ready.
“It’s very loud. It’s the same song, so it’s annoying, but it’s really, so it’s tough to hear the quarterback,” said Derek Devine, who played all 79 offensive snaps at right guard in last week’s 34-17 win over Richmond.
“We’re going into an enemy environment, away stadium, we don’t know how loud it’s going to be, it could be tough to get a snap count. So that’s the point, you know, it’s supposed to create a little bit of adversity for us,” Devine said.
The UVA O line, for the most part, did its job in the Week 1 win. Only McKale Boley, a true freshman starting at left tackle, had trouble – Boley allowed six QB pressures, and graded out at a low 42.5 for the day by Pro Football Focus.
The rest of the line graded out at 60 or higher, led by Logan Taylor, the right tackle, who had a solid 71.7 grade.
The line largely kept QB Brennan Armstrong upright, allowing 12 pressures, including one sack, while clearing the way for the running game to put up 259 yards on the ground.
“I thought they protected really well for the most part. We did get Brennan hit a couple times, gave up one sack, but the times that we got him hit, it was more missed assignments on the back end, running back being too fast, things of that nature,” Elliott said.
The Illinois defense, in the 23-20 loss at Indiana last week, recorded 20 QB pressures, including one sack.
Defensive end Jer’Zhan Newton was a beast up front, with nine pressures on 54 pass-rush snaps.
The rush defense was solid, allowing just 32 net rushing yards on 26 attempts.
Illinois uses a five-man defensive front, which “you don’t see a ton of anymore,” Elliott said, creating a series of one-on-one matchups up front.
“They basically say, hey, let the best man win,” Elliott said.
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Chris Graham
