Virginia’s special-teams unit ranks 122nd in FBS in 2022, per Pro Football Focus. There are 131 FBS teams, so that’s bottom 10 percentile.
The ’22 Cavaliers special teams have one fumble on a punt return, two punts blocked, missed three extra points, six field-goal tries, had 11 special teams penalties.
It’s said that special teams is a third of the game, and that’s not quite true. Just looking at UVA’s snap counts through seven games, the defense has had 517, the offense 505, and special teams has gotten 195, between kickoffs, punts, extra points and field-goal tries.
The lower snap count makes the errors stand out more – 23 errors on 195 plays thus far in ‘22, an 11.8 percent rate.
Looking back to last year: I count 18 total special-teams errors from the ’21 Cavaliers (14 penalties and four missed field goals) on 374 plays, a 4.8 percent error rate.
The numbers confirm what we’d been seeing week by week: that the special-teams unit this year sucks.
First-year coach Tony Elliott is acknowledging as much.
“We had to have a come-to-Jesus with the team,” Elliott told reporters at his weekly presser on Tuesday, in which he spelled out his idea toward a solution – going with more guys from his two-deep on offense and defense on special teams.
Virginia, somehow, won last week at Georgia Tech in spite of what was the nadir for the awful special-teams unit for the season – a blocked punt, a missed extra point, two missed chip-shot field goals, a kickoff downed at the UVA 3, a penalty on another kickoff setting the offense up inside the 15, another penalty on a punt return that cost 20 yards of field position, and another penalty on a punt block that gave Georgia Tech a first down.
“You’re not supposed to win games like that,” Elliott said. “It’s just, the defense gave us a chance. They stopped the run, forced them to be one-dimensional. We found a way to win the game, proud of that, but let’s be honest, that we can’t win football games like that. The stretch run we’re getting ready to play, you’re getting ready to play some teams that are really talented that will take advantage of that. So going forward, you’ll see more of the guys that are playing on offense and defense out there contributing on special teams.”
Elliott raised eyebrows this week when he said he is planning to use backup quarterback Jay Woolfolk to return punts. Woolfolk is the only QB on the roster other than QB1 Brennan Armstrong with a snap behind center in a college game.
That’s a risky move, but it sounds like it won’t be the only one Elliott is making in terms of personnel on special teams.
“Bottom line, we had to go back to the drawing board and tell these guys, the approach I’m taking now, I’ll rest you on offense and defense before special teams, because those are critical,” Elliott said.
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Chris Graham
