The secondary was a position of weakness in the Virginia defense in 2020, and that’s putting it mildly, being excessively polite, understating the situation, practically disinformation, to be frank about it.
Heading into 2021, there’s so much depth and quality in the secondary that Bronco Mendenhall looks like he’ll finally be able to go with the 3-3-5 as the base defense.
“We’re just using the very best personnel we have at this point in the spring. One of my core beliefs is we just find the best 11 players at any time, and that’s who we play with. So nothing’s different from what we had done before,” Mendenhall said as UVA concluded its spring practice period last week.
Mendenhall used the 3-3-5 as the base defense at BYU because that’s what you do out west, with a schedule chock full of teams that run four- and five-receiver sets and go tempo.
It’s getting to be the case here in the southeast now that everybody goes four- and five-wide, putting pressure on defenses to go nickel as the base.
Problem last year for Virginia, which ranked last in the ACC in pass defense (304.4 yards per game), was lack of warm bodies with the skill to cover wideouts, flankers, tight ends all running amok.
Ain’t a problem now. Virginia returns starting safety Joey Blount (Pro Football Focus 2020 Grade: 65.0) and starting corner Nick Grant (PFF 2020 Grade: 63.7), both returning super seniors.
Then there’s De’Vante Cross (PFF 2020 Grade: 49.5), who was forced to play at corner last season, but gets to move back to his natural safety position (where he had a 61.6 PFF grade in 2019) in his super senior season.
Cross can move back because Virginia gets senior Darrius Bratton (PFF 2020 Grade: 56.2) back at corner, and a healthy Bratton can be a shutdown corner-type guy (his PFF 2019 grade was 74.5).
The transfer portal has added depth in the form of North Dakota State grad transfer corner Josh Hayes, one of the top defensive secondary players in FCS the past couple of years (unfortunately, Pro Football Focus doesn’t rate FCS players, so we’re taking the word of people who have talked him up in that respect).
And then there’s also Louisville grad transfer Anthony Johnson (PFF 2020 Grade: 64.9), who Mendenhall and co-defensive coordinators Nick Howell and Kelly Poppinga were able to get a lot of intel on in part because UVA plays Louisville every year.
So, now you’ve got Grant, Bratton, Hayes, Johnson, plus redshirt freshman Elijah Gaines (59 snaps in 2020) and sophomore Fentrell Cypress (24 snaps in 2020), at corner, and Blount and Cross, along with juniors Coen King (317 snaps in 2020) and Antonio Clary (277 snaps in 2020) and sophomores Jake Dewease and Chayce Chalmers (both getting 16 snaps in 2020) at safety.
Depth, experience, lots of talent.
It’s almost a given that you’re going to see UVA go 3-3-5 next fall.
“Our secondary right now is deeper, and the numbers are allowing us to do that,” Mendenhall said. “And again, with offenses in college, including our own, when they’re so spread out, it just makes more sense.”
And then the good part, for the coaches, anyway – the competition to see who gets snaps in the fall.
“It is as fierce a competition as we can develop to put the best five football players on the field,” Mendenhall said. “If that ends up being five corners, it’s five corners, if it’s one safety and four corners, that’s what it is. In the game of college football now, there’s so much RPO, right, so much covering the slot and so much tackling, the best five cover and tackle players will be on the field for us regardless of position.
“So yeah, we’re going to drive and leverage that competition all the way up to the very first game, and then every game after to ensure we have the best five players out there, and that’s why you saw us add another graduate transfer as well.”
Story by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
