One thing that stood out among the many issues with the UVA offense in the 24-3 loss at Illinois last week was how bad the vaunted wide-receiver corps was that day.
The offensive line had trouble keeping Brennan Armstrong upright, sure, and, definitely, Armstrong let the echoes of the many Illini footsteps in the offensive backfield affect his rhythm, but he also got almost no help from his wideouts, who seemed unable on most pass snaps to get even a sliver of daylight.
Virginia coach Tony Elliott was a wide receiver at Clemson and coached wideouts on his way up in the business.
He had to be as shocked as anybody else at what he saw from his guys last week.
The biggest thing he saw from his review of the game film: “when the bullets started flying, the guys abandoned their technique, and they just tried to survive.”
“To be successful is when the bullets start flying, the one thing you trust is your technique, and so man coverage, defeating man coverage, is all about technique and applying your technique,” Elliott said. “The worst thing you can do as a receiver versus man coverage is just run, because you do the job for the defender. You have to use what tools you have. As a receiver, your feet and your hands are your tools to defeat man coverage. As you attack soft coverage, you’ve got to freeze the defender with your feet to create some hesitation and let your hands react to his reaction so you can create separation or move a guy or get to where you want to go.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do there, and the guys have received the message, and they’re owning it, and they’re going to work at it,” Elliott said.
Pro Football Focus had Dontayvion Wicks, who had 1,203 yards on 57 catches a year ago, getting 13 targets on Saturday, and only catching two balls, for 23 yards, and an NFL passer rating on those targets of 39.6.
And that actually wasn’t the lowest rating among the receiver group. Lavel Davis Jr., a freshman All-America in 2020 who missed last season with an ACL injury, had two catches on eight targets for 67 yards and an NFL passer rating on those throws of 22.4.
The reason for the lower rating is that two of the targets to Davis resulted in the Armstrong INTs.
Keytaon Thompson, Mr. Old Reliable, had the only good day among those in the wideout corps, catching five balls on six targets for 62 yards and a 109.7 passer rating on those throws.
Billy Kemp IV, who 74 catches last season, was on the field for 25 pass snaps, and didn’t get a single target.
Elliott attributed the myriad issues to miscommunication between Armstrong and his receivers, and vice versa.
“One of the things that I challenged Brennan is, man, you’ve got to communicate to your wideouts,” Elliott said. “Maybe our protection is not as solid as you need it to be. You need to get on the same page with your wideouts, and what you saw with some timing issues, the wideouts need to be in tune to the game and say, hey, man, we’re in empty, and we’ve got a five-man protection, and they’re rushing six, man, I might need to speed this up a little bit.”
With a veteran fifth-year QB and veterans at wide receiver, you wouldn’t have expected these kinds of rookie mistakes to persist the way they did last week, but to be fair, UVA is running a different offensive scheme this year under first-year offensive coordinator Des Kitchings than what these guys had played in for years under Robert Anae, now the offensive coordinator at Syracuse.
“What I told them, I said, look, fellas, what I’ve done in my past doesn’t matter because all we’ve got is today. What y’all did offensively last year doesn’t matter. I said, look at the defense. What the defense did last year, they’re not thinking about it. They’re not focusing about it. They’re not paying attention to what’s in the rear-view mirror,” Elliott said.
“I think that’s the biggest challenge for us offensively, is for these guys to say, hey, it’s a new system. We’re not doing what you did last year. We’re building a foundation offensively here. If you will buy into the system and play within the system and trust the fundamentals and the technique that we’re trying to teach you, then it will lead to success. When you play outside of the framework of the team and the scheme, then you’re going to have situations where you get exposed.
“The message is this isn’t last year. Those plays don’t carry over to this season,” Elliott said. “We’ve got to focus on what we have right here. Yes, it’s new, but just embrace. Embrace the opportunity to grow and be developed and just trust. I’m not a guy, and y’all are getting to know me, but I don’t like to talk about things that I’ve done and accomplished. But just illustrating to those guys, fellas, I can help you, alongside your coach, just as Marques [Hagans] can help you. Just let us coach you. Let us make you better. Let’s not worry about what happened last year. Let’s focus on today and let’s focus on going forward. That’s a transition for any player that’s accomplished.”
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Chris Graham
