#1: The O line is a mash
Virginia went into its Week 6 game at Louisville already knowing it wouldn’t have grad senior Brady Wilson, the starting center, who went down in the second half of the Week 4 win over Stanford with a high ankle sprain.
Grad senior Drake Metcalf, the right guard to that point, has moved over to center in Wilson’s absence.
The merry-go-round has had grad senior Kevin Wigenton at right guard the past two weeks, after getting limited action in three of the first four games.
Grad senior Jack Witmer is getting the work at right tackle, with the Week 1 starter, grad senior Wallace Unamba, still recovering from an injury early in the opener.
OK, so, that’s where things started yesterday.
ICYMI
- Live Coverage: #24 UVA vs. Louisville | ‘Hoos gut their way to 30-27 OT win
- UVA Football | #24 ‘Hoos will their way to 30-27 win at Louisville
- UVA Football | ‘Hoos capitalize on Louisville’s many mistakes in OT win
- Notebook: UVA Football | Tony Elliott dares to talk out loud about Charlotte
Then, in the second quarter, senior McKale Boley, the starting left tackle – the “blind side” guy – went down with an injury.
Next man up there: redshirt freshman Ben York, who at least had gotten 32 snaps at left tackle in the 48-7 blowout of Coastal Carolina in Week 1.
Keep that in mind the next time you’re watching a blowout win for your team: the garbage-time snaps aren’t garbage time for the backups getting live game reps.
The sum total of how the UVA offense got through the 30-27 OT win yesterday: one guy, grad senior Noah Josey, the left guard, was at his position for all 64 snaps.
Metcalf went all 64, but at center; Witmer, who started the season as a backup, went 64 at right tackle.
Boley went 27 at left tackle, before York stepped in for 35.
According to the participation chart courtesy Pro Football Focus, true freshman Jon Adair got one snap at left tackle, and grad senior tight end Sage Ennis got one at left tackle, and one at right tackle.
Wigenton played 59 snaps at right guard; the other five snaps went to grad senior Ethan Sipe, who is still getting his legs under him after missing most of the 2024 season.
#2: Who did Chris Bell pick on most?
Louisville wideout Chris Bell had 12 catches on 14 targets for 170 yards and two TDs.
My only problem with UL’s play-calling was that they didn’t throw it to him more.
UVA’s defenders in coverage on Bell:
- Donavon Platt: 4-of-5, 45 yards, two first downs, one TD
- Jordan Robinson: 3-of-3, 55 yards, three first downs
- Kam Robinson: 1-of-1, 15 yards, one TD
- Emmanuel Karnley: 1-of-1, 28 yards, one first down
- Devin Neal: 1-of-2, 14 yards, one first down, one PBU
- Caleb Hardy: 1-of-1, 8 yards, one first down
- Christian Charles: 1-of-1, 5 yards
#3: Pressure on the QB
Louisville QB Miller Moss had good counting numbers – 34-of-48, 329 yards, two TDs, one INT.
The INT was a 47-yard Kam Robinson picksix.
Moss, on that play, a third-and-10 at the Louisville 46, was the result of pressure from Christian Charles on a safety blitz.
Virginia blitzed Moss on 16 snaps, sacking him twice; Moss was 9-of-14 for 68 yards against the blitz.
Of note: the UVA front got three sacks with regular pressure (four guys).
The pressure guys:
- Mitchell Melton: two sacks, five pressures
- Daniel Rickert: one sack, seven pressures
- Jason Hammond: one sack
- Hunter Osborne: one sack
- Jacob Holmes: four pressures
- Maddox Marcellus: three pressures
- Kam Robinson: two pressures
#4: Not missing a beat
Daniel Sparks, the 6’6”, 217-pound senior, is an all-world punter, but with Sparks out the past three weeks with a hip flexor, we’ve been able to see what Elijah Slibeck, the 6’6”, 239-pound junior, can do.
Remember when punters were little guys with a single-bar facemask?
Yeah.
Slibeck averaged 47.4 yards on his five punts on Saturday.
The 71-yarder that flipped the field in the third quarter eventually led to a short field for the offense and a 46-yard Will Bettridge field goal.
#5: Bye!
I’ve been writing about UVA Football every day – often multiple stories per day – for the past seven weeks.
I need a bye week myself.
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Chris Graham
