Safety Joey Blount made the play of the night that fueled UVA’s 28-17 comeback win over ODU.
Monarchs coach Bobby Wilder had already been successful on two fourth-down rolls of the dice, including one that went for a 47-yard second quarter touchdown.
Facing fourth-and-one at his own 29 with 10:54 to go, up 17-14, he figured, third time’s a charm, and called a quarterback draw for Stone Smartt.
The UVA D line was able to get penetration to slow down his progress toward the yard marker, and then Blount finished off the play, tackling Smartt in the backfield for a short loss.
Two plays later, Wayne Taulapapa scored from seven yards out, and UVA didn’t look back from there.
Blount spent the bulk of the offseason recovering from ankle surgery that had the junior in rehab, and otherwise lifting weights, for the better part of six months.
That might have been a blessing in disguise. Blount is noticeably bigger and much stronger, and UVA coach Bronco Mendenhall has noticed it helping him “in terms of physical play.”
“It will give him his best chance to be durable,” Mendenhall said. “In our program we emphasize three things. How durable, consistent, and how productive. It’s hard to be consistent and productive if you’re not durable.”
Blount is playing now with an elbow brace, but as Mendenhall noted, everybody is playing with something at this stage.
“The chance for being (healthy) is over for college football players. Once Game 1 starts, they’re healthy again maybe in January, maybe February, maybe March. They’re all playing with something. The offseason work in terms of strength and size helps mitigate that, but not all the way. I see it’s helping him, but already some signs of being beat up a little bit,” Mendenhall said.
Story by Chris Graham
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