Signing Day was 2J Day: Tujague replenishes Virginia offensive line

Garett Tujague was busy the past few weeks trying to add to his offensive line group at Virginia after losing four starters and a key reserve to the transfer portal.

Signing Day was 2J Day – eight offensive linemen signed NLIs, beefing up the roster page to a healthy 22.

The two most important signees, by an order of magnitude, are the two transfers, John Paul Flores (Dartmouth) and Mac Hollensteiner (Georgetown), both tackles.

Before they put their names to paper, Tujague’s group had just five guys who’ve seen the field at the college level, for a grand total of 312 snaps, the bulk of those by junior tackle Jonathan Leech (224 career snaps, including 183 in 2021).

OK, so, yeah, Flores and Hollensteiner played at the FCS level, but they each played extensively, and played well, from their Pro Football Focus profiles.

Flores, a second-team All-Ivy guy this past season, graded out at 67.4 in 2021, on 621 snaps over 10 games, allowing 10 QB pressures and two sacks on 300 pass-block snaps, and grading at 65.0 on 321 run-block snaps.

Hollensteiner, a two-year starter at Georgetown, graded out at 66.8 on his 707 snaps in 2021, allowing 23 pressures and two sacks on 431 pass-block snaps, and grading 64.7 on his 276 run snaps.

Before you turn your nose up at those numbers, consider that Hollensteiner had offers from the likes of Michigan State, Oklahoma State and Colorado, and Flores had offers from a host of schools, including SMU, Temple and East Carolina.

Both will have two years of eligibility at Virginia, so that’s something to build on.

The tackle spots should be nailed down, which is good news heading into the spring.

Tujague still has plenty of work to do to figure out who plays at the guard spots and who replaces second-team All-America center Olusegun Oluwatimi, who transferred out to Michigan.

With the haul on Signing Day, he has plenty of bodies to work with, develop, have compete in the spring, summer, fall camp.

It’s not ideal, but with Hollensteiner and Flores in the room, the situation is better than what it looked like a couple of weeks ago.

Story by Chris Graham