Tony Elliott lost the 2021 offensive line last December, and the makeshift line that he was able to cobble together from what he inherited from Bronco Mendenhall and what he was able to get from the transfer portal was a big reason the 2022 Virginia offense, to put it plainly, sucked.
The depth and experience on the line is taking a hit again this offseason. Logan Taylor, a four-star recruit from the 2021 recruiting class, and John Paul Flores, who transferred in from Dartmouth in the spring, are in the transfer portal, and two other starters, Jonathan Leech and Derek Devine, have decided not to return for what could have been their final year of eligibility.
For numbers context, Taylor led the unit with 691 snaps in 2022. Devine was on the field for 688 snaps, Leech 564, and Flores 433.
That represents 68.1 percent of the total snaps across the line in 2022.
At least this time last year, Elliott had Garett Tujague in place as his offensive line coach. The position is open right now, with Tujague having left for NC State, where he is rejoining Robert Anae, the offensive coordinator at Virginia under Mendenhall, who is now in the OC job at State.
It would seem to help if Elliott had a new O line coach in place to be able to not only have stability at the top, but also begin working the phones to try to fill the openings in the offensive line room.
Elliott, as was the case when he got the job a year ago, and waited into January to fill key positions on his staff, isn’t feeling pressed this offseason.
“I don’t have a timetable,” Elliott told reporters this week at his early signing day presser. “I don’t want to rush you know, being, I mean, considering when you think about some of those veteran guys, what they’ve been through in the last two calendar years, it’s been a lot. So, I want to try and take my time, make sure I get that right. Give them a voice and an opportunity to express, you know, their desires, and what they would like to see happen at that position, but it’ll be before we get back from the break, for sure.”
If you think back to what happened last offseason, Elliott not having a timetable with staff hires is what helped hasten the loss of guys like Olu Oluwatimi, an All-American who transferred to Michigan, where he won the Rimington Award as the nation’s top center, and the Outland Trophy as the nation’s top interior lineman; Bobby Haskins, who went on to start at Southern Cal; Ryan Swoboda, who started for Central Florida; and Joe Bissinger, a starter this year at SMU.
All left as Elliott took his time deciding on who his offensive coordinator would be, ultimately leaving when it became apparent that he wasn’t going to retain either Anae or Jason Beck, the QB coach under Anae at Virginia, who then followed Anae to Syracuse, and was named the OC there after Anae bolted for NC State.
And now the bulk of the snaps for the overmatched 2022 unit are already out the door, though the O line does still return centers Ty Furnish (505 snaps in 2022) and Jestus Johnson (194 snaps), guard Noah Josey (277 snaps) and tackle McKale Boley (135 snaps).
So, four guys with experience return, plus Daijon Parker, a 6’6”, 300-pound tackle from D2 Saginaw Valley State.
That’s a fragile corps to pair with a bunch of young guys from past recruiting classes who haven’t yet done enough to earn playing time at the college level.
Elliott said he would prefer his O line room to be at 15 guys, and it’s now at 12, so whoever his new offensive line coach ends up being, and whenever that guy ends up getting here, there’s going to be a need to comb the transfer portal for, doing the math, three more guys.
“I don’t want to just, you know, fill them with anybody,” Elliott said. “Because again, we got a lot of young guys that we recruited, but we feel like we got some talented guys, we gotta grow them up. But I think we do need to address just from distribution and leadership standpoint, you know, trying to get the right older guys in, if they fit.”
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Chris Graham
