Tony Elliott is going to need to make wholesale changes to his coaching staff on offense in the offseason, and yes, that needs to include the beloved by UVA fans and alums (and not that it matters, but also me) Marques Hagans.
The offense has been an unmitigated disaster under first-year offensive coordinator Des Kitchings this season, averaging 359.9 yards per game, 69.8 percent of the output from last year’s group, which put up 515.8 yards per game, ranking third in the nation, with several of the key guys who made that possible returning.
The unit has not scored more than 20 points in a game with an FBS opponent yet this season, two-thirds of the way through.
Blame it on the rebuilt offensive line, but the guys who were there last year were still around when Elliott got the job in December.
You almost have to presume that Elliott didn’t want those guys around, as much as he’s talked about how he wants to build his own culture, instead of building on the foundation left to him by his predecessor, Bronco Mendenhall.
He certainly made that clear when he went with Kitchings as his OC, not even giving the guy, Jason Beck, that many, including Beck’s mentor, and Mendenhall’s OC, Robert Anae, thought should get the job.
Looking back on it now, you’d wish for Brennan Armstrong, who came into this season as a projected late-round draft pick, and has played himself off the board, and wideouts Dontayvion Wicks and Keytaon Thompson, whose draft stock has similarly plummeted, that they’d followed the likes of Olu Oluwatimi, Bobby Haskins and Ryan Swoboda out the door, given how things have gone.
In any case, you could have seen this coming from a mile away with Kitchings, who wasn’t retained by NC State coach Dave Doeren after his single year as the offensive coordinator for the Wolfpack, in 2019, after his offense ranked 11th in the ACC in total offense (380.3 yards per game) and 12th in the ACC in scoring (22.1 points per game).
Kitchings’ UVA offense, just to get this on the record, is currently 10th in the ACC in total offense and 12th in the conference in scoring (17.6 points per game).
Elliott, going with Kitchings as his OC, obviously fell prey to the classic definition of insanity, which is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
The QB coach, Taylor Lamb, sorry, but he was given Armstrong, who averaged 404.5 yards per game last year, and has mentored him into being a schlub – BA’s completion percentage is down from 65.2 to 55.7, his yards per game is down to 225.8, his TDs from 31 (in 11 games) to six (in eight games), his efficiency rating down from 156.4 to 113.0.
Lamb needs to go.
So does the running back coach, Keith Gaither, who is also the staff’s special teams coordinator, so he gets two pinkslips.
The shortcomings of the special teams have been well documented. The issue with the running backs was most evident in last week’s 14-12 four-OT loss to Miami.
Kitchings called 25 running plays – 12 of them using Armstrong as the ball-carrier, and 13 of them runs by UVA running backs.
The running backs have not developed to the point where they can carry the ground game.
That’s on the running backs coach.
Credit to Garrett Tujague, the offensive line coach, for wanting to stick around after Mendenhall, Anae and Beck left, but the O line next year is going to be a mix of holdovers and transfers, so it won’t be necessary to keep him on the staff.
The hard one here is Hagans, whose wideouts came into the season with talk about the corps being the best in the ACC and one of the best in the country, and has flailed spectacularly – beset by bad route running and a season-long case of the drops.
On that last one, drops – the wideouts have accounted for 24 drops on 217 targets (an 11.1 percent drop rate) in 2022; in 2021, the wideouts had 22 drops on 405 targets (a 5.4 percent drop rate).
If anything, the issue at wideout has gotten worse as the season goes on, and that, damn, I hate to say, it reflects on the position coach here, fair or not, and I happen to think, fair.
If Elliott keeps the offensive staff intact for next year, it’s job malfeasance on his part, and on the part of Carla Williams, the athletics director, who shouldn’t have to tell him to make changes, but if he’s not showing a willingness to do so, needs to force his hand.
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Chris Graham
