Beck, the former offensive coordinator at NC State, now in his third year at Coastal, hired Drew Hollingshead, a former disciple of the innovator of the Air Raid, Mike Leach, in the offseason.
ICYMI
- UVA Football Notebook | Notes, press conference quotes, depth chart for Week 1
- UVA Football: Kitchings discusses challenge of prepping for new Coastal Carolina D
There’s a new offensive coordinator, and also a new QB1 – former NC State and Maryland signal-caller MJ Morris, who struggled to get and stay on the field in his two stops in the Power 4, logging 136 snaps at Maryland last year, and a total of 458 in his two seasons at State.
The Air Raid requires its QBs to get rid of the ball quickly, with four- and five-receiver sets leaving O linemen on an island without much help against the pass rush.
Morris arrived at Coastal with the advantage of having hard a year of work in the Air Raid – as it turns out, under former UVA Football offensive coordinator Robert Anae, who installed the Air Raid at NC State in 2023, when Morris was a sophomore.
Morris made four starts at QB at State in 2023, and averaged 179.9 yards per game through the air, with a 55.8 percent completion rate, seven TD passes and five INTs, while leading the Pack to wins over Clemson and Miami.
“They can get the ball out quick. They can get the ball on the perimeter. They got a ton of mesh concepts to free guys up if you play man coverage. So, they’re gonna stress you,” Virginia head coach Tony Elliott said on Tuesday, addressing the opponent in the 2025 season opener on Saturday night.
Looking at Hollingshead’s offenses at his last stop, Western Kentucky, where he was the co-offensive coordinator and QB coach the past two seasons, the play calls are going to be about 60 percent pass, and the bulk of the passes (around 60 percent) are at the line of scrimmage or within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage.
That’s going to make it challenging for the Virginia D line and front seven to get pressure on Morris, and put the onus on the linebackers and secondary to limit yards after the catch.
The YAC numbers for Hollingshead’s WKU offense the past two years jump out at you – 2,355 in 2023, 1,968 in 2024; for reference, UVA wideouts had 1,450 YACs in 2023 and 1,390 in 2024, so, the WKU kids compiled a total of 1,483 YACs over the two seasons, which is, you know, a lot, roughly 60 yards, six extra first downs, per game.
2024: UVA -Coastal coverage
- Live Coverage: Virginia takes care of business, defeating Coastal Carolina, 43-24
- Virginia 43, Coastal Carolina 24: Keeping things simple, ground and pound
- Report Card: Grading out Virginia’s 43-24 win at Coastal Carolina
The ground game isn’t likely to be as pronounced in terms of usage, but as Elliott noted in his presser on Tuesday, “If they need to, they can spread you out and still run it,” in particular, attacking the edges, making the defense chase the ball-carriers.
The lead tailback on the depth chart for Coastal, junior Ja’Vin Simpkins, wasn’t used much in his first two seasons – getting just 35 carries total – and the #2 on the depth chart is a freshman, Jevon Edwards, so, not much to go on there, either.
The depth chart at O line shows a lot of guys back from last year’s unit – with just one starter and three guys total among the 11 listed on the two-deep being newcomers to the program.
The disadvantage here for Elliott and John Rudzinski, the defensive coordinator at Virginia, is, there’s no game tape to review on this Coastal Carolina team, with this group of personnel, and this play-caller.
“You kind of get bits and pieces off the internet, but you really don’t know until you line up, so you have to prepare for a lot of unknown,” Elliott said Tuesday. “What it’s been is really just looking at schemes, schematically, and then trying to see if you can fit and anticipate which personnel are actually going to be on the field. But it’s gonna be a lot of cat and mouse early on trying to figure out.”
Support AFP
Share
Chris Graham
