UVA Football | Elliott, staff need to find a fix for the issues up front on D

A week ago, I was lionizing the new-look UVA defense as being our generation’s version of the Monsters of the Midway.

This is why we need to pump the brakes for reading too much into one game, which turned out to be a game against an offense that, OK, Coastal Carolina only put up 13 points (13!) on Charleston Southern (Charleston Southern!) in Week 2.

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ICYMI

• UVA Football Report Card | Grading the defense, special teams in Week 2
• Report Card | Grading out UVA Football in the 48-7 win over Coastal Carolina

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“Yeah, go back to the basics,” head coach Tony Elliott said, addressing a question at his weekly presser on Tuesday that specifically asked about his defense’s struggles against the run, but probably should be the mantra across the board.

NC State, in the 35-31 win over the ‘Hoos in Week 2, gashed the UVA D for 216 yards on the ground, giving up 140 yards on 17 totes to tailback Hollywood Smothers, and the front seven got just one sack on QB CJ Bailey, who was able to use the extra time he was afforded to slice and dice the secondary, to the tune of 200 yards through the air on 23 pass attempts.

It all starts up front, which going into the season looked to be a position of strength for the Virginia D.

Elliott and defensive coordinator John Rudzinski are listing 11 guys on the two deep for the four spots up front, but they’re not getting a lot of bang for the bucks that they committed in NIL in the offseason.

Pro Football Focus ranks UVA’s pass rush 62nd nationally (out of the 136 teams in D1), and the run defense ranks 88th.

The statsheet will look better after the Week 3 game with William & Mary, an FCS school coming in with a 1-1 record against its FCS opponents, but W&M is it in terms of tuneups going forward.

Fixes need to be in order, basically, and fast.

“The guys, they’re going to take ownership of it. Coaches, we got to get better. We got to help them get better. We got to always be evaluating our drill work and making sure that it relates to on-the-field production,” Elliott said.