My thinking, after what we saw out of UVA Football in the Aug. 29 opener, 54 called runs on 68 offensive snaps in the 34-8 win over NC State, an ACC contender, was that we could look forward to more of the same for the Week 2 game with Norfolk State, an FCS program that won one game last season.
Head coach Tony Elliott signaled in his Tuesday pregame presser that we may actually see more from the passing game, and from QB1 Beau Pribula, who only attempted 11 passes in the opening-week win.
“Structurally, they’re an eight-man defense, so to speak, and they want to stop the run, and they’ll give you some opportunities maybe down the field, and you’re going to have to make some plays,” Elliott said.
When he says “eight-man defense,” what Elliott is saying there is eight defenders in the box, which a defensive coordinator does to try to take away the run.
I think what you’ll end up seeing is, a game plan from offensive coordinator Des Kitchings in which the UVA offense uses the pass to soften up the Norfolk State defense and open up the ground game – pitching backwards, as they say in baseball, starting off with the off-speed stuff to get to the fastball.
“I would like to see us be balanced,” Elliott said. “Last week, it just happened that we had success in a run game, and it wasn’t broke, so don’t fix it. But we do need to continue to balance out, because where we want to go, and the games that we got to play, you know, down the stretch, we’re going to have to be balanced.”
Wideouts
I wrote after the State game that the one position group that gives me pause is the wideout group, which is missing having a dude – a Malik Washington, a Malachi Fields, a Trell Harris, Jahmal Edrine or Cam Ross, that defensive coordinators have to game plan around.
I don’t know that UCLA transfer Rico Flores Jr. is a candidate to be the dude, but we do know that he’s out again for Week 2, leaving Kitchings to game plan a passing game with what feels, right now, like just a bunch of guys.
Elliott, asked to address his wideouts group, came across like a politician trying to evade a tough question.
“I think they’re still a work in progress, but the first outing, I was pleased with what I saw,” the coach, himself a former college wide receiver, in his days at Clemson, said.
“I think the plays that we asked them to make, they made, right?” Elliott said. “It was good to see Ty’Lyric (Coleman) go make a couple of tough catches in the game. It was good to see Dede (Da’Shawn Martin) get behind some guys. We had seen some glimpses of that in fall camp, but then he was hampered by hamstring as well, so we didn’t get to see as much of that on our practice field.
“And then you add Isaiah (Robinson) back, you add Rico back, you know, probably in a week or so, and then maybe Dillon (Newton-Short) a week after that, I think now you got a very formidable room with depth and versatility and talent. They just got to go continue to gain experience.”
Norfolk State guys to watch for
One thing you look for in a game in which your team is favored by 44.5 points is, is there anybody on the other sideline that you might want when we get to transfer portal season?
“These guys, many of them, want to be in these seats right here, and believe that they should have been in these seats,” Elliott said, making that point for us, that the Norfolk State kids “are going to play with a little chip on their shoulder, right, and we got to match that.”
TE is talking there more about the game at hand, of course, because you can’t take anything for granted.
UMass beat Rutgers last weekend, for instance.
You play the games on the field and not on a computer for a reason.
OK.
Who might we want to pay closer attention to, with an eye on the portal?
- Edge rusher Quintin Goins, a West Virginia transfer, who had a sack, a tackle, and an 2 Pro Football Focus grade in the Week 1 loss at ODU. Goins is listed at 6’3”, 265, and has three years of eligibility remaining.
- Middle linebacker Brendan Thompson, a 5’11”, 210-pound freshman, had 12 tackles on 47 snaps last week. Probably too small to play mike linebacker in the ACC, but he could fit in at safety.
- Shamar Vick, a younger cousin of head coach Michael Vick, had 23 yards on three attempts on the ground last week. He’s listed at 5’10”, 175, and is a freshman, so, four years of eligibility remaining. If he has any decent amount of Vick DNA, he’d be worth a flyer from somebody.
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Chris Graham
