UVA Football Notebook: ‘Hoos lose another projected O-line starter

The projected starter at right tackle, Makilan Thomas, will likely miss significant time after suffering a non-contact injury on Day 2 of the UVA Football training camp last week.

Head coach Tony Elliott told reporters on Wednesday that Thomas, a grad transfer from Arkansas State, suffered a foot fracture that required surgery.

“We’re hopeful that won’t be an extended amount of time and cost the whole season, but it is a multiple-month recovery,” Elliott said, adding later that the recovery is typically three months, which would push Thomas into November, the final month of the regular season.

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Thomas, listed at 6’3”, 315, logged 2,395 snaps over four seasons at Arkansas State, including 650 in the 2024 season.

He got a Pro Football Focus grade of 73.4 for his work on the field last season, allowing three sacks and 15 total QB pressures on 378 pass-block snaps.

Thomas is the second significant O line injury for the ‘Hoos, who lost Louisville grad transfer Monroe Mills in the spring to an ACL injury.

Mills, a 6’7”, 315-pounder, was the projected starter at left tackle, after a stellar 2024 season at Louisville, where he was on the field for 566 snaps, grading out at 82.3, per PFF, allowing one sack and seven total QB pressures on 300 pass dropbacks.

There’s still depth at the two tackle spots for Elliott and O line coach Terry Heffernan – starting with two guys returning from 2024, McKale Boley (463 snaps, 67.6 PFF grade, six sacks, 17 pressures on 278 DBs) and Jack Witmer (358 snaps, 51.8 PFF grade, five sacks, 20 pressures on 285 DBs).

The portal pickups included:

• Tyshawn Wyatt, a JMU alum, who will compete as a sixth-year player after missing the 2024 season due to injury. Wyatt was on the field for 2,157 snaps in four seasons at JMU, allowing 14 sacks and 65 total QB pressures on 1,086 pass dropbacks.
• Wallace Unamba, who spent the spring at Kentucky after transferring in December from New Mexico. Unamba, a 6’4”, 330-pounder, got a 64.0 PFF grade for his work in the 2024 season at New Mexico, where he played for former UVA Football coach Bronco Mendenhall. He was durable, logging 699 snaps, most of them at right tackle, allowing a total of nine QB pressures, and notable, not allowing a sack, on 395 pass-blocking snaps.
• Syracuse left tackle David Wohlabaugh Jr.  Wohlabaugh, listed at 6’6”, 301, was in on 258 snaps in 2024 at Syracuse, with a PFF grade of 68.6, allowing two sacks and six QB pressures on 174 pass-block snaps.