UVA Football: The O line was a strength going into the season; now it’s a patchwork

My confidence in a UVA Football turnaround in 2024 was based on the strength of the offensive line, which was returning its top seven guys from last year, and added two guys with talent and experience from the transfer portal.

Reality, through the first three games, is that the O line has been a patchwork, with a converted tight end, Jack Witmer, pressed into action as the starter at left tackle in place of the injured McKale Boley, and the two transfers, Drake Metcalf and Ethan Sipe, have been on the field for a total of 20 snaps due to injuries.

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ICYMI: UVA Football

• Report Card: Grading out UVA Football in the 27-13 loss to Maryland
• UVA Football Injury Report: Elliott updates status of Kam Robinson, McKale Boley
• UVA Football Recruiting: Maryland, Coastal Carolina have QB1s from Virginia

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The situation didn’t get any better as Virginia lost its Week 3 game with Maryland.

Ty Furnish left with an undisclosed injury that coach Tony Elliott said Tuesday was “a little more serious than what I was initially thinking.”

Furnish has been on the field for 130 snaps this season, with a 60.1 Pro Football Focus grade.

A year ago, Furnish was in on 772 snaps, an average of 64.3 per game.

In addition to Furnish, Metcalf and Sipe being on the shelf, backup Charlie Patterson, who has yet to get on the field in 2024, will miss at least two more weeks with an ankle sprain, according to Elliott.

Center Brian Stevens, meanwhile, was only on the field for 54 snaps in the Maryland game, and we don’t know why, but Elliott was saying on Tuesday that Stevens is a full go for Coastal Carolina this weekend.

Even with the shuttling of guys in and out of the lineup, the line has done a decent job thus far – ranking, per PFF, 66th among the 134 teams in FBS in both pass blocking and run blocking.

Sixty-sixth is nothing to write home about, but it’s middle of the pack, and for a group that has been makeshift, you have to take what you can get.

“Overall, they’re giving us a chance, but in fairness to them, man, it’s been a chess match trying to figure out the moving parts,” Elliott said. “As soon as you kind of get settled in, bang, one goes down, he gets banged up. Now, that doesn’t just affect that position, it might affect other positions, because what you have available may be a guy that’s more versed and trained to play in another spot, but you’re having to put him in there because he’s the next man in the rotation.

“But man, they’re giving everything they’ve got,” Elliott said. “Now, are there things that we’ve got to fix? Yeah, we’ve got to fix our pad level. We’ve got to make sure from a communication standpoint that we’re communicating the calls to everybody up front. But they’ve given us a chance in all three games, and that’s all you can ask, and we’ll keep pressing them to improve, and hopefully over the next couple weeks we’ll get some guys back and be a little bit more — have a little bit more depth to help us out.”