UVA Football: The offense needs Chris Tyree to get things going in the slot

There was certainly a hope that Notre Dame transfer Chris Tyree would slot in – see what I did there? – to the role that Malik Washington played in the UVA offense last year.

Tyree, a 5’10”, 190-pound speedster, is averaging 23 snaps per game in the slot, where Washington roamed freely in 2023, hauling in 111 balls.

Tyree, how do we put it, has some growing to do.

Through two games, Tyree has four catches on seven targets, for 11 yards.

Six of the targets were screen passes behind the line of scrimmage. He’s had only one target beyond the line of scrimmage, a short pass in the flat that he dropped.

He had drops on two of the screens as well.

What’s going on here?

Is Tyree maybe pressing too much?

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“Obviously, as he continues to become more comfortable with the system, you’ll see a lot more touches for him,” UVA coach Tony Elliott said on Tuesday.

I looked back at Washington’s stats for his first two games last season, because I remembered him having a quiet day in the opener against Tennessee down in Nashville.

And that was the case: Washington had four catches on seven targets for 29 yards in the Tennessee game – with two of the catches on screens (for six yards), one in the 0-9 yards range (for six yards), and one in the intermediate range (for 17 yards).

Week 2, in the 36-35 loss to JMU, was a breakout game for Washington – five catches for 119 yards, including two deep balls (for 88 yards) and one intermediate ball (for 20 yards).

Washington’s season numbers tell you that the foundation of his usage was still in the short-passing game – he caught 29 balls on 31 targets (for 215 yards) on screens behind the line of scrimmage and 54 balls on 63 targets (for 428 yards) on passes in the 0-9 yards range.

That’s 83 catches on 94 targets (for 643 yards) on the perimeter and in the flat, which is where Elliott and offensive coordinator Des Kitchings will want Tyree to do the bulk of his work.

Elliott indicated that he’s not concerned about Tyree’s numbers and lack of productivity thus far, explaining it away as a function of “what the defense gives you.”

“I don’t want AC to start pressing. So far, he’s done a really good job of whatever his progressions are, whether it’s a yes, no, pre-snap or whether he’s going triangle reads or progression, he’s been doing a really good job there.,” Elliott said, referring to QB Anthony Colandrea, meaning when he says this that he doesn’t want Colandrea to zero in on Tyree just to get him involved, at the expense of getting the ball to the right guy on a given play.

“Chris is going to get going. He’s practiced well the last week and today. I anticipate that you’ll see more involvement with him,” Elliott said. “But what I don’t want is, I don’t want it to just be forced, because then you’re going to miss opportunities, and what we need to do is we need to focus on taking what the defense gives us, staying ahead of the chains, playing efficient, clean football, and the big challenge for us offensively is, we’ve been explosive, but we’ve got to be more efficient.”