Des Kitchings is catching heat from UVA fans because his offense, through three games, frankly, sucks.
Virginia averaged 34.6 points and 515.8 yards per game in 2021 under head coach Bronco Mendenhall and offensive coordinator Robert Anae. Under Kitchings, who is new coach Tony Elliott’s OC, the Cavaliers are averaging – gulp! – 17.7 points and 413.3 yards per game.
Elliott used his weekly presser last week to remind his players that “what y’all did offensively last year doesn’t matter,” which didn’t sit well with the fan base after the team’s 24-3 loss at Illinois, in which the listless ‘Hoos gained just 222 yards.
The offense gained 513 yards in the Week 3 win over ODU, but needed a last-second field goal to escape with the 16-14 win because of three plus-territory fumbles, two inside the ODU 5, and a missed chip-shot field goal.
Brennan Armstrong, who passed for 4,449 yards, 31 TDs and a 156.4 passer rating in 2021, but has 710 just yards, two TDs and a 108.3 rating through three games in 2022, has struggled trying to get down the basics of the new Elliott/Kitchings offense.
The wideouts group, which returned 209 catches, 2,918 yards and 16 TDs from last season, for its part, suddenly have the dropsies (key stat: Dontayion Wicks had five drops on 93 targets in 2021; he has five on 36 targets through three games in 2022), and numerous pass plays have had guys running routes into each other’s lanes.
It almost literally looks like spring practice, not the second half of September, which has fans on social media clamoring for Elliott and Kitchings to maybe inject some elements of the Anae system into their scheme to try to right the ship.
Problem being, that’s not as easy as it sounds.
Kitchings did seem to say, after Saturday’s win, that he had made some tweaks to his game plan and play-calling to try to give Armstrong more freedom to improvise, a hallmark of the Anae system.
“We just told him, Hey, buddy, just be open, just be Brennan. Don’t try to be anybody else. Play your ball. We will call the game, we’ll try to protect you and let you take some shots down the field early in the game. You know, when you do that you may miss some shots, that’s fine. We just got to continue to build on that,” Kitchings said.
Elliott, who was offensive coordinator at Clemson under Dabo Swinney for seven seasons, wanted to bring the balanced offensive approach that he favored with the Tigers with him to Virginia, and by and large, he and Kitchings have been able to have some success there.
Virginia put up more than 200 yards on the ground in its wins over Richmond and ODU, and is averaging 176.7 yards per game so far this season, up from the 123.2 yards per game that the team averaged a year ago under Anae.
What’s frustrating the fans who saw the team move up and down the field last year is that it feels like the push for balance is at the expense of what should be the main objective: moving the ball.
“We’re trying to win a game,” Kitchings answered one question to that effect postgame on Saturday, so, there’s that.
For what it’s worth, and it should be worth something, Armstrong copped postgame to being in a bit of a funk with where the offense is right now.
Asked by a reporter if he had been able to put the awful output from the Illinois loss behind him, he answered in the affirmative, but then conceded that there was more to it than his first answer.
“I put it behind me quickly, but then today, I started thinking about it again a bit. It just made me think, when are we going to fix this, and when am I going to start figuring it out,” Armstrong said. “When we have everything clicking on all cylinders, it’s going to be exciting. Right now, that just means settling down, and stop pressing so hard. I’m focusing on trying to make plays, being a hero out there, and knowing what my role is.”
The reason for excitement among the fan base going into the season was that the new administration had guys like Armstrong, Wicks, Keytaon Thompson, Billy Kemp IV – veteran guys, been through the wars – to build around.
Somehow, some way, the new offensive staff was given the keys to a Ferrari, and it’s still trying to figure out how to drive it.
“We learn and try to get better together,” Armstrong said. “There are mistakes that I’m making that I need to fix, but I’m a veteran and have played five years of college ball, so I think they have some trust in me from my experience. There’s some things I need to improve on, that might make their trust waiver, but we’re working on it.”
Share
Chris Graham
