Tony Elliott has the ACC’s best QB1 and maybe the nation’s top wideout corps. But for the Virginia offense to work, he’s going to need to patch together an offensive line.
“The only regret that I have is that I didn’t do a good job of recruiting those guys that left when I first got to UVA,” said Elliott, addressing the million-dollar question for Virginia heading into the 2022 season.
UVA had one of the more experienced offensive lines in all of college football last season, led by Olusegun OIuwatimi, a second-team All-American at center, who played 910 snaps, had a 79.4 Pro Football Focus grade this past season, and was a Rimington Trophy Finalist as one of the top three centers in the nation in 2021.
Olu transferred to Michigan, and the O line also lost Bobby Haskins (654 snaps, 65.7 PFF grade) to Southern Cal, Ryan Swoboda (787 snaps, 70.3 PFF grade) to Central Florida, Joe Bissinger (389 snaps, 59.7 PFF grade) to SMU, and Chris Glaser (864 snaps, 72.3 PFF grade) and Ryan Nelson (806 snaps, 69.7 PFF grade) to graduation.
Elliott retained Garett Tujugue to coach the offensive line, and Coach 2J has his work cut out for him trying to piece together a group that can keep Armstrong upright.
Elliott said last week that the O line has experience, “just not a lot of it,” starting with 6’4”, 280-pound junior Jonathan Leech (224 career snaps, including 183 in 2021), who saw time at both tackle and both guard spots this spring.
Elliott is also high on Logan Taylor, a 6’7”, 332-pound sophomore who was a four-star prep recruit, but was limited in the spring due to injury, and grad transfer John Paul Flores (6’5”, 300, Dartmouth), who was a second-team All-Ivy selection in 2021, grading out at 67.4 on 621 snaps over 10 games.
Flores had offers from a host of schools, including SMU, Temple and East Carolina, so, FCS guy or not, it wasn’t just Virginia that thought he could contribute at the next level.
Jestus Johnson, a 6’6”, 330-pound sophomore, got snaps in the spring at center and the guard spots. Derek Devine, a 6’6”, 286-pound soon-to-be grad senior, rotated at guard and tackle. Ty Furnish, a 6’4”, 270-pound sophomore got time at center.
Also getting good looks in the spring were 6’5”, 323-pound guard Noah Josey and 6’7”, 272-pound sophomore Charlie Patterson at left tackle.
“The challenge is, can we develop the depth?” Elliott said. “We brought in some ready-made guys that we believe can transition quickly, and we have some developmental guys on the offensive line that we think over time are going to be really good players.
“The key is, can we get two or three of those guys that we brought in this summer to be ready to be depth guys, so that the guys that are starting don’t have to play every single snap? But they’re going to have to grow up fast,” Elliott said.
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Chris Graham
