In the Weeds: Three questions facing UVa football next month

As evidenced by the video above, the Wahoos are back on Grounds, with voluntary workouts underway in Charlottesville. Players will take part in these workouts through the middle of next week, when the program will transition to “required activity” through July 25th. That will include eight hours per week of weight training, conditioning, and film review.

That leads to the final week of “summer” when things ratchet up a bit, as the team is allowed 20 hours per week and can have walk-thru sessions in addition to the activity listed above.

All of this—presumably—is preparing Virginia for the opening of its fall training camp on August 9th, which will include a five-day acclimation period followed by 25 on-field practices.

Through the late winter and into the spring/summer, we’ve certainly covered a number of the “big” questions facing UVa in 2020, from selecting a new QB to trying to get its running game going and also how to move forward at defensive back.

Today, we’re going to take a look at three questions that the causal fan might not be focused on this far in advance of the expected (and hoped for?) start of the season.

Let’s dive into the weeds a bit…

If you read that question and thought to yourself, “Wait…” you’re surely not alone. As it stands, the Wahoos have two of the league’s best outside linebackers in Charles Snowden and Noah Taylor. That tandem has legit All-ACC aspirations, making the premise here a little dubious, right? Well, not really. In passing situations, clearly UVa has an edge in being able to put two guys with length and athleticism…on the edge. But what about setting the edge? And what about run D? And what about the depth. As our Film Room piece on them explained, Snowden and Taylor are incredibly gifted. But if anyone thinks Matt Gahm or young guys like Hunter Stewart, D’Sean Perry, Jairus Satiu or others won’t have some role, you’re likely going to be very wrong. The short answer is that Gahm, now listed at 6-foot-3, 240 pounds, is essentially a third starter and as such, he’s going to get a lot of reps. And that’s not a bad thing, as it frees Taylor up to do a little bit of everything as needed. Camp will be interesting for a laundry list of reasons but how the things shake out at OLB is near the top of our list even if it’s a bit off the “beaten path.”

Speaking of Film Room, Justin did an excellent job at the onset of the series explaining how the Cavaliers use their tight ends. One of the takeaways was how well Tanner Cowley filled that role last year and how his versatility aided Virginia’s offense. But, unfortunately, he’s all out of eligibility meaning someone is going to have to step into a lot of reps. OC Robert Anae has options, which aren’t necessarily limited to personnel. We’ve heard about DE-turned-TE Grant Misch. We know about early enrollee Josh Rawlings, though him coming in this specific January certainly doesn’t give him the leg up in 2020 that it normally would have. As the only two scholarship TEs on the roster, it’s possible Anae could lean into his skill guys at inside receiver and tweak the offense some to play a TE less. The success of such a move, of course, would require upgraded production along the offensive line. This gets at the question that—as it so often does for programs like UVa—could define the season: How will the O-line perform? Certainly, with Alex Gellerstedt back following surgery last year and with all of the other contributing linemen returning, especially a healthy Dillon Reinkensmeyer, it’s not far fetched to think that unit could see massive improvements. But will it be enough to leave them “on an island” so to speak and take the TE’s blocking responsibilities? Even if the answer to that is a definitive “no,” that doesn’t mean UVa can’t scheme itself into more advantageous scenarios despite the fact that the Hoos will be going with a new QB1. The common phrase for tight ends a lot of time is that they are “a safety valve” for the quarterback. How Virginia provides that safety will be interesting to see.

Let’s be real for a minute: This is the elephant in the room, right? And maybe it’s not fair to say this is an in-the-weeds question given the fact that “Will they play football at all?!?” is kind of a big deal these days. But, the question here is a specific one: How will the lack of on-field reps impact things? It’s not just missing spring ball that provides a significant challenge. It’s also not having the film from spring ball for coaches to grade and conversely for players to use as guides in their offseason work. Certainly, the amount of time the team spent “together” virtually during various meetings meant that coaches got to do more install work during the late spring/early summer than they normally would have. But without on-field reps, it remains to be seen how much of that will be of sizable benefit. It’s much the way coaches describe not really knowing much about their teams until they play a game: You never really know who are until you’re out there. In this context, the same is true but in a different way. The schedule explained at the beginning of this piece outlines a fairly straight forward and understandable ramp up. But in that time, the coaching staff has to be able to get enough info to either confirm what they expected from their team in the offseason or to outline the issues because training camp won’t be long and the (presumed) start of the season will approach more rapidly this year than any season in program history. Simply put: The work that must get done has to be done quickly.

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