Story Links
March 22, 2000
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The University of Virginia’s spring football practiceperiod starts today (March 22). The Cavaliers are expected to have 12starters return from last season’s squad that finished 7-5 overall and tiedfor second in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 5-3 league mark.
The 1999 season marked the 13th consecutive season the Cavaliers won atleast seven games, a current feat accomplished by only Florida State,Michigan and Nebraska.
Offensively, Virginia returns seven starters from last season. However,head coach George Welsh and the offensive staff are faced with having toreplace three All-Americans-record-setting tailback Thomas Jones, guardNoel LaMontagne and center John St. Clair.
Headlining the returning starters on offense is senior quarterback DanEllis. In his first year as a starter last fall, he finished eighthnationally in passing, the highest finish by a UVa signal caller in sevenyears. Ellis threw for 2050 yards, ninth in school history, and 20touchdowns (one off the school mark).
The offensive line has an experienced foundation to help offset thegraduation of LaMontagne and St. Clair. Senior tackle Brad Barnes andjunior guard Evan Routzahn return on the right side, while junior JoshLawson returns on the left side. Lawson, a starter at left tackle the lasttwo years, will be moved to guard this spring to clear a spot for JermeseJones at tackle. Jones, a junior, missed all of last season due to aninjury and was redshirted, but is considered an outstanding player by thecoaching staff. According to Welsh, junior Jared Woodson and redshirtfreshman Jay Green are the leading candidates this spring to replace St.Clair at center.
Ellis will have an experienced group of receivers to throw to next season.Returning at wide receiver are seniors Kevin Coffey and Demetrius Dotson,and sophomores James Johnson and Billy McMullen. Senior Ahmad Hawkins, astarter last season at wide receiver, will be tried at cornerback thisspring. McMullen led the team with 483 receiving yards last season, andtied with Coffey for the team lead with 28 receptions. Coffey’s seventouchdown catches led the team. Dotson caught 11 passes before gettinginjured in the sixth game against Duke and missing the remainder of theseason. Johnson, who played as a true freshman in 1998, missed all of lastseason due to injury.
Billy Baber returns at tight end, but is expected to miss the first week ofspring practice due to offseason knee surgery. Baber caught 17 passes for118 yards and four touchdowns last fall.
Sophomore Arlen Harris is the leading candidate to assume the tailback slotopened due to Jones’ graduation. Harris rushed for 112 yards in 1999 and isUVa’s leading returning rusher. Junior Tyree Foreman also returns attailback. Senior Patrick Washington, a part-time starter at fullback lastseason, assumes the starting nod at fullback.
Senior linebackers Byron Thweatt and Yubrenal Isabelle are among fivestarters returning on defense. Thweatt, an All-American candidate, iscoming off a workhorse year when he played a less than full strengththroughout the season. He still managed to make 66 tackles, including fivebehind the line of scrimmage, and earned second-team All-ACC honors.Isabelle led the team in tackling last fall, averaging 8.7 stops per game.
Along the front four, juniors Ljubomir Stamenich and Monsanto Pope returnat end. Stamenich’s nine tackles for lost yardage and five quarterbacksacks lead the returnees. Pope missed six games last season due to anearly-season knee injury and moved from tackle to end upon his return. Hemade 11 tackles in his limited action.
The secondary was particularly hard hit with sophmore safety Jerton Evansthe only returning starter this spring. Evans, a freshman All-American as atrue freshman in ’99, led the team with four interceptions. Senior TimSpruill is the lone letterman returning at cornerback. He has started 17games in his career, including six last season. Evans made 44 tackles ayear ago, while Spruill had 24.
Junior David Greene will handle both the place-kicking and kick-off dutiesin 2000. He has been UVa’s primary kick-off man the last two years, withTodd Braverman doing the place-kicking for field goals and extra points.Greene kicked two field goals in last season’s final regular season game inplace of an injured Braverman.
Junior Mike Abrams replaces Donnie Scott at punter. Scott averaged 40.6yards per boot last fall. Abrams has never punted in a game at Virginia,but lettered last season as a special teams performer.
Welsh also changed the responsibilities of several members of his coachingstaff. Art Markos, UVa’s defensive backfield coach since 1991, has beenmoved to wide receivers coach, with Bob Price moving from running backscoach to defensive backs coach. Andr? Powell, UVa’s wide receivers coachthe last three seasons, moves back to running backs coach, a position hecoached at UVa in 1996, his first in Charlottesville.
Three other coaches return to the positions they held two years ago. RickLantz, UVa’s defensive coordinator since 1991, will coach the linebackers,while David Turner, last season’s linebackers coach, has been assigned tothe defensive tackles. Turner coached the defensive tackles in 1998. TySmith, last season’s defensive line coach, will coach the defensive ends, aposition he coached at UVa in 1998.
Markos and Turner will also serve as co-coordinators of special teams, anew position created by Welsh to oversee four phases of special teamsplay-punt team, punt return team, kickoff team and kickoff return team.
“We want to improve individuals and spend a lot more time on fundamentalsand individual things,” Welsh said in assessing what he wanted toaccomplish this spring. “I feel pretty good about this team. I think wehave enough talent to win.”
The Cavaliers’ annual spring game will be played on April 14 (Friday) at6:00 p.m. at Kl?ckner Stadium.