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By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
 
CHARLOTTESVILLE– In the traditional nickel defense, a football team has five defensive backs on the field at the same time. Virginia unveiled a twist last weekend in its 16-13 win over ACC rival Miami at Scott Stadium, at times playing one lineman with five linebackers and five defensive backs.
 
“We’ll continue to add on that and do some other things,” said Kelly Poppinga, the Cavaliers’ co-defensive coordinator. “We just feel like right now with our linebackers we have more there than we do at D-line when it comes to passing situations, after losing [end Richard] Burney.”
 
Head coach Bronco Mendenhall said: “We have so many personnel groups now defensively. Just really working to highlight the best players we have versus the situation the game calls for at any time. We’re not deep enough to have just one group that can play everything, so we’re becoming pretty hybrid as a defense.”
 
These creative schemes have meant more opportunities for sophomores Matt Gahm and Elliott Brown, among others, in defensive coordinator Nick Howell’s system. Both players began this season as outside linebackers, the position group Poppinga coaches, though Brown has been working at one of the inside spots recently.
 
“Obviously, there’s still work to be done,” fifth-year senior Chris Peace, UVA’s most experienced linebacker, “but I think they went in the game and did some nice things.”
 104743Elliott Brown

Next up for Virginia (4-2 overall, 2-1 ACC) is a clash with Coastal Division rival Duke (5-1, 1-1) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in Durham, N.C. The Blue Devils’ quarterback, Daniel Jones, is a strong-armed NFL prospect, and the Wahoos figure to be in some variation of the nickel for much of the game.
 
The Cavaliers’ base defense is a 3-4 in which Gahm backs up Peace at weakside linebacker. But Gahm, who starts on the kickoff and kickoff-return units, is versatile enough to contribute in multiple ways on defense.
 
“We put him in a package last week that kind of put him in a position to do a lot of things,” Poppinga said. “He could line up as a D-lineman, as an outside ‘backer, as an inside ‘backer. He’s a very smart, very intelligent player.”
 
Peace listed at 6-1, 250 pounds, and Gahm at 6-3, 235.
 
“I think athletically they’re very similar,” Poppinga said. “Chris, off the ball, is probably a little more explosive. Gahm, in space, is probably a little better. But as far as just the mindset and the physicality, it’s very similar.”
 
Gahm, whose brother attends Vanderbilt, was born and raised in Dallas and played for the powerful football program at Highland Park High School. As a senior in 2016, Gahm helped the Scots win the Class 5A Division I state title in front of 35,000-plus fans at AT&T Stadium. (Highland Park repeated as state champion last season.)
 
“He came in with really good fundamentals,” Poppinga said. “He was coached really well. He knows how to play really hard. Really for Gahm, it was more a matter of him understanding how to do our scheme. He was so used to doing it a certain way at his school, because his fundamentals were so ingrained in him. It was changing that and those habits. Not that they were bad habits, they were just different techniques.”
 
Of the 17 true freshmen who played for Virginia in 2017, four were linebackers: Gahm, Brown, Zane Zandier and Charles Snowden. Zandier (inside) and Snowden (outside) are starters this season.
 
“It’s been interesting to see how we’ve all developed as players and as close friends,” said Gahm, who roomed with Zandier in 2017-18.
 
Like Snowden (6-7, 225 pounds), Brown (6-5, 230) was an outstanding high school basketball player. Brown’s development has been more fitful than Snowden’s at UVA.
 
“Elliott, I would say, is exactly where Charles was one year ago,” Mendenhall told reporters Monday. “He has impressed us enough now to do what Charles was doing a year ago basically, and we’ll kind of launch from there.

“Some of our depth concerns at inside ‘backer have had us [asking], ‘OK, who else?’ That led to Matt Gahm, who was already getting some action as a backup and is solid and consistent and reliable, but then Elliott was next. So we framed and designed a nice role for him, and he did really well in that role.”
 
For Brown, Peace said, the challenge is “to consistently play physically. You see flashes here and there, and you say, ‘That’s it right there,’ but it can’t just be every 10 plays, every other week. It has to be every play, every day.”
 
Gahm appeared in seven games last season, mostly on special teams. This spring, with Peace’s availability limited by an injury, Gahm worked extensively with the first-team defense.
 
He’s happy he played as a true freshman, Gahm said. “This year I really have not been nervous any time I’ve set foot on the field. It’s been awesome. I have not really felt an ounce of nervousness. It’s more excitement to be out there.”
 
Poppinga said: “Any time you can step on the field and do anything, I think that helps you. When I think about Chris Peace as a [redshirt] sophomore, he probably wasn’t ready to be a full-time starter, but that’s just what we had at the time. But I think that helped him to be better his junior year and be better this year. Any reps that Gahm’s getting right now are just going to prepare him for the future.”
 
Of his expanded role this season, Gahm said, “It’s been great. I still feel like I need a lot of work, not only with my physicality and my speed, but my technique as well, learning how to run different stunts and just run our defense and be an ACC-level player. But Coach Poppinga has done an awesome job of preparing me for that, and I feel like with his guidance I can be as good as I want to be.”
 
He’s learned a lot from No. 13, too.
 
“I’ve never heard Peace complain about anything. He’s the definition of the New Standardand Less Drama, More Work,” Gahm said, referring to two of the program’s trademark phrases.
 
“So it’s been awesome having an older guy like that to look up. When I’m pushing a sled or doing a sprint or doing a pursuit drill and I want to complain and think about how hard this is, I see him doing more than I am. He’s had a harder practice than I have. He’s taken twice as many reps and he’s beat up and he’s done four straight years of being beat up, and he’s not complaining at all.”
 
Gahm, whose father played football at Oklahoma State, first became aware of UVA because of its academic reputation. It’s a popular destination for Highland Park students.
 
“We probably have around 10 kids just from my high school that go to UVA,” said Gahm, who like teammate Mandy Alonso is applying this fall for admission to the McIntire School of Commerce.
 
He remembers being impressed by Mendenhall’s teams at Brigham Young University. So when Mendenhall left BYU to become UVA’s head coach after the 2015 season, Gahm’s interest was piqued. He committed to Virginia in June 2016.
 
The Cavaliers’ defense, which struggled Sept. 29 in a 35-21 loss at NC State, regrouped during the bye week that followed. Virginia held Miami, then ranked No. 16 nationally, without a touchdown until the 3:04 mark of the fourth quarter.
 
“Obviously, there’s always room to improve,” Gahm said, “but it’s great to see a lot of guys out there making plays and see the older guys inspiring the younger guys and some of the young guys stepping up and making plays as well.”
 
He’s one of those young guys, and he’s savoring the experience.
 
“Every time I step foot on the field is a blessing,” Gahm said. “Whatever role the coaches need me to play, I’ll play, and I’ll play it to the best of my ability with 100-percent effort. It doesn’t matter how many snaps I’m getting, I’m loving being a UVA football player. It’s an extreme privilege.”