QB-In-Waiting Armstrong Continues to Progress

Jeff White’s Twitter | Subscribe to UVA Insider Articles | 2019 UVA Football Schedule | Ticket Information

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
 
CHARLOTTESVILLE – For UVA’s football team, the start of spring practice is still more than two weeks away, but head coach Bronco Mendenhall’s players have been anything but idle this semester. Since January, they’ve been training under the supervision of Shawn Griswold, UVA’s director of football development and performance.
 
The Cavaliers conclude every week with a new edition of the Super Games, which pits groups of players against each other in grueling events devised by Griswold and his assistants. 
 
Early Friday morning, the team gathered in the George Welsh Indoor Practice Facility for a volleyball tournament – with a twist. Instead of a volleyball, players had to toss an eight-pound medicine ball back and forth over the net in three-on-three games that lasted 10 minutes each.
 
Growing up in the small town of Shelby, Ohio, about 75 miles north of Columbus, Brennan Armstrong excelled in three sports. Volleyball was not one of them, but his athletic ability was apparent Friday, when Armstrong and teammates Hasise Dubois, Dorien Goddard, Ryan Nelson, Isaac Buell, Nick Grant and Nash Griffin emerged victorious from the volleyball tournament.
 

“In the Super Games, the competitive spirit comes out,” said Armstrong, who played football, basketball and baseball in high school. “When you’re working out and you go through the grind of conditioning, there’s still competitiveness, but you’re just grinding away.”
 
In rising senior Bryce Perkins, who accounted for 3,603 yards of total offense last season, the Wahoos have one of the nation’s top returning quarterbacks. But the coaching staff is excited, too, about Perkins’ understudy, Armstrong.
 
“One of the biggest takeaways from the season is we have a really good quarterback behind Bryce,” Mendenhall said.
 
A 6-2, 210-pound left-hander, Armstrong enrolled at UVA in January 2018. He appeared in fewer than five games last season – Armstrong played against Richmond, Louisville, Georgia Tech and South Carolina – and so did not lose a year of eligibility under new NCAA rules. 
 
“Getting that game experience, it was crucial for me,” Armstrong said recently at the McCue Center. “The whole first year of mine just happened so quick, it’s kind of a blur, and I just tried to learn as much as I could.”
 
In the season opener, Armstrong replaced Perkins late in UVA’s 42-13 win over Richmond. He rushed three times for 11 yards and completed 1 of 2 passes for 6 yards.
 
In a 27-3 win over Louisville on Sept. 22, Perkins dislocated the pinky on his throwing hand while trying to catch a pass on a trick play late in the second quarter. In came Armstrong, who promptly ran for 34 yards on a quarterback draw. Perkins later returned, but Armstrong finished with 50 yards on four carries.
 
“The game was not too fast for him,” Mendenhall said. “The reads, the poise, and quite frankly the initiative when he ran [were excellent]. He looked right at home.”
 
Armstrong didn’t play again until Nov. 17, when Perkins suffered an ankle injury late in the first quarter against Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
 
On his only series against the Yellow Jackets – Perkins returned after having his ankle examined — Armstrong scrambled 11 yards for a first down. Three plays later, on third-and-3, he passed to wide receiver Joe Reed in the left flat. Reed broke a tackle and sprinted down the left sideline for a 56-yard touchdown.
 
Before the play, Armstrong recalled, “I was like, ‘All right, I’ve got Joe out here. I can easily pick up a first down.’ I throw it to him, and he just takes off. I was like, ‘This is sweet.’ “
 
Asked afterward about Armstrong, UVA wide receiver Olamide Zaccheaus said, “He’s a baller.”
 
Mendenhall said: “It seems like each time he goes in there’s something electric that happens. He has a presence where he just kind of thinks he can move the ball against anyone, no matter the circumstance, and he’s probably right.”
 
Virginia closed its third season under Mendenhall with a 28-0 win over South Carolina in the Belk Bowl. Armstrong was in for a single play on which he lateraled the ball to Perkins, who then completed a pass to Dubois.

“That was pretty fun, honestly, because we had that scripted out,” Armstrong said.
 
Jason Beck, who coaches Virginia’s quarterbacks, was impressed by the poise Armstrong displayed last season when pressed into service in critical moments against Louisville and Georgia Tech.
 
“A lot of times when a guy gets his first meaningful snaps, there’s a process you go through to grow them and help them get comfortable in a game,” Beck said. “And so to see him jump in there and do well right away and have an impact, without really needing a lot [from the coaching staff], spoke volumes about him as a player and what he’s able to do.
 
“Some guys have that ability, and other guys need you to get them some easy completions and get their confidence going and get in a rhythm. But for Brennan, he’s a confident kid and he jumped in there and expected to do well, and he did.”
 
Like his parents, Armstrong graduated from Shelby High School. He was a four-year starter at quarterback for head coach Erik Will, who turned a struggling program into a consistent winner.
 
“It was a change-the-culture type of deal,” Armstrong said.
 
When he was a freshman, Shelby finished 2-8. The Whippets improved to 5-5 in 2015 and to 11-2 in 2016. In Armstrong’s senior season, Shelby finished 13-1 after reaching the Division IV state semifinals.
 
Under Mendenhall, the Cavaliers are following a similar route. They finished 2-8 in 2016 and improved to 6-7 in 2017, when they advanced to a bowl game for the first time since 2011. Last season, the ‘Hoos posted an 8-5 record and won a bowl game for the first time in 13 years.
 
To be part of such a transformation is “really cool,” said Armstrong, who rooms with running back Jamari Peacock. “It’s different from a high school to a college level, but I’m kind of used to it. I know it takes time to change [a culture].”
 
In February 2017, as an 11^th-grader, Armstrong gave a non-binding commitment to Minnesota. His decision surprised UVA’s staff. But offensive line coach Garett Tujague, whose recruiting territory includes Ohio, maintained a positive relationship with Armstrong.
 
“He called me like a man and said, ‘Coach, I just wanted to let you know I committed to Minnesota,’ ” Tujague recalled. “So I said congrats and told him, ‘If that ever changes, let me know, because we’d love to have you.’ “
 
From time to time, Tujague said, he would check in with Armstrong by text message, “and he always responded.”
 
As the months passed, Armstrong said, his doubts grew about his commitment to the Golden Gophers. He’d formed a close bond with Tujague, who went out of his way to see Armstrong before Virginia played at Pitt in October 2017.
 
He drove from Charlottesville to Shelby, Tujague said, just “so Brennan knew how important he was to our program.”
 
Armstrong re-opened his recruitment in November 2017 and signed with UVA the next month.
 
“I just felt like [Minnesota] wasn’t the right place for me,” Armstrong said, “and when I was talking with Virginia, I was like, ‘This has got to be the place.’ “
 
Tujague said: “I love that kid and his family. He’s just a perfect fit at UVA.”
 
In evaluating Armstrong as a prospect, Beck said, “I liked how, one, he has just a real quick release and motion, all those things, and good arm strength and accuracy, and also we really liked how good of a runner he was. He may not win a foot race against some guys, but he’s a really good runner.
 
“So with what we want to do [offensively at UVA], he checked all those boxes. The other thing was, he was very productive in high school — not only statistically, but he took his team far into state playoffs at a school that hadn’t had a lot of success. So I liked his ability to compete and win.”
 
By enrolling at Virginia midyear, Armstrong was able to participate in spring practice last year and start learning the playbook. That proved to be an arduous process.
 
“I would say midway through the season, that’s when I really kind of got it,” Armstrong said. “And so coming into spring ball this year, I can focus more on vocal leadership, just maybe stepping into that role a little bit just to help the team. And obviously just performing. My performance is going to go up, because by knowing the playbook, I can play faster.”
 
The Cavaliers open spring practice on March 25. Perkins is still recovering from surgery on his right pinky, “so Brennan will get more work as a result of that,” Beck said.
 
During his first spring at UVA, Armstrong “was lost and just trying to float, where now he has a real solid understanding of everything,” Beck said. “So now it’s just about gaining execution, working deeper into progressions and anticipating, kind of those higher learning levels than just the basic alignment assignments.”
 
Armstrong has built a strong friendship with Perkins, who also enrolled at Virginia in January 2018.
 
“In the spring [last year], we sat down with Coach Beck every day to learn the offense,” Armstrong said. “We got together all the time, and it just progressively [grew] stronger and stronger. I couldn’t ask for a better person to be with and work out with. I look up to him a lot, skill-wise too. I try to take in what I’ve seen him doing and kind of apply it to my own style.”
 
The Cavaliers’ coaches no longer have to worry about preserving a year of eligibility for Armstrong, which means they’ll have the option of playing him with Perkins occasionally, as they did in the Belk Bowl.
 
“With that and just feeling like he can contribute in some way to our team, we’ll look for opportunities to do that,” Beck said. “So if he can do something, if he can contribute, if he can provide an answer, then we’ll look to take advantage of it. Bryce, obviously, is our quarterback. With Brennan, we’re just looking more to see if he can do something else complementary for our offense, in addition to being the next guy up as the quarterback.”
 
Armstrong said: “I’m just going to work on being a quarterback, and then whatever ways they want to use me, that’s cool. I’m just excited to see what they have in mind.”
 
At Shelby High, Armstrong wore jersey No. 5. By the time his turn came in the selection process at UVA last summer, his options were limited. Armstrong went with No. 98, which made him a rarity among college quarterbacks.
 
“I remembered when Devin Gardner wore it for Michigan that one year,” Armstrong said, “so I was like, ‘Well, let’s just go with it.’ “
 
He laughed. “I’ll probably not stick with it this year.”