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By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE –– For a diehard Steelers fan, few experiences top the thrill of playing at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh’s North Shore neighborhood.
As a schoolboy star at Thomas Jefferson High in Clairton, Pa., about 15 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, Zane Zandier played at the 68,000-seat stadium twice. Each time, the Jaguars came away with a Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League title.
“That was always great fun,” recalled Zandier, an inside linebacker at the University of Virginia.
His lone game there as a Cavalier didn’t end as happily for Zandier. In 2017, when he was a true freshman playing primarily on special teams, UVA lost 31-14 to Pitt at the Steelers’ stadium.
“The weather was really bad, so there weren’t too many people in the stands, but being able to come home and know a lot of my family was at the game was cool,” Zandier said. “Even though we didn’t win, it was still nice to be able to go home and play in Heinz Field. But this year I think it’s even more exciting, because I’ll have a bigger impact on the game.”
In Virginia’s 3-4 defense, Zandier started eight games last season at inside linebacker. Along with senior Jordan Mack and junior Rob Snyder, Zandier makes that a position of a strength for a team expected to contend for the ACC’s Coastal Division title this fall.
The Wahoos are similarly experienced on the defensive line, at outside linebacker and in the secondary. “I think we’re a couple steps ahead of where we were last year at this point,” Zandier said. “It’s exciting.”
The first opportunity for fans to see this UVA defense comes Saturday night. In a game that will air on the new ACC Network, UVA opens the season at 7:30 against reigning Coastal champion Pitt at Heinz Field.
Two of his former Thomas Jefferson teammates, Devin Danielson and Noah Palmer, now play for Pitt, and Zandier will have a sizable cheering section at the game, too.
“I’ve been asking a bunch of [UVA players] if they’re going to have extra tickets,” he said.
Zandier was a two-way standout at Thomas Jefferson High, and Virginia wasn’t the only school that pursued him. He also had scholarship offers from such schools as Michigan State, West Virginia, Boston College and Syracuse. Pitt, however, showed little interest in the local boy.
“They recruited me a little bit, but things just didn’t work out with the coaching staff,” Zandier recalled. “I didn’t get an offer or anything like that, but I visited a few times, and as the recruiting process went on, I kind of just lost contact with them more than anything.”
When he enrolled at UVA in the summer of 2017, the 6-foot-3 Zandier weighed only 205 pounds. He’s now around 235, and the extra size and strength help him handle the physical demands of his position. He already had the ideal mindset.
“Zane’s presence is really what is the catalyst to our front seven,” head coach Bronco Mendenhall said Monday. “Now that he has the physical presence to back that up, that’s even more powerful.”
Zandier plays with “an edge and a physicality and a violence that comes with an inside linebacker with his temperament,” Mendenhall said. “When you back up that temperament with 205, it doesn’t quite have the same sting as it does with [235]. So [mixing] the temperament with the physical capability now, that adds a different element to run defense. I would say that’s characteristic of our entire defensive front, where the mindset is developing, but the physicality has also come along because of maturity, depth, time and strength.”
Early in his first training camp at UVA, Zandier moved from outside linebacker to inside linebacker. As a true freshman, as Micah Kiser’s understudy, he appeared in 11 games and made three tackles.
In 2018, Zandier totaled 63 tackles, including five for loss, and had two sacks. In his first start, a 45-31 win over Ohio in Nashville, Tenn., he made a game-high 10 tackles and had 1.5 sacks.
The key for Zandier this season, inside linebackers coach Shane Hunter said, is “being consistent, playing on fire all the time, like he does. That’s the great thing about Zane: He brings that, and it blends well with Jordan and Rob and all the other guys.”
The ongoing competition for playing time at inside linebacker, especially among the three veterans, is fierce, Zandier said, “just because we are going up against each other, but it’s not hostile by any means. The three of us work together to help each other out and learn the defense together.”
Asked Monday about Zandier, Mack said, “Watching him grow over the years has been an honor, and he’s continuing to grow, and I’m just excited and honored to play alongside him.”
As an upperclassman, Zandier has entered a new phase in his college career. Still, Hunter said his expectations for everyone in his group “are the same, regardless of what year you are. You know that if you’re going to play inside linebacker here, you have to do a great job. You have to know the defense. You have to be able to make the checks. You have to be a leader out on the field, knowing how to get the front set and all that. So it doesn’t change whether you’re Jordan Mack, who’s coming back for his fourth year, or Nick Jackson, who’s in his first year.”
Even so, Zandier said, he expects more from himself this season.
“Last year, in my first couple starts, it was all coming at you fast, and you don’t really get to settle in,” he said. “This year, having done it, I have the confidence to know that I can be a great linebacker in the ACC. It’s just going out and doing it every single game, and being durable and helping the team out as much as I possibly can. Being consistent is a huge thing.”
His sophomore season ended on a bittersweet note. In the Belk Bowl, UVA blanked South Carolina 28-0 in Charlotte, N.C. But Zandier broke his right thumb late in the second quarter while making a tackle. He watched the second half from the sideline and had surgery on his thumb a few days later.
He missed the winter strength and conditioning program and was “a little out of shape” when spring practice began, Zandier said. “But our strength staff did a great job this summer, and I think I didn’t really miss a beat coming into fall camp.
“The worst part about it was I had pins in my thumb, so there was a month or two where I wasn’t allowed to sweat, because they could get infected. So I was kind of sitting there doing nothing and cheering people on every workout.”
The redheaded Zandier, who’s sporting a modified mohawk these days, lives with outside linebacker Matt Gahm. They’re in the same building as teammates Mandy Alonso, Joey Blount, Tommy Christ, Lamont Atkins, Jamari Peacock and PK Kier, “so it’s been fun,” Zandier said.
He’s majoring in sociology and might add a minor in history. On and off the field, Zandier said, his UVA experience has “been awesome. I think I absolutely made the right decision coming here.”
And now he’s going home for a pivotal game. In their 23-13 win over Virginia at Scott Stadium last season, the Panthers dominated the line of scrimmage. UVA’s players were reminded of that throughout the season.
“We’ve been working on being a physical defense, especially up front,” Zandier said. “I think our D-line is looking really good this year with a couple guys we’ve added. It’s exciting. We went back and watched the Pitt tape [from 2018], and there were just some simple things up front that I think we could have fixed if we were more physical.”