Training Camp Notebook

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By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
 
CHARLOTTESVILLE –– On the final play of practice Friday morning at Lambeth Field, Justin Duenkel booted a 54-yard field goal. It would have been good from 58.
 
Duenkel, a graduate of Flint Hill School in Northern Virginia, is among the many true freshmen who have impressed University of Virginia head football coach Bronco Mendenhall this summer, and he’s battling the incumbent, junior Brian Delaney, for the starting job on field goals and extra points
 
A week into training camp, Delaney has a slight edge, special teams coordinator Ricky Brumfield said, “but Justin is doing a really good job of pushing him and competing to try to play.”
 
Delaney, who was 12 for 16 on field goals last season (and 25 for 25 on extra points), is also a candidate to punt for the Wahoos this season. He and junior Nash Griffin are vying for that job.
 
“Brian finished spring slightly ahead, and as of right now Nash is slightly ahead,” Brumfield said. 
 
Joe Spaziani, who’s now playing in the Canadian Football League, handled the long-snapping at UVA for part of the 2016 season and all of ’17 and ’18. Competing for that job this summer are redshirt freshman Lee Dudley and true freshman Enzo Anthony.
 
Spaziani was in Charlottesville for several practices this week, and his presence reminded the coaching staff how much they “miss Spaz,” Brumfield said, laughing. “We miss the speed that he had, and sometimes you don’t realize how much that helps, because if you got a guy that can snap really well and run down and cover [on punts], now [opponents] have to have somebody to put on him to block him. But if we don’t have anybody with speed, then they can double-team us.”
 
Dudley and Anthony “are getting close to that,” Brumfield said. “They’re getting faster every single day.”
 
MAJOR WEAPON: In 2018, Joe Reed ranked No. 2 in the ACC and No. 9 in the nation with an average of 27.2 yards per kickoff return. Brumfield expects even more from Reed, a senior who’s also a talented wide receiver this season.
 
“I think he can get better with just being deliberate with what he’s doing, hitting the hole where he’s supposed to hit it, and trusting his blockers,” Brumfield said. “At times last year, I think he didn’t trust his blockers, and he kind of just hit it where he saw fit. I think this year, if he trusts his blockers a little bit more, he’ll be even better than what he was last year.”
 
Others who’ve returned kickoffs in training camp include redshirt freshman Perris Jones, junior PK Kier and true freshmen Mike Hollins and RJ Harvey.
 
Candidates to return punts this season include junior Chuck Davis, sophomores Tavares Kelly Jr. and Billy Kemp. Senior Dejon Brissett, a graduate transfer from Richmond, is recovering from foot surgery, but Brumfield expects him to be another option when he starts practicing.
 
Brumfield believes all of UVA’s special-teams units can improve, he said, “but I think number one, without picking out a particular phase, I want to get better with our mindset. I think our punt coverage unit was pretty good, but our kickoff coverage unit, we kind of were sporadic throughout the season. I’ve got to do a better job as a coach of finding the right guys and putting them in a better position, but they have to have the mindset to want to go down the field and make a play.”
 
SAFETY FIRST: Many Virginia players are wearing padded covers, called Guardian Caps, over their helmets at practice this month.
 
UVA has a relationship with a Charlottesville-based group of biochemical engineers, Biocore, that conducts research for the NFL on several subjects, including concussions.
 
“The research on Guardian Caps is still indecisive,” said Kelli Pugh, UVA’s associate athletics director for sports medicine, “but Biocore has started to have some findings [showing] there’s some benefit to the O-line and D-line wearing them to try to reduce some of the impact of the sub-concussive blows. So we advise having the O-line and D-line in them for preseason camp.”

Linebackers and running backs have also started wearing the Guardian Caps in practice.
 
“The literature is kind of mixed on how much it does reduce [impact],” Pugh said, “but it’s not going to hurt them, and we’re hoping that it will help reduce some of our incidents of concussion.”
 
BEYOND HIS YEARS: He won’t turn 18 until next month, but Jowon Briggs, a 6-1, 295-pound true freshman from Cincinnati, has impressed since the day he arrived at UVA in June. Briggs, who’s considered the jewel of this recruiting class, finished his first week of training camp as a starter on the defensive line.
 
A strong student who’s also accomplished in music and drama, Briggs is “a great fit at UVA,” Mendenhall said. “He has other interests, but he’s passionate about football, and he does it at a really high level, and there’s no stardom to him or [concern about] star rankings. He never even acknowledged it at the beginning. He’s come in and measured up to what we had hoped.”
 
Co-defensive coordinator Kelly Poppinga’s impression of Briggs?
 
“Big, physical, smart,” Poppinga said. “Super bright. Doesn’t say [much], just goes into work and does his thing. Just impressive. You would think he’s a third- or fourth-year guy, just by looking at him on the field and seeing how he plays, just the way he communicates and the maturity he has.”
 
Another defensive lineman, fifth-year senior Richard Burney, was asked Thursday about Briggs.
 
“Man, he’s strong,” Burney said. “He’s a strong 17-year-old. I don’t even think you can call him a 17-year-old. He’s doing extremely well, and he’s taking in everything so quickly and so effectively. I’ve walked in the film room a couple times, and he’s the first one in there watching film. He’s eager. He wants to learn.”
 
NUMBERS GAME: The Cavaliers pride themselves on having an earned-not-given mentality, and nowhere is that principle more evident than in their method of selecting jersey numbers.
 
Starting in 2016, Mendenhall’s first year at UVA, team leaders have determined the order in which players choose their jersey numbers, based on offseason workouts and commitment to the program.
 
In 2016, ’17 and ’18, running back Jordan Ellis chose first, but he was a senior last year, as was defensive back Juan Thornhill, who chose second.
 
Who’s picking first this summer? Jordan Mack? Bryce Perkins? Joe Reed? Bryce Hall? PK Kier?  We’ll find out soon. The first round of jersey selections is scheduled for Sunday night.
 
“It’ll be interesting to see who it is,” Mendenhall said, “but I think there are some good candidates.”
 
Mendenhall leaves it to the task unit leaders to determine the selection order.
 
“They’re the ones that are with the team every day in the locker room,” Mendenhall said. “They’re with them in class, they’re with them in their apartments. They see a lot more than I see. My lenses are relatively restricted as the head coach. But I know in past years it’s been two or three hours of deliberations by our team leaders, trying to sort out what order and who.”
 
Mendenhall did not have a similar tradition at BYU, where he coached before coming to Charlottesville, but his players at UVA “have embraced it,” he said. “It matters to them. Even if they have the same number, it matters to them to be acknowledged by their peers again … I didn’t expect that, but it’s really fun. It’s one of my favorite nights of the year.”
 
GEAUX HOOS: Among the newcomers who have stood out in training camp is wideout Terrell Chatman, a graduate transfer from Arizona State.
 
At Arizona State, Chatman played with Bryce Perkins, who’s now Virginia’s starting quarterback, and trained under Shawn Griswold, now Virginia’s director of football development and performance. 
 
At UVA, Chatman is part of the program’s Louisiana contingent. He’s from Baton Rouge, as is true freshman running back Mike Hollins. One of Hollins’ classmates, wideout Dontayvion Wicks, is from Plaquemine, about 15 miles south of Baton Rouge.
 
Moreover, Brumfield, director of player personnel Justin Anderson, and regional scout Jordan Arcement also have ties to Louisiana.
 
“That was a big thing for me, other than me knowing Bryce already and Griz,” Chatman said. “Those Louisiana coaches kind of reached out to me as well. That’s helped me with my transition as well, knowing that I have some people from back home. Whenever they go back home, they’ll bring me some gumbo or seafood back, so that’s nice to have.”
 
INSTANT IMPACT: Olusegun Oluwatimi transferred from the Air Force Academy to UVA last summer and joined the football team as a walk-on. A year later, he’s the Cavaliers’ starting center.
 
“I walked on, so I just had to fight and scrape for everything I got here,” said Oluwatimi, whose teammates at DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, Md., included Brenton Nelson, now a safety at UVA.
 
A 6-3, 305-pound redshirt sophomore, Oluwatimi hasn’t played in a game since 2016, his senior season at DeMatha. And so the Aug. 31 season opener at Pitt won’t be just another game for him.
 
“It’ll definitely be emotional,” Oluwatimi said.
 
He did not choose Virginia, Oluwatimi said, because he saw an opportunity to have a major role on the offensive line this year.
 
“I wasn’t even thinking about that,” he said. “The biggest thing was, I wanted to find a great atmosphere for me as a person and join a great team. I hit up Brenton Nelson, and he told me, ‘We have a great group of guys, a great group of coaches, and it’s closer to home,’ and I was like, ‘All right, this is the perfect fit for me.’ I didn’t really care about who I had in front of me, whether it was All-Americans or All-ACC players. It didn’t matter. I was going to fight and find a way. And if I’d never been able to get on the field, I still would have been happy with my decision.”
 
ON THE RISE: Wideout Terrell Jana ended practice Thursday by catching a long touchdown pass from Bryce Perkins in the George Welsh Indoor Facility. Such plays are becoming routine for Jana, who had 11 receptions for 151 yards and touchdown last season.
 
“He’s very consistent,” senior receiver Hasise Dubois said. “Every day he comes in, does his job, gets better, and I feel as though his hard work is paying off. As you can see out there on the field, it’s not just me or Joe [Reed] making plays. You can see Terrell Jana as well.”
 
Olamide Zaccheaus, who had a school-record 93 catches last season, is now pursuing an NFL career. Of the Wahoos’ returning wideouts, Dubois (52) and Reed (25) had the most receptions, but Jana figures to play a prominent role in the passing game this season, too.
 
“You just root for him, because he does all the things the right way, on and off the field,” wide receivers coach Marques Hagans said. “He’s a great leader. He leads by example. He holds himself accountable, and he’s a pleasure to coach. I’m glad he’s in our group.”
 
Jana, who’s from British Columbia, starred at Woodberry Forest, where his teammates included Lindell Stone, now a quarterback at UVA, and Lee Dudley.