Training Camp Notebook

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By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
 
CHARLOTTESVILLE –– Noah Taylor wanted jersey No. 7, but safety Chris Moore, picking 24^th among UVA football players, snapped it up. And so Taylor settled for No. 14.
 
“Seven times two is 14,” Taylor, who picked 25^th last weekend, said after a recent practice at Lambeth Field.
 
As a true freshman last season, Taylor wore jersey No. 42, but much has changed since then. He played at about 205 pounds in 2018, and he’s now up to 220. He also has a stronger grasp of the Cavaliers’ defense, and that combination has made him a candidate to start at outside linebacker this fall.
 
“Just knowing the playbook more and gaining the weight and knowing what I’m supposed to do is allowing me to play fast, play better,” said Taylor, a graduate of the Avalon School in Silver Spring, Md.
 
At 6-foot-5, Taylor is similar physically to another UVA outside linebacker, 6-foot-7 Charles Snowden. When Snowden arrived at UVA in the summer of 2017, he weighed 202 pounds. He’s now up to about 235.
 
Snowden was effective as a true freshman in 2017, but generally only in passing situations. The same was true for Taylor last year.
 
Run defense is “definitely something I’m still working on,” said Taylor, who wore No. 7 at Avalon. “Everybody knows that I can pass rush, but now I’ve got to work on stopping the run, so I could play on every down. Quickness and speed help, but adding that size can take me to the next level.”
 
Taylor has been at UVA about 20 months –– he enrolled in January 2018 –– and during that time he’s made impressive strides in Shawn Griswold’s strength and conditioning program, moving from white to gray to orange to blue, the second-highest level.
 
In the spring, Taylor and defensive back De’Vante Cross were the only players to skip a color, with each advancing from gray to blue.
 
“Not good enough,” said Taylor, who expects to earn black gear next year. “That’s the goal,” he said.
 
WELCOME BACK: Taylor and Cross are among the 14 players at the blue level. Others include Chris Moore, a 6-2, 210-pound redshirt junior from Northern Virginia.
 
Moore missed the 2018 season after suffering a hip injury during training camp last summer. It eventually required surgery.
 
“It was definitely tough,” said Moore, who started five games as a sophomore in 2017. “I’ve never really been in that position, just not playing. And then not being able to travel [to away games], too, was really tough on me.”
 
Moore, who participated in spring practice on a limited basis this year, is 100 percent again, and he’s had prominent role in the secondary during training camp.
 
When he was sidelined, Moore said, he realized that he occasionally took football for granted. “Now I’m just grateful to be back and healthy again.”
 
His understanding of the defense has improved significantly, Moore said. “I’m starting to understand the fits of the D-line, and I’m playing off everybody. Being at the safety spot, you’ve got to be able to command the defense, so that’s what I’ve been trying to work on.”
 
Early in Moore’s college career, his focus sometimes waned in practice. “It was a habit I had from high school, just kind of going through the motions and then showing up on Fridays and Saturdays,” he said. “I’ve been trying to be more deliberate and intentional when I come out to practice.”
 
FARM SYSTEM: Virginia is in its fourth year under head coach Bronco Mendenhall. Several members of his staff previously were graduate assistants for him: defensive coordinator Nick Howell, co-defensive coordinator Kelly Poppinga and inside linebackers coach Shane Hunter at BYU, and defensive line coach Vic So’oto at Virginia.
 
Mendenhall’s staff has had little turnover since he arrived at UVA in December 2015, but he knows that won’t always be the case.
 
“With our growing success in football,” Mendenhall said last month at ACC Football Kickoff, “I don’t think it will be long before some of my staff members are sought out … All that will mean is I’ll elevate the next graduate assistant, because I believe in our way, and I like the stability, and I think young people thrive on that.”
 
The Cavaliers’ graduate assistants this season are Andrew Meyer, Jackson Matteo, Kirk Garner and C.J. Stalker. Meyer played at Wisconsin, where he was an All-Big Ten punter, and Matteo, Garner and Stalker played at UVA, where late in their careers Mendenhall was their head coach.
 
“It’s the same way [Mendenhall] did it at BYU,” Poppinga said. “He wanted ex-BYU players to be trained up in the system, because he believes those guys are going to recruit hard for that school, they’re going to know the scheme, and they’re going to know the system and how the program is run.”
 
Asked about the latest group of GAs, Poppinga said, “I’d say a couple of those guys are probably pretty dang close [to becoming full-time assistants]. If one of us leaves, I’m sure that’s where Bronco is going to go. For him it’s about trust. He’s seen them in action, he knows what they’re all about, and he knows that they know what his expectations are, and I think that’s the biggest thing. He doesn’t want to waste time and start the whole thing over.”
 
READY TO ROLL: Virginia played nine true freshmen in 2016, 17 in 2017, and 13 in 2018. (Six of them appeared in four games or fewer last season and thus retained a year of eligibility.) Expect the new first-year class to have an impact this fall.
 
Mendenhall said there “are players emerging through our special teams and through offense and defense that are certainly going to play as first-years. I don’t see it necessarily as a bad thing, even in year four, where there’s first-years playing, and if that is mixed with experience, I think that reflects a healthy football program.”
 
As the program ascends, Mendenhall said, fewer true freshmen are likely to play, but this “is a very good recruiting class from what I’ve seen. I don’t see any players that I would say athletically we missed on. It’s probably the strongest class athletically from top to bottom in my time here.”
 
FULL COMPLEMENT: During the celebration that followed UVA’s 28-0 win over South Carolina in the Belk Bowl, Vic So’oto posed for a photograph with the four defensive linemen who’d been healthy enough to play in that game.
 
After a practice this month at Lambeth Field, a similar shot was taken, and this time 11 players joined the Cavaliers’ defensive line coach. They included Richard Burney, a fifth-year who started the first three games at defensive end last season before being sidelined by a medical condition.
 

— Vic So’oto (@Coach_Sooto) August 4, 2019

“Having Richard Burney back really, really helps,” Mendenhall said.
 
Burney didn’t practice in the spring, but he was cleared in time to participate in the summer strength and conditioning program. He’s one of the six players who attained the highest level –– black –– in Shawn Griswold’s program, and he’s back in the rotation on the D-line.
 
“It feels amazing,” said Burney, who began his college career at tight end. “I’m just blessed. I’m extremely blessed to be able to play the game again, and it feels good being out here with the guys and running around. I feel like I’m my old self again.”
 
To see the defensive line’s depth evaporate last season was difficult, Burney said, “because you know how hard it is when numbers get that low. I wish I’d been able to be out there with them.”
 
NEW HOME: Wide receiver Dejon Brissett is recovering from foot surgery, and his status for UVA’s Aug. 31 opener at Pitt is unclear. But Brissett, a graduate transfer, is likely to be available for Virginia’s home opener, Sept. 6 against William & Mary.
 
If so, that won’t be his first game at Scott Stadium. As a Richmond Spider, Brissett played there twice. 
 
In the 2016 season opener, he had one reception for 37 yards to help UR win 37-20 and spoil Mendenhall’s debut as Virginia’s head coach.
 
In last year’s opener, Brissett caught three passes for 22 yards and returned a kickoff 24 yards against Virginia, which won 42-13.
 
“It was a good experience,” said Brissett, who’s from Ontario. “I was at an FCS school, so playing on a stage like this was good.”
 
He knew something about the ACC before enrolling at UVA. His brother, Oshae Brissett, played basketball at Syracuse.
 
“He’s happy for me,” Dejon Brissett said. “It’s not Syracuse, but it’s another ACC school. He didn’t have anything negative to say [about Virginia], so that’s good.”
 
A 6-8, 210-pound forward, Oshae Brissett averaged 12.4 points and 7.5 rebounds per game as a Syracuse sophomore in 2018-19. He’s now pursuing a professional career.
 
Dejon Brissett originally planned to transfer from Richmond to Illinois but had a change of heart when UVA offered him a scholarship.
 
“It was just the best situation for me,” Brissett said, “the best opportunity … I really believed in what the coaches were talking about and the culture, and I felt it on my visit here.”
 
LEARNING CURVE: The Cavaliers’ top three quarterbacks –– Bryce Perkins, Brennan Armstrong and Lindell Stone –– wear orange jerseys in practice to signify they’re off-limits for contact.
 
UVA’s other scholarship quarterbacks, 5-8, 190-pound RJ Harvey and 6-3, 200-pound Luke Wentz, are true freshmen who wear blue jerseys in practice. That means they can get hit in practice.
 
Neither Harvey nor Wentz gets much work in 11-on-11 drills, “but they are doing other things with special teams, so we keep them in blue so they can go live and hard,” quarterbacks coach Jason Beck said after practice Friday morning. “And when they do get reps [at QB], we want them being live to see what they can do.
 
“Both of their skill sets are as runners, and when you’re young, that’s kind of the best way to gain some confidence, to do some of the things you do best naturally. By making them live, it allows them to have more success. As they build their understanding of the passing game, then you can kind of scale back on the contact.”
 
With most of the reps going to Perkins and Armstrong in practice, it’s important for Harvey and Wentz to be “engaged, so they can be learning and paying attention as much as possible,” Beck said. “Outside of practice is when they really need to be working hard to learn and understand the offense, so they’re ready when their opportunity comes.”
 
Harvey is from Orlando, Fla. Wentz is from Troisdorf, Germany, and came with UVA with a limited background in football.