Cavalier Football Notebook

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By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
 
CHARLOTTESVILLE –– This is Garett Tujague’s fourth season as offensive line coach at Virginia, a position he also held for three seasons at BYU. He’s also coached at the junior college level, but Tujague has never had an FBS offensive line that included no seniors – until now.
 
The Cavaliers’ rotation includes juniors Dillon Reinkensmeyer and Chris Glaser, sophomores Ryan Nelson, Ryan Swoboda, Olusegun Oluwatimi, Bobby Haskins and Tyler Fannin, and redshirt freshmen Joe Bissinger and Derek Devine. Another offensive lineman, Alex Gellerstedt, is out with a season-ending injury, but he transferred from Penn State to Virginia this summer with two years of eligibility remaining.
 
All of which figures to bode well for Virginia’s offense in 2020 (and beyond), but a group this young and inexperienced poses challenges for Tujague in the present.
 
Reinkensmeyer has 24 career starts and Nelson has 13, and they “know the offense really well and they know what to do,” Tujague said after a recent practice at Scott Stadium. “So when you have those guys, it makes it easier. But there’s urgency to get those younger guys ready and able to compete now.”
 
UVA opens its fourth season under head coach Bronco Mendenhall at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against ACC rival Pitt at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.
 
Asked last week about the offensive line, which is probably the Wahoos’ biggest question mark, Mendenhall said there’s been “step-by-step progress. Not as fast as I would like, not as furious as I would like, not as polished as I would like, but I do see progress. There’s been a few players out with nicks and bumps and bruises, which always affects continuity.”
 
The injuries, however, allowed the coaching staff to get “other guys a ton of work and find out what their strengths and weaknesses are, what they can do,” Tujague said. 
 
“Obviously, you don’t want to not have guys, but you’re getting a chance to develop your younger players … We’ve got some ground to cover, but the willingness is there. The work ethic, the will before skill is there.”
 
READY TO ROLL: True freshmen who impressed during training camp include defensive lineman Jowon Briggs, quarterback RJ Harvey, running back Mike Hollins, wide receivers Dorien Goddard and Dontayvion Wicks, linebacker Nick Jackson, safety Antonio Clary and kicker Justin Duenkel.
 
In Mendenhall’s first three years at UVA, the program’s overall lack of depth and talent contributed to his decision to play numerous true freshmen.
 
“Our program’s in a healthier place [this year],” Mendenhall said. “However, there still could be up to 10, I would say, first-years that play, and that’s based on how strong our first-year class is. I really like this first-year class from top to bottom … They’re all performing well. That doesn’t mean in the opener you’ll see an abundance of first-years, but before the season [ends] I wouldn’t be surprised for it to be double digits.”
 
BY COMMITTEE: Mendenhall hoped the Cavaliers would emerge from training camp with a clear No. 1 running back, but that position continues to be “a work in progress,” he said.
 
Virginia’s options include juniors PK Kier and Lamont Atkins, sophomore Wayne Taulapapa and true freshman Mike Hollins.
 
“The most consistent running back and most productive running back and most trustworthy back and the most versatile to this point is Wayne Taulapapa,” Mendenhall said. “I’ve been really impressed with him. He just keeps getting better and better and better.”
 
Taulapapa, who’s from Hawaii, played exclusively on special teams as a true freshman in 2018. He was originally supposed to have been part of the recruiting class that enrolled at UVA in the summer of 2016, but he spent two years in Nicaragua on a mission trip with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
 
Atkins, who’s from Northern Virginia, has only five carries (for 34 yards) and two receptions (for 12 yards) as a Cavalier, but the coaching staff likes his versatility.
 
“Lamont is very similar to Wayne Taulapapa where he can block, he can run, he can catch, and he’s trustworthy, and he just keeps demonstrating that,” Mendenhall said. “So those two have kind of emerged as all-purpose, all-everything [backs].”
 
Hollins, who’s from Baton Rouge, probably has the most potential of any of the running backs, and every time he “touches the ball, he becomes more confident and more physical and more impressive,” Mendenhall said.
 
The coaches’ major concern about Hollins is ball security, Mendenhall said. “The speed, the violence, the physicality of the game and what those hits feel like in securing the ball, it’s hard to replicate in practice with the same volume that you see in the game.”
 
NEXT MAN UP: The season-ending knee injury Darrius Bratton suffered in practice this month moved Jaylon Baker up the depth chart at cornerback.
 
Baker is a redshirt freshman from Chattanooga, Tenn., where he starred at cornerback and wide receiver for Baylor School.
 
“I’m progressing each and every day,” Baker said. “There’s always room to improve, but once one man goes down, the next man is up, and I’m taking full advantage of my opportunity.”
 
Baker, who stands 6-foot-2, weighed only 165 pounds when he enrolled at UVA last summer, and that’s one reason he redshirted in 2018. He’s up to 175 this summer and hopes to eventually play at around 190 pounds.
 
He said he spent last season “learning the defense and getting the feel of college football. It’s very fast-paced compared to high school.”
 
Senior cornerback Bryce Hall, who’s an All-America candidate, is one of Baker’s mentors at UVA.
 
“That’s my man,” Baker said. “The coaches kind of compare us a lot [to each other], and pretty much the entire team compares us. We have the same build, the same length. I work with him every day. We watch film together, and he’s teaching me the fundamentals of being a good corner.”
 
UNSUNG HERO: UVA’s roster includes only a handful of fifth-year seniors. One of them is running back Chris Sharp, whose modest career statistics (13 carries, six receptions, six tackles on special teams) belie his value to the team.
 
Sharp, a graduate of the Hun School in New Jersey, is “committed to everything that we do as a program, and he loves how we do it,” Mendenhall said. “It’s just steady, where he’s always doing what he’s supposed to do. And when you have older players like that, that are just no-nonsense and matter-of-fact about how we do things, and they’re not afraid to tell others how we do things or show ’em –– and in his case, it’s more showing –– it’s a nice partnership to have as a head coach.”
 
ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME EXPERIENCE: Junior punter Nash Griffin’s closest friends include Kyle Guy, one of the heroes of UVA’s run to the NCAA men’s basketball title last season.
 
In Indianapolis, Griffin and Guy were classmates and teammates, first at Belzer Middle and then at Lawrence Central High. At UVA, they lived together in 2017-18 and 2018-19, and Griffin made it to Minneapolis on April 8 to see Guy and Co. crowned national champions.
 
It nearly didn’t happen. Spring practice was under way for the UVA football team, and Griffin didn’t expect to be able to attend the NCAA title game. But around noon that day, his parents called to tell him they were headed to the airport in Indianapolis, from which they would fly to Minneapolis and join a sizable group of Guy’s supporters at the game.
 
When Griffin expressed disappointment at missing the occasion, his parents said they would check to see if there might be a flight he could take out of Charlottesville Albemarle Airport. They found one.
 
“We got done talking at 12:30, and at 1:15 I was on the plane taking off,” Griffin recalled, laughing.
 
He flew from Charlottesville to Chicago and then to Minneapolis. He landed around 6 p.m. local time and attended a pregame pep rally. At U.S. Bank Stadium, he watched the Hoos make history, after which he texted congratulations to Guy. 
 
Griffin’s parents then drove him from Minneapolis to Chicago for his flight home. He arrived back at CHO at 11 a.m. on April 9 and was in class 90 minutes later.
 
“That was the fastest turnaround ever,” Griffin said. “I was there for six to eight hours, but I saw what I needed to. It was an awesome experience, and I’m excited to see Kyle back here in a couple weeks.”
 
Guy, now a rookie with the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, will join his 2018-19 teammates and coaches on Friday, Sept. 13, at John Paul Jones Arena for a special event: A Night with the National Champions. The next night at Scott Stadium, UVA hosts Florida State in football.
 
This has been a memorable offseason for Griffin. Not only is he a candidate to take over for Lester Coleman as the Cavaliers’ starting punter, he was the only kicking specialist among the 12 players recently named to the Dirty Dozen. 
 
“I was honestly surprised myself,” said Griffin, who’s also the holder for extra points and field goals.
 
This is Shawn Griswold’s second year as Virginia’s director of football development and performance, and his annual Dirty Dozen competition honors the top performers in the Cavaliers’ strength and conditioning program. Four players are selected from each of three position groups: skill, big skill and big. Punters and kickers are placed in the big skill group, along with tight ends and linebackers.
 
“Half that battle is speed stuff,” Griffin said, “and playing basketball and soccer my whole life, I’ve been able to keep that, even though I don’t exactly use it on the football field right now. But that was an awesome moment. There’s a picture of me right after my name is called, standing up. I’m just in absolute shock, and that’s probably the best smile I’ve had on my face in a long time.”
 
His fellow members of the Dirty Dozen: Bryce Perkins, Joe Reed, Nick Grant and Bryce Hall from the skill group; Jordan Mack, Noah Taylor and Charles Snowden from the big skill group; and Mandy Alonso, Joe Bissinger, Richard Burney and Eli Hanback from the big group.
 
REUNITED: The Cavaliers’ first-year class includes D’Sean Perry, an outside linebacker from Gulliver Prep in Miami. That’s also where defensive lineman Mandy Alonso starred before enrolling at UVA in 2017.
 
“I played two years with him,” Alonso said, “and we were really good friends. I told his parents that I was going to keep an eye on him and show him around.”
 
Gulliver Prep’s head coach is former UVA linebacker Earl Sims.
 
Perry was in the third group of players to select their jersey numbers this month. The first 36 chose numbers on Aug. 11 and the next 32 picked a week later. Seventeen more players selected their numbers Saturday night. Perry is wearing No. 98 this season.