Hoos Expect Tight End to Become Position of Strength

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — It’s impossible to know in July how a football season will unfold in the fall. It’s safe to say, though, that Virginia is unlikely to have a wide receiver who catches 110 passes this season, as Malik Washington did in 2023.

Another safe bet: UVA’s tight ends will have more than 14 receptions among them this fall. That’s how many passes Sackett Wood Jr. (nine), Grant Misch (three) and Josh Rawlings (two) combined to catch in 2023.

“When you look back at the 2023 season, that was a big void for us,” said offensive coordinator Des Kitchings, who also oversees the Cavaliers’ tight ends, “and we feel like that should be an asset for us and not a liability.”

Misch, who was used primarily as a blocker during his UVA career, was a sixth-year senior in 2023, and Rawlings chose to transfer after the season. Wood figured his college career, like Misch’s, was over at the end of last year, but he was granted another season of eligibility late in the spring and decided to return.

“So that was a bonus,” Kitchings said Friday during a media availability at the George Welsh Indoor Practice Facility.

Suddenly the Cavaliers, who start training camp on Wednesday, are flush at a position where they lacked depth last fall. Not only is Wood back, but UVA added two veteran tight ends in the offseason: transfers Tyler Nevile (Harvard) and Sage Ennis (Clemson). Moreover, 6-foot-4 Dakota Twitty moved in the spring from wideout to tight end, where Virginia’s other options include Karson Gay, TeKai Kirby, Henry Duke and Hayden Rollison.

Of the team’s position groups, Elliott said Friday, tight end has probably changed the most in the offseason largely because of the addition of Ennis and Neville. Factor in Wood’s return, and “now you have three veteran guys that you let battle for the job,” Elliott said, “and then younger guys can kind of develop. Some of them physically are still working on their bodies to get to a position to where they can do everything that’s asked of them, but I’m really excited about the leadership and the competition that’s coming out of that room.”

Neville, who twice was named to the All-Ivy League first team, caught 62 passes for 698 yards and eight touchdowns in three seasons at Harvard. Ennis’ stats aren’t as eye-catching—he caught six passes for 77 yards during his Clemson career—but UVA’s coaches believe he’s capable of much more as a receiver.

Ennis (6-foot-4, 249 pounds) and Neville (6-foot-4, 240) bring “a little bit different skill set than what we’ve had the last couple years,” Elliott said. “I think they have the ability to stretch the field from that position, create some [favorable] matchups, and then they’ve got the size to be able to come in and do their job in the run game. So I think athletically, they’re a little bit of an upgrade. Both of them are graduates, so you’re also bringing in maturity. They also have perspectives outside the program to be able to share with the guys.”

Neither Ennis nor Neville was available during spring practice. Ennis was recovering from a torn ACL—he’s since been cleared for contact—and Neville was finishing work on his bachelor’s degree at Harvard. Wood was seemingly out of eligibility in the spring, and that meant extensive reps for Twitty, Gay and the Wahoos’ other tight ends.

“I challenged all those guys from the start,” Kitchings told reporters after the Blue-White game in April. “I said, ‘All right, here we go. You’ve got 15 opportunities to really show what you can bring.’ ”

At ACC Football Kickoff, the conference’s annual preseason day in Charlotte, N.C., Virginia quarterback Tony Muskett said Tuesday that Neville and Ennis have both impressed him in workouts this summer.

The tight end room “has become really good,” said Kitchings, who, like most of Elliott’s assistants, is heading into his third season at UVA. “When we first got here, we envisioned being able to have tight ends that can help this offense, and we believe we have that now. We’ve got a good strong group of wide receivers, we’ve got some tight ends, we’ve got some backs. And now the challenge in this fall camp will finding that cohesiveness.”

Washington is now with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, but the Hoos have a deeper stable of wideouts this year than in 2023. Three transfers—Chris Tyree (Notre Dame), Andre Greene Jr. (North Carolina) and Trell Harris (Kent State)—enrolled at Virginia in January and went through spring practice alongside such returning receivers as Malachi Fields, JR Wilson and Suderian Harrison. Others in the position group include Jaden Gibson, Ethan Davies, Titus Ivy and TyLyric Coleman.

Fields caught 58 passes for 811 yards and five TDs last season, Tyree totaled 945 receiving yards during his Notre Dame career, and Harris caught 26 passes for Kent State in 2023.

This year, Elliott said, the Hoos “have more experienced guys that can go make plays so you don’t have to necessarily strictly game plan for one guy, or the quarterbacks don’t have to have this feeling like, ‘I have to go to this guy,’ regardless of he’s the third guy in the progression … That’s not how you want to operate. You want to be able to operate and flow as the design of the concepts are intended. And so what I think is, from the receiving standpoint, you have more competitive depth, which is going to allow the quarterbacks to be able to distribute the ball a little bit better. And then also other positions, your tight end position, we project it to be more dynamic in the passing game, which is going to help from a distribution standpoint, whereas last year we were limited in some spots. Depth was kind of a challenge for us.”

Virginia returns two capable quarterbacks—Muskett and sophomore Anthony Colandrea—each of whom started six games last season. They’ll benefit, quarterbacks coach Taylor Lamb said, from playing with tight ends who are threats in the passing game.

That gives them “a lot of confidence,” Lamb said. “You talk about spreading the ball around and being lethal everywhere. That helps out a quarterback from the progression standpoint, having confidence in all the positions: from all three of the receivers out there to the tight end to the running back. Having confidence in guys making plays for you, that’s huge.”

Washington smashed several program records in his one season at Virginia, when he caught 110 passes for 1,426 yards and nine touchdowns, but the coaching staff expects the offense to be more balanced this fall.

“I think we have more viable options to be able to distribute the ball,” Elliott said. “If turns into a situation like it was with Malik, you’re a fool as a coach to go away from it, but at the same time, too, you’re realistic in understanding that it’s hard to make a living like that.

“When I think about my experiences as a coordinator, when you had guys all over the field, it put a lot of pressure on the defense. You didn’t have to necessarily design for one person. You were able to distribute the ball and it helped you to stay on schedule, in rhythm, be explosive and really dictate the pace of play.”

UVA opens the season Aug. 31 against Richmond at Scott Stadium.

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