Metcalf Brings Many Strengths to Offensive Line

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — He needed only three years to earn a bachelor’s degree in political science from one of the world’s most prestigious universities. How, exactly, did Drake Metcalf accomplish that while also playing football at Stanford and serving an internship with former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice?

“Work,” Metcalf said. “I know it sounds very clichéd, but hard work.”

He took about 20 credit hours per quarter, as well as summer school classes, and graduated from Stanford in June 2023. Metcalf spent the fall of ’23 at the University of Central Florida, where he started four games at center, and then transferred in January 2024 to the University of Virginia.

With his booming voice and commanding personality, Metcalf immediately announced his presence in Charlottesville, and he was expected to bolster UVA’s offensive line last fall. He tore his Achilles tendon during spring practice, however, and ended up missing the 2024 season.

A long and grueling rehabilitation followed, but Metcalf is healthy again and eager to finally contribute to the Cavaliers. Virginia’s first practice of training camp is Wednesday afternoon, and the 6-foot-2, 300-pound Metcalf will work primarily at offensive guard while also taking reps at center, where Brady Wilson tops the depth chart.

“I’m 100 percent confident right now,” Metcalf said at the Hardie Center. “I’m not a guy that gets spooked out from this type of stuff. Obviously, when you tear your Achilles, it’s a very freaky thing, and I knew as soon as I did it. I felt a pop in the back of my leg. It was during one-on-ones, and I looked behind me and I thought maybe Maverick [Morris], one of our coaches, was standing there and I’d run into him, but I looked back and there was no one there and I knew what I did.”

In coming back from such an injury, UVA offensive line coach Terry Heffernan has told him, the “biggest thing is getting your trust back in yourself that you can do it,” Metcalf said, “and luckily for me I’m a very confident guy and I have no problems being able to get past that. I feel very confident in my ability to be able to get the job done this upcoming season.”

Metcalf, 24, participated in spring practice this year on a limited basis.

“I was doing contact on the field, just not against the defense in an 11-on-11 type of scenario, but I got to do one-on-ones,” he said. “I was doing all the drills that we were doing as an offensive line together, and then as soon as I finished spring ball, I had my final meeting with Dr. [Joseph] Park and he fully cleared me …  So this whole summer has just really been making sure that I’m crossing my T’s, dotting my I’s, and checking all my boxes right now. Coach Heff has been great throughout this whole process. Obviously, when you know a coach for so long, he’s like a second dad to me almost.”

Their relationship dates to March 2021, when Heffernan was hired as Stanford’s offensive line coach.

“I’ve been around him for a long, long time,” Heffernan said. “When I first met him at Stanford, he was a great kid, but maybe knowing when to talk and when to listen and when to follow were some things that he needed to work on. He’s a more mature version of himself now. But I think what you get with all that is energy and excitement. He loves the game, and as a position coach you love to be able to interject that in your meeting room. He’s a tough kid. He’s gonna play really hard, he’s gonna ask really good questions, and maybe every once in a while you have to tell him to sit down and be quiet, but I’ll take that.”

So will head coach Tony Elliott.

“Drake’s a big personality,” said Elliott, who’s heading into his fourth season with the Wahoos. “Extremely intelligent, extremely passionate about a lot of things, which I appreciate about him, and I like his personality. You need some of that, especially at the position that he comes from. He’s somebody that’s not afraid to hold his teammates accountable and be vocal about it.”

Metcalf, who was born and raised in Orange County, Calif., is enrolled in a master’s program in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. He’s in no rush to finish playing football, but he has long-term plans, too.

“Down the road, whenever football comes to an end, I want to be able to study for my LSAT and take that and apply to a good law school,” Metcalf said. “I don’t know where I want to end up. Obviously, UVA would be a phenomenal option. I love Charlottesville so much. This city is great and the school is great. So that would be something really cool to do down the road.”

To his younger teammates, Metcalf preaches the importance of education. The NFL is a goal for many college players, but “that’s just a clouded, misguided judgment that a lot of these kids have, that they’ve been sold this false narrative that just because you made it to the college level, you’re gonna make it to the next level,” he said.

“It’s not this fairy tale ending that everyone gets. Ultimately, I made that decision to go to Stanford because you have the ability to go to the NFL from Stanford. There have been plenty of guys that have done that, but I wanted the greatest backup plan I could get. And now coming to UVA, I’m getting another great backup plan with this amazing degree here.”

Metcalf starred at St. John Bosco High, a Catholic all-boys school with a storied football program. In 2019, his senior season, USA Today honored St. John Bosco as its national champion. Among the teams the Braves defeated that season was Good Counsel, a D.C.-area powerhouse.

Good Counsel’s standouts included Mitchell Melton, who’s now one of Metcalf’s teammates at UVA. Asked recently if he’d matched up against Metcalf in that game, which St. John Bosco won 31-8, Melton smiled and shook his head.

“I can’t even remember,” he said. “That game was unfortunately a blur because of what the end score was.”

St. John Bosco capped that season by routing Northern California power De La Salle 49-28 for the state title.

“Everyone that was on our team my senior year that was first string, and then even some second-string guys, went Division I, and it was the best time of my life,” said Metcalf, who also played on a state championship team as a freshman in 2016.

“I always say that I sound like a High School Harry, but truly playing with those guys in high school football was just fun. It becomes a business once you get to college football. It’s just good to be able to go to school with a bunch of guys that are from all different areas … just kind of that melting pot of everyone coming together to find one unified mission.”

Football has never defined Metcalf. At Stanford, he loved his internship at the Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank on campus whose director is Rice. He also learned from such luminaries as H.R. McMaster, James Mattis and Michael McFaul.

“The people I was surrounded by at the Hoover Institution were some of the greatest dignitaries this country’s seen,” Metcalf said, “and just being able to be around them and kind of rub shoulders with the brightest that we have in this country was like once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

He’s taken on an internship at UVA, too. As part of his master’s program at Batten, Metcalf analyzed data for the Charlottesville and University police departments this summer. With camp starting, though, football will be his primary focus until the fall semester begins.

Metcalf, who wears jersey No. 60, lacks the stature of many Power 4 offensive linemen, but he compensates in other ways. “Just pure aggression on the field,” he said.

His father played football at UNLV, and “he was a mean, nasty old-school offensive lineman,” Metcalf said. “You picture one in the ‘80s, he was that guy. So he’s really kind of molded me to be that guy. He was about 6-5, 330 when he played and I’m a little smaller than that. I’m an inside guy.

“Ultimately, your technique and your footwork and your speed beats anything any day. You can have a guy that’s ginormous in front of you, but if he can’t move as well as you and doesn’t have that anger and pure hatred and the heart to win and achieve the rep, he’s not going to be able to beat you.”

It’s not a stretch to say there are two Drake Metcalfs.

“Yeah, I’ve been told that a few times,” he said. “It’s like a cerebral switch that I flip. I like to be very polished and nice on the outside off the field, but as soon as we put our hand on the dirt, it’s a different game. It’s war.”

This looks to be the deepest and most talented offensive line Virginia has had during Elliott’s tenure, and competition for starting jobs figures to be fierce. But Metcalf will be in the mix.

“He can really move and really run,” Heffernan said. “In the box that manifests as him being able to come off the ball really quickly and explode and get into the defender before that guy can generate a ton of force. At his size, he’s not going to be able to sit back and absorb [contact], but that’s not what we’re going to ask him to do. We’re going to ask him to be the aggressor and be on the attack and close the space with guys, and that’s where his athleticism fits what we do here.”

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