Hoos Expect Improved Depth to Pay Dividends

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Wide receivers on the University of Virginia football team include Jayden Thomas, Jahmal Edrine, Trell Harris, Cam Ross, Eli Wood, Andre Greene Jr., Suderian Harrison, Kam Courtney, TyLyric Coleman, Dillon Newton-Short, Isaiah Robinson and Josiah Abdullah, and each has impressed at one time or another during training camp.

That means Adam Mims, who coaches the Cavaliers’ wideouts, has a lot of decisions to make. Depending on the play call, UVA might have as many as four wideouts on the field at once. Still, there are only so many reps to go around, and competition among the group for playing time is fierce.

“I’m used to it from where I’ve been at,” Thomas, a graduate transfer from Notre Dame, said Monday afternoon at the Hardie Center. “And I feel like everybody here, we expect the best from each other. So every day, we’re competing not only against the defense, but against each other, and I feel like Coach Mims does a great job of telling us how to get in that mindset.

“Everything’s earned, not given. So I feel like every day we go out there and we push each other to the best we can be … We love it. We compete with each other every day.”

At some other spots, the depth chart is clearer. Head coach Tony Elliott announced before the start of camp last month, for example, that Chandler Morris was the No. 1 quarterback. But battles for playing time are being waged on the offensive and defensive lines, at tailback, and in the secondary, and that’s what Elliott and general manager Tyler Jones wanted to see when they built the Wahoos’ roster for 2025.

“There’s been a ton of competition,” Elliott said Monday. “Injury has impacted some of that, where we haven’t had the consistent competition, just because guys have been in and out of the lineup. But overall, all the guys are being pushed.”

Since the end of last season, UVA has added 32 transfers, many of whom are linemen. Up front on defense, Elliott said, “I feel like we should be able to roll with like 10 guys, five at each position: five interior and five guys on the edge that we can roll throughout the course of the game to keep guys fresh. And then we can change up looks and we can get some heavier guys on the edge in some packages. We can do a lot more things than we’ve done in the past because we have that depth.”

Linebacker Kam Robinson broke his collarbone about a week into training camp, and he’s expected to miss the Aug. 30 season opener against Coastal Carolina at Scott Stadium. That’s left Virginia a little thin at that position, Elliott said, but “overall, it’s a lot more competitive out at practice, which is a good thing.”

The Hoos are heading into their fourth season under Elliott. Multiple times in his first three years Virginia has been in position to win a game, only to falter late. It’s time, Elliott has been telling his players, for the Cavaliers to find ways to win.

At his post-practice availability Monday, Elliott said he believes UVA’s improved “depth will help us be a football team that can finish better in the fourth quarter, because we’ve got guys that haven’t played 100 snaps. As much as we’re talking about building competitive stamina, the body is gonna slow down after about 100 snaps. So I think depth will help us be a little bit fresher. And you notice the teams that are really good in the fourth quarter, a lot of times it’s because they’ve got a lot of depth and they can play guys. They’re the fresher team in the fourth quarter, and then they can lean on people.”

The Cavaliers held their second scrimmage Saturday at Scott Stadium, and Elliott kept his team on the field longer than scheduled.

“We were out there for a good long time on Saturday, and it got hot,” he said. “The sun came out there and I wanted to see what this team was going to do. And this team, they didn’t spit the bit. Now, were there things we got to clean up? Absolutely. But you didn’t see guys trying to tap out. You didn’t see guys trying to find a sideline. And Saturday was by far the hardest day that we’ve had all camp.”

NEXT MAN UP: With Kam Robinson out, Landon Danley has been working with the first-team defense next to graduate student James Jackson at linebacker. Danley, who didn’t appear in any games as a true freshman in 2023, recorded 13 tackles last season, when he played primarily on special teams.

Danley, who stands 6-foot-3, was listed at 199 pounds in 2023, and he practiced at safety that year. That was his defensive position at Dutch Fork High School in South Carolina, where he played wide receiver and quarterback on offense.

Since arriving on Grounds, Danley has bulked up considerably. He’s now listed at 222 pounds, and that speaks to “the work that he’s put in,” defensive coordinator John Rudzinski said. “It’s been awesome to see him mature, and I’ll tell you what, he’s going to be super productive on defense and special teams.”

NEW WEAPON: Virginia averaged 17.1 yards per kickoff return last season. Among ACC teams, only Boston College (16.4) ranked lower in that category.

In graduate transfer Cam Ross, the Hoos have a player who special teams coordinator Keith Gaither believes can raise their production significantly on kickoff returns.

Ross, who began his college career at Connecticut, played at JMU last season. He averaged 28.2 yards per kickoff return for the Dukes, with one touchdown, and was named to the All-Sun Belt third team as a return specialist.

“It’s a sense of relief when you have someone who’s done it at a high level,” Gaither said. “He knows how to set up returns. He knows how to set up his blocks. He’s fast, he’s got courage, he’ll run through the smoke.”

Ross, who’s from Newark, Del., is also a talented wideout who caught 114 passes for 1,356 yards and six touchdowns in his 28 games at UConn. At JMU last year, he had 37 receptions for 443 receiving yards and three TDs.

“He has speed, he has quickness,” offensive coordinator Des Kitchings said, “and he’s done a really good job of catching the football. And he’s smart. He understands the big picture of football.”

Ross is also a candidate to return punts for the Cavaliers.

LAST LINE OF DEFENSE: All-ACC safety Jonas Sanker led UVA in tackles in 2023 and again in ’24. Elliott said he hopes a linebacker leads the team in that category this year, “because that means the D-line is doing their job of freeing them up to go make plays. I think what’s happened [in recent years] is the D-line is getting blocked, the linebackers were getting blocked, and now the safeties have to make the play. So I’m hopeful we’re putting the ‘backers in a better position to come downhill and make plays, because we’re commanding double teams with that D-line.”

In graduate transfer Devin Neal, UVA has a safety cut from the Sanker mold. In 2023, when he was named to the All-ACC third team, Neal recorded 62 tackles for Louisville, the third-most on that team. Eleven of them came in the Cardinals’ win over the visiting Cavaliers.

Neal, who enrolled at UVA in January, earned a starting job in spring practice that he hasn’t relinquished.

“He was an All-ACC player two years ago,” Elliott said, “and he’s playing fast. He’s confident. He downed some football in the scrimmage on Saturday, so I’m excited about him.”

Asked last week about the 6-foot, 214-pound Neal, Rudzinski said that “physically, he’s a grown man. He’s one of those guys we didn’t have to create a great foundation for him. He already had a great foundation and now it’s [about] honing his skills.”

Sanker, who’s now with the New Orleans Saints, also shined on special teams for Virginia. What stood out to him about Sanker, Rudzinski said, was “how hard he played. You show the film [to current players], and you just watch him. He’s going to go sideline to sideline, and his contribution on special teams was tremendous. But we’ve got a bunch of guys that kind of look at that example, and they see that modeling as far as what that looks like, and I’m excited to say there’s a bunch of guys that are practicing that way, that are preparing that way. And now it’s one thing to talk about. It’s one thing to practice that way. It’s another thing for those guys to now put that type of film out there [from games].

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