Brown Looking to Make New Memories

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — With the season opener against Coastal Carolina approaching, University of Virginia tailback Xavier Brown has been reminded countless times about the finest performance of his college career.

In Conway, S.C., Brown rushed nine times for 171 yards last year in UVA’s 43-23 win over Coastal at sold-out Brooks Stadium. That made him the first Cavalier since Bryce Perkins in 2019 to run for at least 150 yards in a game, and Brown takes pride in that feat. But he doesn’t want to live in the past.

“Last year is last year,” Brown said this week. “This is a new year to prove myself and for us to prove ourselves as a team.”

At 6 p.m. Saturday, Virginia kicks off its fourth season under head coach Tony Elliott at Scott Stadium. If Brown surprised the Chanticleers with his tour de force in 2024, that won’t be the case this year.

“I’m sure that’s all up on their walls and bulletin boards down there,” UVA offensive coordinator Des Kitchings said Wednesday with a smile.

Like Brown, Kitchings has put the one-sided win over Coastal behind him.

“That’s last year,” Kitchings said.

Brown’s talent has never been in question, but injuries slowed his progress at Virginia. As a true freshman in 2022, he was named UVA’s offensive rookie of the year, but elbow and triceps injuries limited him to only two games in 2023. He was more durable last season, when he appeared in 11 games and averaged a team-high 6.1 yards per carry.

He carried the ball 80 times (for 488 yards and one touchdown) in 2024. In the retrospect, running backs coach Keith Gaither said, that wasn’t enough.

“When we went back to our self-scout, he was probably one of the top four running backs in the ACC,” Gaither said. “For his big-play ability, we just didn’t give him enough touches.”

The 5-foot-10 Brown, who’s from Lexington, Ky., has worked with UVA’s strength and conditioning coaches, athletic trainers and nutritionists to become more durable.

“We made a plan just to make sure I could stay on the field longer,” said Brown, a media studies major who’s on track to graduate in December.

He weighed 183 pounds when he arrived on Grounds in 2022. He’s now close to 200. Brown said he’s focused on adding “more muscle mass and losing body fat and just making myself more able to take more hits.”

In addition to becoming more durable, Brown said, he’s focused on “getting better with my feet and my body control. I think that was one thing last year that I was less efficient on, that I could have worked on. And that’s one thing I really attacked in the offseason, just my footwork and being able to get in and out of cuts and make cuts and things like that.”

No. 20 wasn’t the only UVA player to have success on ground against the Chanticleers last year. The Cavaliers totaled 384 yards rushing on a hot, humid afternoon, their highest total in a game since 1998.

Brown will play a prominent role in the Hoos’ running game this season, but he’s far from their only option at tailback. Virginia added two transfers at that position in the offseason—J’Mari Taylor (North Carolina Central) and Harrison Waylee (Wyoming)—and Noah Vaughn and Davis Lane Jr. are holdovers from last year. Xay Davis is a promising true freshman.

“We feel like we have really good depth at running back position,” Kitchings said. “We’ll be able to keep those guys fresh, keep them right, with the ability to churn out plays and hopefully create some explosive plays as well.”

To some degree, UVA’s approach will be tailback “by committee” this fall, and that’s fine with Brown.

“We’re going to need guys as we get into later the season,” he said, “and they brought in guys in that fit the program’s needs and fit the room. Nobody’s going to come in the room and throw off the chemistry. I feel like with each and every back, there’s really no drop off. We all can make plays.”

Depth is critical at running back, as the Hoos were reminded last season. Brown and Kobe Pace missed the regular-season finale at Virginia Tech with injuries, and Chris Tyree had to move from wide receiver to tailback for the game in Blacksburg.

An unfortunate reality of football, Elliott said, is that tailback is “such a violent position, and those guys very rarely go a play without getting hit. So I think that it’s going to naturally work itself out. Unfortunately, with availability, it does every single year.”

With so many capable tailbacks, Elliott said, the Cavaliers’ coaching staff has “to do a great job of making sure that we help them in every situation to get themselves prepared and ready to perform at the highest level. And so it’s going to be a challenge, but it’s a good problem to have when you got more guys that need carries than not having enough. Trust me, it’s not fun to be on the other side. So it’ll be something that we have to manage and coach.”

The backs will be running behind a deep, experienced offensive line bolstered by the addition of multiple transfers since the end of last season. Two of those newcomers—center Brady Wilson (UAB) and right tackle Wallace Unamba (New Mexico)—are expected to start Saturday.

“I’m excited to see what this group can do, because it all starts with the run game,” Elliott said. “That’s where football starts. You’ve got to be able to be able to run the football. You’ve got to be able to stop the run …  and then everything else comes off of that. I know we all like to watch quarterbacks throw and do all that kind of stuff, but really you’ve got to be able to establish a line of scrimmage.”

Asked about UVA’s offensive linemen, Brown smiled. “Those are my trench babies. Those boys are going to get up there and they’re going to work. Through camp and through everything so far since spring ball, they’ve been opening holes up for us. We complement each other, so we work for them and they work for us.”

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