Punishing Ground Game Remains Goal for Hoos

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — University of Virginia offensive lineman Drake Metcalf knows what it’s like to be part of a powerful running game, and he relishes the memory.

Metcalf, who transferred to UVA in January 2024, missed last season while recovering from an injury. But in 2023 he helped Central Florida finish fourth among FBS teams in rushing yards per game (228.2).

“You break the defense’s will,” Metcalf said. “If they can’t stop the run, they cave. If your offensive linemen can just drive people off the ball for yards and yards and yards, you’ll break their spirit. If it’s not the second rep, it’ll be the third rep. If it’s not the third, it’ll be the fourth, but they’ll eventually break. It’s like a stick. They can only bend so far until they give.

“I like pass blocking, but there’s nothing like driving someone downfield 10 yards and just burying them at the end of the rep and feeling that air come out of their chest on the ground.”

In its first three seasons under head coach Tony Elliott, UVA rarely experienced such dominance on the ground. In rushing yards per game, the Cavaliers ranked 100^th nationally in 2022 (123.1), 105^th in 2023 (117.9), and 94^th last season (131.9). Still, Elliott and offensive coordinator Des Kitchings remain as committed to the run as they were heading into their first season at Virginia.

“We’ve been saying that forever, right?” Kitchings acknowledged in April after the Cavaliers’ spring game.

A productive running game “builds toughness in the team,” Kitchings said last week. “It helps our defense, and it helps control the line of scrimmage for us. There’s a multitude of ways to try to run the football, and that’s what we’re assessing and trying to develop in this fall camp: the best way to effectively run the football with the collection of the O-linemen and the backs and the tight ends [Virginia has] and everybody being on the same page.”

In Chandler Morris, UVA has a quarterback who at North Texas passed for 3,774 yards and 31 touchdowns last season, but he also rushed for 242 yards and four TDs.

Virginia’s returning tailbacks include Xavier Brown, who averaged 6.1 yards per carry for 2024, and Noah Vaughn. Two transfers have joined the running back room since the end of last season: J’Mari Taylor, who rushed for 1,146 yards at North Carolina Central last year, and Harrison Waylee, who rushed for at least 100 yards 13 times during his stops at Northern Illinois and Wyoming.

“I love the group,” said Keith Gaither, who coaches UVA’s running backs.

The Wahoos are confident their run game will be more effective this season—“I firmly believe that,” said Kitchings—and that’s largely because of their collective experience up front.

“It’s an exciting time for us,” Metcalf said.

To complement such returning offensive linemen as Metcalf, McKale Boley, Noah Josey, Jack Witmer, Ben York and Ethan Sipe, UVA added seven transfers: Brady Wilson, Wallace Unamba, Makilan Thomas, Tyshawn Wyatt, David Wohlabaugh Jr., Monroe Mills and Kevin Wigenton II. Mills will miss the upcoming season while recovery from a knee injury, but the Hoos still have multiple options on the O-line.

“In the past [few] years, we haven’t had that much depth,” said Boley, who’s in his fourth year at UVA, “and so it’s been the same five to seven guys going out there and getting all the reps in practice, in the games and stuff. [It’s big] to have not only depth, but playable depth and experienced depth. We’ve got a lot of guys that have played plenty of snaps at their past schools, so just being able to have that experience is great.”

This is Terry Heffernan’s third year as offensive line coach at UVA, where his first two groups weren’t nearly as talented or experienced.

“Not even close,” said Heffernan, who added that his linemen “feel the competition. They feel how much talent is in the group and that we can really be a special unit. And I think the thing that’s really exciting is how well they’ve grown together. It’s a tight-knit group.”

The challenge for the coaching staff, Heffernan said, is that “you only have so many practices and so many reps and you’re going to have to move guys around to evaluate where everybody’s the best. You still want to build cohesion, but that’s hard when you’re trying to evaluate your group. And then just making sure all the mouths are fed. We’ve got a whole bunch of guys that have played, started games, are used to being starters, and they’re competing for maybe a two-deep spot right now.”

To have so many capable offensive linemen “is awesome,” said Metcalf, who played for Heffernan at Stanford in 2021 and 2022. “Obviously, I think the coaching staff probably senses in the last few years that we’ve had [struggles] with our offensive line when it comes to injuries. The old slogan is, your best ability is your availability. So the amount of guys that we have is definitely an indication of what we need throughout a season, because the offensive line is the most brutal position on the field. There’s no other position on the field that’s making contact like that, at that close of a distance, every single snap. So it’s great to have guys who can rotate in and out if somebody does go down or if somebody’s winded and we need to get someone else in there.”

Elliott played wideout at Clemson and later was offensive coordinator at his alma mater. He’s learned that “offensive football is won in the trenches,” Elliott said last month at ACC Kickoff in Charlotte, N.C.

“Even though I’m a receiver at heart and coached skill guys my whole life, you win up front,” Elliott said. “And that’s why the biggest area that we addressed was the offensive line and adding depth to the offensive line. That’s probably the one position that we’ve been playing catch up the most over the last three years, but with the addition of the seven guys that we brought in this offseason, I think we’re in a space now where we can have competitive depth, which creates for competitive practice, which allows us to create that chemistry.”

Josey was one of the four players who represented UVA at ACC Kickoff, and he was asked about the newcomers on the offensive line.

“Fans would be surprised to learn how hungry these guys are,” Josey said. “There’s a lot of guys in our room who are coming here because this is a great opportunity for them, and they’re hungry and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to put their best product on the field.”

Wilson, UVA’s projected starter at center, is one of those linemen. He came to Virginia from UAB in January and learned quickly “that this team prioritizes running the ball and that’s what we want to do,” Wilson said. “That’s what allows an offensive line to become a dominant line. If you can establish the run game, then you’ll be able to dominate any team, because any time you can get three to four yards a run, then you’ve had a successful run down. And that’s what our goal is. We’re going to be a nitty gritty team and we’re gonna prioritize the run game.”

Look for Brown, a 5-foot-10, 198-pound senior from Lexington, Ky., to have a larger role in the run game than in 2024, when he averaged only 7.3 carries per game. When he reviewed videotape from last season, Gaither said, he rated Brown as “probably one of the top four running backs in the ACC. For his big-play ability, we just didn’t give him enough touches. I felt like we should have played him more.”

Injuries have hindered Brown during his UVA career, and he did a “good job in the offseason of getting bigger and strong than he’s ever been,” Gaither said. “I think the other part of he’s just been unlucky. He’s such a violent runner, and he feels every hit because he’s so rugged. So we’ve got to find ways to teach him, ‘Hey, let’s not take so many blows. You’ve got to deliver some.’ ”

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