Virginia Football Season Preview

A new regime has taken over in Charlottesville, and optimism reigns for Virginia fans everywhere. Al Groh was fired after last season after nearly a decade coaching the Cavaliers. In steps a Groh protégé in Mike London. London comes to Charlottesville after spending two seasons coaching at his alma mater, Richmond, where he went 24-5 and won a FCS championship. London will have a lot of work ahead of him to bring the Cavaliers back into ACC championship contention.

 

This is the part that has maddened UVA fans the most over the last couple of years. The Cavs have been at the bottom of the ACC in offense the last couple of years, and it was really bad last year. UVA ranked last in the ACC and 118^th out of 120 teams in total offense, averaging less than 270 yards per game. The passing was ranked the highest, ranking 105^th in the nation. And a new starter is in at quarterback in senior Marc Verica. Mistakes have been a key problem for Verica, as his career touchdown-interception ratio is at 8-17, which is absolutely brutal. But he is the only option with experience on the team. The backups behind Verica are all freshmen.

There’s not a lot of experience at running back either. The top four leading rushers from last season are gone, and the projected starter, sophomore Perry Jones, has attempted nine rushes in his career, and has made much more of an impact on specials teams in his career. His projected backup, senior Raynard Horne, has touched the ball seven times in his collegiate career. Logically, Virginia should be able to improve on this rushing offense that ranked 112^th nationally.

Of all of the skill positions, the wide receivers are the most experienced. And a lot of that has to do with the leading receiver from last season returning. Kris Burd caught 31 passes for 413 yards last season, and he led the team in both categories. The other projected starter is senior Dontrelle Inman, who caught only eight passes last season.  There is more experience behind these two. Sophomore Tim Smith and junior Jared Green both caught 15 passes last season. At tight end, senior Joe Torchia is slated to start. Torchia caught 15 passes last season, and with more emphasis on the tight end again, Torchia could see his targets increase.

The offensive line returns three starters, but there is relative inexperience at center, where junior Anthony Mihota will take over. Mihota has played in three games in his career so far. But he will have both starters back at guard to help him. Senior BJ Cabbell has started 23 games the last two seasons, and junior Austin Pasztor has started 20 games. Tackle Landon Bradley also started every game last year. The other tackle position will be held down by Oday Aboushi. Aboushi did play in six games last season. Also in the mix will be highly touted freshman Morgan Moses.

 

The one side of the ball that was decent last year was the defense. The Cavs defense was ranked in the middle of the pack in the ACC in total defense. The defense was really good against the pass, ranking fourth in the ACC and 23^rd overall, but was near the bottom of the ACC against the run. The Cavs will also switch to a 4-3 defense and hopefully the run defense should improve this year with three of four defensive lineman back. The lone new starter will be Zane Parr, who did play a lot last year, and ended the season with 33 tackles and 3.5 sacks. The other defensive end will be Cameron Johnson, who had 40 tackles last season. Both defensive tackles return this year. Nick Jenkins had a pretty solid season, with 41 tackles. Matt Conrath emerged as a key player on defense. He had 45 tackles last season, but can be very disruptive because of his height (6-7). Also expected to see time senior John-Kevin Dolce.

The linebackers are the least experienced group of the defense. One starter returns in Steve Greer, and he was good enough to earn second team freshman All American last year after leading the team in tackles with 92. He will be joined by two other sophomores on the outside. Ausar Wolcott and LaRoy Reynolds will be the starters at outside linebacker. Wolcott only had 10 tackles last year, and Reynolds had six. Junior Aaron Taliaferro will be a key backup. Taliaferro, like the other linebackers, does not have a lot of experience either. Taliaferro has played in just three games in his career. Hopefully for Cavs fans, this corps of linebackers will grow up as the season goes on.

The best player on Virginia roams the secondary. Senior Ras-I Dowling had the opportunity to go pro after last season, but decided to stay in school. Dowling made second team All ACC last season, finishing with 58 tackles, three interceptions, and eight pass breakups. He is regarded as one of the best cornerbacks in the ACC, and possibly the country. His fellow cornerback is Chase Minnifield, who did start a couple of games last year, finishing with 28 tackles and two interceptions. At safety, Rodney McLeod had a nice season for the Cavs. McLeod was fourth on the team with 62 tackles. Joining him will be junior Corey Mosley. Mosley started four games for the Cavs, and finished with 47 tackles.

 

All things considered, the UVA special teams weren’t that bad. Robert Randolph did the bulk of the field goal kicking for the Cavs last season, and was really accurate, hitting 17-19 field goals, with a long of 49, but was not good at kickoffs. Those will probably be handled again by Chris Hinkebein. Punter for UVA this year will be Jimmy Howell. Howell finished last season averaging 40.1 yards per punt, and a 34.6 net. As for the kick and punt returners, you could see a few different people handling them. Chase Minnifield handled both last year, but you could see Perry Jones, Raynard Horne, or Dominique Wallace handling them.

 

The non-conference schedule is pretty easy, with the exception of one game. The Cavs first game is against Mike London’s alma mater, Richmond. And while Richmond is a FCS school, they are no slouch. And I don’t need to remind UVA fans about the last time they faced a FCS school. Then they really get a test at USC, followed by a home date with VMI. The other non-conference game is against Eastern Michigan, arguably the worst team in all of FBS football after going winless last year. The Atlantic division foes for the Cavs this year are Florida State and Maryland at home, and at Boston College. The Cavs do get to host UNC and Miami, but travel to VA Tech this year.

Fantasy Player to Watch

I’ll be blunt. You have to be pretty desperate to want to look at someone from Virginia for your fantasy team, unless you either have a really good feeling about someone on the team, or you are a parent/friend/relative of a player. I don’t have any confidence in anyone on this team right now.

 

There is a lot of optimism that Mike London will turn the ship around. But he will need a couple of recruiting classes under his belt and improve the talent before we can start thinking about bowl games for UVA. And he is off to a good start with recruiting, going head to head with Virginia Tech for some in state recruits, and having more success than Al Groh had. But as far as this year goes, I think Virginia fans should be happy enough to improve on last year. And I think they will. I think Virginia wins five games this year, which will be a step in the right direction for this program.