Virginia Football: Five Questions the Cavaliers Must Answer in Fall Camp

Just one month remains until the start of the 2024 college football season. With Virginia officially starting fall camp on Wednesday, let’s take a look at five questions the Cavaliers must answer in these 25 very important practices as they begin their final preparations for the 2024 UVA football season.

There are plenty of intriguing storylines and interesting position battles to watch during fall camp, but undoubtedly the one with the biggest implications is the most important position on the field, quarterback, where the Cavaliers have two returning players who each started six games last season. We won’t discuss the merits of both quarterbacks at length here, as there’s nothing to do at this point but let it play out in camp, which is exactly what Tony Elliott has said all offseason.

Briefly, though, the argument for each quarterback to earn the starting job is as follows. Tony Muskett was the starter whenever he was healthy, led the Cavaliers to wins at North Carolina and over William & Mary and nearly picked up wins over Boston College and Miami as well, has the advantage in experience and is arguably the more on-schedule quarterback. Anthony Colandrea also won a big game against Duke, probably has a higher ceiling in terms of potential, is better at improvisation and scrambling, and, although it’s admittedly a less meritorious reason, Virginia might lean towards starting him simply because he is the future of the program while Muskett is in his final year of eligibility.

Tony Elliott hasn’t given any indication that he’s leaning either way, though, so it seems that the depth chart will ultimately be determined by performance in fall camp.

UVA brings back a great deal of experience on both sides of the line of scrimmage, where it’s always said football games are won and lost. The Cavaliers need their offensive line to continue to develop chemistry as one cohesive unit and find a rhythm from a run blocking standpoint, while their defensive line desperately needs to be more effective in pass rushing. Both units need to stay healthy above all else.

On the offensive line, Virginia brings back a few players who have some experience under their belt and who showed flashes of quality during the 2023 season. Brian Stevens, McKale Boley, Noah Josey, and Blake Steen are likely to be part of UVA’s starting five with that last spot going to Ty Furnish or Dartmouth transfer Ethan Sipe. The unit’s depth is in a decent spot with Jimmy Christ, Houston Curry, and Ugonna Nnanna, but it would’ve been better if not for an injury to UCF transfer Drake Metcalf, who is likely to miss most of the season. Most importantly, the top five need to stay healthy, build synergy, and set the tone up front so as to establish the run and keep the quarterback’s jersey clean, things that haven’t been true for the Cavaliers in years.

On the other side of the ball, Virginia has a lot of experience returning on the defensive line, with the most exciting returner being Kam Butler, who wants to pick up where he left off as he had 3.5 sacks and five tackles for loss in less than four games played before suffering a season-ending injury. UVA needs the 2022 version of Chico Bennett (seven sacks vs. 0 in 2023), big final years for Jahmeer Carter and Ben Smiley, and possibly breakout campaigns for Mekhi Buchanan or Bryce Carter. Virginia ranked dead last in the ACC in sacks last season – that has to change.

Virginia has a lot of depth at wide receiver, with returners Malachi Fields, JR Wilson, Suderian Harrison, and Jaden Gibson being joined by a trio of transfers in Chris Tyree, Andre Greene Jr., and Trell Harris. The same can be said for the secondary, where newcomers Corey Thomas, Kendren Smith, Jam Jackson, and Kempton Shine join a DB room that features returners like Jonas Sanker, Antonio Clary, Dre Walker, Malcolm Greene, Elijah Gaines, Aidan Ryan, Micah Gaffney, and Caleb Hardy. For the defensive backs, and to a lesser extent, the wide receivers, there’s simply an issue of too many quality and experienced players for too few spots. That’s a good problem for Virginia to have, but it will be interesting to see who rises to the top and what the two-deep looks like at these positions by the end of fall camp.

Kobe Pace is almost guaranteed to be Virginia’s starting running back this season as the lone returner from UVA’s trio of main tailbacks from last season with Perris Jones and Mike Hollins both gone. The former Clemson transfer is solid, racking up 558 all-purpose yards and four total touchdowns last season and he’ll look to take a big step towards returning to his peak form from the 2021 season, when Pace averaged 6.2 yards per carry as a lead back for the Tigers.

But there’s a huge question mark after Pace on the depth chart. Other candidates for RB2 are Xavier Brown, who had a great freshman season in 2022 but missed almost all of last year with an injury, Noah Vaughn, who redshirted last year but had a great spring and has gotten rave reviews from Tony Elliott and the coaching staff, and then Jack Griese, who is being mentioned here because the walk-on is technically Virginia’s second-leading returning running back after Kobe Pace.

Whether the Cavaliers can finally get their run game going (13th in the ACC in 2023 at 117.9 rushing yards per game) will have more to do with playcalling and the blocking execution by the offensive line, but you still have to have some amount of reliability from the actual ball carrier hitting the holes. Virginia needs a big season from Kobe Pace, but someone else (Brown, Vaughn, Griese) will have to step up too.

Health is always an issue in football. Injuries are just an unfortunately common aspect of the sport. We know that the Cavaliers are already down a couple of offensive linemen before fall camp even starts, but even though injuries are inevitable, it’s important to do everything possible to keep them to a minimum during fall camp. Yes, it’s necessary to train hard and prepare with intensity for the season, but not at the cost of arriving at week 1 with a lengthy injury report. Especially considering some of the “most winnable” games on the schedule are in the early portion of the year, Virginia must limit the injuries during fall camp and start the season as close to full strength as possible.

It was at least partially a product of the youth of the team and perhaps the relative inexperience of the coaching staff, but Virginia’s 3-9 record in 2023 included a one-point loss, three defeats by three points, and five total losses by one possession. The Cavaliers also won a pair of close games against North Carolina and Duke, but it’s hard not to imagine how different the outlook and sentiment around the program would be if Virginia had managed to close out a couple more games and turn in a 5-7 or 6-6 record. It’s difficult to show improvement in this area during fall camp where there isn’t a game being played and no high-pressure fourth quarter situations to maneuver. But given how thin the margin separating victory and defeat proved to be for Virginia last season, each and every rep in each and every practice in fall camp could very well make the difference.

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