The Blue defense outpaced the Orange offense in Virginia’s Spring Game on a warm Saturday at Scott Stadium. In a format where only the offense could score, the “Virginia” team defeated the “Cavaliers” 13-7 on the scoreboard, but the defense snared most of the success on the afternoon.
Overall, the defense logged 19 tackles for loss, 9 sacks, 7 pass break-ups, and 4 interceptions in the scrimmage. Henry Coley led the way with 12 tackles (2 tackles for loss) and 1 pass break-up, while Max Valles added 7 tackles (2 sacks, 3.5 tackles for loss). Eli Harold added 6 tackles (2 sacks, 2 tackles for loss) and 1 pass break-up, while Kirk Garner tallied 6 tackles (2 sacks, 2 tackles for loss) with 1 interception and 1 pass break-up. Mason Thomas came up with 2 interceptions, while Brandon Phelps had 1 interception too.
Cavalier coach Mike London is encouraged by the defense’s potential.
“I believe we can be pretty good defensively,” London said. “Particularly with the rush. … It was good to see. I believe we’ll be able to provide some pressure.”
The offense did not have Kevin Parks, Jake McGee, and some others available, but it did string together some scoring opportunities. Greyson Lambert lined up at quarterback for most of those points. Lambert engineered a field goal drive early in the practice and also threw a pair of touchdown passes. He finished the day 18-of-31 passing for 220 yards with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions while only being sacked once. Lambert also rushed for 7 yards on 6 carries.
Lambert’s two touchdown throws went to the some of the day’s top producers. Andre Levrone pulled down the first one on a fade route into the left side of the end zone, while Kyle Dockins hauled in the second one late in the scrimmage on a sit-down route in the middle where the ball was thrown to his outside shoulder. Dockins led all receivers with 8 catches for 74 yards, while Levrone had 4 catches for 60 yards.
Lambert’s two interceptions, meanwhile, were thrown into heavy coverage. The first was a forced throw into the end zone where Thomas came up with a tipped-ball interception. There were three or four blue defensive jerseys in the area when Lambert tried to throw a jump ball to Keeon Johnson late in the play. The second INT came when Lambert misidentified the coverage and threw a man read into a zone defense; Thomas made that pick too.
“The first one, I got greedy,” Lambert said. “The second one was I had a man look on the tight end, but they played zone on the other side. I did not see the zone defender. I was looking at the man defender and threw the man route. Coach said we’ll see that on film and learn from that one. They’re both on me, but the first one was big time – I mean that was bad.”
Despite the miscues, the other quarterbacks did not match Lambert’s production. David Watford completed 4 of 14 passes for 31 yards with 2 interceptions. He was sacked 3 times. Matt Johns, meanwhile, completed 6 of 19 passes for 43 yards and was also sacked 3 times. Johns did gain 20 yards on some read option carries, but finished with just 3 yards on 6 carries due to the sacks.
No official depth chart has been published at quarterback or elsewhere, but Lambert attempted the most passes in the game and opened the first series at quarterback. He spent most of the day working with those linemen and skill players, though all the QBs received chances with the each unit, including the apparent first team that opened the game.
London said that the coaches will fully break down the spring film in the next several weeks. There is also a new NCAA rule change that will allow the football coaches to work with players in a limited capacity (it is similar to the 2-hour per week rule in place for men’s basketball) over the summer weeks. While London said the staff “quite possibly” could name a starter by August, he wants to make sure that the coaches fully evaluate the players.
“We’ll make that decision early. We’ll make that decision soon. We’ll make that decision when all the opportunities to evaluate these guys present themselves,” London said.
Lambert has been named a captain along with senior safety Anthony Harris, senior linebacker Henry Coley, and senior running back Kevin Parks. Lambert is also on the team’s leadership council selected by London and the coaches. The other leadership council members are Coley, Harris, Parks, McGee, Harold, Ross Burbank, Conner Davis, Darius Jennings, Demetrious Nicholson, Alec Vozenilek, Will Wahee, and Jay Whitmire.
Watford had been a member of that leadership council last season.
“There are some things that you have to do to stay in it and to continue to represent some of the ideas that I think are important,” London said. “Every once in a while, somebody comes up short of meeting an expectation and I have no doubt David will get himself back in a position where he’ll be involved in that leadership council.”
While the quarterbacks and passing game received a lot of attention, the running game really struggled. Taquan Mizzell had 9 carries for 28 yards to lead the way at 3.1 yards per carry. Kye Morgan added 11 carries for 25 yards, while LaChaston Smith totaled 12 carries for 23 yards. Khalek Shepherd posted 7 carries for 14 yards and Anthony Calloway rounded out the backs with 2 carries for 6 yards. That’s 41 carries for 96 yards. That’s 2.3 yards per carry for the unit.
The offense also picked up several false start and holding penalties in addition to the tough day in the running department. Add in the sacks and interceptions from the passing game and there is more work to do by the fall.
“From the start of the spring until now, we’ve just tried to be consistent. Performance and production is what is written on our doors and every time we go out on the field that’s what we see. Consistency in both of those areas is key obviously,” Lambert said. “That’s been our main focus and up until today that’s what we’ve been. Today had its ups and downs, but we’ve been able to put some consistent practices together.”
