It’s fair to say that Mark Atuaia is an optimist. Virginia’s new running backs coach wears a smile as a near permanent accessory. It’s also fair to say that the optimism isn’t misguided when it comes to his position group.
While some of the assistant coaches have inherited positions short on depth, experience, or both, Atuaia walked into a great situation at UVA. He has plenty of talented options on the depth chart and four running backs with experience. As a result, he hasn’t targeted a set number of reps in practice and plans to use the full quartet in games this season. With an offense that wants to rattle off plays rapidly, there should be plenty of chances for Taquan Mizzell, Albert Reid, Daniel Hamm, and Jordan Ellis to get on the field.
After some hard work in the offseason, Atuaia isn’t even sure that it is necessary to divide the backs into too tight of roles at this point either. He used Mizzell as an example in that regard.
”It’s hard. It really is hard to pinpoint who is better at what,” Atuaia said during a teleconference Wednesday. ”There are guys like Smoke – Smoke is an exceptional receiver and you know what his track record and what his body of work has proven, but he’s also become a really good blocker as of late.”
Mizzell, of course, is one of the more well-known names on the roster. He entered Virginia with a nifty nickname – Smoke because it’s hard to get your hands on him – and lofty rankings – the first five star recruit to head to UVA since Eugene Monroe in 2005. That alone drew plenty of attention.
Since then, Mizzell has earned All-ACC third-team honors a year ago after a productive season that saw him finish the regular season No. 2 in the ACC with 1,488 all-purpose yards. He broke the ACC record for receiving yards in a season by a running back with 721 and his 75 catches are No. 2 all-time in league history. Mizzell led UVA with 671 rushing yards as well, becoming just the fifth player in program history to reach 1,000 career yards in both rushing and receiving. Frank Quayle, Terry Kirby, Alvin Pearman, and Perry Jones are the others.
Atuaia’s expectations for him are higher.
”With our offense, I expect more,” Atuaia said. ”I really do. He’s going to have to work on a couple of other things in his game, I alluded to it earlier blocking, and he is. He’s going to be a complete back in this offense. We’ll use him in that way. Rushing. Out of the backfield. He’s a dynamic player and we’re going to take advantage of that.”
There could be room for Reid, Hamm, and Ellis to put up more numbers too. Reid tallied 360 rushing yards with three touchdowns and 12 receptions for 47 yards. Hamm posted 57 carries for 242 yards and one touchdown. Ellis logged 24 carries for 74 yards and two touchdowns.
Atuaia compared Reid and fullback Connor Wingo-Reeves to his best speed back/big back combo at BYU last year so with so much athleticism and speed on hand at UVA, he’s “very excited” with the skill level on hand and is ready to “unleash them” on the field in a few weeks.
A Precise Plan
It probably isn’t a surprise at this point, considering just how meticulous Bronco Mendenhall has been with warmups, the locker room space, and more, but the practice outline each day is very specific for players. While the action never stops with players sprinting from drill to drill, seven on seven action going two directions at times, and players taking ghost reps even when it isn’t their turn, there are a set number of plays designed for certain personnel.
That’s led to a fairly healthy training camp so far with Mendenhall noting on Saturday that the receivers had the most wear and tear so far. Even there, however, Olamide Zaccheaus and Andre Levrone are expected back so there has been nothing season-altering.
”We’re being very intentional with who practices and how much,” Mendenhall said Saturday. ”With our GPS systems and our monitoring and our load analysis, we schedule practices with just the right balance of culture development, work capacity, and execution. So far, so good.”
Offensive line coach Garett Tujague said Monday that there is a precise plan each day for his group. The goal is to keep guys fresh – the O-Line had just 14 players listed on the roster at the start of preseason practice – but also prepare them for the go-go-go speed of the offense.
”Absolutely. As we go into each practice, we have with a set number of reps for each guy in an 11 on 11 setting,” Tujague said. ”So we monitor that and have a good rotation going to try to keep as many guys as fresh as possible but still have that training camp strain to be able to fight for 65 to 95 plays, that’s what we’re building up to.”
Be Loud
One of the more noticeable things from the early practices open to the media was just how loud and intense the communication level looked for the defense. Make not mistake that all defenses communicate – it’s a necessity – but Virginia had multiple players shouting out calls to each other, the sideline fully engaged, and just an overall noisy vibe on the field. It was organized chaos in a sense.
”The coaches have been stressing that a good defense is a loud defense,” UVA linebacker Zach Bradshaw said. ”Looking at it from the outside in, it might seem like it’s just a bunch of crazy people in there shouting random stuff but communication is really key for us, especially when they’re motioning and resetting the offensive formation. If you’re not communicating, it’s really easy to get your assignment mixed up.”
Knock, Knock
UVA players took trips around Charlottesville to deliver season tickets and Virginia Sports TV shared some of the moments.
