Heavy expectations accompanied Taquan Mizzell when he joined the Virginia football program. That comes with the territory when you’re the first 5-star recruit in eight years for a program and you were a scoring machine as a high senior with 31 touchdowns.

A nickname like Smoke – because defenders couldn’t get their hands around him in high school – only added to the hype. Hoo fans hoped for a lot of explosive fire to go with that smoke mystique. While Mizzell has been productive, he hasn’t delivered that sort of sizzle thus far at Virginia.

That may be changing for Mizzell as he enters his junior season. This spring, new running back coach Chris Beatty has been in Mizzell’s ear, telling The Daily Progress in this article that there “was too much dancing” from the running back. The message appears to be taking root.

“Yeah you can definitely tell he’s matured a lot more,” Virginia safety Kelvin Rainey said. “He understands that he can’t be back there shaking it up. The coaches have done a great job with him – they tell him to plant his foot and go. When he does that, he’s probably one of the best running backs in the nation I think.”

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