Virginia fans should be plenty familiar with most of the secondary this fall. Four of the top five names on the depth chart, after all, have logged significant snaps throughout their careers. In fact, Quin Blanding, Maurice Canady, Tim Harris, and Demetrious Nicholson have combined for 77 starts in the orange and blue.

The Cavaliers are counting on that experience to help take some pressure off of the front seven where there will be three new linebackers and at least one new lineman in the starting lineup. Nicholson’s 31 starts make him the elder statesman in the group, though he is coming off a long absence due to injury. Canady has 22 starts of his own, including every game last season. Blanding and Harris, meanwhile, have 12 starts each with Blanding starting every game of his freshman season in 2014.

Blanding is the obvious place to start the discussion because he led the team in tackles last season with 123 stops, which ranked him among the top 25 players in the nation. He has the ability to be strong against the run and the pass, something also obvious in the stats where he had a team-leading three interceptions as well.

Blanding has a good sense of what he sees on the field and makes quick reads both pre and post snap, which usually puts him in position to be part of the play. He’ll need those smarts more this season than last when veteran Anthony Harris could help make decisions in the secondary. That could put him in position to make even more plays in his sophomore season.

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