For the lead-in segment of The Sampler – a postgame sampler platter style look at that week’s football matchup – I’m going to change it up this year. This season, the opening segment will focus on a few plays in the game and what happened on those plays. Consider it like a mini version of film study.

This week, there are three plays to study from the UCLA game.

Mizzell In The Slot

A lot of message board posts have praised Taquan Mizzell’s potential as a slot receiver. While the offense had a lot of frustrating moments against the Bruins, one thing UVa did well was moving Mizzell around to try to maximize his skill set. An example of that came on the first drive of the game when Mizzell twice lined up as a slot receiver. The first gained 10 yards on a receiver screen.

The second slot receiver play on that drive is the focus here. It gained 19 yards and pushed Virginia into field goal territory at the UCLA 32-yard line. UVa set up initially in an I-Formation look with two tight ends and a solo receiver, but then shifted into an empty backfield set.

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