Jack English never anticipated playing offensive tackle when he joined the Virginia football program. In the end, his Cavalier career would take a path far more winding than the straight shot across I-64 from St. Christopher’s in Richmond.
English began his work at UVA as a defensive end, switched to offense, and just 10 weeks into his redshirt freshman season in 2014 found himself on the field at Doak Campbell Stadium. The Tomahawk chop was going and Florida State sent players like Mario Edwards Jr., now in the NFL with the Raiders, out at defensive end. While he played on the line in three other games earlier that season, that atmosphere against a team known for its speed qualifies as baptism by fire.
”It took me a little while just to get the basics and I’m still learning obviously every day,” English said. ”When I was young, it was something that I was able to get the feet going and it was just a matter of putting on weight and adding size because my first time I played significant snaps was down in Tallahassee against Florida State and I was about 265 as a redshirt freshman. So that was definitely an experience and something I learned to grow off of a lot.”
That season started the journey at tackle for English, who wrapped up spring as one of UVA’s healthy and most reliable linemen. Cavalier coach Bronco Mendenhall called his performance in the spring “consistent” for a group that got a lot of reps and made progress up front.
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