Virginia linebacker Chris Peace studies the video in front of him. Just as the quarterback begins his cadence to put the play into action, he hits a button.

Frame by frame, the video rolls. Peace stares at the ball and the reaction of the players around it. Another button. Freeze. One player is sometimes the last to react. It’s not a mirror, but the reflection is still strong for the rising junior from Newport News.

”As soon as the quarterback starts his cadence, I just click the slow mo and try to see if I’m the first person off the ball, even faster than the O-linemen,” Peace said. ”As soon as that ball is moving, am I moving? It did [surprise] me. Last year, sometimes the quarterback would already have the ball in his hand and I’d be just now moving. On film, that’s the first thing I look at.”

Those slow motion images in part fueled the offseason for Peace. He dissected his game film and targeted his get-off – that moment when a defensive player reacts to the snap – for improvement. Being the last player off the ball more often than he would like didn’t sit well with him.

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