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Miranda Mason reports on Virginia’s Spring Game. |
Leafless trees served as the backdrop for the Virginia football team’s annual Spring Game on April’s first Saturday. While signs of new life hadn’t hit the limbs yet, they were everywhere on the field for the Cavaliers as the Orange and Blue teams squared off with new coordinators calling the shots and new faces getting chances at many positions. The afternoon resulted in an 18-15 win for the Orange team and provided a glimpse of some of the alterations under way in Charlottesville.
Only time will tell if those changes pay off for the Hoos, but the offseason’s 12th practice (the NCAA allows 15 and UVa will use its final 3 dates after the Spring Game) showed signs for both encouragement and concern.
“For us being that it was the 12th practice of putting everything in, and obviously there wasn’t a whole lot on the menu of what you’ve put in, the big thing was to see execution,” Hoo coach Mike London said. “You saw some good things. You saw the coaches off the field [and players dealing] with situations of where the ball is, management of substitutions, and of the clock because you have to be aware of those things. … There were some good things there but all obviously some things we need to continue to work on.”
On the positive side of the ledger, the defense stole the show. Jon Tenuta, Virginia’s new defensive coordinator, came to town with the reputation of an aggressive mindset within a 4-3 scheme. That certainly showed up Saturday, though the success was aided both by the simplistic nature of spring games and the no-tackle rule for quarterbacks. The defenses combined for 14 sacks, including 2 safeties, and 22 total tackles for loss, including 1 safety, as well as 9 pass break-ups.
Brent Urban led the way for Orange with 5 tackles, which included 3.5 sacks, and 2 pass break-ups. Fellow defensive tackle David Dean added 3 tackles (1 sack), while end Eli Harold posted 3.5 tackles (1 sack). Maurice Canady recorded 4.5 tackles to lead the secondary, while Daquan Romero paced the linebackers with 4 tackles (1 sack) and 1 pass break-up. On the blue side, D-End Trent Corney (5 tackles) and linebacker Mark Hall (3.5 tackles) each had 2 sacks to lead that category. Linebacker Kwontie Moore tallied 7.5 tackles (game-high), while the secondary’s Kelvin Rainey and Rijo Walker registered 6.5 and 5.5 tackles respectively. Walker’s line included a sack too.
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Greyson Lambert tossed a pair of TD passes. |
Many defensive players visited with the media after the game and the verdict is in: they love the new aggressive mindset.
“It’s a lot of fun because now we’re getting after it more, we’re more aggressive,” Romero said. “We’re not really waiting for what the offense is doing. We’re dictating what the offense is doing instead of them dictating what we’re doing. So it’s a lot of fun, a lot of energy, a lot more sacks, and a lot more plays being made.”
“We loved it, but there’s always room for improvement so you can’t get too big-headed,” Harold said. “All around, it was a good day.”
Of course, as is always the case with intra-squad scrimmages, the defense’s solid day with sacks means there were some problems on the offensive line, most notably on the interior. The lines showed some issues with picking up the varying blitzes and front-four stunts throughout the game. Looking beyond the sack stats, the offenses also allowed 8 other tackles for loss as several running plays were stuffed at the point of attack. Taking out the lost yardage from the quarterbacks, Virginia rushed for 99 yards on 39 carries. That’s an average of 2.5 yards per carry. Again, the unsophisticated nature of spring games contributed to that as the offenses showed only basic style runs, but there’s still some reason for concern with the tough schedule waiting in the fall. Kevin Parks led the Blue with 11 carries for 20 yards and 1 TD. Clifton Richardson led the Orange with 41 yards on 11 carries.
The good news for the offense came on two fronts. First, there were no turnovers in the game despite the constant personnel rotation. Second, the passing game took advantage of some openings despite the pressure being created up front. The Cavaliers played three quarterbacks and they combined for 392 yards on 34-of-64 passing (53.1%).
David Watford opened the game as the No. 1 quarterback, but he rotated with both Greyson Lambert and Phillip Sims with both the Orange and Blue teams. Watford finished 5-10 for 55 yards with 0 touchdowns and 0 interceptions; he added a 17-yard rushing touchdown as well on a day when the quarterbacks weren’t allowed to be tackled. Sims completed 8 of 18 passes for 89 yards with 0 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.
Lambert, meanwhile, had the best day of the trio. He connected on 21 of 36 passes for 248 yards. The Georgia native tossed 2 touchdown passes and was the quarterback on a third scores as well, accounting for 3 of the 4 TD drives. He led a two-minute drill drive for a touchdown by the blue team near the end of the scrimmage. Plus, Lambert also seemed to handle the inconsistent pockets the most calmly in many situations (note, though, that the no-tackle rule impacts Watford as much as anyone due to his scrambling ability).
The leading receivers on the day were Adrian Gamble (5 catches-82 yards), E.J. Scott (5-76), Tim Smith (5-73), and Miles Gooch (4-30).
London said no decision has been made about whether a starter will be named at quarterback following spring practice.
“We’d like to be able see how far or how far away or how close someone is [to being the starter],” London said. “We purposely wanted to give them opportunities to play with the first team center, the first team offensive line, the receivers, the running backs, and try to create a level playing field where the evaluation can be based on their execution. As we finish up with these last three practices, we’ll make a decision whether or not we come out with 1-2 or we go into early August camp still saying we need more and need to find out more about what guys can do with this system.”
The Cavaliers now turn their focus to the spring’s final three practices and the opponents at the start of the 2013 schedule. London said the practices would focus on some preliminary preparations for BYU an Oregon, who the team faces on Aug. 31 and Sept. 7, as well as Georgia Tech (Oct. 26) due to the Yellow Jackets’ unique triple option attack.
“You look at the staffs to see if any coordinators have changed and the probability that they’ll remain who they are or do things very similar so you take some of those aspects,” London said. “BYU is a very physical team. It will take every ounce of what we’re doing to get ready for a team that plays two tight ends and has big running backs. Then you have Oregon who is a wide-open attack team. There’s different elements of what they have. So we’ll continue to take care of ourselves from a fundamentals standpoint but also to try to implement a pre-game plan of what we’ll do, what we’ll line up in, and what defenses Jon and Steve offensively think we can employ. The last practice will probably be a Georgia Tech practice because that’s an offense you don’t see. Those last three practices we’ll take care of ourselves, but also try to spend some time on those other teams.”
