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The Hoos open practice Monday. |
The Virginia football program checked off another preseason ritual on Friday when it held Media Day at the John Paul Jones Arena. The new coaching staff under Mike London remained among the main themes of the day as the Cavaliers prepare for their first season with three new coordinators in place. Steve Fairchild will guide the offense and Jon Tenuta will lead the defense, while Larry Lewis has taken over the special teams.
Those coaches step into the roles vacated by Bill Lazor, Jim Reid, and Anthony Poindexter. Lazor moved on to the NFL, while Reid joined the staff in Iowa. Poindexter dropped his special teams coordinator title but is still a key part of the staff at Virginia. After a 4-8 season in 2012, the offseason moves have been described at times as a reset button for London’s program at UVa.
London views the offseason steps as part an ongoing process to build the program, not as a complete reboot.
“You want to build a program and there’s a process that’s involved with it. You have your schemes and your systems and you’re moving forward. It’s true. We have three new coordinators, offensively, defensively, and special teams wise,” London said. “Is there a learning curve? Absolutely. Are there things that Steve, Larry, and Jon want the guys to know right off the bat? Absolutely. … I think there is a little bit of an adjustment with that, but the attitude of the players is one of eagerness, one ready to play, wanting to play.”
Fairchild is expected to use a pro-style system similar to Lazor’s offense, but potentially with more wrinkles. Tenuta is keeping a 4-3 defense intact at Virginia, but his schemes are noted for their aggressive nature and use of personnel in specific roles. Lewis, meanwhile, is a bit of mystery other than the fact that he has been a special teams guru throughout his career. London anticipates quick results on special teams from someone with some unorthodox looks in the mix.
“I expect an immediate impact. That’s why he’s here,” London said. “I think you’ll see a different style and approach, an aggressive style of special teams play, a style that’s very fast, a little unconventional as far as formations and alignments. Those things you can do from a special teams standpoint to cause the other team to hurry up and get lined up and try to defense what you’re doing, it always give you a little bit of an advantage.”
With so many new coaches on staff – and Fairchild, Lewis, and Tom O’Brien all have been college head coaches previously – there have been some concerns among fans this offseason about a clash of egos in the program. That has not been the case to date, though.
“You know what’s really cool is to sit in that meeting with other guys that have that kind of experience and know that you have a sounding board with whatever comes up,” Lewis said. “It’s really cool to listen to the experience and some of their advice and directions. It’s really neat. As long as I’ve coached, I sit in that meeting and I learn things every day. It’s from a different perspective and a different personality and experience. … I think that we’re all mature enough that we can disagree as long as when we come to a decision and we walk out of that room this is how we’re doing it. It’s not an argument, but it is a good discussion because it’s great experience sitting in there.”
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Cascarano Likely Out
Senior offensive lineman Sean Cascarano is not expected to take part in practice as the Cavaliers begin their season on Monday. Cascarano has a hip injury that is “not responding the way we had hoped,” London said. It is doubtful that Cascarano will play this season.
“It looks like because of the hip injury – I know he wants to be a trooper and wants to play and wants to get out there, but you’re talking about a guy that had two shoulder surgeries, has this hip issue now, and I’m thinking about life after football for him,” London said. “He may not be a guy that will be in the mix for us just thinking for his well being.”
More Carries For Parks?
UVa junior running back Kevin Parks led the team with 160 carries last season. Even so, he split carries nearly 50-50 with Perry Jones the last two seasons but still remained a consistent producer. Through two seasons, Parks has 312 carries, 1,443 yards, and 14 touchdowns. He has averaged 4.6 yards per carry.
As the only running back on the roster now with considerable experience carrying the football (Khalek Shepherd has 24 career carries), London was asked if Parks could be used as more of a workhorse for the offense this season.
“It’s hard to say right now with the first practice being on Monday. We look at a talented group of running backs there. You don’t want to count reps right now. You just want to get them out there and see who can do what,” London said. “Obviously, Kevin’s accolades coming from North Carolina, state player of the year there when he came out, and the yardage he has now speaks for itself. We’re all about finding the best players to give us an opportunity in the running game with the running backs we have.”
The Importance Of August
Steve Fairchild, UVa’s new offensive coordinator, put August in perspective on Media Day when he said that your season’s practices are essentially halfway completed by the season-opening game. With that in mind, he knows how important it is to establish an identity and a mentality during this month of practice that leads up to the opener with BYU on Saturday, Aug. 31 at 3:30 p.m. To Fairchild, that means having a tough attitude in the running game, an expectation of low turnovers, and eliminating mistakes in alignments and assignments.
“We’ve certainly got to develop some toughness in our run game,” Fairchild said. “I think it really starts and we’ll talk to our offense the first meeting about this and I still believe this and no one is going to convince me otherwise, we’ll give ourselves a chance to win if we don’t beat ourselves. We’ve got to start from day one in fall camp not turning the ball over and not doing unforced errors. If we can line up right, attempt to do the right assignment, do it in a play hard, play fast way and protect the football, you’ll be amazed how many games you’re in at that point.”
The other piece of August training camp is to finish installing the new system. Fairchild said after the spring practice period the team had approximately 75% of the system in place.
Worth Quoting
Offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild on incoming 5-star recruit Taquan Mizzell , a running back: “I did look at his recruiting tape and obviously got to know him a little bit. I’m excited about what he maybe can bring to the table. Again, anybody who is new you don’t want to be counting on too much but we’re certainly going to find out what he can do here once we get going.”
Rule Change Concerns
Cavalier defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta fielded questions from the media as well. One query focused on the rule changes in college football that could lead to player ejections on defense. The new rule for targeting automatically will eject any player who intentionally delivers a blow above the shoulders of a defenseless player in addition to the 15-yard personal foul penalty. If the ejection occurs in the first half, it is for the remainder of the game; if the ejection occurs in the second half or overtime, it is for the remainder of the game plus the first half of the next scheduled game. (Replay can be used to determine if the hit was intentional and deserving of ejection.)
Tenuta said he isn’t worried about the change.
“If you don’t coach that, then you shouldn’t have a problem with that,” he said. “To me, those guys are just plain head hunters. I mean that’s what they’re going for. If you teach basic fundamentals, how to fit, and not lead with the crown of the head and don’t get into trying to do that then I think you’ll be fine.”
Special Teams Nuggets
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Alec Vozenilek |
Special teams coordinator Larry Lewis addressed a variety of topics with the media. Some things to keep in mind as the Cavaliers open practice Monday:
- In regard to using offensive and defensive starters on special teams, Lewis said the main key there is to evaluate how many plays those players will log overall in the game. Special teams, he said, can add 25-30 extra plays to the tally so if a player is already taking a lot of snaps on offense and defense, you have to pick and choose where they can contribute on special teams. He did say that he would like to use guys on special teams that are first or second team performers on offense or defense.
- Lewis said he would like to have a single punt returner, not rotate players at that position.
- Lewis said that you can mix it up more on kick returns, but that he still prefers to have the same two guys back there most of the time.
- Khalek Shepherd returned all of the punts for UVa last season and 42 of the 55 kickoffs. Lewis said Shepherd needs to be in the return mix somewhere this season. He also said that true freshmen like Taquan Mizzell will get a look in the return game and that the coaches will “find out who is the best.”
- At punter, Alec Vozenilek “is way ahead right now. He’s way ahead in consistency and experience from what I’ve seen right now.”
- At kicker, things are not as settled. “I’m not settled on any one guy at this point. We’ve got R.C. Willenbrock coming in. I thought Dylan Sims finished up really, really well. He didn’t start off as good, but I thought he finished well. Ian [Frye] started better and didn’t finish as good. I think there’s some consistency we need to get from all of those guys.”
LaChaston Smith At Running Back
True freshman LaChaston Smith (6’2″, 215) enrolled at the University of Virginia in January and participated in spring practice. He took snaps at linebacker throughout the spring, but has moved to running back on the latest roster. At South Iredell High School in North Carolina, he was named MVP of the AA state title game after rushing 25 times for 159 yards and 3 touchdowns. In the opening round of the playoffs, he rushed for a state single-game record of 7 touchdowns on 13 carries for 191 yards. He missed most of his senior season with an injury prior to the playoffs.
“I do know that he’s very excited to move to that position and I know that in high school he had a very, very good career as a running back,” Lewis said. “I think if he can add to the depth that we have and to that power game that you’re talking about because he is a big ol’ physical kid that can run … let’s see.”
