Virginia receiver Canaan Severin left an impression after the Notre Dame game, resulting in the ACC Receiver of the Week honor and praise from Irish coach Brian Kelly.
Severin hauled in 11 catches for 153 yards from quarterback Matt Johns in UVa’s 34-27 loss. He set new career highs in receptions, yards, and for his longest catch, a 38-yarder. Four of Severin’s catches produced a first down on third-and-long or fourth down and the aforementioned 38-yard reception, a first down throw, set up the first touchdown of the game for the Hoos.
“Well, our focus was on [Taquan] Mizzell quite frankly,” Kelly said. “Not that we didn’t think Severin was a good player, but he physically was able to dictate a lot of the things that occurred in the game. He was able to use his size, his strength against our defenders. I just thought his desire and will to go get the football was outstanding. But I think the overriding factor was Johns was outstanding at getting him the football and putting the football in a good position where he could go up and use his size against our defensive backs.”
Severin has emerged over the last 14 games as a go-to receiver for the Cavaliers. He led the team in receptions, yards, and receiving touchdowns last season. Though he hasn’t made it to the end zone yet in 2015, he is leading the team in the other two categories with 16 receptions and 211 yards.
Against Notre Dame’s defense, he found spots in the middle of the field to settle into openings and then broke outside to mix in a couple of big gainers as well. At 6’2″ and 205 pounds, he’s able to create space over the middle with his strength and his height allows him to be a threat outside of the hash marks as well. Severin has great hands too so he makes a lot of difficult catches cleanly.
“I think one of the things that Canaan does well is be able to read the soft part of the coverages, whether it’s cover three, cover four, man to man, whatever it might be,” Virginia coach Mike London said.
Bouncing Back
Virginia cornerback Maurice Canady was ‘highly upset’ after the Notre Dame game according to Coach London. Canady had the assignment on the Irish’s touchdown pass with 12 seconds to go. Will Fuller got past Canady on an outside release and then beat him to the pylon to make the game-winning catch.
London, a former college defensive back as well, said that he believes Canady will rebound from that play and continue to be an important piece of the UVa defense. Canady is second on the team with two pass breakups this season. He led the team in that category in 2014 with 12, while matching Quin Blanding for the team lead with three interceptions.
“I believe in Maurice Canady,” London said. “I love him. He is a great young man that takes a lot of pride in playing well. You talk about a guy that was distraught and highly upset, he was one of them. I would say, ‘Listen, got to have a short memory.’ You can’t forget, but don’t let it linger. He’s going to play against the other team’s best receivers. That’s how good he is. You win some and you lose some. This one cost us. As a defensive back, you got to have a short memory, then move on to the things that are going to allow you to be successful, whether it’s man coverage, zone coverage, whatever it is. Maurice Canady will rise to the occasion. I believe that.”
A New O On O
With injuries across the roster at receiver – T.J. Thorpe, Doni Dowling, and Andre Levrone in particular – the Cavaliers have turned to two true freshman in Olamide Zaccheaus (pronounced Oh-lama-day Za-key-us) and David Eldridge as part of the rotation. Zaccheaus, or O as the team has started to call him, has had the more prominent role so far thanks to a playmaking knack that showed up early in training camp.
The converted running back made two catches for 25 yards and added two rushes for 39 yards against the Irish. He’s got a good burst of speed as soon as he touches the ball and appears decisive with his cuts as well. Zaccheaus posted more than 1,000 combined yards (683 rushing and 388 receiving) with 13 touchdowns (nine rushing and four receiving) as a high school senior at St. Joseph’s Prep (Philadelphia) in 2014.
“O is a young man that was the offensive player of the year coming out of his high school – very athletic guy,” London said. “He lined up originally, came in with the running backs. Proved shortly after we started training camp that he’s got exceptional skills. We started talking about playmakers, we lost a couple, a couple, T.J., Doni – how could we make that up. That’s one of the things we saw early on, he has a chance, an opportunity. It goes back to running the ball. Sometimes it’s downhill direct, other times in his case it was on some jet sweeps. He is a guy that will continue to get more reps and more opportunities and not just on jet sweeps, but we will game plan other things to give him other opportunities.”
Worth Noting
- Mike Moore is now listed as the starting strong-side linebacker after playing a lot of snaps there against Notre Dame. He still likely will be used in a hybrid defensive lineman/linebacker role based on opponent personnel and specific defensive packages.
- Moore’s move opened up an opportunity for Chris Peace at defensive end where for his “first significant game action, he did okay” according to London. Peace is also a key member on special teams.
- Moore’s move also impacted true freshman C.J. Stalker, who is no longer on the defensive depth chart. Mark Hall is Moore’s backup. London said “C.J. is fine”, but is “getting his feet wet” mainly as a special teams guy right now. The coaches hope to get him some defensive snaps in future games, though.
- In regard to the receiver injuries mentioned above, London said it is “hard trying to hold T.J. Thorpe back. Again, we’re going to make the best decisions doctor wise for him. We’ll see what happens. I mean, like I said, we’ll just remain silent on that and wait to see what happens here.” Levrone is day to day.
