As Memorial Day weekend continues at the unofficial start to summer, Virginia football season creeps closer. In fact, I put up the Countdown Clock on TheSabre.com football message board Friday because kickoff for UVA is now only 98 days away!
With that in mind, we started a series on the site Friday that we’re calling “99 Virginia Football Thoughts Before Kickoff.” It’s not a list really. The goal is to provide a daily football update from now until kickoff to hopefully drive interest and message board conversation. The first entry looked at the importance level of a fast start to the season. Read it here.
Let’s move on to the next one.
No. 98 – John Kirven, James Trucilla, Warren Craft, & Christian Brooks
Kirven wore the No. 98 jersey last season and that led the way to today’s thoughts. Kirven along with Trucilla, Craft, and Brooks are no longer on the active roster for Virginia. All four left for medical reasons in official release parlance, which often means concussion related issues. Kirven and Craft fall into that category for certain. While that’s obviously an ongoing hot topic in football, that’s not what sparked the interest for this entry.
How frustrating for these players. How disappointing for the program.
The players played football through the years and made it to the highest level of college football. They lasted through a coaching change at Virginia. In Kirven’s case, he saw a scholarship offer at tight end from the previous coaches get withdrawn and was told he would be evaluated at defensive end instead. He re-received the offer, made it to UVA, and earned a jersey number.
Brooks really never got his college career started in terms of on-field action, missing a shot at playing time during both years in the program due to injuries. The other three, however, carved out roles with Bronco Mendenhall at coach. Kirven got on the field as a true freshman and appeared in 10 of the team’s 13 games. He suffered a concussion before the bowl game, however, and then stepped away. Trucilla redshirted in Mike London’s final season, but saw playing time in 13 games over Mendenhall’s first two seasons. An undersized defensive lineman, he posted seven tackles in those games.
All three of those players were considered potential defensive line contributors moving forward particularly when three others (Juwan Moye, Steven Wright, and Christian Baumgardner) left the program. Instead, that position is sort of in a code red status with depleted depth issues. Four players – Eli Hanback, tight end convert Richard Burney, Mandy Alonso, and Tommy Christ – got a lot of reps in the spring as a result, but that’s not a real sustainable plan for the long grind of the regular season. Graduate transfer Dylan Thompson along with true freshmen Samson Reed, Jordan Redmond, and Aaron Faumui will join the ranks this summer.
Craft also emerged as a contributor for Mendenhall following a redshirt year. He appeared in four games with three starts in 2016 and appeared in five more in 2017. In those nine games, he made 13 catches for 152 yards with a touchdown. Unfortunately, repeated concussion issues detailed in this article for The Roanoke Times ended his career.
With seniors Doni Dowling, Andre Levrone, and Braedon Urie (redshirt junior not returning) moving on at receiver too, that leaves some experienced manpower to replace at receiver too. UVA will build around Olamide Zaccheaus and Joe Reed obviously. Hasise Dubois, De’Vante Cross, who is no longer moonlighting at three positions, and Terrell Jana have caught at least one pass in a game, but only Dubois has multi-season experience. Mendenhall openly said at the end of the spring that the program was in the market for a graduate transfer at the position. That makes receiver another position to monitor for productive depth this season.
For a program still nurturing a roster turn-around, the defensive line and receiver positions – and you can argue quarterback as well – appear to be the ones carrying the highest ‘season derailment’ risk with proven depth in the face of injuries. That’s something to keep an eye on in the summer months and when preseason opens. Do the Hoos add more graduate transfers at the positions? Are any late-joining walk-ons or unknown names in preseason camp?
Regardless, this is a good time for a hat tip to those that wanted to play for the Hoos but can’t.
