Virginia Football Notes: VMI Latest Schedule Shift For UVA

The Virginia football team’s revised schedule lasted one week.

After the ACC announced its updated schedule last Thursday, UVA had moved from a scheduled opener with Georgia on Monday, Sept. 7 in Atlanta to a scheduled opener with VMI on Friday, Sept. 11 in Charlottesville instead. Exactly one week later, however, that plan has been scrapped as the Southern Conference cancelled fall sports for its league. While the conference left it up to the individual institutions whether to still play non-conference football games, VMI AD Dave Diles told The Roanoke Times on Thursday that the Keydets would not exercise that option. The repeated schedule shuffling is a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

That means the Cavaliers are in search of a new opponent for that opening date on the schedule. Otherwise, they may end up starting the season off in Blacksburg with the rivalry game with the Hokies, which falls in September for the first time since 1987.

Prior to the latest changes in the schedule, Virginia assistant coach Clint Sintim told the media on a video conference call Wednesday that the team is focused on practicing and improving even as the dominoes fall around them. The reporter had asked a question about the uncertainty surrounding college football after the Big Ten and Pac 12 cancelled their seasons earlier in the week.

“We’re not oblivious to what’s going on in college football right now, but I think Coach [Mendenhall] has said it best multiple times. Control the controllables,” Sintim said. “Right now, we’ve all been given an opportunity to come out here and practice and play football and for me to coach football. So we’re all doing what we love. Until we hear otherwise, that’s what we’re going to keep doing and we’re going to keep marching away.”

Players in Sintim’s position group echoed similar thoughts. Veteran defensive lineman Richard Burney said that he is are focused on the daily work of training camp. The Cavaliers began preseason camp on Monday.

“We just focus on what we’ve got going on,” Burney said. “Every other conference, they make their own decisions. What we’re focused on is Virginia football and how we can get better. So it’s felt normal to me. I’m out here practicing with the guys and it’s fun.”

UVA sophomore Jowon Briggs said he really has “tunnel vision” when he’s in practice mode. The ACC currently plans to play this fall. The league shifted to a 10-game conference schedule with no Atlantic or Coastal Divisions this season. So while the landscape for the 2020 season continues to change, Briggs said his approach to practice does not.

“With something like this with COVID going around and everything, it’s just a day at a time,” Briggs said. “Can I make myself better the next day? Can I make myself better today? I’m not really looking forward weeks from now. I’m really just focused on how I can act and how I can train the day I’m at right now.”

Virginia won the ACC Coastal Division last season.
Richard Burney continues to prepare for his sixth year with Virginia. ~ Photo courtesy Virginia Athletics Media Relations/Jim Daves

Burney Is Back

The COVID-19 pandemic is just the latest chapter in a challenging career for senior Richard Burney, who received a hardship waiver for a sixth season with the Hoos in 2020. That’s because Burney lost part of the 2015 and 2016 seasons with injuries and then missed most of the 2018 season for medical reasons.

Along the way, Burney saw one coaching era end and another begin. He’s the only player on the roster now to have played for both Mike London and Bronco Mendenhall. He switched positions, flipping from tight end to defensive line just ahead of the 2017 Military Bowl.

Now the Cavaliers are looking for Burney to provide a steady and consistent presence up front for a defense that is loaded with experience at most positions.

“What I say about Richard, I think Burney is stepping into a new role,” Sintim said. “As of late, he’s been really intentional about trying to be a leader and trying to lead by example. Burney’s just like everybody else in the group and needs to improve, but I’m pleased with what I’ve seen thus far out of Burney.”

Briggs said he saw leadership qualities in Burney all the way back to his recruitment. On his official visit to UVA, Burney served as his host player and gave him a clear picture of the Virginia football program and the University’s academics. Burney gave him a “straight up” picture of the standard Mendenhall expects.

Once he arrived last season, Burney continued to provide the mentorship that the younger Briggs appreciated.

“Richard, he’s one of the reasons I came,” Briggs said. “He hosted me for my official visit actually. Early on, I got to know him and he’s been kind of like that older brother type. Always motivating me, making sure I know what I’m doing. He’s definitely been watching over me and I’m very grateful for that.”

Before Burney could try to embrace a leadership role on this year’s team, he had to make a decision concerning the COVID-19 situation. He sat out the 2018 season with medical issues related to blood clots in the lungs per The Richmond Times-Dispatch. After a meeting with Kelli Pugh, UVA’s Associate Athletics Director for Sports Medicine and the head athletic trainer for the football program, and Dr. John MacKnight, the medical director and primary care team physician for UVA Athletics as well as the Cavaliers’ representative on the ACC’s COVID-19 Medical Advisory Group, Burney felt comfortable enough to join the team back in Charlottesville.

“I did. Before I came back, I sat down with Ms. Kelli and Dr. MacKnight and they explained to me that what I had, my condition is not technically considered an underlying condition for COVID,” Burney said. “So once I heard that, I was like Boom, I’m ready to go, I’m ready to come back.”

Burney said he has noticed a high energy level in the early stages of preseason camp. The Cavaliers are coming off their first Coastal Division crown and an Orange Bowl appearance last fall so they’re trying to build on the program’s momentum. Plus, the Hoos missed spring practices when the NCAA cancelled spring sports due to the pandemic so the team’s time together got shifted to Zoom instead.

The chance to be back together and practicing has provided a nice jolt too.

“Every day, we’re competing. Definitely, I notice a lot more energy vs. last year. That just comes with experience with us being together for so long,” Burney said. “Even though we weren’t here in the spring, we were together every day on Zoom. I feel like that time away made us miss each other more and miss playing ball together more so the energy right now, honestly, I think is through the roof. I’m real excited to be here and real excited to be back and I’m sure everyone else is too.”

The Bubble

When Virginia resumed football activities in Charlottesville in July, it set up a strict set of protocols for the program to follow. That has meant things like small groups for weight-lifting, masks during drills, no showers in the facility, designated food pick-up spots, and social distancing even during practice for example.

So far, that has been a successful outline. The UVA football team has had 112 student-athletes tested with three positive results for COVID-19. There have been no positive tests since the July 24 report released by the athletics department. (Overall for all of Virginia’s teams, there have been 238 student-athletes tested with four positive tests – that means just one positive outside the football program.)

One thing on fans’ minds, however, is will it be more difficult to maintain things once the Hoos break camp and students return. That will move players out of combined housing right now to their individual living arrangements and they’ll be expected to attend classes as well (at least if those classes are not moved online). Burney said he thinks the team is ready to face that challenge.

“I don’t think it will be that much more difficult,” Burney said. “It just comes down to how our culture will hold. Right now, we’re doing all the right things in the bubble in terms of COVID an things like that. That was a challenge in itself when we got here so when the students come back, I just feel like that’s just another challenge that the team’s going be ready for. Social distancing and masking and things of that nature, I think we’re all prepared for that because we really want to play. We really want to have a season so I think we’re prepared for that.”