Blue Tops White In Virginia Spring Game

Virginia
Running back Amaad Foston finishes off a touchdown run at the Virginia Blue-White Spring Game. ~ Photo By Kris Wright/TheSabre.com

The stakes weren’t anywhere near what they’ll be when kickoff arrives in a few months, but new Virginia football coach Tony Elliott wanted his first Blue-White Spring Game to be as close to the real thing as possible. The dress rehearsal produced a 23-0 win for the Blue team, but more importantly it helped reinforce the vision Elliott is building at UVA.

Away from the action, that included all the accompanying things that make a game day go. The Cavaliers entered the stadium with the “Wahoo Walk” among the fans. The band, cheerleaders, and dance team all put in their work in the stands. The announcer called the game over the speakers. There were give-aways, TV timeouts, and pregame and halftime updates on HooVision.

The action itself was a bona fide game too. The team ran out from the tunnel. The Hoos tackled fully to the ground. The game fully included special teams with punts, kickoffs, returns, and field goals all within the flow. Other than the quarterbacks being off limits in no-contact jerseys, some players flipping back and forth to both teams because of depth concerns, and a running clock in the second half, it was played exactly like a game.

“Today was a lot of fun,” Elliott said. “A lot of fun. It actually kind of sunk in. It’s the first time it was like really for real, you know. Before it was a lot of behind the scenes. Now today, it was put everything together and you got to display what the guys have been working on. I was really pleased with the attendance at the Wahoo Walk. That was pretty cool, just the excitement, the energy coming into the stadium. I think the guys really, really liked that. I saw some smiles. They were excited. I’m just proud overall of the effort.”

The Cavaliers pulled off an actual game despite some limitations – for example, there were only eight or nine offensive linemen and three running backs available – by switching certain guys to both teams.

That included senior quarterback Brennan Armstrong, who manned the pocket for both Blue and White in the first half. He finished unofficially (all stats are considered unofficial for this game) with 131 yards passing for Blue (12-20, 1 INT) and 87 yards passing for White (11-22). In the second half, Jared Rayman took over for the Blue team and posted 52 yards with 1 touchdown (2-4 passing), while Davis Lane played QB for the White team and tallied 111 yards (8-15 passing).

Among the top receiving targets on the day were Virginia tight ends Grant Misch (3 catches, 62 yards for Blue) and Sackett Wood Jr. (4-42 for White). Blue receiver Malachi Fields added 3 catches for 47 yards and a touchdown, while Keytaon Thompson had 4 catches for 21 yards. White receiver Demick Starling had 3 catches for 63 yards, while Lavel Davis chipped in 6 catches for 33 yards.

Of course, much of the focus wasn’t on the quarterbacks or the passing game at all. As has been the case throughout the spring, the Cavaliers made a concerted effort to work on their rushing attack. The goal there is to balance the mindset for the offense so that it believes it can run or pass the ball as needed.

With the offensive line shuffle and workload plus the quarterbacks being off limits for hits in the read option looks, that part of the equation wasn’t going to be perfect in the dress rehearsal. Still, the blueprint for what the coaches have in mind got the desired work.

“Some of the stuff in the first half was more, hey let’s just go try to force the issue and continue to push that mindset of running the football,” Elliott said.

Virginia running back Amaad Foston had 14 carries for 37 yards and 1 touchdown for Blue (plus 2 carries for 8 yards for White), while Mike Hollins recorded 9 carries for 19 yards for White. Perris Jones got touches in the second half and ripped off 9 carries for 129 yards and 1 touchdown for the Blue team.

“I think today went great today just as a team on blue and white,” Foston said. “We ran the ball and we had fun. … Coach always tells us to get four yards every time you touch the ball. We do our best with that and we have fun.”

On the scoring run, Jones broke an arm tackle and then turned around defensive back Jaylon Baker to go 75 yards to the end zone.

“Oh man, it opened up,” Jones said. “The offensive line did a great job, the receivers did a great job blocking, and I just had to beat the defenders that were left over and I did that.”

Virginia
Malachi Fields scores a touchdown at the Virginia Blue-White Spring Game. ~ Photo By Kris Wright/TheSabre.com

Until Jones broke the long run and Fields caught a 31-yard touchdown pass later in the action, the defensive side of the ball for Virginia controlled most of the day and especially the first half. Blue led 10-0 at the half, a score that materialized in part because the White team got a red zone stop in the early going. The defenses swallowed up interior runs and got to Armstrong several times.

Safety Chayce Chalmers led White with 10 tackles, while Virginia linebacker Nick Jackson added 8 tackles with 2 sacks and a pass break-up. Josh Ahern finished with 6 tackles, while Baker had a solid outing with 5 tackles and an interception. For Blue, corner Micah Gaffney led the way with 5 tackles. Linebackers Sam Brady and Steven Bracey added 4 stops each, while defensive tackle Sam Bond had 2 tackles including 1 sack. Donovan Johnson made 2 pass break-ups.

Overall, that fit what has been shared for most of the spring – the defense is a little further ahead with the changeover in schemes than the offense.

“We’re just very multiple in what we do, can fly around and hopefully make some plays,” Jackson said. “I was lucky to make some plays. D-Line held up up front so it was fun.”

“We’ve put a lot of work in to get to this point,” Virginia defensive tackle Jahmeer Carter said. “It feels good to see the progress we’ve made. We’ve still got a long way to go, but we’ll get there.”

The secondary, which caught a lot of heat last season when the defense struggled to 121st nationally in total defense, performed well. The DBs didn’t give up anything over the top, some of that from the design of the defense, and made sure tackles for the majority of the afternoon.

“I thought they were in good position for the most part,” Elliott said. “The tight ends had a really good day so we’ve got some work [to do] there. I thought on the outside we were in position probably a little bit better than some of the seam action where the big plays were coming from. Overall, like I’ve said from the beginning, their confidence has come back for the most part. They weren’t at full strength because everybody was split up but it was good to just see those guys go compete.”

Ultimately, the statistics and highlight plays from the Blue-White Spring Game are not what will leave a lasting impression for Virginia, though. Once the video gets analyzed and the coaches overview the entire spring, the focus is going to shift to the big picture. That means things like play-to-play execution, consistency with effort, and players taking control of the program direction will rise to the forefront.

Those types of details are what had Elliott’s attention most of the day as he stood on the field behind the offenses. He pointed out that the White team’s resolve wavered later in the game, for example. He held a lengthy talk with the team at midfield afterward and addressed some players letting distractions capture their attention or some players not locking in on details. From there, Elliott grabbed a microphone and addressed the Virginia fans to thank them for their support on Saturday but to also challenge the support to rise in the fall.

“For me, today was just looking at the little things,” Elliott said. “Do I see the little things, as I said before, from a program standpoint with the effort? I thought the effort was solid. There were times where I had to get on a couple of guys, but that’s to be said. I told them at halftime I wanted to see who was going to strain because the weather was up, there was a lot of snaps, it was competitive, coaches were off the field, there’s a lot of moving parts, a lot of distractions so I thought overall with the operation, it went about as good as it could have considering the first time and everybody being split up.”

Most importantly, however, Elliott outlined what Saturday meant for the program when he addressed his team. In just a few months, Virginia will kick off the season against Richmond. What takes place in between is important for the program. The new coach challenged the team and its leaders to step forward in the months ahead when coaches have limited time with the team per NCAA rules.

The message was received.

“I think we’re progressing,” Armstrong said. “Coach Elliott brings a lot of energy, guys are not really used to seeing that. He gets on people not just for football, but academics or any other thing. He says he wants us to be champion men, that’s what this program’s about, and that’s what he wants to build. I think guys are progressing, starting to buy in. There’s obviously little things here and there, but I think overall as a leader on the team I’ve got to keep guys accountable for what Coach Elliott wants out of this program and what he wants guys to be doing and not doing. A lot of it is going to have to come through the locker room and not just Coach Elliott and I think that’s where we’re going to see our biggest progress is once the locker room starts taking advantage of that.”