When the Virginia football team opens ACC play on Friday night against NC State, one of the preseason risers at receiver won’t be available. UVA coach Tony Elliott said that Demick Starling had elected to preserve a redshirt season after a conversation with the coaching staff. NCAA rules allow players to participate in up to four games without burning a redshirt year so shutting down now allows Starling to retain a year of eligibility if he decides to pursue other football opportunities.
“Demick, his situation is we’ve gone back and forth a liBle bit throughout the course of our time, but we mutually agreed – and then he can figure out from there what his future looks like with football, so it was a mutual agreement that he wanted to take advantage of the redshirt opportunity,” Elliott said.
A big play threat with speed, Starling had not translated that to consistent playing time or production over his first three years in the program nad this year had started off on a similar path. Starling did not play last week at Maryland and had gotten limited snaps against Tennessee and James Madison in the first two games. In total, he has played X snaps in his Virginia career.
Starling has recorded 11 catches for 188 yards and 2 touchdowns in 28 career games with 105 yards of that production coming on just 2 receptions. By shutting down without using his eligibility this season, he could use two more years either here or elsewhere due to the frozen eligibility year from the pandemic. Elliott said that the program will support Starling with his academic pursuits in order to hopefully get him to the finish line on his degree.
“No, I don’t anticipate him playing here next season. With all these guys, what I would say about we’re in a different stage in college football, with the four games and guys can redshirt and you’ve got opportunities to move on after the year,” Elliott said. “So with him, it’s just a function of he’s looking at big picture. He feels like he can possibly have a better opportunity somewhere else, and biggest thing for me is to make sure that he finishes, graduates, gets his degree from UVA, and that’s my focus right now, and then we’ll figure out long-term at the end of the season what’s best for him.”
Tony Muskett Still Day To Day
The Cavaliers could get a key offensive player back on Friday, though. Tony Muskett, who started the season opener against Tennessee, continues to work back from a shoulder injury in Week 1. Muskett left that game with his non-throwing left arm limp and returned to the sideline after a brief locker room visit. He has been considered day to day in the time since, but was really only available in an emergency situation against JMU and Maryland in Elliott’s eyes.
With the Hoos preparing for NCSU and the ACC opener this week, Muskett has improved enough to be beyond an emergency option but remains on the recovery path overall.
“I have seen improvement that makes me think he’s beyond emergency duty. Still working through some of the other things and kind of milestones and hurdles that I want to see him finish a practice without having any noticeable grimaces because he’s still got some pain involved and some soreness, and there’s certain aspects of his job that bother it a little bit more,” Elliott said. “Obviously throwing, he’s a little bit more comfortable with the violence of throwing, but there’s other things when you start talking about the mesh with the handoff, you don’t think about that, but when you’re meshing the ball with the running back, you take some movement on potentially that injury side. I definitely think he’s progressed beyond emergency status and still day-to-day and he’s improving all the time, and he wants to play, and he’s trying to prove that every day at practice.”
Muskett finished 9-of-17 passing for 94 yards in the face of heavy pressure against Tennesse, but came to Virginia as a transfer with 5,687 passing yards (5th in school history), 51 passing touchdowns (5th in school history), and a 150.14 passing efficiency (1st in school history) while at Monmouth. In his absence, true freshman Anthony Colandrea has started the last two games. Colandrea threw for 377 yards and 2 touchdowns against JMU at home followed by 263 yards and 1 touchdown at Maryland. He had 3 interceptions and a fumble against the Terps too, all in the fourth quarter.
Other Virginia Personnel Updates
Elliott provided updates on several other Cavaliers as well. Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Safety Antonio Clary elected to have surgery this week on a lingering ankle injury. It was one of three options (more rest, short-term fix surgery, full surgery), but the choice was to get it done fully and hopefully it gets him back on the field healthy, possibly in six weeks.
- Safety Lex Long remains unavailable. He got an MRI on a foot injury with no results available yet.
- Defensive end Paul Akere (knee) and Ben Smiley (concussion protocols) will have their availability decided later in the week. Jimmy Christ is fully cleared on the offensive line.
Thoughts On Brennan Armstrong’s Return
One of the bigger storylines of interest this week has been on fan radars since the spring. That’s understandable. Record-setting quarterback Brennan Armstrong transferred from Virginia to NC State this offseason and is the starter for the Wolfpack. He holds UVA records for career passing yards (9,034), career total offense (10,301 yards), and career passing touchdowns (58) in addition to multiple season and single game marks.
Elliott said “for me, there’s nothing personal about this game” in terms of animosity toward Armstrong. He said he was grateful for everything that Armstrong gave to the program and for the effort he put into trying to make it work last season during the coaching transition. Elliott also noted that Armstrong handled his decision to transfer well with the staff.
The Cavaliers, of course, are uniquely positioned to understand the strengths and weaknesses with Armstrong’s game. They saw him daily in practices and know he presents a dual threat as an opposing quarterback. Those total offense yards came from passing and rushing the football, after all.
Trying to contain Armstrong will have some similarities to Tua Tagovailoa with Maryland last week, but it isn’t fully comparable. Tagovailoa would maximize yards when he scrambled, but not take on too many hits. Armstrong, as UVA fans know, brings a much more assertive running style when he carries the football.
“Where I think that Brennan is different is that Brennan is going to run the football with authority and with violence, and he’s going to go get those extra
yards, whereas last week you knew once he [Tua] broke the pocket, his eyes were downfield and he was going to run, but he was going to run to get what yards he could, and he was going to go down, whereas BA you’ve got to take him down,” Elliott said. “When he takes off to run, he’s not running like a quarterback, he’s running like a running back. He’s trying to go get those extra yards. Mentality-wise, that brings a lot to your football team when your quarterback is a guy that can extend plays out of the pocket. He can throw the ball downfield. Well, when he runs it, he runs it with authority.”
The old saying is that a great coach knows how to get the most out of the personnel he has. That was clearly not the case last year with BA and the O. From first to worst. And it’s no better this year. I have a lot of hope for TA going forward but so far there’s little comfort to be found.