Then-senior Jack English and then redshirt-freshman Dillon Reinkensmeyer took turns manning Virginia football’s left offensive tackle position during the 2017 season. When spring football wrapped up earlier this year, Chris Glaser, who played in five games at right tackle as a true freshman last season, seemed the most likely candidate to take over the position at the start of the 2018 campaign.

When Virginia released its depth chart for the 2018 season opener versus Richmond, however, Glaser wasn’t slotted as the starting left tackle. That distinction belonged to redshirt freshman Ryan Nelson, whose play during fall camp earned him the starting spot and allowed the staff to start Glaser at left guard.

“Glaser can play center, he can play guard, and he can play tackle,” Bronco Mendenhall said during his weekly Monday press conference the week of the Richmond game. “So if you look at the two-deep and say, ‘Man, there are first years and we’re kind of thin.’ You can really insert Glaser at three different positions. That makes it look better. Glaser is really versatile. We have been able to highlight that because of how Nelson has played from beginning of camp through to where we are now. So those two things are dependent on each other.”

Along with Glaser, Tyler Fannin, Gerrik Vollmer, and Ryan Swoboda, Nelson signed with Virginia in the 2017 Class, which was Mendenhall’s first full class as UVA head coach. Glaser, Fannin and Nelson arrived as the most highly regarded of the group from a rankings perspective, but Glaser was the only one to play as a true freshman last season.

...