When Virginia football fans look at the 2020 roster, it’s easy to get excited about the potential for the defense. The Cavaliers, after all, return quite a bit of experience on that side of the ball, including some players with multiple years as starters in their spots.

The Hoos bring back 11 players that started one of the final three games of the season and that doesn’t even account for Brenton Nelson and Darrius Bratton, who missed part or all of the 2019 campaign due to injuries. Clicking through the names goes quickly when these conversations pop up on the message boards. Mandy Alonso, Richard Burney, Aaron Faumui, Jowon Briggs, Charles Snowden, Noah Taylor, Zane Zandier, Joey Blount, Nick Grant, De’Vante Cross, and so on.

One name, however, seems to get overlooked. Matt Gahm. He’s not among the 11 names that started one of the final three games, yet he did log four starts last season at outside linebacker and that included the season opener at Pittsburgh. Gahm was listed on the depth chart as an ‘or’ starter with Taylor at the outside spot opposite of Snowden. Entering his fourth year of playing time and third year of steady snaps on defense, Gahm provides Kelly Poppinga, the outside linebackers position coach and co-defensive coordinator, with three reliable options.

“In what we ask Matt to do, I don’t think there is a more consistent guy on our team,” Poppinga said. “Which is a good thing and sometimes a bad thing for Matt. Sometimes he does exactly what he’s supposed to do and he gets a little robotic at times, but the thing about Matt is you know when he’s out on the field, he’s going to do exactly what the defense asks him to do. He’s going to be assignment sound, he’s going to be physical, and give 100% when he does it.”

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