Virginia Coordinators Learning From Each Other’s Schemes This Spring

Virginia
Des Kitchings coaches during Virginia football practice. ~ Photo courtesy of Jim Daves/Virginia Athletics Media Relations

Des Kitchings and John Rudzinski have spent plenty of time on the sidelines of football fields over the years. That even included a year on staff together at Air Force back in 2011. Prior to joining forces at Virginia with new coach Tony Elliott, however, the duo had not matched wits as coordinators.

This spring, however, the two coaches have gone head to head for weeks. They both think that it has helped test the Hoos and sharpened the installation process on both sides of the ball.

“It’s been very good for us offensively,” Virginia offensive coordinator Des Kitchings said. “I told the guys on offense one thing about these now 13 practices that we’ve gone through – obviously we have two more in the spring plus ever how many we get in training camp – we’re going to be very well prepared for our opponent because we’ve seen a lot of different things from Coach Rud and his package, which has been good.”

Kitchings’ offense is technically facing a 3-4 defense in these practices, but it is one that morphs and changes. It can look like a 4-2-5 or other variations too with a hybrid linebacker/end position labeled a “Bandit” often involved in the different looks. That multiple looks approach waffles the defense between even and odd fronts.

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