McKale Boley committed to the Virginia football program late in January 2022. A little less than eight months later, Boley became the first true freshman to start in a season opener at tackle since D’Brickashaw Ferguson in 2002.

After the opener with Richmond, Boley started the next game too at Illinois. The Illini ended up ranked No. 1 nationally in scoring defense and No. 3 nationally in total defense. Considering that Boley did not play on the offensive line until his senior year of high school, that’s quite a dive into the deep end early in a college career. That rapid chain of events turned into an eye-opening experience.

“It meant a lot to me that they had enough trust to play me that early,” Boley said. “I think coming in I was ready, but I wasn’t really ready. So when we played Illinois, it was kind of a wake-up call, like this is Power 5 football. So I realized I had to grow up and get stronger, but I feel like having that playing time then has helped me now.”

Now, of course, is the spring football practice period for the Hoos. The offensive line is under new leadership with Terry Heffernan brought in to replace Garett Tujague, who left for NC State. Heffernan worked most recently at Stanford, but joined the Virginia program with experience ranging from small colleges all the way to the NFL. With that change, Boley and his fellow offensive linemen entered this spring with a clean slate.

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