As Virginia football season approaches, one area that drums up at least a little bit of optimism for fans is the defense. Two things support that hope: returning experience from the team’s upgraded performance there last season and faith in defensive coordinator John Rudzinski.

The math there adds up. The Hoos showed significant improvement there last season as they finished 44th nationally in total defense at 357.6 yards per game (up from 121st/466.0), 49th in scoring defense at 24.0 points per game (up from T-103rd/31.8), T-47th with 30 sacks (up from T-113th/18, and 30th at 204.4 passing yards per game allowed(up from 88th at 240.2). That’s a lot of positive movement.

Virginia welcomes back many contributors from 2022 with safeties Jonas Sanker and Antonio Clary (No. 2 and No. 4 on the team in tackles with 63 and 56), linebacker James Jackson (No. 3 on the team in tackles with 60), Bandit Chico Bennett Jr. (No. 1 on the team with 7 sacks), and defensive tackle Jahmeer Carter (No. 11 in tackles, but a key piece of the front line) among them. There are other experienced names around them too.

Concerns lie with those not on that list, mainly linebacker Nick Jackson (top tackler with 104) and defensive backs Anthony Johnson and Fentrell Cypress II (both top 10 nationally in passes defended per game). That’s where faith in Rudzinski comes in. At Air Force, he spent the 2018-2021 seasons as the defensive coordinator. His group moved from outside the top 50 in total defense prior to him leading the unit to being ranked higher in each consecutive year that followed, progressing from 43 to 17 to 6 to 5.

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