I just wanted to acknowledge what an awesome job 2J has done developing and coaching our OL. Wow, what a transformation and with playable depth to. Moving forward, I think he will get his and this is a position where struggles are in the rear-view mirror. Thanks Coach!!
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Is this based upon our run game as it stands now with a bunch of upperclassmen?
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Yes, but we are also playing Bissinger, Volmer, and Hastings. Depth is being built. Not to mention, his best class of commitments.
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The upperclassmen are doing exactly what they should be and it’s great. The oline is the most improved unit on the team with the RBs not far behind unsurprisingly
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I agree with your assessment. What a turn of the table. Our Defense or more specifically, our secondary may be the weakest position group. Sintam has done well with The Defensive Line, and their play along with the linebackers in stopping the run was key last night. I’m a little concerned with the future depth on DL. However, I feel confident Sintam will get his guys moving forward. What happened to secondary? Yes, there have been injuries but there are decent numbers. Have we missed on evaluations?
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Secondary and WR have been developed poorly. Id have to go back to see recruiting on the Secondary but I don’t think they missed on anyone rather they brought in guys with lower ceilings. Combine that with an inability to develop and it’s an RFD. If there was one trait I’d like to see the staff take on more it would be humility. It pften feels like they think they are the smartest and best in the room and overvalue their position.
Early under Bronco’s tenure, I though Howell did a fabulous job with the players he inherited. However, it seems none of his recruited players are rising to the top. Most aren’t even playing, which is very concerning.
Regarding WR, I have been impressed with Hagans as a coach but not as a recruiter. Even if we can’t sign 4 & 5 stars, we should easily be filling up with the 3 stars with high ceilings. We never seem to sign enough quantity each year, leaving our numbers short and requiring transfers. This shouldn’t happen with our offense and how much we throw.
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Part of that is style. No top ranked wr wants to go to a place where the qb runs it 20 plus times a game. Everytime that happens its one less opportunity to catch a pass. WRs go where the QBs are they are only as good as the qb.
The hoos have been poor at all skill position recruiting tbh. The standouts are all transfers.
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True. You would still think they would see the number of receptions available.
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True but as a recruit you see a program that doesn’t have a history developing wideouts. And then you see shaky qb play and a wonky system. All that stuff works agaisnt them in recruiting unfortunately
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I find this hard to believe when you take a look at last years trio of Hasise, Joe and Jana. They got plenty of balls come their way…that not counting the catches by Kemp and Kelly…I would prefer that those QB runs go to the RBs which is why I am not as high in the OL nor the pipeline coming in…but will be happy and hopeful that we can stop with taking flyers on Transfer OL in the future and roll with what we have. Also we seem to have some young WRs stepping up for us this year so I think that position is fine but could be better…I just don’t get or back end of the defense…it is really bad with tackling and defending on deep balls…if they could hold on better maybe it would give our DL a bit more time to affect the QB…as for the DL…CBM mentioned that a conversation with a Snowden had been had…his messaging was political in that he noted there were two sides to that problem but I hope what we saw yesterday is what we see from him going forward…he needs to make more plays for us instead of playing scared to get hurt for the NFL…
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Jana, Reed and Hasasieal had solid years. And even great careers by Uva standards but put that in context next to great ncaa receiver play amd its lacking. Reed is in the NFL because of his special teams the others are not elite quality nfl wrs. They also benefitted from the special play of Bryce. He was flat out exceptional and could erase a lot of missques and create a ton of plays.
Currently Uva is running a gimmick offense that has mixed results. For players looking at the next level they have to consider that. It can be a blessing and a curse.
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It was good to see Snowden play up to potential. Im not sure if he’s playing out the string on his uva career or not. It would be a shame if that is the case. But i have to wonder when you see him seemingly turn it on and off week to week
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Come on…solid years…and you are downplaying those guys by saying they aren’t NFL Caliber…other than joe who made it because of STs… I guess you will always be disappointed with this position…what you are describing is programs that have WR being drafted every year and continually reloading with more of the same that can catch 100 plus balls a year…I am sorry but that is a short list of programs that have yearly aspirations in getting to the CFP… then there is the rest of us… as far as our wonky offense…the NFL is stealing spread concepts left and right… look at the Chiefs and mahomes…WR are at the bottom of the list of position who’s draft position is impacted by spread versus pro style offense…
Honestly, I would love to have more guys as productive as ours have been. We just tend to short ourselves a few during each recruiting cycle. This, in turn leaves us shy of the playable depth we really need when there are injuries, transfers, and / or opt outs.
I kind of agree with BDragon here, although I’m no expert. We haven’t had a dominant game-changing receiver in a while. We have had guys who have had extremely solid and productive careers at UVA like the ones you mentioned, but how many guys are ending up as all-ACC selections or ending up near the top in yards or scores for the conference (not even talking about all the other conferences right now)? Despite the guys you mentioned having great seasons last year and UVA having its best year in a long time, none were on all-ACC teams as WRs (Wake had two and Syracuse had one, so it’s not just the usual suspects).
I think our most decorated WRs in recent history have been Zaccheaus and Severin. Zaccheaus and Inman are hanging on in the NFL, so that’s great, but it’s not like they’ve made much of a mark. Of course, it’s hard to land in the NFL so you can’t just schools by that, but if we aren’t producing a lot of pros and are rarely dominating the position in our conference, it’s a bit of a harder sell.
Anyway, not trying to get into a disagreement, I just think of the positions, WR has been one we’ve underwhelmed at for a while, even when having good seasons. Just feels like there’s some real room for improvement.
Edit: I do see that Joe Reed not only got first team as special teams player but also some all-purpose designation? So feel free to correct me on that, although I think I’d stick by my general point.
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Interesting conversation re the receivers - and skill positions in general.
It’s worth mentioning that UVA had about a 14-15 year run of bad to average QB’s. Groh did not recruit the position well at all (like many positions after an initial post-hiring run), and London was the same, if not worse. I’d hypothesize that the WR recruiting was an effect of that. We had a few potential good ones limited by injury (like Severin) or underwhelming coaching (Jennings), too.
Dubois, Reed, Zaccheaus, and a couple others that I just can’t remember specifically were definitely solid. Dubois just developed a great set of hands, and Reed and OZ had more raw athleticism.
But frankly, we haven’t had a burner - or even combination rangy burner like Tee Higgins, as one example, forever. It would be awesome if Lavel Davis continues to develop.
Hopefully Bronco and Hagans can reel some in, though it’s been historically tough at UVA.
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I think if we can sell 4,000 yards and over 300 opportunities a year, we should be able to recruit the position better, albeit quantity and quality.
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I mean, being sure-handed is great and made them incredibly solid receivers, but it isn’t yards or scoring. Dubois developed amazing hands - maybe best in the nation - but isn’t on any NFL roster right now (got partially screwed by pandemic, but is still true). We’ve had really solid guys, but when was the last time other team’s had to game plan around any individual WR on our team?
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