Mike Tomlin is in his 17th season as a head coach and has never had a losing record.
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But I donāt think weāve had one in the psst 30 years.
Plenty of middies and attackmen, though.
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Like seeing the skill positions get recruited, and thrilled with a lot of the veteran defenders announcing theyāre coming back, but man my left arm for a couple of bellweather OL transfers.
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Agreed. Are we losing any starters on the OL? At the very least another year of continuity and S&C should lead to some improvements but not sure the talent is there currently for a truly āgoodā OL so Iāll gladly take a few big body transfers
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I agree with all those points. Another year in the system and continuity will go a long way. Interestingly enough I feel there was a stretch during the middle of the season when the line leveled off and held itās own. But they they reverted back to their old ways towards the end especially against VT. Iād have to go back to lineups etc. to see what the personnel changes were.
However, despite all that I think yours and @StLouHoo desire to see some transfers coming in are well placed. Iād love to see 1 or 2 locks for starters come on Grounds, but just building out some quality depth will go a long way.
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Debbie Ryan had 2 losing records in 34 seasons and one was her first year.
Edit - To be clear, Tomlin is a hell of a coach. But never having a losing season says as much about the person being hired into a good situation as that theyāre a superlative coach. I donāt know that an in-his-prime Bobby Knight could have gotten a .500 season out of last yearās Louisville squad.
I donāt track things anywhere as well as I used to when I had the time to cover football for Hoosplace, so I donāt readily have available starts/participation numbers for the OL. (Edit, VASports tracks it much better than it used to, I used to have to compile it manually game over game.)
I do know a couple of metrics I would always look for the OL Depth Chart to hit going into the season, and thatās about 7-8 guys who check the following boxes: (1) homegrown guys in at least their 3rd year out of HS, (2) transfers in at least their 2nd year at UVA, and (3) in both cases have proven capable at the D-1 level for at least one of their seasons to date, even if just in a rotational reserve capacity. After that, you want to round that out to a Top 9/10 OL with some combination of impact 2nd years or immediate-eligible transfers.
What you want to avoid is true freshmen playing at all or having to rely on new transfers at multiple starting positions. You also want to have enough depth that 2 or 3 guys can be injured (inevitable, basically) and you still have five starters plus 2-3 rotational reserves (ideally a swing tackle and an interior guy).
Right now we project some good returners to build around, including I think all five starters from the back half of the season, seven guys overall who started multiple games on the OL this year:
- G/C Brian Stevens (6ā2 296) - 12 starts this year, rising 6th year, transfer entering his 2nd year at UVA
- OT Blake Steen (6ā5 340) - Started final five games, rising RS Soph entering 3rd year at UVA
- OT McKale Boley (6ā4 302) - Started all 12 games, rising true junior entering 3rd year at UVA
- G/C Ty Furnish (6ā3, 282) - Started all 12 games (C and OG), rising RS Jr entering 4th year at UVA
- G Noah Josey (6ā5 315) - Started all 12 games this year, rising RS Jr, entering 4th year at UVA
- OT Jimmy Christ (6ā7 317): 2 starts this year, rising 5th year RS Jr, transfer entering his 2nd year at UVA, adjustment slowed by injury
- G/T Ugonna Nnanna (6ā4 309) - grad transfer from Houston, started six games to start the year, backup down the stretch, rising RS Sr, would be entering 2nd year at UVA
A couple of other guys did get rotational experience:
- Rising RS Jr OT Jack Witmer - played all 12 games - 6ā7 but only 285 so probably too light to be an every down OT but clearly good depth and ST contributor
- Noah DeMeritt - Rising RS Soph, got time in 12 games
- Charlie Patterson - Rising RS Soph, got time in 8 games
- Houston Curry - Rising RS Soph, got time in 3 games down the stretch
- Noah Hartsoe - Rising RS Soph, got time in 7 games
So thereās a critical mass of returning contributors, as of today all but Jestus Johnson (though I suspect weāll see a couple more depart before the end).
Itās drastically different from a year ago, when we had three new transfers brand new to UVA (Stevens, Chris, and Nnanna) counted among our seven starters, and relied on a couple of 2nd years as well (Boley and Steen). Thatās five guys who donāt meet my criteria (homegrown 3rd year at UVA or transfer in their 2nd year at UVA), only Josey and Furnish did meet that criteria.
Now weāve got upperclass system vets competing for every starting spot, with a lot of young guys in the wings ready to compete for reserve and special teams roles.
As such, depending on how well we keep those returners together (i.e. - maybe no more than 2 more transfer losses or retirements), we can probably get by with just one splash OL transfer, though two would be ideal. I think three is overkill unless the third is a young long term prospect.
What I really want to see is someone bump Furnish or Stevens out of the starting lineup. No disrespect intended, but theyāre too small to play together and be able to provide needed consistent push in the run game. Maybe thatās where the transfer push lies. Otherwise I feel weirdly confident that the OL looks much better next year strictly from continued development and continuity, assuming decent health of course.
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I was actually feeling decent about them too until VT absolutely embarrassed them in the last game. I donāt know how guys who are ever going to comprise a decent line look that bad. Guess one has to just hope it was flukey.
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I think we will do everything in our power to find a starting OT in the portal to be opposite Boley and shift Steen to OG.
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Even with the d-line coming back, while itās more positive than the alternative, Iām still not optimistic overall.
Like those guys have been objectively not good for a few seasons. And looked absolutely overmatched at times last year (especially against Tech)
Yada yada health yada yada continuity
Keep hearing Bronco left the cupboard bare, wait til TE gets his guys. Three years laterā¦.still playing the same guys!
Love this breakdown and really appreciate it.
Agree 100% and is generally what I look for when breaking down teams as well. Thereās simply no replacement for experience and continuity in the oline. Colorado replaced their entire line last season with solid guys (higher ranked that UVAās current roster) and they wee awful largely because they werenāt on the same page. Now if Prime holds the line they could be good next year but we shall see if heās patient enough to do that.
Oline is the only position where I still worry when I see a Freshman at the top of the depth chart. There are exceptions and you can hide a guy at guard from time to time but generally speaking it does not give me any confidence.
Thatās my feeling as well. I assume the Hoos lose 1-3 guys just due to natural attrition of modern football. While it breaks from the continuity theme, I would like to see a couple transfers in to bump either or both of the guys you mentioned. I also think they need them to fill out the depth chart. Now if that means a 2nd yr who sits at 2 on the 2 deep Iām okay with that because he will develop and be ready to move into a bigger role later.
Bottom line is I donāt think the transfer portal is the miracle working tool for OLine like it is for a QB (and even there I donāt think it works quite like that) but I do think itās a great place to go shopping for depth and experience.
The performance in the VT game was shocking. Like I said I thought generally the Oline played well mid Octish through the Duke game. It felt like they found some combos that worked and were effective. But the VT game looked like a throwback to the Tennessee game a complete regression.
I still have not gone back to watch film of the VT game but if I recall a lot of the issues with the line beside being simply overwhelmed by size at time is the ability to adjust to read stunts and twist seemingly simple wrinkles threw them off. A lot of that comes down to experience and communication, which hopefully is remedied with another year.
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I thought both Josey and Boley were either sick/injured going into the gameā¦ theyād been the strength of the line when it was peforming well mid season
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That seems like enough depth for a 2 deep. I think one problem is that all the guys are almost all the same age so theyāll all leave at the same time.
As far as a transfer in, we got Christ, Nanna and Stevens in last year. Iām not sure how much was injury related and how much was skill related, but Christ didnāt nail down the RT job like was expected. Great that Steen won that job though. Left side with Boley and Josey were good last season and should be better this season. If Steen and Christ can handle the right side in some combination thatād be great. Stevens and Furnish hold down C. Nonna backing up one of the guard spots. Curry as a swing tackle with Whitmer providing depth. Maybe DeMerit or Patterson backing up the other guard spot and thatās a 2 deep.
After the season you lose Stevens and Christ, but Furnish and Curry can step in.
Then thereās trouble after that.
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And thatās where finding 1 or 2 in the portal and obviously recruiting comes in. Like you said the 2 deep is generally good in terms of serviceable bodies. But this yearās offseason becomes important to get the 1st yrs or young transfers who can come in and learn and develop into the guys @StLouHoo talks about, when their number is called in 25.
Could very well be and maybe thatās a part of the explanation. I didnāt track it closely enough so may well have missed that. I was just pretty surprised by just how bad the unit looked in that game given theyād been serviceable for a little while.
Stevens played C down the stretch, right? Then I hope Furnish is the one who gets unseated, because Furnish at C wasā¦ well, this is a family show so lets go with ābadā.
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Bronco didnāt leave the OL cupboard bare intentionally, just a bunch of them transferred when he left. Always happens when a HC leaves, it just happened to hit the OL harder than Iād have expected. My feelings about 2J have swung wildly back and forth over the years.
You said it yourself - picking bowl games is a foolās errand. Youāve got teams of 20 year olds who have taken 2-5 weeks off, maybe partying too much, maybe not caring about the result, maybe not caring enough to even play, worried about whether the coach is leaving, worried about their offseason NIL payout. Picking bowl games is sheer guesswork.
Sure, Iām in.
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