As fall camp rolls on and the home opener against Richmond draws closer, there has been plenty of attention given to position battles across the roster, including at quarterback. But there’s one position group that has less playing time up for grabs potentially but requires more growth than any other position group on the roster.
After all: UVa’s offense isn’t going far, regardless of which quarterback earns the starting job, if the offensive line doesn’t improve.
A season ago, the Wahoos had a young group up front and dealt with position swaps and injuries and, as a result, couldn’t maintain quality performances. The run game struggled for most of the season, averaging just over 3 yards per carry. And Cavalier quarterbacks were often under duress, as UVa allowed 43 sacks, near the very bottom nationally.
The offensive staff knows how much they need quality line play, and how without it, they’re likely heading for middling results at best.
“There’s no play that we’re not a part of as an offensive line. We’ve got to open holes, we have to move the line of scrimmage,” offensive line coach Terry Heffernan said during a preseason conversation. “When we choose to throw it we better pass protect, if we throw a screen we need to get downfield. So we’re at the point of attack on everything.”
It helps with expectations when a position group returns a lot of production from the previous season. After a couple of years full of transition, the line will look like last year’s group, just one year older. The 2023 unit was still quite young and didn’t have a lot of experience overall, and it took the group about half the season to figure out who their best five was and try to gel as a group.
Having everyone back is both beneficial to Heffernan, and raises expectations.
“There’s a lot of expectation and anticipation, and the expectation for us is to make a huge jump,” Heffernan explained. “And I think the amount of comfort level we have with each other and the amount of work these guys have put in, that’s what should happen. But you have to make that happen.”
One player that was new to UVa a year ago at this time but is now a depended-upon veteran is Brian Stevens. The former Dayton Flyer started the season at guard and moved to center before the Maryland game, where he played the remainder of the season. He has a lot of collegiate experience and understands the value of having the group work together through a fall camp and into the season.
“A lot of the O-line hadn’t played together,” Stevens said of last year’s group. “You can’t fabricate trust, you have to genuinely build that trust. If you don’t trust the guy next to you, sometimes you might try to do too much, be Superman and do two man’s job. If you do that, you get beat.”
Having so many players back, not just in the projected starting lineup but also down the depth chart, allows Heffernan to take his teaching to the next level. With more familiarity with expectations and scheme, it’s easier for the offensive line coach to hone in on details.
“Our starting point and where we’re going to start with our installation and things I’m coaching are going to be different,” Heffernan said. “We should know what our first step looks like, what our hand placement looks like. I’ve coached these guys for two springs and a training camp, so you can go onto some other things.”
Halfway through camp, the projected starting offensive line is as follows:
LT: McKale Boley
LG: Noah Josey
C: Stevens
RG: Ty Furnish
RT: Blake Steen
At this time last year, those five spots were relatively wide open, with perhaps a couple of favorites to start but very few locks. This year, that starting group seems somewhat solidified, though injuries can always be a factor and perhaps someone will play their way into consideration.
Still, this is a far different situation than the line was in a year ago.
“There’s still a level of competition,” Heffernan said. “I would describe last year as wide open. But at a certain point in this training camp we’re going to figure out where guys fit best. That point is going to be a heck of a lot earlier than it was a year ago. There’s the competition vs continuity argument, and you want to get into some continuity earlier this year, and we just didn’t have that luxury a year ago.”
The projected starting line didn’t get to play together in the spring as four of the five missed time, but they’ve been working together closely through the summer to build their chemistry ahead of the season opener on August 31st.
“Us five got a lot of time together this offseason,” Stevens said. “A lot of film sessions, a lot of going to get food, stuff like that. Having another offseason always helps.”
Perhaps the biggest area of growth from 2023 to to 2024 is at the tackle spots, arguably the most important for a line that desperately needs improved pass protection. At left tackle, Boley has been penciled in as the starter after winning the job last year and showing some promise in his sophomore season. Boley has missed some time in fall camp but Tony Elliott said that his injury is expected to be minor and he should be back well ahead of the opener. And if Boley can take a leap this year, it would be a great development for the entire offense.
“McKale played for us a year ago, but he’s also just scraping the surface of his ability,” Heffernan said of Boley. “He’s an immensely talented athlete, and really smart, diligent kid. I think he’s going to make a massive jump this year. It’s not every year you feel good about your left tackle, right tackle, or either tackle. So having a returning starter at left tackle and especially one with such a high ceiling and a desire to be good as McKale, that’s really exciting.”
At the other tackle spot, Steen came out of nowhere to earn playing time last season. He took the job during the win at Carolina and started every contest thereafter. It wasn’t long ago that Steen was a raw freshman in Elliott’s first UVa recruiting class, and he has probably had more exponential growth than anyone else on the line.
“Blake has been an impressive story of what having a great work ethic, and having this be really important to you, can do,” Heffernan explained. “My first spring, my first impulse was that this guy will never play here, ever. Strength wise he was deficient, movement wise, deficient, and he struggled mightily.
“To his credit, he’s worked his way into where he starts six games for us a year ago,” the veteran O-line coach added. “The work he’s put in since then is just reshaping his body, understanding the offense, changing his attitude in certain ways. I couldn’t be more proud of him; now he’s got to go do it.”
Those sorts of dramatic turnarounds are pretty unlikely, Heffernan went on to say. And if Steen can do it, perhaps the entire line can make a big jump from year to year, and prove a lot of people wrong.
“It’s pretty rare,” Heffernan said of his dramatic turnaround. “Blake has a huge frame and a lot of real ability but it was just buried under the fact that he was so athletically under-developed. If you say ‘I don’t think this guy’s going to help us,’ that’s usually how that one ends.
“It’s a great reminder of, never ever quit on a puppy on the offensive line,” he added. “We’re the biggest developmental position in all of sports in my opinion. In the game of football, the offensive line is going to take a while, and if a guy can get it in two years, that’s a success.”
