In an effort to help his team’s defense, Bronco Mendenhall made some tweaks to the responsibilities of his assistant coaches this offseason. Moving Shane Hunter to safeties and tasking Ricky Brumfield with cornerbacks in addition to his role as special teams coordinator, the Cavaliers are hoping to improve a D that gave up a lot of big plays through the air last year.

What that also means is that Kelly Poppinga now has the entire linebacking corps. And to say that his excitement about UVa’s depth is an understatement.

The Wahoos have to contend with the challenge of replacing what was in many ways the two most notable faces of the defense the past two years in Charles Snowden and Zane Zandier.

If Poppinga is in any way nervous about such an endeavor, he’s got a funny way of showing it.

“Losing those guys obviously, you’re losing a lot of experience,” Poppinga said last week. “You’re losing good leadership. You’re losing guys that know the culture, they know what the expectation is. They know the standard. So, obviously, you’re losing a lot right there. So I don’t want to make this sound like we’re not losing much but I feel very good about where we’re at with the depth that we have.

“Man, I think we can honestly go eight to nine deep at that position,” he added, “with guys that have experience. So, no concern with the depth…There’s plenty of guys. The depth is not an issue. I feel really, really good with that.”

While the veteran LBs coach is excited about the entire team’s depth, he’s clearly looking forward to seeing what he can get out of his group.

OLB Noah Taylor and ILB Nick Jackson return, giving the Cavaliers two of the most important pieces of the puzzle. The heir apparent to Snowden and Zandier outside and in, respectively, will be the key.

But, given the way Virginia sees its backers moving forward, position might be more likely to flip than ever.

“That’s the beauty of, or the advantage you could say, of being able to coach all of them,” Poppinga explained. “Really all of them are knowing every position. Not saying Nick Jackson is going to end up at outside backer, but he could. That’s the design that we’re in right now. There’s guys that we’re experimenting with right now who can do both and that’s how we’ve recruited. We’ve recruited guys with versatility. So really, almost every single one of our outside backers should be able to play inside backer. I would say that’s pretty much the same for our inside backers, all of them should be able to play outside backer. That’s just the way that we’ve always recruited. Those guys are always interchangeable.

“Now, I actually think we’ll be even more capable of doing that,” he added, “of moving guys inside and outside. And I think we’ve got the guys that can do it.”

Every offseason is predicated in part by the season that came before it. The Cavaliers struggled to get stops when it mattered most last year and some of that falls on the linebackers not being good enough.

“I felt like really one of the main issues we had defensively overall was that we were not assignment sound as we were in the past,” Poppinga said. “Just our precision and our detail in our assignments wasn’t nearly what it’s used to being. I think there could be a lot of excuses there; I’m not going to go into that. But we were not precise. So that’s been a major focus in the offseason. Not just knowing your job but knowing the defenses that we’re calling in, knowing the whole scheme. We call that being a position master. So being able to challenge our guys to do that.

“Then the other part is being more specific,” he continued. “Our pass drops last year were not good. We were bad at underneath coverage. That put more pressure on the DBs on the back end. A lot of people look at the back end and say ‘Shoot, those guys gave up some big plays here and there.’ I think a lot of that you could attribute some of that to the poor underneath drops.”

While Elliott Brown will certainly be a factor now that he’s returning for his “super” senior season thanks to NCAA rules changes related to the pandemic, the Cavaliers also boast a depth chart that could be full of athleticism and talent.

The trick, Poppinga said, is getting them where they need to be.

“You’re always looking for those guys to develop,” he explained. “I would say as a younger guy the No. 1 thing you’re always trying to develop is their size and strength as they come in. You want to develop that. And then when you get on the field, it’s just the understanding of their position first, right, before they start to try to understand the whole entire defense. With John (Horton) and James Jackson that’s coming in right now and you could say Brandon (Williams) as well, just understanding their job and doing it once they get out on the field and executing what they have to do. I see that Jon Horton has taken some strides since last year, in the last two practices. James Jackson has been a surprise. Sam Brady’s taken huge strides from last season.

“I think that young group, those first- and second-years, we are extremely excited about the athleticism that they bring, the type of football players they are,” Poppinga added. “They are smart kids and I think they’re bout into our culture as well. There’s a bright future at backer here.”

And replacing Zandier inside will be no small feat just given his consistent production.

“I think as an inside backer…you’re looking for someone who’s always a leader, somebody that’s going to set the tone of how you’re going to play defense,” he said. “Being an effort-based defense that we are, you turn on the film and you watch Zane Zandier and that’s what he was, man. You can turn on the film and you can say ‘Virginia defense was Zane Zandier’ just the way he flew to the ball, the mindset and physicality that he played with. So that’s what we’re looking for. Somebody that you can look at them and say ‘That’s Virginia football right there.’ Then there’s leadership involved in there and then you’ve got to be a bigger, more physical, stouter guy. Nick Jackson, obviously. Hunter Stewart I think is filling in that spot. I think Elliott Brown could help us there as well. T.C. Harrison. Josh Ahern. Sam Brady. I think there’s a multiplicity of guys that we can put in both positions at the inside backer.

“And shoot, you might even see Noah there,” he added. “Like I said before, that’s the beauty of being able to coach all of the positions. You might be outside backer one play, you might be inside backer the next. That’s how we’ve done it in the past and we know how to do that and we’ve had success with it.”

JOIN CAVSCORNER TODAY!

If you are not already a member of CavsCorner, come join us and see what all of the buzz is about.

Click HERE to subscribe and get all of the latest news and join hundreds of other UVa fans in talking about Cavalier football, basketball, and recruiting. You won't be disappointed!