Cavaliers are getting creative with ways to attack defenses

Ask Bronco Mendenhall how he feels about Virginia’s offense this preseason and, like with a lot of things, it becomes a matter of simple math.

“We’re gonna score a lot of points,” the Cavaliers’ head coach said after last Friday’s practice at the McCue Center. “That’s the number one driver of who wins in college football.”

Mendenhall’s two most recent teams have been among the most prolific in modern UVa history when it comes to putting points on the board. In the 39 seasons since George Welsh first arrived before the 1982 season, six Virginia teams have averaged at least 30 points per game.

Two of them have played the past two seasons. It’s the first time the program has had back-to-back teams eclipse that 30-point-per-game plateau.

In 2019, when the Coastal Division champs won nine of their 14 games, the Wahoos also scored a school-record 449 points. That team averaged 32.1 points, second in school history behind only Welsh’s memorable 1990 squad that averaged 38.7 points with Heisman Trophy finalist Shawn Moore at quarterback, Terry Kirby in the backfield, and Herman Moore catching passes.

Despite losing playmakers like Bryce Perkins at quarterback and Joe Reed and Hasise Dubois at receiver, last year’s team still managed to average 30.7 points in 10 games. Across nine starts, quarterback Brennan Armstrong threw for 18 touchdowns and ran for five more. QB-turned-playmaker Keytaon Thompson ran for three scores and caught three in his first season at UVa.. Running back Wayne Taulapapa had five rushing touchdowns, while three other players—tight end Tony Poljan and receivers Lavel Davis and Ra’Shaun Henry—finished with at least four touchdown catches.

All but Poljan are back this season, although Davis is out until at least November with a knee injury suffered in spring practice.

Billy Kemp is also back at receiver after leading last year’s team with 67 catches but just one score last year. Dontayvion Wicks has looked like a downfield threat since returning from a foot injury that cost the third-year receiver all of last season, while coaches and teammates have praised Henry for getting in better shape this spring and looking more comfortable in his second season after arriving as a graduate transfer from St. Francis. Another grad transfer, 6-foot-7 tight end Jelani Woods, “can do it all” according to his quarterback.

With so many options, the first two weeks of camp have seen UVa coaches experiment with creative ways to get playmakers the ball. That innovation starts with Thompson, once a four-star recruit at quarterback who inadvertently became one of the Wahoos’ most dangerous weapons when a preseason shoulder injury knocked him out of a competition with Armstrong.

“He does it all. Everyone knows that,” Armstrong said last week. “Swiss Army knife. Just a bunch of different nicknames. He’s gonna do it all. He’s gonna help us a lot.”

Thompson has spent most of his time in camp working with offensive coordinator Robert Anae, who also oversees the Cavaliers’ inside receivers and tight ends. During the open portion of last Friday’s practice, Thompson caught a pair of touchdowns from second-year quarterback Ira Armstead during a red zone drill pitting the inside receivers and tight ends against linebackers and safeties.

Thompson has also been working with the running backs and quarterbacks on the practice field. The playbook includes some plays with Thompson lined up at QB; he motions into that spot before the snap for others. According to Taulapapa, the Hoos have also been lining up running backs in the slot or at tight end.

And as Thompson pointed out, he’s not the only former quarterback the Cavaliers have scattered in other spots around the offense.

Like Thompson at Mississippi State, Woods was originally recruited to play quarterback at Oklahoma State before moving to tight end late in his freshman season. Armstead saw some time at receiver and running back last year before getting hurt at Miami. First-year receiver Malachi Fields, who Mendenhall expects to see the field this fall, spent the last three seasons playing quarterback across town at Monticello High School. Thompson says other players are being worked into some of the roles that have been designed for him.

“We have a lot of guys who can do a lot of things,” Thompson said, “and like coach says, the more you can do the more you can do.”

But coaches drawing up plays and creative ways to get playmakers involved is one thing; those players still need to be able to pull off those plays successfully. It’s that execution of the innovations that the staff has thrown at them that has most encouraged Armstrong early in camp this summer.

“Like right now in fall we’ll get one script and then boom, the next day a new one,” said the quarterback, who threw for 2,117 yards and also led the Wahoos with 552 rushing yards last year. “A lot of the guys are working really hard to study their stuff and come in the next day, be ready for practice and know their stuff.”

“With all the motions and different things like that, the little twists that they have in our scripts, a lot of guys can run them and we run them well, especially out here on the practice field with just one day,” he added. “So kudos to our guys that can learn that stuff and go out and perform it the next day, and just with the coaches being creative, just helps us come up with different things.”

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!