Heading into the 2019 season, UVa offensive line coach Garett Tujague was expected to have a full room for the first time since arriving in Charlottesville.
While injuries kept the Hoos from having the 17 guys available at the position that they were hoping for, the group finished strong and didn’t lose anyone heading into this season.
But with Bryce Perkins now in the NFL and a running game that everyone agrees has to take a step forward, UVa has to answer some questions. But the collective experience—which includes 114 starts—helps tremendously.
“I mean, there's obviously really good individual performances,” Tujague said this week. “Like really, really good. It's just now getting them to work together as one group, [that] has been the main goal. So, just trying to make sure that we're getting the right combinations together of guards and tackles working together, as well as with the center and the guards. So just maneuvering that around every day has been giving us an opportunity to get those looks.”
There were obviously some lessons from last year that the group learned, particularly about ways to make the most of what they had.
“I think the major emphasis that was going into that was just being able to put our guys in position to be successful,” he said. “Again, if you're getting just completely outmatched you need to figure out how to give those guys help and assistance. And so I thought we did a really good job of that and I think the players understood what we were trying to do at a higher level. With the class, even though there were starters that had started games, we went into that Pitt game, man, Ryan Nelson didn't go through camp, Chris Glaser didn't go through camp, Dillon Reinkensmeyer didn’t go through camp. So as we grew throughout that first part of the year, it absolutely paid off. I think there was a huge emphasis on what we did in practice that enabled my guys to be successful towards the end of the year.”
While players this week said the running game was a major emphasis for the Cavaliers thus far in camp, Tujague had a slightly different take.
“I would like to say we were never not focused on that,” he explained. “But again, running the football’s a lot easier than playing catch. And again, if those are the tools, that's what you can do and that's what we're going to do. So there's always an emphasis on running the football. The effectiveness of it comes with time and strength. And the numbers that we've gained in the weight room through Griz (S&C coach Shawn Griswold) and his staff are obviously going to contribute to the success of any run game.”
Virginia’s offensive linemen obviously got plenty of experience in 2019 but did so with Perkins at the helm, which means that they’re all playing with new signal callers this camp in Brennan Armstrong and Keytaon Thompson. But that doesn’t mean the offense actually changes even if it looks slightly different.
“I think it does change just because of the dynamics of who Bryce was,” Tujagie said. “But again, I don't think the emphasis on what we do offensively has changed at all. I mean, Coach (Jason) Beck’s done an amazing job of putting quarterbacks in there that fit our system. And so, again, there's a major emphasis, maybe on a difference of when he escapes, he's going to try to escape to the left, that kind of stuff with Brennan. Then, when it’s Keytaon, it's, yeah, he's going to escape to the right. And so, again, the offense is the offense and you try to recruit to build that part of the offense. And again, if you don't have the tools that you're looking for, then you’ve got to create offense that makes them successful. Our offense is our offense and we're fortunate enough to be in a situation that we are. Brennan can run and, now, he's not going to be as dynamic as Bryce, obviously. But he can run. I would hate for someone to underestimate that ability.”
Having always had a “five best” philosophy on the line, that remains the case even now that UVa’s experience includes Reinkensmeyer’s 36 career (“Typically, in a healthy offensive line room you don't have a guy with that many starts,” Tujague said), Nelson’s 27, Glaser’s 22, and Olu Oluwatimi’s 13. The others who have started thus far include Ryan Swoboda (two) as well as Bobby Haskins (13) and Tyler Fannin (one), who are both currently out due to injury. That doesn’t include young guys like Joe Bissinger, who continues to push at guard, and grad transfer Alex Gellerstedt, who is healthy again and pushing at tackle.
“It's amazing,” Tujague said of the competition he’s seeing in camp. “I tried to look back throughout my years as a coach to where I've had this much competition, legitimate competition, not paper, not paper champions, but real competition. And it's elevated the group tremendously, especially with the inside three and then hopefully we'll get Bobby back here pretty soon and now you’ve got a guy who's got X amount of starts battling for guys that have no starts.
“I mean, I think that's huge,” he added. “I think that's a major part of it. Competition, man. What's that commercial like? ‘When banks compete you win’? When O-linemen compete, I win.’”
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