Countdown to Camp: Changes on offense will be key for Virginia

Virginia opens football camp in less than a month (August 3) with Tony Elliott and his new staff ready to lead the program into their first season.

Elliott brings his own offensive philosophy to Charlottesville and while he did retain two assistants on that side of the ball from the previous regime, it’s fair to expect the offense to look quite a bit different going forward than what we saw over the past six seasons.

In our first Countdown to Camp piece today, we’ll take a look at a few things that we expect to see more from the offense and maybe some things that will depart along with the previous staff.

Traditional Ground Game: The most-obvious change coming for the offense is balance. UVa wasn’t always so pass heavy but, to the credit of the previous staff, they usually went in the direction that led the offense to have the best outcomes. Still, the offense will likely benefit from the creation of a sound running game.

We’ve talked at length this offseason about how the offensive line will be a work in progress with so many changes, so we don’t know a while how proficient the run blocking will ultimately be. But finding a way to move the ball on the ground should take some pressure off of Brennan Armstrong and limit his number of dropbacks and in turn opportunities to be sacked.

UVa has a few options at running back, led by Mike Hollins, who could have a breakout season. Amaad Foston showed some flashes of ability in the spring game, and UVa added impact transfer Cody Brown to the roster in the spring after the former four-star prospect spent one year at Miami.

Elliott’s Clemson offenses were often skewed towards the passing game, in part because the Tigers had strong quarterback play, but they also ran the ball effectively. Virginia’s new offensive coordinator Des Kitchings has a running-game background as well.

Virginia hasn’t had a traditionally successful running game, led by running backs and not a quarterback, since Jordan Ellis rushed for over 1,000 yards in 2018. The Cavaliers will probably remain a pass-first team in 2022 but the coaching changes could lead to a renewed emphasis on the ground game.

No-Huddle/Up-Tempo: When the previous staff arrived at Virginia in 2016, they talked about wanting to be the fastest-paced team in the nation. Oregon’s no-huddle pace was mentioned as the standard that the Hoos would look to match or beat. Robert Anae’s offense went up-tempo often at BYU, so it made sense to bring that approach east. UVa tried the no-huddle offense for a game or two and then scrapped it, going all the way in the other direction. That made sense at the time, as UVa was at a talent disadvantage in most games,and was looking to shorten games, control the ball, and make the margin for error more slim. In the years that followed, the pace never really sped back up to the 2016 expectations.

When Elliott was introduced at Virginia, he mentioned that his primary offensive philosophy at Clemson was basically a no-huddle spread attack. He will obviously have other voices in the room but it doesn’t seem like a stretch to think that the offense could ditch the huddle in 2022 and maybe pick up the pace a bit. And quite frankly, UVa has the personnel to make that work: The Cavaliers have depth at receiver but could certainly play the same group of three or four several plays in a row and make it work.

Deep Throws: Under Anae, things were largely predicated on creating mismatches pre-snap and getting the ball out quickly to receivers. With Bryce Perkins behind center, the offense was often one or two reads and run if nothing was there right away. Armstrong was given more time to survey the field with a veteran offensive line that could hold up blocks and, with receivers that could make plays down the field, there were more deep throws in the offense. And with the deeper throws, UVa became far more explosive.

At times, Anae’s offense was so reliant on short plays turning into intermediate gains with few big plays. Often, the lack of explosiveness held the offense back. But in 2021, good blocking and quarterback play coupled with game breakers at wide receiver and tight end opened things up and Virginia scored points in bunches.

In Elliott’s offense, UVa could make taking shots down the field more normal. Short throws can be advantageous and one of the better ways to move the ball in modern college football. But being able to beat a defense over the top adds a different dimension, and makes a team much more difficult to stop. Elliott’s talented Clemson quarterbacks went deep plenty but we’re also talking about players that are now NFL starters. Virginia’s offense will need to take what’s available but a bigger emphasis on vertical throws with the new staff won’t be particularly surprising.

Wholesale Personnel Changes: We touched on how UVa scrapped the no-huddle offense under the previous staff. Instead of sticking with a group of 11 and running plays quickly, UVa didn’t just opt to huddle and go slow. No, the Wahoos often made wholesale changes on a play-by-play basis. Typically they would run a play, then sub out a handful of players, some combination of backs, receivers, and/or tight ends, and run a very different formation with different players on the next play.

There are real advantages to doing this, namely the ability to run the same play or route combinations from different looks or with different players. But it also created situations where UVa subbed out players that were playing well or having key players off the field on key downs.

If the Cavaliers do ultimately get away from the huddle, or even if they don’t, expect Virginia’s offense to substitute a lot less this year. UVa won’t necessarily go “ironman” and play the same 11 players all game but it seems likely that Elliott and Co. will cut down on personnel changes for the sake of personnel changes.

Pre-Snap Motion: Like making substitutions on a constant basis, Anae’s schemes often relied on a lot of pre-snap motion to confuse defenses. Once UVa had subbed out a few players and huddled, the players would line up one way but would rarely ever snap the ball in that formation. The offense always had a player in motion at the snap, or sometimes several going in motion and getting reset before the ball was hiked.

Like personnel changes, pre-snap motion can give the defense one more thing to look at, trying to create confusion at the snap. This was often successful and helped the Cavaliers create mismatches when defenses were slow to adjust to shifting players.

In the spring game, it was a bit jarring to see the Cavaliers simply line up and snap the ball. While pre-snap motion can be helpful, plenty of successful offenses don’t rely on it much at all. They put players in a position to create mismatches and recruit the right guys to make that happen.

If UVa picks up the pace, they will likely want to get going, rather than hurry up and wait for several player movements to take place pre-snap.

Thorterbacks: This might be a hard one. The Bronco Mendenhall Era was marked by improved quarterback play. Kurt Benkert, Perkins, and Armstrong all set UVa records, leading the Hoos to more success on offense than the program had in many years. As fans are acutely aware by now, the previous staff had a specific type of player that they targeted to lead that offense.

Based on the success they had with Taysom Hill at BYU, Mendenhall’s staff went after physical dual-threat quarterbacks that could make plays through the air and on the ground. They also targeted bigger, more-physical quarterbacks that could take a pounding in the running game in addition to using straight-line speed.

The new coaches will certainly target quarterbacks that overlap with Mendenhall-style targets. Many of the guys Mendenhall offered at QB were highly sought-after players. But Elliott’s staff will probably have a wider scope when looking for signal callers.

In the 2023 class for example, UVa had an offer out to Brock Glenn, who is a prototypical pro-style quarterback that can move but is far from a run-first signal-caller. The new staff also recently picked up a commitment from Anthony Colandrea, far from a big dual-threat option at just 6-feet, 175 pounds.

It seems that the new staff won’t look to plug in a system fit—which was a solid strategy, mind you—but instead look for players talented enough to succeed and build around them in the most suitable way, which is also a good way to go about it.