Hoos aren’t talking about tweaks to their defense
If Virginia is working on a schematic change on defense behind closed gates at the McCue Center this summer, the Wahoos aren’t talking about it.
Mention the idea in passing to Noah Taylor and he just smiles. Bring it up to safety De’Vante Cross and he starts laughing.
“I can’t say. I just feel like I’d get in trouble,” Cross replied after Friday’s practice. “Top secret, sorry.”
Fixing one of the worst pass defenses in the country last fall — the Wahoos gave up an average of 304.4 passing yards per game, which ranked 123rd out of 127 FBS teams — has been a top priority at UVa this offseason. Head coach Bronco Mendenhall has shifted roles on his staff and recruited graduate transfers to create more depth and competition in the defensive backfield.
And whatever unspoken scheme tweaks the Cavaliers may or may not be working on have been effective as well.
“We’re just going out there connecting with each other,” said fifth-year senior cornerback Darrius Bratton. “Really good communication. The coaches giving us a great gameplan. We’re just going out there and putting in the work.”
“We’re way better,” agreed Cross, a sixth-year senior who shifted back to safety after starting all 10 games at cornerback last year. “We’re light years better.”
The Wahoos allowed half of their 10 opponents to throw for at least 300 yards last season, including 520—the most ever given up by a UVa defense—by Boston College backup quarterback Dennis Grosel. That came after five of the Cavaliers’ final six opponents eclipsed that 300-yard mark through the air in 2019. Clemson threw for 408 in the ACC Championship and Florida posted 305 in the Orange Bowl.
Prior to that late-season swoon two years ago, teams had struggled to throw the ball against the Hoos. They finished second in the ACC in fewest passing yards allowed in both Mendenhall’s second and third seasons at UVa, in 2017 and 2018. Through the first two-thirds of the 2019 schedule, they were again second in the league — and 10th in the country — in passing yards allowed, giving up just 169.1 yards per game.
Those struggles over the last 15 games prompted Mendenhall to conduct a thorough offseason assessment of the pass defense. Shane Hunter was shifted from coaching inside linebackers to safeties coach; special teams coordinator Ricky Brumfield (who oversaw the tight ends a season ago) moved over to D to coach the cornerbacks.
The Wahoos also added a pair of grad transfers to the defensive backfield, with former Louisville CB Anthony Johnson joining the team for spring ball and former North Dakota State corner Josh Hayes arriving this summer. In three years with the Cardinals, Johnson played in 32 games and started five; Hayes started 25 of 52 career games at NDSU.
Those two veterans have added more experience to a secondary that already returned Cross and fifth-year senior Joey Blount at safety, and Bratton and sixth-year senior Nick Grant at corner. Praising Johnson’s sense of urgency and passion for football, Mendenhall said on Friday night that the new arrival has been “on a mission” while competing with Bratton for one of the cornerback spots. Other positions are also up for grabs.
“There’s so much competition in the room,” said Cross. “In years past someone gets hurt, we’re scrambling. Now, God forbid if someone’s injured, we’re not scrambling. We’ve got great players at every position. Everyone’s experienced. It’s awesome.”
After Friday’s practice, Mendenhall described his secondary as “healthy and fast and deep.”
“That makes a huge difference,” he added. “And so we have depth and competition everywhere, and that allows flexibility. We want the best four or five or six out there at any given time.”
Those comments echoed what the head coach said following the Cavaliers’ spring game in May, when Mendenhall talked about getting “the five best football players on the field” in the secondary. Prior to the start of spring practices he had mentioned looking at scheme changes as a way of improving the pass defense. At ACC Kickoff last night, he admitted that the coaching staff previously may not have been “innovating far enough” when trying to fix the issue.
Those remarks, combined with the additional depth in the secondary and other clues, have prompted speculation (including on this website) that the Wahoos may pivot from their base 3-4 defense to a 3-3-5 alignment to get an additional defensive back on the field more consistently at the expense of a fourth linebacker.
For one period during the portion of Friday night’s practice that was open to media, the Cavaliers’ linebackers and safeties were working against tight ends and inside receivers. The defense was rotating three linebackers with three safeties for the duration of the drill.
The offseason shifts in coaching roles also led to co-defensive coordinator Kelly Poppinga overseeing both outside and inside linebackers. That change has blurred the lines between the two roles and Poppinga talked at length last week about the number of linebackers—a unit that took a hit to its depth when outside linebacker Chico Bennett, a grad transfer from Georgia Tech, went down with a knee injury this spring—seeing time in practice at both inside and outside spots.
Don’t expect the Cavaliers to come clean on any scheme changes prior to their September 4th opener against William & Mary. The team has one more practice with a 30-minute window that will be open to media on Friday morning, though that session will again likely consist of little more than stretching and special teams work. The Hoos haven’t revealed anything with the highlights they’ve posted from practice or Saturday’s scrimmage, either.
But whatever they are cooking up in camp this preseason, the veterans in the secondary have moved on from the way last year unfolded.
“One thing we do here is, that’s last year’s team,” Cross said. “That’s 2020. That has nothing to do with this 2021 team, so we don’t even care. We don’t think about it. We’re focused on getting better; we’re focused on doing what we’re doing now. The past is the past, y’all got to see us this year. That’s it.”
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