With most of his defense back, co-coordinator Nick Howell has a simple way to frame his excitement for what UVa’s season could be this fall.
“We have a lot of the same guys back,” he explained earlier this week. “You hope that guys will perform at a higher level. So, the hope is that we perform at a higher level than we did a year ago.”
Performing better than they did in 2019 might sound natural given all of the pieces that figure to return to Virginia’s two-deep when the Hoos open the season in Blacksburg on September 19th (3:30 or 7:30 p.m., ABC). But Charles Snowden, Richard Burney, Zane Zandier, Mandy Alonso, and Joey Blount are just five of the 10 seniors with starting experience who figure to once again play prominent roles. That type of experience doesn’t even including OLB Noah Taylor, who might be pound for pound the best player on the team, and DL Jowon Briggs, who has many around the program eager to see his development over a year ago.
Combining the experience of the roster—even without a couple of opt outs, including standout DL Aaron Faumui—with the amount of offseason prep work the players and coaches did gives the Cavaliers even more confidence.
“We did a lot of offseason preparation with the coaching staff via Zoom,” Howell explained said. “So credit to our guys here, our video guys James and Luke, and the things we were able to do. I would say we did more opponent planning this year than I've ever done in my entire career. So, including Virginia Tech in that. There's always going to be time spent on Virginia Tech. I feel like we've got a good idea about our opponents and what they do.”
That UVa will open in Blacksburg and face their arch rivals to start things off may be giving some fans anxiety but it’s certainly giving the team plenty of urgency.
“I think if you look at all the factors that went into this camp, I think to say that people didn't come out here with questions in their minds in terms of the season, even when we started back in July, there's a lot of ifs,” Howell said. “‘Are we going to play?’ I think having Virginia Tech, as soon as that schedule came out, I think that helped out a lot in terms of intensity and focus and man, I think it'll be a good game. We've played, not here, but we’ve played rivalry games in the first game and there's an added [benefit]. Just getting out there the first game is exciting enough in itself, so it should be fun.”
Among a defensive roster chock full of important pieces, Howell and Bronco Mendenhall boast one of the deepest linebacking groups in recent memory.
“I think that there's a lot of guys that can do a lot of different things,” Howell explained. “So I think it forces an offense to account for everybody all the time with the different things that we do…I’m not an offensive coordinator but I would venture to say that when they watch us, there's quite a few things that you have to be ready for in your preparation.”
That versatility given the current conditions around which the ACC is trying to play football this fall is even more important, both at LB and elsewhere on D.
“I think it’s been pretty similar,” Howell said of cross training players at various spots, like receiver-turned-corner-turned-safety De’Vante Cross. “I think in the secondary always, you're looking to put your best players on the field. So you're always, I believe in the secondary, going to have a safety that can play corner, a corner that can play safety. I would say it's been fairly normal. But yeah, you'd like to keep guys in the same position all the time to get some consistency to where there can be more success.
“Well, if you want to be versatile, you’ve got to be athletic,” he added later on Cross specifically. “And so, No. 1 is his athleticism. I would say probably No. 2 is the ability to learn. Some guys struggle with one job. So you’ve got to be smart. And I would say the third thing would have to be experience. You can't just throw a young guy out there all over the place. Those three things: Is he a good enough athlete, can he learn really well, and then what's his experience like to be able to do that?”
UVa gets much of its “versatility” identity from guys like Taylor and Snowden, players who typically cause a lot of problems for offenses in a number of ways.
“I haven't looked at his numbers completely,” Howell said when asked about Snowden. “But one thing I do know about our defense [is that] it's a really team-oriented defense. So when you look at sacks or in coverage or whatever, we're asking those guys to do quite a lot of different things. So it's not like he's just rushing the passer every down or is he dropping every down. Within his role, he does some good stuff. Big, tall guy, gets in windows, can get to the quarterback. He can do a lot of stuff. So he has tremendous value for sure.”
The one area where the Cavaliers have to address a question mark is at cornerback now that former All-American Bryce Hall is in the professional ranks. In some ways, his injury last season—though it put the Hoos in a tight spot and ended the career of a Virginia great—might pay dividends soon in terms of the reps it provided for others.
“I think we have guys that have played,” Howell said of his corners. “And those guys that have played, they have to play better than we played a year ago. So, you're hoping that a year's time, the experience that they had on the field, the offseason training, the mental preparation, the fall camp, we're hoping that the guys play better than we played at the end of last season. And that's going to be necessary for us to be good.”
Howell and Co. don’t have just the players they recruited out of high school, of course. A pair of former James Madison standouts, DL Adeeb Atariwa and safety D’Angelo Amos, have also joined the program. Their experience, he said, has translated.
“If you look at their background, these guys have played in like 15- and 16-game seasons with playoffs and so I think the more you play football, I really don't think it matters what level it's at,” Howell said. “Those guys have had a tradition of expecting to win. And so that's good. And then I think that they've also played in important games that mean a lot. And then I think there’s, in that level in my opinion, which I think is natural, if you're a good athlete and you're a true competitor, you want a shot at playing against better competition. So this is proving grounds for them as well. They were like, ‘Hey, this is my shot. I can show what I can do.’ And so I think they’ve got a lot of good stuff going for them.
“I think the biggest thing for them coming in here,” he added, “is just learning what a Coach Mendenhall culture is like in terms of playing really hard all the time in the stress. Coach Mendenhall is good at putting physical stress on guys and I don't think it's normal. And so they've had to adapt to that but I think they're in good shape.”
Whether it’s in Lane Stadium or at various other venues along the way, including Scott Stadium, there’s no denying that UVa will play games without many fans in attendance this fall. That’s something that Howell believes will impact everyone. The degree, though, could be the difference.
“I'm not sure what that's going to be like,” he said. “To say that it's different for the home team and not different for the away team, I don't think that will be accurate. I think you're going to have to generate intensity on your own. Just when I'm watching on TV, I'm watching the NBA, in their little bubble. And that kind of looks like its purest form of basketball right now, where dudes are really scrapping and playing extremely hard. So that's impressive. I watched Army over the weekend and they looked like they were having a good time. I think both teams are going to have to adjust to that. And I think really it comes down to just concentrating on your assignment and playing really, really well together and not worrying about the outlying factors.”
All in all, no matter what 2020 brings, Howell’s biggest goal was the most urgent one.
“I just want to beat Virginia Tech,” he said when asked about the schedule. “Right now, I don't really care about the rest of schedule. Honestly, I know there's good teams. I think that's a great question. I think that's more for the higher powers. But I just want to beat Virginia Tech right now.”
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