“China! China!”
The call came from the middle of the Western Albemarle High School defense. Dakota Howell had identified the route concept Western’s opponent was about to run. The linebacker was frantically alerting his teammates before the ball was snapped.
It was a pre-snap read that caught Western defensive coordinator Mike Redmond completely off-guard.
“I had never heard of it,” Redmond admitted of the China concept with a laugh this week. “I call it smash.”
Redmond challenged his then-junior linebacker on the call in a film meeting the following week. In response, Howell drew up the concept on a white board and talked his teammates and coach through it “and he ended up teaching the team.”
“I don’t know if that comes from his dad or from his time watching football,” Redmond said, “but that is something that you can’t replace. That doesn’t happen in high school football a lot.”
Howell is the oldest of Virginia defensive coordinator Nick Howell’s four children. He’s just one of the extensions of the UVa family tree on the Western defense this fall, along with Carson Tujague, the son of offensive line coach Garett Tujague, and Joshua Williams, the son of athletics director Carla Williams.
They’re part of a senior class that has set the foundation for a Western team that’s 6-0 for the first time since 2013. The Warriors will face their toughest test of the season on Friday night when they host a 6-1 Louisa County team that has won four straight Jefferson District titles. That game also carries significant playoff seeding implications in VHSL Region 4D.
All three of those seniors with McCue Center connections have been key cogs for the Warriors as linebackers on Redmond’s defense. It’s a unit that has matured together as football players within the program, and has been aided by the football IQ that comes from having a few coaches’ sons in the film room.
“They can see things as coaches see them on the field and they can execute,” said Ed Redmond, who’s in his 10th season as head coach at Western. “They just see things quickly. They’re great with their film study. They diagnose fronts very well. And they play at a very high level with a motor that’s beyond anything I can describe.”
For both Tujague and Howell, football has always been part of the fabric of their families. Howell says he’s been going to games “since I was like a week old.” Tujague started playing when he was four years old, and began studying the nuances of the sport after arriving at Western.
Both have put those resources at home to good use as they’ve matured with the game.
"Sometimes I'll just ask him a question and sometimes we'll be watching film together and he'll ask me how I think about that play or something like that,” Tujague said of his father. “It's amazing, just being able to watch film with my dad every single night, whether that be our practice or their practice. It's just really cool.”
“He talks a lot about the game. Just if I ask questions or stuff,” said Howell. “After games, he's all into it. He's all excited about it, so he'll talk about it.”
Howell was in sixth grade when he came home from school one December day to find his entire family buzzing about some breaking news: After 11 seasons as head coach at BYU, Bronco Mendenhall was leaving for the same position at UVa.
"And I was like, ‘Where's that?’” Howell recalled. “I didn’t even know.”
A few weeks later, Howell and his family were headed to Virginia to join Mendenhall at UVa. His dad had spent nine years on Bronco’s BYU staff, climbing from an intern in 2007 to defensive coordinator in 2013. He’d be filling that same position in Charlottesville. It was initially “a little rough” moving across the country midyear, Howell admitted.
“But crazy enough, like the first people I've met in middle school were some of my best friends on the football team,” he added. “So it's been cool to know them since the very moment I got here.”
Tujague’s father also made the jump from O-line coach at BYU to the same spot at UVa. Carson finished his sixth grade year in Utah before moving to Albemarle County. He says it didn’t take long to feel at home at his new school and especially with his new football teammates.
“As soon as I walked through these doors, man,” he said. “I love playing for Coach Redmond. It's been a great experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything.”
At Western, Tujague has grown into a 6-foot-3, 215-pound college prospect at linebacker—he has an offer from Navy, and has also been talking to UVa, Wake Forest and Army—and a standout performer in all three phases this fall.
“I can think of Carson making a play against Wilson Memorial, on a super sweep away from him on fourth and one, and he ran the kid down from behind. Kids don't normally do that,” the head coach said. “And we’re at Goochland and he's our personal protector on the right side on field goal. And they don't rush from that side. He sees rush come the other way so he chips over and prevents a block.”
Williams arrived from Georgia midway through his eighth grade year after his mother was hired as UVa’s new athletics director midway through the 2017 football season. Football also helped Williams settle in, especially with the assistance of the two coaches’ kids.
“You really have to have a brotherhood on a football team because every person has to work together on the field,” Williams explained. “When you play football, making friends is a lot easier. Especially for people who move.”
By the time they were sophomores, Tujague and Howell were playing for Western’s varsity team. Williams was slowed by injuries as both a freshman and sophomore but stayed healthy for Western’s abbreviated season this past spring as a junior.
Mike Redmond watched as Williams stayed locked in mentally while sidelined with those injuries for two seasons. He also believes those setbacks helped Williams develop a toughness that has kept him on the field this fall.
“On Friday night, the Albemarle game last week, he says, ‘I'm going out, and I'm not coming back out, so don't don't even try taking me out,’” Redmond recalled. “That's not something that a freshman Josh Williams would have said.”
Coaching players with connections to the ACC program right up the road is not a new experience for the Redmonds. Current Virginia Tech offensive lineman Luke Tenuta played on both lines for the Warriors while his dad was Mike London’s defensive coordinator at UVa. After he lost that job, Jon Tenuta could often be found talking football in the coaches office at Western.
Current UVa running backs coach Mark Atuaia had a pair of sons play for the Warriors. So did special teams coordinator Ricky Brumfield’s son McKel. As a senior at Western two years ago, Breaker Mendenhall was first-team all-district at both wide receiver and defensive back.
“To us, they're just our kids and we treat them that way and we don't treat them any differently,” Mike Redmond said. “They give me a hard time when I wear my Hokies gear, but other than that we really don't talk about UVa football around here much.”
UVa may not be discussed a whole lot at Western but the program’s values align with what the Redmonds have built over the last decade in Crozet. The Western football culture is based on a foundation of fundamentals and focus, Williams said. Howell stressed the importance of hard work and preparation, and putting the needs of the team first.
Tujague drew a more direct parallel.
“One of the biggest principles in UVa football is ‘Earned, Not Given,’” he said, “and that follows here in this program as well. We’ve got to earn everything that comes our way.”
The big senior made that comparison while leaning on a wall outside the gym at Western Albemarle, wearing a UVa football camp T-shirt. The Virginia family tree has been establishing new roots in those hallways for years. This fall, it has helped the Western football program thrive.
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!
