After looking at the wide receivers, our position-by-position breakdown moves on to UVa’s offensive line, as we compare the current situation to the way things were prior to the season and then project out how things look.
The Narrative
This was supposed to be the year, Part Two. It echoes what we said about UVa’s running backs but it’s true here as well: This was the season that Virginia’s offensive line was expected to take a step forward.
The Cavaliers had been relatively young in 2019 as they looked to replace guys like Jake Fieler and Marcus Applefield. And yet they still managed to get to the ACC Championship game and then the Orange Bowl, in large part of course because Bryce Perkins did Bryce Perkins things.
So, it made sense why, with essentially that entire line returning, most expected the Cavaliers to have a big year in 2020.
They were set to return a solid group of tackles in Dillon Reinkensmeyer, Ryan Nelson, Ryan Swoboda, and Bobby Haskins, which would allow one of the first two players to likely move inside to join Chris Glaser at guard and play alongside returning center Olu Oluwatimi.
Depth was also coming together, though tackle numbers took a hit when Alex Gellerstedt opted out of the season. Had it been any normal year, the Cavaliers would have been ready to practice in a way they had previously not been able to since Bronco Mendenhall arrived in Charlottesville simply because of the amount of linemen in the program. As expected, that caused O-line coach Garett Tujague lots of excitement about his group despite the pandemic, the loss of spring, and the altered fall camp/practice.
The Numbers
Grading the offensive line can be difficult since linemen obviously don’t carry the ball or catch passes. But UVa was No. 1 in the ACC and No. 12 nationally in tackles for loss allowed (4.2) while also ranking second in the league with just two sacks allowed per game.
The best way to look at the numbers here might be to use PFF College data, where the Cavaliers had some bright spots.
Among the players who played enough snaps to qualify for our end-of-season breakdown, Nelson had a team-high 80.7 grade in pass protection across 420 of his 667 snaps. Glaser was just behind at 78.0 on 461 of his 734 snaps while Bissinger was third at 76.8. Thereafter, Reinkensmeyer finished with a 74.0 grade in seven games while Swoboda also had a 74.0 grade, which came on 407 of his 650 snaps.
Oluwatimi, who struggled in pass pro, was the best player in run blocking with a 77.1 grade on 264 of his 718 snaps. And his lead in that category was massive: The next consistent contributor was Reinkensmeyer at 69.0 followed by Swoboda at 65.1 on 241 snaps and Glaser at 63.9 on 273.
While the offensive line is critical to a team’s passing attack, much of the “success” of an O-line is traditionally thought of in terms of the run game. And as we discussed in the piece on UVa’s running backs, there’s a lot left to be desired.
