Week 4 is now in the rear view and there’s definitely a bit of an uneasy feeling about the Cavaliers coming off their 28-17 comeback win over Old Dominion.
It was not the offensive showing many expected and certainly not the kind of performance the 18th-ranked Wahoos (4-0, 2-0) wanted. That being said, they’re now looking forward to Saturday’s matchup in South Bend against No. 10 Notre Dame, the first true test of the season and perhaps this year’s biggest game (3:30 p.m., NBC). The Cavaliers are looking to do something no ACC team has ever done: Beat a ranked team in South Bend (0-for-20 all-time).
As is our custom, we’re going to break down a few things we know, pose two questions we still have, and give you one prediction as the Wahoos head deeper into game week.
Three Things We Know
1. The personnel situation at center remains unknown.
When Tyler Fannin took the field Saturday night rather than Olu Oluwatimi, it was the first start of his career and the first time UVa had dealt with any uncertainty at center this season. Oluwatimi, dealing with an injury to his snapping hand, was unable to go. During the game, Fannin went down with what appears to be a lower leg injury, forcing UVa to move Dillon Reinkensmeyer back to center. While the Wahoos eventually got things pointed in the right direction offensively and came back to win, the situation at center continues to be a question mark. Asked Monday for an update on either Oluwatimi or Fannin, Mendenhall admitted that he didn’t have one.
“Yeah, I don’t have an update to this point,” he said. “Kelly (Pugh) and our trainers might. I probably won’t address it again until maybe Thursday, but I don’t have an update as of this morning.”
If Oluwatimi is unable to play center for the second game and if UVa is without Fannin as well, that means Reinkensmeyer would have to start at center, the position he’s been the past two years. If so, then the tackle rotation ends and Bobby Haskins and Ryan Swoboda will be on the left and right sides, respectively. Without clarity on the injury status of the first two centers, though, much remains in the air.
2. Mendenhall doesn’t want to limit Bryce Perkins.
One thing that’s been a constant since he arrived on Grounds is that the coaching staff doesn’t want to make Perkins into someone he’s not. They want him to feel free to be the improvising, dynamic player he’s always been. When he injured his knee in fall camp, that took a bit of that burst off the table. And when backup Brennan Armstrong was hurt during the W& game—Mendenhall said yesterday he doesn’t have an update on him yet, either—the calculus didn’t change. In retrospect, Mendenhall said Monday, he still wouldn’t want to rein Perkins in despite that series late against ODU when he had to leave the game.
“He’s healthy and he was just trying to make a play,” Mendenhall said of the hit Perkins took when trying to pick up an errant snap rather than falling on it. “I don’t intend to have another conversation with him. Yeah, I advise when I can at the right time and the right place. I think his feedback on that play was enough.”
3. The “havoc” plays by the defense are not an accident.
Last week in this space we asked how much havoc UVa could cause against the Monarchs and it turns out, quite a bit. The Cavaliers are currently No. 1 nationally in sacks (20) and their linebackers as group have more sacks than all but four FBS team as a whole. Clearly, UVa is well on the way to one of the most successful seasons in recent memory in both that category and in tackles for loss. The shift, Mendenhall explained, is that this is what fits the talent and depth the Wahoos have assembled. He credited his defensive assistants for identifying the possibility and putting in the work to make it happen.
“Yeah, to this point it fits our personnel, it fits our identity, and it fits the teams we’ve been playing against,” he said. “Facts are our friends and numbers are validators. I like the rankings at times when it comes to statistics. Again, I’m always contextual with against who and how did that happen. So there is always more to the story. At this point I think it fits our personnel.
“I give them all the credit,” Mendenhall said later of his assistant. “So I had a chances to be with Nick, Coach Howell, for — I think we’ve been together 14 years. Well, every defensive staff member has been a graduate assistant and so our system is what they know, and they know it inside and out. They’re just doing a really nice job of adapting it to our existing personnel, and knowing then, studying through the numbers of what will really impact and give us a better chance to win, and we identified that minus yardage plays and/or havoc plays would be helpful. So they’re doing a nice job of leveraging what the numbers have said with the personnel we have and the scheme we know to deliver on that to this point.”
