In 2022, the first season with this current UVa coaching staff, the Cavalier pass defense had a surprisingly good season after struggling mightily at the end of the Bronco Mendenhall era.
Unfortunately for the new staff, both cornerbacks left that offseason, leading to a year of transition in 2023. Ultimately, the secondary wasn’t quite as strong, due in large part to both turnover and injuries that plagued the group.
The good news for the 2024 season is that the secondary seems healthier heading into the opener and has added a strong group of reinforcements via the transfer portal.
In the offseason, UVa’s coaches brought in four transfer defensive backs, all of whom have a great opportunity to play this fall.
Those newcomers, along with a few returning players, should fill out a cornerback position whose performance will go a long way towards determining how good this defense can be.
“It’s fun working with our group. We have a very deep group and talented group,” Akron transfer Corey Thomas said of the secondary. “Coach (Curome) Cox stays on us every day to make sure we’re doing the little things, and challenging us, making sure we’re doing the hard things. It’s so much fun going out there with Jonas (Sanker), Tone (Clary), Kempton (Shine), Jam (Jackson), I could go on for days. Just competing with those guys, it’s just blessed.”
The transfer overhaul provides more talent to the room and competition across the board. But it can also be seen as a positive for those four players that they had three other new teammates all going through the same thing at the same time and trying to learn the scheme while adjusting to life in Charlottesville.
“I think that definitely made the transition easier for all of us,” Thomas said of all four transfers coming in together. “It started with Coach Cox and worked it’s way down. Just challenging us to be in the film room every day throughout the spring, making sure we’re learning the defense, learning things, football IQ in general. I feel like that’s helped us tremendously and it’s showing in fall camp.”
Thomas wasn’t the only one who gave a lot of the credit for handling the transitioning position group to Cox, who holds his room to a high standard.
“We just want to learn,” Shine, the Eastern Michigan transfer, said. “Coach Cox helped us a lot with understanding, and we’re just trying to be working 24/7 to better yourself, better your game, ask honest questions and get honest answers.
“It’s been a blessing, a beautiful thing,” he added on working with Cox and defensive coordinator John Rudzinski. “They challenge you mentally and physically, and want to see if you’re tough enough. They put you in positions to tackle. They always want to challenge you to be the guy and to dominate.”
And Shine seems to be putting himself in a position to earn one of the starting cornerback spots as fall camp unfolds. Like the other transfers, he enrolled in the spring and seems to have taken to the Cavalier defense, using his wealth of experience to his advantage.
With EMU, Shine started all 13 games last year and recorded 56 tackles. In his career, he has 27 passes defended and 176 tackles. Shine turned some heads in the first scrimmage of fall camp, where he was lined up at one of the two starting cornerback spots.
“Kempton Shine probably had the best scrimmage of the group and came up with a big play,” Tony Elliott said following the scrimmage. “But the other guys are battling.There’s still some things technically that they have to improve on; all of them, really pressing them to come up and tackle. What we do run-fit wise, the corners are instrumental in helping us down the football.”
Thomas brings something different to the table. The former Akron Zip has a big frame at 6-foot-4, 215 pounds, and has played linebacker as well as defensive back in his college career. He said last week that he’s been working primarily in the nickel but he’s also able to shift into what is really a linebacker position, in a 4-3-5 or 3-3-5 defensive alignment.
Thomas feels that he can impact the game in many different ways, including getting after the quarterback.
“Of course I’m going to say yes,” he said when asked if he could be an asset to the pass rush this year. “I think I can do just about anything on the football field.”
Thomas should also help with the physicality needed on the edge in coming down to stop the run, something that every cornerback mentioned without being prompted in our recent media availability sessions. He should be a good matchup for opposing tight ends but he can also use his size as an advantage in the run game against smaller receivers.
“I can’t let a receiver block me,” he said, when asked about his matchups with slot receivers.
Penn transfer Kendren Smith should be a factor in the secondary, too. The former Quaker recorded 138 career tackles and two interceptions with 24 passes defended, and was a team captain and all Ivy-League selection last year. Another newcomer worth noting is Jackson, a former Robert Morris who started the first scrimmage opposite of Shine and ultimately split time on that first drive with returning corner Dre Walker. Jackson was his conference’s co-freshman of the year, and has a good frame for an ACC-level DB at 6-foot-2, 175 pounds.
While UVa may be relying on players new to Charlottesville, most of them aren’t exactly new to college football. Shine started 40 games in the MAC. Thomas also appeared in 40 games in the same conference. Smith played a lot of football at the FCS level and was an all-conference performer. So while there is an adjustment to ACC-level football, Virginia’s DB transfers can certainly lean on their collegiate experience.
“Ball is ball,” Shine said of his transition from Eastern Michigan to Virginia. “I feel like it's the same thing as where I was playing at, just in a bigger setting.
“There’s maturity, about different things,” he continued. “When you see certain routes, we just click onto it real quick. And just being a leader, and just help out and bringing along certain things.”
Jackson isn’t quite as experienced, playing just one full year at Robert Morris, but he is certainly taking advantage of the experience around him in the secondary.
“Antonio Clary, Jonas Sanker, even a transfer (Corey Thomas) from Akron. They’re very experienced guys and have a lot of snaps against very good teams,” Jackson said. “I feel like we have enough where the young guys like myself can lean on those older guys on the team.”
It has also been a help to the defensive back group that during camp they’ve been pushed by a very talented group of receivers on the other side of the ball. In talking to defensive backs of late, a bunch of receivers have been singled out as tough matchups, including Malachi Fields, Suderian Harrison and Chris Tyree. The competition in camp should only help UVa’s secondary when they start playing opponents in a different uniform.
“Those guys are a hell of a group,” Shine said of the receivers. “Each and every day they bring different things to the table. We try to figure each other out every day.”
With camp winding down and the season fast approaching, what UVa will get from the secondary remains a question. But the staff clearly was intentional in bringing in a group of transfers that can help the team right away, competing with players already on the roster.
While the depth chart still has to shake out and there’s plenty of work to do, there’s some optimism that the Wahoos pass defense could be a quality group in 2024.
“We still have some things to clean up but its going to come together,” Jackson said.
