One of the best items posted by UVa’s social media team in the run-up to fall camp featured a player that isn’t even a starter as the 2022 season approaches.
Virginia’s media team made the decision to play off quarterback Jay Woolfolk’s dual-sport career by replicating the famous Bo Jackson Nike ad from 1988.
Jackson played in both the NFL and MLB simultaneously, and is widely considered one of the best pure athletes in the last century. When asked if he’s a fan of Jackson, Woolfolk said simply “Who’s not?”
“Honestly I didn’t know we were going to do it,” Woolfolk said of the photo shoot. “I just pulled up there and I saw the bat and I saw the shoulder pads, and I was like ‘yeah, we’ve got to do it.’”
But just last winter, Woolfolk didn’t know if he would be in a position to show off his multi-sport talents.
The former Benedictine star served as UVa’s backup quarterback last fall, playing in five contests. He became the first true freshman to start under center for the Hoos since 1977, when he led UVa against Notre Dame in place of an injured Brennan Armstrong. The plan was that Woolfolk would finish out the football season and then join the baseball team as its campaign was set to start in February.
But a few weeks after that start against Notre Dame, Woolfolk’s athletic career was hanging in the balance. Bronco Mendenhall resigned, and while the former UVa coach was on board with the plan for Woolfolk to play both sports, there was no guarantee that his replacement would share that opinion. Enter Tony Elliott as Virginia’s head coach, and Woolfolk nervously awaited his fate.
“It was definitely in the back of my mind,” Woolfolk recalled last week following practice. “That was the first thing I said, that I could possibly not be playing both sports anymore. But right when they chose Coach Elliott, we immediately got on the phone and talked about it. We got on the phone with Coach (Brian) O’Connor, on a three way. We all talked about it and surprisingly enough, Coach Elliott was the one rooting for it first. He made the plan about how we were going to space it out.
“I got on the phone call, my heart was beating,” Woolfolk added. “I was just worried that he was going to be like ‘I don’t think that’s going to work out. But the fact that he made a way for me, that just shows his character and how he is. He cares about other people more than himself and I can’t thank him enough for caring about me.”
The rest, as they say, was history.
Woolfolk joined the baseball team, pitching out of the bullpen and helping the Cavaliers to a hot start. They would ultimately win 39 games and bow out in the NCAA Tournament’s regional round, but the freshman righty had a solid season. He won three games out of the bullpen, including two in ACC play, and struck out 55 batters in 37 innings of work. For his efforts, Woolfolk was named to the Freshman All-American teams by both Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and D1Baseball.
Baseball season ended on June 5, and for most spring athletes the end of the season marks the beginning of their summer break. Woolfolk had no such luck after missing spring football practice while he was on the mound. The Richmond native had just three days off between the end of the baseball season and rejoining his football teammates, with new schemes to learn.
He knew that he had to make up for lost time if he was going to help the team this season and set out to learn the playbook.
“Obviously I was doing a lot of catching up,” Woolfolk said of his transition back to football early in the summer. “A lot of these plays are obviously a lot different from last year. I’ve been doing a lot of studying, but I’ve also had to do a lot of getting out here, and doing it myself to really learn. That’s how I learn, I learn by doing it.”
Woolfolk seems to have come quite a long way since then, and Elliott called the backup quarterback “electric” after his performance in the team’s first fall scrimmage over the weekend.
Still, UVa’s QB2 knows there’s plenty of work left to do.
“It’s still obviously not 100 percent. I’ve still got a lot of things to work on,” Woolfolk said. “Coach (Taylor) Lamb will tell you that, Coach Elliott will tell you that.”
Like many other players who have spoken to media members during camp, Woolfolk emphasized the value he has seen in direct and constructive coaching that he has received from the new staff. UVa’s backup quarterback is getting quite a bit of feedback on his performance and it’s helping him get ready for the season opener.
“I love the intensity that Coach Elliott brings,” he said. “He gets on me a lot, which I actually love. I love feedback. I’m thankful that he came in and is doing that. Coach Lamb is the same way, and I love it. If you tell somebody that they’re doing good every single day, they’re not going to really learn. And I’m glad that Coach Elliott and Coach Lamb tell me what I do wrong, because that’s the only way I can learn.”
Woolfolk is learning a lot from his quarterbacks coach, too.
“Coach Lamb teaches me a lot of stuff, I’m thankful he came in,” he continued. “I feel like I’m already a better quarterback than I was. It was just about learning the offense, learning where everything is, and the formations.”
Though he isn’t the starter, the way that UVa practices allows the backup QB to see plenty of snaps. Elliott said that the offense is rotating three groups through and Woolfolk commands the second-team offense. UVa’s sophomore signal caller loves getting real-time feedback on his performance from coaches and teammates alike.
“We go four plays and we’re done,” he explained. “Once we do four plays, I go to the sideline and Coach Lamb is telling me what I did wrong, then I go to [Armstrong] and he tells me what I did wrong. Both of their feedback is really big feedback, especially from your starting quarterback and your quarterbacks coach, and I love hearing from them.”
While Woolfolk has clearly learned a lot from his coaches, Armstrong’s presence has been a big help to the young quarterback as well. Watching a veteran starter who has led the Hoos in 20 career starts has helped him get better at the details of the position. In the spring, Armstrong would pass info on to Woolfolk so that he could keep up with the team’s progress while he played baseball.
“It’s amazing to see that he actually cares and he wants me to prevail even though he’s the starting quarterback, and also how he has to focus on the offense himself,” Woolfolk said of UVa’s starting QB. “He passes down notes to me so that I can learn also.”
And while UVa players and fans hope that Armstrong can have a healthy and productive season, Woolfolk is still just a play away from being called upon to lead the team. He found that out last year, when Armstrong went down with a rib injury against BYU that forced the then-freshman into action. Woolfolk finished that game and had a bye week to prepare for a home game against the Irish. He had some highs and some lows in that performance, completing 18 of 33 passes for 196 yards and a pair of interceptions in a losing effort against the eighth-ranked team in the nation.
Despite not being able to help his team pull the upset, Woolfolk is taking the positives from his first career start but is also ready to move forward.
“The experience was amazing,” he said of his start last season. “Obviously it’s Notre Dame, who doesn’t want to be playing? I was a little nervous, but I learned so much from that. I know all my coaches, my parents always say don’t let one thing define who you are as a person or as a player. I can’t look back when I get in the game. All I have to do is learn from that.”
So much has happened for Woolfolk in the last year. Getting to college, earning the backup QB job, and being thrust into action, before immediately switching gears and joining the baseball team, where he also excelled…all while handling a rigorous academic schedule.
Playing one sport while going to class is hard enough on any student-athlete, but playing two seems nearly impossible. Woolfolk pulled it off, and the best appears to be ahead for the signal caller and reliever.
Still, he knows there have been plenty of people around him that have helped him through a hectic first year in Charlottesville.
“Sometimes I look back and I’m just like, I don’t know how I got through it,” he said. “But it’s easy to get through it when you have coaches like Coach Elliott, you have coaches like Coach O’Connor, Coach Lamb. And the players also, everyone supporting you doing it. It would be different if Coach Elliott didn’t want that to happen. But he was very supportive during the baseball season with me. When you can see that, and you can notice that, then there’s not much to worry about, when you’re coming back.”
And for anyone wondering, Woolfolk has no intention of giving up football or baseball. That day may come eventually, but right now he’s planning to keep doing both.
“It’s definitely going to be the plan until I physically can’t do both anymore,” he added.
