UVa's PFF grades for Week 5 following win at Miami

If Keytaon Thompson is Virginia’s ‘Mr. Football,’ as offensive coordinator Robert Anae likes to affectionately call the senior jack-of-all-trades, then first-year Jacob Rodriguez is Thompson’s apprentice.

Since a week into the season, the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Rodriguez has been listed behind Thompson at the FBP (football player) spot on the UVa two-deep. He’s the only true freshman to appear in all five games this season; his 77 offensive snaps through those five games are the most for a first-year on either side of the ball.

Recruited as a quarterback, Rodriguez is yet to throw a pass in a game but has gotten at least one carry in three and caught passes against both North Carolina and last week at Miami. His lone carry against the Hurricanes came when Rodriguez motioned under center and took the snap for a 5-yard gain on third and one for the lone first down of UVa’s final possession.

“He’s a great guy. Really tough kid, strong kid,” Thompson said of his FBP understudy. “He’s learning really fast and yeah, he can do it all as well. He runs the ball really, really hard. He has a great football mind, and just learning that receiver thing as I was last year, and continuing to get better at that part of it.”

Rodriguez earned a 73.3 overall offensive grade from PFF College for his performance in UVa’s 30-28 win against the Hurricanes. It was the best grade of the freshman’s young college career and ranked fourth among offensive players for the game.

After racking up a season-low 449 total yards at Miami, Virginia’s offense earned a 70.5 for its performance in the win. The Hoos’ 44.6 in the passing game was easily a season low, though the run game earned a season-best 83.0. Defensively, UVa’s 58.9 overall grade was down from last week’s 61.1 against Wake Forest and better only than the 38.3 earned in the loss at North Carolina.

Below is a grade card showing how the top 10 offensive and defensive players fared in the loss to the Deacs and also a cumulative grade through the third week of the season for the offense and defense with comparisons to national ranking. (For more on how Pro Football Focus grades, we post an explanation at the bottom of this story).

Takeaways: The most notable grade on the offensive report card is at the bottom. In each of Virginia’s first four games, quarterback Brennan Armstrong graded out as the offense’s best player. At Miami, with a 49.8, Armstrong graded out as the unit’s worst. It was also the QB’s worst grade in 14 career starts. … At the top of the offensive leaderboard, that 86.3 for right tackle Ryan Swoboda and the 81.8 for tailback Wayne Taulapapa were both career bests. … Swoboda was the first of six O-linemen among UVa’s 10 best offensive players. As a unit, the offense’s 79.2 grade in run blocking was easily the best of the season. The 73.6 in pass protection was UVa’s best in ACC play. … Swoboda (92.2) and left tackle Bobby Haskins (86.9) got the best individual grades in run blocking. In his first game at left guard, Ryan Nelson (88.8) graded out best in pass pro. … Billy Kemp’s 72.9 overall grade was his best since earning a 78.0 in last season’s win against Abilene Christian. … Despite the highlight-reel catch that has since inspired a T-shirt, Dontayvion Wicks graded out at a season-low 57.1.

Takeaways: Safety Nick Grant’s 82.1 edged out the 82.0 that corner Anthony Johnson earned last week against Wake for the best grade on the defense this season. It was also the best-ever grade for Grant, who has started 28 of 29 games the past three years (he missed the UNC loss two weeks ago with an injury.) … Grant was UVa’s best player against the run (86.6) and second-best in coverage (76.0) behind Joey Blount. … Blount earned a 77.2 in coverage and 81.0 in run defense. That 80.6 overall grade was Blount’s best since his 82.1 in the 2019 season opener at Pitt. … Despite earning ACC D-lineman of the week for his first career two-sack game, Mandy Alonso graded out at just 56.8 overall against the Canes. His 64.9 grade in pass rush was third on the defense. Linebackers West Weeks and Hunter Stewart each graded out at 67.6, though in significantly fewer snaps that Alonso. … Grant and linebacker Nick Jackson were the only defensive players to play all 73 snaps. … Johnson’s 61.4 overall grade was a season low, impacted negatively by a 37.2 in tackling.

Virginia's cumulative offensive grades for the season took another step back following the Miami win. At 83.7 through five games, UVa ranks fourth in the ACC and tied for 16th (with BYU) nationally. The unit's 90.0 cumulative passing grade ranks eighth in the country and second in the ACC (behind Pitt, the best passing offense in the country per PFF) this week. Through five games, each facet of the offense is currently graded as such:

Passing—90.0 (last week 92.5)

Running—82.1 (last week 76.3)

Pass blocking—72.9 (last week 71.4)

Receiving—73.1 (last week 74.3)

Run blocking—71.8 (last week 66.0)

For a third straight week, the defense is sitting at the bottom of the ACC with the same 54.9 cumulative grade as through four games. That season defensive grade also ranks 122nd among 130 FBS teams in the country. The Hoos continue to rank outside the top 100 nationally in coverage, pass rush and run defense as well. Through five games, each facet of the defense is currently graded as such:

Coverage—60.5 (last week 58.2)

Tackling—69.1 (last week 69.0)

Pressure—63.3 (last week 63.9)

Run defense—51.1 (last week 52.2)

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An explanation from PFF on how the grading scale works:

On every play, a PFF analyst will grade each player on a scale of -2 to +2 according to what he did on the play.

At one end of the scale you have a catastrophic game-ending interception or pick-six from a quarterback, and at the other a perfect deep bomb into a tight window in a critical game situation, with the middle of that scale being 0-graded, or ‘expected’ plays that are neither positive nor negative.

Each game is also graded by a second PFF analyst independent of the first, and those grades are compared by a third, Senior Analyst, who rules on any differences between the two. These grades are verified by the Pro Coach Network, a group of former and current NFL coaches with over 700 combined years of NFL coaching experience, to get them as accurate as they can be.

From there, the grades are normalized to better account for game situation; this ranges from where a player lined up to the dropback depth of the quarterback or the length of time he had the ball in his hand and everything in between. They are finally converted to a 0-100 scale and appear in our Player Grades Tool.

Season-level grades aren’t simply an average of every game-grade a player compiles over a season, but rather factor in the duration at which a player performed at that level. Achieving a grade of 90.0 in a game once is impressive, doing it (12) times in a row is more impressive.

It is entirely possible that a player will have a season grade higher than any individual single-game grade he achieved, because playing well for an extended period of time is harder to do than for a short period, Similarly, playing badly for a long time is a greater problem than playing badly once, so the grade can also be compounded negatively.

Each week, grades are subject to change while we run through our extensive review process including All-22 tape runs and coaching audit, so you may notice discrepancies among grades published in earlier articles compared with those in the Player Grades tool until grade lock each week.