Wahoo Notebook: Depth Chart Starting To Take Shape

If there was any major surprise on Virginia’s two-deep chart at Monday’s opening game week press conference, it had to be Chuck Davis.

The sophomore, who played in high school at Broad Run in Ashburn, only appeared in one game last season for Virginia (at Boise State) and didn’t have a single statistic credited to him. Didn’t touch the football.

On Monday, however, Davis was listed as one of UVa’s two options as starting punt return man, and as a backup slot receiver behind Olamide Zaccheaus.

Davis is a 5-foot-10, 175 pounder who prepped for John Shuman at Fork Union Military Academy in 2015 and committed to Nebraska, but transferred to Virginia and sat out the 2016 season.

He has made a strong impression on the Cavaliers coaching staff and is likely to see action against Richmond in this Saturday night’s opener (6 p.m.) at Scott Stadium.

UVa coach Bronco Mendenhall said there is no one on the team he trusts catching a punt more than Davis.

“If you’re saying who do you put out there if you’re just positive the ball has to be caught, which is basically every time, right?” Mendenhall said. “But sometimes there is a trade off for someone’s catching ability with possibly what you might get after the catch.”

When it comes down to making sure the ball is caught, Davis is the man. He’s done so under the most adverse practice conditions.

“We can put our entire team around him, put wind in his face with fans, play music, blindfold him, I mean he just catches the ball,” Mendenhall said. “Makes a head coach sleep better at night.”

That’s the kind of focus Michael O’Keefe’s character “Danny Noonan” exhibited in the film “Caddyshack,” when he sank a pressure putt to win the big match at the movie’s end, with onlookers trying to break his concentration by shouting “Noonan.”

Working against UVa’s defense, Davis has made play after play under all circumstances.

“Steady and kind of a journeyman backup,” Mendenhall said, adding, “but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him on the field for us at some point in maybe a significant role if he keeps doing what he is doing.”

Dylan Thompson Update

We reported Sunday that Thompson, a graduate transfer from Ohio State, had arrived in Charlottesville on Friday, had graduated and become eligible to play for Virginia this season.

His arrival was delayed by the academic issues, but he’s been practicing with the team since Friday.

“He just finished his second acclimation day, so he’s behind obviously, but he is here,” Mendenhall reported. “He’ll finish his acclimation days. He’ll have to learn our system obviously. It’s hard to play without knowing what to do. Then he’ll be integrated as he’s ready and as he earns his way in.”

Because defensive tackle/end is a position of need for the Cavaliers, who are depth-shy across the defensive front, Thompson will get his shot. Mendenhall said it will be unique to follow how quickly the former Buckeyes matriculation happens.

Mendenhall had said a little more than a week ago that he didn’t think Thompson would come to Charlottesville and unlikely that he would be a Cavalier.

“So that’s been an added bonus,” the coach said.

Blount Over Nelson

Sophomore Joey Blount appeared first on UVa’s depth chart at the free safety spot on Monday, ahead of ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year Brenton Nelson. In fact, Nelson appeared behind Juan Thornhill at the strong safety position.

Nelson and Blount had been locked in a heated competition at the free safety spot throughout training camp, and even though Blount, a sophomore from Fayetteville, Ga., was listed as No. 1 on the two-deep, the competition continues.

“Yeah, and that’s going to go back and forth daily, as well as within a game, as well as game by game,” Mendenhall said. “It’s the reflection of what I would love to have at every position on our team. I think it makes them both better.”

The coach said there weren’t many positions on the team with that sort of competition for the starting job.

Chris Moore, a junior, is listed behind Blount at free safety (Quin Blanding’s old position), with Nelson behind Thornhill at the strong safety or Sabre position.

Meanwhile, Bryce Hall was listed ahead of Nick Grant at the border corner spot, and Tim Harris and Darius Bratton are presently a toss-up at the field corner position in what should be one of the ACC’s strongest secondaries.

Just For Kicks

One of Virginia’s weaknesses last season was the inability to convert long field goals, which often dictated coaches deciding to gamble on fourth down at certain field positions because they weren’t confident they could kick the ball successfully.

A.J. Mejia, a freshman last season, was 8-for-12 on field goal attempts, a rather low number for a kicker in today’s game. All of those kicks came from 38 yards and in. Mejia was 0-for-4 on all of his attempts from beyond that mark.

Mendenhall believes that while Mejia appears to be stronger that the Cavaliers could end up with two kickers this season, Mejia in shorter situations and true freshman Hunter Pearson from Seneca, S.C.

“The competition is ongoing,” Mendenhall said. “One of the bright spots through camp, earlier than what has happened recently. Mejia started exceptionally well through camp, first two and a half weeks especially.”

The coach said the sound of the ball coming off Mejia’s foot made the whole coaching staff and team stop and listen.

“It sounds different and it was going through the uprights more consistently and from farther away, so I would say what I’ve seen so far in practice settings is the field goal range has been expanded and the consistency has increased,” Mendenhall said.

Pearson, who had suffered an injury early on, is returning to full healthy and is almost 100 percent. The freshman gives UVa the possibility of a longer range kicker. Mejia is shorter range but more consistent from closer in.

“So there is a reality now of Mejia range, and then possibly another range,” the coach said. “Based on how much data we can keep getting in on consistency and percentages, that’ll determine whether we’re going for it in this range of the field or Pearson comes out to take a shot.”

Pearson booted a 49-yarder last season for Seneca High School.

Defensive End Depth

While it’s never ideal to go through a significant portion of training camp without the two starting defensive ends, Mendenhall wisely took advantage of the situation to build depth at the position with freshmen, including Jordan Redmond, who is now listed No. 1 at one of the anchor spots.

Redmond is a 6-1, 320-pound lineman from Kissimmee, Fla., where he ranked No. 18 on the Orlando Sentinel’s Florida’s Super60 list.

Both Redmond and another rookie, Aaron Faumui (Kapolei, Hawaii), got extensive reps with both expected starters Mandy Alonso and Richard Burney sidelined by injuries.

“There was no one else,” Mendenhall said. “Without Mandy and without Richard, we could not practice as a football team, other than using first years and evaluating first years. So Faumui and Redmond got the majority of the work with not only the ones, but the twos, and every other group that we could put in there because we were out of defensive line bodies.”

The downside of it all is that the staff hasn’t gotten the consistency from Alonso, Burney, and Eli Hanback (listed as a backup DE and backup nose tackle) throughout fall camp. They are all healthy now and hoping to make strides during game week.

Meanwhile, Mendenhall believes he has built significant depth across the defensive line, particularly with the recent addition of grad transfer Dylan Thompson from Ohio State.

“[The first years] development has been accelerated to the point they’ll play significant amounts in game one all the way through the year,” Mendenhall predicted.

Captain, My Captain

Virginia announced its captains for the 2018 season and there was little surprise.

The defensive captain will be senior outside linebacker Chris Peace. Offensive co-captains (they tied in the team vote) are senior slot back Olamide Zaccheaus and senior running back Jordan Ellis.

Mendenhall stated that there will be a rotating captain representing special teams on a game by game basis.

Asked if it was unusual not to have his starting quarterback as one of the captains, and the coach said not really.

“I would say especially in the circumstance of a transfer (Bryce Perkins),” Mendenhall said. “So sometimes as a quarterback that’s an underclassman (Perkins is a junior), I think that is pretty typical.”

Mendenhall said Perkins received strong support in the voting, and while he isn’t a captain this season, he certainly has earned the respect of his teammates.

“When you compare or contrast that to Jordan Ellis, Olamide, I wouldn’t take it as a slight to Bryce,” the coach said. “I mean, who gets more votes than those guys?”

Depth Chart