Special Teams looking up with addition of Cam Ross

By Jerry Ratcliffe

While Virginia’s special teams improved last season from a disastrous 2023 performance, coordinator Keith Gaither and staff have taken a deep dive to correct mistakes from a year ago, particularly on the return units.

“There’s been some long hours, just taking a look at our scheme,” Gaither said Monday night. “I think the scheme is pretty good, and when we execute, I think we’re pretty good. There’s been about four or five plays where there were bad decisions made by the returners, where they should have stayed in the back of the end zone for a touchback or they muffed the ball, they didn’t communicate.”

Those four or five plays sank Virginia’s return units to near the bottom of the ACC in those categories, or otherwise the Cavaliers would have been middle of the pack.

Gaither said he and other UVA special teams coaches took ownership of some of the snafus, particularly ones made in a close home loss to Louisville that the Cavaliers probably would have otherwise won and qualified for a bowl game.

“If we hadn’t had some bonehead decisions — and we take ownership as coaches — we didn’t coach it good enough, so it’s all on me,” Gaither said. “But we’ll do a better job on that end.

“There’s been a heavy emphasis on those return units, particularly kickoff return, punt return. The philosophy could be changed on punt return with the emergence of some kids we got. We could be a more aggressive team, maybe on [punt] block, which sets up the returns a little bit more versus sitting back, allowing people to just go cover.”

After that 4-point loss to Louisville, Tony Elliott summed up Virginia’s problems, something that would continue to haunt the Cavaliers in close games throughout the season.

“ACC games are one-possession games that go down to the fourth quarter and are going to be determined by four-to-six plays,” Elliott said that night.

Jonas Sanker, who rarely made a mistake, did so late in that game when he decided to return a kickoff from 5 yards deep in his own end zone and was dropped at the 14. A few plays later, punter Daniel Sparks, attempting a moving, rugby-style punt, booted the ball squarely into the back of one of his personal protectors and Louisville recovered at the Virginia 14. One play later, the Cardinals scored to take a 17-7 lead and went on to win 24-20.

Wednesday night, Gaither felt encouraged by what he had seen in training camp with both his starting punter and place-kicker returning, the addition of some dynamic return men, particularly Cam Ross from JMU, and an influx of talented athletes that should boost the quality of all special teams play.

“There’s a lot of studying going on,” Gaither said. “I think we’ve got the personnel to be better in those units. It’s not on the players. It’s on us [the coaches].”

The first 10 days of camp, the focus has been on field goals, field goal block and the coverage unit, punt and kickoff coverage.

Virginia was actually No. 2 in the nation in the kickoff coverage department last season and there are plenty of players back on that unit this fall.

The Cavaliers introduced punt return and kickoff return to Monday’s practice and Ross, who led JMU in return yardage last season, made an immediate impression.

“In punt return, I’ll start off with Cam Ross, then Suderian Harrison, Kam Courtney and Jayden Thomas (transfer from Notre Dame), so you’ve got four reliable guys,” Gaither said. “If you asked me today, it would be Cam Ross. Suderian did a great job [in Saturday’s team scrimmage], when he brought one back 50 yards for a touchdown.”

Ross also figures in big with the kickoff return unit, along with J’Mari Taylor, who Gaither believes is one of the best running backs in the ACC this season. There are several other possibilities at kickoff return.

Ross could be a difference-maker with his return skills.

“It’s a sense of relief when you have someone who’s done it at a high level,” Gaither said of the JMU transfer. “He knows how to set up his blocks, he knows how to set up returns. He’s fast, he’s got courage, he’ll run through the smoke.

“One thing about Cam, I think he’s probably the most valuable player up to this point on the offense. In the spring, we didn’t know what we had. He was still learning and then we watched him train through the summer, changed his body. He’s been diligent and intentional about every rep he took. He’s probably one of our best players, and to have one of your best players playing at a high level every snap, it’s a huge asset for us.”

In terms of field goals, Will Bettridge returns to fill that role after a solid season in 2024 when he made 18 of 21 attempts (85.7 percent) and scored 78 points.

Bettridge worked hard during the offseason to strengthen his legs, and Gaither saw evidence of that on Monday when he kicked a 51-yard field goal with room to spare. That made up for a disappointing performance in Saturday’s scrimmage, some hampered by bad snaps, leading to two blocked kicks.

“I think Will has the capability of being one of the top kickers in the ACC,” Gaither said. “The competition (in camp) is heating up though. We’ve got some kids pushing him.”

Gaither said that there’s a strong possibility that Bettridge will be able to handle kickoff duties to take a little pressure off of Sparks, who performed that task a year ago.

Speaking of Sparks, Gaither said he’s one of the best athletes on the team with surprising speed, which could be an advantage on fake punts.

“He’s as talented as any punter in the country,” Gaither said. “He can be a weapon. I’m talking about field position. He can flip the field.”

Sparks averaged 44.6 yards per punt last season and had several boomers, although none that matched his 70-yard punt against Boston College in 2023.