Virginia and Louisville will be short-handed for Saturday’s showdown

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia could field a depleted defense again on Saturday night when the Cavaliers host Louisville.

Bronco Mendenhall announced Tuesday that sixth-year defensive end and team co-captain Richard Burney is out for the remainder of the season due to medical issues and that defensive backs Brenton Nelson, Joey Blount and Darrius Bratton may not be available for the game. Blount and Nelson were injured early and didn’t finish the Wake Forest game and haven’t played since.

Mendenhall also said that freshman backup quarterback Ira Armstead is out for the rest of the season due to an injury.

With Burney out, Virginia is down to only five healthy defensive linemen and two of the five are true freshmen Nusi Malani and Jahmeer Carter. Redshirt freshman Ben Smiley is out with an injury.

“So, we are thin,” Mendenhall said. “However, many teams have issues at different positions, either COVID or health related. We don’t have many [defensive linemen], but we have enough.”

Another team have issues with missing players is this week’s opponent, Louisville, which is expecting to be without the same nine players that missed last week’s loss to Virginia Tech. All nine are out due to Covid-related issues.

“I would anticipate that all those guys who missed last week will miss this week as well,” Louisville coach Scott Satterfield said Monday.