Cavaliers making big strides in camp as opening game approaches

By Jerry Ratcliffe

If Tony Elliott had his way, a bright Virginia sun would be bearing down on his football team every day for the remainder of training camp.

Cooler temperatures haven’t allowed UVA’s coaches to test their players in the heat, which certainly will return in late August and into September when the Cavaliers open the season.

Still, Elliott has been pleased with the progress his team has made as the Aug. 30 season opener against Coastal Carolina approaches. The coach was particularly pleased that there were no turnovers in the Cavaliers’ second scrimmage of the season over the weekend.

“I’ve seen growth there … we’re just more consistent with execution, and now it’s just coming down to winning one-on-one matchups,” Elliott said after Monday morning’s practice. “Now we can really focus on the fundamental aspect, whereas in the past, if you’ve got to correct a lot of different schematic things, it takes away from correcting the fundamentals.”

Elliott said this camp has gone a lot smoother with everyone on the same page, which is a big deal considering there are 54 new faces in camp.

“The guys know how to practice,” the coach said. “Overall, I feel like we’ve been able to get really good work in the stadium (for the two scrimmages), have taken care of the ball and come out relatively healthy.”

Last Saturday’s scrimmage was the hardest day of the camp thus far, with Elliott intentionally making it the longest day as well. He ran between 90 and 100 plays in the scrimmage, including special teams, pushing his team to get better.

Monday was the first time Elliott spoke with media since Saturday’s scrimmage, which was conducted in some soaring temperatures, much to the coach’s liking.

“It got hot, the sun came out and I wanted to see what this team was going to do,” Elliott said.

What the coach saw was some disruption by the pass rush, which put pressure on the quarterback. It’s taboo to put a hit on the QBs in practice, but under normal conditions there would have been some sacks recorded.

Because of the added depth through the transfer portal, Elliott believes he’ll be able to play more people than he’s had the luxury to use in the past.

“We should be able to roll with like 10 guys, five at each position, five interior and five guys on the edge that we can roll throughout the course of the game to keep guys fresh,” Elliott said. “Then we can change up looks and we can get some heavier guys on the edge and some packages. We can do a lot more things than we’ve done in the past because we have that depth.”

Continuing with the defense, there is fierce competition at the cornerback spots, with several players in the mix for playing time.

Emmanuel “Manny” Karnley, a corner transfer from Arizona, has come back from a knee issue, but has returned at full speed, while Army transfer Donavon Platt has fought off a hamstring and is back, and sophomore Kevon Gray has battled an ankle to keep pace with his competitors for work.

Elliott said those nicks have impacted the consistency in work at the corner, but that he is confident there is more than enough talent to give UVA solid play at those positions.

“All the guys were available for the scrimmage, which was good for us … you could see in the scrimmage that the effect of some guys not having as many practice reps showed up in the scrimmage, but this week is where we have to do our best jobs as coaches to help them, get them up to speed,” Elliott said. “We’re not going to have as much of the physical aspects, which I think will be good for the guys, because then we can slow the game down and get them mentally prepared.”

The coach said there’s been plenty of physical contact thus far, with the team experiencing an unusual 11 days of hitting out of 14. Elliott said Monday’s practice was a good one, as Virginia begins to taper its focus toward game week and its opening game.