Perkins Winning Sprints, Respect During Summer Workouts

Under a burning Virginia sun Friday morning, about 40 Cavalier football players were finishing an hour-long conditioning period with 60-yard sprints.

One thing jumped out immediately during these runs after a grueling workout. The player winning the sprints wasn’t a running back, wide receiver or defensive back.

It was Bryce Perkins, UVa’s starting quarterback coming out of spring practice. That’s right, a quarterback.

Just how unusual was that?

“It is very weird,” said Joe Reed, a wide receiver and kickoff return specialist, who is pretty darned fast himself. “Weird, but you know I’m so glad to see that. I’ve never had that before. If your quarterback can run like that, it’s just going to open up things for other people.”

Perkins, a junior who transferred to UVa from Arizona Western during the offseason, is a speedster, and is expected to make an immediate impact on the Cavaliers’ football hopes this fall.

But first, the summer. The heat. The drills under the watchful eye of new Virginia strength and conditioning coach Shawn Griswold. He runs the conditioning programs through the week.

Another part of UVa summer football is voluntary “7 on 7” workouts with no coaches allowed. Players only, twice a week for about an hour, quarterbacks, wide receivers, running backs working against the secondary.

Combined, the conditioning and the “7 on 7’s” are helping advance Virginia’s football team and giving Perkins, who went through spring drills, an opportunity to ingrain himself as one of the leaders of the squad.

“It doesn’t surprise me to see Bryce winning the runs,” said junior cornerback Bryce Hall. “If he’s not THE best, he’s one of the best athletes on our entire team.”

For Perkins, there’s some personal pride at stake in being the fastest, but there’s more to it than that. It’s about leadership.

“It’s important for me to win because it all starts from the top,” Perkins said, still dripping of sweat in the 90-something degree temps. “[The players] are not going to respect you if you’re last. You’re last and you’re going to try to talk to somebody else about how to finish first? They’re not going to respect that. Instead, they see me and say, ‘He’s talking and doing what he’s talking about.’”

As far as the 7 on 7’s go, each group leader is responsible for making sure the players in his position group attend. Perkins reported that they’ve had a good turnout every week. It’s an opportunity for offensively skilled players to work on timing and pass routes, so when August training camp rolls around, those players are locked in and ready to execute plays.

For defensive players, they’re spending this time to hone in and lock down assignments in pass coverage, to learn their assignments so the entire secondary can be in sync in August in terms of footwork, hand placement, and understanding the calls and where they need to be positioned in game situations.

Someone once said that championships are built in the summer, and Virginia’s players believe that, too.

“On the back of our shirts, we have this motto for this season: ‘If It’s Not Hard, It’s Weak,’” Reed said. “We want to be the most conditioned team in the ACC and in the country. We emphasize the fourth quarter and overtime, so if we go into overtime, it’s just another quarter for us and we’re ready to go.”

Perkins believes that not only can the players work on timing and techniques, but chemistry plays a huge role as well.

“We are out here and it’s just ourselves for the 7 on 7’s,” Perkins said. “No coaches. If we need to take a minute for a learning lesson, we can slow down, we can sit and talk about the mistake, and go back out there and do it over. There’s less pressure than when the coaches are out there and you have to execute to win your position.”

In terms of chemistry, it’s huge, especially for a guy like Perkins who arrived in January.

“I know the guys a lot better,” Perkins said. “I know what guys run which routes the best, how they’re going to break, how fast they are. And, just getting to know them better off the field, too, is big. I’m more comfortable around the guys in the locker room than what I was in the spring. That’s all part of going to the field and connecting with the receivers.

“Any time I get a chance to speak and try to motivate and try to teach, lead the guys is important because I’m just getting here,” the quarterback said. “There are leaders on this team that were already here. I’ve got to work my way in slowly but I think I’m doing a nice job of slowly gaining the team’s respect.”

Reed, who had more than 840 yards in kickoff returns last season, averaging well over 28 yards per return, including two returns for touchdowns of 92 and 98 yards, is building a chemistry with Perkins from his wide receiver position.

“For me, that’s what the 7 on 7’s are all about,” Reed said. “The quarterbacks and receivers will come out before the 7 on 7s and we’ll go through the route tree. This year there has been a big emphasis on chemistry with the quarterbacks and receivers, so coming out with Lindell (Stone), Brennan (Armstrong, a true freshman), and Bryce, just getting the chemistry with those guys is big for me.”

Reed is also trying to become a leader in his third year with the program. He doesn’t say much, but he leads by example and his teammates are starting to take notice.

“I don’t have to yell or scream at anybody, I just go do it as hard as I can and they’ll follow up behind me,” Reed said.

Because UVa coach Bronco Mendenhall always urges his players to take notes, Reed has upped his game in that department as well. He’s got books of notes from his personal experiences but from observing others, that should help him become a better football player.

From the defensive standpoint, Hall, who had one interception, eight pass break ups, a forced fumble, a sack, three tackles for losses, and 43 total tackles last season in regular season, said the secondary is also building chemistry although many of them have played together for two years.

“Building that trust is so essential on the field,” Hall said. “That comes in the 7 on 7s, but the conditioning is building chemistry as well. They’re pushing us each and every day to a new level. We’ve never had this kind of training here before (Griswold came in from Arizona State where he spent the past six seasons). I think we’re in the best shape of our lives and have built our work capacity.”

Hall is a big believer on focusing on one thing during the summer, and mastering that one thing. This summer, he’s working hard on his press coverage. He gets help from teammates because every day after conditioning practice, he and the other corners work extra, going through releases at a slow pae, making sure that footwork and hand placements are correct, then speeding it up.

“We also spend time getting looks at the ball because that’s what this game is all about, taking the ball away,” Hall said.

Hall believes it’s a blessing that so many players in UVa’s secondary return and even though it lost an All-ACC first-team safety in Quin Blanding (signed as a free agent with the Washington Redskins), that rising sophomore Joey Blount has stepped into that role and has performed nicely.

“We have a good group of guys who are hungry and I attribute that to Coach (Nick) Howell (defensive coordinator/secondary) because he pushes us,” Hall said. “He’s ferocious and gets the best out of his players and developed a mindset amongst us that we’ve acquired from him.”