By Jerry Ratcliffe
If there’s any notion that Virginia will be overlooking Washington State on Saturday night, veteran offensive lineman Drake Metcalf put those thoughts to rest earlier in the week.
UVA (4-1, 3-0 ACC) is a 17.5-point favorite over the visiting Cougars, representatives of what remains from the disintegrated Pac-12. Wazzu, as Washington State is known to its fans, is 3-3, and although the Coogs gave up 59 points in back-to-back losses earlier in the season, they’re fresh off a near upset of then-No. 4 ranked Ole Miss last Saturday in Oxford.
Metcalf, a Virginia sixth-year from Orange, Calif., who previously played at Stanford and Central Florida, is relying on past experiences as an underdog to caution his teammates on Washington State’s mentality coming into Charlottesville for the 6:30 p.m. contest (TV: The CW).
“I think we’ve been in that position before, just like Washington State, right, where people tend to overlook you,” Metcalf said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, UVA is coming to town, so we don’t have to worry about them.’ We’ve ended up winning some of those games, and that’s why we can look at ourselves in the mirror and be like, OK, we’ve been where Washington State is before, and people think they’re going to roll. Let’s not let that be us.”
Metcalf said he learned that approach when he started his career at Stanford.
“Our primary goal — we knew we weren’t going to win the Pac-12 championship or make the playoffs — but our main goal was to ruin the season of every team we played every single week. We wanted to stop other teams from making it to the Rose Bowl, or making it to the Pac-12 championship game.”
The pinnacle of that upset mentality came one season when Stanford stunned No. 3 Oregon in triple overtime.
“Nobody expected us to do that, but teams like Oregon looked at teams like us and looked past us,” Metcalf explained.
Tony Elliott urges his Cavaliers to “attack the day,” a message several of the veteran-laden UVA team emphasizes to their teammates.
“We started at the bottom and we’re working our way up right now,” said the versatile Wahoo lineman (more on that coming up). “We were picked 14th in the ACC, so we’re coming from humble beginnings. I think that sets this team apart from a lot of teams. We’re hungry. We knows what it feels like and we don’t want to go back.”
It has been a challenging season for Metcalf, but his entire two-year UVA career has been challenging. He transferred to Virginia from Central Florida, and just when he thought he was in the mix to start for the Cavaliers, he suffered a season-ending Achilles injury.
The personable Californian busted his hump in hopes of shortening his rehab, but suffered a setback. There were dark days when he had to rely on his faith, family, friends to pull him through. He won the starting right guard assignment for the season opener, but only a few games in, Metcalf had to move to center after starter Brady Wilson went down prior to the Florida State game. He’s still there.
Because he was recruited to Stanford as a center and played that spot at UCF, it was a natural transition.
“It just goes back to what Coach Heff (offensive line coach Terry Heffernan) says,” Metcalf pointed out. “It doesn’t matter who’s out there, just get the job done when you’re out there.”
Heffernan cross-trains his linemen to be versatile enough to play anywhere on the line.
“Heff says, ‘You’ll play wherever I tell you you’re going to play,’” Metcalf laughed. “It could be left tackle tomorrow and it could be center the next day. Heff trained me at center just to be able to slide in there when I need to, so it was a seamless transition.”
Still, it required a lot of preparation time, ironing out details, conferring with Wilson and other linemen, with Coach Heff. For those unknowing, the center reads the defense and calls out blocking assignments at the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped.
It’s not like a move to a key position goes unnoticed by the opposition, which is going to focus on possible ways to disrupt play at that player’s expense.
“Florida State obviously knew I hadn’t played center this season, so they tried to throw the kitchen sink at me when it comes to crazy defensive fronts, identifications and stuff like that, just making it a little more difficult,” Metcalf said. “Sometimes you have to slow down and look at the defense and see where the safeties are hanging, whether they rotated strong or rotated weak.”
Metcalf spent hours in preparation for whatever Florida State might throw at him, and that helped him brace for what was coming. He also had extra meetings with Heffernan to be ready.
“It goes to Drake’s preparation,” complimented offensive coordinator Des Kitchings. “He had to up his preparation to know the defensive structure from a center’s standpoint, because now he’s in charge of everything. Drake’s a confident guy anyway — you’re never worrying about Drake’s confidence — so it’s been a good transition.”
Talk about versatility, Metcalf is the leader in the clubhouse in his extensive, talent-laden background. Upon the death of his grandfather, a WWII vet, a 12-year-old Metcalf felt it necessary to learn how to play the bagpipes for the funeral. He still plays, sometimes in the privacy of his apartment without disturbing his neighbors.
While at Stanford, he interned under former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and other political dignataries, helping shape his vision about a potential future in politics, lobbying or working with nonprofit organizations.
Metcalf is presently working for nonprofit Living Free Together, a veteran’s organization that helps military vets reintegrate into life after serving their country, part of his university class on applied policy project, surrounding veteran’s mental healthcare initiatives.
But right now, Metcalf is singularly focused on only one thing. Not becoming bowl eligible, not the ACC title game or any of that stuff.
Beating Washington State, then moving on to who’s next. That’s all that matters. Everything else can wait.
