Good Afternoon and happy Monday! We're 12 days from kickoff, and I just got back from our final open practice session of the fall. UVa didn't have the full team practicing today, and we were informed that a group of players had academic commitments now that school is back in session this week. I didn't see McKale Boley, Brian Stevens, Grant Misch, Ethan Davies or Mike Hollins, for example. Just keep that in mind when reading below:
Injuries
-Chico Bennett was still on the side in street clothes today, though he seemed to be moving around okay from what I saw. I know UVa posted some practice pics on Twitter today, but as they sometimes do, those appear to be pictures taken earlier in camp and posted later.
-Players in yellow jerseys today (most not participating at all): Jimmy Christ, Antonio Clary, Donovan Johnson, Will Simpkins, Jack Griese, Dak Twitty, Caleb Hardy, Jaden Gibson
-DB Carlo Thompson was also in yellow, and had a knee support brace on.
-As for better news, Kobe Pace was participating today in a green jersey, after missing a few practices and the first scrimmage. Fellow RB Cody Brown was out there too after also missing time, with the regular white jersey on.
Practice Notes
-Punter Daniel Sparks broke the team down and led Hoo Jacks today.
-The first drill we saw today was punt vs punt block/return. Sparks hit a few bombs, which is no surprise given his 2022 season and 2023 expectations. It's worth noting that the only player back to return those punts was freshman WR Suderian Harrison. Throughout camp, Harrison was one of several guys back returning punts, but it was just #1 today. As I said above, Clary was in yellow and Davies didn't appear to be there, so perhaps that's why Harrison was alone. But it's worth noting that TyLyric Coleman and others who had returned earlier in camp were there today, but didn't take any returns.
-The punt return drill was "live," and Aidan Ryan went down and made a really nice play to corral Harrison and bring him down for little to no gain.
-UVa did more special teams work, particularly a kick return drill with blockers and kick-team tacklers, and returners sort of weaving in between them. UVa used most of the skill guys to return, including Harrison, Coleman, Perris Jones, Delaney Crawford, Titus Ivy, and others. Not a whole lot else to report from this drill, pretty standard stuff.
-While most of the team with through Kickoff/Kick Return drills, the QBs and OL worked on their own, on the other field.
-We did get to see one drill with a full offense out there on the field. It was a tempo drill, where the offense would run a play, all 11 guys would stay on the field and get to the next play, and work their way down the field. There was no defense, so it wasn't really a full 11-on-11 drill.
-From that drill, the First Team Offense was:
QB: Tony Muskett
RB: Perris Jones
WR: Malachi Fields, Demick Starling, Malik Washington
TE: Sackett Wood
LT: Blake Steen
LG: Noah Josey
C: Ty Furnish
RG: Jestus Johnson
RT: Ugonna Nnanna
-The Second-Team Offense:
QB: Anthony Colandrea
RB: Kobe Pace
WR: Suderian Harrison, JR Wilson, Dillon Tennyson
TE: Josh Rawlings
OL: Snoop Leota-Amaama, Grant Lanham, Noah Hartsoe, Joey Kagel, and some other player I didn't write down, apparently.
-The Third-Team offense included Grady Brosterhaus, TeKai Kirby, TyLyric Coleman, Amaad Foston and others.
-Again, keep in mind, particularly with the offensive line depth and pecking order, that not everyone was there, Christ was in yellow, and so on.
That's a wrap for fall camp!