Just a couple of notes from my conversation with the two new assistant coaches:
OL coach Dave Borbely talked about the depth on the OL, calling it "decent" but saying they were in good shape. He's settled on what he "knows it should be" but he wants to make sure that it's how he wants to go with things next week. They've spent some time on UCLA by this point and it's going to be the best front 7 UVa sees all year long. He called the Bruins a "big challenge." He also mentioned that Eric Smith and Jake Fieler have really battled at RT and so far, he's seen Fieler have a great camp following a very good summer but Borbs thinks he's ultimately going to be an interior guy. In the spring, Smith was No. 2 "by a lot" but he really came on in training camp. "Right now, he's probably our most valuable guy," Borbs said. Overall, he's seen the type of growth in all of his guys that he was hoping to see. "Absolutely," he said simply. Borbs also said he told the guys "the bad news" in the spring that he wouldn't be playing "offensive line roulette" any longer. He wants five guys who play the vast majority of the game.
Meanwhile, RB coach Chris Beatty said Taquan Mizzell has really responded well to his challenge in the spring and he's had a great, great camp, above and beyond what he had hoped. He's running a lot more like they wanted him to, one cut and taking what the defense gives him. Albert Reid, meanwhile, is a "load" and he's a hard worker that Beatty knew from having recruited him would be a guy who came in with a great attitude. On the running game and game planning for UCLA, Beatty said working with the offensive staff has been good. Borbs has done this for a long time and Beatty believes he compliments him well. Beatty said he's been fortunate to work with both the running game and the passing game. UCLA has a really good team with a lot of guys back. There are a lot of future NFL guys on that side of the ball. Olamide Zaccheaus has been working more with the WRs but they look at him like a hybrid type of guy. The fastest way to help the team is to split him and use him that way but that doesn't mean he can't help in other ways either. Beatty said there's a bit of hierarchy at times but right now they've legitimately got four guys they want to use at RB and match the personnel with the other guys to make the best 11 for whatever the task is at hand. He admits he's hard a hard time getting a feel for who's ahead among the four. He mentioned that there will be some packages where they use some of these guys together.
Look for feature stories coming tomorrow and early next week.
