Just a week before UVa’s spring game, the Virginia football team held its final open practice. Thankfully, the weather cooperated and allowed for a great practice.
Despite better play this week from all the other quarterbacks, notably Kevin McCabe and Jameel Sewell, Christian Olsen looks to remain number one on the depth chart. Not only does he put more velocity on his passes, but he is generally more accurate. It is hard, however, to gauge Sewell’s velocity. He seems to be trying to place the ball too much, instead of relaxing and using his arm strength to his advantage.
With Jason Snelling not practicing, Cedric Peerman took the opportunity to showcase his abilities. He did well blocking, carrying the ball, and catching the ball out of the backfield. Mikell Simpson also markedly improved in blocking drills.
The wide receiver position also has a lot of potential. Deyon Williams and Fontel Mines both return as the starting wide receivers. The battle for the slot receiver position is where it gets interesting. While Kevin Ogletree appears to be the leader as of today, Maurice Covington, who was practicing in full pads today, and Andrew Pearman, who saw only limited time at practice, could both challenge him for time.
The offensive line was once again without Eugene Monroe, and struggled at times with pass protection.
The defense was once again loud and intense. A big part of that intensity could be directly related to the coaches and Chris Long. Long was active today both during and after plays. He managed to disrupt a run in the backfield, chase Olsen out of the pocket, and also to get in a minor scuffle after a play was blown dead. Alex Field also looked impressive on the defensive line.
The line backing corps, notably Antonio Appleby, did one thing well today, and that was to get into the backfield and pressure the passers. One thing that has not been clear is their ability stop the running attack up the middle, especially with the lack of depth at defensive tackle.
It is really fun to watch the battles between our secondary and wide receivers. Hamilton looked very good, even managing to get position on a Christian Olsen pass which allowed him to come up with an interception. Chris Gorham saw time as the number two corner. Mike Brown also made a few plays on defense.
Both kickers, Chris Gould and Noah Greenbaum, were 100% accurate today, as each hit both of their 47 yard field goal attempts.