As spring game nears, three big questions face UVa

It’s hard to believe but spring practices are winding down in Charlottesville. Bronco Mendenhall has been pretty consistent during his two media availabilities in the last month about the work the Wahoos are getting done and the buy-in he’s seeing from his team.

He’s also been very complimentary of the effort and renewed focus he’s seen from the “super seniors” who elected to come back and use the NCAA-granted extra year of eligibility.

Given everything we’ve heard from Mendenhall, most of his assistant coaches, and a number of players, we thought we’d start to get you ready for the weekend and the close of spring ball by sharing our three big questions heading into the finale at noon in Scott Stadium.

When Mendenhall confirmed the news last week that Virginia had lost standout receiver Lavel Davis to an ACL injury early this spring, the questions which amounted to “what now” were immediate. He pointed to both Ra’Shaun Henry and Dontayvion Wicks as being the guys who, along with stalwart Billy Kemp, had picked up the slack this month with the 6-foot-7 Davis shelved until November at the earliest.

Now, with the rest of last week and this full week leading to Saturday’s spring game, the question will be what the passing game looks like without the rising-sophomore phenom.

When your quarterback situation is set, the focus and attention from outside of your program shifts a bit and there’s no doubt that the loss of Davis—coupled with the need for the offense to show more in its traditional running game—is the top storyline as the Hoos wrap up spring ball.

The depth certainly lends itself to a lot of answers. Henry, Wicks, Kemp, Keytaon Thompson, Nathaniel Beal, Demick Starling, and even former CB turned wideout Jaylon Baker provide some depth. The key will be what questions OC Robert Anae is looking to ask this group.

You can’t replace a player like Davis with just one guy but in Beal the Cavaliers still have the same type of length and in Wicks and Starling the same kind of impactful playmaking ability, it’s just in a different package.

The wild card may we be Henry. Given his experience at St. Francis (PA) prior to arriving on Grounds, the 6-foot-3, 190 pounder looked like a surefire contributor going into his senior season last fall. But it took a while for the Texas native to catch on. Now, in his “super senior” year, the Hoos might have to lean on him even more to be not only an occasional touchdown scorer but a consistent producer in Davis’ stead.

Speaking of the running game, given Mendenhall’s comments the other day about how Wayne Taulapapa, Mike Hollins, and Ronnie Walker are all in a virtual dead heat, it’ll be especially interesting to see how things look out this weekend. And it’s really not just about how many touches the three of them get but also the types of touches…and the types of runs UVa uses that are not of the traditional variety.

What that balance looks like could tell us a lot not only about where the staff sees the offense right now but where it can realistically be seen going in the near future.

As mentioned above, Anae probably has gone through a decent amount of “resetting” things given the loss of Davis. The offense won’t necessarily look different, mind you. But the way things were expected to shape up has changed.

The way that extends to the running game as a whole is obviously difficult to surmise but the fact of the matter is that without Davis, the potential impact that consistency on the ground among actual RBs could have figures to have gone up exponentially.

What’s interesting on the running backs too is not just what we see Saturday—the culmination of spring ball—but also how that fits with the way Mendenhall and Co. see it all going forward. Of course, there's also the chance that there has been no separation and that the dead heat will continue until it's met by a different kind in August.

And lastly, three-headed competitions don’t make things easy for new guys but early enrollee Amaad Foston certainly is someone we are curious to see in action.