By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — At last year’s Blue-White spring football game, the Virginia Cavaliers had so few offensive linemen available that two had to play for both teams. One of those linemen was tackle Charlie Patterson.
“I was definitely dead tired after the game,” Patterson recalled. “I played every single snap until there was three minutes left.”
The offensive line is in a better place this year as the Wahoos prepare to wrap up their second spring under head coach Tony Elliott.
“We’ve got plenty of bodies this time,” Patterson said.
UVA’s annual Blue-White game is Saturday afternoon at Scott Stadium, and no offensive linemen will have to pull double duty. More important, the depth on the O-line has enabled the Cavaliers to accomplish more over the past five weeks.
“Before the spring I scripted out all 14 practices,” Elliott said. “and you were able to almost stay on your script, but with last year, it was like, ‘We can’t do that, we can’t do that, we can’t do that.’ ”
Having enough players for at least two lines “helps the quarterbacks and it helps the running backs,” Elliott said, “because, again, when you have consistency in the guys that you have practicing, you’re able to develop that cohesion. So it’s been just completely different.”
Patterson, who stands 6-foot-6, is from Roswell, Ga., about 25 miles north of Atlanta. He enrolled at UVA in the summer of 2021 and did not appear in any games while redshirting that season. Coming off a productive spring in 2022, he was eager to make his debut for the Hoos last fall, but he tore ligaments in his foot in September. Surgery followed, and Patterson missed the whole season.
“It was a little bit of a blow, especially being that close to playing time,” Patterson said. “I was playing a lot better, but it happens. Stuff happens.”
The Cavaliers went into 2022 with a rebuilt offensive line. There was more turnover after the season, with the departures of four linemen who had starting experience: Jonathan Leech, Logan Taylor, Derek Devine and John Paul Jones Flores.
“With all those people leaving, of course that’s gonna push you up the [depth] chart,” Patterson said. “Not in the way you want it to, but it did. It happened, and I’m just trying to take advantage of it.”
Garett Tujague, who’d been the Cavaliers’ offensive line coach for seven years, also left after the season….