By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — It’s impossible to know in July how a football season will unfold in the fall. It’s safe to say, though, that Virginia is unlikely to have a wide receiver who catches 110 passes this season, as Malik Washington did in 2023.
Another safe bet: UVA’s tight ends will have more than 14 receptions among them this fall. That’s how many passes Sackett Wood Jr. (nine), Grant Misch (three) and Josh Rawlings (two) combined to catch in 2023.
“When you look back at the 2023 season, that was a big void for us,” said offensive coordinator Des Kitchings, who also oversees the Cavaliers’ tight ends, “and we feel like that should be an asset for us and not a liability.”
Misch, who was used primarily as a blocker during his UVA career, was a sixth-year senior in 2023, and Rawlings chose to transfer after the season. Wood figured his college career, like Misch’s, was over at the end of last year, but he was granted another season of eligibility late in the spring and decided to return.
“So that was a bonus,” Kitchings said Friday during a media availability at the George Welsh Indoor Practice Facility.
Suddenly the Cavaliers, who start training camp on Wednesday, are flush at a position where they lacked depth last fall. Not only is Wood back, but UVA added two veteran tight ends in the offseason: transfers Tyler Nevile (Harvard) and Sage Ennis (Clemson). Moreover, 6-foot-4 Dakota Twitty moved in the spring from wideout to tight end, where Virginia’s other options include Karson Gay, TeKai Kirby, Henry Duke and Hayden Rollison.
Of the team’s position groups, Elliott said Friday, tight end has probably changed the most in the offseason largely because of the addition of Ennis and Neville. Factor in Wood’s return, and “now you have three veteran guys that you let battle for the job,” Elliott said, “and then younger guys can kind of develop. Some of them physically are still working on their bodies to get to a position to where they can do everything that’s asked of them, but I’m really excited about the leadership and the competition that’s coming out of that room.”
Neville, who twice was named to the All-Ivy League first team, caught 62 passes for 698 yards and eight touchdowns in three seasons at Harvard. Ennis’ stats aren’t as eye-catching—he caught six passes for 77 yards during his Clemson career—but…