Virginia Football Position Overview: Breaking Down UVA's Offensive Line

Matt Newton | Aug 26, 2024

Brian Stevens headlines an experienced group of returning offensive linemen that are looking to make a big leap up front for Virginia in 2024. / Virginia Athletics

With less than a week to go until the 2024 Virginia football season officially kicks off, we're continuing our position group previews by examining the unit that is arguably most important to UVA's success on the offensive side of the ball this fall. The Cavalier offensive line has struggled with consistency, stability, and health ever since the end of the Bronco Mendenhall era, when six players with extensive starting experience departed from the program at the conclusion of the 2021 season.

It's been a significant challenge reconstructing the O-Line since then, first by Garett Tujague and now by his successor, Terry Heffernan, who enters his second season as Virginia's offensive line coach.

While the Cavaliers made some notable progress on the offensive line over the course of the 2023 season, the overall numbers for the season weren't pretty. In the two statistical categories most directly tied to offensive line performance - rushing offense and sacks allowed - Virginia was dreadful. In 2023, UVA averaged 117.9 rushing yards per game, which ranked 105th in the country and second to last in the ACC. The Hoos were also second to last in the conference in rushing touchdowns and 113th in the nation in that category with only 12 rushing scores.

Whether it was Tony Muskett or Anthony Colandrea in the pocket, both QBs were running for their lives as the Cavaliers allowed 43 sacks in 12 games. Only nine teams in the FBS allowed more sacks and four of those teams played more games than Virginia did. UVA's average of 3.58 sacks allowed per game ranked 123rd out of 130 FBS teams.

The good news for Virginia is that the biggest indicators of offensive line improvement in college football is returning experienced players who have played a lot of snaps together on the line of scrimmage and the Cavaliers check those boxes in 2024. All seven of the players who started games on the offensive line for UVA last season are back this year, including the exact five-man unit that started each of the last five games of the season.

Assuming health, Virginia's starting lineup up front should look like this:
LT: McKale Boley
LG: Noah Joey
C: Brian Stevens
RG: Ty Furnish
RT: Blake Steen

On the subject of health, McKale Boley and Brian Stevens missed some time in fall camp with injuries, but Stevens returned to practice by the end of camp and Tony Elliott was optimistic that Boley would be ready by the start of the season. That's important for the Cavaliers, as Boley, Stevens, and left guard Noah Josey combined to make the left side of the offensive line quite formidable for stretches of the 2023 campaign. Virginia was more successful running the football on that side of the line and also more effective in protecting the quarterback.

If those three players can stay healthy, that side of the line could be even better in 2024 as Boley and Josey get another season under their belts as full-time starters and Stevens, a former Dayton transfer, looks to cement himself as one of the top centers in the game, as has already been recognized by his inclusion on the preseason watch list for the Rimington Trophy.

On the other side of the line, Virginia will be looking for a big leap from Blake Steen, who appeared in eight games and started the last five of the season at right tackle after redshirting the 2022 campaign. Steen has perhaps the biggest breakout potential of any UVA offensive lineman as he showed some great flashes down the stretch in 2023.

The likely starter at right guard is senior Ty Furnish, who was replaced by Stevens as Virginia's starting center after two games but still started 11 of the 12 games overall. While Furnish had an up-and-down 2023, the word from fall camp is that he has developed substantially this offseason. If he can find consistency this season, 2024 could finally be the year that UVA's offensive line comes together.

Even with UCF transfer Drake Metcalf expected to miss most of the season with an Achilles injury he suffered back in the spring and junior Noah Hartsoe likely out for the season with an ACL injury, the Cavaliers still have some solid depth in that unit with Ugonna Nnanna and Jimmy Christ, who each started multiple games last season, and Jack Witmer, Charlie Patterson, and Houston Curry, who made a combined 23 appearances last year. UVA also brought in Dartmouth transfer Ethan Sipe, who primarily played right tackle for the Big Green, but who has been training at a few different spots for the Cavaliers, including center.

While the play of Anthony Colandrea and Virginia's skill position players will be crucial, UVA's success on the offensive side of the ball arguably depends most heavily on the play of the Cavalier offensive line.

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