CHARLOTTESVILLE — For all of the buzz created by the arrival of transfer quarterback Bryce Perkins, one player is unlikely to turn Virginia into an offensive juggernaut.
The Cavaliers are coming off a 2017 season in which they failed to score an offensive touchdown in their final nine quarters.
After UVa’s Joe Reed returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown in the Military Bowl, the Cavaliers did not score again in a 49-7 loss to Navy, matching the most lopsided bowl loss in program history.
The Middies outgained the Wahoos 452-30 on the ground, with running back Jordan Ellis finishing with 11 carries for 37 yards on a rainy afternoon when the rest of UVa’s ball-carriers were in red numbers as a group.
Ellis, a 5-foot-10, 225-pounder from Suwanee, Georgia, finished with 836 yards for the season — not the 1,000 yards that ball-carriers covet but higher than UVa’s leading rusher in three of the previous five seasons.
“Obviously, I’d like to get over 1,000 yards,” he said. “I’m not really into individual goals, but that’s one [milestone] that’s tangible.”
Gone from the offensive line are four seniors who started at some point in their careers, “but they’re [the linemen] looking way better,” Ellis added. “They’re more physical at the point of attack.”
Some of that might be attributed to the arrival of new strength coach Shawn Griswold, who previously was in charge of sports performance at Arizona State for six years.
Griswold replaced Frank Wintrich, hired away from Virginia by new UCLA coach Chip Kelly, who had been to a UVa practice while he was out of coaching in the spring of 2017.
“We’re doing a lot more Olympic training,” Ellis said. “I’ve definitely gotten faster, too.”
Ellis said he hopes to become more of a leader, which is somewhat amusing, given that he has had the first choice of uniform numbers prior to each of the past two seasons.
The order of selection is determined by a panel of players and Ellis went with No. 1 last year after he was No. 10 in 2016.
Ellis had 215 rushing attempts last year and UVa’s second-most “active” ball-carrier was Olamide Zaccheaus with 27 attempts.
Zaccheaus, a receiver by trade, also set a school record with 85 receptions.
“Me and ‘O’ have a pretty good relationship,” said Ellis, who saw enough passes to finish with 22 receptions. “It’s important to be leaders, too. I’ve gotten that down as far as working. Now, I have to speak up a little more.”
Head coach Bronco Mendenhall has spoken in the past about the advantages of having a running quarterback and, for the first time in his three seasons at UVa, this year he might have one in Perkins.
Perkins, sidelined with a neck injury after beginning his college career at Arizona State, led Arizona Western to the junior-college national championship game in 2017.
“From the jump, he fit in,” Ellis said. “It’s just the way he works at going about his business. He didn’t come in with a big head. In our last scrimmage, he took off down the sideline and blew past people on an 80-yard run down the sideline.
“It was like nothing our defense had ever seen before. It was electric.”
It’s April, but painful memories remain from a dreadful afternoon in Annapolis, Maryland, in late December.
“We talk about it every day,” Ellis said. “We know that we laid an egg. We’ve got a different focus now. I don’t know how to describe but I feel we have the potential to be really good.”