On Monday, Virginia football head coach Mike London announced the program would lose two of their offensive lineman for the rest of the season, testing their depth.
The Virginia Cavaliers have had a bit of a blow dealt to their offensive line depth, with both Jake Fieler and Eric Tetlow now done for the season after injuries suffered in week one.
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“Unfortunately, with Jake Fieler and Eric Tetlow, they’re lost for the season,” said London. “They’ll have season-ending surgeries.” This will undoubtedly leave a hole on the offensive line as Fieler was listed as a starter on the Virginia depth chart coming out of spring practices per a report from Jamie Oaks of 247Sports.
However, Fieler was passed by junior Eric Smith on the depth chart following the conclusion of fall training camp and offensive line coach Dave Borbely told the media two weeks ago that Fieler would be moved inside to the guard position.
Now, with the losses of Fieler and Tetlow, the Cavalier offensive line depth chart shapes up as follows.
Updated Offensive Line Depth Chart
Left Tackle
Michael Mooney
Jack English
Left Guard
Jack McDonald
John Pond
Center
Jackson Matteo
Ross Burbank
Right Guard
Ross Burbank
Sean Karl
Right Tackle
Eric Smith
Jay Whitmire
One thing I would watch for is how much of the workload senior Ross Burbank will handle. As noted, he is slated to play two positions, and it will be interesting to see if he will go back and forth between center and right guard or if the coaching staff will evaluate him and stick him at the position he is better at and keep him there.
Either way, this leaves Virginia shorthanded and if anything, this will be a good test to see how deep they really are on the line.
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