Virginia tailbacks grab coaching staff's attention, converge near top of depth chart

At one point during Saturday’s scrimmage, fifth-year senior Raynard Horne dashed out of the backfield and caught up to junior wide receiver Kris Burd, who already was en route to the end zone on what would become a touchdown run. Once he’d chased down Burd, Horne set a few blocks and completed a sequence that made an impression on the Virginia coaching staff.

“We said, ‘You know what? He looks like he’s fast. Let’s put him on the starting kickoff return team,’” Virginia Coach Mike London said. “Let him catch the ball and do that same thing. Run, Forrest, run.”

Horne is just one of the Virginia tailbacks who has forced coaches to pay attention to his output recently during the team’s training camp. And with the Cavaliers’ season opener two and a half weeks away, London said the battle for the starting tailback spot remains an open contest.

London noted that fifth-year senior Keith Payne made a long run during Saturday’s scrimmage and that redshirt freshman Dominique Wallace also has seen time lately on the kickoff return team.

“These guys are doing stuff that have turned heads to get noticed to say, ‘Alright, let’s find a way to get him the ball,’” London said.

In addition to Payne, Wallace and Horne, true freshman Kevin Parks, sophomore Torrey Mack and sophomore Perry Jones – listed atop the depth chart heading into training camp – are competing for the starting tailback job.

London said Perry remains “the lead dog,” but he also said, “those other guys are right behind him.”

Judging by London’s comments, it appears his first choice would be to pin down one or two of those tailbacks to carry a majority of the load. But it doesn’t sound like he’ll stubbornly refuse to go the tailback-by-committee route, either, if it becomes clear that’s the best option available.

“You always like to find a couple guys that can do it consistently, but if you have a group of guys that can do it and do it well at whatever is asked of them on offense, you want that,” London said. “You want the best player to execute the best way he knows how, and so with the type of backs that we have, the goal is to find who can do what. If you can find one or two that can do everything at an exceptional level, then that’s how you do it. But if you can find the three or four or five that are there that can do something exceptional, then, you know, it’s about trying to win the games, too. So you try to put them in position to go ahead and do that.”