On Wednesday, defensive ends coach Chris Slade talked to the media. Here is everything he had to say.
On the new faces in the room….
“It’s going pretty well. I mean, you know, you were here the other day. You saw it’s spring ball. The big thing for us right now is just to get the guys to learn the system, um, learn the defense, and just stay healthy and just try to get better each day. But, you know, so far it’s been a good group to coach. Um, so we’re back on the grass again today.”
On Nnanna Anyanwu big personality…
“He has a lot of charisma. He has a lot of personality. He’s a great kid. Good kid to be around. He likes to have fun, but he’s also serious about football as well. So, good combination. You’ve got to have a couple of those guys in your room to keep it entertaining now that Mitchell’s gone.”
On what drew the team to Anyanwu in the portal…
“He’s so long. You know, everybody’s looking for length. You know, that’s a big thing at that position. Guys who have long arms and uh long extremities, and he has a lot of athleticism. Uh, he can run pretty well. He’s got some good instincts. He has a knack for football. Uh, he’s pretty athletic. He has some attributes that we look for that position. And we saw him on film. Man, the first thing that struck us, again, as I said, was his length, but that was a big initial attraction.”
On the first interaction with Anyanwu..
“It’s funny. I was on the phone with him. He was on his way to get his hair braided, and it was the first time I ever talked to him. I’ve been in Atlanta for so long. So I knew exactly where he was going and where he was, you know, and so I kind of so he and I kind of clicked right away just because of the Atlanta connection. So we automatically had things in common, and he was like, “Coach, I got to get my hair braided. I have to call you back.” So I was like, “All right, this guy’s going to be fun.” And so that was our first that was literally our first interaction. He couldn’t talk. He had to call me back. But he’s just a big personality. He walks in, and he lights up a room.”
On if he sees anything raw about Anyanwu since he hasn’t partaken in spring practice in a long time…
“Yeah, this goes back even to like Matt drills. We call them wahoo drills, Matt drills. He was just telling me, “Coach, I’ve we did some stuff like this at UTSA, his previous stop, but nothing to the extent of what you guys do.” So, it just isn’t about him missing spring football. It was either about him also his conditioning. Um, he just hadn’t gone through the same type of program and the same type of things that we do here.
So, for him, everything is an adjustment. It’s almost like I wouldn’t say it’s like getting a high school kid, but just in terms of just getting him to really understand and to know what our expectations are. It’s been an adjustment for him, but he’s getting it. You know, he’s embraced it. I mean, he’s not shying away from it. He doesn’t make excuses.
He’s very coachable. I think he’s going to be a great addition for us, but we just got to like a lot of the new guys who come in, you just got to coach them up, you know, on and off the field, how we just do things here at UVA.”
On if he feels like Virginia has recreated the different looks they can throw an offense with the players they have…
“Last year, you know, we had Mitchell, who had been at Ohio State, who obviously played a lot of big games. You had Ricker, who came from Tennessee Tech, who was on the, you know, the smaller size of stature. They were two completely different types of players. But I think this year we’re longer. Um, not necessarily bigger cuz you know I thought Cazeem was you know heavy, and Mitchell and those guys were heavier guys, but I think this year the team is going to be longer at that position. We’re excited about the challenge to kind of reinvent the wheel a little bit with just the guys that are new. But these guys come with a lot of snaps. Ezekiel Larry who we hadn’t talked about, is coming from Yale, who came up and visited us this past week. He’s played a ton of football. Um, Nnanna played a lot of football. Fobbs-White played a lot at Tulane and at Baylor, now here. So the guys have played ball. We got Devin Baxter, who hadn’t really talked about much. We really got him as a freshman. So we got him for the next four years. You know, I recruited the heck out of that kid coming out of high school. I mean, so I’m glad that, you know, it took a couple of years for us to get him here, but he’s here, and he’s gonna be a huge kid. So we got some length in that room. And you got Fisher and you know, Koudelka. I mean, if nothing else, we look like a basketball team. If we can’t rush the quarterback, we look like a basketball team at least.”
On Matthew Fobbs-White…
“He has very good instincts. He has a nose for the football. He has a very good change of direction. He’s probably not your prototypical like, “Hey man, this guy’s big. Let’s, you know, not like when we saw Fisher was like, “Wow, look at his size. Fobbs plays with a lot of power. You know, when I’m looking at a guy to rush the passer, the first thing I’m looking at if if he plays with power, regardless of his size, usually a lot of big guys who don’t play with power and he demonstrates a lot of power and explosion, kind of like Ricker when we watched him on film uh two years ago and and we saw that early with Fobbss and he’s serious. He’s all about ball. Um and he’s smart. He catches on quick. You can tell him something once; he’s very coachable. He has some experience. So, we’re not talking a complete foreign language to him. He understands football pretty well.”
On the freedom of the scheme and system for pass rushers…
“Well, I thought last year, Coach Downing and I, you know, we kind of made a pact together that, hey, man, we’re going to get after these quarterbacks, and we were…