DC John Rudzinski raves about UVA's pass rushers: 'We're really fortunate'

Virginia defensive coordinator John Rudzinski praised Fisher Camac and Co. in Wednesday's media presser

UVA defensive coordinator John Rudzinski | Virginia Cavaliers On SI

After yesterday's practice, Virginia DC John Rudzinski addressed multiple topics with members of the media in his first public appearance of the fall camp period. Rudzinski is always very transparent in his responses and is a pleasure to listen to in these press conferences.

To begin, he was asked how he feels about this year's group of pass rushers and if any of the new players have been standing out. It's safe to say that Coach Rud's pretty excited about his current group of guys based on his response:

Coach Rud isn't worried about a drop off in 2026

"Yeah, we're blessed to have Fisher Camac, he's back, shoot Nana (Anyanwu) doing a great job.
We've got (Matthew) Fobbs White, goodness, Devon Baxter, Jewett Hayes, JT (Justin Townsend), and I'm probably bringing up the whole, everybody, I mean Evan (Ward), young guy, you go down that list and there's a bunch of guys that are going to be productive this fall. Our objective is to get as many guys ready as we can. We're really fortunate we had the opportunity to roll, four guys last year, and the identity of what we want to do is see how many guys we can play. And at that spot, it's going to be critical to be able to put guys out there that'll go be productive. But yeah, I think it's a little bit TBD. And what's fun now is we get to get a little bit more in our exotic packages, get to see what it looks like as far as our ability to put a package together and see if these guys can work together to get to the passer."

He was also asked to dive a little bit deeper into Fisher Camac and how he can grow as a pass rusher this season. Rudzinski responded with:

"Yeah, naturally gifted athlete, one of those guys with NFL specs when it comes to his testing. What he'll do is he'll continue to really study his game, know himself really well, be introspective. And then ultimately he's a great student of the game and he'll do a great job of studying tackles in the ACC and he'll find a way to create a ton of pressure this fall."

Needless to say, Virginia could have another excellent year in 2026 when it comes to rushing the passer, and it'll likely begin with guys like Fisher Camac, Matthew Fobbs-White, Jewett Hayes, and Devon Baxter.