Virginia Football 2022 Season Preview: Special Teams

Breaking down the UVA football special teams unit for the 2022 season

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
Aug 31, 2022 7:47 PM EDT

In this story:

Virginia kicker Brendan Farrell attempts a field goal during UVA's game at Pittsburgh in 2021. — Brendan Farrell returns as UVA's starting kicker in 2021.
Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics

With the Virginia football season just a few days away, we continue our preview series with a breakdown of the UVA special teams unit.

Check out our breakdown of the Virginia offense here: Virginia Football 2022 Season Preview: Offense

Check out our breakdown of the 2022 Virginia football schedule here: Virginia Football 2022 Season Preview: Schedule

Check out our breakdown of the Virginia defense here: Virginia Football 2022 Season Preview: Defense

Tony Elliott and the new coaching staff have emphasized that they consider special teams to be equally as important as offense and defense. With that in mind, it appears that Elliott and special teams coordinator Keith Gaither will be putting their best players on the field during kickoffs, punts, and field goals. At the team's final open practice of preseason last week, the team was practicing onside kick recovery and Virginia's tandem of wide receivers - Keytaon Thompson, Dontayvion Wicks, Billy Kemp IV, and Lavel Davis Jr. - were all on the field as part of UVA's "hands team" to secure the ball on the onside kick. The risk, as always, will be injuries, but the Cavaliers are willing to take that chance in order to put their best foot forward on plays that could very well determine the outcome of a game.

Virginia released its week 1 depth chart for the Richmond game on Tuesday, which gave us a look at who is expected to start at each of the positions on the special teams unit.

As expected, junior Brendan Farrell will handle both placekicking and kickoffs this season. Farrell took over as Virginia's kicker a few games into the 2021 season after Justin Duenkel went down with an injury. To his credit, Farrell did not skip a beat, converting on 11 of his 13 field goal attempts and making all 34 of his PATs. During fall camp, Tony Elliott announced that Farrell has been placed on scholarship, an awesome moment for a deserving athlete.

Behind Farrell on the depth chart is first year Will Bettridge, who was ranked the No. 1 kicker in the 2022 recruiting class by Kornblue Kicking and the No. 3 kicker in the nation by 247Sports.

Holding for Brendan Farrell on field goals will be junior quarterback Jared Rayman, who was also placed on scholarship this month.

Brendan Farrell was also being considered as a punter, as he is capable of handling both kicking and punting, but that idea poses a reasonable concern that it might be too much for his leg. Instead, punting duties will go to Minnesota transfer Daniel Sparks. A 6'6", 200-pound sophomore from Gadsden, Alabama, Sparks played his freshman season in 2020 at Louisiana-Monroe, where he started all ten games, punting 33 times and averaging 44.6 yards per punt, the second-best mark in the Sun Belt Conference. Sparks parlayed his solid freshman campaign at Louisiana-Monroe into a scholarship offer at a Big Ten football program, transferring to Minnesota in January 2021. The Golden Gophers opted to go with Mark Crawford as their starting punter, so Sparks did not see any game action in the 2021 season. Now, Sparks comes to Virginia, where he hopes to be the next successful transfer punter for the Cavaliers, following Jacob Finn, who was solid in his lone season at UVA in 2021 after transferring from Florida.

Another transfer will occupy the position of long snapper, as Boston College grad transfer Aidan Livingston beat out Lee Dudley for the starting job. Although he did not appear in any games last fall, Livingston was BC's primary snapper on punts in 2020 and handled snapping for field goals and punts as a true freshman in 2019.

Virginia has some familiar faces occupying the two return positions. As he has for the last few seasons, fifth-year receiver Billy Kemp IV will handle UVA's punt-returning duties. Kemp first started returning punts as a true freshman during Virginia's victory over South Carolina in the Belk Bowl and he has been UVA's primary option at that position ever since.

Junior running back Mike Hollins has been named the starting kick-returner. Hollins returned four kickoffs for 71 yards in a single game against Wake Forest last season. Look out for Wisconsin transfer Devin Chandler to have some chances at the return positions this season as well.

Stay tuned to CavaliersNow for more Virginia football preseason coverage.

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