Virginia quarterbacks battle to be Cavaliers' starter

CHARLOTTESVILLE — The Virginia football team has held two practices and it still doesn’t have a starting quarterback.

OK, OK. So Cavaliers head coach Mike London just hasn’t made the announcement yet.

Tuesday, before David Watford and Greyson Lambert battled it out for another afternoon, London stood before reporters and ran down his early impressions.

A day before, neither of the candidates exactly lit up the McCue Center outdoor field. Watford, a redshirt sophomore, was intercepted by Brandon Phelps. Lambert, a redshirt freshman, was picked off by Rijo Walker.

“You start out a little rusty,” London said. “They’ve been doing the 7-on-7s by themselves and now you have a full-fledged defense coming at them and corners playing different types of coverages. So it started out slow, but then it started to pick up and get back into rhythm.”

Naturally, the performance didn’t make London immediately throw out his starter for the Aug. 31 opener against BYU.

“No, we don’t have a decision on that,” London said with a grin. “But, like I’ve said, it will be early. Obviously, today’s a big practice as well. We’ll evaluate the tape.

“When you start getting into those shells or those padded practices when there’s banging around and guys having heat on them, the decision-making is important there. So you kind of get a little sense of how they react in certain situations.

“The second day of practice, there’s no new news.”

Tuesday, the signal callers, like the rest of the squad, were in basic helmets, jerseys and shorts.

The “banging around” hasn’t arrived yet. But the action has.

Watford was more crisp, ending a 7-on-7 session by hitting four of six targets.

Lambert, in the same drill, was intercepted twice. Freshman linebacker Mark Hall, filling in for Demeitre Brim (hamstring) on the strong side, took both picks back for touchdowns. The 6-foot-2, 250-pounder stepped in front of Jeremy Dollin on one and caught a Zach Swanson drop on the other.

Smoke impressions

One practice into his college career, Taquan Mizzell has lived up to his nickname, according to London.

That’s “Smoke,” not “Mist.”

“He ran pretty well,” London said prior to Tuesday’s session. “The young man is very talented.”

“Smoke” is derived from Mizzell’s high school days when the former Bayside star would burn defenders in tackling drills. “Mist” came from London after the 52-year-old beat the rookie in a basketball game of one-on-one over the summer.

Mizzell gave his side of the story on Monday.

“Don’t tell him, but I let him win,” Mizzell said. “He’s pretty good. Coach is good. He played a little old school game.”

Extra points

Redshirt freshman cornerback C.J. Moore and sophomore safety Kyrrel Latimer are not participating in August camp, but both remain on the team. … Freshman defensive tackles Donte Wilkins (6-2, 305 pounds) and Tyrell Chavis (6-3, 290) both saw action on the second team Tuesday. … Today’s practice is the final open session to the public. It starts at 3:40 p.m.

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