Associated Press

Virginia coach Al Groh (left) has quite a few different players on his two-deep roster since the Cavs' opening-day loss to USC.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Unintentional as it might be, Virginia football coach Al Groh suddenly finds himself in a youth movement.

When the Cavaliers visit Duke on Saturday, first-time UVa starters will include a pair of redshirt freshmen, nose tackle Nick Jenkins and safety Corey Mosley,

Until this week, Mosley never had appeared in a UVa two-deep.

Mosley takes the place of fourth-year junior Brandon Woods, a Durham, N.C., product whose homecoming would have made for a nice story if not for a fall from grace.

Woods, victimized on several long runs in a 45-10 loss at Connecticut, is listed as co-No. 2 with Trey Womack at the spot now manned by Mosley.

At 5-feet-10 and 197 pounds, Mosley might lack prototypical safety size, but he's a physical player.

"From his first days here, it was apparent that he had the type of built-in ability that would give him a chance to be a very good player," Groh said Wednesday on the weekly ACC coaches' teleconference.

"He's got quick speed -- that is, he's got acceleration -- and he's got long speed. He's got toughness. He packs a real punch and he has a sense of where the ball's going. It's just been a question of his adapting to college football."

Mosley wowed spectators at UVa's preseason scrimmages with his hard hits on goal-line sequences, but he didn't grasp UVa's system quickly enough for the coaches to trust him in games.

"Things kind of built up in the spring," Groh said. "Maybe they all ran together. He hit a little bit of a roadblock. When we started training camp, that really picked up and he's had a real good [last] 10 days with us.

"Amongst the things that was very noticeable about Corey at Henrico High School was, he was just a good player. He ran the ball, he caught the ball, he returned kicks, he played defense. He's got a multiple set of skills that he brings to the position."

As opposed to Mosley, who has played in all three games but participated mostly on special teams, Jenkins (6-3, 285) has shared time with starting nose tackle Nate Collins.

"Nick has been a very mature player since he's gotten here," Groh said. "He's one of those players that needs to develop technique and learn the system, but, overall, you can see that college football wasn't too big for him from the outset. He wasn't going to have to grow into it.

"Clearly, if we've got him where we do, we think that he's played a little bit better than [Collins]."

While the changes involving Jenkins and Mosley were the most noteworthy, UVa's second offensive line was basically revamped.

True freshmen Mike Price (6-5, 265) at center and Matt Mihalik (6-7, 275) at right tackle have joined classmate Austin Pasztor (6-6, 310) in the two-deep.

UVa has a total of five freshmen in its first two units, including inside linebacker Steve Greer and outside linebacker Cameron Johnson. Only Pasztor and Johnson have played to date, and UVa will take redshirts off the others "probably only as need be," Groh said.

Groh does make an exception for players like Pasztor, who is the backup to a senior, Zak Stair. With Pasztor likely to start in 2009, Groh wanted to make sure that he had some game experience.

A sixth true freshman who could make the trip to Durham this weekend is Riko Smalls, one of three scholarship quarterbacks in the program since the departure of Peter Lalich, who is expected to surface at Oregon State following his dismissal from UVa program.

Lalich earlier had been left home for UVa's trip to Connecticut, a decision that was made so late in the week that Smalls, who had been working with UVa's scout team, could not get a crash course in the Cavaliers' offense.

As a result, Marc Verica and Scott Deke were the only UVa quarterbacks who travelled to Connecticut, but it does not appear Groh will take that risk again.

It has been Groh's intention to redshirt Smalls, "but really, for this year, we've got to do what we've got to do," he said.

If one of Virginia's three walk-on quarterbacks could provide the same kind of insurance as Smalls at the No. 3 spot, Groh might be willing to go that route.