Elliott, O’Connor eyeing balance for dual-sport Virginia athlete Jay Woolfolk

Virginia sophomore Jay Woolfolk is preparing for likely his busiest semester of college to this point. This is not a reference to his course load or schedule but rather with respect to his status as a dual-sport athlete. Woolfolk, for the first time, has the opportunity to truly prove his prowess as both a football and baseball player.

For the past two fall semesters, Woolfolk has been the primary backup to Brennan Armstrong at the quarterback position on UVA’s football team. Now, Armstrong has transferred to NC State, leaving a vacancy at the position.

Last spring, no Virginia baseball pitcher appeared in more games than the then-freshman right-hander. Now, as just a sophomore, he’ll be one of head coach Brian O’Connor’s most trusted arms right from the start of the season.

On both teams, he has the potential to be a significant contributor and luckily, they don’t have games the same time of year. Football is in the fall and baseball is in the spring, so he can easily play both, right?

No, of course it isn’t that simple.

Baseball preseason got fully underway this past Friday, and the season opener against Navy on Feb. 17 is quickly approaching. Meanwhile, football season feels like it just ended as the College Football Playoff concluded less than a month ago – although UVA last played a game far longer ago on Nov. 12 against Pitt, nearly two months prior to the Georgia-TCU title game. Yet, as recent as football season still feels, spring practices start in just over a month away. In fact, it’ll be just a little over a month after baseball season gets underway.

Put simply, Woolfolk doesn’t have all that much time to solely focus on baseball before football reenters the fold.

“First and foremost, we want to make sure that Jay Woolfolk is taken care of,” said O'Connor prior to the first baseball practice last Friday.

The biggest area of concern for Woolfolk’s situation comes from the similar nature his positions in each sport.

“Anytime you’re dealing with a guy that’s a pitcher and quarterback, the throws on the arm, you need to be thoughtful about those kinds of things,” O’Connor said.

For the entirety of Woolfolk’s first three semesters on Grounds, this dilemma had been far more theoretical than concrete; since he wasn’t the starting quarterback, there weren’t the same concerns about arm fatigue.

“There will be a more extensive plan that will be put in place in the weeks to come. Coach Elliott and I talked about him just starting off right here as a baseball player and getting his feet on the ground, and then as we get closer to the start of spring football, we will put a really better plan together, a more in-depth plan on what day to day Jay Woolfolk will do.”

He continued, “It will involve a lot of baseball but certainly we will work it out together for him to compete for that starting quarterback job for next fall.”

“What I told Coach [O’Connor] is until February 1, you take him, he’s yours, evaluate them, and then we’ll figure out what it looks like,” Virginia football head coach Tony Elliott said on Wednesday. “And really that’s the time to determine if he’ll be a starter or he’ll be a closer, because again that changes our approach.”

Elliott added, “Today [Feb. 1] is kind of the deadline to determine where we feel like his role will be, and then from there, we’ll determine the amount of actual balls he’ll throw for us in spring ball.”

Last season, Woolfolk appeared in 28 games for the baseball team, all of them as a reliever. He put together a 3-0 record and a 2.87 ERA across his 37.2 innings. He struck out 55 batters, walked 20, conceded just 12 earned runs, and was easily one of the most reliable guys out of the Virginia bullpen. Despite that success as a reliever, significant turnover on the pitching staff this offseason means that Woolfolk may actually be handed the ball as a starter.

“Regarding the roles of the pitching staff…it’s still open competition,” O’Connor said last week.

“We’ve got about six different players that are pitchers that are starting over the weekend,” he added, referring to team scrimmages being played during the preseason period.

Only two pitchers that started games for O’Connor last season are back in 2023, Jake Berry (9 starts) and Matthew Buchannan (4). As a result, new guys will have to fill in those starting pitching slots, and Woolfolk is one of the candidates to do so.

“When you don’t return starters other than Jake Berry…you just leave it up for grabs and it materializes as you get closer to the start of the season,” O’Connor said.

On the baseball side, Woolfolk will undoubtedly have a significant role, even if the specifics are yet to be decided. In football, Woolfolk will be in a battle for the starting quarterback role meaning he’ll either end up with the most important role on the team or he could find himself on the bench yet again.

“The plan is to have him at every practice and all the meetings in the mornings and then he’ll do baseball in the evenings,” Elliott said.

After the decision by Armstrong to enter the transfer portal, the easy assumption was that Woolfolk would slide up the depth chart to the starting job. However, Elliott and his staff went out and secured the commitment of Monmouth transfer Tony Muskett, a Springfield, Va. native.

After graduating from West Springfield High School, Muskett headed to Monmouth where he played three seasons and earned two First Team All-Big South Conference selections. He provides far more collegiate experience than Woolfolk having played in 23 games, completed 462 passes, and thrown 51 touchdowns.

In stark contrast, Woolfolk has made nine appearances in two seasons, only one of which was as the starting quarterback. That game came against Notre Dame in a spot start with Armstrong out due to injury back in 2021. A true freshman at the time, Woolfolk went 18-33 passing for 196 yards and two interceptions, albeit against one of the nation’s best defenses and with a more limited playbook than what Armstrong had been playing with.

Woolfolk has the advantage of one more year in this specific offensive system versus Muskett, but with such limited game experience in comparison to Muskett, Woolfolk will have to make the most of his likely limited spring practice action.

“He’s not just a guy on the team, in my opinion,” Elliott said. “He’s a guy that can contribute and help, and I want to make sure that he’s able to do that. At the same time, he’s in a quarterback battle. We brought in a transfer, we got a freshman, and we got two second-year guys that are here that are going to compete, so he needs to be there.”

Until the status of Woolfolk as a starter or reliever is known, the specifics of Woolfolk’s day-to-day throwing work on the football field are difficult to project. Even with that decision yet to be made by O’Connor and his staff, his baseball role is far more solidified than football.

For Elliott, offensive coordinator Des Kitchings, and quarterbacks coach Taylor Lamb, the decision between the starting experience of Muskett and the system experience of Woolfolk will likely not be an easy one, and it’s very possible we won’t know their decision until August training camp, or even as late as Sept. 2, the day UVA football squares off with Tennessee in Nashville to begin the 2023 season.

Want the latest news on Virginia delivered right to your email? Subscribe to the Wahoos247 newsletter here. It is free and a great way to get daily updates on Virginia football, basketball, baseball, recruiting, and more delivered straight to your inbox.