Cavaliers Add First Wave of Reinforcements

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

As the University of Virginia football program continues building its roster for 2025, the staff’s focus now shifts to the transfer portal, which opens next week. Wednesday, though, was an opportunity for head coach Tony Elliott to discuss the recruits UVA added on the first day of the fall signing period.

In all, 19 high school seniors signed with the Cavaliers on Wednesday, including six players from the state of Virginia. (No. 19, defensive end Evan Ward, announced his signing after Elliott’s press conference.)

Six of the recruits will enroll at the University next month and go through spring practice with the team: wide receivers Josiah Abdullah and Dillon Newton-Short, tight end Justin Zames, offensive lineman Jim Harris Jr., defensive tackle Sichan John and defensive back Corey Costner.

“To get those guys rolling, it’s going to help them immensely,” Elliott told reporters at the Hardie Center. “In essence, when you come in midyear, you’re getting 15 practices, all of the offseason, the strength and conditioning. It’s almost like you’ve had an additional year before you even get to fall camp. Super excited and happy for them.”

The class includes two quarterbacks: 6-foot-1 Cole Geer and 6-foot-3 Bjorn Jurgensen. A hand injury hindered Geer this fall at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, but he’s a “very, very good athlete,” Elliott said. “The athleticism, the competitor, that’s what we fell in love with in the beginning.”

Jurgensen, a senior at Bishop Moore Catholic High School in Orlando, Fla., “was a guy we got on a little bit later in the recruiting process,” Elliott said, “because we knew we were going to take two [quarterbacks] in the class … He had a monster season down in Florida. We had to work hard to keep some of the bigger guys off of him, so to speak.”

The quarterbacks are “a little bit different, but they complement each other well,” Elliott said. “Excited for those guys to get here in the summer and compete.”

Geer and Jurgensen are joining a program that will have to replace its top two quarterbacks from this season. Fifth-year senior Tony Muskett is out of eligibility, so that was expected, but sophomore Anthony Colandrea announced this week that he’s entering the transfer portal.

Colandrea started UVA’s first 11 games, but Muskett took all the snaps in its season finale Saturday night against Virginia Tech. The Wahoos finished 5-7 overall and 3-5 in ACC play after losing to the Hokies in Blacksburg.

Virginia’s returning quarterbacks are expected to include Gavin Frakes and Grady Brosterhous.

“Unfortunate situation with AC,” Elliott said. “The intention with the decision I made [for the Virginia Tech game] was never to get him to entertain or think about the portal. I was planning on him coming back and being the guy for us going forward.

“Things change. Now we will have to go and look and find a veteran guy in the portal. We’re going to be aggressive from that standpoint, because I think we got a lot to sell. I wish AC well. He’s leaving here on good terms. There’s no bad blood from my perspective … I was excited about getting back to work this offseason and helping to get him to a place of getting his confidence back at the highest level. Also I knew that I have a responsibility this offseason to go put some more pieces in place around him. Unfortunately, we’ll be doing that with another veteran quarterback through the portal process.”

How many players Virginia will pursue in the transfer portal hasn’t been finalized, Elliott said. “Right now we’re in the process of having exit meetings with all of our players on the roster … In terms of the size of the portal class, that will be determined over the next really few days as we finish up these meetings as the portal gets ready to open on [Tuesday].”

Between the end of the 2023 season and the start of training camp last summer, the Hoos added 14 transfers.

“Each year is going to be different,” Elliott said. “I do want to be a developmental program. However, the landscape is changing so fast. It’s hard to be developmental if you lose your developmental guys, right? If I have developmental guys that are leaving, it’s hard to get the exact replacement with the exact same situation based off timing. If I lose guys now, it’s hard to replace that by February with a high school kid.”

UVA’s roster has numerous holes to fill. Forty-one players were recognized in the Senior Day ceremony that preceded the Hoos’ final home game this month.

The coaching staff will “be looking at every position [in the portal],” Elliott said. “We may not end up signing one at every position.”

The recruiting class breakdown, thus far, by position: two quarterbacks (Geer and Jurgensen), three wideouts (Abdullah, Dillon-Short and Isaiah Robinson), three offensive linemen (Harris, Jon Adair and Grayson Reid), one tailback (Xay Davis), two tight ends (Zames and Willem Thurber), one defensive lineman (John), one defensive end (Ward), two linebackers (Isaiah Reese and Justin Rowe), and four defensive backs (Costner, Josiah Persinger, CJ Spence and Montino Williams).

The three receivers offer “a little bit of everything,” Elliott said. “I think as you build your offense and that receiver room, you want to have versatility. Every plan is going to require different skill sets. I feel like we added three really quality young men that are coming from good football backgrounds, highly competitive programs. They know what it takes to win. I think they’re also good personality fits for who we are here.”

Of the six in-state recruits, four are from the Richmond area. Davis attends Collegiate, Dillon-Short and Williams are classmates at Matoaca High, and Robinson is at Trinity Episcopal. Spence is a senior at Kempsville High in Virginia Beach, and Persinger attends Salem High in Southwest Virginia.

Elliott is heading into his fourth year at UVA. The Cavaliers have progressed with their in-state recruiting during his tenure, but they’re not where they want to be on that front.

“We understand the work we’ve got to do,” Elliott said. “We’ve got to make them want to stay. I think this is a good step in the right direction. I feel like we hit on the right players. Again, as many as you want to stay, it’s still got to be about fit, make sure it’s a fit.

“We went after more. There were several other guys that we battled. Obviously, we lost a couple of in-state battles to some high-profile guys. We also lost some out-of-state battles as well.”

This state is prime recruiting territory for such programs as Penn State, North Carolina, Clemson, South Carolina and Maryland, Elliott noted, and that presents challenges for UVA and Virginia Tech.

He and the Hokies’ head coach, Brent Pry, have discussed the situation, Elliott said. “We would love to put a fence around our state and let us battle for the top guys and keep everybody out. That’s going to be impossible. Each prospect and each year is going to just bring different opportunities. But the good thing is there’s confirmation that we’ve got the right type of talent in the state. As I told the staff—and I went through it my early years at Clemson—you’re going to get your nose bloody, but you got to fight the fights [for in-state recruits]. You got to fight your fights, even if you know you’re going to get your nose bloodied, that’s the only way we’re going to get better. It’s been fun to watch the staff, too, get into some of those battles and fight and scrap for the guys in our state.”

One of the first defensive players to commit to the Cavaliers for 2025 was Spence. “He’s got a lot of length, very athletic,” Elliott said. “Had to play some quarterback this year out of team necessity. He has a ton of upside as a corner. He could easily continue to grow and be a hybrid guy that can play a little bit of safety and some corner.”

Spence comes “from a highly competitive area down there,” Elliott said. “Brings a little bit of swag with him as well, which the 757 is kind of known for, just that brand of football they play down there. Really excited about him.”

The Hoos would like to have more players from the Tidewater area, Elliott said. “What I’ve got to do in this program is, we’ve got to make it where they believe they can be successful by coming to UVA. There’s been examples in the past. We have to deliver.”

From the Cavaliers’ current roster, Anthony Britton, a defensive tackle from Norfolk, “has to be successful here,” Elliott said. “When he’s successful, I think that helps us to break down any kind of misconceptions about opportunities here. But there’s a ton of players down there. Hopefully this next cycle we’ll be able to not only tap into [the Richmond area] but entice some guys from 757 to come this way.”

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