Rogers Ready to Take Next Step for Cavaliers

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — His family is now based in Northern California, but that hasn’t swayed John Rogers. On the University of Virginia football roster, his hometown is listed as The Plains, a small town in Fauquier County.

“I've always considered myself a Virginian,” said Rogers, a graduate of Episcopal High School in Alexandria. “I feel like that's where my heart is, because I grew up there as a kid. I grew up watching the Cavaliers. And so I say I'm from Virginia, because I feel like my most formative years were in Virginia.”

In the 1980s, Ted Rogers had an opportunity to walk on to the football team at UVA but chose instead to play at Williams College, where he also starred in lacrosse. Some 40 years later, the second-oldest of his four sons, John, is a third-year tight end who’s looking to have a breakout season for the Cavaliers.

“We need John to be a consistent contributor for us,” said offensive coordinator Des Kitchings, who also oversees Virginia’s tight ends.

As a true freshman in 2024, Rogers played in only three games, in part because of a persistent hamstring injury. He began the 2025 season as the team’s No. 3 tight end, behind veterans Sage Ennis and Dakota Twitty, but his role changed in the Wahoos’ sixth game. On Virginia’s second play from scrimmage against Louisville at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium, Twitty sustained a season-ending ankle injury.

Since arriving on Grounds, Rogers had looked up to Ennis and Twitty, and he leaned on the lessons they’d taught him.

“So I honestly felt prepared as I stepped on the field when Dak went down,” Rogers said after practice Monday night. “It was an opportunity that I felt I was ready for. I love those guys. They've helped me every step of the way.”

Against Louisville, Rogers teamed with quarterback Chandler Morris on a 26-yard completion in the second quarter. The fourth quarter ended with the teams tied, and Rogers helped the Hoos prevail in overtime.

After holding Louisville to a field goal on the first possession of the extra period, UVA needed only four plays to score the winning touchdown. The first was a 14-yard reception by Rogers, who would not have figured prominently in the Cardinals’ scouting report on the Cavaliers.

“That was a cool moment,” he recalled.

He finished the season with nine catches for 101 yards and a touchdown. Two of those receptions came against Missouri in the Gator Bowl, a game in which Virginia reached the 11-win mark for the first time in program history.

“In those games in the second half of last season, I had to play a bigger role,” Rogers said, “and I feel like I'm at the point now in fall camp where there's a maturity that I feel wasn't present last year, just because I didn't have those games under my belt.”

Training camp began late last month for the Cavaliers, who are in their fifth year under head coach Tony Elliott. Virginia opens the season Aug. 29 against ACC rival NC State at Scott Stadium.

“The way I'm approaching this fall camp and the season is from a different perspective, from a perspective of a guy who's played 14 games,” Rogers said. “It’s just a different level of how you take care of your body, realizing the longevity of the season, and also the details in the offense, because now I'm running around playing different positions in the field.

“I'll play fullback, I'll play slot, I'll play tight end, wherever they need me. But in order to do that, it requires you to know what the O-line is doing, where they're fitting, where the receivers are fitting, the route concepts with the quarterback, what the progression is.”

Kitchings has multiple options at tight end, including Twitty, Rogers and transfers Connor Cox (North Carolina) and Lukas Ungar (New Mexico State). Also at the position are sophomores Willem Thurber and Justin Zames, junior Henry Omohundro and senior Hayden Rollison.

“We talk about establishing competitive depth,” Kitchings said. “We want to play for a long time [this season], and in order to do that, we've got to have really good competitive depth throughout our roster.”

Twitty, who enrolled at UVA in 2022, has been in the program the longest of the tight ends. His job, he said, is to “uphold the standard. As a guy who's been here for five years, this is my home. I know it inside out.”

That standard demands a strong work ethic and competitive stamina, Twitty said. “No matter what the circumstances, we’ve got to compete to the best of our ability every single time.”

In April, at the end of spring practice, Elliott said UVA’s coaches see the tight ends “as the core of the offense. None of us like to work the core. Nobody likes to do sit-ups and all that kind of stuff. Trust me, I know. When something's wrong with that core, though, you know it. When something’s wrong with the core, you feel it. The whole body is impacted.”

If the tight ends “can go,” Twitty said, “this team can go. So I’m really just pushing myself and pushing the guys around me. That’s what our goal is, just being able to work over and over. No matter if it's play one or play 60, just being able to go.”

Twitty began his UVA career as a wide receiver before moving to tight end, and “I had a pretty similar transition,” Rogers said, “because in high school, I was not a traditional tight end. I split out a lot, and I played a lot of defensive end.”

His mentors in his position room—Twitty and former Cavaliers Ennis, Tyler Neville and Sackett Wood Jr.—have been invaluable resources, said Rogers, who also praised the coaching he’s received from Kitchings and assistant Patrick Ashford.

“They’ve molded me into the player I am,” Rogers said. “It’s been tough coaching. It’s been love when at the times when I need it and toughness at the times when I need it. And I really appreciate that. My first year was difficult. Learning tight end is no easy feat. It's probably, behind quarterback, the most complicated position on the field, just because you have to understand the entirety of the offense. So it took me a while to really dig into that and master it.”

Twitty said he sees a lot of himself in Rogers.

“Especially when he first came in, he was more of a receiver type of tight end,” Twitty said, “and just to see how he's grown, I think it's just a day-by-day process. He's gotten tremendously better since he's got here. And even since last season, I think he's taken a tremendous leap, and I know he's gonna do amazing things this season and help us a lot.”

Rogers, who was born in Washington, D.C., grew up playing multiple sports. Ted Rogers played in the NFL and has a Super Bowl ring from his years with the Washington Redskins, but he didn't push football on his sons.

“He wanted us to be well-rounded athletes,” John Rogers said. “I played baseball, soccer, basketball, and football up to high school. And then he let us choose. He let us follow what we loved.”

For Rogers, that was baseball at first. He was also a stellar triple-jumper in track & field, and his athleticism served him well in center field. Eventually, though, he fell hard for football. And now, in his third year in Elliott’s program, he sees parallels with his days at Episcopal.

“My first two years of high school, I was a baseball guy,” Rogers said. “I wanted to play baseball in college. And then my third year I just started loving the game of football, not only because of the opportunity to have that kind of brotherhood with the team, but also just because there's no other sport in the world where you can run at another guy at full speed and call it a game, with the exception of maybe rugby.

“It was at that point in high school where I stepped into a leadership role on the [football] team, and this year it feels very similar in that way. With the experience I have under my belt, and also with the tight ends being the core of the offense, as Coach likes to say, we have to step up as a group and be leaders.

“It takes all of us, especially the tight ends, because we have such a dynamic role on the offense. I think this year, being a junior, having those games under my belt from last year, I feel prepared to step into more of a leadership role.”

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