Proactively kicking off the offseason football thread to track recruiting and transfers. Not our off-season yet, but it is already for a lot of teams, after all.
On the high school front, national Signing Day is this Wednesday, 12/3. UVA currently has a small 14-man class, ranked nationally in the 80’s (not a typo), reflective of (a) the relative hot seat our staff was on over the spring/summer and (b) the emphasis on transfers this last year. Now that Elliott is on firmer ground and we’re a hotter name, maybe some opportunity to bump up the numbers with some late flips. (Targeting one in state OL pledged to UConn, who lost their coach to Colorado State, for instance.)
The transfer portal window is changed this year, and now is only officially open for 15 days starting January 2nd to allow the majority of Bowl Season, as well as exams and the holidays, to pass first before the mayhem
That said, of course, no reason to expect that a lot of unofficial activity will start happening as early as this week as players start to announce their intentions to enter the Portal. As such we’ll want to stay on top of any interesting names emerging, while at the same time maybe seeing some of our players do the same after the ACC Championship Game.
As excited as I am about the portal, I’m also really eager to see how we do with retention. There are a lot of good contributors in line for another year of eligibility.
Do Boley and Kam come back after suffering late season injuries?
Do Malikan and Monroe come back and use their medical redshirt?
Do guys like Josey who have been in college for seemingly the last decade return or decide to go one with their lives?
Lot of talent on our own roster we need to focus on keeping before we hit the portal
Curious how things will go with the portal not opening until Jan 2 officially but teams obviously aren’t going to wait that long to engage with recruits. Wonder how much of a feel we’ll have for our top targets and where they’re trending before the portal opens
Do you folks assume that Monroe got his full “salary”? If so, even though not his fault, you would think he would feel an obligation to take a fair offer from us.
Gotta remember that there won’t be as many experienced guys in the portal this year. Almost everyone’s used their Covid year already. The only guys who could still use it will be 7th years who got an injury exception plus a regular redshirt plus a covid exception. Otherwise it’s just regular 5th year grad transfers and other regular transfers.
Taking a look at needs going into the offseason, obviously with the caveat that return-vs-go decisions need to be made by a lot of guys. These decision include low-on-the-depth-chart guys who need to decide if they have a future, and older guys who have bonus eligibility remaining but may elect to move on, whether due to missing this past season with injury or just debating their appetite for a ~6th year.
Will knock out a couple positions at a time.
Quarterback:
Gone:
Chandler Morris
Eligible to Return:
Grady Brosterhouse - Injury redshirt
Daniel Kaelin - RS So
Cole Geer - RS Fr (played vs W&M!)
Bjorn Jurgensen - RS Fr
Incoming:
Ely Hamrick - 3-star Fr
Needs: Definitely need to bring in a veteran transfer to compete with Kaelin, who hasn’t really distinguished himself in game play yet, looked rough vs Wake. Will see if one of Geer or Jurgensen feels “beat out” by the other and transfers to look for a better opportunity.
Running Back
Gone:
J’Mari Taylor
Harrison Waylee
Eligible to Return:
Xavier Brown - RS Sr
Davis Lane - RS Sr
Noah Vaughn - RS Jr
Xay Davis - RS Fr
Incoming:
Jae’Oyn Williams - 3-star Fr
Needs: With the injury concerns to both Brown and Vaughn, definitely going to need at least one starter-quality RB. Would like to think the success of Taylor this year makes us a very appealing destination for an RB1 transfer.
Could see Andre Greene, TyLyric Coleman, and Triston Ward as wideouts who go in search of more PT. He makes it sound like they’re traitors or that the staff is failing in retention, but if they’ve been passed on the depth chart, no one’s feelings are that hurt. Staff seems to like youngsters Newton-Short and Isaiah Robinson, and we get Trell, Eli Wood, Courtney, and Harrison back. Plus five four incoming recruits currently project to WR. Still think we go get a transfer “big body” WR for that X spot Edrine and Thomas are graduating out of but Y and Z spots look good if those other guys all come back healthy. Hope Harrison doesn’t feel “passed” by Courtney.