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Five Standouts From the Virginia Football Spring Game

Matt Newton

UVA Athletics/Jamie Holt
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Virginia officially concluded spring football with the annual Blue-White Game on Saturday at Scott Stadium. Though the score doesn't really matter much, the White team raced out to a 17-0 lead and ended up defeating the Blue team 17-9. As this was our first and only time to see the Cavaliers at Scott Stadium before the 2025 season begins on August 30th, here are our picks for five standouts from the Virginia football spring game.

Josiah Abdullah

It seems every year there is an early enrollee freshman who shines in the spring game. It usually serves as a primer for an impactful freshman season in the fall for that first year. This year's winner of the freshman of the game award is wide receiver Josiah Abdullah, who led all players with 92 all-purpose yards and finished with three receptions on five targets for 47 yards. Abdullah caught an 18-yard pass from Daniel Kaelin on the third play of the game and then caught another pass for five yards later in the drive. In the fourth quarter, Abdullah hauled in a 24-yard strike from Grady Brosterhous. His most impressive play came on special teams, though, as Abdullah ripped off a 45-yard kick return in the fourth quarter that set up the Blue team's first touchdown of the game. Kam Courtney and JMU transfer Cam Ross are expected to be the leading candidates for the kickoff return job this fall, but Abdullah might have just crashed the party. Expect Abdullah to make an impact in a few different ways in his first season as a Cavalier.

Billy Koudelka

If you're not familiar with the story of Billy Koudelka, you've got some catching up to do. The 6'8", 255-pound Lynchburg native was originally committed to play Division I men's lacrosse at Jacksonville as an attackman, but fell in love with football in his senior year at Virginia Episcopal School and decided to pursue college football instead, eventually walking on to the UVA football team. Koudelka played in four games last season, totaling four tackles, one sack, and one forced fumble. In a defensive end room that brought in some significant additions from the transfer portal, Koudelka has continued to stand out as a potential impact player heading into his sophomore season. He put that potential on full display in the spring game on Saturday, recording four sacks. For context, there were six total sacks by both teams combined the game and Koudelka was responsible for four of them.

Read more on Billy Koudelka here: Billy Koudelka: Virginia Football’s Unsung Workhorse

Stevie Bracey and Myles Brown

With Kam Robinson, James Jackson, and Trey McDonald all out this spring due to injuries, there were plenty of opportunities for other players in that unit to step up and prove their worth. For one of those opportunistic linebackers, it was about showing that he was back and better than ever. After missing the entire 2024 season with an injury, senior linebacker Stevie Bracey made his triumphant return to Scott Stadium on Saturday, recording eight tackles (second on the Blue team), four solo stops, one tackle for loss, one pass breakup, one forced fumble, and a safety.

On the forced fumble, which happened on Bracey's first play of the game, Myles Brown tripped up the ball carrier Hayden Rollison before Bracey flew in at the last moment and punched out the ball, which was then recovered by Alabama transfer Hunter Osborne. Take another look here:

With just seconds left on the clock at the end of the fourth quarter, Bracey timed up the snap perfectly and burst through a gap and wrapped up Owen Gardner for a safety. Once again, Myles Brown was right there as well and could have also made the tackle had Bracey not gotten there so quickly.

So we must also shout out Brown, a sophomore linebacker from Columbia, South Carolina, who led all defenders with 11 tackles and six solo stops. Not too shabby for a guy who played in three games as a freshman and didn't record any stats. Virginia should be all set on playmakers at the linebacker position, with Eastern Kentucky transfer Maddox Marcellus joining Robinson, Jackson, and McDonald. But Saturday showed that the Hoos might have one of the deepest linebacker units in the country with Stevie Bracey and Myles Brown able to slide in as well. It would be in Virginia's best interest to find a way to get these guys on the field as well.

J'Mari Taylor

A transfer from North Carolina Central, Taylor showed on Saturday that he is a more than capable running back partner for Xavier Brown in the Virginia backfield. In his debut at Scott Stadium, Taylor led all ball carriers with 52 yards on nine rushing attempts, averaging 5.8 yards per carry. Six of Taylor's nine rushes went for at least four yards and he had rushes of 9, 11, and 8 yards on the first drive of the game, with the eight-yard rush moving the chains on 4th and 2. Taylor embraces contact with physicality, but is also shifty, resulting in several missed tackles on Saturday. It was a quiet day for Xavier Brown, who had nine carries for 14 yards and two catches for 10 yards, but there is still a lot of potential for a running back tandem of Taylor and Brown to have success this fall running behind what should be an improved Virginia offensive line.

Dakota Twitty, young tight ends

With the departure of Tyler Neville, Virginia's second-leading receiver from last season, Dakota Twitty appears to be in line to be the team's starting tight end this fall. Twitty and sophomore John Rogers made some nice plays over the middle of the field during the spring game on Saturday, including this great catch by Twitty for a 23-yard completion from Chandler Morris to convert on 3rd and 10.

Later in the second quarter, Morris found Twitty over the middle again for 28 yards, sparking a 30-second drive that ended with the first points of the game on a field goal as the first half ended. Twitty finished with two catches on three targets for 51 yards, while John Rogers established a nice connection with Daniel Kaelin and had two catches on three targets for 24 yards. Junior tight end Hayden Rollison also had four catches on four targets, though he also had a fumble in the first quarter.

For what it's worth, we also liked what we saw from quarterbacks Chandler Morris and Daniel Kaelin on Saturday, but not quite so much to make the list of standouts from the spring game. We'll have more content coming out on Virginia Cavaliers On SI in the coming days evaluating the quarterback play from the UVA football spring game.

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.