Six Virginia Football Players Enter Transfer Portal on Monday

There are now a total of eight UVA football players in the transfer portal

The floor gates opened on Monday as the window for undergraduate college football players to enter the NCAA transfer portal officially opened. Players looking for a new program or a fresh start poured into the portal by the hundreds. All told, over 700 players went into the transfer portal on Monday alone, raising the total number of FBS players currently in the portal to well over 1,000. 

Of that total, eight came from the University of Virginia, with six UVA football players entering the portal on Monday to join quarterback Brennan Armstrong and long snapper Lee Dudley, who entered the portal last week as graduate transfers. 

The most significant loss for Virginia on Monday was cornerback Fentrell Cypress II, who entered the portal after earning a Second-Team All-ACC selection following a breakout season. Cypress led the ACC with 1.44 passes defended per game and ranked 11th in all of college football on the Pro Football Focus coverage grades, allowing only 18 catches all season. 

Staying with the secondary, UVA also lost junior safety Chayce Chalmers to the transfer portal. Chalmers wasn't a starter, but made solid contributions this season, appearing in nine of Virginia's ten games and recording five tackles. With Chalmers having two years of eligibility remaining, losing him to the transfer portal is another blow to Virginia's depth in the secondary as the Cavaliers are, at the very least, losing cornerbacks Anthony Johnson and Darrius Bratton, who have both exhausted their eligibility. 

Sean Moore, a junior wide receiver from Cutler Bay, Florida, also entered the transfer portal on Monday. Moore did not appear in any games in 2019, 2020, or 2021, but appeared in two games this season. Freshman quarterback Mark Wagner II, who did not appear in any games in what appears to be his one and only season at Virginia, is also in the portal. 

The entry of sophomore linebacker Mike Green into the transfer portal should come as no surprise, as Green had not been with the team since September. A 6'3", 235-pound sophomore from Williamsburg, Virginia, Green appeared in six games at the linebacker position as a true freshman in 2021, finishing with four tackles as one of 14 true freshman Cavaliers to earn playing time last season. Green had a strong fall camp before the 2022 season, according to defensive coordinator John Rudzinski, but left the team in September for reasons that were never revealed. 

Finally, junior offensive lineman Zachary Teter entered the transfer portal on Monday as well. A 6'5", 314-pound guard from Lakeland, Florida, Teter did not appear in any games in 2019, 2020, or 2021, but made the ACC Academic Honor Roll in 2021. This season, he served as the backup right guard and ended up playing snaps at that position in the final four games of the season. 

All in all, the first day of the transfer portal window was not at all the apocalypse some of the more pessimistic UVA fans were expecting and it was not nearly as catastrophic as it was for some other programs, who had many more players enter the transfer portal on Monday. According to 247Sports, the five schools with the most players to enter the portal on Monday were: Virginia Tech (11), Texas A&M (10), Clemson (9), Ole Miss (9), and Washington State (9). 

Although it is impossible to tell what roles some of these players might have played at Virginia had they stuck around, most of the UVA athletes who entered the transfer portal on Monday were not in line for significant playing time, with the obvious and notable exception of Fentrell Cypress II. 

The transfer portal window is open from December 5th through January 18th, so there is likely to be more entrants into the portal from the Virginia football program over the next few weeks. CavaliersNow will have all of the latest news and updates regarding Virginia football and the transfer portal at this link: Virginia Football Transfer Portal Updates

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