Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics
Virginia Addresses Priority Roster Needs With Transfer Portal Pickups
With as difficult and challenging as the 2022 Virginia football season was both on and off the field, it came as no surprise when the Cavaliers faced some significant roster turnover at the end of the season.
UVA lost several starters on both sides of the ball, including notable transfer portal entrants Brennan Armstrong (quarterback, NC State), Nick Jackson (linebacker, Iowa), Fentrell Cypress II (cornerback, Florida State), Billy Kemp IV (wide receiver, Nebraska), John Paul Flores (offensive lineman, Louisville), and Logan Taylor (offensive lineman, Boston College) as well as several other players to the NFL and graduation.
Still, Virginia's roster had enough talented pieces to field a capable squad in year 2 of the Tony Elliott era, but the Cavaliers needed reinforcements at some crucial positions. After a few months of strategic and tactful pursuit of specific targets in the transfer portal, UVA secured an impressive haul of transfers to address the team's most significant roster needs.
Virginia's most consistent problem since the end of the Bronco Mendenhall era has been the offensive line, as the Cavaliers lost six offensive linemen with significant starting experience following the 2021 season and then lost five more offensive linemen at the end of the 2022 campaign, including four who started at least five games last fall. Just five offensive linemen who appeared in a game last season are set to return in 2023: Ty Furnish, McKale Boley, Jestus Johnson III, Noah Josey, and Colby McGhee. Not to mention, Virginia also lost offensive line coach Garett Tujague, who left to take the same job at NC State after seven seasons at UVA.
At the beginning of 2023, Virginia was in serious need of both a new offensive line coach and some experienced and physical players to reinforce the line. Before Tony Elliott even hired a new offensive line coach, he scored a big recruiting win out of the transfer portal as Houston offensive lineman Ugonna Nnanna transferred to UVA. A 6'4", 300-pound tackle who had offers from nearly 20 programs in the transfer portal, Nnanna decided to join the Cavaliers and has already proven to be a pivotal addition with his solid play throughout the spring.
Virginia hired former Stanford offensive line coach Terry Heffernan, who has 14 years of collegiate coaching experience and five more years of experience coaching in the NFL. Since Heffernan's hiring, the Cavaliers have secured three offensive line commitments on the recruiting trail - a three-star tackle in the class of 2024 and two more linemen out of the transfer portal. Brian Stevens, a 6'2", 290-pound lineman who played in 20 games over the last four years at Dayton and garnered a First-Team All-Pioneer Football League selection in 2022, announced his commitment to UVA on March 28th.
Then, a few weeks later after the conclusion of spring football, Heffernan and the Cavaliers picked up another offensive line commitment from Penn State transfer Jimmy Christ. A native of Sterling, Virginia, Christ initially committed to UVA as a highly-recruited high school prospect back in April 2019, before reopening his recruitment and ultimately ending up at Penn State. Christ spent three years with the Nittany Lions and appeared in 10 games in his redshirt sophomore season in 2022, but was mostly limited to roles on special teams and as a backup tackle. Now, Christ is coming back home to Virginia, where his older brother Tommy was a defensive end from 2017 to 2020. A 6'7", 316-pound redshirt junior, Jimmy Christ comes to UVA with three years of eligibility remaining and could end up being one of the more impactful long-term transfer additions of the offseason for the Cavaliers.
With Christ, Stevens, and Nnanna joining a group that already included some promising players like McKale Boley, Ty Furnish, Noah Josey, Noah DeMerritt, and Jestus Johnson III, Terry Heffernan just might have the pieces to put together a serviceable offensive line in 2023.
Of course, the headline of Virginia's early offseason was the team's need of a quarterback. With the holder of most of the program's all-time passing records Brennan Armstrong reuniting with former UVA offensive coordinator Robert Anae at NC State, the Cavaliers dove into the transfer portal and secured a commitment from another Virginia native, as Monmouth quarterback Tony Muskett (Springfield, VA) transferred to UVA on December 11th. Muskett made the jump to the Power Five level after amassing over 5,000 passing yards, 51 touchdowns, and two All-Big South First Team selections in three seasons with the Hawks. In his first appearance in a Cavalier uniform at Scott Stadium in the spring game, Muskett was solid and made a number of nice throws, including a perfectly-thrown deep ball to JR Wilson for a 63-yard touchdown.
As Virginia looks to make big strides offensively in 2023, Tony Muskett's development and fit in Tony Elliott and Des Kitchings' offensive system will be critical.
Although UVA lost its starting receiving corps from last season, there are a number of young and talented players primed for breakout seasons like JR Wilson, Demick Starling, and Malachi Fields. But, in need of some veteran experience and leadership in that group, the Cavaliers dipped into the transfer portal and secured a commitment from Northwestern wide receiver transfer Malik Washington, who announced his commitment to Virginia in December just one day after Tony Muskett committed. Washington led the Wildcats in receiving in 2022 with 65 catches for 694 yards and a touchdown and Pro Football Focus selected him to their All-Big Ten Third Team.
On the defensive side of the ball, Virginia's secondary was perhaps the biggest bright spot of the 2022 season, with cornerbacks Anthony Johnson and Fentrell Cypress II becoming the first Cavalier duo to earn All-ACC honors in the same season in program history. Unfortunately for the Wahoos, both of those cornerbacks exited the program, as Johnson exhausted his eligibility and is now looking to make a career for himself in the NFL and Cypress II transferred to Florida State. Virginia brought in a pair Power Five defensive backs from the transfer portal in Iowa State's Tayvonn Kyle and North Carolina's Cam'Ron Kelly. Kyle, a two-time All-Big 12 selection during his five years with the Cyclones, will fill a big need for the Cavaliers at cornerback. The same cannot be said for Kelly, who ended up re-entering the transfer portal after the spring game.
Needing another lockdown corner to play opposite Kyle, Virginia once again dipped into the transfer portal and earned a commitment from Clemson defensive back Malcolm Greene. A former four-star recruit out of Highland Springs in Richmond, Virginia, Greene is returning to his home state and will reunite with his younger brother Miles Greene, an incoming first year defensive lineman set to enroll at UVA for the 2023 season. Malcolm Greene played in 29 total games and made five starts over the last three seasons with the Tigers, recording 40 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, four pass breakups, 1.5 sacks, two interceptions and a forced fumble. With some heavy competition in the Clemson cornerback room expected to push him down the depth chart, Greene decided to enter the transfer portal and with the Cavaliers in need of reinforcements at the cornerback position, it was a perfect fit for Greene to return to his home state of Virginia and provide an instant boost of talent and experience to UVA's cornerback unit.
Malcolm Greene wasn't the only Clemson Tiger to rejoin Tony Elliott at Virginia, as Clemson running back Kobe Pace also transferred to UVA back on December 20th. A 5'10", 205-pound running back from Cedartown, Georgia, Pace appeared in 28 games over three seasons with the Tigers. His best season came in 2021, when he averaged 6.2 yards per carry in Tony Elliott's Clemson offense, totaling 641 yards and six touchdowns on 104 carries. The addition of the Pace was the only transfer acquisition that didn't directly address an area of need, as he joins what is now an overloaded running back room that features Perris Jones, Cody Brown, Xavier Brown, Mike Hollins, and Amaad Foston. If Terry Heffernan can build an effective offensive line, Virginia has the horses in the backfield to have a strong rushing attack in 2023.
Tony Elliott and the UVA coaching staff quietly and methodically addressed their most serious roster needs with a quality haul of transfers who each bring considerable talent and experience at crucial positions. With these valuable additions and a promising crop of returners, the 2023 Virginia football season just might surpass expectations.
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