Cavaliers Now

Jayden Thomas Brings Championship Experience to UVA Football Receiver Room

Matt Newton

UVA Athletic Communications
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Few people can say they had a busier or more life-changing month of January than Jayden Thomas.

On January 20th, Thomas played his final game for Notre Dame, which also happened to be the College Football Playoff National Championship. One week later, Thomas made his commitment to transfer to the Virginia football program for his final year of eligibility. The overlapping schedules of the College Football Playoff and the transfer portal window made that process even more chaotic than usual for a transfer.

"Yeah, it was a little hectic. Incredible journey with my last team, Notre Dame, love those guys. And then I get back after from that game and then I enter the portal," Thomas said in an interview at the beginning of spring football at Virginia. "Then it's football, football, football still going on. It's what I what I love to do and I wouldn't want it no other way."

It was a quick turnaround from national title game to making a commitment in the transfer portal in time to enroll for the spring semester at Virginia, but Thomas managed to enter the portal, communicate with the UVA coaching staff over the phone, take a visit to Virginia, and then make his commitment, all within a week's time. A previous connection with UVA defensive ends coach Chris Slade, who coached Thomas in high school at Pace Academy in Atlanta, got the ball rolling in the Cavaliers' favor.

"And then I would say, I got on the phone with Coach Slade, right? A couple days after I entered, and then just took my visit here and me and my family fell in love with it. Now I'm here in Charlottesville," Thomas said, reflecting on the transfer process.

What stuck out about Virginia on his visit? Well, pretty much everything.

"I kind of fell in love with the tradition here, the high academic challenge here, and just kind of the city. I'm a southern boy. I'm from Georgia, and I've kind of missed the South a lot," said Thomas, who is from Paulding Country, Georgia. "It was kind of a lot of factors: just feeling home, the great culture that coach Elliott has built here, and the teammates that I met on my visit. So everything just felt like the right fit, and that's ultimately what led me to commit here."

Thomas also mentioned some familial ties to the Commonwealth of Virginia. He has family on his mother's side in Blacksburg and his mom's best friend lives in Richmond. With family in Blacksburg, we couldn't help but ask Thomas about the inevitable Virginia-Virginia Tech conflict. As it turns out, his grandfather Phil Rogers was the first Black starting quarterback for Virginia Tech back in 1975 and was inducted into the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.

"Yeah, I've got some Hokie fans, but you know, they've told me they've had to break some hearts and tell them that they're Cavaliers too, even including my grandpa, so it's kind of funny, he gets teased by his old teammates and the people in Blacksburg," Thomas said with a smile. "But yeah, it's kind of funny knowing that [I'm] turning some Hokies into some Cav fans."

Thomas played in 43 games over four seasons in South Bend, including each of the 16 games this past season for the Fighting Irish on their run to the National Championship Game. He had 64 catches for 838 yards and seven touchdowns in his Notre Dame career. As a senior, Thomas recorded 18 receptions for 167 yards and two touchdowns, including one against Indiana in the first round of the College Football Playoff. Virginia is hoping that the experience Thomas has in playing and succeeding at the highest level of college football will help Virginia develop its own championship mentality.

"I've played a lot, so just helping out in that sense and then just being a guy that they can trust and rely on deep down throughout the game, throughout the season," Thomas said on how he hopes to help Virginia in 2025. "And hopefully I can do that and ultimately help this team bring home a championship."

Virginia wide receivers coach Adam Mims has been impressed with Thomas's maturity and work ethic through the early stages of spring football.

"I love Jayden... He's a worker. He comes to work every day, and I love that about him. He's just got a great attitude about him. He's got a great presence and a great demeanor about him, very mature," Mims said of Thomas. "He's a kid that, he'll do whatever he's asked to do. Obviously, he comes from a great program. He's played a lot of ball, he's got a lot of experience, and he wanted an opportunity where he could just continue to showcase his skill set to the best of his ability."

Mims foresees Virginia utilizing Thomas in a variety of ways in the passing game. He has good size at 6'2", 220 pounds, but also moves well, and that versatility will allow the Cavaliers to deploy Thomas in different areas of the field.

"[Jayden] is a reliable, reliable receiver. He's got some explosion. He's a big body kid," Mims said. "So we're going to be able to put him in a lot of spaces. He's going to be able to add a lot of value to this team, which is extremely important out of this room. I want guys that are going to be able to add a lot of value and and he does just that."

Thomas has played a lot of college football and that experience will serve him well in this transition period, but Mims believes that the best is still to come for Thomas as he wraps up his college football career at Virginia in 2025.

"I'm really excited about Jayden... just a really, really good football player," Mims said. "And I think his best ball is really ahead of him... he's going to help us out a lot."

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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.