Virginia Football: Four True Freshmen Listed on UVA's Week 1 Depth Chart

Matt Newton | Aug 28, 2024

Four true freshmen were included on the Virginia football week 1 depth chart for the season opener against Richmond. / Virginia Athletics

Virginia revealed its depth chart for Saturday's season opener against Richmond and four true freshmen were included on the team's week 1 depth chart. Center Grant Ellinger, safety Ethan Minter, and placekicker Max Prozny made the two-deep as backups at their respective positions, but the headliner was the inclusion of freshman walk-on Billy Koudelka, who was listed as the backup Bandit defensive end behind Chico Bennett.

A 6'8", 237-pound defensive end from Lynchburg, Koudelka played football, baseball, and basketball at Virginia Episcopal School, but lacrosse might have been his best sport. An all-state selection as an attackman, Koudelka was a three-star prospect according to Inside Lacrosse and was originally committed to play Division I men's lacrosse at Jacksonville before ultimately deciding to pursue football instead and joining the UVA football program as a walk-on.

"He's long and obviously surprised everybody because there's a guy that had opportunities to go play lacrosse other places. Decided he wanted to come to UVA and walk on," Tony Elliott said of Koudelka. "He's tall. He's lanky, but when he puts his hand on the ground, he plays football. He comes from a situation where he has a great background. So we have a lot of young guys battling, and he just happened to be the one that was the furthest along at this point."

Injuries to defensive ends Ben Smiley and Miles Greene paved the way to an extent, but Koudelka certainly seized the opportunity in front of him during fall camp and is now in position to get live in-game reps on Saturday against Richmond.

Virginia Football Releases Depth Chart for Season Opener vs. Richmond

The other freshmen who made the depth chart are a little less surprising, as Ethan Minter (Chester, VA) and Grant Ellinger (Naperville, IL) were both three-star recruits who enrolled back in January and were able to participate in spring practices.

"So, two of those guys came in early. So they were able to go through spring and what you saw in Ethan is first and foremost Ethan is a very intelligent football player. Played quarterback in high school," Elliott said of Minter. "You saw within about a week that on paper and in his head he was able to get the playbook down very, very quickly. It just came natural to him. Then you started to see the development of the skillset each day in practice and leadership, too. He's a young guy that didn't back down from a leadership perspective. So he started leading his peer group of young guys of first-years. Then you started seeing him having older guys leading him just because how he conducted his business. That's what I saw out of Ethan."

As for Grant Ellinger, both Elliott and UVA offensive coordinator Des Kitchings mentioned him in fall camp as someone who was learning very quickly as he trained at different spots along the offensive line, including center, which is where he ended up on the depth chart.

"Grant, he's been tested with guys up and down on the offensive line. I think he's played about every position now," Elliott said of Ellinger. "Then we threw him there at center. He didn't spit the bit. He just kept going every single day. Comes from a really good high school program. So a lot of the credit goes to his coaches for having him ready to compete when he got here and then situationally with new guys up and down, he got opportunities and he took advantage of them."

Finally, Max Prozny (Fayetteville, GA) cracked the depth chart as the backup to Will Bettridge at placekicker and the backup to Daniel Sparks on kickoffs. The Cavaliers will, of course, be hoping that Prozny won't need to see the field at all to relieve either of the veterans in front of him during his freshman campaign.

Minter, Ellinger, and Koudelka, however, could each feasibly see the field in Virginia's season opener against Richmond on Saturday at 6pm (ACC Network Extra), especially if the Cavaliers are able to build a substantial lead.

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