What Does Antonio Clary's Return Mean for Virginia Football

Matt Newton | Jan 6, 2025

Virginia Athletic

Virginia safety Antonio Clary announced on social media on Monday evening that he will be returning to UVA football in 2025 for his seventh and final year as a Cavalier. With Ben Smiley III transferring out, Clary is now the only player left at Virginia from the 2019 team that went to the ACC Championship Game and the Orange Bowl.

pic.twitter.com/Hhc3UlGZUM

— Antonio Clary (@AntonioClary) January 6, 2025

Of course, the first question many will have is how does Clary still have eligibility remaining? He played in five games on that 2019 team as a true freshman, using his first year of eligibility. Clary then played in eight games and made three starts in 2020, but that season didn't count for anyone due to COVID-19. The 2021 season was the only one during which Clary played all 12 games. He was a fourth year during the 2022 season and played in eight games, but the NCAA ruled that all UVA seniors and players who were in their final years of eligibility that season would be granted an extra year of eligibility due to the shooting that claimed the lives of Lavel Davis Jr., Devin Chandler, and D'Sean Perry in November of 2022.

Clary then missed the entire 2023 season due to injury and took a medical redshirt. That means that the 2024 season, during which Clary played in six games and missed half the campaign due to an injury, was technically only his third season that counted against his eligibility. Therefore, Clary goes into 2025 with one more year of eligibility which he will use to return to Virginia for a seventh season.

While Clary has had his fair of injury troubles, when he is on the field, he is an extremely valuable part of the UVA defense. When Virginia's defensive unit had its remarkable turnaround in 2022 in year 1 under John Rudzinski, Clary played eight games and logged seven starts, recording career-highs in tackles (56) and solo tackles (31) and also had two passes defended, 1.5 tackles for loss, one sack, a forced fumble, and an interception. This season, Clary seemed to be playing the best football of his career before going down with an injury in week 6 against Boston College. Even though he played just a couple of snaps the rest of the season, Clary still finished fifth on the team in tackles and second in solo stops. He was on pace for a 100-tackle season when he went down with a knee injury that required surgery late in the season.

Virginia is losing its best defensive player in Jonas Sanker, who just received an invite to the NFL Scouting Combine and who is likely to hear his name called in the 2025 NFL Draft. And while there is no replacing Sanker, who was selected to the All-ACC First Team in each of his last two seasons as a Cavalier, UVA has done some solid work to shape up the back end of its secondary this offseason. Virginia signed Louisville transfer safety Devin Neal, who was a Third-Team All-ACC selection in 2023 and who has played in 51 total games throughout his career, including 33 games at Baylor and 18 at Louisville. Between Antonio Clary and Devin Neal, Virginia's likely starting safety tandem has 11 years of college football experience and 90 career games played. That'll be the most experienced safety duo in the ACC and maybe the entire country in 2025.

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