What's Next for UVA Football at the Quarterback Position?

Matt Newton | Dec 5, 2024

Virginia Athletic

Tony Elliott held his National Early Signing Day press conference on Wednesday to discuss the 19 high school players the Virginia football officially signed from the 2025 recruiting class. In that presser, Elliott was asked about the two quarterbacks UVA signed from the 2025 class - Cole Geer (Griswold, CT) and Bjorn Jurgensen (Orlando, FL) - as well as Virginia's plans to pursue a quarterback in the transfer portal following the departure of Anthony Colandrea to the portal.

"Unfortunate situation with AC [Anthony Colandrea]. The intention with the decision I made was never to get him to entertain or think about the portal. I was planning on him coming back and being the guy for us going forward," Elliott said on Wednesday. "Man, things change. Now we will have to go and look and find a veteran guy in the portal. We're going to be aggressive from that standpoint because I think we got a lot to sell. I wish AC well. He's leaving here on good terms. There's no bad blood from my perspective."

Anthony Colandrea: Decision to Enter Transfer Portal "Not Made Lightly"

With Colandrea entering the transfer portal, Virginia went from having two quarterbacks with extensive starting experience this season, to having no such experienced QBs on the roster heading into 2025, as Tony Muskett, who started the final game of the season at Virginia Tech over Colandrea, has exhausted his eligibility. UVA's current quarterback room includes former New Mexico State transfer Gavin Frakes, former three-star recruit Boone Lourd, QB sneak specialist Grady Brosterhous, and former Virginia native Alexander Brady.

Elliott says that he was not anticipating having Colandrea depart from the program this offseason.

"It's just unfortunate that the intent was not for AC to leave the program," said Elliott. "I was excited about getting back to work this offseason and helping to get him to a place of getting his confidence back at the highest level. Also I knew that I have a responsibility this offseason to go put some more pieces in place around him. Unfortunately we'll be doing that with another veteran quarterback through the portal process."

Elliott was asked about the idea of adding multiple quarterbacks in the transfer portal and whether his plans have changed now with Colandrea entering the portal. His response seemed to indicate that Gavin Frakes will have an opportunity to move up the depth chart, but Elliott also said he is "looking at several different options."

"So we still got Gavin [Frakes]. We brought Gavin in. Obviously Gavin has kind of been in the wings waiting because we had Tony. We had Tony and AC. We're looking at several different options," Elliott said. "The biggest thing is trying to find two guys that want to come in and battle. May be difficult. Still trying to figure out who's all going to be available. I think it's going to be determined by who's available and kind of what the parameters are around for securing those guys. We're definitely going to be aggressive not just at quarterback but in other positions of need this cycle in the portal."

As the 2023 season showed, Elliott and the Cavaliers are not above playing a true freshman at the quarterback position. And with the limited depth UVA currently has at that spot, Cole Geer and Bjorn Jurgensen should have decent opportunities to work their way up the depth chart next summer when they arrive on Grounds. Here's what Elliott said about Geer and Jurgensen.

"Cole [Geer], very, very good athlete. Unfortunately had the hand injury this season, so was cut short. But man, the guy is out there trying to play receiver, trying to do everything for his football team with a broken hand. The athleticism, the competitor, that's what we fell in love with in the beginning. Excited about him.

Bjorn [Jurgensen] was a guy we got on a little bit later in the recruiting process because we knew we were going to take two in the class, being the situation at that time. He had a monster season down in Florida. We had to work hard to keep some of the bigger guys off of him, so to speak. 

But super excited about them. They're a little bit different, but they complement each other well. Excited for those guys to get here in the summer and compete.

So both of these guys knew we were going to bring in two quarterbacks. In the old days, you wanted to keep five on the roster, right? Times have changed a little bit. I think you still got to protect your roster. Both of these guys are going to have a legitimate opportunity to compete. Wherever the chips fall, they fall. Hopefully, man, they'll just continue to battle all the way till the end. You don't know until then.

I know one thing, these are two really good young men that are passionate about joining our program. I'm excited to get them here this summer. Let's start the developmental process to get them in position to both be able to go compete at a high level. Evaluate it fairly. 

Hopefully, like, even with AC and Tony over the last two years, they see I'm going to be fair. Man, I'm not going to try and play favorites or games. I'm going to try to make the best decision for the program and be fair and honest with these guys. I think that's really all you can ask."

Keep track of all of UVA's transfer portal activity, including outgoing and incoming transfers here: Virginia Football Transfer Portal Tracker

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Anthony Colandrea: Decision to Enter Transfer Portal "Not Made Lightly"