In the new age of college football there is never a true chance to catch your breath and reflect before moving onto the next phase.
But with coaches out on the road recruiting for future high school classes, Virginia Director of Recruiting Justin Speros was left in a near empty Hardie Football Operations Center for the first time in months. Since the calendar flipped to December, the still freshly new hallways have been filled with potential transfer recruits from across the country as UVA attempted to put together its largest and most impactful transfer class yet.
“This was totally unprecedented,” Speros said with a relieved smile on his face.
In the end, Virginia brought in 19 total transfers, the most in program history since the portal era began. Tony Elliott expected his staff to be busier than “normal” with an eye on “pretty much every position” when he spoke just after the season ended in Blacksburg. At the time though not even Elliott could have predicted bringing in players at every position, except tight end, or ending up with a transfer portal class ranked No. 23 in the country by 247 Sports and No. 20 by Rivals.
Elliott could not have predicted the windfall about to hit his program.
“When that news came it was game-changing,” Speros said. “The board certainly changed a little bit.”
Just days before the transfer portal was set to officially open on Dec. 9, Cav Futures Executive Director Lo Davis was sitting in a meeting when he received a call from Virginia Athletics Foundation Executive Director Kevin Miller. Davis let the call go to voicemail, but quickly received a follow up text promising exciting news prompting Davis to return the call shortly after.
“We have a wire [transfer] that you will be receiving tomorrow and it is significant,” Davis recalled Miller telling him over the phone.
An anonymous donor, who had not previously ever donated to Virginia Athletics, sent a multi-million dollar gift, the largest in Virginia football program history, dedicated exclusively to NIL efforts and bringing in some of the top talent in the country. Along with the gift, the donor sent a message on how the “football team is the flagship brand of a public university” and hoped the donation would spark others to join in.
“I am bullish on the future success of this program and optimistic that this commitment will be a catalyst for increased support,” the anonymous donor said in a statement.
The move sent shockwaves throughout the fanbase and provided a jumping off point for Elliott and the rest of his coaching staff. The gift even prompted another anonymous donor to contribute to the Football Enhancement Fund with a match of up to $3 million for nutrition, travel, and recruiting.
Throughout the last month, the popular phrase “it changed our entire recruiting board” was used, but just how much?
Davis estimates of the 19 transfers who committed, “probably one or two” were on their original recruiting board prior to the donation. Not only did the donation add names to the board, the increased investment brought more high-level targets to Grounds who previously would not have given Virginia the time of day most likely.
“I know the caliber of transfer we got in and those that we did get in, it was because of the resources that we had,” Davis said in an interview with The Sabre. “I think prior to that we probably wouldn’t even have gotten them to Charlottesville to visit.”
Nearly half of Virginia’s transfer class came from other Power 4 programs like Alabama and Louisville, while two played against each other in the National Championship Game in Ohio State’s Mitchell Melton and Notre Dame’s Jayden Thomas. When Davis spoke on the Hoos On Podcast in early December, he shared a story sitting in Lane Stadium former star quarterback and current UVA Assistant Director of Development Shawn Moore for last year’s Commonwealth Clash thinking “we need to get some dudes” for UVA football.
“Never in my days would I have thought we would have the opportunity to attract that type of talent,” Davis said. “It’s now sending a message not only to our fan base, our donor base, but I think it’s sending it to the rest of the conference and hopefully the country that Virginia has always been a place that has the ability to do things at a high level and now we’re showing it.”
The phrase “all in” has been common in talking to administrators, coaches, players, and others around the UVA program in recent months following a disappointing 5-7 season. From their new financial status to the level of buy-in at all phases around the University, transfers saw something eye-catching this winter when visiting Charlottesville.
“It’s no secret what we’re trying to build here,” JMU transfer receiver Cam Ross said.
The Process
Unlike a simple pro model, college athletics has a complicated hierarchy with the old amateur ways trying to mesh with the new age professional style. At Virginia, the hierarchy includes head coach Tony Elliott, Director of Athletics Carla Williams, President Jim Ryan, and the Board of Visitors on down to academics, admissions, Cav Futures, and the rest of the football staff. With all those cooks in the kitchen, there was a clear need for “unified” voice during talks with agents, players, and families.
That voice was Deputy Athletics Director for External Operations Tyler Jones, a well traveled college athletics administrator who also played both college football and basketball at Eastern Michigan.
“A lot of it was individual conversation and my point of contact was myself and [Justin] Speros and Tyler with Tyler being really the voice if you will,” Davis said. “Just kept everything very efficient.”
Jones wears several hats at the University as the sport administrator for football, external marketing, and now assisting Elliott and the football program in the wild west of the transfer portal. While Director of Recruiting Justin Speros works to identify targets on the recruiting board in both high school and college, Jones is the voice presenting offers so players and agents know what is real.
“It’s my job to oversee the recruiting department and personnel office and work hand in hand with Coach Elliott to manage the roster,” Speros said. “You mentioned Tyler [Jones] he’s been a tremendous boost for us in supporting us with how we do that, with how we go acquire talent, with how we retain talent.”
The process for Virginia starts with Tony Elliott working with Speros and his team to set up the recruiting board identifying needs and targets. While Speros says the program uses a few third party analytics services in the recruitment and identification process, the majority is done in house.
“The vetting process of not only the athletic traits on tape, but everything else too,” Speros said. “We have a team of people who are behind the scenes that kind of accomplish that. A lot of times it’s throwing spaghetti up against the wall and hoping it sticks and seeing what you can come away with.”
When the anonymous donation hit and the “board completely changed” overnight, Speros says it allowed Virginia to be more competitive with a number of players. While some high-profile players still went elsewhere, the door was open to agents who could see the level UVA was playing at this cycle.
“I think where we found success is that there were a handful of agents that sent multiple clients our way,” Davis said. “You really had to trust very quickly and I think once we were able to prove and show how we operate and what we were doing then that allowed that agent and agency to feel comfortable coming back to us to say ‘hey we might have someone that might fit what you’re looking for or what you need.’”
Multiple Virginia targets and commits shared the same agency, so a dialogue was open throughout the transfer window. For example, Austin-based A&P Sports Agency represents former Ohio State edge rusher Mitchell Melton, former UNLV defensive end Fisher Camac, and former Alabama defensive lineman Hunter Osborne among other targets who visited UVA during this cycle.
By all accounts, agents have been a much larger part of the process during this transfer portal window. Davis said a year ago Virginia only dealt with one or two agents total during the transfer recruiting process, but now it is the “new standard” for players. His team drew on its experience with agents this past spring and summer when trying to nail down the Virginia men’s basketball team’s transfer class, who were largely all represented.
“It was fast and furious,” Davis said. “There was some negotiations at times, there were some changing of the offer sheets, but for the most part it worked out really well.”
Agents have become “the first line of defense” with Jones and Speros hearing which prospects have interest in Virginia or are entering the portal. From there Speros and his team of analysts evaluate if a player is a good fit for the program’s needs and situation. If a player matches those needs, Cav Futures is brought in to draw up a Memorandum of Understanding (M.O.U.) and send over a DocuSign to the agent as a show of how serious the program is about that player and client.
Davis said sometimes he would look down at his phone at 11 p.m. and Tyler Jones would pop up needing another M.O.U. sent over. But despite the late night calls to action, Davis said Jones would re-energize his team and he had a similar impact in his relationship with players and their agents.
“I think Tyler has commanded the respect of the agents with the players, with the current players, with the staff,” Davis said. “He’s young enough where he can connect with these guys. I think he’s a truth-teller. I think in terms of the agents, they respect him because he’s so smart. What he’s doing, I don’t know if he’ll get enough credit for it, but I don’t think he’s looking for a pat on the back or anything, but behind the scenes he’s done a lot of tremendous work.”
If the agent likes what they see in the M.O.U., then everyone would go to work to set up a visit to Grounds. While in high school those visits come and go, in the transfer portal a visit is as good as the flip of a coin.
“I think probably 50% of them that ended up committing, ended up committing on the visit or we knew that evening that they were going to commit,” Davis said.
After the visit if the player commits, they then sign the M.O.U. to accept the offer, which leads to a long-term agreement being drawn up. The long-term agreement will contain language of the “scope of work” needed in order for the athlete to be compensated, though the terms in those NIL agreements can vary player to player.
Perhaps the best example of the “all in” spirit the program and University are trying to show came late in January. With the College Football Playoff Expansion, the end of the college football season was pushed back further than ever before. Normally, there is very little impact on the rest of college football, but this year was different, especially for Virginia.
With Ohio State and Notre Dame facing off in the National Championship Game on Jan. 20, the Cavaliers were forced to wait on Melton and Fighting Irish wide receiver Jayden Thomas as recruiting targets. The add period for the academic calendar at Virginia was Jan. 27 for the spring semester, making the deadline to get new transfers enrolled tight.
UVA admissions traditionally faces a bad rap from the fanbase after decades of struggle between high academic standards and the needs of the football program, but admissions played the hero this time getting both Melton and Thomas in.
“They allowed for a little bit of grace there to allow for some of these folks to enroll,” Speros said. “We passed the deadline and when we mentioned to them that they were playing in the National Championship Game they were understanding of it.”
Speros sees the whole process as “dividing and conquering” between himself, Tony Elliott, Carla Williams, Jones, and Davis.
“It all happens so fast, if you’re not in lockstep with each other, if the hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing you’re going to be not happy with the results,” Speros said. “I talk to Tyler and coach every minute of every day for weeks, so we had to be locked in with each other.”
The First Domino
Building a transfer class can feel a little like setting up dominoes, with one action setting off another. In college football, the clear first domino is the quarterback.
The Hoos entered this offseason knowing they would need at least one addition at the position following Tony Muskett running out of eligibility. Then when Anthony Colandrea entered the portal himself, eventually transferring to UNLV, the number went up to two, which is a difficult task for a position where only one player truly sees the field at a time. With only Gavin Frakes and incoming true freshmen Bjorn Jorgensen and Cole Geer in the quarterback room already, Tony Elliott was targeting a veteran and younger, developmental signal caller.
“That was kind of the initial starting point, [it] was let’s find a vet that’s seen a ton of action and then let’s find a young guy that we’ve seen and that we feel good about long term,” Speros said.
Connections paid big dividends with the most important position on the roster. Virginia quickly landed on two targets: North Texas record-breaker Chandler Morris and Nebraska freshman Daniel Kaelin.
Elliott worked on the football staff at Clemson with Chad Morris, Chandler’s dad, for four years and had known Chandler since he was 10 years old. Both Chad Morris and Elliott have also kept up with each other over the years, so the relationship was still prevalent. Meanwhile, Kaelin was recruited by Virginia during high school by quarterbacks coach Taylor Lamb, who even visited Kaelin in Omaha during the recruitment process.
“We were very up front with both Chandler and Danny about taking two,” Speros said. “That was something that was never kept from either one of them and really just comes down to restocking the roster.”
Selling Morris, an All-AAC selection at North Texas directing the third-ranked offense in the country, was key for Virginia’s immediate future. Morris said even Director of Athletics Carla Williams was part of his visit to Grounds to help persuade him on the vision for the program.
“She was saying how bought in they are and that they understand what it takes to win football games now in this day,” Morris said. “Obviously talking to Coach E and all the staff too you can sense that they’re ready to start winning games.”
Kaelin became one of Virginia’s very first commits in the cycle, while Morris committed the day after, securing the quarterback position by mid-December for the Cavaliers. Morris always intended to have a short recruitment process, deciding between UVA and Oklahoma State within a week of entering the portal.
“I was trying to make a decision pretty quickly, I made it within a week, that way I could go and help get other guys on board,” Morris said.
Speros said one of the first questions he receives when recruiting a skill position, offensive lineman, or even a player on the defensive side of the ball is who will be under center. The quarterback is the first domino players are looking for to see who will hand the ball off, who will throw them the ball, or who a player will be protecting. Once that domino is in place the rest line up.
In this case, not only was securing Morris enough to catch other transfers’ eyes, but Morris became one of the coaching staff’s best recruiters. Morris says he made contact with offensive linemen Tyshawn Wyatt out of JMU along with Virginia’s two four-star signings, according to 247 Sports, in Louisville offensive tackle Monroe Mills and Purdue receiver Jahmal Edrine.
“When I saw 4 come here” Edrine said on what sold him about Virginia’s intentions. “When I saw Chandler Morris come in. I see they brought a guy like that in, they trying to do something.”
The numbers from Morris last year certainly catch the eye with 3,774 passing yards and 35 total touchdowns, but so do his stops on his long college journey. Morris started his career at Oklahoma before transferring to TCU for three seasons, including the Horned Frogs National Championship runner-up finish, before landing at North Texas.
“It sends a message No. 1,” Davis said. “You think about Chandler, he came from North Texas, but he was at TCU and Oklahoma before and so there were relationships that he had built even back in Texas that he could now go and make phone calls and show that ‘hey Virginia is serious here, Virginia wants to win now, Virginia has the resources and the facilities.’ He was instrumental.”
In House Attention
But before Virginia could even get too deep into the transfer portal, the Hoos started in their own locker room.
The Cavaliers lost 15 players to the transfer portal after the 2024 season, but only three were full-time starters between leading receiver Malachi Fields (Notre Dame), offensive guard Ty Furnish (unsigned), and Colandrea (UNLV). Of those, Fields provides the biggest loss, but despite a concerted effort to keep the hometown product in Charlottesville, the expectation since last offseason was Fields would move on after this last season regardless, though most thought it would come via the NFL Draft.
Virginia focused a lot of attention on retaining its own internal talent, keeping veterans like safety Antonio Clary, defensive tackle Jahmeer Carter, offensive guard Noah Josey, tight end Sage Ennis, and receiver Trell Harris for an unexpected additional season. In addition, UVA kept rising stars like running back Xavier Brown, linebacker Kam Robinson, and defensive tackles Jason Hammond and Anthony Britton locked in.
“That’s really step one of this whole process is retaining your own guys because if you don’t retain your own guys your needs look a whole lot different, the roster looks a whole lot different,” Speros said. “Feel good about the nucleus of guys that we could retain and after that it was let’s go find guys that have played a lot of ball and produced at a high level.”
If there was defining mantra for Virginia in this recruiting cycle it was “production over potential” as Elliott and Speros searched for proven options across the country. In the 19 player transfer class, 17 have played in at least 20 college football games and 12 have earned either all-conference or national recognition.
“That was a key piece for us and I think that’s something that we’ve learned in our time with Coach Elliott that guys that are super productive from the transfers are guys that have played a lot of ball,” Speros said.
Then The Trenches
After the humbling defeat in Blacksburg to close the season, The Sabre asked Tony Elliott what he saw as the biggest gap between UVA and its rivals at Virginia Tech. His answer was simple: the trenches.
“Obviously their D-Line is really good and I think that posed us a problem with where we are up front on the offensive line from a depth standpoint,” Elliott said at the time.
There was no surprise then that Virginia focused much of its new found NIL resources into both the offensive and defensive lines with nine of the 19 transfers playing in the trenches. UVA added four offensive linemen through the portal and were aggressive with its targets.
Mills was the most high-profile addition on the line as an All-ACC tackle at Louisville, who entered the portal with a “do not contact” tag and locked in on the Cavaliers. His agent, David Gregory of Bullrush Sports, at one point posted on X that Virginia “set the tackle market in the portal.”
“They’ve definitely been taking big strides in that,” Mills said. “I was talking to Coach Elliot about it, he said a lot of local support has come about. That’s great really, that’s what every program needs. I remember from Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, and Louisville, it’s got to come from the local businesses and business people to be successful.”
On the defensive side of the ball, UVA added proven edge rushers in Elon’s Cazeem Moore and UNLV’s Fisher Camac, who had 3 sacks against Cal in the LA Bowl, experienced names in Ohio State’s Mitchell Melton and Fresno State’s Jacob Holmes and a promising former 4-star recruit in Alabama’s Hunter Osborne.
In total, Virginia completely rebuilt an offensive line which allowed 47 sacks last season and defensive line that only accounted for 19 sacks.
“Monroe Mills, Tyshawn Wyatt, Brady Wilson these guys collectively have 90-plus starts combined. Kevin Wigenton is a guy that started Big Ten football games,” Speros said. “Defensively, feel really, really good about the bodies we added there too. I think production, guys that have seen live action.”
The Reward
Throughout a non-stop cycle of madness, Lo Davis said he keeps hoping to find “some sand and some sun” at the end. Even more than a beach vacation though, Davis is looking forward to seeing the grass and the fruits of their labor this fall.
“I’m excited to get to this fall and if this team can stay healthy, we’ve got to get the fans into Scott Stadium to see them,” Davis said.
To see if this winter success will turn into fall rewards will take months to find out as Virginia only just began winter workouts inside the Hardie Football Operations Center. But what is clear already is the Cavaliers felt they could compete with the conference’s best in the transfer portal and for the most part they succeeded with the incoming class ranked No. 2 in the ACC by Rivals and No. 4 by 247 Sports.
The anonymous donations will receive much of the credit, but the gifts were simply the fuel for the engine inside the FOC.
“You can see from the start,” former UAB center Brady Wilson said. “They’re building this awesome facility here this past summer and then you can tell the University and coaching staff are all on board. They all want to win bad, just feel that vibe from the campus and everyone here. Everybody here wants to win and that was a big factor too.”
Frustration boiled over for the fanbase with Tony Elliott and his coaching staff after finishing 5-7 despite a promising 4-1 start. Elliott is now 11-23 in three seasons at Virginia, the first UVA head coach without a winning record in his first three seasons since Dick Bestwick in 1976-78. Elliott further ruffled feathers after deciding to not make any staff changes entering the offseason with both coordinators Des Kitchings and John Rudzinski receiving extensions.
The frustrations have cooled though to anxious curiosity to see what Elliott and company can do with a highly promising infusion of talent in his fourth season. To Elliott’s credit, most of the 19 incoming transfers said their decision was at least in part due to the coaching staff in Charlottesville.
“To each person that we’ve talked to that’s brand new,” Davis said about his conversations with new players. “The thing that has sold them is the coaching staff and the fact that Coach Elliott comes up every time and says ‘this guy is a winner and we want to be part of this.’”
Newcomers have spoken glowingly of the culture inside of the program, even those coming from some of the biggest programs in the sport like Alabama and new National Champion Ohio State. Former Purdue receiver Jamal Edrine noticed the difference especially after spending last season with the Boilermakers, largely considered one of the worst teams in the Power 4 after finishing 1-11.
“It shows that people here care,” Edrine said. “If people are willing to do that and are trying to make us better, they’re willing to see us win, they want to see the best from us.”
Up until Feb. 1, coaches and staff were still trying to add to the current crop of transfers but now focus shifted to the high school recruiting cycle - UVA pulled in two 2026 commitments in the past few days - and the upcoming spring football schedule. Virginia’s spring game will be played on April 12 following the spring practice period.
Then a few days later the 10-day spring transfer portal window will open from April 16 through April 25. Speros expects the Cavaliers will still be searching for a few experienced defensive backs at corner and safety to fill some gaps.
“This spring portal we’re going to kind of assess throughout winter workouts, throughout spring practices what our team needs are,” Speros said. “Really assess certain areas and see if we need to add to certain area. Obviously the secondary is one that we have our eye on, but it’s no different than any other year.”
Lessons learned from an exhausting two months will be put to the test in the spring, which will be the first chance to see if Virginia can keep its momentum in the portal era.
“We’re going to be better,” Davis said. “We’ve learned a lot from this and we couldn’t predict with the funding and of this stuff, we couldn't predict the pace of this, but now you can go into more planning. Obviously if [revenue sharing] kicks in in July, you’ll know what your salary cap is. I think it just puts us in a position now that we’ll be better and more efficient in the way we do things and we won’t feel as overwhelmed.”
Revenue sharing is just one of the factors that could change between now and the summer with scholarship limits, roster sizes, and a salary cap all tied to the pending House settlement. Speros is preparing a Plan F for his Plan B in anticipation of the unknown the settlement could bring just after Virginia had figured out the “old” new system.
“I have my own mantra that we’ve developed in recruiting and it’s ‘if hell freezes over, then fight them on the ice,’” Speros said. “We’re going to adapt just as quickly as we can to what happens. If anyone tells you what the house settlement is going to do or what rule is going to change from now until May, they’re lying to you because nobody knows. We’ve got to stay very agile, which is how we adjust.
“If you don’t adjust then you’re going to go extinct.”
A year ago fans hoped for a six-win season, bowl eligibility and a festive game to show signs of progress in the program. The Cavaliers came up short in that pursuit, but those same goals probably will not cut it this time around. Just ask new quarterback Chandler Morris.
“I want to win the conference championship,” Morris said of his message to his new teammates. “I didn’t come all the way to Virginia as a Texas boy to win 5 or 6 games, so that’s my goal coming all this way.”
Morris is not alone in those goals, as Elliott has shared throughout his tenure that the ultimate goal is to compete for ACC Championship game berths. In the portal era, turnarounds can come quick and Virginia is hoping this transfer class might be the catalyst for one of its own.
“We now have the ability to put a team on the field where their goals are not 6 wins and a bowl game,” Davis said. “It’s to get to Charlotte.”
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