By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
As the University of Virginia football program continues building its roster for 2025, the staff’s focus now shifts to the transfer portal, which opens next week. Wednesday, though, was an opportunity for head coach Tony Elliott to discuss the recruits UVA added on the first day of the fall signing period.
In all, 19 high school seniors signed with the Cavaliers on Wednesday, including six players from the state of Virginia. (No. 19, defensive end Evan Ward, announced his signing after Elliott’s press conference.)
Six of the recruits will enroll at the University next month and go through spring practice with the team: wide receivers Josiah Abdullah and Dillon Newton-Short, tight end Justin Zames, offensive lineman Jim Harris Jr., defensive tackle Sichan John and defensive back Corey Costner.
“To get those guys rolling, it’s going to help them immensely,” Elliott told reporters at the Hardie Center. “In essence, when you come in midyear, you’re getting 15 practices, all of the offseason, the strength and conditioning. It’s almost like you’ve had an additional year before you even get to fall camp. Super excited and happy for them.”
The class includes two quarterbacks: 6-foot-1 Cole Geer and 6-foot-3 Bjorn Jurgensen. A hand injury hindered Geer this fall at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, but he’s a “very, very good athlete,” Elliott said. “The athleticism, the competitor, that’s what we fell in love with in the beginning.”
Jurgensen, a senior at Bishop Moore Catholic High School in Orlando, Fla., “was a guy we got on a little bit later in the recruiting process,” Elliott said, “because we knew we were going to take two [quarterbacks] in the class … 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.”
The quarterbacks are “a little bit different, but they complement each other well,” Elliott said. “Excited for those guys to get here in the summer and compete.”
Geer and Jurgensen are joining a program that will have to replace its top two quarterbacks from this season. Fifth-year senior Tony Muskett is out of eligibility, so that was expected, but sophomore Anthony Colandrea announced this week that he’s entering the transfer portal.
Colandrea started UVA’s first 11 games, but Muskett took all the snaps in its season finale Saturday night against Virginia Tech. The…