In spring practice, UVa is trying to incorporate a big group of transfer additions into their roster, all across the board. UVa’s defense should look quite different this fall with a lot of new faces, especially in the front seven. As part of Virginia’s rebooted defensive line and pass rush efforts, the Hoos added Elon transfer Cazeem Moore to help get after opposing QB’s.

Moore played three seasons at Elon at the FCS level, and was a dominant pass rusher. Moore had 51 total tackles last fall with 12 TFL’s, six sacks and three forced fumbles. As a result, Moore had a ton of interest when he entered the portal, and chose UVa over a bunch of other power-conference programs. Moore seems to feel comfortable with his choice, and said that UVa checked a lot of boxes when he was looking for a new school.

“I feel like the culture change wasn't that big of a difference. That was one thing I was looking for in the recruitment process,” Moore explained. “Mostly just getting to know the guys and just the hospitality and the coaching stuff and getting to know everybody's personalities”

UVa has had a lot of transfer additions from the FCS ranks, and some have been quite successful, while others have struggled to make a significant impact. As always, it can take a bit for FCS players to adjust to the speed and size of an FBS roster, but luckily for UVa, most of their transfers are already enrolled and participating in spring practice, which should help. But Moore seemed like he wasn’t having much trouble getting used to playing against ACC talent every day.

“I feel like it’s not much of a change. It's just how much stronger everyone is,” the defensive end said. “I feel like football is the same at every level. It's just a little quicker, and I feel like just having that mindset, you know, ‘he's bigger or okay, but I could dominate as well. They're gonna have to stop me along with me stopping them’, so that's how I think.”

A big help for Moore and others, is that he’s part of a large group of incoming transfers that are all adjusting to life at Virginia this spring. While every player is on their own journey given their various backgrounds, it has been helpful for the the transfer additions to have others around them going through the same experiences.

“It's very relatable, just being close to those guys that just came in because, you know, we all are going through the same process,” Moore said. “So just leaning on each other and just building brick by brick with each other and just continue to build that wall.”

“I feel like I'm pretty pretty pretty good with the playbook. I feel like just having experience, it's not as hard as learning to playbook as if I was younger, if I was a freshman or something like that, and the coaching staff, they also help with that as well. So that's not much of a problem for me.”

“Just being a pass rusher alone, that's always a chip on our shoulder to get to the QB. But you know, obviously in the past there's been a lack of that. We just we just try to get better, 1% every day you build bricks, stack bricks every day, so that's that's the quota that we have.”

Moore’s arrival is part of a larger overhaul of UVa’s front, and specifically the pass rush. UVa has been near the bottom nationally in sacks in each of the last two seasons, and with a new-look group, will hope to turn that around in 2025.

“We all come from different backgrounds. We all have different experiences,” Moore said of his fellow transfer additions on the defensive line, and how they’ve blended with the existing talent on the roster. “So just learning from each other and learning each other's game, because we're all different, you know. Being able to learn from each other and teaching each other other things and just make it better all around.”

Coach Elliott spoke last week in his press conference about how big an asset it can be for a defense to not only be able to rotate in different pass rushers to stay fresh, but also to mix up the types of players an offensive lineman has to face. UVa’s pass rush should be an interesting blend of speed, quickness, strength and size, which can keep blockers off guard play to play.

“I feel like it's important, offenses have to adjust to us because we have different skill sets,” Moore added. “You have to play a game inside the game, so that's important to keep the pass rush fresh. Especially, you know, if we're in like a quick two minute drill, it's important to keep us fresh and just complement each other throughout the process.”

One of those other newcomers that should help Moore get after the QB is UNLV transfer Fisher Camac, who is a bigger, more physical pass rusher than some of his counterparts. Between Moore, Camac and others, UVa’s defense should be able to create more havoc plays in the fall.

“We complement each other very well,” Moore said of Camac.”We have different styles of pass rush, if we're opposite sides of each other, you know, we always get after the QB. We're both fast, we're both long, we’re both physical, so uh, we'll compliment each other in those ways.”

UVa is not only looking to get after the quarterback more, but really to raise the level of the entire program. To do that, the coaching staff brought in a bunch of transfers across the roster, all from various backgrounds. Moore said last week that one commonality amongst the group is the desire to help take the Virginia program to the next level, and make that happen in 2025.

“We all have the expectation to succeed at the highest level and make it the furthest that we can. Just having that humble mindset and putting in effort every single day,” the former Elon star said. “But we couldn't do that without holding each other accountable. So we take it day by day and we continue to uphold that standard of winning and turn this program around.”