Recruiting Breakdown: Where else UVa should look to recruit

UVa’s 2023 recruiting class appears to be picking up steam, with the group now up to four commitments. Three of them are from the Commonwealth, which certainly bodes well for the Wahoos and their new coaches as they look to have more success within the state’s borders.

We recently took a look at what UVa needed to do around the Commonwealth to get recruiting back on track. Today, we shift our focus outside Virginia, where UVa also picked up a commitment this week, and look at potential recruiting hotbeds for the new coaching staff.

Players on the 2022 Roster: 4

We’ve already talked at length about how UVa has had quite a bit of recruiting success in northern Virginia in recent years. But UVa’s recruiting efforts on the other side of the Potomac haven’t been as fruitful lately. Virginia’s roster doesn’t have a lot of players from Maryland or Washington D.C. after pulling quite a bit of talent from those localities in the past.

D.C. and Maryland have produced great Cavalier players like Charles Snowden and UVa is a natural fit for plenty of the talented players in the region. The “DMV” is full of private schools with great football programs that are often being targeted by the sport’s biggest programs. Virginia has had success in the past at places like Good Counsel and DeMatha but has some work to do with the WCAC (Washington Catholic Athletic Conference) going forward.

UVa has also pulled players from the public schools in Maryland and DC, and with so many people living in the area there’s usually quite a bit of Power-5 talent in the region. Virginia should also be able to dip into the Baltimore area as well. Former Cavaliers Micah Kiser and Darius Jennings played at Gilman in Charm City and Charlottesville isn’t that long a car trip.

Ultimately, this is an area in UVa’s footprint where relationship building can go a long way. The Cavaliers signed quite a few players from WCAC schools during Mike London’s tenure and given the proximity and academic standards at these schools, these programs should be part of UVa’s pipeline going forward, along with all of the talent in the public school systems in Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties, and beyond.

Players on the 2022 Roster: 13

Surprised by the number of Georgians on Virginia’s football roster? So was I when I took a look for this article. UVa’s previous staff clearly made the ATL metro area a priority and that is unlikely to change with the current group of coaches. The Atlanta area, and Georgia at large really, is one of the recruiting “war zones” where virtually every school on the east coast and beyond are fighting for players. And for good reason, as Georgia is loaded with top-end talent and has plenty of depth in its recruiting ranks as well.

Virginia has done a nice job identifying talent in the Peach State, getting them up to Charlottesville, and ultimately getting them to sign with the Hoos. There’s a lot of competition in the area, though, and it’s not always easy to keep players committed with interest from other programs right up until Signing Day. Some of UVa’s best current and recent players, like linebacker Nick Jackson and former Wahoos Joey Blount and Jordan Mack, hail from GA.

Odds are Virginia is going to continue to recruit Georgia hard with the new regime. And this staff may be better positioned to grab even more talented players from the Peach State. Chris Slade returns to UVa directly from coaching at Pace Academy in Atlanta, so he certainly knows the area well and has connections there. Tony Elliott is plugged into the recruiting scene down there as well from his time at Clemson, as is offensive coordinator Des Kitchings, who also coached for the Atlanta Falcons last year. QB coach Taylor Lamb should have connections to Georgia as well, with his dad having coached at Mercer for a number of years.

Ultimately, UVa stands to profit in Georgia at least at the level the program has been of late, and could potentially get into the mix with some more highly-rated players if they can build relationships.

Players on the 2022 Roster: 1

Opposite of the current Georgia recruiting situation, UVa hasn’t had a lot of success in the Philadelphia area, including eastern PA and New Jersey. This is an area that the Al Groh and London staffs did pretty well, signing players like Matt Johns from Bucks County, Olamide Zacchaeus from Philadelphia, and others like Saadiq Olanrewaju and Max Valles from New Jersey. But lately, UVa simply hasn’t closed out many recruitments in this area.

There have been some swings and misses, like the previous staff nearly getting Eric Gentry before he picked Arizona State, and the current staff making the top four for James Heard Jr. before he committed to West Virginia last week. There may not be as much concentrated football talent as Georgia but the Philadelphia area is still reasonably close to Charlottesville and has plenty of feeder schools for UVa to recruit.

And as UVa pulls plenty of its student body from the northeast, this is an area where UVa football could reasonably have a presence. There are fewer Power 5 programs heading up I-95 North than there are in the other direction, so Virginia could really establish some roots in the area. Clint Sintim appears to be UVa’s lead recruiter in the area, so his ability to establish relationships up the eastern seaboard could lead to some solid additions to the Cavalier roster.

Players on the 2022 Roster: 9

The Sunshine State is so big that it’s hard to label this area as one big recruiting location, but for a school like UVa all of Florida state needs to be in play. Just last weekend, the Cavaliers landed defensive back Jarvis Lee from Green Cove Springs, just south of Jacksonville. Lee plays in Florida’s far northeast corner but the Cavaliers have had success recruiting all over the state.

Miami is one hotbed that UVa has done well in, landing players like Mandy Alonso, D’Sean Perry, and many others. It also doesn’t hurt that former UVa player Earl Sims coaches at Gulliver Prep, one of Miami’s power programs that has sent Alonso, Perry, Will Bettridge, and others to Charlottesville. UVa has also done well around in the Orlando-Tampa corridor, landing Ryan Swoboda and Zach Teter among others from that recruiting hotbed. Virginia will continue to hit these two areas, as well as the Jacksonville region where Lee and current safety Antonio Clary call home.

Nearly every program nationally considers Florida a priority and it should continue to be one with this staff. Simply put, if you’re at Virginia, or any East Coast school, and you don’t have a presence in Florida, then you’re not doing your job well.

Players on the 2022 Roster: 7

This section would’ve been dedicated to North Carolina specifically, but given the relationships that the new staff has in South Carolina, we’ll include the Palmetto State as well. This region doesn’t have as much talent as Georgia, but it’s safe to say that the area is well known to college coaches and players certainly pick up interest quickly.

The Wahoos didn’t have a major presence in Carolina under the previous staff, though they do have a few players from the Tar Heel State on the roster now (Sam Brady, Devin Chandler, Dak Twitty, etc.). North Carolina has four Power-5 programs in the state and is right on the edge of SEC territory. It’s not always easy to pull players out of Carolina to UVa but the new staff can certainly do a better job with it. North Carolina has a couple of populated metro areas in the Triangle and Charlotte, both of which have yielded successful recruitments for Virginia. Both areas are in UVa’s sphere of influence, and should continue to be priorities for the new staff.

South Carolina may be a bit more in play for this staff as well. Obviously Elliott is known to coaches and prospects around the state from his time at Clemson. Kitchings coached at nearby NC State for a long time and then for a year at South Carolina as well. Lamb will have connections there, too. South Carolina doesn’t have the same metro areas that North Carolina has, so recruitments there are a bit more random in terms of location. But UVa does have Fentrell Cypress from Rock Hill and Lavel Davis from the Charleston area on the roster, with the potential for more success in the state.

North and South Carolina have plenty of talent and UVa’s new staff is likely better positioned to land players from the area given their relationships there.

At a minimum, it would be good to see the Hoos in more recruitments to the end with some top players from both states.