Single digits remain hot commodities as Hoos pick numbers
For Virginia’s versatile De’Vante Cross, the one constant over the past four football seasons had been the number on his jersey.
When Cross first earned a number as a redshirt freshman in 2017, he’d hoped to get the No. 12 he wore in high school—but Shawn Moore’s old number is out of circulation as one of six retired at UVa. So Cross, who was still a quarterback at the time, drew inspiration from another QB with eastern Pennsylvania roots, former teammate Matt Johns.
“And I was just like okay, I like Matt Johns,” Cross recalled. “He’s from PA, I’m from PA. Cool. We’re quarterbacks. Cool. We’re PA boys. I’m not stepping on anybody’s toes by picking 15. And it’s a decent number, 15’s a decent number. So I grabbed that.”
Cross saw time at wildcat quarterback, wide receiver and cornerback during that 2017 season. He played both sides of the ball again in 2018, then started all 24 games in the UVa secondary the past two season. He did it all wearing that No. 15, picking it each preseason as part of the program’s jersey selection ritual.
But earlier this preseason, before the first group of Hoos selected jersey numbers this past weekend, Cross warned that change could be on the horizon.
“I earned 15 my second year and I wore it every year since. I’m probably gonna retire it but it’s all good,” he said. “I don’t know, I don’t think I’m gonna wear it anymore. I think it’s time to switch it up.”
Sure enough, Cross was among the 32 players who picked their numbers on Saturday night and as promised, he’ll be in a new jersey this season. The free safety will be splitting No. 2 with wide receiver Ra’Shaun Henry.
When head coach Bronco Mendenhall arrived after the 2015 season, he stripped numbers from the Wahoos’ practice jerseys and forced players to earn them back. It began a program tradition that continued this weekend, though with one new wrinkle this year: With the team carrying such a large roster this year, Mendenhall allowed multiple players to share a jersey number for the first time.
That decision gave players the chance to double down on a trend that dates back to Mendenhall's first summer, when running Jordan Ellis first took No. 10 and defensive tackle Donta Wilkins followed by picking No. 1: The low numbers go fast.
Half of the 32 numbers that were picked on Saturday were in the single digits or teens. With the ability to double up on numbers, 14 of those selected were single digits.
“Most of your favorite players are gonna wear a single digit,” Cross explained. “Especially if like you had a favorite player in college when you were in high school, they most likely were a single digit or a teen. In high school you wore a single digit or a teen. So those are kind of the hot commodities.”
“Very rarely do you see someone who has an early pick and is like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna pick No. 75,’ said offensive lineman Ryan Nelson. “Unless he’s an offensive lineman because that’s what we’re used to.”
Offensive linemen are only permitted by rule to wear numbers between 50-79, meaning they can’t select single digits. Nelson will again wear No. 54 for his fifth UVa season. That’s the number he inherited from the left tackle who preceded him on his high school team and he’s worn ever since. On Friday morning, prior to selecting it again over the weekend, he was confident he’d get it back.
“You’d have to outwork me to get there,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’ve been here four years going on five, if you really think you’ve earned the number above me, we’re gonna have to have a conversation.”
Nelson was one of six linemen to pick jersey numbers on Saturday. All six—Joe Bissinger (No. 52), Olu Oluwatimi (No. 55), Chris Glaser (No. 69), Bobby Haskins (No. 70), and Ryan Swoboda (No. 72) were the others—kept the same numbers they’ve worn throughout their UVa careers.
Outside linebacker Noah Taylor is in his fourth season at UVa. This will be the first time he’s worn the same jersey number in consecutive seasons. After wearing No. 42 his first year and No. 13 as a sophomore, Taylor will be back in No. 7 this fall. He’ll share the number with running back Mike Hollins.
“Growing up that’s what you learn. Those lower numbers are just the cooler numbers,” Taylor said. “I know for me, No. 7 has a meaning for me. I know other guys, those lower digit numbers, they just look cooler.”
Coming out of Saturday’s selections, three other single-digit numbers will be seeing double duty this season:
- Receiver Dontayvion Wicks will again wear No. 3—the number he chose last season but didn’t get to play in because of a foot injury—while grad transfer cornerback Anthony Johnson will wear it on defense.
- Receiver Billy Kemp kept his No. 4 but will share it with linebacker Elliott Brown, who had worn No. 43 for three of the previous four seasons.
- Quarterback Brennan Armstong, who wore No. 98 as a freshman and No. 10 as a sophomore, is back in No. 5 for a second season. He’ll share with sophomore corner Chayce Chalmers, who wore No. 40 last fall.
Fifth-year corner Darrius Bratton will be back in his old high school No. 8 for a second season after switching from No. 32 last season. No. 6 again belongs to preseason all-ACC linebacker Nick Jackson, while sixth-year senior corner Nick Grant will again wear No. 1. Grad transfer tight end Jelani Woods is the second player at UVa to wear No. 0, following linebacker Zane Zandier last year.
Coming out of the weekend, No. 9 remains available, while only junior safety Antonio Clary (No. 14) and senior receiver Hayden Mitchell (No. 18) selected numbers in the teens. That means plenty of low-digit options, including the No. 10 he wore at Mississippi State, were on the board when all-purpose offensive weapon Keytaon Thompson made his choice on Saturday.
That wasn’t the case when Thompson earned the right to pick last summer, his first with the program. There were a few numbers in the 80s and some in the 20s and 30s, he recalled, but no single digits or teens.
“And I was like,’ You know what? I think I’m gonna get 99,’” Thompson recalled about a week into this year’s camp. “It started out as a joke and I just ended up following through with it.”
Thompson hinted at the time that he was leaning toward sticking with No. 99 this season, and he followed through by picking that number again on Saturday. Thompson also admitted prior to this year’s selection that he had a better idea of what the jersey selection process meant within the culture of the UVa program.
“Everything is earned and not given,” he said. “Earning that jersey number is a big thing. That’s what guys are competing out here to do right now.”
A few more jersey number notes from the first round of selections:
- All eight so-called ‘super seniors’ were among the group who chose numbers on Saturday. Safety Joey Blount (No. 29) and defensive linemen Mandy Alonso (No. 91) and Adeeb Atariwa (No. 95) kept the same numbers as last season. Grant, Cross, Henry, Brown, and Glaser are the others.
- Two players who opted out of last season, Hollins and defensive lineman Aaron Faumui (No. 94), were both among the first group to earn numbers.
- Armstrong was the lone quarterback to earn a number. Wayne Taulapapa (No. 21) and Hollins were the only two running backs to pick.
- As is typical for the first round of number selections, no true freshmen got to pick on Saturday. No redshirt freshmen got numbers either.
- Despite being sidelined since spring practice with an ACL injury, sophomore receiver Lavel Davis earned the right to pick a number. He’ll again wear No. 81.
The original timetable for Davis’ return was November at the earliest, though after Friday’s practice Mendenhall again said that the receiver remains ahead of that schedule, to the point that he’s created extra work in practice for the head coach.
“If you’re not watching closely, he tries to sneak into stuff,” Mendenhall said. “I’m talking the drills, right? He wants to get into anything he can, and so I’ve spent a lot of time kicking him out of stuff lately.”
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