Blue/White Game Roster

For the second spring game in three years, UVa fans will get a look at two new signal callers in the spring game. Transfers Chandler Morris and Danny Kaelin have been splitting reps during spring practice, and on Saturday, they’ll make their debut to the Cavalier fanbase. Morris will quarterback the white team while Kaelin takes the blue team. It can be difficult to evaluate players during a spring game, and it’s always worth remembering that with the roster split, we’re not exactly seeing either player with a first-string supporting cast around them. Spring games can often be rather vanilla in terms of play calling, and often quarterbacks are expected to manage various scenarios within the game and get out healthy.

Still, Morris and Kaelin should bring quite a bit of intrigue to Saturday’s exhibition. There’s plenty of film out there on Morris, who has started a lot of games and has played a ton of college football, but Kaelin redshirted last year at Nebraska. So we haven’t seen a ton of the freshman signal caller outside of quick clips from spring practice, and high school highlights. While Morris is still the odds-on-favorite to win the job based on experience, both players bring a lot of potential to the UVa roster and will certainly be scrutinized in Saturday’s scrimmage.

In spring practice there are always a bunch of players that won’t be available. Since UVa is playing a simulated football game rather than some other spring game format, it forces players to move up the depth chart at various positions and play in place of anyone unable to participate. So on Saturday, between the transfer additions and reserves playing in place of unavailable starters, expect to see a lot of new numbers on the field.

There are also a few positions that are simply not deep enough to truly field two full teams, which forces younger players and walk-ons into action. Looking through UVa’s spring game roster, it seems that tight end, offensive line and the secondary positions have the most significant depth issues with the roster split in half, so that’s where a younger player, like John Rogers at tight end, or freshman Corey Costner in the secondary, can make an impact.

Also, don’t expect everyone on the rosters to participate on Saturday. The roster currently lists many injured players that weren’t expected to participate in spring ball at all, and a few that have been banged up since practice began last month.

The position that stands out the most from a lack of depth perspective is cornerback. Virginia’s spring game cornerback allocation is as follows:

White Team: Jam Jackson, Ja’Son Prevard, John Hurley

Blue Team: Dre Walker, Kevon Gray, Kevin Chadwick Jr.

That’s it.

And Jackson has been banged up during spring practice and won’t play on Saturday, so the depth is even more limited than what shows up on the page. Luckily UVa has a bunch of safeties on the roster and some of them will have to cross-train at corner during the spring, while the staff will be forced to go back in the portal to try and find a replacement or two, especially if Jackson is going to miss a significant amount of time.

Even if Jackson was healthy, the depth at corner is lacking as spring turns to summer. With the portal window back open, it seems like a sure bet that the coaching staff will target the position to add a piece late that can at least be part of a rotation with Walker, Prevard and others. UVa might also have to live with playing one of their freshmen at corner this fall, too. And hopefully an improved pass rush will provide some cover to the back end of the defense.

Virginia invested a lot of resources in the portal towards improving their offensive and defensive lines, and with good reason. UVa had one of the worst sack records on both sides of the ball, allowing far too many and creating far too few. UVa could also use a bit more push in the run game, and while they made strides in 2024 on the ground, they’ve been far from a dominant running team under this staff.

So in Saturday’s game, will all those new faces on both sides of the ball make the offensive and defensive lines look more dominant? Obviously it’s a split roster and the team is playing against itself, so it may be difficult to determine how far the lines have come. But it will be interesting to track how players up front look physically and how they move. The pass rush specifically will be something to watch. UVa didn’t create a ton of pressure in last year’s spring game, coming off of a bad sack year in 2023. This weekend, the hope should be that the healthy pass rushers flash some potential and at least get into the backfield, even if they can’t take out their opposing QB.

UVa did get confirmation of bad news that was coming in Tony Elliott’s remarks on Thursday. He announced that Louisville transfer offensive tackle Monroe Mills, considered a sure-fire starter, will miss the season with an ACL injury suffered in spring practice. Luckily for UVa they added a decent amount of depth to be able to withstand an injury like this one, and they can always go back out in the portal and find another player, though they likely won’t be as polished as Mills.

Every year, a player or two come out of nowhere and impress in the spring game, and recalibrate expectations for their upcoming season. Sometimes that player uses the spring game to springboard momentum into the summer and the fall season and sometimes it was simply a blip on the radar in April. Two years ago it was then true freshman quarterback Anthony Colandrea, who looked much more ready than anticipated and ended up starting six games in the fall. Last year it was receiver J.R. Wilson, who didn’t end up playing a big role in the fall, and ended up transferring to FAU in the offseason. UVa has also had a few walk-ons stand out in the spring game of late, including running back Jack Griese and receiver Claiborne Richards; Perris Jones also used a big spring game to set himself up to win the starting running back job in Tony Elliott’s first year.

Who it will be this year is anyone’s guess. But if we’re going to offer a potential candidate, it’s running back J’Mari Taylor. Not considered a sure-fire starter when he was brought in from NC Central, Taylor has home run potential at the running back position, something UVa has lacked in recent years. Don’t be surprised if he finds a way to break one on Saturday.