On Monday, UVa opened spring practice with a new-look roster, as Tony Elliott looks to turn things around in year 4. As UVa embarks on a month of practices leading up to their spring game, we're taking a look at a few storylines that stood out from Monday's open session.
There are new faces all over the roster, using the spring to get acclimated to the program.
Virginia was incredibly active in the transfer portal in the winter, and all of that change was evident at Monday’s spring practice. Thankfully, UVa hands the media a fresh roster when we arrive at practice, because there were so many new numbers to learn across the roster in a short time. Virginia’s entire roster has been dramatically impacted by transfer additions, many of whom should be expected to either start or take on a significant role at their respective positions.
One thing that stood out in Monday’s practice was the influx of size that the transfer additions bring. UVa focused on adding talent across the roster, but the changes are evident in the trenches, where guys like offensive linemen Monroe Mills and Kevin Wigenton, and defensive linemen Jacob Holmes and Hunter Osborne stood out right away as physically imposing. The same can be said of receiver Jahmal Edrine, who towered over some of the other receivers during drills.
While the roster changes can be jarring from the outside, the transfers themselves have a lot to take in as well.
“Well the biggest thing is learning what the practice expectations are,” Tony Elliott said after practice. “And it's easy for me to get in here and put up a PowerPoint and say this is what we do but until they get out there and they experience it it's a different thing and then you got to learn who these guys are what makes them tick what their strengths are.”
As always, there are a bunch of players that will miss some or all of spring practice.
The first question at the start of any spring practice period is which players won’t be participating at all, and who will be limited? It’s customary for players to have offseason surgery at the conclusion of the fall season, and sometimes players get back for spring ball, though many others aren’t available again until the summer or fall. On top of that, there are a few injuries that get picked up during winter workouts that need to be managed. After Monday’s practice, Elliott ran through a list of players expected to miss most or all of spring practice, and the easiest way to keep track of it all is to simply list those players here:
-Antonio Clary, Safety
-Keke Adams, Safety
-Caleb Hardy, Safety
-Jason Hammond, Defensive Line
-Chase Morrison, Defensive Line
-Kam Robinson, Linebacker
-James Jackson, Linebacker
-Trey McDonald, Linebacker
-Sage Ennis, Tight End
-Karson Gay, Tight End
-Drake Metcalf, Offensive Line
-Noah Josey, Offensive Line
-McKale Boley, Offensive Line
-Blake Steen, Offensive Line
-Grant Ellinger, Offensive Line
-Dane Wlenski, Offensive Line
-Houston Curry, Offensive Line
-Daniel Sparks, Punter
Obviously, some position groups are significantly impacted, specifically the offensive line and secondary. That will make it tough at times to get through practices with a legit starting unit out there, especially for the secondary, the spot where UVa is still looking for portal reinforcements after spring practice ends. Some of the players listed will participate in spring practice at some point, but most will miss all or most of them.
Elliott says they’ll let their new QB’s battle it out this spring.
Another position group where change is quite evident is the quarterback group. Gone are former Wahoos Anthony Colandrea and Tony Muskett who split the reps last year. Now, the orange no-contact jerseys are worn by transfers Chandler Morris and Danny Kaelin. The expectation, at least from the outside, was that UVa’s QB plan was to have Morris come in and be a one-year starter, and be the bridge to Kaelin, who would be in line to be the next man up if there’s an injury, and then become the quarterback of the future in 2026 and beyond. But in Elliott’s post-practice availability, he was clear that he’s going to let the two quarterbacks battle it out and see how things look over the course of the next few weeks.
“Yeah, we're gonna let them compete. That's what we told them, coming in the door,” Elliott said of Morris and Kaelin. “We laid out a plan to say, here's what we wanna do. We wanna go bring in a veteran, experienced guy with one year left, and then bring in an undergrad, and then let everybody compete. So it's not a set deal.
And so today it was kind of 50-50, rotating those guys through with the first group and the second group, Elliott continued. “So really prioritizing the top three guys right now. With Grady (Brosterhous), kind of getting some reps as well, but really (Gavin) Frakes, Danny (Kaelin), and Chandler (Morris), splitting up those reps to begin with. And then as we get further into spring practice, if there's some separation, then we'll change it up.”
That last line is key. This could be a situation where Morris is the heavy favorite to win the job, and the staff just wants him to go out and officially earn it, and their hope is that he can do that as spring ball plays out and get the starter’s reps in the fall. But until then, it sounds like the reps will be divided up more evenly.
Dakota Twitty could be in line for a breakout season at tight end.
Whenever UVa kicks off a practice, a player is selected to break the team down and lead jumping jacks, which takes the team into their first drills. On Monday, to open spring practice, tight end Dakota Twitty had the honors. Now sporting #9, Twitty looks a lot more like a tight end than a wide receiver playing tight end, and the fact that he was picked to break the team down probably speaks to work he put in during the offseason. With tight ends Tyler Neville and Sackett Wood gone, and Sage Ennis and Karson Gay down with injuries in spring ball, Twitty obviously has an incredible opportunity to carve out a much larger role for the 2025 season.
“He sees opportunity, right? He sees opportunity, especially with a couple guys not quite being full go this spring. It just gives him more reps. He knows he's going to have to compete for it still when we get into the fall, but his body is transforming,” Elliott said of the junior tight end.
“He's really embraced the nutrition aspect the strength the conditioning aspect of that position because it is different than wide receiver. He's gotten just more opportunity to watch film and study the playbook,” UVa’s head coach continued. “So he's a lot more confident and we're expecting him to lead all right so right now. He'd be the elder statesman from a practice standpoint of guys in that room. So you just see a different level of confidence with him because I think the body is catching up with the position and then also it's starting to slow down because he's had just more time to absorb the material.”
