UVa's push within Virginia keeps the Hoos among nation's best
When three-star North Cross linebacker James Jackson made his week-old decision public on Sunday evening, it moved UVa to No. 22 nationally in the recruiting rankings for 2021.
With 19 commits in the barn, that leaves Bronco Mendenhall and Co. with another five or six spots in this class. But to this point, it’s hard to ignore just how effective this haul has been thus far.
In the past week, UVa has picked up almost as many commitments from in-state players as the Wahoos ended up signing in the 2020 and 2019 classes combined.
But beyond the geography of it all, the impacts is what’s most important.
In talking to Rivals.com’s Adam Friedman, it’s clear that UVa has done a lot of heavy lifting in the Commonwealth recently.
The run began with three-star Charlottesville safety Jonas Sanker, who flipped from Boston College to UVa last weekend.
“Sanker should be a good safety for Virginia because he had a great feel for the game and really good ball skills,” Friedman told CavsCorner. “He’s also a really physical player despite playing mostly quarterback on the offensive side of the ball this past season. I’m looking forward to seeing how he’s able to adjust to the scheme and really able to develop his overall technique and discipline at safety.
“Look for the coaches to really get after him there,” he added, “and really managing his game, coaching him up on the finer points of playing safety as the college level. A really good job, again, by Virginia keeping a local prospect at home and making sure they get a guy who can be a contributor down the road for their defense.”
From there, UVa landed arguably it’s biggest commit of the cycle as the 6-foot-8 Logan Taylor, a three-star Canadian offensive lineman who plays at Episcopal in Alexandria, made his commitment public on Friday morning.“Taylor is a massive offensive lineman for Virginia who should develop really well in the program,” Friedman said. “At 6-foot-8, 285 pounds, he gets by mostly on strength right now but he has great quickness for a guy that size and he plays with a lot of aggressiveness. He’s got the kind of physicality that offensive line coaches really look for in their prospects. It’s going to be a bit of a work in progress for him as far as his technique goes. “He needs to work on staying lower and driving defenders off the ball,” he said. “The competition level is probably going to be his biggest adjustment when he gets to UVa. He’ll also need to add more strength as he improves on his technique. That’s what’s really going to make him a potential cornerstone for the offensive line at Virginia.”
Lastly, UVa pulled in a third in-state pledge on Sunday evening when Jackson made his decision public.“Jackson is an extremely explosive outside linebacker with a great nose for the ball,” Friedman said. “And he’s got impressive hands. You can see from his film the way he plays receiver and is able to take up big chunks of yards even on screen passes. I really like his physicality and the way he’s able to get into the backfield to create chaos, including sacks and tackles for loss. “I’m looking forward to seeing him fill out his frame and be able to play a little bit more within the system at UVa,” he added. “But we expect him to really be able to create a lot of momentum-shifting plays, especially on passing down. Great job by UVa to make sure they reeled him in from just down the road.”
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