Just warning you here, but you’re going to be upset tomorrow when UVA Football looks like it struck out looking on Signing Day, which, not sugarcoating it here, it’s going to be ugly.
247Sports ranks the 2026 Virginia class 13th in the ACC and 78th nationally; Rivals has the class 17th (dead-last) in the ACC and 68th nationally.
Once again, we’re losing, badly, in the home state – none from the Top 10, the highest-rated recruit being #15 in the 247Sports ranking, wideout Josiah Teasley from Springfield.
We’re getting just seven of the 61 guys from Virginia rated by 247Sports in the 2026 class, and the same seven of the 65 guys rated by Rivals.
For context there:
- Michigan is getting three of the Top 10 in Virginia (five-star Louisa tailback Savion Hiter, Oscar Smith wideout Travis Johnson, Hermitage cornerback Andre Clarke).
- Syracuse (Richmond wideout Amare Gough) and Rutgers (Louisa wideout Dyzier Carter) are getting four-stars from Virginia. Let me repeat there: Syracuse and Rutgers. Not us.
- The only four-star staying in-state is four-star Virginia Beach offensive lineman Thomas Wilder, who is committed to Virginia Tech.
One of the 2026 UVA commits, Cincinnati linebacker Derek Uran, gets a four-star rating from 247Sports, but he’s borderline – Rivals has him a three-star, for what that’s worth, and his list of suitors (Cincinnati, Liberty and half of the MAC) doesn’t jump out at you.
Here is my apologia on behalf of the brain trust over at the Hardie Center: we only started being a big boy in terms of spending this time last year.
The money folks gave coach Tony Elliott and GM Tyler Jones a $35 million NIL/House budget to use on the transfer portal in the 2024 offseason, and it was obviously used well, given that we’re prepping for the ACC Championship Game, with a win there getting us into the College Football Playoff for the first time ever.
Money, used wisely, can have an immediate impact, as we’ve seen.
With prep recruiting, it can take time.
Recruiting the high-school kids starts early, freshman and sophomore years, so getting into the game late, as I understand was the case with the kids from Louisa, just isn’t going to work.
By senior year, a kid has been building relationships with the coaches recruiting him for two or three years; a guy who comes in with a checkbook toward the end of the process isn’t going to get the type of kid that you’d want anyway, if it’s entirely about the money.
As far as the 2026 UVA Football season is concerned, you won’t notice a difference on the field because tomorrow’s Signing Day is going to suck, royally – the defense brings a lot of guys back, allowing Elliott and Jones to focus on the needs on offense, on the O line, at tailback, tight end and wideout, and finding a second guy to compete for the QB1 job.
ICYMI
The brain trust will need to flip a few from among the top high-school juniors so that we can have a serviceable 2027 class, but really, the focus needs to be on the current crop of top sophomores, where our warchest can start to get us into the coaches’ offices and living rooms of the four- and five-stars who wouldn’t return our emails the past couple of years.
And in the meantime, Elliott and Jones need to continue playing the portal game the way they did in the 2024 offseason.
We’re not going to win Signing Day.
Win on Saturday, get into the CFP, and that’s not a bad consolation.
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Chris Graham
