Virginia Football coach Tony Elliott filled a key need for his 2024 roster on Friday, landing New Mexico State QB Gavin Frakes from the transfer portal.
Frakes, a 6’4”, 220-pound redshirt freshman, sat out the 2023 season as a redshirt after starting five games as a true freshman in 2022.
After New Mexico State coach Jerry Kill decided to step down after a successful two-year run back on Dec. 23, Frakes decided to hit the transfer portal, and reports had him setting his sights on Virginia early on.
Frakes, at the least, should provide depth to the QB room at Virginia, which has the great problem of having had two guys, Anthony Colandrea and Tony Muskett, get multiple starts in the 2023 season.
Colandrea, a true freshman, finished the season as the QB1 after Muskett, a grad transfer from Monmouth, who won the starting job in the final week of training camp, went down to injury in Virginia’s 45-17 loss to Georgia Tech on Nov. 4.
Colandrea led the team in passing (1,958 yards, 12 TDs, 9 INTs, 62.6% completion rate, 139.6 QB rating), but Muskett put up nice numbers in his more limited action (1,031 yards, 6 TDs, 5 INTs, 63.3% completion rate, 128.8 QB rating).
The issue for Elliott was lack of depth behind those two, with the third-string guy in 2023 being a walk-on, Grady Brosterhous, who was used primarily in short-yardage situations this past season.
Frakes passed for 550 yards, four TDs, seven INTs and had a 105.5 QB rating at NMSU in 2022.
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Chris Graham
