The verdict on Daniel Kaelin as the quarterback of the future for UVA Football is in: Kaelin is in the transfer portal.
Kaelin was the first QB in last year’s portal class, which eventually included the guy who would be the starter in 2025, Chandler Morris.
We still don’t know the status of Morris for a seventh year, though the people that I’ve communicated with who would know are confident that he will be back for another run at it in the 2026 season.
With that, Kaelin, who hasn’t commented publicly yet on his decision to enter the portal, probably doesn’t want to hold a clipboard for another year.
I’m not seeing anyone speculating on where Kaelin will land, for what that’s worth.
He may need to transfer down to the Group of 6 after serving as the backup to Morris as a redshirt freshman in 2025.
Kaelin, after redshirting at Nebraska in 2024, saw action in seven games at Virginia in 2025, with his most extensive work coming in the 16-9 loss to Wake Forest in November, in which he took over for Morris in the second quarter after Morris was knocked out of the game on a cheap shot by two Demon Deacons defenders on a QB keeper.
“There’s some nerves there, obviously,” said Kaelin, who had warmed up in the bullpen, so to speak, early in the 22-20 win over Washington State on Oct. 18, when Morris reaggravated a left shoulder injury, but was ultimately able to remain in the lineup for the remainder of that one.
We also saw Kaelin warming up on the sidelines after Morris landed awkwardly on his left shoulder after making a tackle on an INT in the third quarter of the 17-16 OT win over UNC on Oct. 25, but Morris was able to remain in that one as well.
ICYMI
Kaelin made an immediate impact in the Wake game, breaking off a 54-yard run on a keeper.
That drive, though, would fizzle out in the red zone, and end in a field goal, as did a promising drive in the third quarter.
Kaelin also lost two fumbles that led to Wake Forest field goals, and after driving the ‘Hoos to the Wake 5 in the final 30 seconds, he was off-target on a third-down pass that didn’t allow his receiver to gain additional yardage needed for a first down, and the fourth-down play, with the clock ticking inside of 15 seconds to play, ended with what looked to be a throwaway – almost as if Kaelin wasn’t aware that the offense hadn’t, in fact, failed to pick up the first down.
The final statline for Kaelin in the Wake game wasn’t awful – 18-of-28, 145 yards through the air, 61 sack-adjusted rushing yards on the ground.
“We’ve got all the confidence in the world in him,” Virginia center Brady Wilson said after the Wake game. “I’ve seen Danny play in camp, spring ball and everything. He balled out all the time. I mean, every time we see him come in, you know, obviously, you know he inspires us, because, you know, he’s the younger guy and makes us want to even play even better. So, you know, we’ve got all the confidence in the world in him.”
Tony Elliott, who was among several Power 4 programs – Colorado, Florida State, Michigan State and Missouri among them – to offer Kaelin out of high school in 2024, echoed Wilson there.
ICYMI
“He gave us a chance to tie the ball game under a minute to go. So, man, super proud of Danny, to come in and give us a shot, right, like, ultimately, he gave us a chance to win,” said Elliott, who stressed, in response to a follow-up question, that offensive coordinator Des Kitchings didn’t have to dumb down the game plan for Kaelin once he was in as the QB.
“I think in a ballgame like that, man, you’re just trying to find whatever you feel like works within the playbook,” said Elliott, a former play-caller himself, at Clemson. “So, I don’t think you shrink the playbook, you know. I felt like we found some stuff in the quick game that he was getting a little bit of a rhythm with, getting the ball out of his hands, still trying to stay consistent with the run game, and it wasn’t, you know, producing as much as we liked early on. We found some big plays there later in the in the game. But, you know, I think in a game like that, you’re just trying to find, you know, whatever you can to spark the spark the offense.”
Watching the game from the press box, I assumed that it had to feel like it was going a million miles an hour for Kaelin, whose most extensive game action over the past two years at the college level prior to the Wake game had come in the early-season blowout wins over Coastal Carolina and William & Mary, who, no disrespect, aren’t Wake Forest, which finished with a 9-4 record in 2025.
“I prepare every single week for those types of moments and situations, so, felt pretty confident,” Kaelin told reporters after the Wake game. “Obviously, you know, there’s a lot of things I left out there, that I need to improve on.”
The Nebraska born-and-bred Kaelin committed to Big Red in the 2024 class, after passing for 3,186 yards and 36 touchdowns as a junior and 2,225 yards and 17 TDs as a senior at Bellevue West, a traditional power out there.
Kaelin’s talent was obvious early on: he was already getting offers as a freshman on the JV team based on his performances in QB camps, with his first offer that year coming from FSU, before Nebraska jumped in with its first offer, from then-head coach Scott Frost, now back at Central Florida.
Central Florida: not an option – UCF just picked up former JMU QB Alonza Barnett III from the portal.
Kaelin was one of 20 QBs from among more than 500 who attended Elite 11 regional tryouts selected to compete in the Elite 11 Finals in 2023 – for reference on what that means, alumni from the Elite 11 Finals include 27 of the 32 current NFL starting quarterbacks.
His star power helped Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule a Top 20 recruiting class, with Kaelin pitching in to help the coaching staff lure top guys to Lincoln.
Then, at almost literally the last minute, Rhule landed five-star QB Dylan Raiola for his 2024 class.
Kaelin stuck with his commitment, but with Raiola, whose father, Dominic, was a Rimington Trophy winner at Nebraska in 2000, and whose uncle, Donovan, is the O line coach at the school, winning the QB1 job in the spring, Kaelin saw the writing on the wall.
As the world turns, Raiola himself is in the portal, because that’s how college football works now.
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Chris Graham
